Knowing channel settings is key to get more views.
You’ve spent time and effort making your web videos, now it’s time to start recouping some of that investment; you need to get them out there in as many places as possible marketing your business. An obvious place to start is setting up a YouTube account.
One of the main points of having a YouTube channel is to get more video views, therefore more recognition for your videos with the search engines and more people heading over to your website as potential customers.
There are a number of tweaks you can make to your YouTube channel settings to help gain subscribers, increase views and thereby give your business a boost in traffic. They are simple steps that you can set and forget. We look at the first three areas below.
YouTube Channel Username
Once you’ve signed up for a YouTube account you need to choose a name for your channel. Sign into your account and your channel page will feature some new My Channel headings along the top, only available to account holders.
Create a username that reflects your brand, is keyword-rich and professional. If you are all about providing videos about yoga for example, keep it simple and go for something like “free yoga videos.”
Channel Type
In Settings you will have the option of creating a “Channel Type” and it will default to “YouTuber”.
Here you should choose “guru” if you are creating a business-based channel. Presumably your videos will be about your business field and your business field is something you know a lot about!
This is an important step that many people miss, because it narrows down the competing field. Most people don’t change the default option, so by choosing “guru” your channel is classified with other “guru” channels; when YouTube awards are given out – like Twenty Most Viewed Videos of the Day, for example – you have more chances of appearing.
Just a note here – if you DO appear in the YouTube awards, take a screenshot of the award notification and post it on your site. It’s another small piece of recognition that gives you an extra does of that precious online commodity called credibility.
Theme And Colours
Remembering the prime objective of getting subscribers and viewers to head over to your web site should already have you thinking along the right lines about choosing your theme and colours. Here you can go into the Advanced Options and change the background image to something that reflects your brand and preferably includes your URL. You can tile your logo, for instance.
Setting up a YouTube account correctly is not exactly rocket science, but it’s amazing how many small businesses don’t take the time to optimise their channel settings. This is a missed opportunity to get as many viewers as possible into the sales “funnel” and your channel search engine-friendly.
Don’t forget to read the second part of this post, covering three more settings tips for your YouTube account.
Doing the simple things, like the YouTube channel settings, well covers about 90% of video-making and marketing. Learn loads more tips like these in the Lights, Camera, Profits! workshop. Just click here for more info.