YouTube for Business: Best Practices With Real Examples

So if you run a business of any size, or are just planning to start your own venture, this article will tell you how to use YouTube for marketing. 

Why do Businesses Need YouTube in the First Place? 

The answer lies on the surface: for additional advertising and to increase brand loyalty. Although at first all the advantages of this approach may not seem obvious: you have to think about how to nicely shoot, edit and post it all, don’t you? However, we encourage you to consider YouTube as another relatively free advertising tool. 

We live in a time where users get most of their information from videos. This means that if they can see your product, get to know you through their screen and have the opportunity to ask you a question directly, the degree of trust in your business will increase significantly. 

Yes, if you’re just starting out, you or one of your assistants will need to handle the matter up close and spend precious time on it. However, YouTube gives you the opportunity to build a very tight community around your brand, and this will have a big impact on your sales later on. Loyal customers are every businessman’s dream. 

As for big companies, for them this is not an issue at all. You might notice that literally every major business has a YouTube channel that is constantly updated with new products, breakdowns, presentations, news, all kinds of things. 

So, as they say, there’s no such thing as excessive advertising, and YouTube gives you all the options you need.  

How is YouTube Great For Small Businesses?  

Let’s stop wasting time and put the strongest card on the table right away. Just think about this figure: according to a 2023 research, 89% of shoppers chose a product only after watching a video about it.  

Just imagine, 89%! And if this hasn’t made you run to start a YouTube channel for your store or barbershop…  

Good videos help in promoting any kind of business. Whether it’s a plumber’s service, a music store, an accessory maker, a fitness gym, YouTube has anything you can imagine. Within the limits of the law, of course. 

Maybe you’re worried about the high competition? We don’t think you should be. If you put your heart into what you’re doing, if you’re confident in what you’re selling, and if you love what you do, you’re bound to find your buyer. Yes, you’ll have to try hard, but we’re in business, you have to be proactive all the time 🙂 

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How Big Companies are Using YouTube? 

Same as the small ones. Even stock giants must constantly manage their brand image, create content and be on everyone’s lips. This requires all possible ways of interacting with your audience, and YouTube definitely offers the best solution for this. Large enterprises also rely on platforms like vendor management systems to streamline their business operations, and YouTube serves as an essential tool in this ecosystem. It helps companies showcase their suppliers, demonstrate product quality, and enhance transparency in their partnerships.

Sure, the content made by small or large businesses is different, but it has the same goals. Next, we’ll talk about which videos are great for startups and for larger companies. 

How to Create a YouTube Channel for Business?

There are two types of accounts on YouTube: personal and brand accounts. However, the only advantage of a brand account is basically that it can be managed by multiple users.  

Also, according to Google Help, a brand account cannot be linked to Google services other than YouTube. That account can be managed by its primary owner, as well as by other owners and administrators he or she has added. It doesn’t require a separate username or password.

— Owners can perform almost any action and decide who will manage the account. There can only be one main owner.

— Community managers can do what administrators do, but they don’t have access to YouTube.

To start a channel under your name: 

— Open YouTube on your computer or go to the mobile website.

— Click on your Google profile picture, after that click Create Channel.

— You will see a dialog box prompting you to create a channel.

— Check the provided information and confirm the creation of the channel.

How to create a channel with a brand name? 

— Open YouTube on your computer or go to the mobile website.

— Go to the list of channels.

You can create a channel for a new or existing brand account:

— Click Create Channel to link it to your new brand account.

— Choose a brand account from the list. If there is already a channel linked to it, you cannot create a new one. In this case, you’ll just be redirected to that channel.

— Specify the required information about the new channel and click Create.

Add channel owners or managers as needed.

Where should a Small Business Start on YouTube? 

To make it simple, let’s pretend you’re in the business of selling confectionery. Cookies, muffins, brownies, cakes – anything. Cooking is a very popular genre on YouTube, but you don’t have to worry about competition. The key is to focus on your own product.  

