Are you looking to start your own YouTube channel to help promote your handmade shop?
Not only can you reach a huge new audience,
but making the videos can be a super fun process. For Creative Hive,
YouTube has been an amazing journey.
I have so much fun making videos for you, and it's been great at bringing in sales.
So I keep doing it. That said,
running a YouTube channel that's effective at what you want it to do
is not going to be for everyone. It takes a lot of super time-consuming work. Today,
I'll dive into what you need to know before starting a channel of your own
so you can decide if YouTube is the right move for you or not.
Hi, I'm Mei Pak and I help makers, artists,
and designers make a living selling their handmade products online.
I started really investing into my YouTube channel a year
and a half ago and the growth that I've seen has been incredible.
I spent a lot of money on courses and coaches,
and I've learned so much about running a channel, from creating high
quality videos to learning YouTube marketing,
to really understanding the ins and outs of YouTube's algorithm itself.
YouTube is great for so many
reasons. As the second most popular website in the world,
it's got over 2 billion active monthly users.
So, you know that with the right niche, marketing, and videos,
you'll definitely have people watching your videos.
Of course, those big numbers also mean that YouTube is competitive, but just like with anything,
all it takes is a little strategy to stand out and do well.
Having said that, YouTube is not nearly
as competitive as social media, like Instagram
or Facebook, and the reason is because YouTube has a high barrier to entry.
It's not easy making compelling video content,
but it's a heck of a lot easier just taking photos to post on social,
right? So you will see far less competition to stand out on YouTube compared to social.
I particularly love that YouTube videos live for a long time.
The lifespan of a social media post is a few hours after you post it, maybe a week
if you're lucky, but for the most part they get pushed down the feed until they get buried
and they just don't stay relevant for very long.
YouTube videos, on the other hand, pretty much live forever.
I regularly get subscribers, views, and sales from videos
I posted years ago. I see each video as such a great investment.
YouTube can be a fantastic way to promote your business.
Loyal YouTube followers are more likely to support your brand
because you're able to build a much deeper relationship with people using video
and the more people know, like, and trust you, the more sales
you're going to get. Now, even though running a YouTube channel is amazing for so many reasons,
it is also super time-consuming.
While you might want YouTube to be an occasional side gig
that doesn't take much effort, the truth
is that what makes a successful channel that gets lots of
views and subscribers and sales is one with consistent,
high-quality, thoughtful content. Before you start a channel,
make sure you’ve got lots of time to dedicate to running it.
Okay so at the end of the day, YouTube is really just content marketing, like how writing blog posts
and articles is also content marketing.
When YouTube was first starting out
it might have been a site primarily for silly comedy sketches or home videos.
But today it's a content marketing search engine.
So to be successful, you have to know how to play the game.
Content marketing doesn't come easily for certain businesses or personality types.
You have to position yourself and feel comfortable being an expert in your niche,
so people want to come to you for advice. For example,
if you're in the kids and parenting niche,
so maybe you sell children's clothing or children's art,
then you can use your channel to share parenting
and family tips or fun activities for kids to do by themselves.
Or if you make a really specific type of art
that's fun and engaging to watch like glassblowing or resin art,
you can use your channel to show off how your art is made.
So think about what niche your business is in and what content
your ideal customers are usually searching for to reel in viewers.
Having said that, be careful about doing straight up videos of you making your craft
because while they're fun to watch,
it can attract an audience whose only intention is just that, to watch
and not necessarily to buy. When you're considering what kind of videos to make,
remember that you have quite a few options.
A lot of people, especially business owners,
think their channel needs to be educational,
but that is not the case. Some people really don't like teaching
or it just doesn't come naturally to them and that is okay.
Tons of artists run super successful channels that are creative based.
They might post paint with me videos, studio tour videos, or creative challenge videos.
Make sure that whatever you choose, it's something that you can make consistently
and frequently because posting regularly is absolutely
essential to gaining momentum to a successful channel.
