Create a Successful YouTube Channel for Your Business

Why you should create videos

The internet has changed the way people consume content and learn new information. There was a time when magazine and newspaper ads and articles were booming because everybody was reading these forms of media. Now that the internet is massively popular and everything is shortened down a bit, many people don’t have the attention span to read through hundreds of words about your business.

All you have to do is click on a YouTube video and it starts playing in your browser or on your phone. When the video is over, YouTube can show you a list of related videos or automatically play the next video in line for you. This convenience is a cornerstone of YouTube.

As a business owner, YouTube is important because it’s a great way to get the word out about your business. People might not read long-winded articles, but they’ll watch brief videos that promote your business. As more people watch your videos and subscribe to your YouTube channel and social media accounts, you’re expanding your list of potential customers.

Combined with social media marketing and other forms of digital marketing, creating a YouTube for a small business can help bring your business into the modern world.

Starting a YouTube channel

Now that you know how helpful a business YouTube channel can be, you might be wondering how to start. Lucky for you, starting a YouTube channel is free and easy. In order to start a YouTube channel, you’ll need an existing Google account. Here’s how you can start a YouTube channel for your business:

1. Sign into the YouTube website using your Google (Gmail) account
2. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen
3. Click Create a Channel
4. Fill in the details and confirm your choices to create a channel

Keep in mind that these are simply basic instructions. Once you get your YouTube channel up and running, you’ll need to customize your channel, edit and upload videos, and work to build a following on YouTube.

12 Tips for optimizing your YouTube channel for success

While YouTube provides a lot of opportunities for small business owners, your YouTube videos are also competing with a lot of other businesses for viewership. Optimizing your YouTube channel and creating the best content is important if you want to get a competitive edge. Here are 12 tips to help you optimize your YouTube channel to increase your odds of success.

1. Choose a good name

If you want to create a YouTube channel, you need to make sure you choose a good name. There are more than 50 million YouTube channels in the world, so you need to find a name that separates you from the competition.

You might need to do a little research when it comes to choosing a YouTube name. See what kinds of keywords people are searching for on YouTube and include one of those in your name. You should also check to make sure there aren’t any similar channels that show up in search results when your channel name is searched.

2. Use the About Us page

The About Us page on YouTube gives you a chance to tell people a little more about your YouTube channel, but that’s not the only purpose it serves. Filling out the About Us page can help your channel be more discoverable in search results. When somebody searches for “YouTube” and a term that you’ve included in your about page, there’s a chance your page will show up in their search results.

While a well-written About Us page can help make your YouTube channel more discoverable, you don’t want to stuff your channel full of keywords. Instead, try to incorporate keywords in a natural way while talking about your business and your YouTube channel.

3. Add a trailer

When new visitors check out your YouTube channel, you want to give them a taste of what they can find if they explore further. YouTube trailers are a great way to introduce people to your channel and grow your audience. You can take clips from several videos and combine them into one trailer, or you can create a short trailer or welcome video for your channel and post it there.

Your trailer video will play automatically whenever somebody who isn’t subscribed opens your YouTube channel. Keep in mind that you can always disable your trailer video or change it to something else down the road, so perfecting your trailer right away isn’t entirely necessary.

4. Use keywords

When it comes to YouTube advertising and growing your channel, using keywords is one of the best things you can do. Keywords allow people to discover your YouTube channel organically, whether they’re searching for a video on YouTube or looking for something on Google. When you include keywords in the titles and descriptions of your YouTube videos, you’re making your channel easier to discover on the web.

Keep in mind that you can’t simply force a long list of keywords into your descriptions and titles. While keywords help search algorithms know when to display your page, using too many keywords—known as keyword stuffing—can cause search engines to ignore your YouTube channel. If you’re not familiar with keyword research and using keywords for SEO, you can always hire an SEO expert to help you optimize your YouTube channel.

5. Say your keywords in videos

Putting keywords in video titles and descriptions is a good way to get people to look at your channel, but that’s not the only place you should include your keywords. In addition to crawling video descriptions and titles to look for keywords, some search bots will also crawl through your video and the transcriptions of it to look for keywords. This means that when you use text keywords on your YouTube channel, you should try to include that keyword in your video.

Using keywords in your videos can also help you stay on topic and create cohesive content. It’s easy to get off topic when you’re making YouTube videos, but it’s a lot harder when there are keywords you have to incorporate. Again, it’s important to make sure you’re using these keywords in a natural way that doesn’t take away from the content.

6. Create playlists

Sometimes people know what they’re looking for on YouTube, but sometimes people just want to watch some random videos. A playlist is a good way to give people a list of videos that they can sit and watch without having to search for each video. With a playlist, viewers can click on one video in the list to start playback. When a video is over, YouTube will automatically load up the next video in the playlist, which is convenient and gives users a way to discover new channels.