Let’s start with the most important thing: you need to study your competitors and decide on your own strategy. Research the channels that do confectionery, pay attention to what they offer. Some show quick recipes in Stories, others show the whole stage of production of some complicated product. Think about what works best for you: you can stand in the shot yourself, or have one of your cooks do the “hands-only” cooking. 

Maybe you want to focus on longer videos where you give cooking tips, or maybe you want to do short videos up to 3 minutes in Shorts. These are slightly different approaches to content creation, but we encourage you to take advantage of every promotional opportunity and don’t settle on one thing. 

Identify your target audience. If you’ve been working for a while, you have a rough idea of your “average” customer: their age, gender, preferences and other parameters that are very important when working on YouTube and on social media in general. But keep in mind that this is just speculation for now. Over time, based on the statistics of your videos, you will see the audience that comes specifically to your channel and you can customize your videos just for them.  

Make a content plan and make videos in advance. Again, if we’re talking about cooking, it’s pretty simple here – prepare at least 5 recipes to have on hand for the next month while you figure out how YouTube works. And keep filming more, but try to keep a few videos in reserve just in case. 

Figure out how video descriptions, titles, hashtags, and the like work. YouTube’s algorithm really likes it when it gets an explanation of what the video is about. And, respectively, it very much dislikes being deceived. Again, study your competitors, see how they label their videos, what keywords they choose, and how they construct their titles. This is really important to ensure your videos get noticed. For example, VidIQ service can help with keywords – and Mediacube partners have free access to it. 

What do You Need to Start Filming 

The holy trinity of any shoot: camera, light, and sound. 

When you decide on the type of content that works best for you, you’ll be able to decide on the equipment you need pretty quickly. We’ve written many posts about which devices are best for creators (e.g. here, here, and here), but we still want to give some basic advice. 

There is no point in mentioning any specific models here, the key thing in the matter of buying equipment is to assess your needs sensibly. You hardly need a 4K IMAX camera with a cameraman included to film how you peel potatoes. Plus, professional equipment requires professional skills, so if you’re just starting out, you won’t be able to squeeze all the features out of some super-expensive camera. 

On the other hand, YouTube itself, and viewers in general prefer quality, so you shouldn’t go too cheap when buying equipment. For some creators, the latest iPhone Pro Max will suffice, but again, you need to know the nuances. There are a huge number of tutorials for creators on the platform itself, so make sure you check them out before ordering any tech. 

Besides, you should consider editing programs right away – there are plenty of them to choose from, too. There are more professional solutions, and there is software that works on a building block concept, and it will take you very little time to learn it. Once again, you can read about it on our blog. If you don’t feel like doing it yourself – there are enough freelance editors on the market, so it won’t be hard to find a specialist. 

What does a Big Business Need on YouTube? 

If your company is large enough, and you don’t have time to dabble in content creation, you have two options. The first one is to hire a team to shoot corporate videos, or recruit freelancers. The second one is to arrange a partnership with a studio that specializes in video content. There are plenty of such options in any more or less large city, so there should be no problems with the search. 

Both options, of course, have pros and cons. The former is good because you don’t have to constantly explain to a new contractor what you want to see in the video. The main disadvantage of the latter is just the opposite. However, if you work with the same studio, this problem will eventually go away. 

What Kind of Videos should You Post to Promote Your Business on YouTube? 

Here, as always, it all depends on what your channel’s goals are. With small businesses, it’s pretty obvious: you need to build a community, and to do that you need to reach out to your subscribers and customers as often as possible, win them over, and talk about your products. If we are talking about a business of one, three or even five people, it will be easier to create the right kind of vibe. 

Talk about yourself, share your thoughts, tell stories while you make something with your hands. Or if you’re doing psychology courses, for example – create videos that are relevant to the topics people care about. So your main task is to get as close to your viewer as possible, because they will have to become your direct customers later on. 

As far as bigger businesses are concerned, the YouTube channel has slightly different objectives. First and foremost, in establishing loyalty to a particular brand. If we really simplify the idea, you may not even put information about your products on the platform, but you can show the viewer that your company is very reliable, makes quality goods or services, you can be trusted, and so on. Here the brand should work directly on its image, so it is extremely important to determine the right marketing strategy, develop the tone of voice, make a content plan and carefully adhere to it. 

