YouTube business channel for eCommerce plays a vital role to enhance marketing efforts and help more customers find your store.

YouTube is the second largest online search engine and making it the perfect place to host your videos for a variety of content, including product demos and how-tos.

In this article, we’ll show how to set up and start a YouTube channel for your eCommerce business, and how you can create compelling video content to engage current customers and attract new ones, too. 

Reasons To Start A Business YouTube Channel for eCommerce

According to the statistics, 82% of people on Twitter use this platform to watch video content, and 45% of people watch over 30 minutes of YouTube or Facebook videos in a week.

When you add videos on your webpage, people spend more time watching and engaging with the page. This has a direct positive impact on search engine optimization (SEO) as well as search engine results page (SERP).

There are many possible reasons to start a business Youtube channel or eCommerce, but these are the most important to consider:

1. New content formats

According to the statistics, by 2021, 82 percent of all internet traffic will be for video. If you’re interested in content marketing, you have to consider more formats than just text-based content. Starting a YouTube business channel gives you a powerful medium to produce and distribute video content, which is only going to become more important from here.

2. Audience size

According to YouTube Statistics, there are more than 1.57 billion monthly active YouTube users around the world, with 30 million daily active users. It is not guaranteed that your first video is going to reach 1.57 billion people, but even a fraction of a percent of YouTube’s user base could give you an enormous amount of visibility.

3. Ease of production

For basic forms of video content, like interviews or monologues, you can get away with a basic video setup. Editing isn’t a problem with the basic editing software you likely already have on your laptop or desktop, and uploading is a cinch. Videos are also less expensive and faster to make than you think.

4. Additional syndication

YouTube isn’t the end of your business run it’s the beginning. You can share any video to other social channels that you upload to YouTube. If you produce a video clip you think is a home run, you can share it on a semi-regular basis across your other social channels, netting thousands of additional impressions and gaining new followers on every channel.

5. On-site integration

It’s also easy to embed YouTube videos into your website, especially if you’re using a template-based website builder. You can highlight your best work on-site as a way to promote your business YouTube channel, or upload key brand videos on YouTube and spare yourself some hosting costs.

6. Multi-channel dominance

If you engage with your social media followers regularly, they’ll probably start following you on your other business channels and platforms. Similarly, if you have existing social followers on platforms like Facebook or Twitter, it won’t take much convincing for them to subscribe to your YouTube business channel as well.

7. Direct revenue

If your channel becomes popular, it could become a source of additional revenue for your business. If you enable ads on your videos, you could make a few dollars for every thousand views that your videos get. That won’t be enough to justify your company’s entire existence, but if you can rack up several thousand views per video, it could be a nice way to offset your production costs.

How Much YouTube Business Channel Cost?

It’s true that many marketing strategies are expensive. And, if you work with a professional production company, making videos can be expensive too.

Thankfully, YouTube provides a platform where you and your potential customers can create content with nothing more than your mobile phone. It is the only equipment for starting your YouTube business channel.

And, like many other social media platforms, YouTube is indeed free to start! While there are paid features available, you can get eCommerce results using a free YouTube business channel.

Is it safe to have a YouTube business channel for eCommerce?

You want to start your YouTube business channel for eCommerce but you’re scared.

It’s true once you put it on the internet, it’s there forever. Sure, you can download it. And, if you don’t have a lot of followers, chances are no one will see your video.

But there are lot of tech-savvy people out there who know how to find deleted YouTube content.

Let’s not forget how easy it is to take a screenshot on any device. If you post something controversial, it is better to taken care of before the media or customers take notice.

Now that you’ve got some basic YouTube business channel knowledge, it’s time to see how to create your YouTube account.

Set Your Goals before starting a YouTube channel

Before you get too far into your YouTube eCommerce channel creation, think about how video fits into your content strategy as a whole.

Is the primary goal of your YouTube business channel sales or increased brand awareness? By setting your goal, you will have a targeted strategy when making your videos.

In addition, think about how will you measure success? Potential metrics to consider include website traffic from your YouTube channel, views, likes, and social media shares.

Types of Videos You Can Upload to Your YouTube Channel

As we mentioned earlier, there are two potential goals for your eCommerce YouTube channel – increased sales and brand awareness.

These goals go back to marketing fundamentals: You need customers to know your product exists, and then convince them why they need your product instead of your competitors.

According to socialmediatoday, 46% more likely to search for a product after watching an online video about it.

Decide on your YouTube channel goals, then try out one of these following four types of eCommerce video content that will definitely grow your sales.

1. Product Unboxing videos

In YouTube, monthly subscription boxes have become a popular form of eCommerce. With these subscription services, eCommerce brands have discovered a new form of user generated content (UGC) named as unboxing videos.

Unboxing videos are a little bit like unwrapping a product: subscription recipients are curious to see what lies inside the packet; viewers watching the same videos also experience that same curiosity factor.

2. Product Trials and Reviews

Not every eCommerce business has subscription boxes.

If this is the case for you, consider inviting your customers to share the videos in which they are using or reviewing your product.

