10 Ways to Grow Your YouTube Channel
There is no doubting that, over the past few years, video marketing has been on the increase, getting increasingly more popular and accessible for brands. Creating a YouTube channel to promote your brand may be the best place to do so given that people spend one billion hours per day watching videos on this platform. This is true despite the fact that well-known websites like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as your own website, are all excellent places to make investments.
YouTube is frequently referred to as the world’s “second-largest search engine,” and if you know a few tricks and understand the fundamentals of making creative videos, it can help people find your content quickly and drive engagement. However, this is only the case if you have the necessary knowledge. Here are ten of the most helpful suggestions for expanding your channel on YouTube.
1. Structure each of your videos around a single keyword or topic
Developing your video content around a certain theme or keyword is the most effective strategy for increasing the size of your audience on YouTube. If you want your videos to reach the greatest number of people possible, including this phase in the ranking process is essential. However, marketers who are unfamiliar with SEO run the danger of missing it. Use a keyword tool that is unique to YouTube, such as KeywordTool.io, to search for the keywords that have the highest number of monthly searches in the niche that you want to focus on.
It is essential to select your keyword before beginning to work on the content of your film because doing so enables you to produce the most beneficial information concerning the subject at hand. Additionally, it assists you in not forgetting to naturally incorporate your keyword into the video so that YouTube can recognize it when closed captions are applied. After you have decided on a keyword, you should look at the videos that are currently ranking for that subject to ensure that you are heading in the right direction in terms of purpose. Additionally, you should always optimize the titles and descriptions of your videos. You will see an increase in the amount of search traffic you receive on YouTube if you do this.
2. Repurpose already established, high-quality content
Creating and sharing high-quality video is, without a doubt, the most effective strategy for expanding the subscriber base of your YouTube channel. However, the content in question does not necessarily need to be created from scratch. The material you already have that is entertaining, valuable, helpful, and actionable can serve as the basis for some of the best videos you create.
There are a lot of individuals who look for answers and tutorials on how to do things on YouTube. This was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people viewed 4 billion hours of videos on how to do things in only one year. Therefore, content that provides answers to the challenges faced by your audience is an excellent method to attract visitors. Carry out a content audit to identify the blogs, guides, and other high-performing items that you already possess, and consider the ways in which you might reuse them to produce films that are pertinent and interesting.
It is important to keep in mind that the most popular videos on YouTube are often between one and five minutes in length. Because of this, you shouldn’t feel as though you need to produce a movie or write a novel. Maintain a concise and pleasant tone.
3. Interact with the Members of Your Audience
It is essential not to lose sight of the fact that YouTube is a social media platform, and as a result, it requires users to engage in social engagement. You are missing out on a valuable opportunity if all you do is post videos on your website without inviting users to comment or engage in conversation about them.
YouTube gives more favor to channels that have a high level of engagement, which includes the total amount of time spent on the channel, the amount of time spent watching videos, the number of likes and dislikes, and most crucially, the number of comments. Therefore, you should make an effort to respond to each and every comment that you get (if at all feasible!) and encourage users to engage with the use of audio and visual hints.
You can also make the effort to visit other channels and connect with their content. These channels could belong to a brand that is competitive with your own or simply one that you admire. Don’t always wait for the audience to take the lead either; sometimes you have to lead the crowd. Post questions or comments that can boost engagement by asking questions that are relevant to the content or even just asking what content they like to see on your channel or would like to see more of. These types of questions and comments can be posted on your channel. In addition to that, be sure to show appreciation to individuals who have shared your content on YouTube and other channels.
To assist you in keeping track of important engagement data on YouTube, you could find it helpful to make use of a social content distribution and engagement dashboard.
4. Get Branded
Your channel may have wonderful content, but does it also have an appealing appearance? If you want people to subscribe to your YouTube channel and take it seriously, you need to present yourself in a professional manner.
Users will be able to more readily recognize your material if you work to improve the social branding of your firm. Therefore, if you have a website or blog, you presumably already have some kind of a look and feel that distinguishes you from other people and/or companies. It therefore makes perfect sense to continue using that branding on your channel on YouTube. Here is an example from the industry giant gaming Nintendo has 8.12 million followers, and they produce excellent information regarding games and systems. This content includes brief videos of gameplay as well as tidbits from behind the scenes.
In addition to developing a distinct visual identity for your channel, be sure to include personalized URLs in the header of your channel and compose an engaging bio that describes who you are and the subject matter of your videos.
5. Advertise your videos on other social media platforms in addition to YouTube
You are able to cross-promote material across several channels, which is one of the many fantastic things about social media. The simplest strategy for expanding your audience is to share links to your YouTube videos on your other social media networks.
