June 05th, 2018

With over 1.5 billion users by the latest stats, YouTube is the biggest platform for sharing videos. YouTube viewers watch 1 billion hours of video every day which when you look at the numbers is more than Facebook and Netflix is combined! YouTube users are by demographics make up teens, millennials, generation X and everyone else in between. What is also known is that most businesses do not look at YouTube as a strong marketing tool. What is more shocking is that with some practice and using the platform, your small business could be tapping into this huge pool of potential customers or clients. If you have just started with YouTube or planning to get started, here are some tips that I found may help you get your video projects off to a smoother start. I have posted material before on this subject but felt it was time for a refresher as I get questions from time to time from folks.

1. Create Content That Will Capture Your Brand

Your videos should engage, entertain or educate your viewers. The audience should emotionally invest in your videos - how can you take an idea, turn it on its head and create something that is essentially the same, yet something new? Approach content from the viewers point-of-view- not your own. Create content around their pain points or the broader/ big picture need that your product category address, and then find a smooth way to bring your brand messages in. Be real, be engaging.

2. First Impressions Will Either Sink Or Swim Your Brand

How do you make sure that when a potential client or customer lands on your channel, they’ll get to know who you are? YouTube gives you two tabs to showcase the personality of your brand.

1. Home Tab: This is the page you first-time visitors will see. To grab their attention from the get-go, add a channel trailer that lets them know more about your brand.
2. About Section: The about section gives a profile of your brand. This is the place where first-time viewers will get to know more about you and decide whether to subscribe to your channel or not. Tell them more about your brand and what you offer. Get them to subscribe but do not “beg” or overkill the opportunity.

 3. Brand Your Videos

There are two places where you can add branding elements in your videos.

1. Branding Within Your Video: Add a 3-second branding intro in the beginning of the video to promote your brand. At the end add a CTA (call to action) asking viewers to subscribe to your channel.
Use YouTube’s In Video programming to add features like a logo watermark in all of your videos, featuring a video or a playlist or adding a poll to engage your audience. Also, add a custom thumbnail to entice your audience to click on your videos. It is not difficult to do this. Just create a png small logo of your brand.
2. Tags: When building your YouTube brand, it’s always good to follow standard SEO practices like using a proper title tag, video description, and tags. Don’t forget to mention important links in the video description. While people do make fun at times of those # hashtags, today, they are a necessity.

4. Collaborate with Fellow You Tubers

If you are looking to build your brand and community on YouTube in a short amount of time, collaboration is the way to go. It is the blogging equivalent of guest posting where you bank on the subscriber base of someone else to build your brand. Reach out to fellow You Tubers in your space and work out an opportunity to get featured on their YouTube channel.

 5. Consistency

Like any other social platform, you need to have a regular posting of videos. Yes, it is a lot of work if you are doing it all yourself, but without the consistency, you will lose your base. YouTubers want fresh content. They want it short, sweet, and to the point. 

6. Interact With Your Video Community

Social media is a two-way street. Your viewers want to interact with your brand. How can you stay in touch with your subscribers? Here are a few ways.

Use the comment section: You can turn comments on or off however if you do allow comments then make sure you respond. If you are busy, you can set up a time when you will respond in a “auto-reply” feature. Be prepared to always get a few of those negative "your videos suck" comments because these trolls have nothing better to do than criticize anyone and everyone except themselves.
 Live Streams: Live streaming like on Facebook or Instagram, has become popular and allows you have live engagement with your subscribers. Try this feature. It is easier to live stream on a smartphone than through the desktop just to let you know ahead of time.

SUMMARY

YouTube is a powerful platform for your business. It takes time, dedication, and consistency to make it work for you. If you do not have the time or staff to engage it, hire a professional to manage the channel for you. In today’s competitive world you are going to see that most YouTube videos are very polished and being produced by young people still in high school or college or have mastered video production and can crank out content better than the major networks. So think about your brand and how you are going to produce the videos.
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-Roy

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​Tags:  #social media #branding #youtube #business marketing