Video of customer reviews are one way you can use YouTube to increase both awareness and sales.

By displaying videos of customers using your product, you’re giving your target market a source so that they can trust you. This is how you can show that your product is indeed the best on the market and how people are enjoying to use your products.

Don’t forget that the videos your customers create also save your plenty of time and production costs!

In addition to customers, you can also raise awareness by reaching out to the YouTube influencers and asking them to review your product.

3. “How to” videos

“How-to” videos are one of the most searched content on YouTube.

According to searchengineland, in 2015, there were more than 100 million hours of how-to videos watched on YouTube and this was a 70% year over year increase.

Think about your target audience. If your product can’t be used as an integral part of an instructional video, you don’t need to shy away from the tactic.

As long as the video serves a purpose for your target customers, go ahead and fulfill their DIY needs. Then, complete the video with a call-out about your product. This way, you can still increase the brand awareness.

4. Case study, testimonial, and problem-solving videos

With “how-to” videos you can solve a customer’s problem. Sometimes, your product is the solution; no instructions needed!

This is the perfect opportunity to use case studies and testimonials from your customers and make a video.

Even without customer participation, you can still create a video which shows how your product solves some particular problems or challenges your clients are facing.

How to start a successful YouTube channel

Now that you have got some idea for creating YouTube videos, it’s time to go through the process of creating your YouTube channel, step by step.

Step 1: Sign up for Google

You can create a Google account right from YouTube’s homepage by clicking “sign in” in the upper right corner of YouTube website. Fill out all the required fields, and your account will be well enough to start.

Once you have a Google account, you will have the access to most of YouTube’s features, including “Like,” “Subscribe,” and others. To upload your videos to the website, you need to create a channel.

Step 2: Create a channel

While a Google account allows you to access certain features, it doesn’t come with a built-in channel. To have a public presence and be able to upload videos, comment and make playlists, you have to sign up for a channel.

Once you’re signed into YouTube, just go to the “All my channels” page. Click on “create new channel” and fill out the details. To sign up for a business account, note the text just underneath the name portion of the signup form that invites you to use a business name instead. Select a name for the business channel and the type of business – once you’ve picked a username, you won’t be able to change it. You now have a YouTube business channel for your business and can start uploading video content.

If you’re just creating a YouTube business channel for the first time, it will come with a Google account automatically. If you have already a channel, you may now have the option of connecting it to an existing Google account.

Step 3: Connect Google and your YouTube channel

You don’t need to connect a Google account to YouTube, it helps make your business look more uniform across all of Google’s channels.

Google has been encouraging users to connect their profiles and adding functionality that integrates the two more completely. For example, if you have fans on Google, your channel will be recommended to them throughout YouTube.

You can also automatically post your video uploads to Google as soon as you upload them on your YouTube channel.

Customizing YouTube Channel

So, now that you’ve set up a YouTube business channel for your eCommerce business, let’s take some time to get it looking its absolute best.

Here are some few easy steps you can take to give your channel a more professional look and make sure that your customers know how to find you online.

Channel Icon

By default, your YouTube Channel Icon will be linked to your Brand Account’s profile photo, so to change it, YouTube will direct you to update your Brand Account.

By clicking on ‘Edit’ will take you directly to the upload photo screen in your Brand Account.

It’s recommended that the picture should be a JPG, BMP, PNG, or non-animated GIF and 800 x 800 pixels. You should also make sure that it displays well at smaller sizes, and in a square and a circle crop, based on the multiple places Youtube will use your channel icon.

Channel art

Adding a channel art is a great way to show off your brand’s personality and create a more visually engaging YouTube profile. Your Channel Art should be less than 4MB and at least 2048 x 1152 pixels, although YouTube recommends going with 2560 x 1440 pixels for best results on all devices.

YouTube will give you a preview of each photo you load, to show you how it will display on multiple devices. You can also edit and crop your image.

Details and Description

To unlock all of the customization options for your YouTube channel, you’ll need to click the gear icon in the section beneath your Channel Art.

A pop-up titled ‘Channel settings’ will appear. Look for the ‘Customize the layout of your YouTube channel’ option and enable it. Now, click ‘Save’.

You’ll now be given a wider range of options sorted into five tabs like Home, Videos, Playlists, Channels, and About.

Go to the About tab to edit your store’s details.

Under description, give a brief outline of your online store, products, and mission. Keep any core keywords for your online store in mind, and make sure to use them in your description to help people find you when they search on YouTube.

Be sure to include your contact details as well. You should also include links to your social media profiles and your online store, since these links can be set to appear over your Channel Art and will be highly visible to your audience.

Most of your links will default to just the favicon but the first link in the lineup will also show the link title, so make the most of those 30 characters like 100% Pure has done with their channel’s “SHOP NOW” call to action.

On the right hand side, you’ll get a section titled ‘Featured Channels’ where you can feature other YouTube channels that are owned by your brand or managed by your employees.

