Storytelling isn’t just for kids. Even the most successful fortune 500 companies have exciting stories to tell.
And yes, stories win hearts, minds, and, most importantly, customer wallets – but what better way to tell your story than through videos?
As things stand, videos are the most popular choice of content consumption today.
Here are some statistics to back this up:
In 2020, 96% of consumers said they increased their online video consumption. 9 out of 10 say they expected to see more videos from brands and businesses.
As of 2022, studies show an average person spends 100 minutes per day watching online videos.
These statistics make videos hard to ignore.
People will always turn to YouTube when they want to discover or learn something new.
By creating YouTube videos that talk about your brand or company or explain how to do certain things related to your line of business, you get to create a personal connection with your customers and reach new audiences of prospective customers, all for free.
Start a Free Business YouTube Channel
The best part about having a YouTube channel for your business is that you can upload unlimited videos for free.
And unlike other social media platforms, YouTube allows you to connect your channel to a separate brand account.
So, What’s a YouTube Brand Account?
A YouTube brand or business account is a business account you can activate and manage through your personal YouTube account. The account is meant to give your business a presence of its own, with a unique name, content, and branding.
Additionally, you can add channel managers to the account. That should make it infinitely easier to work with a team of content creators and promote and advertise your channel on the platform.
Instead of relying on one person’s effort, you can create duties and allocate them to a team of content creators to upload and grow the channel.
5 Reasons to Connect to a YouTube Brand Account
Many private and public agencies publish their videos on YouTube, the second most visited search engine (after Google, its parent company).
Still, most of them have yet to make the pro-move to secure their YouTube brand account.
If you’re one of them, here are five reasons you should do it ASAP:
#1. Secure Your YouTube Brand Account to Enhance Security
You’ve probably heard of an incident where someone’s YouTube account was hacked.
The internet is rife with such stories.
Fortunately for you, securing a branded business account can significantly reduce the chances of someone hacking your YouTube account.
First, it allows you to give people access to your YouTube channel without necessarily granting them access to your Google account.
Viewers won’t see your email address or name. There won’t be any association between your Google account and your brand account.
Better, you can manage multiple YouTube channels using one brand account. That makes it an ideal choice of account for anyone with multiple YouTube channels.
#2. Team Collaborations
Brand accounts have two types of access: owner and manager.
The account owner can add or remove account managers. They can also manage videos, edit business information, and interact with viewers in the comment section.
Managers aren’t that limited. They can do everything the owner does except add and remove managers.
#3. Customization
After registering your brand account, you’ll be allowed to choose your channel name and URL.
Usually, YouTube names your channel after your email address. That doesn’t give you the credibility viewers look for when sourcing information online.
Here are a few pro tips for you:
- You want to choose a name and URL that’s consistent with your agency’s name or URL across social media platforms. For example, we would still use MediaOne as the channel name and URL. There’s no sense in choosing anything else as that might confuse the viewers searching for our channel.
- Leverage YouTube customization features
Next, you want to take full advantage of YouTube’s customization features. Here are a few ideas on what to do:
- Write an easy-to-understand channel description. The description should sum up everything the channel does. Be sure to include a few helpful links in the description.
- Choose an engaging thumbnail for the channel
- Link the channel to your website and other social media handles
- Add end screens to guide the viewer on what to do next after watching the video
- Roll out your branding across your profile picture and channel banner
#4. Measurements
You can easily track and measure your progress with a brand account.
That’s because you’ll be given access to Analytics, with data on watch time reports, audience engagement, interaction reports, revenue reports, and demographics.
This data will show you how to make the most of your YouTube efforts and promotion resources.
The Difference Between Roles in Studio Permissions and Brand Accounts
The difference between brand account roles is the granular level of access.
The owner sits at the top, with viewers appearing at the bottom.
| Studio Roles | Brand Account Roles | ||
| Owner |
|
Primary Owner | They can do everything a channel owner is allowed to do |
| Manager |
|
Owner | They can do everything |
| Editor |
|
Manager | They can do everything, except:
|
| Editor (Limited) |
|
||
| Viewer |
|
Communications Manager | They literally can’t do anything on YouTube |
| Viewer Limited |
They can’t access revenue data |
||
How to Set Up a YouTube Brand Account (Step by Step Guide)
You need a personal YouTube account to set up a YouTube brand account. If you don’t have the account, you might want to create it before you can proceed with anything.
If you already have the account, skip step 1 and head straight to step 2 to begin the setup process.
