YouTube Thumbnail: Your Guide to Making a Scroll-Stopping Image YouTube thumbnails, the small, clickable snapshots that viewers see when they search for videos, can be just as important as a video’s title because they provide a preview of your video and entice viewers to click through.  If your video has an ordinary or sub-par thumbnail, it won’t persuade anyone to watch your content. YouTube could deem the video irrelevant and won’t rank it in the search results or distribute it through the "Recommended Videos" feed. Since your video’s click-through rate is one of the most important ranking factors in YouTube’s search algorithm, especially during its first hour on the platform, an eye-catching thumbnail can make a huge difference in ranking number one for a query and not ranking at all. Creating vibrant YouTube thumbnails can also instantly grab people’s attention and this can help you differentiate yourself on a platform full of standard thumbnails all screaming for attention. Below, we’ll guide you through an easy four-step process for creating visually appealing YouTube thumbnails that will cut through the noise, boost your video’s click-through rate, and lift your rankings. Table of Contents: How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail 8 YouTube Thumbnail Makers   1. Visit a free online YouTube thumbnail maker. There are eight free online YouTube thumbnail makers listed below, but we featured FotoJet in this guide because it’s one of the only YouTube thumbnail makers that doesn’t make you sign up...

YouTube vs. Vimeo: Which Video Platform is Best for Your Business? While YouTube is obviously the largest video hosting platform on the web, it might not be the best choice for every business. There are other factors to consider when choosing a home for your video marketing — such as cost, tech support, and video and audio quality — to name a few.  To help you find the best fit for your company's unique needs, we compared YouTube directly against the smaller, more niche platform Vimeo across a number of factors. Read on to see the results, and decide for yourself. Number of Users Winner: YouTube There's no real competition here. YouTube commands an audience of over two billion monthly users — almost half of the entire internet-using population. Vimeo's 230 million monthly viewers and 1.9 million paid subscribers seem insignificant in contrast. For maximum reach, choose YouTube. Search Optimization Winner: YouTube YouTube leaves Vimeo in the dust here. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet, right after parent company Google. If you're planning to create a video tailored to a specific search query, (e.g., how to pick a font for your website), your video belongs on YouTube. Not only will it appear in search results directly on YouTube, but Google also seems to favor videos from YouTube over those posted on other platforms. Mobile Winner: YouTube 70% of all YouTube views come from mobile, and the YouTube mobile app is absolutely dominating...

10 of the Coolest YouTube Banners We've Ever Seen I'm always inspired by the creativity that goes into YouTube banners, but if you're anything like me, you've probably wondered how you can create one for your own channel. Well, you're in luck!I'm here to uncover some of the best-kept secrets about YouTube banners. In this article, you'll learn what makes the best YouTube banners so eye-catching, and how you can create your own gorgeous channel art. To answer those questions, I've included some excellent resources for YouTube banner templates (spoiler alert: they're free), as well as 10 creative channel banners that inspire us as content creators. What makes a good YouTube banner? A good YouTube banner is eye-catching, readable, and conveys the brand of the YouTube channel. The best YouTube banners include the brand's logo and channel name. Some great YouTube banners include high-quality photos and graphics to create visual interest. No matter how good your YouTube banner looks, the last thing you want is for yours to look the same as someone else's. That's why the guidelines I mentioned for great channel art are pretty simple. You can build the foundation of your design using those best practices, but your unique creativity is what will set your banner apart from the crowd. To see these tips in action, let's look at some fun and creative YouTube channel art examples. YouTube Channel Art Examples 1. Jillian Harris Simple, chic, and feminine. Jillian Harris' YouTube channel art conveys exactly...

How to Add YouTube Videos to Your Website: A Step-by-Step Guide Video adds value to your website, and the right videos can help drive increased traffic and conversion. As noted by Forbes, users retain 95% of the message when they watch videos compared to just 10 percent by text, making video a great starting point to streamline connection with prospective customers. Your best bet for videos? YouTube. With more than two billion logged-in monthly users, YouTube videos now reach 74% of adults in the United States — so it’s no surprise that the platform is used by almost 90 percent of marketers to drive user interest. Ready to leverage video on your site and capture the growing YouTube marketplace? Here’s a step-by-step guide. The Benefits of Adding Video to Your Website Video rules the digital media marketplace, but popularity alone isn’t enough to drive widespread adoption. In practice, YouTube videos come with key benefits for your site, including: Improved User Engagement As noted above, visitors to your site retain more information when viewing videos than reading text. This makes it possible to drive improved user engagement by creating compelling content they’ll remember long after they leave your site — and will hopefully bring them back again. YouTube also incorporates features to increase engagement, like sharing options and playlists. Reduced User Frustration If users have to scroll through walls of text just to find the basics of your brand or understand your value proposition, chances are they won’t stay...

