Create a YouTube channel for your business

Why Is YouTube Essential for Businesses?

What does YouTube represent today?

YouTube has become a can't-miss platform—and that's an understatement. The vast majority of 18-49 year-olds are increasingly abandoning television in favor of YouTube. It's also the second-most popular social media platform, with over a billion hours of video content watched daily.

More than half of all consumers are easily inclined to buy a product or service after watching a YouTube video. So why aren't all businesses on it? Why is YouTube so daunting?

Video marketing isn't an easy task. On one hand, it requires specific skills, and on the other, being in front of the camera isn't so simple. And even if you face that challenge, it's nearly impossible to fully master YouTube. Nevertheless, creating a YouTube account is a necessity today for generating new opportunities for your business.

Video: A Hot Marketing Format

Video is THE format that works. While it has many strengths, its ability to capture users' attention is what's most interesting. Video allows you to stand out and is easy to consume thanks to its visual, engaging format, which makes information effective and simple to transmit.

Because our society is constantly promoting quickly consumable content, video is king in communication. It adapts to any platform, is easily shared (#virality), and sticks in our minds more easily than text because images are processed faster than words.

While other platforms like Dailymotion, social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), and websites also feature video, only YouTube holds the crown for video distribution in both quantity and quality.

YouTube: Part Social Network, Part Search Engine

A question to consider: Can YouTube be considered a social network? Owned by Google, the platform is a true search engine. This means a video's success is driven more by its SEO than by its media buzz, allowing it to be seen by users and stand out from the competition.

You have to consider the algorithm, which means you need to work on the relevance of the topic, use keywords for descriptions and titles, and optimize your entire YouTube channel.

But YouTube also has the characteristics of a social network. You have subscribers, interactions (likes, comments, etc.), and shares. Users can easily interact with one another, so you need to create and nurture a community to thrive on the video platform.

This blend of a search engine and a social network makes it a fantastic tool for businesses looking to find new leads and gain brand recognition.

Key Benefits of YouTube for Your Business

Increase Visibility with Prospects

With the right strategy, YouTube can increase your visibility and attract new leads. Every content marketing strategy should include a YouTube component. It allows you to transform your blog posts into videos and tailor your message to prospects who prefer visual content and don't have a lot of time.

For businesses, YouTube is an opportunity to be present everywhere, in every format. This lets you work on:

• Your brand image as an industry expert with the right message.

• Driving traffic to your website with calls to action.

• Your relationship with prospects by putting a face to your company.

• Your notoriety and presence thanks to its search engine aspect.

YouTube has a high engagement rate because users actively choose the content they want to see, unlike platforms like LinkedIn or Instagram, where posts scroll automatically. That's why YouTube marketing is essential for your business.

Improve Communication Relevance

Video captures and holds the attention of users more easily by creating emotions (especially through storytelling) and builds trust to convince potential prospects. You can create videos for any phase of the marketing funnel and integrate them into your articles, main pages, other social media posts, and newsletters.

Of course, creating a professional YouTube channel requires investment to have relevant communication. You need to put a proper communication plan in place, prepare your schedule and organization beforehand (e.g., creating a framework or writing scripts) and afterward (e.g., editing and integration).

You need both the necessary skills and equipment, as well as a touch of creativity to find interesting and fresh topics. Producing a video is work, so don't hesitate to use it to its full potential across your different communication channels.

Put a Face to Your Company

YouTube is an excellent way to develop your brand image and humanize your company. Videos can convey the atmosphere of your business and make potential prospects want to get to know you better.

Videos create a stronger impression and allow you to:

• Give a glimpse of your office and show a bit more about you, your team, your company, and your projects.

• Use storytelling to share the history of your business and your offerings, and tell your stories in a way that immerses users in your field.

• Show prospects who they'll be working with, highlight the company's areas of expertise, and prove you have the necessary skills.

Use YouTube to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Using YouTube is an opportunity to promote your website. It's a great initial point of contact for a potential prospect, but your videos can also be used as "lead nurturing" content to cultivate interest or build customer loyalty. Ultimately, the goal is for them to become interested in your site's content.

You have several options to boost audience engagement and drive traffic to your website. You can:

• Create a thumbnail for subscriptions to make it easier for users to follow your content.

• Use the "information" icon (the small 'i' in the top right corner of videos) to redirect to another video or one of your web pages.

• Place a CTA in your video descriptions and encourage users to check them out.

• Add an end-screen and CTA to direct people to your latest videos or blog articles.

