2. 1. Write engaging, must-see titles:
YouTube marketing is all about presentation.
Titles are make-or-break when it comes to your video’s performance. Ask yourself: are you
presenting your content as “must-see”.
The key to crafting killer titles is grabbing your audience’s attention without resorting to clickbait
headlines. People crave content that’s entertaining, and they likewise want to know what your
video is about from the word “go.”
For example, you can take a page out of the playbooks of YouTube giants like BuzzFeed and
What Culture. Such videos often rely on listicles, question-based titles or hyperbole (“insane,”
“…of all time”) to rack up the views.
3. 2. Optimize your videos for visibility
In order to increase your chances of showing up, you’ll want to follow some of the best
practices for YouTube SEO.
Titles and description: Include target keywords in your titles and descriptions. You can use a
tool like Keywordtool.io to help you find keyword ideas.
Mention keywords in your video: saying your target keywords in your video can help
YouTube better understand what your video is about.
Engagement: YouTube uses engagement (likes, comments, views) to help determine where
videos rank in its search results.
Categories: Use categories to help YouTube get a better understanding of who to show your
videos to.
4. 3. Figure out what your audience wants
With any type of content you produce, you want to make sure it’s aligned with what your
audience wants. Whether you’re writing a blog post or creating a video, start by getting to
know your audience and what type of content they want to see from you.
If you’re just starting to promote your YouTube channel, take a look at your competitors or
other video creators in your industry. Look at which of their videos get the most views and
engagement. This will give you an idea of what topics your audience wants to learn about and
what style of videos they prefer.
Another solution is to look at your YouTube Analytics if you’ve already uploaded videos.
YouTube gives you detailed information on audience demographics, location, engagement and
other helpful stats. You can also take your strategy a step further with YouTube reporting in
Sprout Social and see how your content stacks up to other social video you’ve produced.
5. 4. Engage with the YouTube community
Although you might not think of YouTube as a social network per se, the platform does
represent a thriving community where users are engaging via content via profiles, “likes” and
comments.
Sounds pretty “social” if you ask us.
As noted earlier, any sort of interaction with your viewers is seen as a positive signal to
YouTube. If nothing else, engaging with your subscribers can help you foster a stronger
connection with your audience. “Liking” comments only takes a few seconds, as does
pinning a top comment as a sort of personal note to your subscribers.
6. 5. Customize your thumbnails
One of the simplest yet effective tactics to promote your YouTube channel is creating custom thumbnails.
Think of your title and thumbnail as a sort of one-two punch to grab a viewer’s attention.
By default, YouTube snags a screenshot from any given video and uses it for the thumbnail.
Unfortunately, sometimes the image it grabs will be a blurry shot of you adjusting the camera or a
transition.
Not a good look, right?
Creating thumbnails yourself not only makes your videos look more appealing at a glance but also signals
a certain sense of professionalism.
Thumbnails don’t have to be rocket science, either. You can even create a template with a particular font
and style to make it more consistent and on-brand. This is made especially easy with the help of image
creation tools such as Canva. Here’s a good example from Binging with Babis
7. 6. Cross-promote your own videos on YouTube
Chances are you’re covering similar topics on YouTube that overlap with each other.
To squeeze more out of your older content, make a point to cross-promote your videos
when it makes sense.
For example, you can drop links in the description of a video and encourage viewers to
check them out as a sort of call-to-action. Although some might be disappointed by the
recent removal of YouTube’s annotation system, linking in your description encourages
viewers to watch your videos all the way through without clicking away.
8. 7. Target Google search results
As noted, YouTube is totally killing it when it comes to SEO.
And while you shouldn’t totally create content for search engines versus people,
you should promote your YouTube channel with SEO in mind.
Specifically, product reviews, how-to’s and long-form (10+ minutes) videos
covering keyword-specific topics tend to rank well in search engine results
pages (SERPs). If you’re strapped for content ideas or want to capitalize on a
trending buzzword in your industry, consider how you can do so through your
YouTube channel marketing.
9. 8. Run a contest or giveaway
If there’s one thing YouTube users love, it’s a giveaway. Host a YouTube contest or
giveaway to encourage people to subscribe to your channel and engage.
