The temptation is to use your YouTube channel as a conduit for simply embedding your videos to your website. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this, you are missing an opportunity! As the second most popular search engine in the world, YouTube offers great opportunities for businesses to reach out and engage with potential customers in new and interesting ways. Not only can you produce interesting content about your service or product, backlinks to your main site can help improve areas such as SEO.

Here are our 10 top ways to make the most of your YouTube channel:

1. Be Clear What Your YouTube Channel is For

Running an effective business channel on YouTube takes a good deal of time and work and you need to have a clear idea what you want to do with it. Getting your strategy right can save producing irrelevant or distracting content that has little or no impact.

2. Do Your Research and Brainstorm Video Ideas

Check out your competitors and other related industries that are visual and engaging with their video marketing, see what kind of things your customers are viewing. Now’s the time to brainstorm ideas and come up with a list for at least the next couple of months. Take a long hard look at your service or product to see what interesting ideas you can come up with. This is where niche businesses can often find it difficult – our advice is to keep at it, you’ll be surprised the number of posts you can generate when you put your mind to it. Break down your service or product offerings to their niche markets and go for it!

3. Brand Your Youtube Channel

As with other platforms, YouTube allows you to brand for your business. Transfer your identity over from your main website and make sure everything matches such as the logo and the description is reflective not just of your business but the purpose of your channel too. Once you start providing engaging content, fans will then be able to recognise your videos more easily and are more likely to subscribe to your channel.

4. It doesn’t have to perfect – real matters more

For regular weekly Vlogs, it may not be feasible to hire a videographer on a weekly basis. By the same token you don’t need expensive hardware to produce great content either. Smart phone cameras can be used to produce videos that pack a good punch, all you need to do is practice and hone your videoing technique. Invest in some easy to use video editing software and you have most of what you need to succeed.

5. Keep it Short

Long videos have their place but you’ll find that short ones (2 minutes or less) will work better and help you to focus the content you produce. Bite sized tutorials are much better than giving all your tips in one go – plus it gives you the chance to develop more content.

6. Create Great Thumbnails

YouTube can generate the thumbnail of your business video for you but it can be better to include your own, branded thumbnails. Not only does this ensure fans spot your videos in search lists but also gives you the chance to create something more attractive than a YouTube random frame choice.

7. Think About Your Titles and Descriptions

As with SEO on your website, titles and descriptions are important. Include relevant keywords to ensure your videos can be found when a potential is searching and make sure your descriptions engage enough for viewers to click on your link.

8. Add Tags to Your Videos

Adding tags to your videos that are relevant to the content and your business creates greater visibility and makes it easier for people searching the site to find your content. Make sure you only select the tags that apply as throwing in too many or adding irrelevant ones can give you a bad reputation and be detrimental to your search results.

9. Keep an Eye on Comments

Engagement is the name of the game, as with everything else online. Keep an eye on the comments section and reply as often as possible to create a bond between your business and your viewers. Even a quick thanks for a comment can make a potential client or customer sit up and take notice.

10. Advertise Your Channel Everywhere

Don’t leave your YouTube channel in isolation. Advertise it on your literature, website and in social media as much as possible, encouraging people to subscribe.

Of course, there is a lot of work involved in developing and maintaining a YouTube channel for your business but the effort is worth it if you want to access a large number of potential customers. If you update regularly with great content then you can build a fan base that will then feed into your website and create more enquiries/sales.