YouTube Marketing - The guide you've been waiting for to start your channel

Let's start with the basics, how are you going to make your videos?

Many youtubers have asked me which camera they should use for their blog, and I always give them the same answer, “the camera you have is the best camera”. This is true in all respects, it does not matter if you only have a smartphone or if you have a camera worth thousands of dollars, your content is going to speak for you. In any case, if you have a budget available for your YouTube marketing, production and editing, I would recommend a digital camera (mirrorless). Why? I like more to make videos with this type of camera because it has more options to personalize your photos and videos. You can use vintage lenses (less expensive), they are less heavy and smaller. However, take this with a pinch of salt, because depending on the type of video you want to take and your personal needs, a DSLR camera, or an action camera may be a better option.

Do I need audio and lighting equipment?

At the end of the day, the content of your videos will be the component that defines your channel, but there are some factors that will improve it. While buying a new camera can be very expensive, improving the audio quality with a microphone, or the light where you take the video, can make the difference between someone sharing your video or just watching it. In online stores you can find microphones that connect to your camera or smartphone from 5 USD. As for lighting, there is a completely free #YouTubeHack. To enhance the lighting in your video, simply record in natural light, or use lamps in your home that you can move with you. Natural light will always be your best ally.

What music can I use in my YouTube videos?

This will depend on your intentions for the video. If you want to monetize it, you will only be able to use music that has a CC Creative Commons license. This type of music can be found on sites like SoundCloud that allows you to search for these types of files. YouTube also offers you a free music library for your videos. There are also channels dedicated to creating music for YouTube; Just remember to give them credit for your annotations! For example, this song is licensed free for use on YouTube videos.

To learn more advanced techniques about Youtube marketing and Youtube SEO, course YouTube Marketing and YouTube SEO Fundamentals can help.

What free tools are there for YouTubers?

Hootsuite

The free version of Hootsuite is perfect for every YouTuber who is starting their channel. Hootsuite is a social media management dashboard. That is, this application will allow you to publish content for all your social networks from the same place; but that's not all, since you will be able to schedule advanced publications that the program will automatically publish in the future. This version includes several social profiles (YouTube included), basic analysis of your networks, and much more. Just think of all the time you'll save if you do all your posts in one place in one day!

Every beginning YouTuber has to promote their content on social media, so integration to a single platform is key, but Hootsuite also allows you to monitor comments on your channel. Monitoring comments is a very important YouTube activity because they are part of your brand.

Keyword Planner and Google Trends

Both Google applications allow you to analyze the search index for a certain term online. Keyword will give you the total number of searches, while with Trends you will be able to compare two search terms to compare their: 1) Search level, 2) Trend (If it is growing or not), 3) A regional analysis for see where a term is searched the most, among other things. These tools will allow you to create better titles for your videos and use more popular tags. Remember that you want Keywords with a high search trend but little competition on YouTube.

Youtuber Forum

The YouTube Forum page has very good resources for a youtuber. On this site you can connect with other members of the community who are trying to grow their channel.

YouTube Studio

Youtube studio is that place that most new bloggers, DIYers, and even some companies are afraid to enter. This is the panel for statistics, account settings, permissions and much more. I must admit that this information can be overwhelming, but we need not fear it. This data panel should be our best ally, it will allow us to improve our YouTube marketing, understand our audience, and analyze the opportunities that arise.

For example, Youtube Studio will allow you to see what is the best content to share. You can see the click through rate of your videos and choose the one with the most interaction to maximize your social earnings. When you want to share your content on social networks, you are not going to share all your videos at once. So it is essential to understand which is your best video (And yes, it may not be the one with the most views).

At Hootsuite we use YouTube Studio for exactly this purpose.