Step 1: How to Create a Personal YouTube Account (Skip this if You already have the account)
If you already have the account, log in to create a YouTube brand account.
Otherwise, Go to the Google homepage and click on the sign-in icon in the upper-right corner of the page.
Click this button, and a sign-in box will appear.
Next, click “Create Account” and enter your first name, last name, username, and password.
Note that what you’re essentially doing here is creating a Gmail account. If you already have a Gmail account, you might as well skip this process and just log into your Gmail.
Note that the names you choose here will also appear on your YouTube channel and other Google accounts. So, choose keenly.
If the name has six words, use the first three as the first name and the last three as the last name.
If your company name has two words (like MediaOne), use the first word (Media) as the first name and the last word (One) as the last name.
The username you choose must reflect your brand or business.
Google also allows you to use an existing business address.
Google will send you an email message to verify your Google account. You’ll also be prompted to accept its terms and conditions.
Once you’re done with all these simple steps, go to youtube.com, and that’s it. You’d have created your personal YouTube channel.
Step 2: Set Up a YouTube Brand Account
Once you’re done creating your personal account, click on the profile avatar in the upper-right corner of your YouTube homepage to create a brand account.
Click on settings.
You’ll be directed to your “account settings,” where you’re to create a new channel.
Click on “Create new channel.”
That’s where you create your brand account.
Choose a name that matches your brand. In our case, we might choose to go with something like “MediaOne Marketing.”
Your brand account name represents your business on YouTube. It should be consistent with your website’s name and the name you use on other social media accounts.
Once you’ve entered your brand account name, click “Create,” and that’s pretty much like it. You’ve successfully created a YouTube brand account.
How to Add Managers to Your YouTube Brand Account
Here’s where things get interesting.
You can add multiple managers to your brand account. The idea is to create a team upload and have even more video content to promote.
A personal account only allows you to add one channel manager. But with a brand account, you can do with several of them.
You can collaboratively work with a team of content creators.
Being the channel owner means you’re allowed to add and remove managers whenever you feel like it. You can also edit your business information, interact with your audience, and post and manage videos.
You can add managers and allow them to access everything except adding and removing managers. That’s the only limitation they have. Otherwise, they’re allowed to do pretty much everything.
So, how do you add the managers?
- You can begin by signing into your personal YouTube account – the same account you used to create the brand account.
- Click on the profile Avatar at the upper-right corner of your YouTube homepage and select “Switch Account.”
- Select your brand account.
- Next, go back to the YouTube homepage and click on the profile avatar. Click “Setting.”
- Click on “Add or Remove Managers.”
- Click “Manage Permissions”
You can invite them using their names or email addresses (we recommend using email addresses to avoid sending the invitation to the wrong person).
Once you’ve added their names or emails, the next thing you want to do is assign them roles. You have two options to work with: (owner or manager).
Adding them as owners means they can add or remove other managers. So, we suggest you only add them as managers unless you want to give them that much power.
Once you’ve added all the managers, you need to add, click on “invite” to send them an invitation.
Lastly, click on “done,” and that’s pretty much the end. You have successfully added managers to your YouTube brand account.
We suggest you add multiple managers and assign them different roles.
For example, you can assign the role of communication manager to some of the managers. That will limit what they can do and allow them to only respond to viewers’ reviews.
If the two-step verification is enabled on your phone, you’ll be prompted to send a verification code to your phone. Click on send the code and enter the code you receive on your phone to proceed.
Click on “Manage Permissions” again. A Pop-up box will show. Click on the profile icon in the box’s top-right corner to add users.
Customizing Your Brand Account
After you create your brand account, you want to go through it and tweak a few things. Before you start publishing your video content, here are a few things you want to customize to give your channel a professional appeal:
#1. Add a Channel Description
To add a channel description, click on your profile avatar and go to “Your Channel.”
After that, you want to click on the “CUSTOMIZE CHANNEL” button.
Next, click “Basic Info” and add your description in the text description box.
You can do much more on this page besides adding your channel description.
For instance, you can add links to a list of sites you want to share with your viewers, like your website, blog, etc.
You can also add your email address. People can use this email to contact your business or make inquiries.
The email you enter here will also appear in the about section of your YouTube channel.
You may use a blurb from your company or write something about your core values for the description.
Make sure you’re concise and straight to the point when describing what your business does. You also want to sneak in a few relevant keywords, provided they fit in naturally.
