Every day, YouTube users watch over a billion (yes, with a b) hours of YouTube videos, and yet only 9% of small businesses have taken the leap to start their own channel. As YouTube usage continues to soar, it becomes mission critical for businesses without a YouTube presence to jump in.
In this guide, we’ll cover the most effective strategies for building a successful YouTube channel for your brand. Learn how to start a YouTube channel for your business, so you can create and share compelling video content that engages current customers and attracts new ones.
The benefits of having a YouTube channel
Starting a YouTube channel will give you an edge over your competitors. There are also plenty of other benefits, including:
- Leverage a new traffic stream. YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, which makes it a great place to reach people who are looking for visual content that’s educational and/or entertaining.
- Increase brand awareness. Video marketing increases brand awareness by 54% and generates 66% more qualified leads a year.
- Make your content work harder for you. YouTube videos keep driving traffic over time. Once you’ve uploaded a video, it has the potential to perform well for months and years with very little input.
- Build stronger connections. Some 64% of consumers want to connect with the brands they buy from. Having a presence on YouTube helps forge deeper relationships with potential customers.
- Generate trust and loyalty. Video lets you show your audience what your brand is all about rather than just telling them. This proof leads to added trust and ongoing loyalty.
Creating your YouTube channel
Learn how to create a YouTube channel for your ecommerce business with these three quick steps that will establish a foundation for your channel.
1. Name your YouTube channel
Get started by logging into the Google account you want to use to manage your brand’s channel. From there, go to the YouTube channel switcher (where you can see all of your current accounts) and select the “Create a channel” button. On the next screen, choose a name for your channel that best represents your brand and the purpose of your YouTube channel.
Not sure what to name your YouTube channel? The most common route is to simply name your channel after your business. Alternatively, let’s say your channel is going to focus on tutorials in your industry niche. In that case, you could name your channel something that reflects that type of content. For example, Shopify runs a YouTube channel called Learn with Shopify—a channel name that’s branded while simultaneously alluding to the channel purpose.
💡 TIP: It’s wise to use a branded Google account (i.e., attached to your business operations) instead of a personal account to create your YouTube channel. That helps with more than just building brand awareness—it also comes with more benefits later down the line, like the ability for additional channel managers to each have their own login password.
2. Customize your channel’s visual branding
Branding your business’s YouTube channel helps give it a more professional look, which can help support your credibility as a content creator on the platform. It also helps you maintain a consistent visual brand across all of your brand’s touchpoints, which helps develop brand recognition and trust among your target audience.
On your new YouTube channel profile, you have two spots to make your mark visually: Your profile picture and your banner image. You can upload both of those images to your YouTube account’s “Branding” tab, found under the “Channel customization” section.
Choose your profile picture
Your profile picture (also referred to as a channel icon) will initially be linked to your business account’s profile photo, but you can change it to anything anytime.
For example, you may want to use your brand’s logo, a variant, or another image that’s on brand for your business. Keep in mind that, especially when viewed on a mobile device, your YouTube icon may show up as quite small. It’s best practice to choose an image (like a logo) that’s not too visually busy or text-heavy. That way, your icon can be recognizable and eye-catching even at a small scale.
When you’re ready to upload your icon, make sure to format it as a JPG, BMP, PNG, or non-animated GIF, saved at 800 pixels x 800 pixels. Do a quality check after upload: Does your icon display clearly and compellingly at small sizes as both a square and a circular icon throughout your YouTube presence? If not, double check your file formatting and/or choose a different image for your profile picture.
Create your banner image
Adding a banner image (also known as YouTube channel art) is a great way to show off your brand’s personality and create a visually engaging YouTube profile that goes beyond simply your icon. For example, some brands update their banner image periodically to reflect things like sales, seasonal changes, or events.
It’s important to note: Your banner image file should be less than six megabytes and at least 2560 pixels x 1440 pixels for best scaling results on all devices. YouTube will give you a preview of each image to show you how it will be displayed on multiple devices, so you can make changes as needed.
3. Fill out your profile
Switch to the “Basic info” tab of your “Channel customization” section to finish updating your business’s YouTube profile.
Under “Description,” flex your brand voice muscles and give a brief outline of your store, products, and mission. Incorporate any important keywords for your store to help your target audience find you when they search YouTube. This will also help the YouTube algorithm understand what your channel is about and surface it accordingly to the right people.
Below your channel description, you can also choose to link to other platforms from your YouTube channel. For example, you could link to your other social media accounts, your store’s website, or your blog. All of those links will appear as part of your YouTube profile. Most of your profile links will default to showing the platform name and favicon (the small image—often a brand logo—that shows up at the top of your browser when you visit a site). However, the first link in the lineup will also show the link title, so that’s prime real estate for customizing your own call to action (CTA) to drive online store traffic. Keep your link CTA concise at 30 characters or fewer.
