Every day, YouTube users watch over a billion (yes, with a B) hours of Youtube videos and yet only 9% of small businesses have started their own channels. As YouTube usage continues to soar, the opportunity is just getting bigger for businesses who are ready to jump in.
In this post, we’ll share how to set up a fully optimized YouTube channel for your business, and how you can create compelling video content to engage current customers and attract new ones, too. A basic video marketing strategy on YouTube will help you build your brand’s identity, showcase your products, and connect with your audience in fresh and exciting ways.
Two types of YouTube channel
On YouTube, you’ve no doubt watched countless videos that have been uploaded by other people. But you don’t have to stand on the sideline. You can make your own channel yourself by uploading your own videos to your own channel.
There are two types of YouTube channel available. The channel you choose to create depends on whether you’re an individual video creator or you plan to operate as a brand online and engage in video advertising.
- Personal channels are populated with personal details and generally only have one administrator.
- Brand channels are run and managed by an advertiser or a company, and can have multiple users. Critically, there are no personal details on brand channels.
Ten Creative Fundamentals for your YouTube Channel
What are they?
Over the years, YouTube has analyzed its top creators and how they engage with their audiences on the platform. They’ve identified 10 key fundamental principles to a successful creative strategy. While not all of them are totally necessary, the more of them you’re able to implement into your content, the higher the chance that it will be discovered and shared. These 10 fundamentals are that content should be:
- Shareable
- Accessible
- Conversational
- Consistent
- Sustainable
- Discoverable
- Collaborative
- Interactive
- Targeted
- Authentic
Let’s dig a little into these fundamental principles.
Shareable
You need to make engaging content that your audience will love and want to share with their friends.
Accessible
If a viewer discovers one of your YouTube videos, can they appreciate it without having to watch all the other videos in your channel? Being accessible will allow for your videos to populate various different feeds and audiences.
Conversational
Are you having a conversation with your audience? Make sure that there’s an element of speaking directly to the audience within your video. This should help you connect to your community and bond with your fans.
Consistent
Consistency can involve multiple things. Do you have a regular upload schedule that you stick to? Is the format of your videos similar across the board? Is the on-screen personality consistent with every upload?
Sustainable
If you make a video and it becomes super successful, will you be able to make more of it? This might not be the case if the video was very expensive to produce.
Discoverable
Will people find your content? This means ensuring that titles are correct, and that your metadata clearly identifies what your content is about. It also means that you need to make content that your viewers are searching for.
Collaborative
Many digital content creators collaborate with other creators to help grow their channels. For successful collaborations, make sure you have a similar target audience and create a guest spot that’s appealing. It’s also important to collaborate with creators who have already demonstrated an affinity with your product.
Interactive
Is there a way to involve your audience in your content? If your audience sees that they are being heard and that your content is being shaped according to their comments, they will appreciate it and come back for more.
Targeted
Do you know who’s watching your content? You can learn about your audience by engaging with them on social media, seeing what they like, what they don’t like, and understanding what they expect from your channel. The more niche your audience is, the more engagement you will see on your content.
Authentic
Your content needs to be authentic, authoritative, and most importantly show your passion for the subject matter. On camera, it will be clear from your body language if you’re passionate about your subject. Your audience will engage more with your content if they feel your message is credible and authentic.
How to Generate Leads With YouTube
YouTube is a useful lead generator depending on how you use it. The platform has several tools to capture and collect leads so you know who is watching your content but also who might be interested in your company’s products or services.
One way are YouTube cards, which can be added to videos, creating a clickable CTA that prompts viewers to respond. The cards allow you to add more visual components so that they are more interactive and engaging with viewers, therefore attracting more eyeballs. They also can appear during any point during your video and can include downloadable content and outside links.
There are five different types of YouTube cards you can add to your videos:
- Video or playlist to promote your own content.
- Redirect to another YouTube channel.
- Donation featuring a nonprofit of your choice to encourage donations.
- Poll to encourage viewers to participate in a multiple choice question.
- Link that redirects users to an approved website, preferably your own.
Besides YouTube Cards, two other organic tactics that can boost your content are:
Landing Pages With End Screens
End screens are a mobile-friendly YouTube feature that lets you end your videos with a CTA. You can use an end screen to prompt viewers to check out your other videos, channels, or playlists. You can also encourage viewers to hit the Subscribe button for your YouTube channel to promote your website, products, services, or newsletter.
Leads Via Search
A detailed YouTube video description can go a long way toward improving discoverability. You need to optimize it for both YouTube and search engines. Longer and more in-depth video descriptions have a better chance of ranking high for relevant web searches. That’s because contextual keywords are the heart and soul of Google and YouTube queries.
Longer video descriptions aren’t just about single long-tail keywords. A detailed description can help you rank for many possible related searches. It may even boost your chances of snagging attention for keywords or phrases you didn’t use.
How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel
The ultimate way to take advantage of your YouTube is to monetize them through sponsorships. Plugs or mentions of products are the most common type of sponsorship. As the host of your video, you’ll want to introduce the brand and engage viewers through demonstrations, promotion outreach, and general hype generated around the product.
Here are the most common ways you can involve sponsored products into your YouTube channel:
- Reveal products through conversation.
Here you’ll incorporate the product into conversation about your daily life. If the sponsor is an apparel maker, you’ll drop the brand into a conversation about a recent shopping trip, or show viewers how you look and feel in their clothing. - Show off products.
Here you’ll hype the product directly and make it the topic of a conversation. This kind of sponsored discussion features talking points about what makes the product desirable and can even include a demonstration or anecdote about how the product added value or helpfulness to a recent experience, such as a vacation or a night out. - Mention the products in a pre-roll, mid-roll, or end-roll segment.
This is probably most similar to a conventional television broadcast where the product is mentioned at a specific break from the main content. - Create product reviews.
This is the most direct way to hype a product. A sponsored review involves you discussion exactly why the product is worthwhile. You can physically review it on camera — For travel luggage, for example, you can show viewers how the zippers and compartments work. This will depend on your opinion of the product, which many users find helpful when on the hunt to buy. - Produce a dedicated integration series.
This depends on your budget. If the brand is footing the bill, you can go beyond a simple plug or review and create a more sophisticated production that showcases the value of the product.
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