To keep your contests simple, have people like your video, leave a comment and
subscribe to your channel to enter.
Follow some of our best practices for running any social media contest:
Make sure you’re following YouTube’s policies.
Give away a gift that’s related to your brand: you want to attract more than just freebie-
seekers.
Get creative by incorporating user-generated content and other non-traditional entry
requirements.
10. 9. Encourage viewers to follow your series
A smart way to promote your YouTube channel is by creating a specific video
series that covers a recurring theme or topic.
10. Embed your YouTube videos
Some of the best places to promote your YouTube channel are beyond YouTube
itself.
Case in point, video content is proven to improve conversion rates and lower
bounce rate on-site. If you want visitors to stick around a product page or blog
post longer, embed a video (like we did below).
11. 11. Create playlists to organize your YouTube content
The more videos you create, the more difficult it becomes for people to navigate through your
channel.
That’s why playlists are so important. Not only do playlists allow you to group your videos into
categories to organize your channel, but also appeal to your viewers’ desire to binge.
12. Increase engagement with calls to action
Sometimes simply asking for engagement is the best way to get your videos noticed,
especially when you consider the immediacy and connection that video content can create.
Not everyone who enjoys one of your videos is going to remember drop a like or become your
subscriber, so it’s become increasingly common to put these reminders in the description or in
the video itself.
12. 13. Give live streaming a try
Live video is one of the biggest social media trends and it isn’t going anywhere anytime
soon.
With apps like Facebook, Periscope and Instagram making it easier than ever to stream
live video, more and more brands are getting on board.
YouTube has been offering live videos for years but has only recently started picking up
steam. You can take a look at some popular YouTube Live videos to get a sense of how
other brands are using the platform.
Some examples of how you can use YouTube Live are:
Webinars
Live tutorials
Q&A sessions
Product demonstrations
13. 14. Collaborate with other creators and brands
A tactic some of the biggest YouTube stars used to grow their following is collaborating
with other users. Each collaboration gives you exposure to a new audience. And the
best part is those new viewers are more likely to subscribe to your channel since you’re
working with a content creator they already know, like and trust.
The key to a successful YouTube collaboration is finding the right partner. You want to
collaborate with content creators that share similar passions with your brand so your
video comes off as authentic.
14. 15. Run a paid YouTube ad campaign
With marketing in general becoming more pay-to-play, you always have the option to get more
visibility through paid YouTube ads. YouTube offers a variety of ad formats to choose from:
Display ads: These ads show up on the right-hand sidebar of videos, and are only available
on desktop.
Overlay ads: These are semi-transparent ads that are displayed on the bottom part of a video.
They’re only available on desktop.
Skippable and non-skippable video ads: These ads show up before, during or after a video.
Skippable ads can be skipped after five seconds, but non-skippable ads have to be watched
all the way through before the viewer can watch their video.
Bumper ads: These are non-skippable ads that have to be watched before the viewer can
watch their video. They can be a maximum of six seconds.
15. 16. Regularly publish your YouTube content to social media
It’s no secret that video content crushes it on social media in terms of
engagement and performance.
As a result, you should regularly promote your YouTube channel to
your social followers to encourage them to become subscribers. As
soon as a video goes live, make a point to let your followers on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn know about it. You can
likewise create snippets or previews for each social platform that
also link to your latest production.
With the help of Sprout Social, you can schedule your content and
cross-promote it without having to jump from platform to platform.
Features such as Viral Post can also help ensure that your content
goes live based on when your social audiences are engaged.
16. 17. Be Relatable
A crucial part of any successful YouTube ad is that it is relatable to your target audience. What that
looks like will differ, but here are some tips to help.
To be relatable, you must first know who it is you are relating to. That would be your target audience.
They will be defined by various data points, including:
age
gender
education background
purchasing power
social class
17. 18. Improve on Competitors’ YouTube Ad Creatives
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every YouTube ad creative. If a
competitor created an ad with the right idea but less-than-stellar execution, this
lets you step in and improve.
To be clear, this does not mean plagiarizing your competition’s work. The fact is,
there are no truly original ideas, but every idea can be expanded upon and
improved.