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3 Branding Tactics to Get More YouTube Views

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3 Branding Tactics to Get More YouTube Views

Home / Content Marketing / 3 Branding Tactics to Get More YouTube Views
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If you’re serious about YouTube marketing, you’re going to have to be serious about branding. Youtube branding is what separates teenage vloggers from the YouTube channels which seriously rack up views and subscribers.

There are three tactics to Youtube branding:

  1. Basic branding ideas
  2. Video intros and outros
  3. Catchphrases

Each one adds another layer to your channel and helps people remember it. If you learn anything about branding in this article, make sure it’s that Youtube branding is all about getting people to remember something about you and your channel.

1. Basic YouTube Branding Tactics

Ok, you know all about having a logo, right? I hope so, as it is the single most important branding moment in the life of your channel. What your logo looks like is up to you, but take some basic tips and be sure to hire a professional if you want to be taken seriously.

Your other key branding opportunities, which we can touch on quickly, include:

  • Having a regular schedule for when you post. Some channels post at the same time every day; others post weekly at the same time. Find your fit within that plan and stick to it.
  • Your logo should be incorporated into your profile image, and it must be added to your header image in some way.
  • Speaking of the header image, it’s smart to include your publishing schedule in it as well.
  • Your thumbnails are the last visual side of your presentation to look at. These should have a consistent visual look and create custom thumbnails for each video. Don’t ever use the options that YouTube give you, they’re all bad and are in no way optimized for real YouTube marketing.
  • If your videos feature a regular host, consider giving them a consistent backdrop. Think about Ray William Johnson’s Watchmen backdrop, or Philip DeFranco’s living room, as examples of what you can do. Creating a familiar atmosphere is comforting to fans.

To give you a good example of what you can do, check out this header image from The Fung Bros.

youtube branding the fun bros

They use their text logo, having their faces as the profile image is as good as a logo, they have their schedule right there, and they also include their topics. Perfect.

I Learned All My Youtube Marketing from Epic Meal Time (and You Can Too!)

youtube marketing Yes, you read that title correctly. That out of their minds, slightly alcoholic team over at Epic Meal Time were the first to teach me about YouTube marketing. As with all successful YouTube channels, they had to build their own channel themselves. There was no network backing them or an executive producer coming on board to show them the ropes. There wasn’t even anyone with any real experience!

Read the full story…

2. Youtube Branding elements: Video Intros and Outros

To be fair, intros are not very big on YouTube. Nor should they be. On TV you have an opening theme song, but YouTube audiences rarely have the patience for that. Philip DeFranco is a user who has experimented with intros off and on for years. He had an animated intro featuring his monkey logo, but has been using this for the last 3 months:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWgDzc_TnpE

If an established YouTuber like Philip uses an intro no longer than one sentence, “Wassup, you beautiful bastards…” then you shouldn’t push your luck either.

Outros, however, are not optional and should be perfected. If you watched that Philip DeFranco video all the way through you would have seen a really good outro. Here’s another example from How It Should Have Ended:

youtube branding philip defranco

They have included:

  • A push to subscribe to their channel
  • Three different videos of theirs to watch
  • Links to their social media
  • Links to their store

There is so much good stuff going on here that viewers can’t help but click on it. And what happens when they click? They stay engaged with this channel for longer instead of not knowing what to do next and going to Cracked instead. Your viewers are always one click away from leaving you …but with a good outro, they’re also one click away from staying with you.

3. YouTube Catchphrases

All of your favorite TV shows have had catchphrases. From Will Smith’s “You know what I’m sayin’?! You know what I mean?!”, to Sheldon’s “Bazinga!” there have always been catchphrases.

YouTube is a TV show on your computer, and it needs to follow this same pattern as TV to help your viewers remember you. Some famous YouTube catchphrases include:

Those are good, but there is no better catchphrase in all of YouTube land than Smosh’s:

Bonus 4. Branding Yourself on YouTube

Branding is what helps people remember you. There are hundreds of good YouTube channels out there already (and thousands of really bad ones), with new channels being created every day.

Having your YouTube marketing stand out from the crowd so that your audience remembers you, and build your identity online, doesn’t happen by accident. You have to:

  1. Create a great logo and then use it in your basic Youtube branding techniques.
  2. Use intros to say “hello”, and use outros to keep people watching all while staying on brand.
  3. Use catchphrases as a type of auditory branding.

You have to learn and apply each of these points, and preferably before you ever shoot a video. You may still find fame without doing these, but it will not be as quick as with them.ernest-thompson-guestpost

BIO: Ernest is a social media analyst and writer on SMMGuide. Stop by anytime to read all of his insights on social media, including YouTube, Twitter, SoundCloud, and much more!

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