YouTube is the best place for people and companies to upload videos. But YouTube video production might seem challenging, loaded with endless steps. Not at all! In this article, we will go through and explain the key steps. Let’s get started!
The term “online video” has almost become interchangeable with YouTube.
More than 2.5 billion people use YouTube every month, and collectively they consume billions of hours of video every day. That amounts to more than 215,000 years of video being viewed every day.
That’s A LOT! — A lot for every content creator to stand out and businesses to create something noticeable in all this noise.
Not to mention that there are over 2,500 new videos uploaded every minute.
The most exciting thing is that successful YouTubers can make hundreds or even thousands of pounds every day from their work.
Paradoxically, success and glory on YouTube have little to do with video production. And it’s not just building a YouTube channel.
And so the question arises: how can one achieve YouTube GLORY?
In this article, we will discuss the dos and don’ts of video marketing and creation, highlighting the methods of some of the industry’s most accomplished makers.
In addition, we will provide you with some free, exclusive editing tutorials to speed up the process of YouTube video production.
Following these directions (and using our fantastic outline) will have you producing top-notch articles in no time.
Okay, so let’s get going…
YouTube Video Production: What You Can Do to Have a Successful Channel
Here you will get a solid overview of what is involved in YouTube video production.
The great thing is that if you’re entirely briefed on what you should do and what you can expect, you can successfully manage your project, create engaging content and keep your workload to a minimum.
We break down this production process into multiple stages, and each stage includes at least 2 steps.
But we promise you will never feel blocked after reading this comprehensive guide includes filming, editing, and uploading a YouTube video from scratch. So you will never need anything, yet put things into practice.
Buckle your seatbelts and get ready!
Pro tip: before continuing reading, grab your journal to write down these steps because you will need them when creating your next video. If you have any vlogging accessories, bring these up and hold your favourite cup because, after this article, you will be super!
Step One: Preparation Stage
Before structuring your video and learning how to optimise and upload it to any platform, you need to take in this preparation stage.
Without further ods, let us show you what we’ve learned after years of experience in video production and marketing.
Ask Yourself, What’s the Point
It might sound overly simplistic and obvious, but if you don’t have a good and straightforward answer early on, you’ll waste a lot of time throughout the process.
And your answer should be more specific than just, “I want to have a vlog or blog!”
Let’s be honest; it’s an exhausting process, more than you might things— And you will do it for free, at least at first. So, you need to have great motivation to keep going.
You need to save your power and time for something you’re passionate about.
Otherwise, you’ll shoot things that don’t matter, overwhelm yourself with countless unrelatable footage, and spend long hours sorting your shots.
Eventually, you will find yourself wrestling with a convoluted story!
You will go through a lot until you find out the point of it all.
In contrast, when you have a one-way direction, you will film with the intent, and you can focus on your creative efforts till you get the desired outcome.
So, what is the point?
You might make content because you enjoy it and want to share your perspective or message with your followers you can connect to.
But how do you know if anyone cares about what you will display?
One way: perform research to test the viability of your ideas using competitor analysis tools.
That leads us to…
Conduct Competitive Analysis and Research
The best place to check out your channel idea validity is to start with a bit of competitive analysis.
Find out how the competition is using video in their marketing strategy and use that as a jumping-off point for your own.
You may also use this method to uncover content gaps that can be filled with your own ideas; for instance, if you find that your primary competition doesn’t have a FAQ video, this could be a great opportunity to stand out and give actual value to your potential customers.
First of all, compile a list of everyone you’re up against and then go watch their videos on YouTube.
Then, analyse which of their videos have had the most views and comments to learn more about the interests of your target audience.
This revision stage is critical for YouTube video production because you will see if there are any ideas you can learn from or any common patterns you should use.
Investigate the similarities shared by viral videos, identify the types of content that fail to gain traction, and take note of what people have to say in the video’s comments (you might be surprised by the conversation topics you uncover).
Before investing time and energy in something that may be uninteresting for your target audience, you may use this method to find out what resonates with them.
Understand Your Audience
To kick things off, way before you start recording, you want to find answers to the following questions:
- Who do I want to produce videos for?
- What value do I want to convey to their lives?
You need to know who you’re writing for before you even begin to develop a story idea or script.
For content creators just starting out, identifying your audience is a pivotal step to uncovering your audience traits; for brands and business owners, it’s critical.
If you know who you’re making your YouTube channel for, you’ll make better decisions.
If you have a brand and want to understand how to create a YouTube video, you likely know your target audience; but you need to do something extra here.
