Millions of people around the world use YouTube as their main source of Internet entertainment. There are numerous advantages to creating a YouTube channel that will help a small business.
The success of your YouTube efforts depends largely on finding an effective strategy to optimize your account. If you want to know how to start a YouTube channel for your business, there are several steps you need to complete. This article covers the ways to build a massive channel that will drive customers to your website and generate revenue for you.
Why Does Your Business Need a YouTube Channel?
Before we dive into the specifics, let’s review how YouTube could benefit your business.
The main benefits are creating an active target audience for your website and increasing your visibility on search engines. Second, you can build relationships with other businesses and influencers by commenting on their videos and collaborating. Third, you can brand yourself and your website as an expert in your chosen niche when you get enough exposure.
So how does this all work?
The amount of time that people spend online has increased dramatically, especially in the last two years due to the pandemic. This ultimately led to increased video consumption: 82% of internet users prefer video to other types of content. And that opens up a lot of new opportunities for marketers.
In 2020, 88% of marketers said they use YouTube as part of their digital strategy. And that’s not surprising at all – the platform has an audience of 2 billion people, giving you a wide range of niches your business can fit into. When you reach the right audience, you increase brand awareness, loyalty, and sales, and these are the ultimate goals of any business.
How to Create a YouTube Channel
As part of your digital marketing strategy, you need to understand that YouTube offers several unique features that can help you promote your small business. Among them are advanced analytics, video optimization, search engine optimization, and more. Let’s take a closer look at the step-by-step process of starting a YouTube channel.
1. Set up an account
A Gmail account automatically creates a YouTube profile as soon as you sign in to the platform. For security reasons, it’s best to create a separate corporate account so that only your current employees can access the channel:
- Sign in to your Youtube account via Google.
- Click the profile picture icon.
- Choose “Create a channel” from the dropdown menu.
- Enter your channel name and upload your profile picture profile.
- Confirm your actions with the “Create channel” button.
Now you have a channel. You can access it through the “Your Channel” button in the dropdown menu. Opens the dashboard where you can customize the look of your channel and manage videos. But first, you need to fill out the profile information.
- Go to “Customize Channel”, then click “Basic Info”.
- Add channel description and contact info.
- Add links to your site or social media accounts.
- Change your channel URL to a custom one. Please note that you can only do this after you have 100 subscribers and your account is at least 30 days old.
- Go to the “Branding” tab.
- Add a profile picture (if you haven’t already) and a banner image.
- Upload a watermark logo that will appear on all your videos. Preferably, it should be your company logo.
Since this is a corporate channel, you may want multiple people to take care of it. Ideally, you should have a full team of specialists: a videographer, a community manager, and a content manager. To give access to multiple people, go to the “Settings” section in the left side menu, then click “Permissions.” There, you can invite people of interest and choose their roles:
- Managers can edit everything, as well as add or remove other people.
- Editors can change profile information, but cannot delete videos.
- Viewers can only view profile, but cannot change anything.
You can also grant limited editing permissions or display. . Also, the only person who can delete the channel is you, the creator.
2. Match the Market
The next important step is to research the market. Ask yourself these questions: “Are my competitors present on YouTube? What content do they make? How are they promoted?”
And most importantly, “How can I beat them?”
That’s right.You should never copy other brands, but make sure your business stands out. You need to invest some time and effort into your channel’s visual design and branding, not to mention the quality of the content. For now, let’s talk about how your channel looks.
Make a channel trailer
This will be the first thing people who aren’t subscribed to will see when they visit your channel for the first time. time. It can be a small compilation of the best of your videos or a welcome video introducing the company.
Feature a Featured Video
This video is for your subscribers. You can use your latest video for this section or choose the one you think they should watch right away.
Add navigation sections
Help your followers navigate your channel by creating playlists themes: uploads, live streams, and custom lists.
Work on channel art
Your YouTube channel design should match your entire brand strategy and marketing book. colors. Having the same patterns, colors, and fonts will invest in the trust and loyalty of your fanbase.
