Grow Your YouTube Following With These Strategic Tactics

May 31, 2018 | Digital Marketing

Grow Your YouTube Following Rate Despite the Latest Changes

Grow Your YouTube Following With These Strategic TacticsHave you read the news lately on social media in regards to YouTube’s latest algorithm update? While many channel owners are raising their voices the large video network is continuing its changes in the name of “personalizing their feed” and no longer listing videos in a subscriber’s feed chronologically. The good news is that this new change is currently under a small rollout — there are still several ways you can effectively grow your YouTube following and attract more subscribers.

1 – Create a custom URL

As soon as your channel hits 100 subscribers and is at least a month old your brand can choose a custom URL, which should match your other social media accounts.
Keep in mind that the longer and more complex your URL (whether clickable or not), the longer the time you should allow for it to be displayed at the end of your video. Once it’s updated you cannot change it to another name. YouTube allows brands to:

  • Choose a name based on a URL, display name, or YouTube username.
  • Use capitalization — the letters are not case sensitive in search.
  • Remove and claim a new channel

2 – Manage and share your Playlists and videos

Having clear, concise playlists will also help other viewers on YouTube find your videos easier. Be sure that these are listed in categories that relate to your channel and have short titles.
Anyone can create these and share them on social media and on their blog. Categorizing your videos will help your viewers find what they are looking for faster and will encourage them to stay on your channel and subscribe.

3 – Display your “featured” videos

If your brand or business has a new product or service that you would like to showcase then inside your channel editor you will find the option to select this as a feature on your main profile like this example from one of our clients, Rick Cesari:

This provides a more prominent position of what you have to offer as well as directing your audience to your selected playlists.

4 – Use only brief theme music

While these may add consistency and help brand your videos, slick intros are not what will hook your viewers.  In fact, any longer than 5 seconds, and you’ve probably lost them. Your viewers will quickly leave your channel if they are not finding the information they are looking for right away. Here’s a good example of a video we recently promoted for our client, Flying Thru Life:

5 – Include a “call to action” for YouTube following

The goal of any video is to encourage people to “subscribe” to your channel. Images are much easier to understand than words and gain more responses. If you have put in the time and effort of presenting your message you need to include something of value that is a good pay off for your viewers.
Your highly entertaining and/or helpful content should be number one in fulfilling this purpose, but you can also plant others:
•    A promise of “more ways to…”
•    Further parts in the series or a free chapter of a book.
•    A continuing “episode.”
•    A call to action that connects emotionally.
•    Displaying more videos in a series that they’ll want to click through and view.
•    Avoid bribe tactics from viewers – Putting up any sort of conditional incentive for subscriptions, click-throughs, et cetera, is a direct violation of YouTube’s terms of service, and will quickly get your account shut down.

6 – Make your topic clear and easy to find in search

Your viewer should never be left wondering: “What on earth am I watching?.” YouTube’s search engine is powerful, and you will want to choose the right keywords in order to be found. Use YouTube’s built-in keyword suggest tool to find specific results. As you enter the keyword in the search box, YouTube provides suggestions to choose from. Although this is not in-depth, it’s a great starting point in your research.

7 – Edit your videos

You only need to use a basic video editor like Quicktime or iMovie to make your videos the best that they can be. This should include removing extra talking points that don’t pertain to the topic of interest, adding a quick intro, placing a logo or special effects such as fade-outs, and adding non-copyrighted music. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, “is this clip really necessary to getting my message across?”
You may not be worried about using top of the line, quality equipment or professional quality sound editors – but your message should be clear, dynamic, entertaining – and feel like the real deal.

8 – Create and follow a specific strategy for promotion

This should be part of your business plan – not random attempts to drum up viewers. The more focused you are on your niche the more targeted followers you will have. This is an important part of building a relevant brand that people turn to as their source of information and includes cross channel promotion on places like Google Plus, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Your aim should be to keep offerings coming at a consistent flow; neither so intermittent that it becomes easy to ignore your links or not take you seriously nor so often that people feel flooded with too many video links.

9- Create eye-catching titles

These don’t necessarily need to be clever, but they should include your targeted keywords.  A good headline should create a strong interest or curiosity and compel the viewer to want to see more. Check out similar titles in your niche in order to create something that will stand out from the rest.
A powerful title has the following elements:
•    Is less than 66 characters long
•    Is keyword optimized
•    Contains the word “video”

10 – Consider monetizing your video

A short AdWords campaign can give your YouTube career a strong launch – especially if you’re brand new to your niche and nobody knows you.
Remember that those searching YouTube are often visual learners.  Make full use of “show, don’t tell” — your first screen shot in the video “shows” what they are going to learn or discover in your video.
Use YouTube’s built-in analytics feature to measure your progress and find out which videos your audience is responding to the most.

11 – Host a live YouTube event

Just like Facebook Live your brand can gain a whole set of new targeted followers with a fun and interesting live broadcast.
This is a great place to share an event, the latest news, a product demonstration, and much more. Not only are you tapping into mobile and desktop users, but also those who have smart televisions.
The most popular type of videos include how-to’s, behind the scenes, personal testimonials, and helpful tips and tricks.
As video continues to expand online it is more important than ever to build a brand channel. With the right optimization, message, videos and focus you can attract your first 100 YouTube following.

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