Find out what gets their attention to watch on YouTube specifically, what they’re looking for, and the value you will bring them.
Let’s break it down:
Create a persona based on your ideal audience’s demographics, such as age, location, profession and, most importantly, the problem statement. That will help you better understand your audience and enable you to come up with what they’re looking for.
For example, let’s say you are a photographer creating tutorials for amateurs and junior photographers in the UK in the age group 15-35.
You can flesh out this persona further to explore more about your target audience and what they might be looking for, and that could be where you come up with YouTube video production.
While it’s helpful to have a general understanding of your target demographic, the focus here is on more nuanced characteristics:
Answer these questions:
- What issues do they have?
- And what exactly are they going to take away from your video?
- What information do they require?
- What do they get from watching your YouTube Video?
If you can’t answer these basic questions, dig deeper to find out more about your viewer persona because the answers to these questions will enlighten you when planning out and creating your video.
For example, if you have a business (let’s say a sportswear retail business) and want to target prospects through video marketing.
You need to discover your audience’s problems, but you don’t know. For example, you might need to find their lifestyle— a girl who wants to jog in comfortable clothes daily.
So, what are your audience problems?
Exercising in a comfortable suit.
Then your next video might display how you can exercise at home with a comfortable suit like what you’re offering. Got it?
Our Experts’ Take
Our experts recommend performing a few things as you begin researching the wants and needs of your target demographic.
Advice from YouTubers who have been in the game for a while and know what it takes to build a following, especially for a business.
You might start by conducting a survey among your customers to see which topics would most interest them.
In addition, social listening is essential at this phase because failing to do so means providing poor service to clients.
The viewer’s demands and needs, as mentioned in this survey, are only part of the equation.
Sometimes they don’t ask because they don’t know. So, for example, if you offer video marketing services using drone photography and you’re asking about what topics they want to hear from you, they might don’t write done drone techniques because they know nothing about it.
Step Two: Build Your YouTube Strategy
Strategic planning is a must when creating your video content. So, focus on outlining your own YouTube strategy. If you know who you’re talking to, you can tailor your content to them.
That would require some extra steps.
Choose the Right Topic
After identifying your ideal audience, you need to choose the best direction to keep them drawn.
Do you want to know the best-kept secret to a successful YouTube channel (or content platform)?
Thankfully, it’s not a reflection on you as an individual or an artist.
That means you might be the most charismatic person in the world with a brilliant smile, smart and the funniest, but you don’t add value. Then the result is ZERO! No one will watch your useless videos; OWCH!
It has nothing to do with you or anything you could get out of it. Don’t expect to make money off of YouTube videos instantly. You need to invest more in content that your audience wants to consume.
You need to shift your focus on your audience and find what they care about. Not yourself!
Our Expert’s Take
If your video just appeals to a specific demographic or persona, that’s fine. When you’re just getting started, you want to narrow down your target demographic as much as you can.
The general marketing rule of thumb: niche is good. Broad is ridiculous.
But what if your target is broad (for example, 20-60)?
You must have two personas and never target both through the same video!
Instead, focus your content on helping each group achieve their goals; each group has entirely different goals.
It’s important to highlight the specific ways in which your content can improve your viewers’ lives in any sales video.
Eventually, you need to get a sense of what your audience is interested in and give them a reason to keep watching, or they wouldn’t be interested anymore. Empathising with your audience’s interest will help you make better videos in the future.
In a nutshell, find a way to make it useful for your people. That’s the simplest way to start.
Leave Perfection at the Door
The trap of perfection is tempting to all creators. But, no, please throw it out the window.
Just start! It really is that easy.
Seeing hugely popular YouTubers and thinking you need to replicate their success by making videos of the same quality can be intimidating.
Be alarmed: all of those thoughts can be paralysing!
We don’t start from the same place; yes, we are somehow on the same plane, but we pursue different destinations.
Those who stress over first-run perfection are a common problem in the production industry. For fear of not having the best tools and not having everything just right, we prevent ourselves from doing anything, including getting what we need or putting out useful content.
Please don’t… JUST DO IT!
What if you find yourself stuck on perfection?
We recommend you begin by asking yourself the following:
- If I leave the video as it is, will I be successful?
- Are these alterations necessary to ensure that my viewers grasp the point of the video?
- Is there any incorrect information or something wrong that would seriously impact the user?
- Is there something else I could be working on with the time I’d spend editing again?
- Is the worst that could happen if I just post the present version?
