YouTube Channel: How To Promote Your YouTube Channel For Free
Why is YouTube marketing important?
According to Hootsuite statistics, Youtube holds its place as the second most-visited site after Google. With over 2 billion users and 37 million YouTube channels, it claims that its users consume more than one billion hours of Youtube content daily. If you still don’t understand the power of these numbers, we would break them down in words.
To simplify, YouTube is a great video marketing platform that you can use to promote your product and services visually. With the numbers, you can be sure to reach a diverse group of your desired target audiences. This can help you generate leads and convert your subscribers/viewers into purchasing customers.
You should also know that new content, averaging 500 hours, is uploaded to Youtube every minute, and if you multiply that by the number of minutes we have in a day, you can deduce that your video contents are up for serious competition. In light of this, you need to come up with a strategy that can help you boost your videos to get more views. You may think ‘paid promotions’.
There is no denying paid promotions are great and profitable. However, if you are someone on a budget and you can’t afford to pay for promotions, then you can read on to know how to promote your YouTube channel without spending a lot of money.
How to promote your YouTube channel for free
Since you are reading this line, it is safe to assume that you are willing to learn more. Here are Youtube marketing tips that can help your channel stand out while promoting your videos. They are easy, practical, and free.
Create valuable and engaging content
Although we mentioned that your growth is not solely dependent on the quality of your content, it is important to remember the quality of your video content has a role to play in the growth of your channel.
In light of this, you need to ensure that your video content delivers valuable information that would capture the interest of your target audience. Make it appealing and engaging without losing the relevant message you are sharing. It should remain helpful, informative yet entertaining.
Since we know video content is the major content format uploaded on Youtube. You need to ensure that your video’s picture, sound, and edit quality are top-notch. No one enjoys a video with terrible quality. Try to keep it professional and post frequently. Be consistent with your video uploads.
In addition, be careful not to violate youtube community guidelines when creating your videos. Disregarding this can make your videos get flagged or removed for inappropriate content by YouTube.
YouTube SEO
Yes, you can use SEO to promote your youtube channel. This is an approach that drives organic traffic to your YouTube videos and makes them rank higher on search engine result pages (SERP). Using search engine optimization for YouTube will ensure your video content stays relevant to users’ queries on search engines like Google, Bing, etc
In recent times, users find videos when they explore and search Google. This emphasizes the importance of SEO on your Youtube channel. If you have relevant keywords
You need to find the right keywords for your video content. You can do this by typing your topic in the YouTube search bar and noting the suggested phrases as this gives an insight into how youtube users are searching for the topic.
Alternatively, you can use SEO tools like Google keyword planner, Tube buddy, Uber suggests, etc. These resources can make your keyword research faster and more efficient.
How to optimize YouTube channel
- Use concise and catchy video titles
After getting the right keywords, make sure you include them in your title. We advise you to use the keywords at the beginning of the title as Google tends to shorten the title after 60 characters. Don’t try to force your keywords into the title– your title must sound natural.
Since your title is the first thing users would see, try to keep it straight to the point and catchy but avoid clickbait titles. No one likes feeling tricked.
- Use effective video descriptions
Your video description is very crucial as it tells YouTube users what your video content is about. It is important to briefly describe your video content and optimize it for SEO using your target and related keywords.
Furthermore, you should insert your keywords on the first 5000 characters when describing your video content as this also gets shortened. Be sure to capture your target audience’s attention with the first few lines.
Alternatively, you can add ‘descriptive time stamps’ for users who just want to go straight into the main message of your video content. This can help with seamless keyword insertions and help your videos rank properly. You can also insert links to your website or product promotions. This way you can generate quality leads.
- Tags
Make use of YouTube tags by inserting keywords that are relevant to your videos to let the algorithm know the category your video fits into and enable it to show your video content to those users browsing such categories.
Try not to include tags in your video descriptions as this can confuse the youtube algorithm. We advise that you use the YouTube tags alone for this purpose. Avoid using tags that do not align with your brand or video content.
Customize your thumbnails
Your thumbnails and titles work as a team. Your video thumbnail is automatically generated by youtube if you have not customized any but this may not be effective as the image may not be attention-grabbing.
We advise that you customize your thumbnails to suit your video content. Since we can agree that visual contents grab attention faster, make sure you use images and words relating to your video content to spark your target audience’s interest and ensure they click on your videos.
Build and engage a community
On the YouTube platform, there is a section that is tagged ‘Community’. Here, you can engage with your viewers by sharing interactive materials, offers, and valuable information. You can also respond to viewers’ comments on your videos.
To build a community, you need to keep your viewers engaged. You can do this by responding to comments, dropping a like on users’ comments, creating video responses to questions asked, organizing a Q&A session, and giving consistent viewers a shout-out. This makes your viewers feel included and positions them as an important part of your brand.
You should try this out.
Promote your YouTube channel through cross-marketing
Another way to promote your YouTube channel for free is to use other channels, especially social channels. This will help you gain more views from your audience across other channels. Cross-promotion is the term used to describe this practice. If done well, you will get new audiences that would become your subscribers.
You can cross-promote your YouTube channel by:
- Sharing the link to your videos on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
- Share via your website blog.
- Embed the video links in your email marketing campaign.
- Include a link to your videos as a relevant resource in forums and discussions that are related.
Engage in Challenges and Trends
Challenges and trends are fun and easy to join. This can help your channel go viral as viewers are fond of following a challenge or trend. Be on the lookout for challenges that are related to your industry and trend that aligns with your brand.
The earlier you hop on a challenge, the higher the chances of your video content going viral. Be careful as not all challenges are worthy of being taken on. Be sure the challenge or trend does not violate any youtube guidelines to avoid your channel being flagged.
Study your channel analytics
YouTube channel analytics would help you know what works and what isn’t working. You need to monitor your channel activities to know how and where to improve. This can help you decide on the best method to promote your channel while giving insight into what captures your target audience.
Be sure to monitor and re-strategize if needed. Your analytics will help you create videos with intentionality, giving your video content a chance to go viral while attracting the right kind of viewers to your channel.
Conclusion
It is safe to assume that you know how to promote your YouTube channel for free. With the tips above, you can start promoting your YouTube channel. Remember, you should consider having a YouTube marketing strategy to have a clear action plan on the goals you want to achieve with your YouTube channel. Above all, practice, practice, practice. You need to test in order to know what works for you and when you do, stick to it.
