How to Create and Optimize Your YouTube Channel [2020]

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Transcript:

Did you know YouTube is the second most popular website right after Google?

Or that 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool? — up from 63% over the last year.

What about that 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of a video?

Do you see where I’m going with this? If videos and YouTube are not included within your marketing strategy, then you need to stop, regroup, and re-strategize because you are missing out on a large audience who can become part of your growing community and whom you can convert into paying customers.

Videos are not going anywhere, if anything more and more people would rather watch a video online – either through their phone or computer than read a piece of content. So if you’re not using this strategy, you need to jump on this now!

I can be confident in saying that you enjoy watching videos online either for leisure or education, I know I do. As a matter of fact, why don’t you share some of your favorite business channels below so I can go check them out later. Let’s engage and grow together and support one another. Maybe after watching this, you can come back and add the link to your very own channel.

My goal with this video is to help you with the first step of this process by getting you started with your own YouTube channel and make sure you set it up properly and completely.

My name is Marli Espinales and I am the Internet Marketing Director of Clicc Media Inc, where we help dentists and other service-based businesses grow online through web design and online marketing efforts.

Before we get started make sure you subscribe to this channel, that way, as I release more content like this you’ll get notified.

Now that you have done this, we’ll get into it.

There are three main steps to get your channel up and running so you can start uploading those informational videos. The first two are rather quick and the third one gets a little more in-depth.

Create a Gmail Account

Your first step is simple, your YouTube channel is associated with a Google account, so if you don’t already have a Gmail for your business, go ahead and create one right now.

You can go to youtube.com, click the “sign-in” button in the top right corner. From there, you’ll land on the Google sign-in page where you’ll click “more options”. Then click “create account”.

I’m not going to walk you through those next steps because it’s pretty self-explanatory at that point.

Create your Channel

Your second step will be to create your actual channel. Make your way over to YouTube’s homepage and click your avatar icon on the top-right corner of the screen.

From the drop-down menu, click where it says “Create a Channel”. A pop-up window will show and it says “Your creator journey begins here”, click where it says “Get Started”.

From there you will have two options, one to use your personal name and the second to use a custom name. I would suggest using your custom name because this is a business YouTube channel that you are creating.

Once you select that option you’re going to see where it says “Create your Channel Name”, here you’re going to add your business name and click “Create”

Pretty simple right? Now that your youtube account has been created, the next steps will quickly guide you on how to fine-tune your channel to attract the attention of not only viewers but search engines as well.

Optimize Your Channel

Step three is to optimize your channel. This can be sometimes an easy thing to overlook as many businesses just want to jump into uploading as many videos as possible but the “About” section of your channel can be a great way to make a personal impression on viewers and subscribers, as well as guide them to your other social media channels and website.

So go to “Your Channel”, click on “Customize Channel”, and complete as much information as possible.

We’ll skip over the “Layout” tab right now and I will tell you why in a bit.

So in the meantime let’s start with the “Branding” tab, for the profile picture, I advise you upload your logo. If your logo contains an icon, maybe just upload that itself so it stands out more – sometimes depending on the length of the text on the logo, it might be too small to read and distinguish when it’s shrunk down to the avatar size.

Next, you’ll want to upload a banner image. Most times practices such as dental offices and law firms will upload an image of their team – that works fine, as long as it’s positioned properly to be seen on both mobile and desktop. If you want to get more creative and add an image with some text and a call to action. You can always use Canva to help you do this.

If you haven’t heard of Canva before, it is a graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics and other visual content. They have a free version and you can upgrade to their premium to use extra features if you’d like. The great thing about Canva is the ability to select their preset layouts, so you can go look for the “YouTube Channel Art”, the dimensions are already set for you and from there you can use any of their free images or upload your own to create your banner.

Once you have added your banner image to your channel, you’ll want to add your video mark. You can add a subscribe now image or your logo icon. The subscribe now icon can work to attract your viewer to want to click and easily become a subscriber which is something I recommend more often than not. You can easily Google this icon and use it for your channel.

Next, we’ll click on the “Basic Info” tab, and this part is important.

Let’s begin with your “Channel Name”, put your business or brand name, as this will become the URL of your YouTube channel. Ideally, you want to keep it consistent with the handles from your other social media accounts.

Next move on to your channel description. This doesn’t have to be complicated, a brief welcome message and mission statement with an outline of the services you focus on, and then wrap it up with a call to action that can entice viewers to want to learn more about you and your services. Keep in mind that this section is not meant for you to stuff keywords, stay away from this old SEO tactic, it will do you no good – write for your audience and not the search engine. Whatever you do, just don’t leave it blank.

Then you’ll move down to your links section – here you should add your website URL first. Remember, you want to connect this business channel to your actual business website. After that, add any other links that are important to your business, most practices add their Facebook link, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Yelp and so forth. Keep in mind that you have a max of 5 links you can add, so make sure to prioritize importance.

For the links on the banner option, I select the option that will allow me to show all the links I have added. So if I only added two links, then I will select the “First 2 Links” option. So select the one that matches your input.

For “Contact Info” add your business email where you want all leads to go. Make sure there is someone constantly checking this email or you might let some leads or connections fall through the cracks.

Then click Publish and you are set!

Now going back to when I mentioned skipping the “Layout” section. The reason is if you haven’t uploaded any videos to your channel you can’t set this up just yet.

But when you do, I would recommend that the “Channel trailer for people who haven’t subscribed” is a welcome video by the head person of your practice and where you introduce your team and give them a tour of your business. So if you’re at a blank on where to start with your first video, start with this.

Now that your channel has been created and information has been added, you can begin uploading your videos to start sharing your knowledge of the industry and introducing ways your audience can be helped with in-depth “How-to” and “Did You Know” videos.

Keep this in mind though, when you upload your videos, you’re going to want to take the time to optimize the information just like you did for your channel so you can begin gaining views, likes, comments, and shares to help your video grow in rankings. I actually released an in-depth video that will walk you through the best steps on how to accomplish this so make sure you watch it right after you’re done with this one.

Now that we have reached the ending of this video, you should have no issue in setting up your YouTube channel and if you come across any confusion, just leave me a question below and I’ll help you through the steps even further.

I want to thank you for sticking around till the end and I will ask one final thing of you if you enjoyed the information on this video hit that “Like” button below because that will let me know that you did and that you want more content like this.

See you next time everyone for some more marketing tips.