How to Use YouTube as a Yoga Business

If you’ve been following along with our social media for yoga teachers series, then you already know the importance of Facebook and Instagram for yoga businesses (and most importantly, how to use them!).

But why use YouTube?

It’s no secret that YouTube has become an incredible free resource for students to take yoga classes, meditate, and learn about pretty much any topic they’d like to know about.

And don’t you want them to learn that from you?

This platform is another great way to craft your brand, engage your audience, and offer tons of value that turns viewers into clients, customers, and students.

In fact, 1 billion people visit YouTube each month and it’s the second largest search engine in the world (Source).

Read on to find out exactly what you need to get started, how to set up you channel, the types of content you might like to create, and how to get your videos seen.

Setting Up Your Channel

First, the logistics. The first step to setting up your YouTube channel is to sign into YouTube with the Google email address you’d like your page to be associated with. You can create a business of personal page, but I recommend creating a business page. It gives you more options for branding.

Then, select the appropriate category for your page and you’re ready for design.

YouTube allows you to have cover art similar to Facebook, which is great branding real estate space. Here are some recommendations:

You’ll also want to focus on choosing a great title for your channel. It should clearly state what the channel is about and be keyword rich.

For help with choosing your keywords, do some research by searching for keywords in your niche on Google. Note down which keywords give you video results, then check out the free Google Keyword Planner to decide which keywords will work best for you.

Creating Content

You don’t have to make a huge investment to get started. You can start with a simple video camera or the camera on your laptop as you dip your toe into YouTube.

If you decide to take it to the next level, you might like to invest in a nice video camera, simple 2-point lighting kit, and a microphone.

Once you decide how you’ll film your video, you need to decide what to film! As with all your content, it should be aligned with your overall business strategy. What are your business goals and how does your social presence contribute to them? If you haven’t defined your social goals yet, visit this post to learn more about crafting a strategy.

Do you want to educate, inspire, entertain, or all of the above?

Once you decide your strategy, brainstorm types of content you can create that align with those goals. Here are some ideas:

Some successful channels you might want to look to for inspiration are:

What do these channels do well? They….

Driving Traffic

This is where your Facebook and Instagram expertise will come in handy. Promote your videos on your social media platforms through graphics and photos in your feed and on your stories, and share video clips to entice viewers to watch the whole video.

The other key way to drive traffic is by using keywords. What would your ideal viewer be searching in order to find your video? Use those words in your title, caption, and tags. For example, if your video is a yin yoga class and your ideal viewer is a beginner student who would likely search “relaxing yoga,” use that keyword phrase in addition to yin yoga!

What other questions do you have about YouTube for your yoga business? Drop them below!