YouTube is a video-sharing and creation platform that has been around for over 16 years. In October 2006, YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion. For businesses of all shapes and sizes, YouTube offers a simple way for people to discover you online when it matters, especially if they’re using mobile devices.
People go to YouTube for entertainment, education, music, and much more. They even go there to research products and services before they buy. This means you can reach people searching for videos similar to what your business offers when they’re searching. This blog post will dive into how to set up a YouTube Channel for your business.
Why Should You Have A YouTube Channel?
As a business owner, you’ve probably played around with the idea of using YouTube for your business, and you may even have 1-2 public videos by now. But are you using Youtube to its full potential, and can YouTube drive conversions in your business?
The answer is yes.
With nearly 14.3 billion monthly visits, YouTube receives more visitors than Facebook, Wikipedia, Amazon, and Instagram. Entering 2023 video should be a key part of any digital marketing strategy as audiences spend an average of 19 hours a week watching videos online. Video is within reach for businesses of virtually any size — team and budget. The data is clear. To succeed, your business needs a solid video marketing strategy.
YouTube as a Search Engine
When we talk about YouTube, your mind most likely categorizes it as a social media platform. This is because people can upload content and interact with other users in similar ways as you would on Facebook, Instagram, or Tik Tok. That being said, although YouTbe is considered a social media platform, it’s most valuable function is its search engine. With over 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, finding what you need would be nearly impossible without some help sorting through all the videos. YouTube’s search ranking system does just that by sorting through many videos to find the most relevant and valuable results to your search query and presenting them in a way that helps you find what you’re looking for. This helpful feature has contributed to the platform’s longevity. Based on a custom Nielsen meta-analysis, a full-funnel YouTube SEO strategy drives 10% higher ROI compared to awareness advertising alone.
How to Create a YouTube Channel
If you’re new to YouTube, you can follow these steps to set up a new channel for your business.
You can connect your channel to a Brand Account if you want to use a different name on YouTube than your Google Account. Learn more about Brand Accounts.
- Log in to YouTube.
- Navigate to ‘channel list’.
- Create a new channel or use an existing Brand Account.
- Create a channel by clicking Create a new channel.
- Create a YouTube channel for a Brand Account that you already manage by choosing the Brand Account from the list. When you select the Brand Account from the list, you’ll be switched over to that channel. If this Brand Account already has a channel, you can’t create a new one.
- Fill out the details to name your new channel. Then, click Create. This will create a new Brand Account.
- To add a channel manager, follow the instructions to change channel owners and managers.
How to Optimize Your YouTube Channel
Once you’ve created a channel for your business, you will want to ensure you are optimizing it as you would any other platform. This includes things such as:
- Upload your picture: We recommend using a company logo for a business channel.
- Upload channel cover: We recommend something consistent with other social media channels.
- Create a trailer for your channel: This can be 30 seconds to 1 minute and is a quick introduction to who you are, what you do, and what people can expect from your videos.
- Write a description: Tell viewers about your channel. This will appear in the about section of your channel and the search results on YouTube.
- Customize your channel URL: A custom URL is a shorter, easy-to-remember URL that you can share with your audience. Your channel must have 100 subscribers and be at least 30 days old. We recommend using something consistent with your other social media platforms.