YouTube is one of the most widely used social media platforms with over 2 billion active users every month. Learn how you can tap into this huge audience, get more views on your videos, and supercharge growth on your YouTube channel! Let's dive right in.
PS: Don’t have time to read the whole list? Just get the cheat sheet.
YouTube content strategy
🥇 Quality is paramount
High-quality content increases your chances of success. Think of your YouTube channel like a TV channel, which can only succeed if your viewers find your videos entertaining and interesting.
⛔️ Don't be limited by your niche
Do not always stick to the same topics if you want to entertain a larger audience. Provide your audience with different topics that can grab their attention and offer something new to learn.
⏳ Mix up your video length
Publish both long and short videos to target different kinds of audiences. Short videos will entertain people with short attention spans and long videos will satisfy your loyal subscribers.
📈 Capitalize on trends
Give your opinion on the latest issues or publish a response to the latest social media trends. Trends are a great way to expand your viewer base beyond your regular subscribers.
🐢 Consistency wins
Publish your videos consistently. Aim for the same day (and even time) every week. Feed your subscribers well and they will keep coming back!
YouTube channel branding
🏆 Brand recognition
Your subscribers need to be able to recognize your channel with a single glance. You can achieve this by using the same theme, symbols, and colors consistently across all your videos, thumbnails, and social media platforms.
🏞 Thumbnails can make or break your video
Use thumbnails that force viewers to click and watch your videos. Don't ruin your video with an ineffective thumbnail. Make sure you test your thumbnails BEFORE you publish to give your videos the best chance of success.
🕵️♂️ Be presentable AND relatable
Appear clean and attractive if you are featuring yourself in the videos. Choose your outfits according to the topic you have chosen to discuss. You can connect better with the audience in this way.
🖼 Check your background
Even if your background isn't the focus of your video, it can have a large impact on your viewer's perception of the quality of your video. Make sure your background isn't messy.
👤 Leverage your profile picture
Use a logo as your profile picture if you do not appear in your YouTube videos. Use your face as a profile picture if you appear in your videos. By doing this, you can build a stronger connection with your viewers.
Personal brand
📣 Run regular Q&A sessions
You should do Q&A sessions with your viewers regularly, every week or at least twice a month. This not only helps your viewers feel connected with you, but gives you the feedback you need to improve the quality of your content.
👑 Build authority
Publish videos answering your audience’s questions. This is how many YouTubers have established their authority in a niche or topic.
🧩 De-complexify the complex
Choose complex topics and do some research on those topics. Explain these complex topics in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. This also helps to position yourself as an expert in the category. For example, you can review new gadgets and products to help buyers!
🛣 Share your journey
Create one or more videos to reveal your story, how you got to where you are today, and why you started making videos. It will help your audience learn about what you do and how you have built a brand to entertain and help your viewers.
🔮 Be open and transparent
Never hide your future goals from the viewers. Reveal your objectives to build stronger connections with the audience. They will become invested in helping you in chase and achieve your dreams, becoming regular viewers of your videos on YouTube.
Engage with your audience
👯♀️ Community always wins
You can create a community by interacting with the audience in your videos and by replying their comments on different platforms.
🆓 Everybody loves giveaways
Use freebies and other perks to build other ways to connect with your audience beyond your videos (e.g. building an email list).
🙇♂️ Accept criticism graciously
Accept criticism and listen your followers to improve your performance and let them know that you welcome feedback.
👀 Be authentic
It may be tempting to promote certain brands you don't trust in order to make some quick money in the short term. But to succeed over the long term, you should never promote anything you do not like or you do not find appropriate. Authenticity is required on YouTube if you want to stay relevant.
🧠 Provoke thought
Raise questions in your viewers minds and increase their interest in your channel.
Promoting your YouTube channel and videos
🗣 Just ask
Ask your viewers to share your videos and channel links on various social networking sites. It is the simplest way of marketing your brand and channel.
🎳 Facebook groups
Already have an idea of what interests your audience has. Find more of them by looking for relevant Facebook groups. This is also a great way to gather information on what your audience wants to watch.
🔈 Podcast
Engage with your audience over a different medium. Your viewers may listen to podcasts whille commuting or doing other tasks, make sure you stay connected with your subscribers during this time too!
🤙 Collaborations
Collaborations are a great way to "share" subscribers. When you collaborate with another YouTuber, you are showing them to all your subscribers and they are showing you to their subscribers.
✉️ Everyone has email
Use email lists to email promotions related to your videos and channels. Use some freebies to encourage your subscribers to share the videos and gain free perks.
