16 ways to promote your YouTube channel for more views

Now is the perfect time to learn how to promote your YouTube channel.

But why "now"?

First of all, YouTube is the second most visited site on the internet, and with the fact that we spend up to 6 hours a day watching videos, it's all a foregone conclusion.

If you want to get noticed on YouTube, you need to use as many promotional strategies as possible.

Below we detail these strategies to promote your YouTube channel and maximize your viewership. Whether you're just starting out or want to see your numbers grow, these tips are fair game.

Elevate your YouTube strategy

In addition to these 16 tips, make sure you stay up-to-date with all of YouTube's latest information to get the most out of these guidelines:

How to Create a Business YouTube Channel - Easily set up and perfect your business channel.

11 Tips for Writing YouTube Descriptions - Make your videos stand out and make them super discoverable with optimized descriptions.

YouTube SEO: How to Rank Your Videos - YouTube has become one of the largest search engines in the world. Follow these tips to make sure you're meeting your audience's needs.

YouTube Hashtags: How to Use Hashtags to Increase Video Views - Uncover how hashtags work on YouTube and get more exposure for your videos.

How to Use YouTube Analytics to Optimize Your Video Performance - Make sure all your efforts are successful and show where you can improve with effective analytics.

16 Proven Tips to Promote Your YouTube Channel

1. Write engaging, watchable headlines

YouTube marketing is all about presentations.

Titles are critical to a video's performance. Ask yourself: do you present your content as a "must see" or a "meh"?

The key to creating killer headlines is grabbing your audience’s attention without resorting to clickbait headlines. People crave interesting content and want to know what your video is about right away.

For example, you can grab a page from a playbook from YouTube giants like BuzzFeed and WhatCulture. Such videos often rely on lists, question-based titles, or exaggeration ("crazy," "...ever") to drive views.

Lists and question-based YouTube titles can help you reach more viewers

Athlean X's workout videos are another great example. The channel's content sneaks into its title with relevant keywords while appearing chatty.

Also, "best" lists and "how to" titles are always a safe bet. Here are some clickable headlines from the Disney Food Blog:

Lists and "best" videos have traditionally performed well on YouTube

The bottom line here is that you should definitely take the time to think about catchy headlines rather than sticking to the first idea that pops into your head.

For details, many have observed that the optimal length of a YouTube video title should be around 70 characters. Meanwhile, tools like CoSchedule's Title Analyzer recommend 55 characters for compelling titles. CoSchedule's tool isn't specifically designed for video titles, but it's great for brainstorming YouTube-friendly titles to promote your YouTube channel.

Publish to YouTube with Sprout Social

The possibilities on YouTube are almost endless, and you can now publish to YouTube directly from Sprout.

Host long-form videos on your channel, expand your reach with YouTube's rich search capabilities, and see how your performance compares to other social networks.

Start a free trial to try out our YouTube publishing features.

2. Optimize your videos for visibility

Here's some food for thought: YouTube videos appear in 70% of Google's top 100 search results.

Oops, see for yourself. Any specific product or how-to query on Google will return content from YouTube.

In fact, YouTube results sometimes even appear before traditional blog posts or websites.

How-to and tutorial-based content performs well in Google Search

Listen: YouTube itself is the second largest search engine in the world. Just as people need Google to search for products and solve problems, so does YouTube.

Think of your YouTube videos like any other content that needs to be optimized for keywords, tags, and more.

To increase your exposure, follow some YouTube SEO best practices:

Title and Description: Include target keywords in the title and description. You can use a tool like Keywordtool.io to find keyword ideas.

Mention keywords in your videos: According to Brian Dean of Backlinko, including your target keywords in your videos can help YouTube better understand what your videos are about.

Engagement: YouTube uses engagement (likes, comments, views) to determine a video's ranking in its search results.

Categories: Use categories to help YouTube understand who should show your video.

Tags: In addition to categories, you can tag videos to give YouTube more context about your content. You can use a variety of tags, so you can add as many tags as you want.

Just like your website's SEO, don't use keywords. Use keywords when they make sense, not just have them.

3. Find out what your audience wants

With any type of content you produce, you want to make sure it fits what your audience wants. Whether you're writing a blog post or creating a video, it starts with understanding your audience and what type of content they want to see from you.

If you're just starting to promote your YouTube channel, check out your competitors or other creators in your industry. See which of their videos are getting the most views and engagement. This lets you know what topics your audience wants to know about and what style of video they prefer.

Another solution is to check your YouTube Analytics if you have already uploaded a video. YouTube gives you detailed information about audience demographics, location, engagement, and other useful statistics. You can also take your strategy a step further with the YouTube report in Sprout Social and see how your content compares to other social videos you make.

Want to better understand your YouTube metrics? Download our video metrics cheat sheet to learn the key metrics for tracking and getting video content ideas that fit your marketing goals.

Social Media Video Metrics and Ideas [Cheat Sheet]

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4. Engage with the YouTube community

While you might not think of YouTube itself as a social network, the platform represents a thriving community where users interact with content through profiles, likes, and comments.

