While you may not look at YouTube as a typical social media platform, it is a widely spreading social space that allows people from around the world to connect through videos, likes, and comments. In fact, despite being around for more than fifteen years, YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world!
As a business in this day and age, having a viable presence on YouTube can be extremely beneficial for brand exposure. It helps you as a growing business to reach both your current customers as well as potential new ones, just through videos.
Research also tells us that 81% of internet users around the world have used YouTube. At a time when social media consumes us more than we consume it, YouTube is the place for your business to be – it’s hit and it’s happening.
What are the benefits of YouTube for your business?
Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of having a Youtube presence for your business.
- Exposure to a larger audience
As we already mentioned, YouTube will take your current reach to a whole new level as your channel continues to mature. Unlike most other social media platforms, YouTube has an audience that is quite diverse in age. One will find people from all age groups – both young and old constantly engaging with videos across the platform.
Creating a space on such a large platform that is unique to your business and content will greatly help to reach larger audiences and bring in many more potential customers. Even if you have a few dedicated subscribers, you can rest assured that the content your business is putting out is impacting them at some level, and that’s never a bad thing.
- Video is more effective than the written word
Most people today would agree to that statement without a doubt, but if you want statistics then 98% of marketers are in agreement that video content converts as well as or better than other forms of content.
Videos can play a crucial role in purchasing decisions for many customers. 73% of consumers say that they are more likely to buy a product/service after watching the brand video on it. Videos will also drive more traffic to your website and help in brand recall. The human brain is more attracted to moving images rather than static ones, and therefore your video will engage viewers more effectively than the written word.
- More people will discover you on Google
Since YouTube is owned by Google, it is only obvious that constantly using YouTube to post videos will not only increase engagement but also get you noticed on Google through rankings.
A must-have for a business in this day and age is a strong online presence, and posting videos on YouTube is one way to go about it.
Now that you know the importance of YouTube for your business, here’s a short guide on how to go about it.
How to start a YouTube channel?
The very first step to having an online presence is to create your YouTube channel. This process is quite easy and doesn’t need any expert knowledge to go through.
Here’s a super simple 5-step guide on how to start a YouTube channel:
Step 1 – Sign in to YouTube.
Step 2 – Go to settings on the top right corner, and click on ‘Create a new channel’.
Step 3 – Pick the ‘Use a business or other name’.
Step 4 – Type in your brand name and add a profile picture.
Step 5 – Click ‘Create Channel’.
And that’s about it!
10 Beginner friendly tips and tricks for your YouTube channel
Now that your YouTube channel is ready to go, simply focus on a few things to grow a successful channel.
- Identify your niche and target audience
Before getting started with YouTube, it would help to have a strategic layout of the list of content you desire to put out for your audience. Identify the area that you will be posting most about, and who exactly it is that you’re putting out content for. And plan your video content accordingly.
If you have a product that you would like to explain in detail for your customers to learn more about, then tutorial videos are the way to go. Businesses can leverage tutorials to discuss or demonstrate their products and/or services in depth. Another possibility is the infamous ‘Ask me Anything’ video, wherein customers and audiences can put in questions or doubts about the services you offer, and subject matter experts in your business answer them.
Product reviews are videos that analyze the usefulness and quality of your products. Other types of videos that you can put out on your channel include educational videos, challenge videos – either putting out a challenge for your audience or presenting your team with one, behind-the-scenes videos, video podcasts, and even product launch videos.
- Optimize videos for search
If you are creating content that is not only well-crafted but also resonates with your audience, you have a high chance of actually taking flight on YouTube.
Similar to SEO for your website, YouTube has a few requirements to get your video content noticed. A few things to keep in mind while crafting your content include:
– Tag your videos in order for them to show up in relevant search results
– Put relevant keywords in your titles and descriptions
– Remember to make your titles and descriptions rich but not heavy in keywords
– Adding the transcript of your video to the video description will help you rank for certain related terms
– Remember to mention your target keyword in your video
– Include closed captions as often as possible. This not only helps with understanding your content better but also for search engines to pick up relevant keywords
Unique intros and eye-catching thumbnails
Your first video on YouTube is going to be paramount in setting the tone for the kind of content that will follow. Uploading your first official video will be a huge step in your YouTube journey and it’s important that you pay attention to how you go about it.
