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- Jul 3, 2016
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Quality video content is king!
Before we crack on, I need to mention something very important here.
Trying to grow an audience on YouTube is just the same as trying to grow an audience for your blog! In other words the starting point is content. No sorry let me rephrase that…
The starting point is creating “amazing useful content”.
You’re going to need to create some seriously epic video content for anyone to be interested in subscribing to your channel, that much needs to be said before anything else.
One great way to create epic content on YouTube is to solve problems. People essentially go to YouTube to find solutions to their problems… And yes, also to procrastinate and watch useless prank videos as well…
So your first port of call, is to create great content. You’ve no doubt got loads of great content on your blog right? If so, consider repurposing some of it and turning them into videos.
Once you’ve got some great content going, it’s time to grow your YouTube audience!
Let’s get to it… finally…
Tip #1: Brand your YouTube channel
The first thing you want to do, to encourage visitors to first of all take you seriously, then to subscribe to your channel, is to actually make your channel visually appealing and look professional.
Branding your YouTube channel helps you to not only establish your identity, but to also enable users to instantly recognise you and your brand.
Chances are you’re already using a unique brand image for your blog right? And the same goes for your social network profiles right? So naturally you should also carry branding through to your YouTube channel, it makes perfect sense to does it not?
pend some time creating a custom channel graphic art that is going to be instantly recognisable to your audience, and one that will distribute the right message to potential subscribers about what you do and what your channel is about.
Tip #2: Use branded thumbnails in your videos
Continuing on the subject of ‘branding’ and making things instantly ‘recognisable’ for your visitors. As well as customising your channel art, don’t forget to add some cool customised thumbnails to your videos.
Before you run off to create some custom branded thumbnails for your videos, here are some essential ‘thumbnail design tips’ to keep in the back of your mind.
Call to actions create engagement, so make sure you’re using them.
I know that from a viewer’s perspective, annotations can be really annoying at times. Especially if there’s hundreds of them that pop-up at any one time. You don’t need hundreds of annotations, they destroy user experience.
If you’re going to add an annotation, make sure it’s some type of call-to-action. For instance, asking folks to subscribe to your channel at the end of the video is quite a normal thing to do.
Tip #4: Use custom links to create a highly visible, additional ‘subscribe to channel’ link
You already have a subscribe button placed in your YouTube channel for the public to see. But what I like to do to increase the chances of getting viewers to hit that subscribe link, is do add my custom link. You can also experiment with different call-to-action texts, for example: Subscribe For Updates orSubscribe For More etc.
Tip #5: Link your associated website or blog
YouTube allows you to connect your associated website to your YouTube channel, this helps to improve their search results and to also verify your channel as the official representation of your brand on YouTube. Simply go to your channel and hover your mouse over the navigational links section of your channel page. Hit the channel settings link to add your blog or website URL, and hit link your associated website.
Tip #6: Promote your videos on other social and content platforms
Probably the most effective way to grow your YouTube audience is by promoting your actual videos.
When you create a brand new video and upload it to YouTube, who’s going to know about it apart from your existing subscribers? And are your subscribers likely to share your videos around?
Hopefully right?
But if you want to get as many views to your new videos as possible. If you want to get as many peeps visiting your channel and hitting that subscriber button, you’ve got to do some marketing and promo work yourself.
Hit your latest video up on all your other social networking sites, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon. Where ever you are online, where ever you have an audience, promote your video there.
Don’t forget to cross promote your videos as well. Here are some ideas for promoting your videos on social and content platforms:
YouTube allows users to create a channel trailer to welcome new visitors and entice them to subscribe.
Your welcome video doesn’t have to be long, just around 30 to 60 seconds long, however this is a great opportunity for you to really let people know about who you are, and what you’re passionate about, and how they can benefit from subscribing to your channel updates.
You can also do a search on YouTube for “channel trailer” for some truly inspirational ideas of how others have created their welcome intro videos.
Hope this guide was also helpful
Before we crack on, I need to mention something very important here.
Trying to grow an audience on YouTube is just the same as trying to grow an audience for your blog! In other words the starting point is content. No sorry let me rephrase that…
The starting point is creating “amazing useful content”.
You’re going to need to create some seriously epic video content for anyone to be interested in subscribing to your channel, that much needs to be said before anything else.