Why People Visit YouTube & How to Engage Them YouTube is the second largest website globally with over 2 billion global users. Still, despite its huge audience, it can be challenging to gain engagement on your videos. Ultimately, to gain views, likes, shares, and even subscribers, your content will have to engage at least part of YouTube's huge audience while fulfilling their needs. But, if you're just starting on YouTube, or struggling to grow your strategy, you might not know what the platform's audience wants just yet. To help marketers learn more about YouTube's huge user pool, and their interests, I asked nearly 300 consumers: "Why do you most commonly visit YouTube?" Here's what they said. Why Do People Visit YouTube? Before we dive into what people picked as the most common reason they visit YouTube, it's worth mention one thing you won't see on the list below: product discovery. Just a measly 3% of respondents visit YouTube primarily to "learn about products." Data Source However, you shouldn't panic just yet. Keep in mind that we just polled a small group of general consumers about their most common reason for visiting YouTube. Had we asked them for their top three reasons, polled a larger group, or polled a specific demographic, the results could have been different. It's also worth noting that many demographics search out product videos when they're researching a prospective purchase. In fact, in a 2020 recent survey, 94% of people said they watch explainer...

How to Grow Your YouTube Channel Did you know that YouTube currently has 2 billion active users a month and is projected to grow to almost 3 billion active users by 2025? It's one of the fastest-growing and most popular social networks today. Plus, it helps people grow their businesses. In fact, the number of channels earning six figures per year on YouTube grew more than 40% y/y, the number of channels earning five figures per year on YouTube grew more than 50% y/y, and the number of channels with more than one million subscribers grew by more than 65% y/y. Now, all that being said, you might be wondering, "How do I grow my YouTube channel so I can drive more traffic to my website and revenue to my business?" To help marketers and business owners answer this question, we asked 300 consumers why they most commonly subscribe to YouTube channels. After looking into the data, we'll dive into our findings to help you better design effective strategies toward connecting with your audience on YouTube. Let's get started. Why Do Consumers Subscribe to YouTube Channels 30% of respondents said they most commonly subscribe to YouTube channels because the channel publishes how-tos or educational content about their career or industry. 21% of respondents subscribe to channels because the channel publishes how-tos or educational content about their hobbies. And 17% of respondents said they subscribe to YouTube channels because they post funny or entertaining videos. To review the...

The Beginner's Guide to Editing YouTube Videos As a video marketer, editing might be the most important part of post-production. If you can’t seamlessly weave your shots together or get your cut to hit the right frame, your video will seem unpolished and disengage your viewers. That said, if you’re operating on a shoestring budget, you might not be able to afford video editing software. So what’s a video marketer to do without editing software? Fortunately, YouTube offers a web-based video editor that is entirely free and accessible through its platform. In this post, learn how to use YouTube’s native video editing tools, as well as best practices to keep in mind when editing your videos to ensure you’re keeping your audience engaged and interested in watching more. How to Use YouTube's Video Editor 1. Sign in to YouTube Studio 2. On the left sidebar, click Content. 3. In Uploads, click the thumbnail of the video you want to edit. 4. In the left sidebar, click Editor. 5. Trim the beginning or end of your video. If you want to trim the beginning or end of your video, select Trim, which is next to your video’s timer and right above your timeline panel. You should see a blue box around the sides of your video timeline panel. Drag them to chop off the parts of the beginning or end of your rough cut that you don’t want to include in your final published version. Click Preview...

10 Outdated YouTube Marketing Tactics to Drop, According to HubSpot Video Managers When YouTube first launched, I was in 6th grade and all my friends were creating funny videos to upload. See, back in the day, YouTube was mainly used for teens to upload funny, entertaining videos. Anyone else remember Smosh and Fred? I'm aging myself, but I digress. Back then, using YouTube for business and marketing was a new concept. Now, more than 15 years later, it's entirely different. Brands and businesses use Youtube to engage and connect with their audience. For marketers, this means your YouTube strategy needs to have evolved from the beginning days of the social platform. If you haven't and are still using old YouTube strategies, you won't benefit from having a channel. Let's review the top outdated YouTube strategies that you need to abandon and what you should do instead. 1. Focusing on selling products rather than helping your audience. While YouTube might have been a place for entertainment before, it's now also a place for people to learn new skills and conduct research. Nelson Chacon, the principal marketing manager of YouTube at HubSpot, says, "Don't sell, help. Users on YouTube like to be educated and not sold to." When businesses first started using social media sites, one of the older marketing tactics was to sell, sell, sell. But users don't want to be sold to. They want help. If they go to your business's YouTube, they probably want information too....