strategies for promoting your channel on YouTube to attract more viewers

When it comes to figuring out how to advertise your YouTube channel, there is no better moment than the present.

However, why is it "now"?

To begin, YouTube is the second most visited website on the internet, and in this day and age, when we spend up to six hours a day watching video content, the writing is on the wall that YouTube will become the dominant player in this space.

If you want to get seen on YouTube, you will need to use as many different advertising strategies as is humanly feasible.

In the paragraphs that follow, we will discuss each of these strategies for advertising your YouTube channel and increasing the number of people who watch your videos in more depth. It doesn't matter whether you're just starting started or if you want to see even more of an increase in your statistics; all of these strategies are fair game.

16 tried and true recommendations for promoting your channel on YouTube

1. Write intriguing, must-see titles

Presentation is everything when it comes to marketing on YouTube.

When it comes to how well your video does, the title is the single most important factor. You should ask yourself if you are presenting your material as "must-see" or "meh."

Capturing the interest of your readers without succumbing to clickbait headlines is an important step in the process of writing killer titles. People are always looking for material that is interesting, and they want to know right from the beginning of your film what it is going to be about.

You may, for instance, learn something from the strategies used by YouTube powerhouses such as BuzzFeed and WhatCulture. These kinds of films often include listicles, titles that are based on questions, or hyperbolic language (such as "crazy" or "...of all time") in an effort to attract views.

The films that focus on exercise created by Athlean X are another excellent example. The conversational tone of the channel's material is maintained despite the fact that relevant keywords are included into the names of the content.

"Best of" lists and titles that explain "how to" do well in the market as well. The following are some titles worth clicking on from the Disney Food Blog:

The lesson to be learned from this is that, rather of going with the first concept that comes into your brain, you should absolutely spend some time thinking about interesting names before settling on one.

Concerning the particulars, many people have noticed that the ideal length for the titles of videos uploaded to YouTube should be somewhere around 70 characters. In the meanwhile, applications such as the headline analyzer found on CoSchedule suggest using 55 characters for an interesting title. Although the tool from CoSchedule is not designed exclusively for video titles, it is fantastic for coming up with names that are compatible with YouTube in order to help market your channel on that platform.

2. Ensure that your videos are optimized for visibility.

Consider the following as some fuel for thought: Seventy percent of the first one hundred results on Google Search are videos hosted on YouTube.

Try it out and judge for yourself. YouTube content will be returned in response to any search on Google for a product or "how-to" question. In point of fact, it is not uncommon for YouTube results to appear in search results before those of conventional websites or blogs. Listen: YouTube is the self-contained equivalent of the second-largest search engine in the whole planet. In the same way that people use Google to look for items and find answers to their issues, people also use YouTube to do the same.

Consider your YouTube videos to be no different than any other kind of material that has to be optimized in terms of the keywords, tags, and other elements.

To improve the likelihood of your video being shown in search results, you should use some of the following best practices for search engine optimization on YouTube:

Titles and descriptions: Make sure to include your target keywords in the titles and descriptions of your products. For assistance in generating suggestions for keywords, you might make use of a program such as Keywordtool.io.

Include the following phrases in your video: It has been suggested by Brian Dean of Backlinko that include your goal keywords in your video might assist YouTube in better comprehending the content of your video.

Engagement: YouTube utilizes a video's level of engagement (likes, comments, and views) as one of the factors to help decide where the video ranks in its search results.

Use categories to give YouTube a better idea of who to display your videos to by directing them to certain sections of your channel.

Tags: In addition to categories, you also have the option of adding tags to your videos in order to provide YouTube with more context on your material. You have the ability to make use of quite a few tags; therefore, include as many as you possibly can.

Don't overuse keywords; this can hurt your website's search engine optimization. Make use of keywords when it is appropriate to do so; don't simply include them because you have them. 

