There’s no better time than now to invest on how to promote your YouTube channel.
Why “now,” though?
For starters, YouTube recently overtook Facebook as the second most-visited site on the web.
In a day and age where we’re spending up to six hours per day consuming video, the writing is on the wall: we need to appeal to our customers’ binge-watching tendencies.
Of course, the boom of video content has resulted in a flood of brands trying to master YouTube channel marketing all at once.
And so if you want to stand out on YouTube, you need to take advantage of as many promotional tactics as possible.
Below we’ve broken down step-by-step how to promote your YouTube channel to maximize your viewership. Whether you’re just getting started or want to see your numbers tick upward, these tips are all fair game.
1. Write engaging, must-see titles
YouTube marketing is all about presentation.
Like, literally.
Titles are make-or-break when it comes to your video’s performance. Ask yourself: are you presenting your content as “must-see” or “meh?”
The key to crafting killer titles is grabbing your audience’s attention without resorting to clickbait headlines. People crave content that’s entertaining, and they likewise want to know what your video is about from the word “go.”
For example, you can take a page out of the playbooks of YouTube giants like BuzzFeed and WhatCulture. Such videos often rely on listicles, question-based titles or hyperbole (“insane,” “…of all time”) to rack up the views.
Athlean X’s fitness-based videos are another good example. The channel’s content manages to sneak in relevant keywords in its titles while also coming across as conversational.
“Best-of” lists and “how-to” titles are always a safe bet, too. Here are some click-worthy titles from Disney Food Blog:
The takeaway here is that you should definitely spend time mulling over engaging titles rather than sticking with the first idea that pops into your head.
In terms of specifics, an oft-cited study from Tubular Insights notes that YouTube video titles should stick between 41 and 70 characters. Meanwhile, tools such as CoSchedule’s headline analyzer recommends 55 characters for an engaging headline. CoSchedule’s tool isn’t specifically meant for video titles but is awesome for brainstorming YouTube-friendly titles to help promote your YouTube channel.
Manage your media with Sprout’s Asset Library
Get more out of your video content with Sprout’s Asset Library serving as your central content hub.
You can repurpose clips and videos you’ve created for YouTube across social platforms by storing them in the Asset Library. Your team will have access to high quality, on-brand video content all within the Sprout app.
Start a free trial to give our intuitive publishing features a try, or schedule a personalized demo to get a tour.
2. Step up your YouTube SEO
Here’s some food for thought: YouTube videos show up in 70% of the top 100 Google search results.
Heck, see for yourself. Any given product or “how-to” query on Google will return something from YouTube.
In fact, YouTube results sometimes even pop up before traditional blog posts or websites.
Listen: YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world in and of itself. Just like people search for products and need problems solved via Google, the same rings true on YouTube.
Think of your YouTube videos like any other piece of content that needs to be optimized in terms of keywords, tags and so on.
In order to increase your chances of showing up, you’ll want to follow some of the best practices for YouTube SEO:
- Titles and description: Include target keywords in your titles and descriptions. You can use a tool like Keywordtool.io to help you find keyword ideas.
- Mention keywords in your video: According to Brian Dean of Backlinko, saying your target keywords in your video can help YouTube better understand what your video is about.
- Engagement: YouTube uses engagement (likes, comments, views) to help determine where videos rank in its search results.
- Categories: Use categories to help YouTube get a better understanding of who to show your videos to.
- Tags: In addition to categories, you can also add tags to your videos to give YouTube more context about your content. You can use quite a few tags, so add as many as you can think of.
Just like with SEO for your website, don’t keyword stuff. Use keywords when it makes sense, not just for the sake of having them. You can check out our guide on how to optimize your YouTube videos for more specifics.
3. Figure out what your audience wants
With any type of content you produce, you want to make sure it’s aligned with what your audience wants. Whether you’re writing a blog post or creating a video, start by getting to know your audience and what type of content they want to see from you.
If you’re just starting to promote your YouTube channel, take a look at your competitors or other video creators in your industry. Look at which of their videos get the most views and engagement. This will give you an idea of what topics your audience wants to learn about and what style of videos they prefer.
Another solution is to look at your YouTube Analytics if you’ve already uploaded videos. YouTube gives you detailed information on audience demographics, location, engagement and other helpful stats.
4. Engage with the YouTube community
Although you might not think of YouTube as a social network per se, the platform does represent a thriving community where users are engaging via content via profiles, “likes” and comments.
Sounds pretty “social” if you ask us.
As noted earlier, any sort of interaction with your viewers is seen as a positive signal to YouTube. If nothing else, engaging with your subscribers can help you foster a stronger connection with your audience. “Liking” comments only takes a few seconds, as does pinning a top comment as a sort of personal note to your subscribers.
For example, music channel Artzie Musik regularly “likes” and responds to comments on its recent uploads. The channel’s creator regularly goes back-and-forth with subscribers to show appreciation and answer questions, too.
Just as you’d respond to comments and engage with your followers on any other social network, YouTube is no different.
5. Customize your thumbnails
One of the simplest yet effective tactics to promote your YouTube channel is creating custom thumbnails.
Think of your title and thumbnail as a sort of one-two punch to grab a viewer’s attention.
By default, YouTube snags a screenshot from any given video and uses it for the thumbnail. Unfortunately, sometimes the image it grabs will be a blurry shot of you adjusting the camera or a transition.
Not a good look, right?
Creating thumbnails yourself not only makes your videos look more appealing at a glance but also signals a certain sense of professionalism.
Thumbnails don’t have to be rocket science, either. You can even create a template with a particular font and style to make it more consistent and on-brand. This is made especially easy with the help of image creation tools such as Canva. Here’s a good example from Binging with Babish:
6. Buy YouTube Views
YouTube Views are uncommonly important! YouTube puts videos with the most views to the top of the search results. The more views the video gets — the more money the YouTube can make from ad revenue. When you buy YouTube Views, you motivate users to view your videos, because they already contain a large amount of views, meaning they are already something interesting for others.
7. Buy YouTube Likes
YouTube Likes is very essential to your video ranking on YouTube search. If you want your videos always to remain on the first page and trending category on YouTube search then you need to buy YouTube Likes. We will make sure that you receive only high-quality services and real Likes.
8. Buy YouTube Subscribers
YouTube Subscribers will give you the freedom quickly to get the target audience, because, usually, users prefer channels with a large amount of subscribers. This is a kind of indicator of popularity and importance. A large number of subscribers shows that you are creating something interesting and attractive.