YouTube is still the master of all things video. The platform’s longevity is astonishing in the digital era, where apps come and go like we change underwear. Here are some secrets of its success and how you can steal them for creating a YouTube channel for your own brand.
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1.3 billion current users on the platform
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Every minute, 300 hours of video are uploaded
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5 billion videos are viewed every day
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30 million people hit the site daily
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Average mobile viewing time is more than 40 minutes
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Watch time on YouTube is increasing, up 60% from 2016
Do This – Don’t Do That on YouTube
Getting Started On YouTUbe - The Basics
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Always Focus on Quality
Trust us; it’s better to have one Oscar-quality video on your channel than three embarrassingly poor ones. A large body of work is great, but don’t carpet bomb. Review your video portfolio for short, snappy clips that share useful information or showcase expertise. -
Brand Your Channel
Take time to make your channel visually awesome. Engage subscribers in a professional and cool experience. Branding your channel by adding thumbnails and high-res graphics will help establish your identity and make you more recognizable to subscribers and the casual viewer. So, add a bio and a banner, custom URLs, and graphics, for a snappy yet inspirational look at who you are and what you do. Keep scrolling for more tips on this. -
Collaborate
Work with other YouTube channel owners and Videographers. Reach out to other channels and subscribe, like, and engage with their content. Offer to host their videos on your channel and ask them to reciprocate if you have mutually beneficial brands. This is a good way to build an audience. Getting started on YouTube is all about cross-promotion and networking to build an audience. -
Don't Give it All Away at Once
Hold back a little; meaning, don’t publish all of your videos on the same day. Try to publish solid content regularly, so your followers will start to anticipate your uploads. Set a goal for producing quality content once a month or even more if you can. -
Engage and Respond Often
Engage an audience by responding to comments and suggestions. Listen to feedback and use it constructively. Don’t respond to overly negative comments by trolls, but do engage supportive viewers so that they’ll visit your channel frequently.
Want to use YouTube to get a job? Great idea! Videographer and Film Editor jobs require more than just creating videos these days, though. To keep great videos from disappearing into the clutter of digital media pieces and to retain and gain business, you need to know how to make a YouTube channel pop with great design.
Tips for YouTube Design Success
Mashable suggests some key considerations in making an opening channel page stand out.
They include:
- Leading with an attention-grabbing trailer
- Creating a memorable channel name and clear description
- Selecting a simple, identifiable icon
- Designing attractive channel art
Let's dive deeper into each of these pieces.
Creating an Attention-Grabbing Opening
Get the hook out. You need to post an enticing opening trailer video to grab viewer attention ASAP. Mashable says the best kind is short and gives viewers a clear idea of the kind of content to expect on the channel.
For example, consider leading viewers in with a snazzy “Welcome” video. This shows rather than tells viewers what the tone of the company’s content is going to be and can highlight ongoing programs.
Creating a Great Name
A YouTube channel stands a better chance of succeeding if the intent of its name is clear and memorable. For example, one channel with solid content but brand confusion is the Penguin publishing company's site for young teenagers and kids. The channel banner says “Penguin Teen,” but you can't get to the page by using that term on the internal search engine. Instead, the page's channel name is Penguin Young Readers Group and its opening page lacks any subheads describing the age group for its books.
On the flip side, a great example is Shay and Katilette Butler's YouTube channel Shaytards has attracted well over 4 million subscribers. The YouTube channel began as a lark and so did its memorable name. They describe on its opening page as a “daily video diary” about life in their large Mormon family. Forbes magazine refers to their wacky content as a combination of “cleaned up Osbournes” with a bit of Tool Time.
Using Recognizable Icons
Mashable notes, an icon is a valuable “tiny piece of real estate,” such as Nike's internationally familiar swoosh. Try to create something that's recognizable and in-brand.
Single letters often make good logos, such as the majestic white S on a field of burgundy and overlaid with a tall silhouette of a pine tree that represents Stanford University.
