YouTube has become the second-largest search engine in the world. No wonder considering the sheer mass of content: 400 hours of video footage are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Is it worth it at all to become active as founders there? Short answer: yes. Here are a complete explanation and a five-tip tutorial that lets you get started on YouTube right away.
What YouTube pays for
Having your channel on YouTube is worthwhile for the following two reasons:
1. Boost sales
One minute of video content replaces 1.8 million words. With videos, you bring your brand messages straight to the point. Therefore, it is not surprising that video marketing is beneficial. For example, 83 per cent of consumers worldwide prefer YouTube to watch video content. Be careful not to upload promotional videos about your products to YouTube. Also viral are explanatory films, which we will discuss shortly.
2. Increase awareness
One of the biggest challenges for young companies is to draw attention to themselves and their products or services. Classic marketing measures such as advertisements or billboards, devour enormous amounts of money. The social networks are now flooded with postings.
Is it worth it to set up a YouTube channel as a founder? Yes! (Photo: piktochart)
On YouTube, the thing works differently, because users are not only sprinkled there but similar to search Google on the search bar for videos specifically. This is your chance! If you produce your videos in high quality and useful way and correctly tagged, you will become more and more popular in the YouTube universe and beyond the limits of the Internet.
Do I have to be on YouTube?
Video content has an edge over all other content formats (text, images, podcasts). Because our brain loves moving images: 80 per cent of the information recorded by videos is stuck. By comparison, it is only ten per cent of the information it has heard.
So let’s answer this: If you are perceived by your target group online and do not disappear in the sinking or would like to have from the outset horrendous marketing spending – yes, then you should be on YouTube. But do not worry: if you and your staff are camera-shy, you do not have to force yourself to do it. There are also other video formats, which we come in the following guide.
Instructions: Get started on YouTube in 5 easy steps
Do you want to start immediately on YouTube? With these five steps, you succeed.
Create a # 1 account
Sure, that comes as no surprise. However, it is crucial that you carefully create your account from the beginning. Link your imprint, take care of a visually cool header. To create the right dimensions, you can work with Canva. There you will find numerous templates. Also, be sure to link your social media profiles and publish the meaningful text in your channel info, so users know who you are and what your channel is all about.
# 2 Set video formats
Here begins the fascinating part of your work on YouTube. Many users think that videos on this platform only consist of one person in front of a camera. But there are many more possibilities, including explanatory, image and animated films. You can also produce whiteboard videos or fresh motion graphics. But you do not have to spend thousands of euros, but you can use tools. These have a range of cartoon characters or other templates that you can combine with music, text, etc. as you wish.
The audiences you reach via YouTube are probably used to high-quality videos. Be sure to follow this standard! (Photo: piktochart)
Or how about a Q & A series in which you answer questions from your customers about products? Exciting is also interviews with guests who might interest your target group. And that’s where we’ve come in at the heart of the right choice of video formats: the usage habits of your target audience. It depends on which of your videos perform well. It is always about the added value of your viewers.
# 3 Develop a strategy
Whatever types of videos you decide on, their production always involves a lot of effort. This is especially true for real films and even more so for modern 360-degree productions. Although they arrive particularly well and are prominently featured in other news networks by other networks such as Facebook. However, these productions are incredibly time-consuming and resource-intensive.
All of this should be included in your YouTube strategy in advance. Which content do you want to upload and how often? How and in which social media channels should the videos be shared? Do some of them come embedded on your website?
# 4 Do not save on the preparation
The requirements for moving pictures are high. After all, users are accustomed to seeing highly polished, perfectly lit and crisp videos on YouTube. Everything below is negative. In particular, if you target a target audience that has grown up with videos in optical and acoustic top quality. Therefore, from the beginning, pay attention to proper lighting, which includes several light sources such as softboxes and spotlights with tripods.
Continue to take care of excellent acoustics. An interview can be filmed so great. If no or weak microphones ensure that viewers do not understand the conversation or only with reverb, they give away a lot of potentials. There are other questions that are important:
- Where do you want to shoot (location)?
- Do you use one, two or even more cameras? Several perspectives spice up boring image excerpts, for example, in interviews where little visual variety takes place.
- Keep it short. The average length of a YouTube video is 15 minutes. In general, the attention of users has quickly disappeared. So, if you want your videos to be a bit more enjoyable and snackable content, and maybe even go viral someday, you’ll soon be spiced up.
# 5 Places sufficient time for editing and uploading
Video content holds in the high-resolution form (Ultra HD and 4K are now standard) gigantic amounts of data. Depending on the upload speed of your provider, it may take a while for your videos to be online. The cut costs several hours, depending on the effort and needs a trained eye. You will be faster over time, but post-production should not be underestimated.
How are things going after the first one, two videos?
As with any marketing channel, you are working on your YouTube channel is constant. One or two videos will seldom be enough to attract viewers to your channel in the long run. But even if the production is elaborate, do not despair: With your involvement with YouTube, you participate in one of the most popular platforms of our time.
Also, your videos will be indexed on Google Search and will be searchable for years through the video search engine, as YouTube is also known. All this will hopefully motivate you to create fresh video content with practical tips, use cases for your products and many more formats. In the longer term, this will bring you the increasing awareness, reputation, and more sales.