What can you do to promote your YouTube channel, especially if your budget is limited? Prepare your channel for promotion, optimize your videos and use all available free and paid promotion methods.
This is an in-depth guide with a checklist at the end.
Table of Contents
Analyze the niche
To start with, study the top YouTube videos on your topic, note interesting techniques and weaknesses of your competitors.
What to pay attention to
● What types of videos prevail: reviews, unboxing, interviews, video tutorials.
● What is the average length of the videos.
● Who owns the channels – companies or bloggers.
● What methods of engagement are used: discussions, contests, etc.
● What interesting things can be found in the comments. From users’ questions and comments, you can identify uncovered topics, wishes, and suggestions.
Preparing the channel for promotion on YouTube
Let’s list the main works on the channel’s design, which can and should be done before you drive traffic to it.
1. Upload an icon and a thumbnail to your channel, use your logo as an icon, for an expert/blogger channel, use his/her photo.
2. Place a description. This is a short description not only of the channel, but also of the business. Use relevant keywords (we will talk about how to choose them later).
3. if the channel has a lot of videos, create playlists. Playlists make it easier to navigate and encourage visitors to watch more videos in a selection. Videos can be grouped according to different principles: products, genres (interview, review, test drive), speakers, etc.
4. Place a trailer (a short video on the main page of the channel). It will be shown to new visitors who have not yet become subscribers. You can upload a promo video as a trailer.
Promoting a YouTube channel: step-by-step instructions
Although no one knows exactly what factors YouTube ranks videos based on, some important details have been found experimentally. These include:
● the relevance of the video to the search query;
● link clickability (CTR);
● number and average duration of views;
● percentage of users who viewed the video to the end;
● number of subscribers after watching the video;
● activity of commenters;
● number of times the video was shared on social networks;
● number of times the video was shared on social networks; ● ● number of times the video was embedded on third-party resources;
● number of links to the video from external sources;
● number of videos added to the “Watch Later” playlist;
● total authority of the channel – the number of popular videos, subscribers to YouTube, and likes.
How to influence these factors?
Step 1: Collecting keywords
A semantic core is just as necessary for promoting a channel as it is for promoting a website in search engines. Collect queries that characterize your videos. Special services can help with this: vidIQ, TubeBuddy, Keyword Planner from Google.
The collected queries can be used:
● In the content of the video itself. YouTube recognizes speech, so high-frequency queries reflecting the essence of your video are better to say in the first 15-20 seconds.
● In the file name, video title, description, and tags.
Step 2: Optimize your video
Use a high-frequency key in the file name. Agree that a file named target_fb.mp4 reflects its content better than video12678.mp4.
Come up with a concise, catchy title for the video and insert the main keyword query into it. If it’s important, use the speaker’s name, brand, product, etc. in the title.
Use additional information, keywords and important links in the description.
Format the content of a long video with timecode – links to the key moments of the video.
Use cards – links to related videos that appear when you click the “i” icon in the top right corner of the screen while watching.
Ways to promote your YouTube channel
Buy views, likes, comments, and subscribers on YouTube
Feel free to buy YouTube views as well as other services. If you work with legit platforms that provide you with real subscribers, views and comments from real people, this will help you in promoting your channel.
Attracting an audience.
● Just ask. At the end of each video, ask to subscribe and like the channel.
● Make subscribing to the channel easy and fast. Place a link to subscribe in every video.
A good trick at the beginning of a video is to promise a gift (how-to, checklist, product usage scenario).
Use live YouTube broadcasts as an opportunity to interact live with your subscribers and expand your audience. Don’t forget to buy live YouTube views to attract additional audiences.
Create a variety of video content: reviews, interviews, short video tutorials, entertainment content, etc.
Post announcements on social networks
If you have a loyal community on one or more social networks, it’s impossible not to use it. Users who are already familiar with the brand will click through to the channel from the announcement and are more likely to watch it to the end, comment, like it, add it to their “watch later” playlist.
Unite with thematic channels
Join other channels and announce each other’s events. Which channels are worth paying attention to:
● Thematically close, but not competitors
Channels with the similar target audience
Popular channels among the inhabitants of the given region (important for the local business)
Advertising from popular bloggers
Channels that place advertising, as a rule, provide statistics on the target audience of advertisers. When choosing a channel, pay attention to the following points:
Large share of your target audience among the subscribers of the channel
● the channel suits you in terms of topics
Setting up ads on videos/channels via Google Ads
Google Ads allows you to show ads in video format on YouTube. To launch a campaign, you need to link the Google Ads accounts and your YouTube channel.
As you can see, YouTube promotion strategy is not easy. But with this guide, you can do it faster and more effectively! Good luck.