According to the Digital 2021: Global Overview Report, there is a large overlap in users across social media platforms, with YouTube witnessing massive interaction of over 90% amongst users of all the top channels. Specifically, the report cites this phenomenon as an example. This indicates that it should be considered a channel worthy of consideration when it comes to the actions and involvement associated with marketing.
Consider the channels that you are now watching. Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, TikTok? There is a large selection available, and a wealth of innovative concepts for videos to use on social media. In addition, if there is a platform (like Facebook) on which you wish to broadcast videos directly, you can always create a teaser for the full-length video that is hosted on YouTube. This will ensure that you receive the highest possible level of engagement across all platforms. Also, don’t overlook the importance of your blog; it is the perfect place to host your films. In addition, if you have a podcast, it should be quite easy to integrate it with your channel on YouTube.
6. Be Present and Make Yourself Noticed
Participating in videos on YouTube is a great way to give your channel a more personable feel and can be of great use to you if you manage YouTube by yourself or as part of a small corporation. When you give a name to a brand and give that name a face, your audience will be able to connect with you as a human far more readily. Vloggers, life coaches, business coaches, and people who run their own businesses on their own should pay particular attention to this point.
Your appearance doesn’t have to be in every video you create, but you should do it frequently enough to keep people interested in what you have to say. Additionally, if you fall into this category of YouTuber, make sure that your channel features a photo of you (not your logo).
7. Publish Impressive Thumbnails and Make Use of YouTube Cards
Even though they are, in fact, quite diminutive, thumbnails have the potential to make a significant impression. Because YouTube promotes other films through thumbnails in its sidebar, you want your own video to stand out from the crowd as much as possible.
The same is true when searching on YouTube. Videos that have an attention-grabbing title and an appealing thumbnail typically rank better, even if the material itself isn’t as valuable, because the click-through rate on those videos is higher (CTR). Utilize strategies like as highlighted sections, arrows, huge writing, and graphics that are either unexpected or eye-catching to bring your click-through rate up to where it needs to be.
It is well knowledge that YouTube favors channels that manage to retain visitors on their pages for longer periods of time. The fact that individuals are watching your material for longer on average indicates that they are engaged with it. (With YouTube statistics, you’ll be able to observe how long viewers spend watching each of your videos.) You can include connections to other videos or content that is relevant to the exact point in the video that visitors are leaving. You can do this by adding YouTube cards. You have the option of selecting from a number of different card kinds, such as a playlist, a poll, or a contribution, and each video can have up to five cards. These cards take the form of a rectangular box or teaser in the top right-hand corner of the video. Users may exit the video they are now watching; however, they will be routed to other content on your channel and will continue to watch videos there, which will increase your ranking.
8. Promote subscriptions as much as you can.
When visitors “subscribe” to your channel in order to be notified whenever new videos are uploaded, you have one of the most reliable indicators that they are actively engaged with the content you upload. In each video that you upload, you should encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel and maintain active engagement with the users who have already done so. (You are able to view the list of subscribers you have). The following is an illustration of one possible placement for the subscribe button on a video:
Never fork over money to acquire subscribers. In the long term, this will only lead to a decrease in the interaction you receive and will damage the validity of your account. Keep in mind that you could be losing out on a significant number of prospective subscribers if you do not ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel. After all, the more subscribers you have, the greater the likelihood is that viewers will spend more time watching your videos on YouTube.
9. Raise the frequency with which you upload content.
Channel Performance Tracker, Included in a Free Toolkit
If you want your audience to grow, you need to raise the number of videos you post to at least once per week. This may sound frightening at first, but it’s the only way to do it. You don’t need a design firm or a large advertising organization to get things done, so don’t be concerned about that. The smartphones of today are equipped with high-quality video recording capabilities, and applications like Animoto make it simple and quick to edit films, allowing users to produce video content on a shoestring budget. Maintaining coherence in one’s actions is of the utmost significance. You should aim to post at the same time each day or week (depending on the frequency of your uploads), and you should make sure that your subscribers are aware of when new videos will be available. Then you should strictly adhere to your schedule.
10. Become a Social Video (& YouTube) Expert
The prevalence of video as a content type is only expected to increase in the coming years. The survey titled “The State of Video Marketing” found that 86 percent of organizations utilize video as a marketing strategy, and 87 percent of marketers perceive a favorable return on investment (ROI) in the performance of video. Marketers need to have an understanding of the function that video plays and how to use it successfully across all social media channels as consumers become more visually oriented and the popularity of platforms such as TikTok continues to rise.
