How I Made My YouTube Channel Trailer in Canva in Just 10 Minutes
With YouTube quickly growing into one of the most active search engines in the world, it more important than ever to have strong messaging as a content creator. Whether you're just starting out or you are in need of a channel refresh, this article can help show you how I made my channel trailer for my YouTube channel (Author Baleigh Shortreed) with Canva Pro in just ten minutes.
THE PURPOSE OF A CHANNEL TRAILER
The purpose of the channel trailer is to educate the viewer or potential subscriber on YouTube of your channel and its purpose. A good channel trailer will answer a few common questions, including: who you are, what your channel’s purpose is, what content you create, and who your demographic is.
“A YouTube channel trailer is a video designed to help viewers quickly learn about your channel. When enabled, the trailer is displayed at the top of your YouTube channel page and plays automatically for your non-subscribed visitors.” — Ron Stefanski on Business2Community.com
HOW TO USE CANVA
Canva is a great, user friendly, and ever growing design platform that has recently had an explosion in popularity. You can use canva to create just about anything from presentation, to Instagram stories, and more. For myself, I use Canva Pro as I am picky but you can get quite a lot done with the free version as well.
*If you are looking to try out Canva Pro for yourself, click anything that says Canva to get my affiliate link. (See disclaimer at the bottom.)*
5 STEPS TO A FINISHED CHANNEL TRAILER
- CRAFTING YOUR CONCEPT
One of the first and most important steps of developing a channel, let alone a trailer, is to understand the niche you want to work in, as well as how to market in that niche. It doesn’t matter if you have a large niche, like Fitness, or a small niche, like Star Citizen Gameplay, a good channel is only as good as its marketing. Therefore, start with the planning stage. It is important in knowing what colors, images, and messaging you want to get across, but you cannot do that if you are unsure of where to start. Start with a blank piece of paper. Brainstorm. Spend 5 minutes or so just dumping anything that you want to do or cover on your channel.
2. AESTHETICS AND IMAGERY
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, well what about video? In a channel trailer, you have the chance to showcase not only video, but also written and verbal word, as well as images and a load of colors. When establishing your channel trailer, start with a mood board. Collect colors images, words, fonts: anything that inspires you and aligns with you message, channel, & niche.
3. CHOOSE YOUR AUDIO CAREFULLY
While I wont go into Copyright laws here, choosing the right audio can quite literally be the life or death of your channel. There are plenty of free as well as premium sources for your audio desires, ranging from YouTube Audio Library, Epidemic Sound, Soundcloud, and more. Choose carefully, and keep an eye out for your rules & laws.
4. COMPILE & EDIT
For me personally, because I cannot at the current moment afford more than free software, I use a combination of free apps when publishing my content. This list includes: Canva (& Canva Pro), IMovie, CapCut, Instagram Stories, and more (depending on what I need per project). Whether you use free or premium resources, knowing how you want your layout of your trailer can help when crafting the final product. It is especially important to know when posting that editing for errors is crucial to the success of one’s channel. Be sure to note any grammar, audio, visual, transition, or other errors before posting.
5. POST & MONITOR
This part is….rather self explanatory. After posting your channel trailer, note the next 24 hours activity of that video, as well as your channel. This as well as any comments or feedback can tell your wether or not you need to try all over again or just make a few key adjustments.
Thanks for reading….& watching???
VIEW MY EXAMPLE TRAILER HERE
Disclaimer: All images found above were crafted or taken from Canva/Canva Pro, to which I do not claim to be my original work. Should you choose to click on a link to Canva.com, the link may be an affiliate link, to which I may take a commision from any sale made from it.
