Using the right YouTube channel marketing strategies can help you gain subscribers and views. Make it easy for new viewers to find your channel.
The way you present your YouTube channel to the world can make a huge different as to whether people decide to subscribe or not. It’s also part of a solid discovery strategy so people can find you in YouTube search results.
Today I have five things to include in your YouTube channel marketing strategies. These are not hard to do, so do them!
What is a YouTube Channel?
A YouTube channel is your public presence on YouTube where you can upload videos, create playlists and comment on videos.
Your channel is where viewers can see a description of the type of content you create. They can also view thumbnails of uploaded videos, your playlists, number of subscribers, and other information.
To create a YouTube channel and have the ability to upload videos, you need a Google account. From there you can sign in to YouTube and click Upload. Since you do not have a channel you will be prompted to create one.
Importance of YouTube for Marketing
People love watching videos. The number of YouTube videos watched daily is nearly 5 billion. With more and more people using mobile devices to access the Internet, mobile video views hit 1,000,000,000 per day in 2017. It’s a powerful marketing tool for your business.
You can use YouTube in a number of ways to enhance your business. These are a few ideas that can contribute to the growth of your business.
- Drive traffic to your website.
- Get leads for any business.
- Sell products (your own or affiliate).
- Use Adsense ads.
- Create brand awareness.
- New product announcements
- Reuse blog content
Plus video gives viewers a chance to get to know and trust you since they can see you.
YouTube videos are available 24/7, working for you around the clock! I’ve gotten a lot of exposure, sales and leads from YouTube just from repurposing content from my blog.
5 YouTube Channel Marketing Strategies that Work
Although you can market each video on its own, creating a great channel experience for viewers will help you get more subscribers and views. Imagine if you have a great video and the worst channel ever.
Many times I’ve click a YouTube Channel about and there is nothing written about the person or brand. You want people to learn as much as they can about you so they make an educated decision about whether to subscribe or browse your videos.
These tips will help you.
1 – How to Improve YouTube Channel Branding
Your presence of YouTube is similar to the front of a store. When you walk past a store, the look and feel help you decide if you want to go inside.
It’s the same with your channel on YouTube. A viewer will happen across it and decide whether they want to dig deeper.
Branding is not just for big companies. It’s for anyone who has a presence online. For example, if you are a blogger, you are a brand whether you know it or not.
Your Channel should reflect your brand.
Before you can brand yourself and your channel, you need to know who you are talking to. Who do you want to attract to your channel on YouTube?
- Knowing your target audience is a must regardless of what type of content you create: video, blogs, audio and so on.
- Knowing your target audience will help you define the type of video content you create.
For example, many people skip this step and instead create videos that may appeal to a very broad audience. However, they rarely reach anyone who sticks around because their focus is not narrow enough.
When you brand yourself, you set yourself apart from everyone else. With billions of hours of video on YouTube, what makes yours unique?
That is what branding is all about and why it’s one of the key marketing strategies for your channel on YouTube.
You want people to be attracted to your brand, feel welcome and come back for more.
2 – Create a Powerful YouTube Channel About Page
Have you filled out your YouTube channel’s about page field? If not, you could be missing out on attracting subscribers and a fantastic search engine optimization opportunity!
Many people skip creating a compelling About page and that is a huge mistake. Think it through before creating your channel.
Your channel About page does two very important things:
- Tells YouTube what your channel is about which helps you rank in search results.
- Communicates your channel’s value proposition to viewers so they know whether they want to keep coming back for more!
Choose your words carefully in your About and be sure to align what you say here with what you do.
To edit your YouTube About page:
- From your YouTube Channel page, click About.
- On the About page, click the Edit icon.
It’s a great way to get new viewers. When your videos show up in various places on YouTube, a viewers can hover the mouse cursor over your icon and a snippet of the About box appears!
3 – Organize YouTube Channel Sections
All too often I happen upon a YouTube channel that has no sections on the channel page. This makes it difficult to see what videos or categories to choose from.
It also makes the channel look unorganized and chaotic. If you don’t organize your Channel into sections, there is a just a list of videos and sometimes a list of other channels that the person subscribed to or liked.
It’s not professional.
Creating sections is a proven way to convert viewers into subscribers:
- They like what they see.
- You make it easy for them to decide what to watch next and decide whether your channel is one to which they want to subscribe.
YouTube channel sections are very simple to create. You can group your videos in a number of ways to make channel section. You can create up to 10 sections on one channel.
You can create channel sections based on:
- Popular uploads
- Recent uploads
- Liked videos
- Playlists (feature all playlists created by the channel in a section)
- Single playlist
- Multiple playlists
- Liked playlists
- Recent activities
- Recent posts
- Other Channels
Give your viewers a nice organized and enticing YouTube channel home page! Learn more here about creating sections.
4 – Create Custom Thumbnails
Have you noticed that YouTube gives you three thumbnail choices from your video? They are usually awful!
Instead, create custom thumbnails for each video you upload. This is an important step to make it simple viewers to spot your videos in a feed or other list.
You can establish a look and feel for your thumbnails so when viewers see it, they know it’s you! Read more about creating custom thumbnails here.
Custom thumbnails also ensure that it is very clear what your video is about. If you look at the image above, the bottom three results are random thumbnails from the videos. I do think mine is friendlier and gets the message across.
There are many resources available for you to create YouTube thumbnails. Check out Canva. They have tons of great templates you can customize for your own thumbnails.
5 – Be Consistent with Publishing
Consistency is your friend with any type of content marketing. It’s especially true of your YouTube channel.
Consistency is an important marketing strategy to incorporate into your plan.
For example, let’s say that your favorite TV show played whenever the network felt like it. You’ve have a difficult time figuring out when to watch it!
OK, that’s a little different but you get the idea.
Give your viewers and subscribers a regular and consistent posting schedule that they can look forward to.
Your goal is to create a habit of your subscribers. That habit is watching your videos and a consistent schedule can help with that.
Don’t skip this channel marketing strategy! Think carefully about what you can stick with. For example if you can only create and publish one video a week, do that.
If you start out with an aggressive schedule that you can’t stick with, inconsistency will set in.
Start small, establish a schedule and grow from there.
Final Thoughts on Marketing for your YouTube Channel Page
I’ve given you some fundamental ideas to improve your YouTube channel marketing strategies. These tasks are simple to do and will help boost your channel for subscribers and search results.
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for these 5 points as I’ve been struggling a bit to build my YouTube channel.
Actually I have always created custom thimbnails BUT I have never thought about creating a custom theme for these thumbnails. Many thanks for this tip.
Also greatly appreciate the idea of creating categories which is something I have never done before….just created playlists.
Thanks so much Lisa for sharing your YouTube expertise
Best wishes from the remote Thai village marketer
Peter
Peter Beckenham recently posted…Know, Like, Trust – Simple Success Secrets
Thanks for stopping by Peter! I am glad you got some value here.
Great tips, every single one of them but I believe that people fail at number 1 the most. Video is such a broad means of communication, it’s almost too hard to find the audience’s attention factors. I think some research, good content, demographic, keywords and trend based research would do the trick.
Kostas recently posted…How to Fight for Attention and Win the Video War