Get verified
A little gray check mark next to a channel name means a lot as it adds confidence. It will let people know that your channel is the official representation of your brand on YouTube. To verify your account, you need to go to “Settings” – “Channel” – “Feature Eligibility”. There you will find the button that allows you to be verified. Once the process is complete, you will be able to post longer videos, go live, and add custom thumbnails.
3. Optimize for search
All your efforts will be wasted if you don’t get enough exposure on search engines. Now that you know how to create a YouTube channel, it’s time to learn how to optimize it for your purposes.
Your title, description, and tags should be optimized so that viewers looking for related items will find your content. You have to do it for individual videos, but you can also have a bunch of generic keywords that you’ll use every time. SEO on YouTube works the same way as on Google, Bing, or any other search engine. The easiest way to research keywords is by typing them in the search bar. If you have a match in bold, that’s the phrase you need.
Alternatively, you can use services like Google Ads, Ahrefs, and Semrush to get a complete picture of what is happening in your niche in terms of SEO. Other tools include vidIQ and TubeBuddy, which have YouTube as their main focus.
Another important thing that sets YouTube apart is that you have to use keywords in your videos. Not only is it pronounced separately, but it is used in your speech and subtitles. This is how the search algorithms understand that your video is relevant and responds to the intent of the users.
4. Dive Into Content Creation
Making a great video can take a long time, so as we mentioned before, you should consider having a dedicated YouTube team. They will handle the production and marketing of the video, as well as building a community.
If you’re on a budget, however, you can rely on free video-making tools and a marketing specialist. help you do the promotional part.
You will need:
- An online video editor like Fastreel, Magisto or Kapwing
- An illustration creator for channel art: Canva, Venngage or Crello
- A content planner like Loomly, Trello or Agorapulse
When you have all the tools you need, it’s time to discover how to make a YouTube channel more interesting with different video content.
Types of content that work well on YouTube
You’ll find dozens of types of video content on YouTube. But which ones to choose to promote a small business? The following work great for corporate accounts, so let’s take a closer look.
Brand Intro
Brand Intro is arguably the most important video on your channel. . Tell your audience who you are, what you do, and what your content is about. This type of video works great as a channel trailer for newcomers to get to know you. You can also make a series of short “meet the team” videos introducing your employees. These videos can include short interviews, time lapses of work days, and little anecdotes about their lives.
General Product Reviews
If you produce great articles, develop useful software, or provide excellent services, YouTube is the best place to showcase your offers. Product roundups are basically advertisements that talk about features and benefits for users.These videos are a great fit when launching new products or releasing updates to your existing products.
Instructions
How-to guides are a must if you want your audience to treat you like an expert. Teach your subscribers how to use your services or products and make QA videos on the most troublesome moments. If you have your own in-depth guides and how-to videos, people won’t need to look anywhere else for them.
Educational Videos
These differ from instructions in that they cover a broader range of topics. These topics, however, must be related to your product or service. For example, if you are a digital design agency, you can educate your audience on current design trends or color theory.
Client Testimonials
Client testimonials will attract viewers to your channel and provide valuable content for your subscriber base. A customer testimonial may include specific details about the benefits of a product or service based on real life experience. Such comments are more credible than bragging on the part of the brand.
Live Broadcasts
A scheduled live broadcast event will cause anticipation among your subscribers. You can provoke the public on your other social media accounts and then speak to the audience in real time. Live streams are perfect for product launches, QA sessions, and educational webinars.
Building a successful YouTube channel takes time
As you can see, there are many advantages when using YouTube. Not all businesses succeed in doing this, but with enough time and effort, you can reach your goal. A YouTube account will attract new audiences, improve customer relationships, and drive more traffic to your site.
Plan your digital strategy first, do your market research, and you’re good to go. Don’t forget to optimize your content for search engines, upload videos regularly and followers will not be long in coming. By balancing the amount and types of content, you can keep your customers entertained for a long time.
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