Are you an aspiring YouTuber looking to grow your channel and monetize your content? In this article, we will provide you with 11 proven strategies to help you achieve your goals of growing your YouTube. With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is a goldmine for content creators seeking to build an audience and generate income. In fact, YouTube has attracted lots of well-known influencers and content creators. However, with the platform becoming increasingly saturated, it’s essential to have a solid plan in place to stand out from the competition.
In this guide, we will cover a range of effective techniques. Whether you’re just starting or have been struggling to gain traction, these practical tips and tricks will give you the knowledge and tools you need to succeed on YouTube. So, let’s get started on growing your YouTube channel and turning your passion into profit!
YouTube in 2023
With billions of hours of video content being watched every day, YouTube is a powerful platform for content creators to grow their audience and reach. To grow your YouTube channel, it’s important to create engaging and interactive video content that resonates with your target audience. Utilize keywords and tags to optimize your videos for search, collaborate with other creators in your niche, and promote your channel on social media and other platforms. Despite competition from other sites, YouTube remains a top destination for video content and offers endless opportunities for growth and success.
With so many people dreaming of becoming “YouTubers,” videographers or entertainers who produce videos on the platform, it has become difficult to grow a YouTube channel without proper video marketing. Nevertheless, it is not impossible with the right strategies and tactics.
Let us now look at some ways that you can grow your YouTube channel to gain more visibility.
1) Create engaging content
Content marketing has gone through a considerable transformation over the past few years, and videos have emerged front and center. It is now arguably the most effective strategy for brands to connect with their audiences. Despite the potential of video marketing, companies and individuals do not consider it a priority, choosing to focus on creating blog content, case studies, and even white papers instead.
Video marketing is not as complex as it seems. It is merely about finding out what video content audiences love to watch and then offering it to them to build brand awareness, captivate customers, and influence people to take action.
Some engaging types of video marketing include vlogs, BTS/company culture, interview-style content, webinars, tutorials, live streaming, user-generated content, and more.
Other types of video content that you can use
While blogs are great, vlogs or video blogs are much better. Vlogs offer the brand a cost-effective platform to establish a unique brand voice and personable image that resonates with your target market. It is important to note that your video content does not need to be Oscar-worthy. Rather, as long as it is shot in an authentic way, it will resonate with audiences. YouTube celebrities, athletics, and influential entrepreneurs have been producing vlog-style content for quite a few years now because it is compelling to build robust, transparent, and lasting relationships with audiences.
Secondly, brand storytelling can set a company apart from its competition while also motivating employees and captivating consumers. For this reason, one of the best types of video content that can be used is behind-the-scenes videos that reveal a company’s culture. They offer an immersive experience by allowing viewers to make a connection with you.
Regardless of what type of video content you choose to use, video marketing is all about presentation. This also includes creating compelling titles that viewers will click on. The best type of titles should capture attention without resorting to clickbait. While clickbait content might be helpful to attract attention, it is advisable to create more transparent titles. That is, unless you want to earn a negative reputation for creating misleading headlines.
2) Optimize videos for visibility
As with any other piece of content, your YouTube videos need to be optimized in terms of keywords, tags, and so on. To increase your chances of ranking higher on YouTube, you should consider these strategies for YouTube SEO. Those include:
- Using target keywords in your titles and descriptions
- Mentioning your target keywords in your video so that YouTube can better understand what your video is about
- Using engagement (likes, comments, views) to help determine where videos rank in the search results
- Using categories to help YouTube get a better understanding of whom to show your videos to
- Adding tags to your videos to give YouTube more context about your content.
3) Figure out what your audience wants
Creating great content is one thing, but making sure that audiences view it is another. As you’re creating your content, you need to make sure that it aligns with the kind of content your audience wants. The process of video creation should begin with getting to know the audience you are trying to target and understanding what type of content they want to see from you. You can start by looking at videos from your competitors or other video creators in your industry. Understanding which of their videos get the most views and engagement will give you an idea of what topics your audience wants to learn about and what style of video they prefer. Also, you need to pay attention to trending topics so that you can be the first to create content surrounding it.
If you have already uploaded videos on your channel, another solution is to look at your YouTube analytics. This will give you a good idea of which content has performed well in the past. YouTube provides people with detailed information on audience demographics, location, engagement, and other helpful statistics.
4) Engage with the YouTube community
As with any other social media platform, YouTube demands users to actively engage with their audiences. If you are merely posting videos without encouraging comments and discussion, you are missing out on the full potential of the platform.
The reason why YouTubers and celebrities are so successful on the platform is that it rewards channels with great engagement, including overall time spent on the channel, watch time, likes and dislikes, and most importantly, comments.
Promoting your YouTube videos is not the only thing you need to grow your channel; you need to play an active role in the community. This allows you to network, get feedback, and share interests with people who have the same goals as you. Engaging with other YouTubers and initiating as well as joining conversations can help you build positive relationships with the YouTube community. Likewise, going to events like VidCon can help you meet other creators like yourself and find the perfect people to connect with in your niche.
As you can see, you need to have a comprehensive social media outreach strategy in order for your interactions on YouTube to be successful.