💡 TIP: While setting up your profile, it’s a good idea to verify your phone number. That verification gives you access to creating videos longer than 15 minutes, the ability to livestream, and customization options like changing your video thumbnails. To get that set up, go to “YouTube Studio” from your profile icon’s drop-down menu. Select “Settings” from the studio page’s sidebar, and follow the “Channel” tab to “Feature Eligibility” to complete that phone number verification process.
Planning your YouTube content
- Find your YouTube niche
- Identify your target audience
- Create a unique value proposition
- Find and analyze your competitors
- Build a list of video ideas
- Run keyword search
Once your channel is set up, it’s time to start planning and creating video content that attracts and converts your ideal customer.
1. Find your YouTube niche
Your niche is essentially what you’ll become known for on YouTube. For example, if you run a beauty brand, you’ll create videos within that niche—maybe you’ll share some makeup tutorials or answer beauty Q&As.
For best results, go deep by choosing a niche within a niche. Instead of settling on “beauty” in general, could you niche further into sustainable cosmetics or curly hair care? The more you’re able to niche down, the more likely you’ll be able to target long-tail keywords that your audience is searching.
2. Identify your target audience
Who do you want to reach on YouTube? Your target audience should be those most likely to resonate with your content and buy your products. It’s much easier to come up with content ideas, make videos, and promote your brand when you know exactly who you’re talking to.
When identifying your target audience, consider:
- Demographic information, like age, location, gender, income, and educational achievement levels
- Psychographic information, like interests, behavior, challenges, and dreams
3. Create a unique value proposition
Your unique value proposition should bring together your niche and your target audience in a way that makes your brand memorable. It’s essentially the reason why people should watch your channel and what they’ll take away from your videos.
For example, your unique value proposition might be helping women with curly hair tame their locks through easy-to-follow tutorials. Or it might be spotlighting the craftspeople behind the products you make to raise awareness of small communities and traditional manufacturing techniques.
4. Find and analyze your competitors
Who are you up against? Researching what kind of content in your niche is already out there will help you map your own strategy.
More than that, understanding what videos your competitors are creating will help you find your own place in the market.
Run a simple YouTube search using relevant industry keywords to find channels that:
- Share the same audiences as you
- Create content similar to yours
- Have a similar niche or unique value proposition
5. Build a list of video ideas
Now it’s time to start compiling a list of potential video ideas. Start big—you can hone it down later.
Here are some tactics you can use to spark video content ideas:
- Check customer support tickets for FAQs
- Get inspiration from competitor channels
- Stay on top of news in your niche
- Ask existing customers for their feedback
- Check out the trending topics in your niche
Consider what types of video you’ll create. Will you post educational videos that show viewers how to do something related to your products or niche? Will you tell brand stories using beautiful videography and behind-the-scenes footage? Or will you share entertaining videos aimed at making viewers laugh?
Ecommerce gift shop Vat19 specializes in offbeat products, and it’s built an impressive online empire with engaging, highly targeted content. Its YouTube strategy focuses on building absurdist comedy sketches around its wide selection of novelty gifts to introduce new products to its audience. It’s currently sitting at over 10 million YouTube subscribers, so this approach is paying off for the brand.
6. Run keyword research
Ultimately, YouTube is a search engine that uses keywords to determine whether a video will be useful to a searcher. Use a keyword research tool like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to find popular keywords in your niche.
When you know what search terms your target audience are using, you can incorporate them into your videos and content strategy to make sure you’re showing up in the right searches.
Shooting and editing YouTube videos
The good news is, you don’t need to be a pro videographer to make great YouTube videos. In fact, anyone with a smartphone can shoot high-quality footage—with a few extra tweaks on an editing app, you’ll barely notice the difference.
Once you’re ready to start creating videos for your new YouTube channel, here’s what to do.
1. Choose the right equipment
Starting a YouTube channel is relatively cheap—you just need a smartphone and time to start creating. But if you feel limited by the quality of your phone and what you can do with it, consider investing in some videography equipment.
Here’s a list of items you might need to get started:
- DSLR video camera or a smartphone
- External microphone
- Lighting equipment
- Video editing app or software
- Somewhere to store your video files
- A tripod or a portable phone holder
2. Shoot your videos
When it comes to shooting your videos, think about how you’ll frame the content, any scripts you might need, and where you’re going to film. For example, if you film indoors, you might need to consider the lighting more than if you were shooting outdoors in natural light.