One great way to create epic content on YouTube is to solve problems. People essentially go to YouTube to find solutions to their problems… And yes, also to procrastinate and watch useless prank videos as well…
So your first port of call, is to create great content. You’ve no doubt got loads of great content on your blog right? If so, consider repurposing some of it and turning them into videos.
Once you’ve got some great content going, it’s time to grow your YouTube audience!
Let’s get to it… finally…
Tip #1: Brand your YouTube channel
The first thing you want to do, to encourage visitors to first of all take you seriously, then to subscribe to your channel, is to actually make your channel visually appealing and look professional.
Branding your YouTube channel helps you to not only establish your identity, but to also enable users to instantly recognise you and your brand.
Chances are you’re already using a unique brand image for your blog right? And the same goes for your social network profiles right? So naturally you should also carry branding through to your YouTube channel, it makes perfect sense to does it not?
pend some time creating a custom channel graphic art that is going to be instantly recognisable to your audience, and one that will distribute the right message to potential subscribers about what you do and what your channel is about.
Tip #2: Use branded thumbnails in your videos
Continuing on the subject of ‘branding’ and making things instantly ‘recognisable’ for your visitors. As well as customising your channel art, don’t forget to add some cool customised thumbnails to your videos.
Before you run off to create some custom branded thumbnails for your videos, here are some essential ‘thumbnail design tips’ to keep in the back of your mind.
- Use high quality, high resolution images. You want your thumbnails to appear as crisp as possible, regardless of what size format your videos are being viewed on.
- Edit your images so they stand out even more, use attractive filters, maintain brightness etc.
- If you’re using images to represent the content of your video, make sure they’re relevantand suitable for a wide audience.
Call to actions create engagement, so make sure you’re using them.
I know that from a viewer’s perspective, annotations can be really annoying at times. Especially if there’s hundreds of them that pop-up at any one time. You don’t need hundreds of annotations, they destroy user experience.
If you’re going to add an annotation, make sure it’s some type of call-to-action. For instance, asking folks to subscribe to your channel at the end of the video is quite a normal thing to do.
Tip #4: Use custom links to create a highly visible, additional ‘subscribe to channel’ link
You already have a subscribe button placed in your YouTube channel for the public to see. But what I like to do to increase the chances of getting viewers to hit that subscribe link, is do add my custom link. You can also experiment with different call-to-action texts, for example: Subscribe For Updates orSubscribe For More etc.
Tip #5: Link your associated website or blog
YouTube allows you to connect your associated website to your YouTube channel, this helps to improve their search results and to also verify your channel as the official representation of your brand on YouTube. Simply go to your channel and hover your mouse over the navigational links section of your channel page. Hit the channel settings link to add your blog or website URL, and hit link your associated website.
Tip #6: Promote your videos on other social and content platforms
Probably the most effective way to grow your YouTube audience is by promoting your actual videos.
When you create a brand new video and upload it to YouTube, who’s going to know about it apart from your existing subscribers? And are your subscribers likely to share your videos around?
Hopefully right?
But if you want to get as many views to your new videos as possible. If you want to get as many peeps visiting your channel and hitting that subscriber button, you’ve got to do some marketing and promo work yourself.
Hit your latest video up on all your other social networking sites, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon. Where ever you are online, where ever you have an audience, promote your video there.
Don’t forget to cross promote your videos as well. Here are some ideas for promoting your videos on social and content platforms:
- Upload your videos to your Facebook page, then add a link back to the original video on your YouTube channel.
- Share your videos in relevant groups and communities around Facebook, Google+ andLinkedIn.
- Pin your videos to your Pinterest boards.
- Scoop your videos on Scoop.it, and suggest your videos to other relevant topics on Scoop.it.
- Add videos to your presentations in SlideShare.
- Link to your videos from your free reports, eBooks and PDF’s etc. You can do this by screen capturing the video and linking to the video itself from the image.
YouTube allows users to create a channel trailer to welcome new visitors and entice them to subscribe.
Your welcome video doesn’t have to be long, just around 30 to 60 seconds long, however this is a great opportunity for you to really let people know about who you are, and what you’re passionate about, and how they can benefit from subscribing to your channel updates.
You can also do a search on YouTube for “channel trailer” for some truly inspirational ideas of how others have created their welcome intro videos.
Hope this guide was also helpful