If you want to grow your YouTube channel, you can try creating playlists that are made up of related videos. Your playlist can include videos from your channel as well as videos from other channels. The most important thing is that you’re getting people to check out your videos and subscribe to your channel.

7. Make longer videos

Understanding algorithms is crucial when it comes to optimizing your YouTube channel. Not only do you need to use SEO to attract more visitors to your channel, but you also need to optimize your videos based on what YouTube wants. Typically, YouTube prefers longer videos over shorter ones, so making longer videos can be a simple way to give your channel a boost.

You might have a hard time making your videos longer to start, but you’ll get the hang of it eventually. If you were planning on doing a series of videos to explain a topic, consider combining that series into a single, longer video. You can also make longer videos that include clips of some of your other videos depending on the type of content you’re making.

8. Perfect the first 15 seconds

The last thing you want is for people to stop watching your video after the first few seconds, which is why getting the first 15 seconds right is so important. Your goal should be to grab viewers’ attention in the first 15 seconds and get them to watch the rest of your video. You can do this by talking about the question you’re going to answer or giving them a quick peek ahead at an interesting part of the video.

As long as the first 15 seconds of your video are attention-grabbing, you shouldn’t have too much of an issue with retaining viewers.

9. Use custom thumbnails

You’ve probably seen that a lot of the most popular YouTube videos have big, bright thumbnail pictures (the picture you see before clicking on a video). What’s strange, however, is that a lot of these videos don’t actually contain the image that’s used as the thumbnail. This is because a lot of YouTube channels take advantage of custom thumbnails to help grow their audience.

Custom thumbnails are images created specifically to be a thumbnail. If you watch any gaming YouTube channels, you’ve seen these custom thumbnails in action. You can always hire a graphic designer to create custom thumbnails for you if you don’t have an in-house designer.

10. Write compelling titles and descriptions

When you add video to a campaign for marketing, you also have to add titles and descriptions for those videos. Believe it or not, the titles and descriptions you use for your videos are almost as important as the videos themselves. When you’re writing your title, keep it short and descriptive with some keywords included. Your description can be a little more in-depth, but you should also try to include keywords and talk about what’s in the video.

Each video should have a unique title and description for discoverability. The more time you spend writing quality descriptions and video titles, the easier it will be for people to find your channel.

11. Use video cards

Most people think of a video as a simple, pre-recorded piece of media that people can’t interact with. The truth is that YouTube makes it easy for viewers to interact with the videos they’re watching through video cards. Video cards allow content creators to share clickable links that are relevant to the content being shown in the video. For example, you can link somebody to a product you’re talking about.

Video cards are a great way to make your videos more interactive and help viewers take action after watching a video. Whether you want somebody to purchase a product, visit your website, or subscribe to your social media, you can do it with video cards.

12. Add subtitles and captions

Last but not least, make sure your videos have subtitles and captions. Some people have a difficult time understanding what people are saying in videos, and some people have language barriers that make it impossible for them to understand what you’re saying. By including captions and subtitles, you can make sure that everyone who checks out your videos can get a written translation that may make it easier to understand.

Subtitles and captions are also crawled by search engine bots, so including subtitles and captions on your YouTube videos can make you show up in more search engine results.

Get your name out there

If you’re planning on starting a YouTube channel for your small business, promoting your channel is key. Here are some of the things you can do to promote your YouTube channel as a small business owner:

• Social media: When you post a video, share it to your social media accounts as well. When somebody clicks your video, you’ll get a view and a potential subscriber to your channel.
• YouTube ads: By advertising your channel on other YouTube videos, you can build a larger following.
• Research keywords: Use a keyword research tool to find out what keywords are ranking highly in your industry and which keywords people aren’t using a lot. Including keywords is an easy way to boost your discoverability
• Include metadata: Another way to make your channel more noticeable is to include easily searchable metadata with every video.
• Incentivize sharing: You can also grow your channel by hosting a giveaway, offering 1 entry for each time somebody shares your video or channel. Incentivizing people to share your content is a great way to get your name out there.

Build your brand with video

With the rise of videos in email marketing and digital marketing in general, it’s no surprise that YouTube is a powerful tool for businesses today. By starting a YouTube channel and following these tips, you can grow your audience, drive sales, and increase customer engagement.

If you need help perfecting your videos or using videos for email marketing, Mailchimp can help. Mailchimp makes it easy to add a video to a campaign, plus you can use our other email marketing tools to give your campaign a boost. Try Mailchimp today and see the difference the right software can make.