YouTube can really strengthen your brand image if you know how to make it work for you. The new channel design and layout options are important so you need to familiarise yourself with them. If you are a YouTube partner, then you can make money directly from your videos by running Google ads on them. If not, then the only way you are going to benefit from your YouTube channel is by making the channel work for your brand.

Over a billion users visit YouTube monthly and 6 billion hours of video are uploaded each month. My YouTube marketing tips will help you make the most out all this opportunity.

• Don’t just use YouTube to push traffic. Users visit your channel for a reason, they want content. Whether it’s videos you’ve uploaded or playlists of other people’s videos that you have compiled, there needs to be something of value there. Click-through can be less than 1% in many cases. Ask yourself, what do my subscribers/customers expect to see when they visit my channel?
• Get the Layout Right. Take a look at my YouTube channel, Survive the Jive. The auto-play channel trailer is not an advert for my YouTube channel, which is what YouTube suggests you use here, instead, it is the trailer for a film project that I am promoting right now. Make sure you push the most important video on your channel at the time and use this resource to do so. One of the automatic playlists the channel makes is “Most Popular Videos”. Rather than having this at the top of the channel layout, I push it right down, because it only encourages users to watch videos that are already doing well for me. Instead, I put the most recent videos at the top so as to promote those which still need to get more views. Beneath this, I have several different bespoke playlists which I have created to cater to the various tastes and interests of my 100o subscribers and other viewers. I have already amassed over 1 million views with these techniques, so see if they work for you too!
• Don’t Focus on Other People’s Videos. It’s cool to mix other relevant videos with your ones in a playlist if this benefits the user experience but don’t use your channel to push traffic to other people’s channels. If your brand uses YouTube only as a way to favorite other people’s videos, then most users won’t see it as a valuable resource. You need to demonstrate that you create your own content and make that content prominent in the channel layout.
• Keep it Fresh. If you’re not adding new videos then why should people visit the channel? You have to keep the momentum up or subscribers and traffic will fall off. At least make a new playlist or something to demonstrate continuing activity.
• Keep Consumer and Corporate Content separate. While some curious consumers might be willing to watch your corporate videos, it’s not generally a good idea to mix the two types of content. Don’t frustrate the users by having both videos in one place, but if you must, at least separate them with clearly defined tags and playlists.
• Organize your content using tags. If you tag videos, you can automatically create playlists according to those tags. It’s a handy way to organize the different kinds of videos on your channel and makes it easier for users to find relevant content.

It is also important to use proper branding images for the header and profile picture so that the channel can be identified easily. Channel design is as important as the design and branding of any other social media channel. If you leave it half then it makes your brand look sloppy and unreliable. Follow my 5 YouTube marketing tips and I hope you benefit from them!