YouTube is the core outlet from where brands can expose themselves to the end consumers, and the better their branding is, the better will be the response rate. It is said that YouTube generates around 800 million views on a monthly basis. It is also said that more than a billion unique viewers go on YouTube on a yearly basis. However, if brands wish to stand out from the crowd and the endless streams of various clips, then they would have to come up with strategies and ways in which they can be discovered easily so that they can attract the attention of the audience. Here are the top 13 ways in which your
YouTube channel can be branded:
1. Adding Overlays
Many people are not aware about adding overlays to videos. While this brilliant resource could not be accessed so easily initially, you can now take advantage of it at anytime. Overlays can be used for sharing information with your users and in promoting your channel and website.
2. Preventing External Ads On Your Videos
You should not have any space for external ads being placed on your videos. That simply defeats the purpose of branding. For this, all you have to do is place a check on the box stating: Prevent ads from showing in my videos on this page. However, this option is important if you want to place your own call to action on your videos.
3. Placing A Check Mark On: Always Take Subscribed Users to the Feed Tab
This option will allow your current subscribers to see whatever comments and videos you have uploaded, no matter if they are on your channel or other channels and videos. The feed tab will help in making sure your subscribers stay in touch with you and get to know more about you.
4. Add a Branding Image to Your YouTube Videos
A great feature by YouTube called Branding will help you to add any high quality brand Image/Logo. This can be done on Youtube videos with a few clicks without having to edit the original video. You have the option to choose to display the logo at the start of the video, somewhere in the middle or even for the entire duration of the video. Also, the logo can be placed in either corners of the YouTube player.
5. Having A Specific Design And Setup For Your Channel
This is a very important step in achieving great branding for your YouTube Channel. You need to make sure that your channel has pleasurable viewing for your audiences along with the relevant company branding, so that you can be recognized easily. More than 6 billion hours are spent watching videos on YouTube each month. This is a huge volume and great news for your business, provided you capitalize on it.
6. Having A Solid Content Strategy
You should have a solid strategy for your content. Around two thirds of the American population watches videos online on a weekly basis. This shows how important it is for a company to have strategies that will keep them in the spotlight and allow visitors to keep coming to them.
7. Choosing An Image For Your Thumbnail
The thumbnail that accompanies your YouTube channel should be given its due importance. This can be done by adding a relevant picture to it. Thumbnails are known to increase the search clicks by as much as 64% among the male population. Among females, thumbnails hold a much larger impact of as much as a 154% response rate!
8. Making Video Tags
Video tags greatly help in increasing the visibility of your videos through searches. There are four varieties of tags that are available:
- Title Tag
- Video Description
- Keyword Tags
- Category Tags
- The total views you have received on your videos
- What the demographics of your viewers is
- The playback locations of your views
- Analysis on what the origin of your viewers is
- The retention rate of your audience
- The amount of likes and dislikes on your videos
- The number of subscribers
- Analysis on comments, sharing, and favorites
- An overview of annotations
9. Analyzing Video Performance Metrics
If you want your video marketing strategy to be successful, then you need to keep refining it. And you can only do a good job at refining it if you keep analyzing the video performance metrics. These metrics could give you insight about a number of different aspects such as:
The Engagement Reports for YouTube will also show you the following:
10. Considering Annotations
If you wish to keep your audience engaged and increase your viewership rate in general, then you should consider making use of annotations. Annotations can help in making the major points as clear as possible and encouraging the viewers to take certain actions.
11. Adding Custom URLs
Custom URLs help in the identification of a brand and this is what brand power is all about. You can now place these URLs on the top right corner of your videos, and this will help in developing a greater potential for a possible click through rate to all of the external sites. Additionally, you can even mention that links to your social media pages such as Twitter, Google+, and Facebook in your description area.
12. Incorporating A Trailer
Having an engaging video trailer can be a great way to attract potential subscribers to your YouTube channel. This trailer could be an ad for your business, letting people know what you are all about and providing an overview of the channel. Thus, this could serve as a perfect welcome message for your potential fans.
13. Posting Regularly
You have to make sure that your viewers do not get bored of you too quickly. And you can ensure this by making sure that you post content on a regular basis. This will help to maintain the channel feed and keep your viewers engaged.
YouTube is a strong platform that will keep coming up with changes, so that it becomes more and more engaging. However, you need to make sure that you keep up with these changes so that you do not get left behind. The one who takes the most advantage can benefit the most out of this. According to a research that was conducted by Nielsen, YouTube reaches many more adults within the United States that lie between the ages of 18 and 34, as compared to cable networks. This means that the platform has a lot of potential for various brands.
