The Complete Guide to YouTube for Companies: Benefits, Drawbacks and Operating Tips

As the market for YouTube video grows, more companies are opening and running their own YouTube channels, or brand accounts, and getting strong marketing results from them.
Many of the people responsible, though, are unsure where to start, or want to know what the advantages are and what makes a channel succeed.

This article covers the advantages of a company YouTube account, five concrete steps for running one, and examples of channels that work.

1. What a company YouTube account is

You may already know what a company YouTube account is.
A company account is an account a business uses to run its own video and advertising.
In recent years many businesses have created company accounts as YouTube channels for business and used them as part of their marketing.
When it comes to actually starting, though, how to open a company YouTube account, and
what to watch out for in running it, are unclear to a good many people.
This article covers the advantages of using YouTube as a company, how to set a channel up and examples that work.
If you are planning to use a company account, this should help.

2. Three advantages of using YouTube as a company

Start with the advantages of running a company YouTube account.
They fall into three broad groups.

1. You can get information across more clearly than in text, through expression and visuals
2. You can build a following over the long term
3. You can raise credibility by tying the channel to your SEO content

Each one is worth a closer look.

2.1 You can get information across more clearly than in text, through expression and visuals

The biggest advantage is that YouTube lets you combine more than text and images: visuals, speech and music all together.
Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram limit how much you can say, whether in characters or in running time.
YouTube, as a video sharing service, handles longer content, so you can pack in far more and still make it easy to follow.

2.2 You can build a following over the long term

YouTube lets viewers become committed fans of a channel.
Viewers can subscribe to the channels they like, so they do not miss what gets published.
Once someone subscribes, every upload is another chance for them to consider your products and services.
Being able to reach the same people again and again, and build a steady following over years, is a major advantage of YouTube.

2.3 You can raise credibility by tying the channel to your SEO content

For people to watch your channel, you first need to rank well in search results.
SEO is how you get there, but results do not always come easily.
Running a YouTube channel helps on that front too.
YouTube calls for video SEO, or VSEO, which differs from SEO for an ordinary website.
Optimising video content to rank in search engines shortens the time between creating the account and reaching an audience.
Adding links to your own site from the videos you upload also gives viewers an easy route through to it.

3. Five steps for running a company YouTube channel

So how should a company YouTube account be run?
The work splits into five steps, from Step 1 to Step 5.

Step 1: create the account
To open a YouTube channel you need a Google account.
If you already have one, you can create the channel from it.
Once the Google account is set up, log in to YouTube.
After logging in, click YouTube settings and go to the “create a new channel” screen to open the channel.
You set the channel name on this page.
As this is a company account, use the company name.
The channel name is the first thing a viewer sees, so it matters:
make it clear at a glance what the channel is about.

With the name settled, move on to the brand account details, such as the icon image.
Like the name, the icon is how viewers recognise the company.
Use something tied to the company or the service, such as a logo or a character image.

Next, create the banner image.
The banner, also called channel art or the YouTube header, is the large image across the top of the channel page.
It works like a signboard, telling viewers what the channel is for, what the brand stands for and what the content covers.
The banner appears at a different size on desktop, phone and tablet.
YouTube recommends making the banner at the largest size, optimised for TV, at 2560×1440 pixels.

Step 2: plan the content
Unlike an individual YouTuber, a company account has to produce high-quality content.
Poor quality can damage the company’s reputation.
Securing staff for planning, filming and editing therefore matters.
You also need people to appear on camera. If that is hard to cover in-house, outsourcing may be the better option.

You will also need to buy equipment to raise the quality of the video.
If the budget allows, buy a full set: camera, microphone, computer, lighting and editing software.
It need not be professional grade, but keeping quality above a certain level takes a minimum of equipment and staff skill.
Costs can run high, so list out staff and equipment costs in full and build a budget.

With staff and equipment in place, decide the theme of the video and write the script.
Before starting on the first video, settle the overall purpose and concept of the channel.
Is the aim to raise awareness of the company itself? Or to lift sales of a new product or service?
Starting production without setting the purpose and concept of the advertising
can leave you without the results you expected.
Settle on a consistent theme, then plan the first video.

On YouTube you write a script covering what you will show and in what order, then film.
Shape the script around what keeps people watching and what case best conveys the appeal of the product or service.
A script can include storyboards as well as text.
A properly written script keeps the video free of filler and gets the message across accurately.

Step 3: film
With the script finished, it is time to film.
That means securing a location.
Filming in your own meeting room, on your own premises or in a shop you run is fine; anywhere else, you must get permission from the location and from the people being filmed.
Filming without permission can cause trouble later, so take care.
At a cost, you can also use a studio already set up for filming, with lighting and the rest.

Once the location is secured, filming begins.
Indoors outside a studio, pick the brightest spot you can or make good use of lighting equipment.
Outdoors, watch for background noise. Pay attention to camera settings and framing as you shoot.
Check whether your own equipment and staff are enough, and outsource where they are not.