So What Kind of Videos can Medium and Large Businesses put Out?

1. Video with information about the company

The most obvious, but also the most necessary videos on your channel. Everyone needs to know and understand what your company does, what its values, goals and objectives are. You don’t have to fit it all into one single video. On the contrary, you can make a series of videos in which you talk about the most important aspects of your business. 

2. Workflow videos

Sure, it’s unlikely to be appropriate for companies that consist of 9-to-5 office workers, you can’t squeeze much content out of it. But if we are talking about the production of anything, then it opens up completely new horizons. 

Everyone loves Discovery’s How It’s Made show, and if you have the opportunity to do something similar, don’t hesitate for a second. Even if it’s not about some huge factory and production, people are always curious about the stages a product goes through before ending up on the shelves. 

And with the right meta-data and the right advertising budget, such a video can hit the trends, and you’ll quickly feel how effective YouTube can be. 

3. Staff interviews and useful tips 

This is just an option for businesses that are not involved in manufacturing. Small interviews with employees and lead managers in which they talk a little about themselves and the company are a great opportunity to “reveal” them to prospective customers. This will make it easier for a potential client to make the first contact with the business: they will already know the manager’s face and will feel comfortable with them quicker. 

Employees of the company can also give useful advice in the industry in which the company operates, and thus increase their expertise in the eyes of the viewer. Later on, if your channel has good figures, you can make someone on staff a regular host of a series of Shorts or long-form videos, and their personality will be firmly associated with the brand. 

4. Advertising

Yeah, the good old classic advertising. Take Apple, which not too long ago revealed its collaboration with actress Bella Ramsey. Very short videos highlighting the benefits of working with the new artificial intelligence, but thanks to these videos, the company has the opportunity to launch a full-blown advertising campaign and tell any necessary audience about their product. 

Although it would seem that a huge company like Apple doesn’t need this, the rule is the same for everyone: if you have an opportunity to talk about your product one more time, you should take it. 

5. Talk about the internal culture of the company

While you could say that these videos serve more as a way to reach potential future employees, they work just as well to boost brand credibility. 

Have your employees talk about why they enjoy working at the company, what your traditions are, how you have fun together, and how you deal with challenges together. 

But keep in mind that the team vibe must be really amazing in order for the video to work 🙂 

6. FAQ-videos

It is very useful to make a short video with answers to the same questions that managers frequently face. This can save a lot of time and relieve a little bit of pressure off your employees, who can just share the right link when communicating with customers. 

7. Industry news

If you work in a constantly changing industry where you need to keep your finger on the pulse, it’s a great idea to start a regular series on your channel where you’ll talk about what’s going on in the market. Sometimes these kinds of niche projects do become popular and in demand, which can reflect well on your stock. 

And these are just some examples of the kinds of videos you can put out on your YouTube channel. Try new formats, explore what the crowd likes and you’re sure to see results. 

Examples of High-quality YouTube Channels for Business

Let’s learn from the best and get back to Apple’s channel. First of all, pay attention to the design: all video covers are made in warm colors, which creates a feeling of coziness and warmth. Second of all, even a quick glance at the topics of the videos makes it clear what main patterns the company wants to convey: comfort, convenience, creativity, health, technology. The channel’s banner is also important: in this case, it’s meant to draw your attention to the latest video.

Apple

Let’s take a look at the most recent videos as of this writing. First off, Apple used the Chinese New Year topic and filmed two backstage videos about creating a musical using the iPhone 16 Pro. Naturally, everyone involved praises the tech and talks about its benefits and features. This video can be roughly categorized as Art. 

Next up is a motivational video about the importance of keeping your Christmas resolutions and starting working out. Using Apple, of course. Let’s put it in the Motivation and Health category. 

Then there’s a short commercial that talks about a new feature called Genmoji, which allows you to generate emoji using Apple’s artificial intelligence. Respectively, this is the Technology category. 