Before you set up your camera, consider:
- What you’re going to say in the video (if anything)
- The structure of your video (creating a storyboard helps)
- Whether you need any additional people to feature in the video
- The main message you’re delivering
- Where you’re going to film the footage (Do you need total silence? Will the weather affect your plans?)
- How you’ll organize the footage you capture ready for editing
3. Post your first video
This is where it all starts to come together. Your video is as good as it can be and you’re ready for your audience to devour your useful tips or entertaining content.
Here’s how to upload a YouTube video:
- Click the camera icon next to your YouTube account’s profile picture.
- Select “Upload Video.”
- Select the files you want to upload.
- Give your video a title.
- Add a thumbnail.
- Write a description of your video (include keywords and a CTA).
- Choose the relevant categories your video falls under.
- Once the video has rendered, click “Finish.”
Voila! Your video is uploaded and ready to view.
Growing your YouTube channel
- Get your first 1,000 subscribers
- Build a community
- Consistency is key
- Cross-promote your channel on other platforms
- Collaborate with other creators
- Lean on useful tools
- Learn SEO for YouTube
1. Get your first 1,000 subscribers
Your first 1,000 subscribers are the hardest to get. You have to prove that your channel is worth watching and that you have content that’s relevant to their needs.
Here are some tips for getting your first 1,000 YouTube subscribers:
- Break the goal down into smaller steps, such as aiming to get 100 new subscribers a month.
- Make it easy for viewers to subscribe by adding a YouTube Subscribe Button to your videos.
- Add a YouTube “Subscribe” link in your video descriptions.
- Encourage your newsletter subscribers and other social media followers to subscribe to your YouTube channel.
- Identify which videos get the most views and create more content that taps into those topics or video styles.
2. Build a community
Community is a powerful tool on YouTube. The more people you have vouching for you and your channel, the easier it is to reach more viewers.
Start by optimizing your videos for visibility with relevant keywords and engaging with similar existing channels. You can also poll your audience about what content they want to see, run contests and giveaways to create a buzz, and film series that entice viewers to come back for more.
3. Consistency is key
You don’t need to publish a new video to your YouTube channel every day—that’s impossible with everything else you have to do. Instead, create a schedule that’s realistic and comfortable. For example, you might decide to upload two videos a month, such as one tutorial and one behind-the-scenes sneak peek.
Once you’ve created your schedule, stick to it. Viewers will start to expect and anticipate your next upload, which creates a sense of excitement around your channel. Staying consistent with a YouTube publishing schedule also makes it easier for you to plan where and when you’ll distribute your YouTube videos via other platforms.
4. Cross-promote your channel on other platforms
If you have a decent following on other platforms, like TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, or your newsletter, promote your YouTube channel there.
You can invite your followers on other platforms to subscribe to your YouTube channel by sharing a link in your other social media bios and including a call-out at the bottom of every newsletter. Keep in mind that whenever you promote a social profile, remember to add a link to your website, too.
5. Collaborate with other creators
Take advantage of YouTube’s extensive influencer and creator communities. Identify channels that have a similar audience to yours and reach out to collaborate.
There are plenty of ways you can work with other YouTubers, such as:
- Creating a joint video using clips from both creators
- Running an account takeover on another creator’s channel where you can introduce your brand to their audience
- Sending a product to your chosen creator for them to film an unboxing video or a review
Beauty brand Cosmetips, for example, collaborated with beauty influencer Molly Mae to create this unboxing video—which gave the creator the opportunity to share her curated beauty box with her audience in an authentic way.
6. Lean on useful tools
YouTube tools optimize your videos, helping you more quickly create better content and get your videos in front of the right people.
Here are some must-have YouTube tools we recommend using:
- Video editing software: Use editing software to cut clips together and enhance the quality of your footage. iMovie and Windows Video Editor are free.
- Keyword research tool: Find relevant keywords to create videos about with tools like Google Keyword Planner (free), Semrush, and Ahrefs.
- Performance tools: Track the performance of your YouTube channel and test out different title and description variations with TubeBuddy or Social Blade.
- YouTube Studio: Manage your channel on the go with YouTube Studio, which lets you monitor your performance and organize videos from your mobile device.
7. Learn SEO for YouTube
At its core, YouTube is a search engine. It uses sophisticated algorithms to connect users with the type of content they’d be most likely to enjoy.
While the exact way the algorithm works is kept under wraps, we do know that the following things impact which terms your video will be shown for (and how far up the results page you’re likely to be):
- Keyword research for YouTube. Help YouTube understand what someone will be searching for to find your video with keyword research.
- Optimizing video titles and descriptions. Once you’ve found these keywords, include them in your video title and description. Make the video title, in particular, engaging enough for someone to click through and watch. Click-through rate (CTR) is a known ranking factor in YouTube’s algorithm.
