Your Guide to Starting a YouTube Channel for Your Brand or Small Business + 10 Tips To Boost Engagement
YouTube is a rapidly growing social media platform that currently has 2.5 billion users worldwide. Users of all ages use YouTube to learn about new things, be entertained, listen to music, watch movies, and engage with groups of people who have similar interests.
YouTube Shorts, a section of YouTube where users can upload or view short reels of 60 seconds or less, has risen in popularity in recent years and is projected to become even more popular in the next few years, especially in light of recent threats to ban TikTok.
Read to the end to discover how you can create a YouTube Channel for your brand or small business and see amazing growth and measure your return on this investment.
WHY YOUTUBE?
YouTube currently ranks #2 in the world for global and domestic web traffic, second to Google. Why wouldn’t you want to maintain a web presence on the second-most visited website in the world? Creating a business profile on YouTube is free and you have the potential to reach hundreds of millions of viewers if you can create viral content that’s share-worthy.
WHY NOT?
We know that high-quality video content generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined and viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. So why not create video content?
Well, according to the survey taken by wyzowl.com, one-third of marketers say they do not have time to create videos for marketing, 20 percent say that video marketing is too expensive, and 15 percent of marketers do not know where to start.
DON’T LET THAT STOP YOU!
Don’t let that stop you! There are plenty of media specialists and videographers as well as proficient editors in the world who are willing to help you create high-quality video content to help boost your business on social media channels like YouTube.
One of the perks of creating long-form video content is that a great editor will be able to help you use that footage to create short-form reels and social media posts as well. Video content is incredibly versatile and also makes great content to include in your email campaigns and newsletters which increases click-through and open rates. You can also include your video content on the landing page of your website or embed it within one of your business’s blog posts.
READ OUR BLOG: 6 Social Media Tips and Tricks for Small Businesses [2023]
SO HOW DO I GET STARTED?
First, you’ll need to create your business YouTube channel.
Follow these 9 easy step to get started:
Navigate to YouTube.com and sign in.
If you haven’t created a login, you can use your business Google account to sign in or you can sign up with your email address and choose a password.
Once you’ve confirmed that you’re signed into your business account and not your personal account, click your YouTube avatar in the upper right-hand corner.
Click View Your Channel from the drop-down menu.
Enter Your Company Name and click Create.
Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the YouTube app and website.
Next, take your time customizing your YouTube channel by adding channel art like your channel icon and banner. You can use this guide by SproutSocial to help you with image sizes for your channel art.
Fill out your business channel’s description and about sections. You can direct users to a custom landing page on your website so that you easily track your YouTube marketing efforts and return on investment.
Think about creating a channel trailer to tell your viewers more about your business or brand. You can use this video specs guide from SproutSocial to help with your video size, ratio, and resolution for your YouTube videos.
Read Our Blog: How Explainer Videos Can Help Your Business Bloom In 2024
HOW DO I BOOST ENGAGEMENT ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL?
There are several ways to boost your YouTube engagement.
Here are ten suggestions to help you reach your YouTube engagement goals:
Respond to Comments left by users on your videos
Like, Comment, and Interact with other content within your business niche.
Encourage viewers to Like and Subscribe to your content.
Create Playlists! Group and compile your content into Playlists to help new viewers familiarize themselves with your existing content. You can also organize other channels' content into a playlist. For example, if you are a media company just like we are at Spivey Media, you might organize your clients’ videos into one playlist so users can quickly see videos that you’ve created for your clients.
Share your Content! Share your content on your other social media platforms. You can share your content on Facebook, Threads, X, Reddit, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.
Create content that is geared toward connecting with your ideal customer.
Advertise on YouTube! You can set your content up as an in-stream ad, a discovery ad, a bumper ad, or an out-stream ad. We will discuss these options in a future blog.
Use keywords that are relevant to your business niche in your video’s title, tags, and description section to help your audience find you.
Upload content on a regular schedule.
Try using YouTube shorts to repurpose content and target a new audience. You can also use YouTube Live to live stream and connect with your audience once you have more than 50 subscribers and have been verified by YouTube.
READY TO STEP UP YOUR VIDEO MARKETING GAME?
Ready to start a YouTube channel for your small business or brand but don’t know where to start? Video production can be affordable and pain-free. Leave it to the professionals!
The video production and video editing experts at Spivey Media (based in Norman, Oklahoma) are ready to help you meet your business marketing goals and see a return on your video marketing investment.
We can create short- and long-form video content for your brand or business that can boost trust with your target audience and convert loyal customers. Give us a call today and tell us about your ideas and goals. We will get started by creating a personalized marketing game plan that meets those goals and fits your budget.