3. Determine what it is that your audience is looking for.

You need to make sure that whatever form of material you develop is in line with the expectations of the people who will be consuming it. Whether you're making a video or writing a post for your blog, the first thing you should do is research your audience to find out what kinds of things they like to read or watch from you.

If you are just getting started with the promotion of your YouTube channel, you should investigate your rivals or any other video makers working inside your sector. Examine the videos they have that get the most likes and views to determine which ones are the most popular. This will give you a good sense of the subjects that your audience is interested in learning more about as well as the kind of videos that they love to watch.

If you've already published videos, another alternative is to investigate the data in your YouTube Analytics account. YouTube provides you with in-depth information on the demographics of your audience, as well as their location, interaction, and other important statistics. You can also take your plan one step further by using the YouTube reporting feature that is included in Sprout Social. This will allow you to compare the performance of your content to the performance of other social videos that you have created.

Do you want to have a deeper understanding of the stats for your YouTube channel? You may discover the most essential metrics to measure by downloading our video metrics cheat sheet and getting suggestions for video content that is suited to you.

4. Participate actively with the community on YouTube

Even while you may not consider YouTube to be a social network in the traditional sense, the website does in fact have a lively community in which users interact with one another and the material they provide via their profiles, "likes," and comments.

If you ask us, that phrase "social" describes it very well.

As was said previously, every kind of contact with your audience is taken into consideration by YouTube as a favorable indication. Engaging with the people who have subscribed to your content will, if nothing else, help you build a closer relationship with your audience. It takes just a few seconds to "like" a remark, and it takes just as little time to "pin" a top comment as a type of personal message to your subscribers.

For instance, the YouTube music channel Artzie Musik often "likes" comments left on its most recent uploads and reacts to them. The proprietor of the channel engages in consistent two-way communication with the channel's audience, both to express gratitude and to field inquiries.

YouTube is the same as any other social network in that you should communicate with your followers and answer to comments just like you would on those other networks.

5. Modify the appearance of your thumbnails.

Creating custom thumbnails for your videos on YouTube is one of the easiest and most successful strategies you can use to promote your channel.

Consider the title of your post and its thumbnail as a kind of one-two punch that you may use to attract the attention of viewers.

YouTube will automatically grab a screenshot from each video you upload and use it as the thumbnail for that video. Unfortuitously, the picture that it gets may occasionally be a hazy photo of you adjusting the camera or a transition between shots.

Not a nice look, right?

Your films will appear more enticing at first sight if you create thumbnails for them yourself. Additionally, doing so demonstrates a certain level of expertise.

It's not necessary to be a rocket scientist to create thumbnails, either. You may also design a template with a certain font and style to make everything more uniform and in line with your brand's aesthetic. With the assistance of image-creation software such as Canva, this is made to be an extremely simple task. An excellent illustration may be found in Binging with Babish, as follows:

Check out our free YouTube banners that you can get right now if you're seeking for straightforward social media themes to use with Creator Studio. You can obtain these banners right now.

6. Promote your own videos on other users' channels on YouTube.

There is a good chance that you are covering subjects on YouTube that are similar to one another and overlap with one another.

Make it a priority to cross-promote your videos whenever it is appropriate to do so in order to get more mileage out of your older material.

For instance, as a kind of call-to-action, you may insert links in the description of a video and urge people to check them out. The sudden discontinuation of YouTube's annotation system may have saddened some users, but include relevant links in your video descriptions helps people to watch your films in their entirety without becoming distracted by other content on the site.

7. Aim for the search results on Google

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), YouTube is absolutely dominating the competition.

You shouldn't write material only with the intention of appealing to search engines rather than people, but you should market your YouTube channel keeping search engine optimization in mind.

Product reviews, how-to videos, and long-form videos (those that are 10 minutes or longer) that are focused on a particular term tend to do well in the rankings of search engine results pages (SERPs). Consider how you may be able to do so via the marketing of your YouTube channel if you are struggling for content ideas or if you are interested in capitalizing on a keyword that is currently popular in your sector.