Step 4: edit
Once filming is done, editing begins.
Start with the thumbnail, which is the face of the video.
The thumbnail is the image shown when the video appears in a listing.
Most people decide whether to watch a video based on the thumbnail.
A thumbnail people cannot help clicking has a large effect on the click rate.
Aim for a design where a single image tells people what the video is about and promises that it is worth watching.

Editing means working on picture and sound in editing software.
Options range from full packages such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro to free phone apps, and they differ in how easy they are to use.
Keeping a company account above a certain standard may mean outsourcing the editing to a professional.
Decide what level of editing you want, and choose an approach that fits the budget and the content.

Step 5: upload
To get the video watched, give it a title that interests people and makes them want to click.
That means saying plainly what the video is about.
Putting keywords related to your product or service in the title also lifts how often it appears in search results.

Set the tags and the description when you upload.
Tags on YouTube are words and phrases you can add to describe a video.
Tags help YouTube understand the topic and category of the video, which makes a high ranking more likely.
Also include a link to the page you want viewers to go to.
That should bring more traffic to your own site.

The complete start-up guide to running a company YouTube channel

4. The improvement cycle and how to analyse a company YouTube channel

Running the improvement cycle matters a great deal on YouTube.
Do not leave a video alone once it is up; keep checking the data in front of you and keep correcting and improving.

There are three things to look at when analysing a video.

1. Judge the thumbnail on CTR, the click rate
2. Replace the title
3. Judge each video on the change in subscriber numbers

1. Judge the thumbnail on CTR, the click rate
Reaching YouTube Analytics through YouTube Studio on the channel
gives you data on each video and on the channel as a whole.
Start by checking CTR, the click rate.
The thumbnail click rate also affects where the video ranks in search results, which makes it an important measure.
As a rule of thumb, replace the thumbnail on any video below 5%.

How to become the thumbnail people choose on YouTube

2. Replace the title
Videos from a channel’s early days often lack keywords chosen with SEO in mind.
Reset the title with the right keywords,
and make content that is closely related to the search terms and that people want to keep watching.
Review the description for the same reason.

Seven ways to write YouTube titles that raise clicks and views

3. Judge each video on the change in subscriber numbers
YouTube Studio shows how subscriber numbers rise and fall through each video.
Work out what the popular, subscriber-winning videos have in common and put your effort into more of the same to grow the subscriber count further.
Videos that lose subscribers, on the other hand, should be set to unlisted.
※ View count is not used as the measure here, because the videos that matter are the ones that win the business more fans.
Growing a committed audience that subscribes is what leads to sales.

Other points you might improve are gathered in the checklist below,
which is worth a look.

Related article:
Nine measures to watch if you want to grow on YouTube

5. Four company YouTube accounts that work

1. M&A Bank
In the M&A industry, information on both buyer and seller tends to be a black box.
This YouTube channel publishes video interviews that draw out what business owners know, built around M&A as a turning point in running a company.
The concept is “the kind of talk owners have at the bar after dinner”, and the near-unscripted, candid conversation makes it worth watching.
By making M&A deals, which people tend to distrust, more transparent, the channel has won trust and brought in deal enquiries.
The cost of acquiring an M&A enquiry is normally very high, so YouTube is an efficient way to win them.

2. Tax Accountant YouTuber Channel!! / Hiro the tax accountant
Hiro, a tax accountant with more than 20 years in the profession and a YouTuber,
explains tax-saving techniques, expense claims and labour-standards compliance at a brisk pace and in plain terms.
It is a good example of using slides and illustrations to make tax, which is hard going in text, easy to follow.

3. Hoikushi Club
A YouTube channel for nursery teachers looking to change jobs.
It publishes videos for working and future nursery teachers on vacancies, changing jobs, finding work, exams, qualifications, pay, annual income, side work and agency work, along with ideas they can use at work straight away and the latest news.
It also posts hand games and origami, things working nursery teachers want to know and that video conveys better than text.
The way it is designed alongside the company’s own written content is excellent too.

4. UZUZ College | reskilling and jobs in digital, IT and DX
A YouTube channel offering interview preparation and IT know-how to new graduates and those a few years into their careers who want to move.
Its videos are carefully made throughout: thumbnail, opening, production quality and ending.
The channel is run by UZUZ, which helps young people into work under the concept “Entertain your career.”, so alongside learning material it covers industries and useful information on job hunting and changing jobs.
It also links up with the company’s own publication, Daini no Shukatsu.

6. In closing

This article has covered how to run a company YouTube account, its advantages,
and the improvement cycle and analysis that go with it.
YouTube gives a company the power of video, which still images lack, to get its own particular strengths and appeal across.
Decide firmly what content you will publish, and with what purpose and concept you will run the channel.
Keep correcting and improving after a video goes up, and work on turning viewers into committed fans.
Unlike an individual YouTuber, a company account has to keep delivering a certain standard of quality.
Weigh the purpose of the channel against the KPIs and the budget,
and run it to a long-term plan, publishing high-quality content people want to watch.

The material quoted in this article can be downloaded below.
Do make use of it.

The complete start-up guide to running a company YouTube channel