Sounds "social" if you ask us.

As mentioned, any interaction with viewers is seen as a positive sign for YouTube. Last but not least, engaging with your subscribers can help you build stronger connections with your audience. It takes seconds to like comments, as does pinning popular comments as a kind of personal note to your subscribers.

As an illustration, the music channel Artzie Musik frequently "likes" and comments on its most recent uploads. The author of the channel frequently communicates back and forth with viewers to express gratitude and provide information.

Your YouTube channel marketing strategy should be based on engaging with viewers through comments and "Likes."

On any other social network, you would reply to comments and interact with your fans, and YouTube is no different.

5. Make your thumbnails unique.

Making custom thumbnails is one of the easiest yet most powerful strategies for promoting your YouTube channel.

Consider using your title and thumbnail together as a kind of one-two punch to draw a viewer in.

For the thumbnail, YouTube by default takes a screenshot from any given video. Unfortunately, there are situations when the image it captures

Not a decent look, right?

Creating thumbnails yourself not solely makes your videos look additional appealing at a look however additionally signals an exact sense of expertness.

Thumbnails don’t need to be rocket science, either. you'll be able to even produce a example with a specific font and magnificence to form it additional consistent and on-brand. this is often created particularly straightforward with the assistance of image creation tools like Canva. Here’s a decent example from Binging with Babish:

Enticing thumbnails and titles offer your videos higher share issue

If you’re trying to find easy social media templates to urge started with Creator Studio, explore our free YouTube banners that you just will transfer today!

6. Cross-promote your own videos on YouTube

Chances are you’re covering similar topics on YouTube that overlap with one another.

To squeeze additional out of your older content, create some extent to cross-promote your videos once it is smart.

For example, you'll be able to drop links within the description of a video and encourage viewers to envision them out as a form of call-to-action. though some could be foiled by the recent removal of YouTube’s annotation system, linking in your description encourages viewers to look at your videos all the means through while not clicking away.

Cross-promoting your YouTube videos will facilitate encourage binge-watching on behalf of your audience

7. Target Google search results

As noted, YouTube is completely killing it once it involves SEO.

And whereas you shouldn’t completely produce content for search engines versus individuals, you must promote your YouTube channel with SEO in mind.

Specifically, product reviews, how-to’s and long-form (10+ minutes) videos covering keyword-specific topics tend to rank well in program results pages (SERPs). If you’re strapped for content ideas or wish to make the most a trending hokum in your trade, think about however you'll be able to do therefore through your YouTube channel promoting.

One of the most effective ways in which to push your YouTube channel is by listening to your videos' SEO components

8. Run a contest or giveaway

If there’s one issue YouTube users love, it’s a giveaway. Host a YouTube contest or giveaway to encourage individuals to buy your channel and have interaction.

To keep your contests easy, have individuals like your video, leave a comment and buy your channel to enter.

Follow a number of our greatest practices for running any social media contest:

Make sure you’re following YouTube’s policies.

Give away a present that’s associated with your brand: you would like to draw in over simply freebie-seekers.

Get inventive by incorporating user-generated content and alternative non-traditional entry necessities.

Be careful with hosting frequent YouTube contests, though. you would like to form certain you’re obtaining results from your efforts: otherwise, you’ll find yourself dawdling, cash and resources. once doing one contest, wait a moment and appearance at your subscriber drop-off rate and engagement numbers. If you aren’t transferral in engaged subscribers, you may simply be attracting those who wish free prizes.

9. Encourage viewers to follow your series

A smart thanks to promote your YouTube channel is by making a selected video series that covers a continual theme or topic.

Popular sensualist channel Bon Appétit really contains a type of completely different series that compose their YouTube presence, as well as their in progress “From the check Kitchen” videos.

Video series will facilitate fill your content calendar and encourage you to transfer a standardized basis

Series ar a win-win for creators and viewers alike. For creators, you hold yourself in charge of making contemporary YouTube content and don’t ought to rack your brain for ideas. For your audience, they need one thing to appear forward to and likewise a reason to stay returning to your channel.

10. insert your YouTube videos

Some of the simplest places to push your YouTube channel ar on the far side YouTube itself.

Case in purpose, video content is verified to boost conversion rates and lower bounce rate on-the-spot. If you wish guests to stay around a product page or web log post longer, insert a video (like we have a tendency to did below).

Remember: any chance you have got to funnel your on website (or social!) traffic to YouTube could be a and.

11. produce playlists to prepare your YouTube content

The a lot of videos you produce, the harder it becomes for individuals to navigate through your channel.

That’s why playlists ar thus necessary. Not solely do playlists enable you to cluster your videos into classes to prepare your channel, however conjointly attractiveness to your viewers’ want to binge.

For example, Beardbrand’s grooming channel uploads daily and so has concentrated many videos covering plenty of topics. The channel’s numerous playlists facilitate guide subscribers to relevant content while not having to dig for it.

