YouTube is a treasure trove for small businesses, filled with all kinds of would-be customers. In 2022, 27% of video marketers invested more in YouTube than any other platform. 

This post explores the rudiments of creating great YouTube videos for small businesses.

Knowing Your Audience

To make a high-performing YouTube video, know your target audience and what they care about.

• If you’ve already been uploading videos, use YouTube Analytics to track your audience demographics and engagement.
• Use Typeform, Survey Monkey, or YouTube Studio’s poll creator to gather viewer feedback on the content they want.
• If you’ve not uploaded a single video on YouTube, simply create your ideal customer’s avatar

The more you know about your audience, the better you can create videos they will love.

Set Up Your YouTube Channel

Creating a YouTube channel for your small business is straightforward. Start by going to www.YouTube.com.

Tap on your profile picture. A drop-down menu appears. 

On that menu, a button says, “Create a channel”. Click on it.

Now enter your channel’s name, profile picture, and unique handle. 

YouTube users like to engage with real people. Use your name and picture or your business name and logo if you’re not the face of the brand.New business on a budget? Use a free logo maker for a professional-looking logo.

Next, add a channel description to let people know about your channel. Click “Customize channel” to do this.

On the YouTube Studio homepage, click “Basic info” and write a clear, concise channel description that includes keywords.

Further, customize your channel’s layout and design to match your brand. According to Attrock, you can create yourself by using simple graphic creation software like Canva, Adobe Express, or PicMonkey.

Need to be more crafty? Hire a skilled graphic designer. 

Create a YouTube Content Strategy

A simple YouTube strategy saves time and increases success.

Here are some things to consider when planning your YouTube video strategy:

• Define your goals and objectives. What do you want to achieve with your YouTube channel? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, earn from ads, drive website traffic, or sell online courses? Once you know your goals, deciding which videos to prioritize is easier. 
• Establish a unique brand voice and style that aligns with your target audience and brand values. Maintain consistency across all videos.
• Create a content calendar to stay on track and publish new videos regularly. Consider your target audience, buyer’s journey, competition, YouTube, seasonal trends, and schedule.

Note: You need 1000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time to earn from YouTube ads. This usually takes a few months. Be patient and explore other YouTube monetization alternatives in the meantime.

How to Create Compelling YouTube Videos for Small Businesses

Now comes the fun part: creating engaging videos that captivate your audience. Here are 7 tips for creating compelling video content with real business value:

Choose the right video format. Choose the suitable video format (tutorial, testimonial, vlog, demo) for your target audience and business objectives. For example, product demos for products and tutorial videos for services. Craft attention-grabbing titles and thumbnails. Your title and thumbnail are the first things potential viewers will see, so make sure they’re eye-catching and relevant to your video content.

Write a well-structured script. Your video script should be clear, concise, and informative and include a CTA to your products or services. Make it engaging to keep viewers interested throughout the video.

Use high-quality video and audio. Your video should be well-lit and shot with a high-quality camera.  Natural light is often best, but you can also use artificial light to create a more professional look. The audio should also be clear and free of background noise. 

Be yourself and let your personality shine through in your videos. Tell stories that your audience can relate to and offer valuable information and insights that your audience can 

Plan your shots. Before you start filming, take some time to plan out your shots. This will help you capture the needed footage and avoid wasting time and energy on unnecessary shots.

Shoot in multiple takes. Don’t be afraid to shoot multiple takes of the same scene. This will give you more editing options and help you capture the perfect shot.

The Best Filming Equipment for YouTubers

Your choice of filming equipment makes a big difference in the quality of your YouTube videos. According to successful YouTubers, here are the best equipment for filming YouTube videos:

• Cameras: A good camera is essential for capturing high-quality video. Some popular cameras for YouTubers include the Canon EOS Rebel T7i, Canon G7X Mark II, and the Sony a6300. 
• Microphones: A good microphone is essential for capturing clear audio. Popular microphones for YouTubers include the Rode VideoMicro, the Audio-Technica AT2020, and the Blue Yeti.
• Tripods: A tripod is essential for keeping your camera steady and preventing shaky footage. Some popular tripods for YouTubers include the Joby GorillaPod SLR Zoom, the Manfrotto Befree Live, and the Velbon Sherpa 200.
• Artificial lights: Artificial lights can help improve your video’s quality by providing more evenly-distributed light. Popular lights for YouTubers include the Neewer 60W Dimmable LED Video Light, the Aputure Amaran AL-H198, and the Godox SL60W.
• Lens: A lens improves video quality by widening the field of view, zooming in, or blurring the background. YouTubers lean towards the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM, the Sony SELP18-200mm f/3.5-6.3, and the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 II ASPH Power O.I.S.

It is important to note that the best equipment for you will depend on your specific needs and budget. Do some research and read reviews to find the best equipment for you.

Optimize Your YouTube Videos for Search 

YouTube is a social media and search engine with over 2B monthly users. Optimize your videos for search with keyword research on Google Trends, Semrush, and YouTube Autocomplete.

Incorporate these keywords naturally in your video titles, descriptions, and tags.

To further optimize your videos and overall YouTube channel:

• Use RapidTags or Hashtagify to create a list of relevant tags for your topic. 
• Use annotations and captions to provide additional context and make your videos accessible.
• Encourage audience engagement by asking for likes, comments, and shares, as these interactions signal to YouTube that your content is valuable.
• Be consistent and stick to a regular publishing schedule.

Analyze and Improve Performance

As you continue to publish YouTube videos, you’ll have more analytical data to work it. Monitor your YouTube analytics regularly to track views, watch time, likes, comments, and shares. You get insights on what works and what doesn’t from numbers and trends. 

Make sure to:

• Identify top-performing videos to understand what resonates with your audience.
• Test different strategies to improve your results.
• Listen to your audience and make changes based on their feedback.