Optimizing Your Videos for Search

Staying on top of YouTube SEO is critical if you want to get your videos noticed. According to reelseo, every minute 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, so you need to do everything you can to stand out from the crowd.

Every element of your videos, from the title to the description to keywords, can have a huge impact on how quickly they get featured in search results. Let’s take a look at how you can improve your site rankings on YouTube and get in front of viewers when they need to see you most.

Keywords

Before you start optimizing your YouTube videos, you should narrow down which keywords you’ll be focusing on.

Try to find out the keywords someone might search to come across your video and run them through a keyword planning tool like Keywords Everywhere, a free Chrome extension. It works directly within Youtube’s search bar, and gives you three key pieces of information for each term – the monthly search volume, the cost per click to advertise against that term, and the competition.

The suggested search results that you will get can be a solid source of inspiration for future videos. It’s a good idea to experiment with keywords and build future content around popular search terms in your business industry.

Engagement

One of the most important things that YouTube consider when determining the quality of your video is its engagement.

Encourage your visitors to leave a comment, subscribe, share, or hit the ‘Thumbs Up’ button after they’ve finished watching to increase your chance of showing up higher in search results. If you want to boost your engagement levels, try to run a contest. Giveaways and contests are an excellent way to increase visitors participation and connect with your audience.

When YouTube is determining your site rank, it will also take your video’s view count into consideration. To kickstart your views, make sure that you’re distributing your new videos through your email list and all of your business’ social media channels just after you publish it on Youtube.

Format

The format of your video also plays a vital role in your overall search ranking. Although Youtube can’t watch your videos to determine their content, there are some other things that it looks at to make an educated guess.

Filename: Be sure to include your target keywords in the file name that you’re uploading. YouTube will pay attention onto it.

Length: YouTube considers longer videos to be of higher value, so try to make them as long as possible – but always balance this with keeping the content valuable, because “watch time” is another key metric for search rankings. If your video is 2 minutes long, but you stretched it to 10 and viewers drop off after 1, you won’t rank higher just because your video is longer.

Title: The title of your video should be concise, descriptive, and feature your target keyword.

Description: The longer the description, the better for your channel. Add as much content as possible: include a detailed overview of everything in your video and any relevant resources that your viewers might need. Your focus keywords should also show up in your description, with bold format on getting your target keyword into the first sentence.

Tags: Do your best to include your target keywords and a handful of other associated terms as tags to your videos. Tools like Tube Buddy can give you some insight into the tags that your competitors are using on their videos. Tags can help to determine whether your video shows up as a suggested video as well, so tagging competitors and people who make related content can be a good use of the 500 characters available for tags.

Additional Tips and Tricks

After doing everything above, you should be on your way to build an audience and maximizing your business’ potential on YouTube.

However, if you’re feeling a little adventurous, we’ve put together some useful YouTube hacks that you can use to increase your subscribers and generate more traffic for your website.

Add a watermark

Watermark is perfect for driving new viewers back to your channel and encouraging them to subscribe. These customizable images will be overlaid on every videos you uploads and offer a clear and easy way for viewers to subscribe, making it easy for them to hear about your newest videos.

To add a watermark to all your videos, take a look at your channel page and click on ‘Video Manager’. This will take you to the Creator Studio where you’ll be able to access some more in-depth settings for your account.

Once you get to the Creator Studio, click on ‘Channel’ in the sidebar like the following screenshot.

A dropdown menu will appear just under ‘Channel’. Now, click on ‘Branding’ and then ‘Add a Watermark’. You’ll now be able to upload an image that will show up in the corner of every of your videos.

Enable automatic subscription prompt

It’s important to encourage viewers to subscribe while they’re there.

If you’ve got an existing subscriber base, like your email list or your social media followers, you can make it easy for them to subscribe to your YouTube channel. Whenever you promote your channel to them with a “Remember to subscribe!” call to action, just add “?sub_confirmation=1” to the end of your channel’s URL and a pop-up will automatically appear on your channel prompting your visitors to subscribe.

Link cards to your website

As long as your account is part of the YouTube Partner Program, which currently means that you have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time in the past year, you can add cards that link to external websites in your videos.

Use end screens effectively

When viewers have finished watching a video, you want to keep them around and make sure they don’t leave without subscribing to your channel. YouTube makes this really easy with end screen elements you can layer over the last 20 seconds of your any video.

You can also add other videos, a subscribe button, or a link to another channel to keep viewers engaged. This is important because the algorithm of YouTube rewards both your total watch time and how long you keep people on the platform, so ideally, you want someone to watch more of your videos.

Here’s how to set it up by yourself.

• Go to your Creator Studio and select a video you want to edit.
• From the main edit screen, click on “End screens & Annotations” along the top menu, which will take you to the end screen editing screen.
• You’ll be able to add four different elements to your screen.

You might have noticed that the Link option is not enabled, because on this test account.

Final Words

The success of eCommerce business is the ability to sell to anyone, regardless of their location.

YouTube channel offers the same appeal: you can reach people anywhere and everywhere; all they need is a phone, tablet, or computer and a internet connection.

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