So you must make sure you don't burn out with the type of videos you're going to cover
and I'll say this again, consider if those types of videos will
attract people that will actually buy from you.
That's the most important thing. YouTube works on an algorithm
and that algorithm pays attention
to what channels post consistently and frequently and they raise those channels up in the ranks.
So if you only post once a month or inconsistently at the beginning,
you know, whenever you felt like it and without a regular schedule,
YouTube isn't going to place your video very high in search.
Which means your videos are unlikely to get seen. If you can
post high-quality content more regularly
and consistently,
they'll reward you. When I decided to start a YouTube channel in 2020,
or at least focusing on YouTube, I was releasing two videos
a week and it was a ton of work but it's how I got traction
so quickly. I reached tens of thousands of subscribers in my first year,
largely because of consistently publishing content.
So make sure you've got a constant flow of ideas.
I suggest having at least a few months worth of ideas in your head
or in a spreadsheet before you even start posting.
The last thing you want is to have a long hiatus in posting just
because you can't think of anything.
So, always be planning ahead. And of course,
your ideas need to be relevant. If you run a crochet business,
keep your videos related to crocheting.
If you're posting videos about your favorite soccer players in your crocheting business channel
it will confuse your audience and make it hard to drive any sales.
I know that example sounds extreme, but a lot of people make this mistake so I have to mention it.
This is really key. Think about your favorite channels.
They probably follow a consistent theme,
right? And if you see that they do cover different topics,
it's usually because their audience is interested in them too,
and they're only learning about that through serving their audience over time.
You also need to make sure that your video ideas are something people will be searching
for on YouTube and Google. YouTube is a search engine.
So if you want to drive traffic to your site,
you'll need to familiarize yourself with keyword
research. Keywords are those words
and phrases that people enter into Google and YouTube when they're looking for something.
So, for example, if someone wants to watch a video about how to crochet,
they'll search “how to crochet”.
Those are the keywords. If you Google “keyword
research tool”, you will find a ton of different websites where you can search
for different terms and see how many people are searching for that keyword
and what the competition is, or in other words how many other people
are using that keyword in their content
as well.
That way, you'll know which words to use in your title
and description to drive traffic to your video.
If your title uses keywords that people are searching for and there's not a lot of competition,
you'll have an automatic built-in audience for your videos.
I'm not going to lie, running a YouTube channel is a steep learning curve.
You'll need to learn how to record and edit high quality videos,
which basically means that they should be content
people are searching for, that they actually want to see it,
it's engaging, it's easy to watch,
the audio quality is great and you're giving viewers a great watching experience.
Part of this is getting comfortable with the technology and with also being in front of the camera,
or if you choose not to do those kinds of videos,
then you'll have to get comfortable maybe doing voice-overs
as you'll probably need to speak over the videos
you've just created. You also need to know how to design attention-grabbing thumbnails,
do keyword research, and come up with great video titles.
On top of all of that, you still have to promote your videos.
Promoting your videos actually helps to kick-start the algorithm
so it can start ranking your video higher and reach more people.
If you expect YouTube to do all of the promoting for you,
your videos are not going to get very far in the beginning.
Remember that you're competing with a ton of other channels.
So you've got to put in the work yourself initially to really stand out.
If you can afford it you can always consider hiring a team to run your YouTube channel for you.
That way, your channel can be run by experts who know exactly
how to build a successful brand on YouTube
and you can spend that time growing your handmade business.
Of course, this isn't an option
for anyone and it's hard to find the right people and if you can't hire a team,
don't let that stop you from making videos. Just be sure to put in the research to really know
what you're getting into and carving out the time each week to dedicate to your channel.
Having said that, content marketing
and YouTube is not something I would recommend to most handmade business owners.
So don't feel pressure to add
yet another thing to your already full plate.
It's a very specific type of person and business model
and product that this works well for.
Do you have a YouTube channel? Link to it in the comment section below
and tell me more about what your channel is about,
or what kind of channel you would like to start.