Similarly, Apple explores the topic by talking about all of its benefits through the enduring association that using the company’s tech is not just about making phone calls, but also about having certain emotions.

HP

Now let’s take a look at another tech company, HP. What is immediately striking here is that the channel has a completely different message. Instead of Apple’s coziness, we see speed, technological breakthroughs, productivity, and so on. No wonder HP became a sponsor of Ferrari’s Formula 1 races. 

The race is won before it even starts – that’s the title of one of the videos, and we get a clear indication of what the company is banking on. 

If we go a little lower, we see that HP, again, unlike Apple, is building a stricter, corporate image that should be associated with certain internal values. 

At the same time, pay attention to the titles of the videos: it’s no accident that they use the word Imagine, which, despite the relative coldness of the channel’s color scheme, shows that HP employs not robots, but dreamers. 

There is also a series of interviews with company employees on the channel. Again, this format is very well suited to talking about their business “from the inside”. 

Shell

Now let’s take a look at the channel of a company whose products you can’t buy in a regular store: British oil producer Shell. What should businesses of this type do? 

In their videos, Shell has come up with their own niche and mostly talks about science, technology, historical discoveries and experiments of all sorts. And by the way, Shell also sponsors the Ferrari team, but in this case the combination of oil, gasoline and race car fuel is perfectly natural and doesn’t necessarily have to carry hidden meanings. 

Go a little lower and you’ll see videos about rocks, oil transportation, diesel engines and the gist of how motor oils work. 

As you can see, Shell, through its channel, is creating an image for itself as a high-tech company focused on research, innovation and historic breakthroughs. 

Let’s recap. Even after this superficial YouTube for brands case study, you can see how big companies are building their public image using the platform. You need to decide what values you’d like to broadcast and figure out what kind of videos you’d like to see on your channel.  

Mediacube’s Case Studies

For a real-life case study, we reached out to one of Mediacube’s partners, philosopher and writer Fred Elboni. He is the author of nine books that have sold over 700,000 copies. His books and courses cover such topics as self-discovery, courage, lightheartedness, and self-love. And he uses YouTube as a way to promote his business. 

“It all happened naturally. I’ve shared reflections and self-discovery topics on the platform before and noticed that many people were looking for practical solutions to the issues I was raising. Then I thought, “Why not create something that deepens this path and really helps people change their lives?” That’s how I started using the platform as a channel to promote my books, courses and other materials. But my main focus has always been on giving value first and selling later,” Fred revealed.

According to him, YouTube is an incredible platform “because it allows you to build deep relationships with people.” 

“Here I’m not just selling a product, but an idea, a feeling, a transformation. I believe that by sharing my content – reflections, stories, or even insights about self-discovery – I create a genuine connection with those who watch me. This builds trust, which naturally translates into sales. It’s like planting seeds: when you deliver value, people come back – whether it’s to consume new content or purchase something that resonates with them.”

To aspiring YouTubers, Fred recommends being real first and foremost, because people are drawn to sincerity. 

“Also, be patient and consistent. At first it may seem like nothing is happening, but every small step makes a difference. If you believe in what you do and offer something that really helps or inspires, people will notice. And, of course, explore the platform! Understand your audience, analyze what works, and adjust the path as needed,” Fred said.

“I wish you courage and patience. Have the courage to start, even if it feels like you’re not ready. Have the patience to realize that it takes time to achieve consistent results. And most importantly: never forget why you started your business in the first place. When the goal is powerful, it becomes an anchor in the most challenging moments. And yeah, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes teach as much as successes.”

Conclusion 

YouTube offers a great opportunity to promote any business – small or large. Moreover, by taking full advantage of the platform, you’ll be able to create a real community around what you do. Explore YouTube, improve your content, do what you love, and it will start to be more than just fun!

Also, remember that the Mediacube team includes top platform experts. So if you want your channel to bring results, contact our managers and they will tell you how to do it. And with our MC Pay app, brands can easily reach out to creators and close deals with them quickly and cost-effectively. 

Good luck!