Allow yourself to continue on once you’ve answered the questions up top.
You will restrict your potential if you become fixated on producing a flawless video and lose sight of the bigger picture.
Simply because, if you have time now to make these changes, who knows what happens next that will hinder you from making this mind-blowing content.
Step Three: Conduct a Keyword Analysis
We need to delve deeper into some SEO strategies for researching keywords on YouTube now.
These tactics can apply easily to find the best search terms you should include in video content, headline, meta description, and so.
Including well-researched and thought-out search terms in your video’s title can increase views and engagement significantly. (more later)
Start by Making Assumptions
If you need to learn about what your audience is searching for, hold a brainstorming with yourself or your team. Imagine yourself as your audience and explore what they might type in the search bar.
You can learn more by searching YouTube with these terms.
You’ll know you’re on the right track when competitor videos feature you in prominent roles. Take notes and check their view count as you go through them.
Also, dig deeper into high-quality content and identify how to reuse your resources to establish something similar.
Then you can appropriately answer the question of what your content strategy is.
Taking this tack will illuminate the areas where you may improve search engine optimization by publishing more relevant content.
Use YouTube’s Auto-Recommendation Engine
The idea is to find keywords that have a sizable search volume. But, of course, the best place to start will be the platform you will interact with your audience on— YouTube.
YouTube’s auto-recommend search bar will take you to the hottest topics people search for and around your industry and what kind of videos rank in this scope.
For example, when you type “places to visit” in the search box, you find the following popular results:
As you add more words to your search sentence, you’ll find they keep getting more relatable search results that can inspire you when creating your video content.
Then you can derive multiple ideas.
You can take one step ahead by clicking on any of these results and checking out the videos that have ranked for this search query.
Also, you can use filters to check the type of search and the most recently posted videos or sort them by features, duration, rating, and view count.
You might notice that many video titles have similar words— like “top things”, “top places”, “best things”, and “free things”.
These are keywords you should consider, and we will get into more sophisticated keyword research further in the next part, so bring your journal to make a note!
The top videos will tell you what type of content format works brilliantly for that topic, such as list-tip videos, how-to guides, and other content marketing.
More importantly, you must watch the high-ranked relevant videos for your search sentence to pinpoint any content gaps that will fill in your videos.
Pro tip: when creating your YouTube strategy, circle back to these topics to adjust for trends or unforeseen events.
For instance, if you were a travel influencer in Northern Ireland, your content would have been relevant during the Covid-19 pandemic. But, instead, you had to adapt to the global crisis by discussing travelling without actually travelling (which was insane, I am sure!)
Conduct In-Depth Keyword Analysis
You need to use a more sophisticated keyword tool to do keyword research online.
We’ve gathered our favourites below so you can incorporate your search queries.
Expert advice: to improve your video’s search engine optimization, try incorporating a transcript of the video’s dialogue in the video’s description.
Keyword research tools are the best way to profoundly delve into what people are looking for and discover what videos your people like.
While the streaming website doesn’t have a keyword search tool, third-party online tools like Ahrefs let you find top-ranking keywords around a particular topic.
Pro tip: the best place to start is by entering the keyword you got from YouTube’s suggestions, changing the preference to YouTube as a platform, and hitting the search.
For example, let’s say you want to create a video about home restaurants in Belfast!
Ahrefs will give you a global scale and country-wise search volume for your query and make suggestions for others.
Step Four: Prepare Your YouTube Channel
For YouTube video production, you need to know best practices to ensure you curate unique YouTube content that gets more people subscribing, clicking through, and visiting your brand’s homepage to learn more about your offerings.
Create a Catchy and Unique Thumbnail
Your YouTube video thumbnail is your audience’s first gateway to your content. So, you will need an image that instantly encourages users to click through your content.
Not just that; many new users will make a split-second decision about their engagement or interest in your channel based on only one thing: the thumbnail.
Because of this, a unique thumbnail is a crucial part of any video promotion strategy.
When crafting a custom thumbnail, according to video statistics, strike a balance between fun and function.
Your YouTube thumbnail says a lot about your online identity. It performs much like your brand’s logo in introducing your business to first-time viewers.
That means selecting a professional-looking picture showing viewers the video will give the information they’re searching for.
Aim for one that spans your viewers’ attention among other content that works well with your overall channel art and stokes your audience’s curiosity.
The following recommended setting will give you some basics about the best practices for YourTube video production for creating a super thumbnail.