How to Create a Professional YouTube Channel

Prerequisites for Starting Your Channel

For your YouTube videos to be an effective growth lever for your business, you need to consider several factors before creating your professional channel. These include:

• Defining your target audience to choose coherent video content based on their needs and problems.

• Choosing your objectives for the channel (e.g., boosting visibility, gaining prospects, building your brand).

• Identifying your internal needs (e.g., Do you have the necessary video skills? Do you have the right equipment? What is your budget?).

• Creating your communication plan for YouTube (e.g., a publishing schedule with topics and video types).

Creating Your Professional YouTube Account

If you already have a Google account, you can skip this step. If not, you'll need to create one. This is the key that will allow you to create and manage your professional YouTube channel.

A Google account automatically gives you a personal YouTube account. But be careful—what you want is a brand account. To do this, go to your YouTube account page and click "Create a channel." From there, you can choose your name, appearance, and administrators.

Configuring Your Professional YouTube Channel

Now it's time to take control of your channel. In your dashboard, you'll have access to a "Customization" area that lets you optimize your channel using the "Layout," "Branding," and "Basic info" tabs.

This is where you can update your logo (98x98 pixels), your banner image to showcase your brand identity (minimum 2048x1152 pixels), and fill in your general information, including keywords, social media links, website, and contact details. You can even add a channel trailer in the "Layout" tab.

Posting Your First YouTube Video

To publish your first video, click the "Create" button in the top right corner of the screen, select "Upload videos," and follow the instructions.

Remember to work on your video thumbnails to capture users' attention, as this is essential for getting views.

Optimizing Your Videos and YouTube Channel

Working on Your Professional YouTube Channel's SEO

To improve your YouTube SEO, you can apply the same best practices as on Google. The goal is to improve the ranking of your videos so users see your thumbnails and are encouraged to click. To achieve this, it's important to work on your keywords for titles, descriptions, tags, and more, which the algorithm will use to push your content to your target audience. Of course, the goal isn't to cram as many keywords as possible into your descriptions, but to make them engaging.

You can also add subtitles, which not only help people watch without sound but are also appreciated by search engines. Another pro tip is that video annotations can also improve your SEO, and video lengths should be specified. YouTube Adwords exists if you want to complement your SEO with paid ads that appear at the beginning of videos or on the side.

Promoting Your Videos and Engaging on Your Channel

Once you've promoted your YouTube videos by boosting your SEO, you can use your other social media channels to increase their visibility and engage your audience. You can do this by:

• Sharing video links on your social media accounts.

• Encouraging your colleagues to talk about your videos.

• Uploading your videos directly to other platforms without a link and adapting to their specific codes.

You can also use your newsletter to promote your videos by embedding them directly. And don't forget to use them on your web pages, blog articles, and web stories by embedding them in your YouTube descriptions. It's crucial to create synergy between your different content types. To further boost your channel and encourage interactions, YouTube Shorts are an excellent solution for highlighting your longer content and attracting an audience that might not have the time to watch your full-length videos.

Choosing KPIs to Analyze Your YouTube Videos

To analyze the efforts you've put into your business's YouTube channel, you can start by using YouTube Insight. It works similarly to Google Analytics and is available through your YouTube account. You can use it to help manage your YouTube strategy, and your broader marketing strategy, with the information you gather about your target audience.

Other metrics to consider are found in YouTube Studio (click on your logo in the top right) where you'll have access to your dashboard. From this dashboard, you can see your "Analytics data" in the left sidebar. You'll see three analytical data sections:

• Overview: A summary of your performance, including:

1. Views: The number of times a user has watched your videos. ‍
2. Watch time: The amount of time your audience has spent watching your videos. ‍
3. Subscribers: The number of people who have subscribed to your channel and are following your content.

• Content: A view of how your audience finds and interacts with your content, including:

1. Views: Again, but this is broken down by content type (videos, shorts, live streams, posts). ‍
2. Impressions: The number of times your video thumbnails have been pushed to users on YouTube, also by content type. ‍
3. Click-through rate (CTR) per impression: The number of times users have clicked on your video thumbnails. ‍
4. Average view duration: The average number of minutes watched per content piece.

• Audience: Includes regular viewers (those who watch your content regularly), unique viewers (those who have watched your content once), and subscribers (those who follow you).

By clicking on "see more" for each of the three tabs (Overview, Content, Audience), you'll access a list of more advanced information about your audience. To learn more about YouTube KPIs, research the basics of YouTube analytics.