About 97% of YouTube creators fail. Hard to digest – but yes, that’s the truth.
They publish and publish and publish…and then, they finally come to terms with the fact that it’s not working. And then, they simply quit.
As they should 🤷
Because YouTube is not all about publishing quality content! Half your success depends on marketing and distribution. There’s no point in creating gold content if you don’t hold up a microphone and announce: FREE GOLD HERE, PEOPLE!!!
Well, you don’t have to practically announce it on a microphone. There are different ways to go about it in the digital world. And in this post, we’ll be sharing some of the most effective ways with you.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Understanding Wider Audience
Before we browse the most effective ways to grow your channel on YouTube and increase your reach, let’s first understand what does ‘wider audience’ really mean here?
By wider audience, we’re referring to people who might find your content useful but they haven’t discovered you yet or not followed you yet.
Notice that there’s a difference between not discovering and not following.
- If someone has already discovered you and did not follow, this means you are appearing in relevant search results BUT your content is not engaging enough or useful enough. In this case, you don’t need to work on SEO, you need to work on content quality.
- If someone hasn’t discovered your channel yet, this means you are not appearing in relevant search results. You need to work on SEO first (and then, content quality if need be).
Both these groups of people classify under ‘wider audience’. They may be present on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or any other channel. Your job is to pick a strategy from the list below and use it to bring them to your channel from wherever they are.
5 Proven Ways of Promoting a YouTube Channel
Here are some of the most effective ways of advertising and promoting your YouTube channel:
1. Push your video to the top using Metadata
YouTube SEO is insanely powerful. If you nail the SEO, you can rank on top even if you do not have 1000 subscribers yet.
Here’s how a quick guide on how to optimize YouTube metadata to rank on top:
Find the right keywords
When it comes to video content, most of us often work in reverse. We create the content first and then, find the keywords that are most relevant to our target audience. Note that these keywords should align with your vocab in the video too.
So, find relevant keywords by doing a quick YT search like this:
All of these phrases are what people are searching for. You can also find more using keywordtool.io.
Incorporate Keywords
Once you have found the right keywords for your video, incorporate them in the title of your video, the description, the tags, and even the thumbnail. We have explained the best practices for each of these in your YouTube SEO guide. Make sure you give it a read and follow the best lengths and formats.
Once you optimize the metadata, the YouTube algorithm will push your video to the top automatically.
2. Cross-promote your channel
If you already have an established audience on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other channel, your fans there will most likely follow you on YouTube too. So, make sure you create posts about your new YouTube uploads on the platform where your audience regularly follows you.
Now, of course, people won’t come and subscribe to your channel out of mere loyalty. You need to spark their interest and create FOMO feelings, so they actually feel like they’re missing out on important stuff.
How can you do that? Here are a few ideas:
- Extract 30-second long snippets from your videos that you think are the ‘suspense’ of your video. Or these snippets could feature a dialogue or two that you think will make people ‘click’ instantly. (💡We’ve worked with lots of creators and we know it takes HOURS to locate those 30 seconds. If you don’t have time for this or have trouble deciding which 30 seconds are most intriguing – you can leave it to us!)
- Film bits of the production process and share them with your audience. The behind-the-scenes clips can be 10 seconds to 90 seconds long. It’s totally your choice. But do not forget to include a link to the full video in the caption.
- Comment on posts of other creators who create content similar to yours. Do not make your comment all salesy. Instead, make your comment about THEIR content and then conclude it with a point or two about your own video. Then, drop a link to your YT video!
3. Host contests
The other (and more popular) term for YouTube contests is “Giveaways”. But you know what, giveaways are overrated. By now, people know you’re doing it for more attention and traffic.
And that ‘I really mean well for you and am genuinely grateful for your presence’ vibe is lost somewhere. So, the people participating in such giveaways do not usually have their hearts in it. They’re doing it for the material benefit.
This means – you could lose the following, subscribers, and likes you gained during the giveaway.
So, let’s view and implement this route in a different light, i.e., holding contests.
Contests differ from giveaways mainly in terms of prize selection. The winner is not selected randomly. Instead, each entry is assessed and evaluated in complete detail. The deserving candidate who follows the instructions and beats the other participants in terms of originality, skill, or creativity wins the contest.
This means the participating audience has their mind and heart invested in it. They are not participating mindlessly.
This also means they’re building a connection with you and your channel in the process. They’re likely to stay around for a long time.
Now, how do you hold a contest?
It’s simple. First, set up some S.M.A.R.T goals and decide on a prize. Remember, the prize should be worth the effort. It could be:
- 5-6 figure cash prize
- Opportunity to meet a celebrity
- Opportunity to go live with you or feature them in a video
- Recognition as the ‘BEST’ (This will work if you have a huge established fan-following or community)
- Expensive goods as gifts (For example, iPhone 14 Pro Max if you run a tech blog)
Once you have set your goals and know what you’re offering as a prize, think of a series of steps that’s easy for your audience to follow and helps you get what you want (more reach).
Here’s a rough sketch of what these steps could look like:
- Contest Announcement: Upload a video on your YouTube channel and other social media. Build hype around it.
- Contest rules and guidelines: Publish a detailed post that defines the entry requirements of the contest and provides submission details.
- Promoting and sharing: Encourage participants to share the entry on their respective social networks too. In this way, you get more reach. Also, use a custom hashtag to brand each participant’s video and maximize your reach.
- Share a Winner Video: Once you’ve judged all entries, generate excitement by sharing your favorite bits in each submission. Also, create a separate video about the winner and what’s so good about their submission.
- Prize distribution: You could now take your reach and engagement to the next level by meeting the winner in person and doing a video about it. Also, do some posts about other participants to keep the spirit alive and foster a sense of community.
With that said, we don’t usually consult on contests and giveaways. But we can help you to create more professional looking videos that catch your audience attention. if you’ve subscribed to our Ultimate or Ultimate+ plans, you can get 10 to 22 videos. We will also resize those videos for other social media platforms for free.
4. Translate your videos
Another great way to maximize your reach and promote your YouTube videos to a wider audience is to bridge the language gap.
Say you recommend the best vacation places on your YouTube channel. Almost anyone can benefit from your videos. Whether they’re in China, Pakistan, or the USA.
However, you might only be getting traffic from English-speaking countries like the USA or the UK. Or let’s say, English-speaking people within most countries…
So, a good way to hop over this language barrier is into translate your videos for other languages. And using free video translation tools online, you can do it for free!
Alternatively, you can use YouTube’s built-in subtitles and captions feature to do this. Its results may not always be accurate, so you can manually review the video and check if there are any errors. Or simply, ask your video editor to do it for you! 🙂
5. Leverage the power of email marketing
Last but not least, you can promote your YouTube channel to a wider audience by leveraging the power of email marketing. How so?
Well, first things first, start building an email list. You can collect email addresses of your existing audience or people who would like to receive content from you. (Make sure you have their consent!)
Now, pick an email marketing platform and set up the system. Craft engaging emails for people who opted-in and recommend relevant videos from your YouTube channel whenever you send them an email. Make sure the video link is clickable or the video is embedded. It makes it easier to get the views.
End Note
By now, we hope you have a clear idea of how to effectively promote your YouTube channel to reach a wider audience. If you’ve cracked the code or simply ‘invented’ a new method, feel free to let us know in the comments. We also recommend browsing our post on how to do a collaboration on YouTube. Creating content with other YouTube creators is also an excellent way to expand your community and viewership.
