YouTube has evolved from a simple video-sharing platform to a dynamic arena where personal and professional brands thrive. As a content creator, understanding the intricacies of YouTube branding is paramount.
In this article, we help you understand how to brand your YouTube channel and leave a lasting impression on your audience.
Why is YouTube Branding Important?
YouTube branding plays a significant role in helping you establish a strong online presence and connect with your target audience (similar to how branding is important for a podcast). It’s a key part of starting a YouTube channel. Here are some key reasons why YouTube branding matters:
Identity and Recognition
Building a strong brand on YouTube helps you create a distinct identity for your channel or content. This identity includes your channel name, logo, color scheme, and overall visual style. When viewers see consistent branding elements, they are more likely to recognize and remember your content.
Trust and Credibility
A well-branded YouTube channel appears more professional and trustworthy. When viewers encounter a cohesive and polished brand, they are more likely to have confidence in the content you provide. Trust is essential for building a loyal audience. Basically, if it looks like you’re invested, your audience will become invested as well.
Audience Loyalty
Effective branding can foster a sense of community and loyalty among your viewers. When you consistently deliver content aligned with your brand values and promise, you are more likely to attract and retain subscribers who share those values. Over time, this creates a “sticky” audience.
Differentiation
YouTube is a competitive platform with millions of channels and videos. A strong brand helps you stand out from the crowd. It gives you a unique selling proposition (USP) that sets you apart from other content creators or competitors in your niche.
Consistency
Branding provides a framework for maintaining consistency across your content. This includes not only visual elements but also your tone of voice, content style, and messaging. Consistency makes it easier for viewers to understand what to expect from your channel.
Professionalism
Whether you are an individual content creator or a business, a well-branded YouTube channel demonstrates professionalism. This can attract potential collaborators, sponsors, and partnerships, as they are more likely to be interested in working with a professional brand.
Monetization Opportunities
If you plan to monetize your YouTube channel, branding can play a crucial role. Advertisers and sponsors often prefer to work with channels that have a clear and appealing brand because it makes their products or services more effectively promoted.
Expandability
A well-established YouTube brand can serve as a foundation for expanding your online presence to other platforms, such as social media, a personal website, or merchandise sales. It helps maintain a consistent image across different digital spaces.
How to Brand Your YouTube Channel
Now that you understand the benefits of YouTube branding, let’s talk about how to create a brand style that speaks to your audience.
1. Select a Niche and Stick to It
Your content is part of your brand. You have to deliver consistently to your audience in order to keep them clicking on more videos. If your content is all over the place, you’ll struggle to maintain your subscribers.
Instead of creating random videos, find a niche and stick to it. Choose something you can create amazing content around. This should be something you know well or do often. Over time, your audience will associate you with that kind of content and come to you for more.
For example, Copper Creek Cuts sticks to lawn care videos. If he started creating cotent around video games or pet care, his brand would be too hard to define and his audience would lose interest.
2. Research Your Competitors
It’s good to stay informed about the activities of both direct and indirect competitors. What types of videos are they creating? How frequently do they release new content? What level of engagement does their audience show? What are their YoTube strengths and weaknesses?
Conducting research on your competitors can provide valuable insights into potential opportunities for your video content. If you’re entering the field later than others, this research can help you identify a starting point.
3. Choose Consistent Brand Assets
Brand assets are colors, typography, copy, and images that you’ll use to represent your brand. These assets should be used consistently anywhere your brand exists online, including youtube, but also on your website, email campaigns, and social media profiles.
The goal is to create continuity across your entire digital presence. This helps the viewers recognize your brand and capture its feeling at first glance.
Notice how Kurzgesagt uses a consistent style across all of its videos. The colors, animations, and characters are easily recognizable.
4. Use a Branded Channel
YouTube gives you the option to create either a personal or branded/business channel. The branded channel lets you add additional users to manage other pieces of your channel, all with different levels of control. For instance, as your channel grows, you may want to bring in additional people to help moderate your content, upload videos, or perform other tasks.
Once you start a new channel, follow the verification steps right away. verification is simple and lets you upload custom thumbnails and videos longer than 15 minutes.
5. Use Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) may seem tedious, but it’s an important part of attracting listeners and building an audience. Effective keyword analysis can guide your choice of video topics, help you write effective titles and descriptions, and empower you to craft and implement a content strategy that resonates with viewers.