This should help with your channel SEO and make your website easy to find when someone searches for it on Google and YouTube.
#2. Enter Your Email Address
We suggest you also enter your email address.
When customers decide to contact you, they should have an email address they can use.
You want to use a standard email (enquiries@companyname.com) that you check periodically.
There’s a lot your business will benefit from by keeping at least one open line of communication.
First, you’ll come off as down to earth. Your customers will also appreciate the fact that they can directly reach you.
You also want to include the links to your social media profiles (particularly Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn).
These links will appear on your channel art, overlaid as icons.
The first icon will appear with text, while the rest will be just icons. So, you want to include your most important social first and the rest after it.
Featured Channels
YouTube lets you feature other channels you own and manage in your brand account.
To add the channels, go to YouTube and click on the profile icon. Next, go to “Your Channel” and click “Customize Channel.”
On the left-hand menu, click on “YouTube Studio” => “Customization.”
Click on the “Add featured channels” button.
Now go ahead and name the section. Enter the channel’s name and the corresponding URL.
Note that you don’t have to be subscribed to any of these channels.
You can add as many channels as you wish.
YouTube also allows you to order these channels. So, go ahead and order them however you see fit.
Use the trash icon to remove any channel from the list.
You can always go back and click on the pencil icon to modify the channel list.
Adding a “featured channel” list means your viewers can view the channels on any video you post.
Why Are You Not Seeing the “Featured Channel” Option?
If you’ve been trying to find the featured channel option in your account but can’t find it, then that’s because you haven’t uploaded any video on your channel yet.
Note that Google only allows you to use their featured channel feature when you have content on your channel.
Creating a playlist should do the trick if you do not wish to upload content but still want to access the feature. Just be sure to give it a fun title.
Channel Icon and Art
Your job is only half done.
You also have to work on your branding – change the channel’s profile picture, banner image and video watermark.
Again, click go to YouTube and click on the channel icon.
Go to “Your channel” and click on the “CUSTOMIZE CHANNEL” button.
Click on “Branding.”
You change your profile picture, banner image, and video watermark here.
Your channel image appears whenever your channel is presented on YouTube (like next to your videos and comments).
The recommended specification for the profile picture is 98 x 98 pixels.
You also have to make sure the picture is 4MBS or less.
You can only use GIF or PNG (no animations). For more information on this, read YouTube’s Community Guidelines on pictures.
Your banner image will appear at the top of your channel. We suggest you limit the image size to 2048 x 1152 pixels for the best results across devices.
The image should also be 6mbs or less in size.
The video watermark will be overlaid on your video at the right-hand corner of the video player. Use your logo as the video watermark.
You want to limit the image size to 150 x 150 pixels.
The image should also be in PNG, BMP, GIF, and JPEG (no animations).
The file size should also be 1Mb or less.
7 Benefits of Having a YouTube Channel for Your Business
Now that you know how to set up a YouTube brand account, let’s cycle back to the benefits of having a YouTube channel for business.
#1. Reach a Wider Audience
There are over 2 billion monthly active users on YouTube, so there’s a good chance your target audience is hanging out on the platform. You can reach a wider audience and build brand awareness by creating engaging videos.
#2. Drive Traffic to Your Website
Including a link to your website in your video descriptions can help drive traffic to your site. You can also include annotations or cards in your videos that link viewers to your website.
#3. Boost SEO
YouTube videos also rank in Google search results. Try searching for a popular topic related to your business – chances are, there will be at least one video in the video section of the search results.
#4. Generate Leads
You can use YouTube videos to generate leads by including a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your videos. For example, you could have a link to a landing page where viewers can sign up for your email list or download a white paper or e-book.
#5. Increase Social Shares
Users are more likely to share videos than other types of content. If you create informative or entertaining videos, viewers will share them with their followers, increasing your reach and boosting your brand’s visibility.
#6. Establish Authority
Creating high-quality, informative videos can help you establish yourself or your brand as an authority in your industry. If you consistently produce helpful content, viewers will begin to see you as a trusted source of information and will be more likely to do business with you in the future.
#7. Enhance Your Other Marketing Efforts
YouTube can complement other marketing channels, such as email marketing, social media, and paid advertising. You can use your videos to drive viewers to your website or landing pages or use them as part of a paid advertising campaign.
Creating a YouTube channel for your business can be a great way to reach a wider audience, boost your SEO, generate leads, and enhance your other marketing efforts.
