How to Make and Add an Intro Video to Your YouTube Channel

Learn how to add an intro video to your YouTube channel and step up your branding and marketing game.

Five elements need your attention when branding your YouTube channel: consistency, logo, color, typography, and imagery. You want to translate your brand's core message and values into tangible visual elements. Suppose you already worked on developing brand identity. In that case, you have all the parts, and with little fine-tuning, you’d be ready to launch your channel in no time.

After all, one thing that most of the successful YouTube channels have in common is branding consistency. By adding a short 5 seconds clip at the beginning of your videos, you will make your channel look professional. You will also help people associate the content they are watching with your brand.

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What’s an intro for YT videos?

You can always add a logo bumper and brand message at the beginning of every video you create. This is the simplest solution and requires no additional effort on your side. But what if you decide to change your logo, your brand message, or completely change your brand's name? Or what if you want to have a special intro for a specific holiday or company event? In that case, uploading a separate video file that you can change quickly is the best and easiest solution.

An intro for YouTube videos is a short video introduction that people see before the video starts. It usually lasts from 3 to 15 seconds, and most channels use it to show their logo and brand slogan. This is a perfect way to amplify your branding and make your content look more professional. When viewers see your logo and message at the beginning of your video, they’ll quickly make an association between the videos they like and your brand.

Short checklist for intro video that works

The same rules about building brand identity apply here as well. You want to pay attention to the overall visual identity of your channel. You should use custom thumbnails, specific fonts and have your brand colors and logo easily noticeable. After all, consistency is one of the key elements of building a successful brand identity.

This short video is one of the visuals you can prepare while making brand identity elements for your YouTube channel. Few things will require special attention to make the entire branding feel well-rounded and professional.

• Think about your core audience and make sure that the intro video resonates well with them. YouTube is a very dynamic platform, and content competition is tremendous, so you have only a few seconds to capture someone's attention.
• Think also about the content you are planning to publish. Will its purpose be to entertain, inform or educate? Will the language used be formal or informal? All these things should reflect branding elements.
• Logo, fonts, and colors should be the same as the ones your brand uses on other platforms. They are part of your brand identity and should be part of a consistent image.
• Carefully select the right music. For a good video, music is equally important as good video production. If there is hell, the music in the background is royalty-free generic music from any of the millions of videos made by startups around the world.

How to make an intro video?

Depending on your skills and your budget, there are multiple options available. You can make the video on your own with an application such as Adobe After Effects, use a customizable template, try some of the online platforms or hire a professional.

If you know how to use Adobe After Effects and are skillful with motion graphics, get in touch with us. We are always looking for new talents.

Customizable templates are always a quick and safe option. Depending on the license type, it can cost you from just 10$ to a couple of hundreds. The drawback here is the fact that the template you are purchasing isn’t exclusively yours.

Online platforms such as Biteable, Spark.Adobe, or Renderforest offer a great variety of templates, extensive music libraries, and customization options. Just upload your logo, adjust the text and colors, select the music and let the platform do the rest. For creating basic short introduction videos, a free account on these platforms should be enough.

Credits: YouTube Academy

First, you want to upload the video to your channel and make sure it is unlisted.

Hiring a professional designer might seem like an expensive thing. Technically you can hire someone to create a short introduction video. This might cost you less than buying a premade template. However, if a professional works on developing your brand identity and elements, you can always negotiate things like motion graphics to be included in the package.

How to add an introduction video to your YouTube channel?

Once you have your intro video rendered and ready, the entire process of adding it to your YouTube channel is pretty straightforward.

Sign in to your YouTube account and click on your avatar in the top right corner. From the drop-down menu, select YouTube Studio.

While you are in YouTube Studio, go to the Channel customization section and then click on a Branding tab.

Here you will find a section named Branding introduction. Click on the button Add branding info.

Once you’ve found your video, click Save. It might take a while until the introduction video starts to appear at the beginning of your videos.

This is just the beginning

With so much content uploaded every minute, the competition for your audience’s attention has never been so big. That’s why the old mantra “content is the king” especially applies on YouTube. The best branding in the world won’t be able to help you if your content doesn’t resonate with your audience. Do diligent research of your competitors and plan your content carefully and always pay attention to details.

If you’d like to learn more about ManyPixels, be sure to check out our scope of service, some of our best works, or feel free to schedule a demo session for an opportunity to ask any questions and see how the service works!