Customizing your own thumbnails for YouTube videos and adding interesting and fun intros can go a long way in building consistency and brand awareness. Instead of allowing YouTube to grab a random shot from your video for the thumbnail, spend some extra time creating a custom one for each video.
- Upload consistently
If you’re looking to actually grow a successful YouTube channel, keep in mind that consistency is key. It is not possible to gain a tonne of subscribers, views, or likes if you only post one or two videos and end up neglecting your channel after that.
It takes effort and more importantly time to build a YouTube channel for business, and one of the secrets to bringing in a consistent audience is to be consistent with posting your content. Always make sure that you have a host of ideas and video content planned and ready ahead of time.
It may not always be possible to take time out to shoot a video every day or even every week. Therefore, make it a point to decide a day when you shoot more than one video and keep it ready to post on any given day.
- Engage with your audience
As humans, putting in effort with other human beings has always helped us in building stronger, healthier relationships. Similarly, YouTube also takes any sort of interaction with your audience and viewers as a positive sign. Youtube is not very different from other social media platforms and engaging with users who view your content is always a good idea.
Liking comments, replying to comments, and even pinning favored comments to the top will only take anywhere from a few seconds to minutes but will serve your purpose of getting noticed.
Also, increase engagement with calls to action – ask your viewers to like, subscribe, comment, and share if they find your videos interesting and useful.
- Analyze and adapt
As you continue to work on your channel, remember that no one is ever perfect, and while it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s even more important to constantly review and analyze the data relating to your content.
YouTube Analytics is a good place to analyze how your current videos are performing and how to better optimize them for the future.
Pay attention to things like how viewers found your content, which part of your videos held their attention the most, the kinds of content and channels that your audience also engages with apart from yours, and so on.
It is never too late to change things up and adapt to new trends and transformations coming your way.
- Get involved with the latest trends
Keep an eye out for what sells on YouTube, and keep going back to it. Just like any other social media platform, YouTube is under constant change and there will always be a new trend or two coming in like a wave.
It’s important to keep in touch with the latest happenings and make sure your channel is evolving with the rest of the YouTube world. For instance, YouTube Shorts is the new “in” thing, with creators getting the opportunity to post extremely short videos (similar to Instagram reels) unlike YouTube’s usual long-form video format.
- Incorporate your YouTube videos into your website and on social media
A good idea to grow your channel is to incorporate your YouTube videos into your website and other social media sites. Keeping your Youtube channel separate from the rest of your online platforms will not do it.
So, make sure that you constantly update your website to add new YouTube videos that are created for the business. You can either place your videos front and center of your website by showing them off on your homepage. Another way is to blog about your videos and send regular emails or notifications to update your customers on new videos.
Lastly, always share links of your YouTube videos to other social media platforms of your business for more reach.
- Create a channel trailer
As the name suggests, a channel trailer is a short video (maybe less than a minute)that lets new viewers know about the kind of content your business channel is all about. It will outline what your business is about, the kind of content you put out, and what viewers can expect to find on your channel.This is a great way to keep your viewers – especially new ones updated about your business and video content.
- Be patient and have fun along the way!
Growing a YouTube channel is almost like growing a plant. Constant attention and patience are super important to get meaningful and long-term results. Although it can get stressful to dive into the world of YouTube without any prior knowledge or expertise, it is always worth it if you wish to create a strong online presence for your business. Continuous research is something that will be extremely essential in order to keep growing your YouTube channel. Check out our other blog to know how to grow a successful YouTube channel. However, what’s more, important is that you have fun along the way, as you see the fruits of your labor over weeks, months, and even years to come.
How does illusto help you?
Illusto is a free video editor online that will take your YouTube videos to the next level. When it comes to creating valuable content and editing videos for YouTube, here are a few ways that illusto can help you: Illusto will help you to create professional videos easily and fast since its user interface is extremely easy to use and navigate through.
– Illusto is a DIY platform that will allow you to be the master of your own videos – no more outsourcing extra hands to create your videos for you.
– Illusto is completely free and requires no downloads or expensive upgrades. Being only a simple browser search away, illusto is an expense-free but great place to get started with your YouTube videos.
– With music, hundreds of stickers, GIFs, and one of the biggest libraries of transitions, effects, and filters, illusto will help you to create extra fun videos for your extraordinary audience!
