How to Brand Your YouTube Channel with Influencer Branding Specialist Megan Acuna: The YouTube Power Hour Podcast 156
“Functional and readable is always better than pretty.”
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Never be left in the dark about branding your YouTube ever again! Influencer Branding Specialist Megan Acuna is here to take care of you, sharing everything you need to know to make yourself into a top-notch brand! She is also a bootcamper and in this episode, she answers a ton of audience-submitted questions as well.
Before diving into YouTube, Megan’s first job out of college was as a Social Media Manager. Working at the company, she saw them spending tons of money and getting very poor designs in return. She stepped up and volunteered to handle their designs and get some experience at the same time. Her work was so amazing that other companies came knocking, asking her to freelance with them.
“I think every single item that you show in your videos should be purposeful.”
After starting her YouTube channel about living beautifully and ethically on a budget, Megan began to notice that there wasn’t a graphic designer for YouTubers who understood and catered to influencers’ branding needs. She stepped up again and began working with a few influencers. Now she’s working with more high profile influencers and she’s doing it full-time from home. As you’ll hear in this episode, she has a passion for design and she shares a lot of the knowledge you’ll need to level up your brand.
“Do what you would click on if you were trying to find the information you were giving to your audience.”
8 Key Interview Takeaways
- Find the gaps that you can fill. Megan went through two massive shifts in her life’s direction when she decided to step up and fill a gap. The first was when she volunteered at her job, and the second was when she decided to be a brand specialist for YouTube influencers. Those inflection points of boldness and bravery are where success is shaped. Who knows what opportunities will open up for you when you decide to step up and try something new, scary or different. If it’s something you’re interested in, go for it and give it your best shot.
- Start with a mood board. When creating your YouTube branding, Megan recommends starting with a mood board. Choose a wall in your house, a scrapbook, or any place to assemble all your photos and images. The activity here is to select images that speak to you – cut up magazines, pick images from Pinterest, wherever you find things that resonate with you. Just focus on what you’re drawn to and don’t make it specific to your videos, your channel or your brand at this point. Once you have about 20 images, start to look at the overall picture and select textures and colors. This will help you determine what you’re intuitively drawn towards. That’s how the foundation of your brand is formed!
- Be unique. Not only should your YouTube content stand out, but your branding should stand out from everyone else in your niche as well. Inspiration is good, but don’t follow the status quo. If you’re using free software to make your graphics or branding, remember that everyone else on the internet also has access to that software and will probably be using the same template elements and fonts.
- Ensure you’re on the right side of licensing. When it comes to fonts, images, music and any elements that other people have created and made available, you really need to ensure that you’re using them as the owner intended. So double-check all licenses for and keep the agreement stored somewhere safe. Data protection and intellectual property are becoming even more important on the internet, especially for creators.
- Mind your thumbnails. Function is more important than aesthetics when it comes to branding. This also applies to your YouTube thumbnails. After you’ve made it but before you’re done, try shrinking it down to 30% of its size and see if you can still clearly read everything. If you’re having a hard time, so will viewers, It doesn’t matter if it’s pretty, people are going to skip right past it if they can’t read it.
- Use color psychology to your advantage. Different colors elicit different reactions in people and can attract or push away your audience. For example, red puts people on alert but can also mean passion or action. Pink is usually very feminine, while green can represent peace and balance. Think about the emotions you want to trigger with your branding and let that guide your color selection. Pick 3 core colors (primary, secondary and an accent color) and use them in all your branding and designs. Then, pick 2 colors that complement the core colors and that help them to stand out.
- Integrate your branding into your video background. It adds an extra layer of cohesion and aesthetics to your channel when you deliberately create the backgrounds for your videos. If you can put in flowers, plants, furniture and designs that fit your brand colors, fonts and other elements, it comes together really well and helps you stand out. It’s also more personal and shows you really put a lot of effort and emphasis in your work when you ditch the backdrop and go for a well-curated background.
- Focus on quality and brands will come to you. According to Megan, focusing on cold pitches and emails to brands will probably not get you where you want to go as an influencer. But if you focus on creating really good, high-quality content, the brands will be knocking down your door. She is an example that you don’t need to have tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers to get a brand deal. Be really good at what you do and push the envelope on your content’s quality, because brands are always watching.
Resources
Sign up for Megan’s Free Branding Guide
Megan’s DIY YouTube Design Kit
Megan’s DIY Banner Tutorial
My favorite free SEO tool for YouTube: TubeBuddy
(Discount code ErikasBuddy for 20% off the paid version)
PR Guide: How to Get onto PR Lists and Get Lots of Free Product
Getting Started on YouTube: The #1 Downloaded Free Niche Discovery Workbook
Connect with Megan
Facebook Group:
Podcast Music Credit: Boop by x50 @x50music
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs youtu.be/o52xQkQWzyU
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