8. Hold a competition or organize a gift.

Giveaways are one of the things that YouTube fans like doing the most. You may encourage people to subscribe to your channel and participate by holding a contest or giving away prizes on YouTube.

To ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to win, make it a requirement that contest entrants like your video, provide a remark, and subscribe to your channel.

If you want to conduct a successful contest on social media, use some of these best practices:

Ensure that you are complying with all of YouTube's rules.

You want to attract customers that are interested in more than simply freebies, therefore you should give away a present that is associated with your business.

Make an effort to think outside the box by include user-generated material and other unconventional conditions for participation.

However, you should exercise caution while organizing competitions on YouTube on a regular basis. You must make certain that your efforts are producing the desired outcomes; failing to do so will cause you to squander your time, money, and other resources. After running a single contest, wait some time and then evaluate the percentage of subscribers who dropped out as well as the number of people that participated. It's possible that you're merely attracting folks who are interested in winning free prizes if you're not bringing in engaged members.

9. Inviting fans to watch further episodes of your series

Creating a special video series on your channel that addresses a recurrent subject or theme is an effective strategy for promoting your channel on YouTube.

The well-known cooking channel Bon Appétit uploads episodes of a number of various series to their YouTube channel. One of these series is titled "From the Test Kitchen," and it has videos that are regularly updated.

Both the people who create them and the people who watch them benefit from series. You don't need to strain your brain for ideas if you're a producer on YouTube since you hold yourself responsible for producing new material on the platform. Your viewers now have a purpose to keep coming back to your channel as well as something to look forward to, so this is a win-win situation.

10. Incorporate your videos from YouTube.

Outside of YouTube itself, you may find some of the most fruitful promotional opportunities for your channel.

Video content, for example, has been shown to increase conversion rates and decrease the percentage of visitors who leave the site without engaging with it. You should include a video if you want people to remain on a blog post or product page for a longer period of time (like we did below).

Keep in mind that directing traffic from your own website (or social media!) to YouTube can benefit you in any way that you can.

11. To better organize the videos you upload to YouTube, use playlists.

People will find it far more challenging to browse through your channel as the number of videos you upload increases.

Because of this, playlists are really useful. Playlists not only provide you the ability to arrange your videos into categories so that they are easier to find on your channel, but they also cater to your audience's urge to binge watch videos.

For instance, the grooming channel on Beardbrand's website publishes new content on a regular basis, and as a result, it has gathered hundreds of films that cover a wide variety of subjects. The several playlists that are available on the channel assist steer users to information that is relevant to them without requiring them to actively search for it.

12. Raise the level of participation via the use of calls to action

When you take into consideration the immediacy and connection that video content is capable of creating, you may find that the greatest method to get people to notice your films is to simply ask them to interact with them.

Because not all viewers who appreciate one of your videos will consciously remember to "like" it or sign up for your channel, it is becoming more usual practice to include a reminder to do so either in the video's description or inside the video itself.

There is no shame in openly soliciting support for your channel, especially if it is still in its early stages of development. In point of fact, a great method to keep the interaction going is to poll visitors with a question that they may respond in the comments section, or to propose that they watch another video. In addition, you may insert a link to an external website on your site or connect to other videos to function as a call to action (CTA).

13. Provide live streaming with an attempt.

Live video is one of the most popular phenomena on social media, and it shows no signs of disappearing in the near future.

More and more companies are jumping on board with live video streaming as a result of the convenience offered by platforms and applications such as Facebook, Periscope, and Instagram.

YouTube has been delivering live video streaming for many years, but the platform has only just begun to gain significant traction. You may get an idea of how other companies are using the platform by watching some of the most popular videos that have been uploaded to YouTube Live.

