- A lot of YouTube creators don't consider
that most viewers on YouTube subscribe to a channel
on the front of that channel page
which means it's very important that the design there
especially that header image is really critical
to get them to quickly be like,
"Oh yeah, I want to subscribe to this channel
"and quickly click that subscribe button."
Today, I have a guest with me, Karen Kavett,
who's going to share with you some of her tips and ideas
of how you should design the header image
for maximum results, that's coming up.
Hey guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer
and welcome to Video Creators.
This channel is all about helping you guys grow
your YouTube audience so you can spread a message
that reaches people and changes their life.
And if you want to reach those people over
and over and over again, you gotta get them to subscribe
and if they're subscribing on the front of your channel,
the header image is the first they're going to see
so you really gotta pull them in quick with that.
If you don't know who Karen is,
she's been an active YouTube creator for almost 10 years now
and has a channel about design and crafting
so she knows design principles very well
as well as this YouTube platform very well
and brings her best knowledge here together for you guys.
And then after she shares hers, I'll come on
and share some of my best tips and ideas
and perspective on this as well.
- Hi Tim, thanks so much for having me on your channel.
When it comes to your YouTube banner, I have seven tips
that hopefully will help you guys out
Number one, try to limit the amount of information
that you're putting on your banner
so that people don't get overwhelmed.
You might want to put your channel name,
a call to action saying subscribe,
your video schedule, and a tagline.
And really that's all that you need.
Maybe even just one or two or three of those things.
This one's pretty basic but if you haven't put a lot
of thought into your branding yet,
something to think about,
make sure that your banner matches the rest
of your branding and make sure that it is representative
of the look and feel that you're going for in your channel.
Consistently is what's going
to make your channel look professional.
Before just jumping into Photoshop, do your research.
Look at what other companies and other YouTube channels
that have similar demographics
are designing for their branding.
Gather a bunch of images
of how they're all promoting their content.
What similar color schemes do you see,
what similar typography?
Maybe you can use some of that stuff in your own branding.
If you are a personality based channel,
if your face is in a lot of videos,
have a Photoshoot to get high quality photos of yourself.
Really think about your background,
your hair, your outfit, your expression,
and whether that matches the type of content
that you're producing.
Alright, this is one of my favorites, the glance test.
When you're designing your banner,
just glance at it for just a second and see what stands out.
Think about what is the most important information
that you're trying to communicate
and see if that jumps out at you
if you just glance at your design for a second or two.
Be really careful of putting text onto busy backgrounds
because it can get really hard to read
and you want to make it as easy as possible
for everyone to understand
what you're trying to communicate.
Always, always, always ask a friend to look at your banner
before you finalize anything.
It is so helpful to get a fresh pair of eyes
on your design and they're going to see things
that you definitely missed from just staring
at the same design for hours on end.
And finally, when in doubt, keep it simple.
It is so much more important to communicate
your information effectivity than it is to try
to show off being flashy
with all kinds of Photoshop effects.
So good luck with your designing and back to you, Tim.
Thank you so much for those tips, Karen.
And a few of other things from my perspective
for the rest of you guys.
That header image really needs to communicate
to your target audience really quickly.
It needs to make that person feel like,
"Oh, I feel like this channel could be for me."
It has to hook them and draw them in.
And two, it also needs to make them feel like,
"Okay yes, this is for me but there's a value here
"that I want to consume."
What is the value proposition of your channel
to your target audience
and how do you visually communicate that?
Now, if you really want to dig into this
and take this topic seriously,
Karen has a full 20 minute video
which I'll link up down below
or a card around here will pop up,
where she goes through all these principles
and much more in detail,
walking you through a channel she's actually designing.
So, if you want to see practically
how well this advice actually works itself out on channel,
I highly recommend you go and watch that video.
She also has an ebook that I'll link down below as well
that will walk you through these principles step-by-step
and teach you how to really design
a really good visually pleasing header image
that converts well for you.
It's only a couple bucks.
I don't get any kickback from it.
I just want to give you guys great resources
to help you guys grow your channel.
And I'd love to hear from you in the comments below
about what principles have you found to be true
and effective in growing your YouTube audience
as far as designing that header image
and converting those viewers into subscribers.
And the rest of you guys read the comments people
are leaving down there.
You will learn a ton from them,
probably even more than you learned in this video
because people here at this community are awesome.
If you're a part of this community,
I loved to have you subscribe.
This channel is all about helping you guys grow
your YouTube audience so you can spread a message
that reaches people and changes their life.
Thank you for letting me and Karen be a small part
of that with you guys here today.
Subscribe and I'll see you guys again next week
for another YouTube training video.
See you then, bye.