Organizing your videos into YouTube playlists makes them easier to binge-watch

12. Increase engagement with calls to action

Sometimes merely inquiring for engagement is that the best thanks to get your videos detected, particularly once you contemplate the immediacy and association that video content will produce.

Not everybody WHO enjoys one among your videos goes to recollect drop a like or become your subscriber, thus it’s become more and more common to place these reminders within the description or within the video itself.

Especially if you’re AN industrious channel, there’s no shame in inquiring for some love directly. In fact, asking guests a matter to answer within the comments suggestion or to visualize out another video ar excellent ways in which to stay the engagement rolling. you'll be able to likewise link to different videos or drop AN external link to your website to function a form of CTA.

Calls-to-action facilitate encourage viewers to look at a lot of content

13. provide live streaming a attempt

Live video is one among the most important social media trends and it isn’t going anyplace anytime shortly.

With apps like Facebook, optical instrument and Instagram creating it easier than ever to stream live video, a lot of and a lot of brands have gotten on board.

YouTube has been providing live videos for years however has solely recently started memorizing steam. you'll be able to take a glance at some widespread YouTube Live videos to induce a way of however different brands ar victimization the platform.

Livestreaming on YouTube could be a good move for brands WHO need to make a lot of offhanded content

Some samples of however you'll be able to use YouTube Live are:

Product demonstrations

Don’t worry if your streams don’t go as swimmingly as you’d like. a part of the fun (and risk) of live video is you ne'er grasp what’s aiming to happen. The unpolished, organic nature of live video is precisely what makes it compelling. For a lot of tips about the way to start with YouTube Live, scrutinize Google’s introduction to measure streaming.

14. Collaborate with different creators and makes

A manoeuvre a number of the most important YouTube stars accustomed grow their following is collaborating with different users. every collaboration offers you exposure to a replacement audience. and also the better part is those new viewers ar a lot of doubtless to take your channel since you’re operating with a content creator they already grasp, like and trust.

The key to a triple-crown YouTube collaboration is finding the proper partner. you wish to collaborate with content creators that share similar passions together with your complete thus your video comes off as authentic. This now-classic collaboration between BuzzFeed and Purina could be a prime example of a thoughtful collaboration that doesn’t feel to a fault promotional.

15. Run a paid YouTube crusade

With promoting generally changing into a lot of pay-to-play, you mostly have the choice to induce a lot of visibility through paid YouTube ads. YouTube offers a range of ad formats to decide on from:

Display ads: These ads show abreast of the right-hand sidebar of videos, and ar solely accessible on desktop.

Overlay ads: These ar semi-transparent ads that ar displayed on the lowest a part of a video. They’re solely accessible on desktop.

Skippable and non-skippable video ads: These ads show up before, throughout or once a video. Skippable ads will be skipped once 5 seconds, however non-skippable ads ought to be watched all the approach through before the viewer will watch their video.

Bumper ads: These ar non-skippable ads that ought to be watched before the viewer will watch their video. they will be a most of six seconds.

Sponsored cards: These ar cards that get displayed inside relevant videos. you'll be able to use them to push your product or different content.

YouTube's pre-roll ads ar quite virtually "must-see"

For your ad creatives, you'll be able to either use AN existing video or produce one thing new for a selected campaign. The advantage of victimization AN existing video is you'll be able to select a clip you recognize has been effective within the past. If a video has already gotten a great deal of views and engagement organically, running paid ads will amplify your results.

On the flip facet, making a replacement video for your ads can enable you to make a a lot of targeted piece of content that you simply have a lot of management over. as an example, you'll be able to produce a billboard with a selected call-to-action at the top to direct viewers to a landing page or another video. you'll be able to learn a lot of concerning YouTube’s video ad formats here.

16. often publish your YouTube content to social media

It’s no secret that video content crushes it on social media in terms of engagement and performance.

As a result, you must often promote your YouTube channel to your social followers to encourage them to become subscribers. As shortly as a video goes live, build some extent to let your followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn comprehend it. you'll be able to likewise produce snippets or previews for every social platform that conjointly link to your latest production.

With the assistance of Sprout Social, you'll be able to schedule your content and cross-promote it while not having to leap from platform to platform. options like ViralPost may facilitate make sure that your content goes live supported once your social audiences ar engaged.

Schedule YouTube content in Sprout Social

And thereupon, we have a tendency to finish off our guide to YouTube channel marketing!

How does one promote your YouTube channel?

Growing a YouTube audience doesn’t happen by chance.

And yes, it will definitely want a grind if your house is huddled with competition.

That’s specifically why it pays to possess a range of promotional techniques in your back pocket. though a number of the guidelines on top of need a lot of effort than others, every one will assist you get a lot of eyes on your channel and a lot of subscribers as a result.

If you’re able to increase your YouTube presence and begin seeing real business results, transfer our social media video cheat sheet to induce ideas for video at each stage of the promoting funnel.