5) Customize your thumbnails
Customized thumbnails may not seem like a necessity, but they can have a significant impact. This is a simple yet effective way to promote your YouTube channel. The reason for this is that the platform generally advertises videos via thumbnails in its sidebar. So your thumbnail will help your video to stand out. Due to the YouTube algorithm, videos with an attractive thumbnail will usually rank higher because they have a higher click-through rate (CTR).
Usually, when a video is published, YouTube will take a screenshot from any video and use it for the thumbnail. While that does help, sometimes it might snap an image that is not attractive to audiences. For this reason, creating thumbnails yourself or getting a professional to do this will make a video look more appealing and create a sense of professionalism. Creating visually appealing thumbnails is not difficult either. You can use image creation tools to create a template with your aesthetic to make it more consistent and on-brand.
6) Cross-promote your videos on YouTube
Even if you didn’t have a YouTube channel, you would use your website to promote your brand as well as the content you create. Generally, you would promote your content on all your social media channels and online platforms. The same applies when trying to promote your YouTube channel. Doing cross-promotion across all your channels can make your brand look more professional. You never know how many new subscribers you can get by promoting your videos on social media. Some ways that you can do cross-promotion for your YouTube videos include:
- Creating video teasers to build up anticipation
- Providing behind the scenes so that your followers/subscribers can get a sneak peek of how you create your videos
- Alerting your followers when you have a new video out
7) Run a contest or giveaway
There is nothing subscribers love more than free stuff. For this reason, you can encourage people to subscribe to your channel and engage by hosting a YouTube contest or giveaway. Nevertheless, you need to be careful with hosting frequent YouTube contests and make sure that you are getting results from your efforts. Failure to do this will result in a waste of time, money and resources.
Before you launch your contest, you need to make sure that you are following YouTube’s policies. One of the best ways to run a social media contest is to offer participants gifts related to your brand. This ensures that you attract people who are genuinely interested in your brand rather than people who just want freebies. Additionally, by giving away branded gifts, you can encourage the creation of user-generated content, which is an authentic way to market your brand.
8) Embed your YouTube videos
As mentioned previously, having a website for your brand is essential. Apart from uploading videos with options to share your links in different locations, YouTube does not provide content creators with many opportunities to give their viewers more information.
In reality, some of the best places to promote your YouTube channel go beyond the platform itself. In fact, embedding video content on your site has been proven to improve conversion rates and lower bounce rates on-site. This means that having a detailed blog to coincide with your channel can give people the option to learn about your content by reading, watching, or both. If you already have a blog, you should embed your videos on your blog and promote them to your audience. Nowadays, most website builders also provide a YouTube widget that you can add to your website.
9) Collaborate with other creators and brands
A tried and true tactic that successful YouTube stars have used is to grow their following through collaboration with other users. Collaborating with another YouTuber can help you grow your channel because together you have two channels worth of subscribers watching your content. This leads to a wider reach for both of you. When you work with another content creator who people like and trust, their viewers are likely to check out your channel. These people may eventually turn into loyal subscribers.
In order to collaborate successfully, you need to find a content creator who shares similar passions with your brand so that your content continues to come off as authentic. More specifically, this person should either be an authority in your niche or complement your niche.
10) Run a paid YouTube ad campaign
Investing in organic growth for your YouTube channel is the safest way to gain visibility. Be that as it may, it does not hurt to complement this with a bit of paid promotion to speed things up.
Creating a YouTube ad campaign can help drive viewers and subscribers to your page. Even so, it is essential to restrict yourself to ads that are within your budget. You can try some types of video ads, including TrueView Ads, Video Discovery Ads, and In-Stream Ads. TrueView ads are the standard video ad where advertisers only pay when viewers watch or interact with their ad. The second type of YouTube ad shows up on the platform’s homepage, search results pages, and related videos on the platform’s video watch pages. Lastly, in-stream ads play before someone watches the video they have selected on YouTube.
11) Increase your uploading frequency
Finally, to grow your audience, you need to increase your posting frequency to at least one video a week. While that may seem intimidating, there is no need to employ a design team or editing team or create a big advertising budget. Currently, there are tools that smartphones have that offer excellent video recording ability and make editing videos easy for anyone.
Driving engagement with quality content is what creates engaged followers and transforms them to advocates for your brand. Being consistent with posting content will keep your subscribers engaged and updated about when new videos are posted.
Conclusion
YouTube will continue to be a powerhouse for video consumption. There are already so many content creators on the platform. Creating unique content and using the strategies listed above will give your channel the growth that it needs.
How Pressfarm can help you grow your YouTube channel
Do you want to create a buzz for your YouTube channel? PR agencies like Pressfarm help brands create newsworthy content to capture media attention and inspire target audiences. With a professional press release, some compelling guest posts, and a creative media kit from Pressfarm, you can make a memorable impression with your channel.
The experts at Pressfarm also go the extra mile for you by giving you access to their PR database of over 1 million journalists. Pressfarm filters the contacts so that you can find the perfect people to help you spread the word about your YouTube channel.
As a client, you also get customized media lists built personally by an account executive to help you connect with the best journalists, bloggers, and influencers in your niche. Pressfarm’s understanding of digital PR and marketing has also equipped the team to help people like you gain media attention.
Pressfarm has what it takes to feature your YouTube channel in relevant search results on multiple search engines. With a package from Pressfarm, you could generate the publicity your channel deserves.