The explosion of video over the last few years has led to a number of video hosting sites popping up. The biggest of these is YouTube. This site has grown and grown over the years and now it is estimated 48 hours of video is uploaded every minute. Incredible when you think about it.

Whether you want to learn something new, view the latest computer games, movie trailers or pop videos, you will find it all on YouTube. It's not purely for entertainment though; there are many other uses for it.

If you have a business, product or service, here are 6 reasons why your business needs YouTube.

1) Mass exposure

YouTube is the world's number one video site. This is a fact. When people want to watch a video online the first place they think of heading is YouTube. Imagine having such mass exposure for your business, product or service. Think what it could do for your sales.

2) Create your own channel

One of the great features of YouTube is the ability to create your very own channel and customize it to your liking. You can house all your videos in one easy to get to place. Your visitors will become familiar with your channel and can add it to their favourites. You can also add the channel link to your own website so that your visitors can view your video content.

3) Build your subscriber list

If you are used to having a dry opt in box with some text in order to collect names and email addresses then think again. The new way of doing this is to add video content to convey your message. A very famous dating marketer increased his conversions significantly when he added a video of himself talking away, before asking viewers to opt in. You can use YouTube to host your video and simply add it to your opt-in page.

4) Professional image

Video conveys a more professional feel to the website. Rather than lots of dry text pages you now have something more engaging to the casual visitor. Whether they visit your video on YouTube or your own website, you will come across as more authentic.

5) Explode your traffic

Because YouTube is so universal it means when you are sleeping someone in another part of the world could be watching your video content. You could wake up to sales or subscribers. Think about how you would feel if you could achieve this kind of success purely through video marketing.

6) Search engine optimization

YouTube is owned by the world's number one search engine, Google. What does this mean for your business? Well Google is going to love any video content you have on your website, especially if it is coming from YouTube. It optimizes your page nicely for the search engines. Also when we search for something, Google tends to show videos as well as text in the search results now. Think about the traffic that could be coming to your website as a result.

Video as well as YouTube is the way your business should be focusing when it comes to marketing. It will greatly benefit you in terms of sales and subscribers.