How to Use YouTube Correctly for Your Business

Second to Google in searches and third in worldwide website popularity, YouTube has the potential to help your business. Since 57 per cent of Canadians have watched content on the site within the last 24 hours, and many were checking out a video for or related to something they were interested in buying, businesses need to be available and helpful on this site.

First, customize your YouTube channel to match your brand. Add your logo, contact information, header links, and write a channel description using keywords. Create playlists to help your visitors find the videos they’re searching for.

When you create videos for your business, keep your viewers in mind, and don’t limit yourself to videos that relate directly to your product or business. Use a keyword in the video’s filename and drive people to your website with a CTA. You can edit a video after it’s been uploaded, and you want to optimize it so it can be found in searches.

Share your videos, review their analytics, and get to know your viewers. YouTube is a powerful asset for businesses, and you can learn more about how to use it well in the infographic below.

Why Should Your Business Use YouTube?

• YouTube is second only to Google as the most popular search engine
• YouTube is the third most popular website in the world, with over a billion unique visitors each month
• Using YouTube for your business has the potential to:
  • Improve your search engine rankings
  • Energize current customers
  • Attract new customers

• A Study by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group on Canadians’ consumption of online video

  • The last time video content had been viewed on YouTube by people in the survey:
    • In past 24 hours: 57%
    • Within the past week: 25%
    • Within the past month: 9%
    • More than a month ago: 8%
    • Never: 12%
  • 29% watched a YouTube video for or related to something they were interested in buying in the past month. Of those:
    • 42% were female
    • 58% were male
    • 46% were 12–30 years old
    • 39% were 30-49 years old
    • 15% were 50 or older
    • 45% searched YouTube in the past month for videos related to a hobby or interest
    • 46% reported seeing a short video ad before the most recent video they watched. Of those:

How to Organize Your YouTube Channel

• Customize and stay on brand
  • Change the appearance settings and background color to match your company’s colors and branding
  • Add your logo to be easily recognizable
  • Change the layout in the “Featured” link
  • Allows you to determine how your channel shows up to others

• Include your company’s name, address, and phone number (NAP)

  • Helps customers find you when you include contact information
  • Shows potential clients that your company is legitimate
  • Improves where your company appear in search results

• Header Links

  • Add header links to:
    • Main website
    • Social profiles
    • Authoritative sites
    • Sister channels you may run
  • Up to 14 header links, use them all if possible and relevant to the content

• Channel Description

  • Fill out a keyword-rich description for your channel
  • Use related semantic keywords but don’t make it too spammy
  • Describe a brief overview of your channel for new users

• Create sub-playlists

  • YouTube gives you the ability to create multiple playlists under one channel
  • Separate your channel into a sub-list of topic ideas and create a playlist for each
  • This gives users a better navigation option for viewing content.

Characteristics of Successful YouTube Videos

• Types of videos you can make
  • Focus on the content your clients, prospective clients, or fans are looking for
    • Tips and information people can use for their business
    • Video testimonials
      • Proven to be more convincing than written testimonials
    • An office tour
      • Show a behind-the-scenes look at an event
      • Provide video biographies of people in your business
      • Interview leaders in your industry
  • Don’t limit yourself to videos that relate directly to your product or business
    • This is especially important if you’re in an industry that’s hard to get people excited about your product or service.

• Uploading your video

  • Video file name
    • Use the keyword in the video’s filename
    • For example: If you wanted to rank for the keyword “YouTube Tutorial”, you’d want to name your video youtube_tutorial_video.mp4
• Videos can drive people to your website
  • Viewers are more likely to visit your website if they know what a product’s benefits are
  • End video with a CTA and your website’s URL for more information
  • Also, offer up a valuable piece of information like a guide or ebook to direct traffic to your website.
• Video Length
  • By default, YouTube videos can be up to 15 minutes in length
  • For longer videos, follow these steps:
    • 1: Go to the video upload page
    • 2: Click on “increase your limit”
    • 3: YouTube will prompt you to verify your account with your mobile phone
    • 4: Make sure your browser is up to date for uploading larger files

• Editing in YouTube

  • The “Edit video” mode allows you to:
    • Improve video quality
    • Change your video style
    • Adjust lighting
    • Blur faces (when necessary)
    • Correct shakiness
    • Use annotations to add links to videos, channels and playlists
    • Add royalty-free music
    • Splice together clips from multiple video.

Optimize Your Video

• Use video keywords in your title and descriptions
  • Use keywords that have YouTube results on the first page of Google, these are called video keywords
  • Google tends to use video results for these types of keywords:
    • How-to keywords (“how to create a YouTube video”)
    • Reviews (“Makeup review”)
    • Tutorials (“Setting up a Blog Post”)
    • Funny videos (“Cute animals”)
• Write a keyword-rich description beneath the video.
  • Include your keyword 3-4 times
  • Include your primary keyword in the first 25 words
  • Make the description at least 250-words (longer is better)
  • Entice users to sign-up to an email list or product page.

• Share Your Video

  • Post your videos on all of your social media channels
  • Remind viewers and key influencers to share your video.

Review Your Videos Analytics and Reports

• YouTube has built-in reports that measure how your content is performing
  • Click on “Analytics” next to the Video Manager tab on your channel’s homepage
  • View specific stats and information on your viewers

• Check out your:

  • Top 10 watched videos
  • Demographics
  • Playback locations

• Click the “Statistics” link below each video to see brief demographics of your audience members:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Location.

Conclusion

YouTube serves as the second most popular search engine and is a powerful asset for companies. Use these tips to properly use YouTube in your content marketing to drive engagement and conversions.

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