May we suggest hiring one of Artisan's amazing Logo Designers or Branding Experts to help you out?
Designing Stand out YouTube Channel Art
Banners and other channel art should be designed and coded to look good on an array of digital platforms from computer screens to smartphones, according to Mashable.
For an example we like, let's stay with Stanford. They incorporate their logo into their banner art by showing an attractive campus photo of a stately, colonnaded building with beautiful landscaping.
But to heck with getting the matter of configuration right, most YouTubers don't even create a banner. Instead they default to embedding their logos in a standard black rectangle, which seems a bit like wearing your pajamas in public. Don't be like those people.
Tips for Video Content
Now that your channel looks great, what should you fill it with? Memorable, high quality content, of course! Here are 10 tips we've found helpful when it comes to creating a well rounded channel.
10 Video Marketing Tips
- Size Matters
Don't go too long. In this smaller than a goldfish attention spanned market, shorter is better.
Video marketing researchers at Wistia discovered that 85% of people will watch a 30-second (or shorter) video to the end. That number tapers off the longer the video gets. For 2017, 56% of all videos published were under 2 minutes. - Think SEO
Yes, SEO counts even in video. According to moz.com, your own YouTube channel and pertinent keywords can boost your videos’ visibility in a Google search. Because even if you make the coolest video ever, if nobody finds it, it won’t matter. - Get Interactive
Draw the viewer in with a survey, a quiz, a game, or social media buttons for what Nielsen researchers have found to be the all-important share on Facebook. - Be Customer Centric
Social marketing guru Mari Smith reminds us that today’s marketing is all about the relationship. Use videos to build trust and add value to your target audience’s life; don’t just talk about how awesome you are — nobody wants to listen to all that. - Use Video Everywhere
Put great videos on your website, social networks, and in your email campaigns. We've known for the past few years that video boosts engagement, sharing and conversion rates significantly. Hubspot reports the most recent statistics show that video content isn't just effective — the demand for it is growing at an impressively rapid pace.
For example, 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers and 51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI. - Tutorials
A successful video strategy always should be adding value to viewers. There is nothing customers love more than stuff that makes their lives better. Use video tutorials as a way to show rather than tell potential customers how to use your product in ways that benefit them. - Make ‘Em Laugh
Leyl Master Black says people are more likely to engage with and share videos that are funny, which only makes sense. People would rather spend their short attention spans on humor, so ditch the formal and boring and “deliver the data with a punch line,” she says. - Social, Social, Social
We all know by now that people spend tons of time on social media, so make sure your videos are easy to share there, as well as other social media platforms. - Think Mobile Friendly
People now spend more time watching videos on their mobile devices than their PCs, so again, brevity and ease of watching on a mobile device are key. - Hire a Professional
Casual, humorous, sharable, short, mobile…these are all crucial! But customers respond best to videos that are all that and a slice of well-produced cake. In fact, in 2017 Hubspot said 85% of businesses now have internal professionals or in-house resources to produce video (see their latest stats here). So you'd better catch up if you want to get ahead.
A video we love that hits almost all of these notes? "A Conference Call in Real Life" (shown above) by Tripp and Tyler.
The Final Steps to Get Started
Creating solid content — whether homegrown or slickly filmed — and designing a channel page that is well defined are necessary for marketing success when building a brand on YouTube, whether that's for yourself or for a client. Applying a bit of spit and polish to a channel page's design and wording is another essential video marketing strategy.
Once you’ve got your YouTube video channel up and running, you can link prospective clients to it so they can check it out for themselves. Ask people to like, comment, share your posts. Tweet to Artisan @ArtisanTalent and let us know it's up so we can give you some love too!
Looking for a little love for your channel? We can hook you up with some great Videographers and Designers ASAP.
Editor's Note: This post has been revamped from its original version and freshened up for accuracy and timeliness.
