Over the last 15 years, the YouTube platform has redefined the meaning of brand marketing. It is currently the world’s second-largest social network and the only one where video share is the primary mode of communication. A lot more people are gaining access to YouTube than cable TV as the days go by.
As a business owner, video marketing is one of the top content marketing strategies that can bring your business’s best conversion rates. Consumers are more attracted to videos than static content. Therefore, you can get a heightened customer engagement effect and a practical pathway to showcase your products and services.
YouTube is leading the video content marketing and promotion race with 2 billion users and 11.4% of the entire internet’s video traffic. In a nutshell, if media marketing is vital to your business growth, then you know you can’t do without YouTube videos.
Setting up and running an account may not be so much of a problem for individual users. But when it comes to business purposes, several factors and strategies need to be put in place for the best YouTube business marketing experience.
Here’s what you need to know on how to use YouTube for business.
In This Article
Setting Up A YouTube Channel For Business
DEFINE YOUR YOUTUBE GOALS
To truly make the most of your YouTube opportunity, it’s important first of all to define your goals. The goal of YouTube is to promote your business at the end of the day. But YouTube has different routes to making that happen. It can be in the form of leads, traffic to full-length videos, subscriptions, or even downloads.
Your YouTube goals help streamline the kind of content you put up on YouTube. Why are you on YouTube in the first place? To draw more attention to your on-site store or to push more sales? When you define you ‘why,’ you know ‘what’ needs to be done and ‘how’ to achieve it. Defining your goals also helps you target the right audience and push engagement.
Have a goal right from the onset, and it’ll make your YouTube strategy easier to go through. You can get many benefits by using YouTube for your business, but drawing a well-thought-out plan is the right way to go.
CREATE YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Unlike other social media networks, YouTube allows viewing content even without creating an account. But to go a step further to upload content and engage users, you are required to open a YouTube account. Since Google purchased YouTube in 2016, a Google account is required to create an account. You can either use an existing Google account or create a new one for your business. We suggest that you use a Google account that’s linked to your business already. Once you’re logged into your Google account, you’ll be directed to YouTube to name your channel.
When you’re considering a YouTube name, we suggest that you use your business name. This will make your channel more comfortable to find. It’s more or less a search engine, so you need to consider how people searching for you (or your content) will find you.
You’ll then be asked a couple of questions, and finally, you’ll be asked to agree to YouTube’s terms and conditions. Your account is immediately created after agreeing to the terms.
Once created, you’ll find four buttons in the top right corner of your page. The first is an icon of a video camera that directs you to the page where you upload a video. The second is a square consisting of nine smaller squares that represent the YouTube apps.
The third is the bubble icon that’s for your messages.
The forth is the bell icon that notifies your account activity, like a new comment or like. The last icon is the one that represents your profile picture with your account information pulled from Google.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR YOUTUBE PROFILE
Because your profile isn’t just for individual use, it’s important to tailor your profile to fit the business purpose you need it for, even before starting any type of promotion.
User Name and URL
First, the specific URL your profile gets depends on your username. That’s the link that you send to people or hyperlinks in written content so people can find your channel directly. You have the option of using a business username for your YouTube business account. To do this, click on “Use a business or other name,” and you’ll be directed to another page where you can set up your business name.
Channel Icon
The channel icon is synonymous with a profile picture. Your YouTube profile picture is automatically pulled from your Google account. You can customize your channel with a high-quality logo or image that’s recognized with your business. It also gives your channel a more professional outlook.
Channel Art
YouTube automatically generates a generic channel header for you. But to make your business page stand out from others, you should customize your channel art. It’s quite similar to how it is on Twitter and Facebook. You can use an image that displays your business’ tagline or anything relating to the brand. Be mindful that your image will get cropped and just a small portion of the entire image will be displayed. So it’s essential to use high-quality images that are consistent with your brand’s image and colors.
Also, check out how the final product looks across different devices to make sure it works. It’s not the same way it appears on mobile that it’ll be on a desktop.
About Section
This is an opportunity to give out more information about your business. Include concise and catchy information about your business, services, products, and how they can connect with you. Include other social media and website links in this section so users can connect and follow your business on different platforms.
YOUTUBE IN-CHANNEL VIDEOS
This is where YouTube gets interesting.
At this point, it’s worth noting that YouTube provides three types of video uploading, and in-channel video is just one of them. They are the workhorse of YouTube. They are the little pieces of content from your channel that help you get found, attract an audience, and show up in Google searches. A large percentage of the content you upload on YouTube will be in-channel videos.
It may seem like an easy task to record videos and upload them on your channel, but if you don’t pay the required attention, you may not reach the goals you intend for your channel. Here are some things you must pay attention to:
Video Resolution
The best videos are nothing less than 1280 by 720 pixels. This gives viewers the pleasure of watching your video, irrespective of the device they use. You can also go as far as 3840 by 2160 pixels. For aspect ratio, YouTube’s default is 16:9. But if your video doesn’t fit into this, YouTube will make it fit by adding black bars called pillar-boxes. You’re allowed up to 12 hours filming time or a 128 GB limit for a business account.
