So you’ve started a YouTube channel for your business and finally uploaded a video – now what? Well, you can’t just drop your video and run. With nearly 2 billion monthly users and over 500 hours of video uploaded per minute, there is some tough competition on YouTube. Once you hit that publish button, the real work begins.
Now it’s time to get out there and promote your videos (and your channel) so you can reach the right audience, grow your subscribers, and start to see some success.
While social media has become very pay-to-play over the years, fortunately, there are still a few ways to promote your YouTube organically, without spending any money. To help you get started, here are the first three steps we suggest to promote your videos both inside and outside of YouTube.
Tip 1: Optimize your YouTube videos
YouTube’s algorithm is designed to show viewers the videos they are most likely to enjoy. And we have to admit, it’s really really good at it. So as a creator, it’s important to understand what your ideal viewer is looking for on YouTube. If you know the “why” behind their searches, you can use that to brainstorm the keywords and phrases they might search for.
With that knowledge, you can use those keywords and phrases when publishing your videos. We’ve written a few blog posts going into detail about optimizing your video descriptions and getting your videos to rank in YouTube’s search, but here is a brief overview:
Write descriptive titles for each video
The title of your YouTube video isn’t just for getting people’s attention, it also impacts how your video ranks in YouTube. Your video title is part of your video’s metadata, so including keywords in there helps YouTube’s algorithm understand what it’s about.
Optimize your video descriptions
You want to treat your video description as a mini-blog post. The more detailed, the better. Like your video title, you’ll want to include your target keywords and phrases. But your description is also the place to include any links to your website, social channels, landing pages, or even other relevant videos from your channel.
Tip 2: Promote your YouTube videos and channel on YouTube
After completely filling out your profile (adding your channel icon, channel art, and channel description) there are still a few more things to do.
Upload a channel trailer
A channel trailer is the first video someone will see when they visit your YouTube channel – it lives on the “home” tab. It’s a great way to hook viewers and encourage them to subscribe because it gives them an idea of what your channel is about. Creating a short and sweet channel trailer is ideal, but you can also use one of your more popular videos instead.
Interact with your audience
Replying to your viewers’ comments is a great way to increase your video rankings and set your channel apart from others. Interacting with your audience creates a sense of community on your channel and helps viewers feel connected.
You can also leave positive comments on other related videos within your industry and post community updates when you have something new coming in order to engage even more.
Use playlists to maximize watch time
YouTube also uses watch time to help determine how to rank videos. The longer viewers watch, the more interested they are, so YouTube will show more of that content in their feed. In order to optimize your channel’s watch time, you’ll want to do two things:
- Create playlists of related videos for viewers to watch through.
- Add end screens or Cards to your videos so you can link to other videos your viewers might want to watch next.
Tip 3: Cross-promote your YouTube channel
YouTube videos are super easy to share. All you need is a link or embed code. Go to places your audience is already hanging out (your newsletter, website, social media, etc.) and drop those links!
Figure out what channels are already working for you and take advantage of them. Have a ton of Facebook page likes? Share your video link on there. Have insane blog traffic? Link to your channel (or video) in a blog post. Embedding your YouTube videos on your website is another great way to both promote your channel and your content.
Promote your videos to get the most out of your YouTube channel
Promoting your YouTube channel takes work, but if you stick with it, you’ll be able to organically grow your subscribers and build a relationship with your viewers.