From powerful branding to more traffic, using YouTube for your business can be a cost-effective method to grow your business. Plan videos and build a well throughout YouTube strategy to establish a strong social media presence for your business!
To establish your presence on YouTube, frequent posting is required to a certain extent. However, what people seem to forget is the quality of your content. It does not matter whether you posted three times a week if all your videos are of poor quality.
Viewers will exit and look for other videos on the same topic as yours, and eventually, you will get fewer views, likes, comments, and subscriptions. As a result, you will not be able to gain social media presence or brand awareness.
To prevent this from happening, build a content calendar and plan videos. In the same way, you schedule Instagram posts, you could have your YouTube videos lined up for upload. Also planning your videos before you shoot will not only give you the extra time to improve the quality of your work but also help you secure better locations for your footage.
If you have a content calendar or schedule to work with, you can get started on your project earlier. In this case, when you are editing your video in the post-production stage and wish you had shot the scene from a different angle, you will still have time to make that happen.
Around 720,000 hours of video content are uploaded on YouTube daily. And with over 2 billion active YouTube users, the content market is as competitive as ever. Your viewers are getting savvier day by day and they surely will not spend time watching a low-quality video.
Benefits of planning your YouTube upload
Planning your video goes beyond having a story plot, it also covers script writing, location research and deciding on one, preparing props, and setting up the camera and necessary equipment. There is a lot of work that needs to be done before you post YouTube videos!
All this may sound like a hassle when you could simply just go out and start filming with your phone. However, four major benefits come when you plan video uploads.
- Consistency
As most of you already know, consistency is key in branding. Especially if you are a business account owner, you want to make sure that you have branding elements embedded in each of your video uploads.
Consistency also applies to how often you post your videos. Keep your followers entertained and also expand your audience reach by posting frequently. This will give you a higher chance of your videos being discovered by users who do not follow your account yet.
- Quality
As aforementioned, if you plan your content, you will have more time to revise and reflect. If you do not like a certain angle, or if you suddenly find a better location to shoot, you will still have extra time to make another round of shooting. Quality is the key reason why it is vital to plan video ahead of time.
- Progression
This ties in with the quality component and is linked closely with the organization of contents as well. Over time, after a few months of posting, you will see the quality of your video improve. Even when you see videos of top YouTube influencers, their first video is not as good as their most recent upload.
- Organization
If you plan videos in advance, build a content calendar, or if you have a master Excel sheet to keep track of your progress or contents, it will be much easier for you to track which work needs to be done. This will keep you highly focused and by doing so you will save a lot of time wondering what to do next.
How to plan video for YouTube upload
Supposedly, the first 10 to 15 seconds of your video is the most important part. It is when your viewers decide whether they want to keep watching your video or not.
This means that you have to draft a summary, think of an attention-grabbing headline or title, and incorporate eye-catching visuals and elements that provide a sneak peek of your content. What is the message you want to deliver to your viewers? How do you want to communicate the information?
After you have your content planned out, decide on where you would like to shoot your video. Where do you want to film a certain scene? Who will be in the scene? How will you prepare your actors? Which angle do you want to film? Which mood or theme are you trying to convey?
If you are looking to hire actors or models for your video, plan video schedules in advance to share with them. The same goes for props, if you are looking to rent a certain prop or shooting equipment plan it in advance.
Once you have done your shootings, now it is time to give your videos a sense of brand identity. Branding refers to using a certain font, color scheme, aesthetics, logos, and other elements that your brand uses for all its materials.
Most of the brands will have a designated intro and outro for your video. It works like a signature. Having an identical intro and outro, or at least one of them will also help you build that consistency.
On top of branding, you should also consider the dimension of your video. Ideally, YouTube uploads should be 1280 x 720 in size and 720p resolution. If your clips were not filmed in this dimension or resolution, simply edit accordingly using Adobe Premiere Pro or other video editing software.
Another key element to note is the title, description, hashtags, and thumbnails. Think of a catchy title and informative description ahead of time. Remember, your viewers are not interested in reading a bulk of paragraphs. Keep it short and concise. Also research into YouTube thumbnail size, this is one of the first things viewers use to decide whether they want to watch your video or not.
Once you have your final video ready for a YouTube upload, you should think about when to post them on your channel. Avoid late nights or too early in the morning. Think about when you usually watch entertainment content, because that is the best time to post YouTube videos.
