When YouTube was first launched, few YouTubers or brands created content on the platform, so it was much easier for content creators to stand out. In 2022, approximately 15 million active content creators are pumping out 500 hundred hours of video every minute on YouTube.
In light of this, you may wonder how to promote your YouTube channel to stand out above the rest. And how much will the promotion cost? In fact, there are many tools, tips, and tricks you can use to market your YouTube channel without spending a lot of money — or at all.
In this blog post, I will discuss some of my favorite, no-cost methods of promoting a YouTube channel.
Create compelling content.
Use keywords in your headlines, descriptions, and tags.
Customize your thumbnails.
Post regularly.
Promote youtube videos on social media.
Use hashtags.
Promote YouTube Channel for Free
When I started my YouTube channel, I did not have money to spend on expensive ads or tools to grow it. So, I did a lot of the following to find my audience, and I saw growth rather quickly.
1. Create compelling content.
To attract viewers to your channel, you can use many strategies. However, none of these strategies can compensate for the poor quality of your content.
Creating compelling content is essential to attracting an audience and encouraging them to subscribe.
Pro-Tip: Look at other established content creators in your niche for inspiration. What do you enjoy most about their videos, and what would you change? Use your answers to help you decide what kind of content to make.
2. Use keywords in your headlines, descriptions, and tags.
There are hundreds of thousands of videos uploaded to YouTube every day. You must implement keywords into your titles, descriptions, and tags to ensure your videos reach your target audience.
Pro Tip - you don't have to run ads to use Google Keyword Planner, which you can access from your Google Ads dashboard. All you need is a Google account.
Pro-Tip: You may find it easiest to find the right keywords by entering your video's topic in the YouTube search bar and using the autosuggest feature to find words or phrases to include in your video.
3. Customize your thumbnails
To grab viewers' attention, create a unique, eye-catching thumbnail for your video that will inspire them to click on it. Your video's thumbnail serves as your first impression, so make it count.
YouTube thumbnails that stand out typically include a combination of the following:
High-quality images
Bright contrasting colors
Action shots
Bold text of no more than six words
A face (humans naturally focus on looks when it comes to photos)
Pro-Tip: I use Canva's free YouTube thumbnail tool for my videos. Canva's thumbnail templates already have the right dimensions, and I can choose from various fun stickers, fonts, colors, and backgrounds. Additionally, I can upload my own images to the template using my phone or computer.
4. Post regularly
Your channel will gain credibility with your audience if you post frequently and consistently since they know you'll always provide quality content. You can start by posting a video every two weeks and eventually work your way up to once or twice a week.
Pro-Tip: Using YouTube Analytics, you can track when and how your audience interacts most with your content. If, for example, your videos get the most views when posted on Sundays at 12 p.m., then you'll want to have them posted around that time to get the most engagement.
5. Promote Youtube channel on social media
The digital marketer I worked for always said this about promoting content: "If it's not on social media, then it doesn't exist." Keep this in mind when promoting your YouTube channel and your business.
You can put out amazing content, have the perfect thumbnail, and use all the right keywords — but if you don't promote your content on social media, you're losing out on a potentially huge audience.
To attract Digital Marketing Learners to my channel, I started a Twitter account and used the hashtags #digitalmarketing and #digitalmarketingtips whenever I tweeted about my videos.
#digitalmarketingtips is a hashtag for a weekly Twitter space geared toward Digital Marketing Learners. Now when I check my YouTube analytics, I often notice about 80% of my views come from Twitter users.
Pro-Tip: Use social media to follow and connect with content creators, figureheads, and other prominent people in your niche. This will help you find online communities that correspond with your place and can help expose your channel to the right audience.
6. Use hashtags
In addition to creating hashtags for your videos' titles and descriptions, you can also use the keywords you found to create them. The content of your video can also inspire hashtag ideas. For example, perhaps you interviewed a famous guest on your channel. You can use their name as a hashtag to attract their fans.
Pro-Tip: Look at what hashtags other YouTubers in your niche use to determine which ones will work best for your content.
0 Comments