YouTube is considered a compelling and influential marketing platform for individuals and brands across many industries. Research shows that around 78% of marketers find YouTube to be the most effective video marketing platform, beating other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
With more than 2 billion users worldwide, YouTube is the second most visited website. If you want to stand out and harness the potential of this incredible platform, you must learn how to promote your YouTube channel and maximise your viewership.
In this article, you will learn some effective tried and tested strategies that will help you grow your YouTube channel and observe your fanbase blossom!
15 strategic ways to promote your YouTube channel for maximising your viewership
1. Identify & Choose Google-friendly Keywords
It would be best to be mindful of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) while promoting your YouTube channel. A great SEO helps in understanding users’ search patterns. Other than YouTube, people search for videos on Google too, which, for many searches, prioritises video over other content.
Therefore, identifying possible keywords, specifically for how-tos, product reviews, and long-form (10+ minutes) videos covering keyword-specific topics, will help your videos rank better in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
2. Optimise Your Video Descriptions
Writing effective YouTube video descriptions increases your channel’s viewership. Here are some points you should consider while writing your video descriptions:
- Try to front-load the description and title with your keywords.
- With timestamps, create a ‘contents’ page.
- Create relevant playlists and add links to them.
- Add relevant hashtags.
3. Create Custom Thumbnails
Human brains process visuals in less than a few milliseconds. Thus, creating an attractive custom thumbnail for every video you post on your YouTube channel will boost your views. For making the best eye-catching thumbnail, follow the below-mentioned rules.
- Format: .JPG, PNG, or .GIF
- Resolution: 16:9 aspect ratio or 1280 x 720 px.
- Size: Should be limited to 2 MB.
- Use close-up images, if possible, and add text & colours that encourage clicks.
4. Remember to Add Metadata
Adding video metadata similar to a popular video gives your video a higher chance of being recommended and showing up next to that popular video.
Follow the metadata guidelines of YouTube while using the keywords for metadata. It would also be helpful if you always consider adding tags in the ‘tags’ section while uploading your video.
5. Create High-Quality Videos
To better engage your viewers, always try to create and upload videos with high camera and audio qualities. As you start to record your video, keep in mind to carry out a soundcheck and have a transparent background and you might notice some portions of the video you recorded are not required then trim video unwanted parts before finalising your video.
6. Collaboration with Other Channels of Your Niche
Reach out to people on social media by publishing your video on another channel of your channel’s size or slightly more prominent. While doing so, you can explore your channel in front of thousands of new viewers.
Thus, collaborating with other channels will help you boost your YouTube channel’s promotion.
7. Use the YouTube Community Tab
Try to create a post on the YouTube Community Tab that will explain why people should look forward to your upcoming videos. Also, give a preview of what the upcoming video will cover.
YouTube Community Tab is an underrated avenue that you can use to promote your channel for more viewership.
8. Cross-Promote Your YouTube Channel
Build a community around your channel by incorporating your videos into your blogs, podcasts, and other social media accounts.
Cross-promoting your content is an excellent way to direct your existing audience and reach out to audiences outside of Youtube to your channel.
9. Use Your Channel’s Built-In Promotion Tools
Three video promotional tools are free to use on YouTube. Take advantage of these fantastic tools having excellent features like:
- YouTube End Screens: For featuring other fantastic videos from your channel, boosting your subscriber count.
- Cards: For sending people some of your excellent content.
- Branding Watermark: To help you add a subscribe button on every video you post.
10. Refine Your Video’s CTR (Click Through Rate)
As per YouTube’s algorithm, it uses your video’s click-through rate as a ranking factor. A higher click-through rate ensures more views on your video, thus making your video rank higher.
So, try to increase your CTR for getting maximum views and higher ranks while promoting your channel.
11. Share ‘A Mini Video Teaser’ On Social Media
Social media remains one of the best ways to promote a new YouTube video. Create a short clip of 30 to 60 seconds of your video with the help of any video trimmer software, and share a link of the full video on YouTube as the first comment. Then, your audience will be curious and excited to watch your entire video if your clip is good.
12. Add Video Advertisement
If your channel doesn’t have an audience yet, it is time to include an advertisement in your video. It is the most popular way to promote your YouTube channels and increase viewership.
Try YouTube Ads that run through Google Ads to promote your videos with advertisements.
13. Embed Your YouTube Channel into Your Email
Many good email marketing providers allow you to embed your channel right into your email. By doing this, people can watch your videos easily straight from their email, increasing the view count.
14. Include Strong CTA (Call To Action)
Add a call to action at the beginning and the end of your video content. CTA is an effective way to promote your YouTube channel as it helps engage your audience so that they subscribe to your channel and come back to watch your upcoming videos.
15. Go Live
It is much more exciting when a video is about to unfold in real-time. Of course, going live with your viewers gives you less control over your video content, but it increases your audience’s engagement as they get a chance to interact with you. And, going live on the biggest platform of live streaming helps you increase your channel’s reach and maximise viewership.
Promoting your YouTube channel and boosting your channel’s viewership are equally crucial to your video content. So, get ready to grow a fanbase on your Youtube channel by following the promotional strategies discussed in this article.