🎖 Run contests
Organize contests and reward the random winners of those contests. Many people will take interest in your videos and many will subscribe if you provide useful items like coupons, outfits, caps, etc.
📺 Tap into existing communities
Tap into existing communities where sharing your channel is permitted. A good example of this is @TubeListHQ on Twitter. Explain your channel in 10 words or less and you get a free shoutout for your channel!
Take advantage of the YouTube algorithm
🔍 Search Engine Optimization
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Take the time to learn more about YouTube SEO and implement those SEO tactics to rank your channel and videos higher in organic search results.
🖱 Clickthrough-rate
Impressions refer to how many times your thumbnails are seen. Clickthrough-rate (CTR) is the proportion of impressions that convert into views. If you videos have a higher CTR, the YouTube algorithm will be more likely to recommend your video to potential viewers. Another reason why optimizing your thumbnails is super important!
📈 Analyze trends
Analyze how people search and what they seek when searching for topics related to your channel. Be familiar with the latest trends to capture more views.
📝 Do keyword research
Use a mixture of high traffic and long-tail keywords. Use keywords in your video titles and descriptions to help viewers discover your videos.
⌗ Leverage tags
Once you've done your keyword research, make sure you use them in your tags. This also helps viewers discover your videos.
Invest in the necessary equipment and tools
🔊 Audio quality
Get a decent quality audio setup to provide great audio quality along with video quality. Invest in a quality microphone within your budget to give your viewers the best audio experience.
☀️ Lighting
Good lighting is an integral part of producing quality videos. Lighting can make a huge difference, even if you are recording through an ordinary camera or your smartphone camera. Investing in a qualify lighting setup will allow you to record and publish your videos anytime you want!
📷 Familiarity
Get familiar with all the features of a DSLR if you are using it to record your videos. Using a DSLR for video can be quite different to using it for photography.
🎙 Sync audio
Plug the microphone directly to the camera so that you can get better audio quality and save time on editing the video. Test that mic before you record the final video to ensure it works well.
💥 Stability
Get a tripod to keep the camera stable when recording a video for your YouTube channel. You can also buy a camera stabilizer to record stable videos because the audience does not like shaky videos on YouTube.
🎬 Editing software
Even experienced YouTubers can spend several hours and sometimes days to edit their videos. Investing in editing software can help you minimise this time and maximise the quality of results.
🎞 Color grading
Use color grading to provide your videos with a different look and a unique style.
📽 Check before you publish
There is no way to edit the videos once uploaded on YouTube. Therefore, you should check everything is correct before you publish a video.
🎶 Background music
Always use background music in your videos to keep viewers engaged.
🎥 Consistent intros
Use a consistent style of intro at the beginning of your videos. These intros should be kept relatively short in the 3-5 second range.
Monetization
💰 Diversify
Don’t just rely on AdSense for your revenue. Try affiliate marketing and get sponsors for your videos. That’s how you can generate more money than ads could ever provide.
💯 Quantity is your friend
You shouldn't compromise on content quality, but quantity also matters on YouTube. Churning out more videos also has the effect of improving the quality of your videos as you make more content!
🗣 Referrals
The referral business is another awesome way of making money through YouTube. Some YouTubers have earned thousands of dollars from just a few videos!
🙅♀️ Avoid partner networks
Avoid partner networks if possible because they often take a huge portion of your revenue (upwards of 50%).
🤑 Direct fan support
Your loyal fans can donate and support your efforts, but you need to let them know how. You can go live, play certain games, or do something else to entertain your audience. People will donate money if they find you engaging and entertaining.
Don't obsess over the numbers
👤 Subscriber count isn't everything
A huge number of subscribers does not promise a long watch time. Lower sub count doesn't affect your channel’s ranking or performance on YouTube. So, don’t worry about it.
👎 Dislikes aren't always bad
The impact of dislikes may not be as bad as you think. Dislikes show engagement between your viewers and your videos which is a good sign!
⏳ Create long videos
Even though every viewer does not like long videos, make sure that at least some of your videos are long. It will dramatically increase the average view duration and your channel’s ranking on YouTube.
👍 "Shares" matter more than views
You should worry more about “shares” rather than sub count or the number of views. Your videos can reach thousands of new viewers if it gets more shares on various social media platforms.
⏱ Average view duration
Average view duration is also important in making sure the YouTube algorithm recommends your video to potential viewers. Grab the viewer's attention as long as possible. Link to your other videos to keep the visitor on your channel for as long as possible.
Now It’s Your Turn
So which tactics are you going to try ?
Are there any missing tactics we should add to the list?
Don’t have time to read the whole list? Just get the cheat sheet.
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