You may utilize YouTube Live in a variety of ways, including the following examples:

Tutorials in real time through webinars

Question and Answer Sessions

Product demos

If your broadcasts aren't going as smoothly as you'd want, you shouldn't let it bother you. You never know what's going to happen when you're broadcasting live video, which is both a part of the excitement and a potential danger. The raw and unrehearsed quality of live footage is precisely what makes it so captivating to watch. Check out Google's introduction to live streaming for additional information and pointers on how to get started with YouTube Live.

14. Engage in cooperative endeavors with other artists and companies.

Collaborating with other users on YouTube is one strategy that the most popular YouTubers have utilized to build their audiences and fan bases. Each new partnership will introduce you to a different group of people. The fact that you are collaborating with a content creator that these new viewers are already familiar with, like, and believe in increases the likelihood that these new viewers will subscribe to your channel.

Finding the correct partner is essential to the development of a successful relationship on YouTube. You should try to work with other content producers that have interests that are aligned with those of your business if you want your video to come off as genuine. This now-iconic partnership between BuzzFeed and Purina is a great example of a clever cooperation that doesn't seem too promotional since it was created by both companies.

15. Run a sponsored YouTube ad campaign

You always have the opportunity to obtain additional attention with sponsored advertisements on YouTube, which is especially useful since marketing in general is becoming more pay-to-play. You may pick from several different types of advertisements on YouTube, including:

Display advertising are advertisements that only appear on desktop computers and are placed in the sidebar to the right of movies.

Overlay ads are advertisements that are presented on the bottom portion of a video and have a semi-transparent appearance. They are not offered on mobile or any other platform.

There are two types of video advertisements: skippable and non-skippable. These adverts may play before, during, or after a video. Advertisements that can be skipped can be skipped after the first five seconds, however advertisements that cannot be skipped have to be seen in their entirety before the viewer may watch their video.

Bumper commercials are advertisements that cannot be skipped and must be seen in their entirety before the viewer is allowed to watch their video. They can be no longer than six seconds at most.

Cards that have been sponsored are referred to as sponsored cards and are presented inside related films. You are free to use them in the promotion of your goods or other content.

For the creatives of your advertisements, you have the option of either using an already existing video or coming up with something brand new for a particular campaign. When you use an already-created video, you have the benefit of being able to choose a segment of it that you already know has been successful in the past. Running sponsored advertisements may magnify the effects you get from a video that has already achieved a high level of organic views and interaction.

On the other hand, producing a fresh video for use in your advertisements will enable you to produce material that is more narrowly focused and over which you will have more control. For instance, you might design an advertisement with a distinct call-to-action at the very end to steer visitors to a landing website or another video that you have uploaded. You can get more information about the many video ad types that YouTube offers here.

16. Publish your material from YouTube to social media on a regular basis.

When it comes to engagement and overall success on social media, it is common knowledge that video content dominates the competition.

As a consequence of this, you need to make it a habit to promote your YouTube channel to the people who follow you on other social media platforms in order to convince them to subscribe to your channel. Make it a priority to inform your fans on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn as soon as a video you've uploaded becomes available to the public. You may also create snippets or previews for each social site, and connect those previews or snippets to your most recent output.

You won't have to waste time switching between different platforms since Sprout Social allows you to plan your content and promote it on many channels at once. Features like ViralPost may also assist in ensuring that your material gets live at the optimal time, which is determined by the activity level of your social audiences.

Our tutorial on promoting your YouTube channel is now complete, so thank you for reading it!

How do you go about promoting your channel on YouTube?

Increasing one's viewership on YouTube is not something that happens by chance.

When there is a lot of competition in the same area, things may definitely start to seem like more of a struggle.

It is for this same reason that it is beneficial to have a wide range of advertising strategies under your sleeve. Although some of the aforementioned suggestions need more work than others, all of them have the potential to assist you in increasing the number of subscribers you have to your channel.

Download our social media video cheat sheet to gain ideas for video at every level of the marketing funnel if you're ready to ramp up your presence on YouTube and start getting actual business results. The cheat sheet is available for free download here.