Where to Add Your YouTube Branding
Once you’ve decided on your YouTube branding, the next step is to showcase those elements across your YouTube channel. Here are the ten critical places to add your YouTube branding.
1. Channel Name
Your channel name is prominently showcased on your channel’s homepage and is also featured beneath your videos when viewers discover them in their list of recommended videos.
It’s crucial that your channel name corresponds with the name you use on your other social media profiles and your website. This consistency aids in viewers recognizing you, becoming more familiar with your brand, and motivating them to click the subscribe button in anticipation of receiving more content from you.
Read our full guide on choosing a YouTube channel name.
2. Channel icon
Your channel icon is your YouTube profile picture. It becomes visible when you interact with your audience, like when you reply to comments left on your videos.
For optimal clarity, use an icon size of 800 x 800 pixels. Your icon should feature your YouTube logo or face. This ensures a cohesive visual identity for your channel.
3. Channel art
Your channel art – or channel banner – is the place that offers the most real estate for your branding. Use this area to capture your viewer’s attention as they explore your channel’s page. Make sure to use your brand colors, a captivating image, and any information your audience would find helpful.
The best size for your channel banner is 2560 x 1440 pixels. This size will create an image that looks good stretched across the top of the channel page and on devices of different sizes.
4. Channel description
The channel description serves as the “about” section of your page. It’s an opportunity to introduce your business to visitors and entice them to watch your videos and explore your products or services further.
When crafting your description, prioritize placing the most vital information at the beginning, as not all visitors will read it in its entirety. Additionally, it’s crucial to include keywords that potential customers might use to discover your channel. Ensure that it’s informative so that visitors perceive you as a valuable source of information.
5. Channel trailer
Produce a concise channel trailer to introduce your brand. Keep this trailer brief – about one minute long. The goal is to inform viewers about what they can anticipate when they watch your videos.
When crafting your trailer, consider that the audience watching it may be new to your content and brand. Provide them with essential information about yourself and the genre of videos you produce. Right from the start, convey the reasons why they should engage with your content.
6. Channel URL
A custom channel URL makes it easy for your audience to find your channel by simply typing it into their browser. It should be short, simple, and easy to remember. In most cases, it makes sense to simply use your channel name as people say it.
YouTube has a few requirements for your channel URL:
- You must have at least 10 subscribers.
- You must have banner art and a profile picture.
- Your channel must be at least 30 days old.
YouTube will give you a generic URL until you meet those requirements. It’s ugly and impossible to remember, but it’s still a functioning link that you can give out.
7. Video end cards
A video end card is a chance to embed some links that can take viewers to a custom destination, such as your social media profiles, more videos, another channel, or your website.
These cards appear at the end, but don’t disrupt the viewing experience. You don’t need to edit them into your video, either. YouTube displays them on top of the playing video.
In most cases, it’s best to promote your own content that’s similar to whatever the viewer is watching. This creates more engagement and helps your audience see you as an authority.
8. Video watermarks
Watermarks are great ways to remind viewers of your brand as they watch your video. If you use YouTube’s watermark feature, these images can even be links to subscribe. You can set the watermark to appear for the last 15 seconds of the video, start at a custom time, or show through the entire video.
Furthermore, you can add your own watermark during your editing process. This requires a bit more work, but it makes the watermark part of the video, so it will stick around if someone downloads your video and uploads it as a segment in their video.
9. Video Thumbnails
Your thumbnails play a crucial role in attracting viewers to your content. You have the option to either use a thumbnail generated by YouTube or upload your own custom one. Regardless of your choice, the objective is to craft an engaging visual element that conveys essential information about the video and entices viewers to start watching.
Furthermore, there are opportunities for branding within your thumbnails. You can opt for a uniform theme, using related images of individuals in similar settings or employing consistent color schemes. By adopting a template that introduces key details about the video, you can establish a cohesive viewing experience.
10. Featured Sections
Featured sections are rows on your homepage where you can show curated selections of videos. Use these rows to show off the content you think would be most enjoyable to your viewers. For instance, if you think most new viewers visit your channel for your holiday themed cooking videos, put those at the top so they can start watching right away.
Let Your YouTube Branding Evolve
Now that you know how to brand your YouTube channel, It’s important to understand that branding isn’t a one-and-done task. It’s a process that evolves over time as your brand develops and you learn more about your audience. Don’t be afraid to tweak your YouTube brand over time as you grow.