- Using tags and categories effectively. Choose the one category that best fits your YouTube video. If it’s a gaming tutorial, for example, it would be “Gaming.” You can add as many tags as you like (provided they fit within the 400 character limit) to give YouTube’s algorithm more context on what your video is about.
Analyzing your YouTube channel’s performance
You’ve put the hard work into creating YouTube content and growing your channel. Here’s how to determine whether the strategy is working.
Understanding YouTube analytics
YouTube Analytics gives creators the data they need to understand their channel’s performance. To find yours, head to your YouTube Studio and select “Analytics” on the left menu.
You’ll find a wealth of information in this analytics dashboard, including the number of views, impressions, and subscribers you’ve accumulated. You’ll also see how these metrics change over time, comparing your most recent data to historical data. It can give you the bigger picture view on whether your YouTube strategy is working.
Interpreting audience insights
It’s smart to keep an eye on certain metrics in the early stages of a new YouTube channel. They can tell you a lot about your channel, who’s following you, and what’s currently working.
Pay attention to the following insights during your YouTube channel analysis:
- Traffic sources: Where your viewers come from. Was it YouTube search, the suggested videos section, a curated playlist, or the YouTube Shorts feed? Double down on where you’re getting the most traffic.
- Audience demographics: What qualities do your target audience have in common? Once you know their age, location, and interests, you can reverse engineer topic ideas that keep them engaged.
- Channels that they watch: These are creators also watched by your target audience. Use this in market research to remain competitive and know what you’re competing against for your audience’s attention.
Evaluating video performance
YouTube analytics might show that your channel is growing, but to reverse engineer your most popular content (and create more of it), you need to first identify what makes a “good” video, and then what those top performers have in common.
There are specific metrics that help you do this:
- Top ranked: This is your most popular video, be that YouTube Shorts or traditional long-form video content.
- Average view duration: How long the average viewer watches your video for. A low view duration means you’re not capturing their attention; a higher duration means you’re keeping viewers hooked.
- Audience retention: The percentage of viewers who are still watching your video at each point in time. Spot where people tend to drop off and determine why. You should be able to spot (and fix) something to prevent the same happening in future videos.
Advanced YouTube tips to make your channel stand out
- Monetize your YouTube channel with ads.
- Set up Shopping on YouTube to promote your products.
- Add a watermark to your videos to increase brand awareness.
- Enable an automatic subscription prompt on your videos.
- Link info cards to relevant content on your website.
- Incorporate relevant video end screens to increase viewer retention rates.
- Create custom video thumbnails that reflect your unique branding.
- Use other monetization methods like selling merch, digital products, or services.
Start your own successful YouTube channel
Creating a YouTube channel can give you a competitive edge and build trust and awareness around your brand. Take the time to figure out who you want to target and what your unique value proposition will be. Then, come up with video ideas that will resonate with those people.
Once your channel is up and running, you can focus on getting more views and subscribers through monetization methods, creator collaborations, and cross-promoting your channel on other platforms.
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How to start a YouTube channel FAQ
How do beginners start YouTube channels?
- Find your niche.
- Identify your target audience.
- Create a unique value proposition.
- Find and analyze your competitors.
- Build a list of YouTube video ideas.
- Run keyword research.
- Produce your first video.
- Optimize your video when uploading.
- Share your channel.
Is it worth it to start a YouTube channel?
Starting a YouTube channel can be a rewarding experience, but whether or not it is worth it largely depends on your goals and expectations.
Here are some factors to consider:
- Passion. If you are passionate about a particular topic or niche, starting a YouTube channel can be a great way to share your knowledge and connect with others who share your interests.
- Time. Creating quality content for your YouTube channel takes time and effort. If you are unable or unwilling to commit the necessary time, you may struggle to gain traction and grow your audience.
- Competition. YouTube is a crowded platform with millions of creators vying for attention. While this can be daunting, it also means there is likely an audience for any topic or niche you are interested in.
- Revenue. While it is possible to make money from YouTube ads and sponsorships, it is unlikely to be a significant source of income unless you have a large and engaged audience.
How do I start a YouTube channel and get paid?
- Create your channel and set up your profile.
- Find your YouTube niche.
- Identify your target audience.
- Find and analyze your competitors.
- Choose the right equipment.
- Get your first 1,000 subscribers.
- Monetize through YouTube ads.
- Add Shopping on YouTube to your channel.
How much will it cost to start a YouTube channel?
Starting a YouTube channel doesn’t have to cost anything. All you need is a Google account, a smartphone, and free editing software. When your channel starts growing, you might want to invest in some more powerful editing tools, as well as keyword research and analytics tools.