Is YouTube Right For Your Business?

A lot of small businesses do everything they can to take advantage of free online services that, in their own ways, can contribute to their overall search-ability when playing the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) game. Which is why it’s surprising to find that many small businesses aren’t taking advantage of posting regular YouTube content to their own channels. Granted, YouTube may not be appropriate for every business, however, there are many benefits to uploading company videos and we’ll lay out a few of them here.

Before you jump out of the gate: If you upload a video featuring employees featured then you must first obtain their written permission.

Now, you need to establish what you want your videos to achieve.

Are you looking to educate viewers on a new product line or service you are offering?

Do you need to make an informative video to help better explain your business?

Are you creating a promotional contest that will require viewers to take action?

Maybe you’re just creating a goofy video in the hopes that it will go viral?

Lock this down now as it will help you map out the rest of your video and its intended message. It’s a good idea to write out some ideas and discuss the video with other members of your team. If needed, ask your team if any of them have high-quality video cameras, production experience, editing knowledge, etc.

Next, come up with a script and attain how hard or easy it will be to create. Do you need additional actors? Props? Specific locations? Depending on the scope of your vision, you may need to scale some ideas back if working within a limited budget.

Otherwise, once you have settled on a script it is time for production! This will be based entirely on your script and what it requires.

After you’ve shot your scenes it is time to edit them together and whittle down the run-time. YouTube has their own built-in video editor that should serve most purposes but for more advanced work you may need a professional editing program like Adobe Premiere Pro.

Videos should not be longer than 3-5 minutes unless you are giving a lengthy tutorial related to your business, product, or service. Any longer and you run the risk of losing the interest of your audience.

Once your video is ready to upload it is recommended that you create a brand new YouTube account for your business. This way, it will be easier for viewers to find your business through Google searches. The process is fairly straight forward but don’t get confused by the wealth of options you are given. For now, go ahead and simply upload your video.

While YouTube begins processing your video, you will be tasked with entering information about your video. This is where you will fit your SEO-ready keywords and descriptions.

Video Description: Can be as lengthy as needed. The more YouTube knows about your video, the better it will be able to rank it against other similar videos, if any. Make sure your description is at least 200 words.

Video Keywords: This is where things get interesting with Google Search Results. Try and search on Google using a keyword that you plan to use. Note what comes up in your searches. Are any other videos coming up in the results? If so, then it’s a good bet that your video can also rank just as high. If no other videos come up in your search then you have the potential to be the first video people see when they search for keywords that are in your video. This is great because Google prefers to rank YouTube videos higher over most other content. No one is going to read an article about how cute dogs are but they definitely will be more likely to watch a video instead.

But it doesn’t stop here.

After the SEO is primed, the video has been uploaded, and you’ve finished branding your channel to your company’s requirements, then you can start sharing your video via your usual social media channels or even by spending some money on promoting your video to give it a little boost at the beginning.

You can also encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel if you plan on creating more videos. This allows them to be notified the next time you upload a video.

Another idea is to search for articles written by others who may be talking about what you are. Simply ask if they would care to link to your video at the bottom of their article to give readers the option of watching a video. This not only helps boost your views but also increases the likelihood of Google’s search engine ranking your video higher.

All of these factors are used to establish your company’s brand which will, in time, gain clout with your audience who find value in your channel’s content.

If you’d like to talk more about ideas for your YouTube content then please contact us today!