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In my last article about using YouTube for business, I wrote about some basic benefits a handmade business may receive from using YouTube to promote their brand and products. But now I want to dig a little deeper, and tell you how to make sure you get those benefits after setting up your channel. Typical methods of advertising don’t work on Youtube, so you’ll have to get creative…here’s how!
1. Create Shareable Content
Like I said above, typical advertising doesn’t work well on YouTube. You won’t see an ad for toilet paper going viral. Even the intro or product demo videos of HUGE Fortune 500 companies don’t perform well unless they are done in a creative and engaging way. When creating video content, spend some time thinking about why and how your followers will share your content. Create content that people will want to show their friends or talk about at work.
2. Let Them See your Face
YouTube is a community made of real people, and they want to see, hear, and interact with other real people. This is super because it means you don’t have to look like a super model or behave like an actor on camera. You can just be yourself!
Remember: a real person appearing in your YouTube videos will allow people to connect with your business on a deeper level. Later, when visitors are looking through the comment section on your account and happen upon your replies, they can see you in their mind’s eye. You are no longer just words on a paper but a three dimensional, multi-faceted person that they can relate to.
3. Don’t Get Discouraged
Don’t get discouraged when subscribers and viewers don’t come flocking to your channel right away. Keep in mind that now more than ever, it takes some time and patience to build your YouTube audience. Just focus on creating the best quality and most valuable content you can for your audience, and remember to interact with the followers you do have. If they have channels themselves, visit and comment on their work.
4. Collaborate!
Another great way to build your YouTube channel is to collaborate with an already established creator. Take some time finding YouTube personalities with 100k+ subscribers with content that will appeal to your readers. You can either pay them to appear in a video of yours, or have them talk about your product in a video of theirs that will include an annotated link to your channel.
Keep in mind, YouTube talents are very sensitive to the brand they have created and know that audiences are fickle. They will be very selective in the opportunities they agree to, but, if it’s an authentic fit, they will be happy to be a part of it.
5. Remember the “Call to Action”
The end of every video should have some call to action, or an option for viewers to click and navigate to more of your content. You can ask the viewer to do something reasonable that will benefit both of you. Maybe this is just to subscribe to your channel or go to your website for full details or more information. You can even ask them to like the video or forward it to their friends. The call to action will help your video–and, by proxy, your products–be seen by more people.
Now that you have a good idea of why you should set up a YouTube channel for your handmade business what other steps of the process stand in your way? Let us know and then subscribe to my channel!
Vicki O'Dell
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