It’s only up from here. 

Finally!

Remember to have fun, be creative, and stay true to your brand’s unique voice. Best of luck on your YouTube journey!

The post YouTube Marketing Made Easy: Simple Step-by-Step Guide for Small Businesses appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

In the world of social media marketing—planning needs to become your best friend if you want to find the success you’re looking for.

We’re not talking about just getting tons of followers… we’re talking about those YouTube videos that make SALES.

And the only way to make those sales is to publish the videos that drive viewers to your landing pages. That’s where your content calendar comes in.

If you don’t have a content calendar, you’re going to find yourself confused and unsure of what’s on your plate really quickly. This strategy might work for a little bit but after a while, you’re going to realize that scalable strategies are where it’s at.

Having a content calendar is going to give you a roadmap of what’s on your plate this month and when you should be promoting what offer. It’s going to be one of the biggest reasons you’re getting more than followers, you’re making SALES! And isn’t that why we’re making YouTube videos in the first place?

So let’s dive into how you can create a content calendar for your YouTube strategy that makes your life as a business owner, agency, or marketer sooo much easier.

Here are the 5 steps to creating your YouTube content calendar.

#1: Choose your upload schedule

How often are you going to upload videos?

There are a lot of different schedules you can choose for your YouTube strategy, and there isn’t necessarily one right answer. It just depends on your industry and your team.

For example, a YouTube vlogger can’t expect to get much pay-off from uploading one video a month. For their industry, viewers want to have constant contact with their favorite vloggers and they’ll want to see them as much as possible. Uploading 3 videos per week is a good start for a vlogger.

On the other hand, if you’re an agency owner posting about marketing strategies—you can post one GREAT video per week. Or, if you’re feeling like an overachiever, you can post 3 times a week.

That brings us to the second part of choosing your schedule: your team. If you are a one-person show, make sure your YouTube schedule is realistic. For example, if you need to do all of the work within your agency and shoot, edit, and upload 3x YouTube videos a week—that might lead to biting off more than you can chew.

If you have a 10-person team and you know that between two of your team members they could handle a posting schedule like this, then green light your way to a 3x per week posting schedule.

Decide what schedule works best for your industry and your team and then decide what days your videos are going to live. It could be every Tuesday, or every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Whatever works best for your audience and your schedule.

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#2: Choose the topics you’ll make your videos about

Bet you weren’t surprised to see this task on your content calendar to-do list. That’s right, the second thing you need to create a content calendar is…content.

Sit down and figure out what content works best for your audience right now. You’re going to want to come up with as many content topics as you need to create videos on per month (and maybe a few extras in case one topic doesn’t end up working out).

For example, if you’re posting 1 video per week each month you need 4-6 content ideas. You can either come up with all of these ideas in one brainstorming session each month or come up with 12+ ideas at once so you have 3 months of content ready to film.

But WHERE do you find content topics that your audience will be interested in watching?

• Quora: Search for questions related to your industry and create videos that answer those questions
• AnswerThePublic: Search for your industry and look for questions you can answer in your videos
• Ask your customers: Send out surveys on what content your customers want from you and look through customer feedback for questions that come up often
• Facebook groups: Read through Facebook group posts related to your industry to see what your customer avatar is struggling with
• YouTube: Search YouTube to see what content is doing really well in your niche and figure out how you can make what they have even better

With your upload schedule and content topics in hand, it’s time to whip out your upcoming product launches, promotions, and offers to make sure your content is in line with what you’re selling at the time.

#3: Put your product launches, promotions, and new offers in your calendar

If you’re wondering where your YouTube video topic ideas went—we’ll come back to them in the next step.

First, we want to make sure your upcoming product launches, promotions, and new offers are in your calendar so we know when you’re going to need your content to support certain products or services you offer.

This is the time to put everything in your calendar on the DAY that it is going to launch. You want to have the day your new product is launching, the day you’re going to announce a new promotion, and the day you’re going to talk about a new offer.

It’s important that you have each of these dates because we’re going to work your YouTube videos around these promotions so that your content feeds into everything you’re running at that time.

#4: Put your YouTube video content ideas into your calendar

Alright, now for the part that you probably thought was coming first in this article—putting your YouTube content in your calendar. Now that you have all of your launches, promotions, and offers in your calendar it’s easy to tell what content topic should go live each week.

For example, if we’re running a promotion on our Social Media Mastery Course in the middle of the month, we want to post a social media marketing related YouTube video that week so we get more traffic to that offer.

See what we’re doing here?

Your YouTube strategy isn’t just there for views and followers, you want to be using YouTube as an asset to getting more sales in your business. By pairing your YouTube content calendar with your promotions calendar you’re creating a cohesive calendar that fits together like peanut butter and jelly.

#5: Choose the dates you’ll promote your YouTube videos

Last but not least, your content calendar needs to have the dates that you’ll be promoting your YouTube content as well.

For example, if your schedule is to post YouTube videos on Tuesdays, then you’ll want to be promoting that video on Monday and Tuesday each week.

• On Monday you’ll talk about how it’s going to be live tomorrow and ask your audience to turn their post notifications on so they know when your video is live on YouTube
• On Tuesday, you’ll be reminding your audience that your video just went live and giving them the link to check it out

You want these dates in your calendar so you can SEE what you’re promoting and on what day. This means that when it’s time to promote a video, you’re not stumbling to get your promotional assets together—you’re good to go and can sail smoothly through the day. The reason content calendars exist is to make our lives as content creators easier. Use a YouTube content calendar to fit your YouTube strategy into your entire marketing strategy and to make sure you stay on track with your uploading schedule.

The post How to Create a Content Calendar for Your YouTube Strategy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.