Digital Marketing Agency | Barracuda Digital

More and more of consumer time is spent online. And more and more of that is spent watching online video.

But there’s been a lag in the amount of TV ad money that has made the shift to online.

Google recently debuted findings at the IAB Digital Video Conference of some research which looked into what the barriers were slowing that shift, and how they were finally giving way.

The research used focused groups of individuals in both agency and client teams, and asked them questions about what they’d been up to in the last 12 months. The full findings are here, but here’s a brief overview.

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In the dark old days, if you wanted to find out what people were into, their likes, interests, desires and hobbies, you had to do some quantitative surveying or qualitative focus groups.

With the advent of YouTube, lots of this data is revealed by analysing what people watch, like and share.

YouTube have now opened this up to anyone with the launch of YouTube Trends.

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Most businesses are cottoning on to the idea of having a YouTube channel. YouTube on it’s own is the 2nd biggest search engine. Watching video online is one of the web’s most popular activities. Engaging customers through video is a natural extension for almost any business.

An effective YouTube channel takes more than just adding a load of support videos onto your own user channel. Take the following steps to make your channel stand out from the crown

1. Customise your background Image

This is the easiest and biggest step you can take to improve your YouTube channel. The background image can’t be bigger than 256 kilobytes and looks best when 2000 pixels high by 1500 pixels wide.

The content in the middle of the page is 962 pixels wide, so bear that in mind that that part of your image will be covered.

If you’re making a “frame” to fit your content, keep that measurement in mind.

Log into your channel and Click on “show advanced options” under ‘My Channel’ and ‘Themes and colours’ to upload your new background image.

Here’s a example of a channel with a great background image.

2. Choose the right palette

The important thing here is to tie your background image into your colour scheme. Ultimately, make sure your page is very easy to use, and that the text is easy to read.

The palette options are again within the ‘themes and colours’ section of ‘my channel’. Move through to the advanced options to enter a hex triplet.

3. Highlight your best work

If you do nothing YouTube shows your most recent video in the main “Featured” window on your channel page. If your most recent video isn’t the best example of your channel’s content you can set another video to occupy that slot.

Just go to ‘my channel’ and then ‘video and playlists’ and find the ‘featured video’ menu drop down – just choose one from the list, or paste in the URL of the video.

4. Choose great thumbnails

A thumbnail is a small but immediate preview of your video, so it’s important to choose one that entices the user to watch.

To change the thumbnail choose ‘my videos’, and find the video you want to amend. Click ‘edit’ and scroll down to choose the 3 thumbnails to choose from. Once you’ve decided just click save.

5. Don’t forget Channel Tags

Tags help people find your channel content, and help it rank for relevant searches. Take time to tag it with the most relevant keywords.

Just go to the “My Channel” menu and select “Settings.”

6. Read & Respond to your Comments

Your YouTube channel should be at the heart of your Social Media Project, and that means having a conversation with your audience. So when they do decide to comment, make sure you take note and respond.

You also need to delete spammy comments so that your page doesn’t look neglected.

7. Recent Activity Module

Add the “Recent Activity” module to your YouTube page – this shows your users what you’ve been up to lately.

If you like or favorite a video on YouTube, this action will show up in your “Recent Activity” as well as the “Recent Activity” box of the content creator.

This is a great way to boost traffic since video owners who’ve been liked or favourited tend to click through and take a look at your content in return.

8. Try the Moderator Tool

Asking a question or calling for a suggestion using the ‘moderator’ tool is a good way to engage your viewers with your content.

There’s another way to engage your audience via your channel. You can ask questions, call for suggestions or start a discussion through the “Moderator” tool.

You can find this within your “My Channel” settings under “Modules”. Just check the “Moderator” box to bring up the options.

That’s it

A YouTube channel is a great asset to any business, but to make it work hard take these steps to personalize and invigorate it. If you’d like us to set up a YouTube channel for your business get in touch.

As a market leading PPC, SEO and Social Media agency Barracuda Digital spend lots of time and money driving traffic to our clients websites.

But getting people there is just a small part of the marketing mix. Converting those visitors into customers are what distinguishes a good website from a great one.

We work with our clients to improve their website conversion rates. An important way to do this is by using moving images and audio. That’s why we’re very pleased to announce the launch of our website video service.

We can create and deliver short videos, and place them on your website. We’ve used these videos to boost website dwell times and retain eye-attention thanks to our imaginative creative.

Here’s a short showcase:

Our video film projects range from 30 second clips to much larger projets. If you’re interested in finding out more about web video production and whether your website would benefit from having a tailored video, get in touch.