Title, Thumbnails, and Description
Your channel marketing extends to video titles, thumbnails and descriptions. Every thumbnail and title should be treated as an ad because that will draw new viewers to your channel when you eventually promote your videos. Try out different titles and descriptions to see which one works best. Use descriptive and intriguing titles; use thumbnails that incite curiosity.
Content and Keywords
Strategically planning for content is essential. Take the videos on your channel as a means of building up an exciting business story and create content along that line. This way, your videos aren’t ‘all over the place’ and can help your audience understand where you’re driving them towards. Your content should also align with the goal of your channel. Regarding keywords, there are some topics that people are actively searching for. Use Google trends to find those keywords and merge them into your video content to increase your channel’s visibility. SEO marketing is another thing you should have in mind. One trick that helps is to watch your video right to the end and jot down keywords relevant to the video. This way, you put yourself in the shoes of the viewer and think like them.
Plan Video Publishing
One way to get more subscribers and traffic on your channel is by having a scheduled publishing plan from when you start uploading videos. This way, users know they can rely on your channel to provide the content they require. Set modest publishing goals and keep improving as time goes by. And as they increase, you have the responsibility to keep serving them with premium content. Be consistent with your video publishing and try to maintain (or get better) the standard you launched with.
YOUTUBE LIVE
YouTube live streaming is the second video upload type that YouTube provides, and it’s gaining popularity now more than ever. However, your account will usually require verification or 1,000 subscribers to go live on mobile devices.
To enable it on your account, however, you need to do any of the following. Either go through the Stream Now option on YouTube’s Creator Studio, through the Events tab, via the site’s mobile app, or through a computer’s webcam.
YOUTUBE ADVERTISING
YouTube supports ads on the platform and allows Youtubers to reap benefits from it. Because Google owns YouTube, it’s part of the Google Ads network, and you can manage those ads from that dashboard. There are four available ads options.
TrueView In-Stream Ads
These ads play before, during, or after a video. Viewers have the option of skipping them after 5 seconds, and you only get a payment if the viewer watches 30 seconds of the video or interacts with it. ‘TrueView for Action’ also allows you to drive leads and conversions by adding a prominent headline text and CTA to a TrueView in-stream ad.
Discovery Ads
These ads appear whenever a user searches for content on YouTube or the web. These ads don’t have time limits, and once users click on, you get your charge.
Bumper Ads
Similar to TrueView ads, Bumper ads also appear before, during, or after a video. However, they’re 6 seconds or less and can’t be skipped.
Outstream Ads
These final ads only appear on mobile devices and show up on partner websites and within apps. Charges are based on cost per thousand impressions (vCPM).
It’s possible to retarget and remarket on YouTube by redirecting the above types of ads to subscribers, users who watch your video, or those who have purchased a product.
YouTube business account pricing varies and is based on how in-demand the subject matter or keywords are. Cost-per-click ads range from $0.10 or 0.30 USD per action to several dollars.
To get the most out of your ads, make sure they’re brief, novel, entertaining, and informative.
YOUTUBE ENGAGEMENT
Many rules govern YouTube. But if there’s one you should never forget, it’s that you should ALWAYS engage your audience. Never upload content and leave it by itself. Enable notifications, so you know when your audience begins to engage your videos. There are several ways to interact with other YouTube users. They include:
Comments
Viewers can drop questions and comments on your videos. They’re usually arranged by most popular or newest. Engaging with these comments boosts your video’s engagement traffic and adds even more value to your video.
Likes
You have the option to show the number of thumbs up your videos get or not. Although you can’t entirely interact with this, showing the number of likes will help you rank your most popular videos on your channel playlist.
Subscriptions
To the users, the subscription means staying up to date with content from your channel. Whenever you upload content, they immediately get a push notification. To you, it helps improve your engagement traffic and number of views. It’s important to encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel to boost your engagement. One tested and trusted way to do this is to incorporate subscription reminders at the beginning or end of your videos.
Playlists
Organize relevant content using the playlist feature on YouTube. When you choose to publicize the playlists, viewers can easily maneuver through your channel and find relevant videos that interest them.
Sharing
One important engagement feature is the share videos widget. Use this widget to share your content on other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Blogger, Reddit, Tumblr, and Pinterest to boost visibility.
Messages
Message your contacts and friends privately on YouTube to watch your videos!
YOUTUBE VERIFICATION
Although your business can thrive without it, YouTube verification is a useful add-on for YouTube business marketing. Verified YouTube channels usually have a small checkbox next to the channel’s name. It’s more or less a verification badge that indicates that YouTube has verified the ownership of the channel. Usually, to get this badge, a channel has to have at least 100,000 subscribers to apply for verification. Nonetheless, businesses can contact Google directly to make inquiries about the verification process..
YOUTUBE ANALYTICS
It’s essential to measure how your videos are doing out there once you have a couple up. You need to measure the interaction it’s raking and check to see if it’s reaching your target audience.
Getting many views and likes is good enough, but the ultimate goal is to keep progressing towards your goal. YouTube metrics point towards your goals’ progression (or digression) and can provide leads to it.
