Video has become a core element of online marketing. Every brand with video production should also have a dedicated YouTube channel to host and archive those videos. With a little work, your videos and YouTube channel become a powerful marketing force of their own. The first step is to build a compelling structure for your YouTube campaign – both your channel and your video series.

Today, let’s dive into the opening moves for a brand to jumpstart their corporate YouTube channel.

YouTube Profile and Channel Assets

Your YouTube profile is the foundation of your channel success. Start with an account dedicated to the company. Fill out the account with the company’s basic and detailed information. From there, create a channel for your video releases. You can create more channels in the future if your video campaigns split into multiple series.

From there, make your assets. Your profile and your channel will both need a banner image, a television background image, and a mobile banner. You will need a logo that functions as a channel icon and video watermark. Prepare your asset portfolio before starting the channel for quick results.

Pre-SEO Your Video Title Theme

You will read a dozen times to use SEO in your video titles and descriptions, so plan for the future. Design a style of video title that organically conforms to SEO best practices. Titles should be compelling, informative, and contain room for each video’s most relevant keywords. A video title template makes your videos familiar and easy to decode by title. You can also ensure that each new title is likely to rank well for industry and topic.

Design Your Video Description Template

Your description template is a little different. YouTube video descriptions are where you place all the relevant information about a video. The first three lines show above the “Show More” container. Decide what your first three lines will be for every video – whether this is a paragraph description or a neat list of video features like host and guest, location, or episode theme.

Many videos have technical details listed in a formulaic way so it’s easy to compare video to video. Video length, topic, category, location, and any number of other facts can be built into a formula that will appeal to your curious audience.

Some companies print their transcripts or lyrics in the comments section as part of their formulaic content.

Even if you write a unique and informative blurb for every video description, use the template to make every description both skimmable and familiar to your audience.

Shoot a Branded Episodic Video Series

With your infrastructure ready, it’s time to shoot and upload a few videos. Build a branded style of video design. Music, graphic assets, even your use of light and color saturation can build a brand. Storyboard your episodes with the same format and arc every time. If you are posting interviews, always use the same intro, exit, and segments. If your videos are how-to’s, use the same formula every time to show the supply list and precautions.

Make each episode feel like part of a whole and lead from one to the next. Creating a marketing video series is a powerful way to win an audience. Some will want to follow from episode to episode, some will enjoy being able to jump-in at any time to a familiar info-formula.

Engage Your Audience Directly

Last but not least, engage with your audience. Ask for feedback and encourage comments through your video content (and descriptions). When you get comments, respond in a positive and constructive way. Ignore or assist negative responses.

In your video content, build in ways to interact with the audience. Ask for write-in questions, ideas, art, or contest entries. Then in future videos, read those responses or show them to the entire viewing audience. This gets your audience involved with the promise of going beyond the audience and becoming a part of the show.

Read more: How to Find New Content Ideas for Your YouTube Channel