By Peter Peng, MangoRabbit

Note from eFulfillment Service: We invite our partners to write for our blog, introducing our audience to new ideas, tips, advice and different points of view. eFulfillment Service client, Peter Peng, who runs MangoRabbit, has been remarkably successful using YouTube videos to develop the reach of MangoRabbit apparel.

My wife and I run an apparel store, Mango Rabbit, one of eFulfillment Service’s clients. I love getting a chance to connect with fellow operators and marketers and I’ve shared our Instagram experience—we have 1/2 million followers there. However, we should have spent more time on YouTube.

We’ve recently landed our second “viral” SEO’d video with 80k views compared to our average of 4k views. It’s interesting to see how YouTube’s algorithm works in real time. Here is how we are using YouTube to market our clothing store:

Realness is Everything

Realness is everything, you can’t photoshop a video.

Realness on YouTube means you have to be flawed, yet cool. Honest, but politically correct. Relatable, yet unique. Bonus points for good looking people.

Think it’s not that hard? Imagine trying to hold the attention of the average teenager for more than 5 minutes.

The punishment for being “fake” means top tier YouTubers might do exposés on the bad products. These get millions of views and are often quite funny to watch. In this case, I don’t think “any publicity is good publicity”.

Video Reviews

My wife makes detailed reviews for Mango Rabbit and other brands. These are 6-9hr long projects but those videos always convert to many sales.

I’ve also contacted several other YouTube influencers hoping they will review our clothes for payment. However, none has replied and I think it’s because it’s not about only money or clothes. For them, it’s about reputation and it comes back to realness again. If a YouTuber has a history of reviewing name brands, and suddenly does a review for a boutique store, then she might be a “sellout”. However, encouraged by my wife’s results, I will keep searching as we improve our selection.

YouTube Does Wonders for Affiliates

In my Instagram post on eFulfillment Service’s blog, I talked about how we use affiliate programs on Instagram.

YouTube is even better. An influencer gets to put many clickable links in the caption. We get many comments that thank us for creating such a smooth shopping experience.

As a brand, having your own YouTube channel may be beneficial if you have the budget. However, your branded channel won’t pass the “realness” test, viewers will know you have a business motive.

YouTube SEO

YouTube videos gets preference in text-based Google searches. Google sometimes pushes video results right near the top.

We take YouTube SEO very seriously. The video title, thumbnail, the first few lines of the caption, the hashtags, the video category, playlist’s, end cards, location tags… all executed strategically. We need multiple reviewers to make sure we don’t miss something.

YouTube for Small / Mid-Size

Given rising PPC costs, I think the industry will see brands either branch out or dig in.

I am experimenting with workflows and fellow business owners to build YouTube channels that scale smoothly for small and mid-size businesses. Hopefully I’ll have good news to report to you in the future.

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