Like we already mentioned, YouTube’s primary goals differ with each business. If what you’re looking to achieve is subscribers, then you’ll need to pay attention to subscriptions and unsubscriptions and the activities that prompted them.
If your goal is traffic, YouTube Analytics can show you your audience retention ratio and how far into your videos your audience stays. With this, you can determine if your video’s length is right or if there’s a particular aspect of your video that isn’t turning your audience away.
If the download rate is your goal, regular marketing systems can be used to measure this.
YouTube live streaming metrics can also be measured from YouTube Analytics video data. On the tab, you can sort them out via Live, On-Demand, or Live and On-Demand. There, you can check the Peak Concurrents, total view time, and the total number of people who viewed.
With YouTube ads, there are two ways to measure. Either conversions or exposure. Conversion rates can be measured by cost per view, view rate, watch time, average watch time, clicks, and click-through rate. Exposure rates, on the other hand, are measured with watch time and average watch time.
YOUTUBE PARTNER PROGRAM
Asides the goal you’re working towards meeting with your channel, the partner program is one huge way to monetize your content on YouTube. This program allows you to earn money from advertisements on your video, particularly when you get views from YouTube Premium subscribers. For you to be eligible for this, your channel needs to reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months.
Again, YouTube Analytics is the route to check watch time and subscription from your dashboard. It might take a while to meet these requirements, especially for new channels, but be rest assured that reaching it allows you to make money on the videos you put out.
YOUTUBE PREMIUM
YouTube Premium is a subscription service that allows users to stream videos and music on the platform without any advertisement at the beginning or end of the video. Usually, for a fee from $11.99 per month, YouTube Premium (formerly called YouTube Red) also gives you the liberty to download videos and watch them offline.
Even though YouTube for business marketing doesn’t require a premium subscription to operate, it’s essential to know how it works and affects your business. The effect on your business marketing is a two-way thing. First, YouTube Premium is ad-free, thus taking users away from your in-stream ads. On the other hand, getting views from Premium subscribers can be another way to earn money.
YOUTUBE COMMUNITY
With the YouTube market skyrocketing daily, the number of users and personalities available on the platform keeps increasing. Over the last couple of years, many people have become “YouTube sensations” and have made names for creating unique video content on YouTube.
Most of the time, they are specialized in their niches (say fashion or motivational talks) or use YouTube as a form of vlog or reality show series. These kinds of people usually have a significant following that keeps increasing by the day.
Accruing large followership may be admirable, but may not be the most uncomplicated feat to achieve for small businesses. You may not need to if you can maximize the opportunities you have around you. One of those is working with other users in the YouTube community to promote your business objectives. This can be done through sponsorships, features, ambassadorship, and a lot more.
It’s easy as reaching out to the YouTubers that have carved a niche for themselves in the field your business is in, reaching an agreement with them, and having them mention, use or praise your product to the reach of their many followers. Work with top content creators to place your product or services. It’s effective for brand building.
It’s worth looking deeply into your YouTube community to see how other YouTubers can help your conversion rates.
YOUTUBE TIPS AND SECRETS
With the above, you’re on your way to mastering the art of YouTube for business video hosting.
However, there are a few tricks that can help you get the best out of your YouTube experience. They include:
Video Sharing
Don’t make the mistake of not sharing your video on all of your other social media platforms. Also, link written content to your videos and make sure your links go as far as possible. Create a strategy that works for you and make sure it’s yielding clicks.
Encourage subscriptions
Devise creative ways to encourage your viewers to subscribe. This is the fastest way for them to get notified once your videos drop and will build up into the views you get on your videos.
Engage with your community
The best place to get your initial audience is from those who run similar content with yours and know how much engagement is important to the business. Comment and like their videos –that way, they not only acknowledge your existence, but you’ve put yourself in a position where their audience can check out your channel also. Try this out with those who have similar content with yours and see how far it goes!
Organize playlists
Putting your videos in an organized form can enhance viewer enjoyment and encourage them to view more videos once on your channel. Perhaps, the themes of your videos vary, but some are consistent. Put them together and put a descriptive title that enables users to spot them quickly once they’re on your channel. These playlists appear on your channel’s page, directly under your uploaded videos.
Use clickable links to reference other content.
This is an effective strategy to redirect viewers back to other videos up on your channel. At the end of each video, add relevant and clickable links while editing your video on YouTube’s video manager.
Use YouTube stories
Just like Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram stories, YouTube also allows you to collect short videos and pictures that can remain visible for 24 hours or until they’re deleted. Utilize this to engage your viewers and tease videos (already or about to be) upon your channel.
Run contests and giveaways
One easy way to get attention and engagement to your channel is by promoting contests and giveaways. Once in a while, try this out to bring in traffic to your site. Be sure that whichever you go about it aligns with YouTube’s rules and guidelines that apply to you.
Conclusion
YouTube offers a huge lead-gen and revenue opportunity. However, the best of it is only gotten by those who know what they want to accomplish and how to go about it. A well-planned and directed channel can tick the boxes of entertaining, informative, and appealing. Paired with great marketing, YouTube can be the best route to engage your community and increase your business reach.
