If the thought of joining Youtube makes you queasy, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Whether you’re an introvert, hate public speaking, scared that nobody will watch, or have felt like me: too ugly for video, many of us would rather pay to be ran over with a forklift than join Youtube. If this is you, I have some bad news.

With over a billion people (that’s 1/3 of the entire internet) watching millions of hours of videos on Youtube, your brand is missing out on a huge opportunity to tell a powerful story and connect with thousands, if not millions of people, waiting for content like yours to land in their face.

If you ever thought your brand didn’t need Youtube for Marketing, here are three reasons why your brand CANNOT afford to skip out!

CAPTURE AND BUILD A DEEPER CONNECTION WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

In today’s digital climate, you’ve only got a small window to catch your audience’s attention. The problem is, most artists, bloggers and creative businesses alike, spend this precious window of time trying to sell, sell, sell. Whether it’s sign up for my newsletter, download my PDF, or buy my mixtape, your target audience is constantly being bombarded with unwarranted calls-to-actions. Instead of getting lost in all the noise, use video to create a cookie trail of delicious immersive experience for your target audience.

Studies show that only 10% of people read a body of text to completion, while 65%  will watch online videos until completion. This means that video is way more powerful than any Instagram Caption, Tweet or Facebook Post.

YOUTUBE FOR MARKETING: IT’S TOUGH TO COMMIT

While at first this may not seem like a benefit–trust me–all that Big Magic in the universe is screaming for you to look at the obvious and come and get it (pun intended; x). Between the effort that goes into conceptualizing ideas, and the hours it takes to film and edit, creating videos can take quite a bit more time than writing a blog.

Just the mere thought of committing hours to video creation is generally enough to make people roll their eyes and walk away. However, if the majority is going one way, you should be cartwheeling to opportunity chilling by its lonesome far on the other side.

Studies show that 50% of people who watch a “quality” video will take whatever action that video asks them to do. As a result, using Youtube for marketing is a great funnel to your website, newsletter or content upgrade. Instagram pales in comparison, where you have to constantly remind your followers to click the link in your profile. These Instagram posts eventually fall further in the irrelevant abyss as you create new posts with a new call-to-action.

YOUTUBE BOOSTS GOOGLE SEARCH PRESENCE

Youtube is a Google Company, so of course the annoying thing for Google to do is prioritize Youtube videos over your blog. Yes, that is correct. The content you put on Youtube will most likely rank higher than the content on your website. In fact, there have been times my videos have made it to the first page of Google. Not only did this boost my Youtube rankings but also provided high-authority backlinks to my blog that later boosted my blog’s rankings.

This good ole’ high quality search traffic means that I no longer have to spend hours trying to narrow down my target audience and neither do you. With Youtube, you’re able to leave that trail of curated content to attract people that are actively searching for content like yours. The perfect solution to those tired of lugging around a trailer filled with Ghost Followers that instead want a buying audience or an active community of advocates.

But that’s not even the best part.  The really cool thing about Youtube, is that not only can you rank high on the #1 search engine Google, but you can also rank high on the the second-highest search engine: Youtube Search.

See why Youtube for marketing is really starting to make a whole lot of sense? If not, let me tell you why all of this matters…

USE YOUTUBE FOR MARKETING TO CREATE A PERSONAL BRAND THAT STANDS OUT

For most people that build a brand online, by default they will have a blog or at minimum some sort of website. For years, blogging has been the standard. All for good reason as having a blog is important for SEO to attract clients or hook a buying audience to your website.

Now think of all the people in your niche that regularly post on Youtube. I bet when you think about it — most of you will say there’s not that many.

The chances are, there are wayyyyyyyyyy more active blogs than there are active Youtube channels in your niche. How many weekly video content creators in your niche can you think of?

IS YOUTUBE OVERSATURATED?

While there are tons of Beauty Gurus and Comedians on Youtube, there are so many untapped areas of the platform. For example, niche’s like Booktube are so new, popular Booktubers are so few and far between, it’s pretty much a goldmine for Authors to reach new readers. Considering that the booktube community is so small, yet some videos in that community often surpass 100,000+ views, it’s mindblowing that there aren’t that many Authors rushing to open up their Youtube channels.

BONUS: BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND AND YOUR BUSINESS BRAND (AT THE SAME TIME)

Youtube influencers are one of the most powerful, influential figures among their audience. So powerful, Huge corporations have slowly drifted away from celebrity endorsements to paying Youtuber’s large figures to endorse their brand.

People don’t want to get to know a company, they want to bond with a person. Seeing your facial expressions and your quirky movements are just some of the things that make you more relatable and your business more personable and authentic. If you would like to build your business brand and your personal brand at the same time, Youtube is 100 percent the way to go.

As you can see, that same platform you’ve been complaining about all these years is still an opportunity in 2016.

The Youtube platform is a place for you to expand your brand where there is a HUGE audience just waiting for you to make your appearance. It’s the only place on the world wide web that pretty much works for every niche.

Whatever stops you from taking advantage of a platform that can take your brand to a whole new level is simply not worth it. As you can see, your brand NEEDS Youtube for marketing.

Say ‘Goodbye’ to meaningless traffic and ‘Hello’ to a tribe that cares.