Did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world? The number of people who utilize YouTube on a daily, weekly or monthly basis is astronomical, and nearly a third of all internet traffic goes to YouTube.

With so much traffic and so many users, it’s a channel every small business should have a presence on. But, surprisingly enough only about 9% of small businesses have a YouTube channel.

The amount of traffic that you’re missing out on by not having a channel and not promoting your videos there can be huge. However, having a channel is just the first step. You also need to know how to grow your YouTube channel.

How to build a successful YouTube channel for your small business

Harness the power of time

Time on YouTube means an awful lot — the amount of time people spend watching your videos, the amount of time you’ve been posting, the length of time that you had a YouTube channel, etc.

The Marketing 360® YouTube channel was born in 2015, and our first video had just 124 views. Six years later, we’ve grown our YouTube channel to 79.5k subscribers, and most of our videos get thousands of views.

It’s easy to get discouraged at first, because you probably won’t find success on YouTube overnight. It takes time and consistency to grow your channel.

The more consistent you are — and the longer you publish videos consistently on your channel — the better YouTube will understand what your channel is all about, what kind of videos you’re posting, who your subscribers are, etc.. This will allow YouTube to recommend your videos to the right users.

Think of YouTube as a social network

A lot of people think of YouTube as just a video-sharing platform. But, the truth is that it’s so much more than that. It’s a search engine and a video-sharing platform, but it’s also a social network where people can like and comment on your videos, and subscribe to your channel.

If people are engaging with videos on your channel, make sure that you’re engaging back. People are social, and they want to connect with you as a brand and to feel involved. If they’re asking questions or leaving comments, reply to them!

Engaging with your subscribers and viewers is a great way to grow your YouTube channel, and to develop fans and ambassadors for your brand.

Decide what your channel is all about

Before you actually start creating videos for your channel, take some time to think about what kind of content you want your channel to be known for. Do you want to create videos that make your viewers laugh, educate your viewers, highlight important issues or tell entertaining stories?

Having your own style will give your viewers an idea of what to expect from future content you create. It will also help to simplify your life when it comes to figuring out what you want to create videos about and what your scripts will look like.

While picking a style for your videos is important, don’t let it lock you down. Just because you’ve set an educational tone for your videos, for example, it does not mean that every video you create has to follow that same tone or style.

You may also find that certain styles of videos work better than others for your viewers. And, at the end of the day, your highest priority should be to make them happy.

Edit your videos carefully

You want your videos to be clean and concise, and one popular tactic YouTubers often take is called a jump cut. Jump cuts jump over “ums,” “likes” and other unnecessary bits and pieces that add length to your video, and they can make your videos more palatable.

Unfortunately, though, it’s easy to go nuts with jump cuts and end up with a choppy video that’s even less pleasant to watch than the original.

You don’t want to give somebody motion sickness by doing a bunch of close shots, black and white fades and other crazy animations that can dilute your message.

Overediting can do more damage than a few “ums” or “likes” ever could, so keep your videos simple and professional, and keep editing to a minimum.

Optimize your videos

YouTube isn’t designed to actually understand video content. Instead, it uses titles, tags, hashtags, closed captions, scripts, etc., to learn what your video is all about, and thus, recommend it to other users and determine what keywords to rank it for.

Look for popular keywords or search phrases using the search bar on YouTube, and then use them in the title, tags, hashtags, description and script for your video. Also, include links to blogs, videos and other sources that support your video.

If you produce a video but fail to optimize it, not many people will actually see it. YouTube SEO is just as important to the success of your channel as producing great video content. Don’t skip it!

Drive engagement

As previously mentioned, YouTube isn’t just a video platform, but it’s also a social network. And, like any social network, you don’t want to treat it like a one-way channel. You want to build engagement and get your viewers to like and comment on your videos, and subscribe to your channel. Cards and end screens can do just that.

According to YouTube, “Cards are preformatted notifications that appear on desktop and mobile which you can set up to promote your brand and other videos on your channel.” A teaser of your message will appear in a small, rectangular box in the top, right-hand corner of your video that viewers can click on to see your full message.

End screens appear at the end of your video, and can extend the average watch time on your channel. Use end screens to encourage viewers to subscribe, recommend additional videos, cross-promote other channels or link to an approved website.

Another fun way to drive engagement is to run a poll, ask a question or have a contest, and invite your viewers to participate in the comments section of your video.

Bonus tip: If you don’t have the budget to take advantage of professional video production, you can make your videos appear a lot more professional by having an expert design your end cards, as well as intros and outros, that can be used on all of your videos.

Share your videos

Publishing your videos on your YouTube channel is important, but it won’t get the kind of attention you’re looking for if it stays on just YouTube. YouTube videos are like any other marketing collateral — they need to be shared.

Videos are great because they can be used in so many different places. Include videos on relevant pages of your website, in your blogs and on your social media profiles. This is how you start driving up views and engagement on your videos.

Keep in mind that, if you’re uploading native video content to social profiles, like LinkedIn or Twitter, cards and end screens won’t transfer over. However, if you simply share the link to your video instead, it will embed the whole video and retain those engagement pieces.

Also, consider putting some of your ad budget behind your videos to promote them on YouTube and other popular platforms. With YouTube advertising, you can also target specific audiences and even retarget people who have visited your website or interacted with your ads.

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YouTube is highly popular and underutilized by small businesses, making it a powerful channel to market and grow your business. Get started, and if you need help producing outstanding video content, learn how our video pros can help!