- Set your image to this standard size: 1280 x 720 pixels at a 16:9 ratio. That will ensure your image is easily viewed on desktop and mobile devices.
- Save your thumbnail image in the following formats: JPEG, GIF, BMP, and PNG.
- Use the highest resolution possible: pick an image that not only entices the viewer to click but also makes your video stand out.
- Combine a complementary background image with text: This pattern is one of the most successful thumbnails that compiles your audience to watch the video. Choose text overlay in a clean and large font for the best results.
- Select a vivid image and text colours for readability: Choosing this mix that will align with the colours in the video and your brand identity.
Pro tip: if you haven’t verified your YouTube account yet, you should do that before uploading your customised thumbnail image. Unverified YouTube accounts have no access to custom thumbnails. YouTube channels without a custom thumbnail will hurt their SEO ranking.
Include Keyword in Your Title
We have discussed that before, but we need to explain more!
Regarding metadata, the video title is one of the best ways for YouTube video production if you integrate it with your target keyword. That will ensure you have a popular video.
Placing the exact keyword at the beginning of your video title has an eternal correlation to that keyword’s ranking in YouTube search and algorithm.
The keywords you want your video to appear for in search results should be used in both the content and the title/description of the video. The title is the first opportunity you have to match your video with the interests of your potential viewers as they type in search terms.
The pro practice is to include at most 100 characters.
Ideally, you need to optimise the title for click-through rate (CTR) by employing emotional language, contrarian messaging, and creative capitalisation.
That means you don’t have to appear every word in your title in the same case. Instead, use an intriguing title by presenting an unexpected or shocking idea— of course, it depends on your business module, brand character, and audience.
So, what is an example of this title that can rank highly: “HOW to EARN £+100.000 from FREELANCING with no experience?” Also, you can use emojis to add some fun, as this has been shown to bring up viewer count by younger and millennial demographics.
Step Five: Video Editing Tricks
The internet is rife with materials that can teach you every nuance of video editing. But you don’t need to be overwhelmed with all of this content.
For those looking to get into YouTube video production and create high-quality material without a lot of hassle, a few basic editing pointers will do. The content will make or break your work!
So, what follows is a guide to several tried-and-true methods for elevating your video above the competition.
And don’t skip this part because there is a BOUNCE editing guide at the end of this section.
Add a simple intro
An intro lets your viewers engage with your content instantly.
Write an introduction that gets right to the point. No one has time for a useless bland narrative. It’s important to avoid repeating yourself unless you want viewers to skip your video immediately.
They don’t want to see anything but what you promised you would teach them
Add Lower-Thirds
Placed in the lower third of the screen, a lower-third or chyron provides essential information such as a location, a name, etc.
As we promised you with exclusive free editing material, here are a few videos that will hone your editing skills.
How Can Profiletree Help You?
We will go through all the previous steps plus some extra exclusive services. Let’s see how:
- Pre-production Business Consultation
It’s the first and arguably most important step. That is where as producers, we find out everything about your business, your competition, your marketplace, and, critically, what you want to achieve with the video.
But what if you don’t know what exactly you want?
Reassure! As a client, you don’t need to know what you want to achieve. We can help you out with this too.
That’s why we hold a consultation session to elicit from you what you want to establish, along with advice and guidance on the best practices to achieve it.
- Perform Competitive Landscape Analysis
For YouTube video production, you need to know what people are searching for in your subject.
We use many tools to help us determine how big of an appetite for a particular idea there is based on your type of content.
Also, we are conducting keyword research to find what people are already searching for. Then, we do our best to align our ideas with those popular search phrases.
Then we aim to make the content better, unique and different from what’s already out there to stand out amongst all of YouTube noise.
- Start Producing, Shooting, and Editing
The script is ultimately responsible for the success of your video. The preparation consultation will give us all we need to write a script for you. So, all you need to do is review and provide us with feedback when you check the first draft.
This draft will include hand-drawn illustrations, graphic examples, text, and descriptions of what is seen and happening. The point of this storyboard is to let you visualise exactly what your video looks like before we hit record.
Then we bring this script to life by filming and implementing the storyboard to accompany every element.
If your video requires a voiceover, we will record it next.
And finally, we will start editing, the last major part of the YouTube video production process. That is where all the video details are put together to complete the storyboard and deliver what was planned.
You’re on set if you want any other refinements, such as music and subtitling. We will take care of any final touches in this last stage.
Ready? Let’s do that!
SEE ALSO: Automatic Video Editing Software.
Rahma Ali
ProfileTree // 30th October 2023 
