You have decided to join the millions of content creators and start recording and uploading videos to YouTube. It is an exciting time, especially when you start to get views, and it is a fun hobby that can quickly turn into a business right before your eyes.
To find success on this platform, you need to get your name, brand and channel in front of as many eyes as possible, and then over time, it will build into a money-making machine. Here are 5 YouTube marketing strategies you can immediately implement to aid your video journey.
Strategy #1: Find Your Niche
We all have interests and skill sets, and combining the two for YouTube content improves your chance of success. Youtube is not just a popularity contest, it is also a number game. You need quality and quantity of content to build your brand and market yourself to the masses.
Find a niche that you love and focus your efforts there. Filming 5 or 10 videos is easy, but it takes 100s to succeed. If your heart isn’t in it, you will soon peter out and lose any momentum you originally gained. Be smart about building and marketing a YT channel because it’s not for the faint of heart. Research what is popular, tailor it to what you love and go hard.
Strategy #2: YouTube Banner
Your channel has to help capture your audience. This is where your videos live, and there has to be a great look and feel to your page so people are enticed to dive into your videos.
Among the most important parts is your banner. It’s the header that sits at the top of the channel page. This channel art needs to tell your story and display your brand so it is easily understood what your channel is all about. Remember, it’s the first thing visitors see, so you want to capture their attention and lead them to subscribe.
You can use a YouTube banner maker to custom design your artwork, and it makes all the difference in your marketing efforts. Use some of the products you promote on the channel or incorporate incredible graphics with your logo. Capture pictures from your videos and make a collage of different items together. Make sure it is easy to recognize and read, similar to a business logo, but you can be even more creative and focused on your niche for your banner.
There are great companies you can work with to produce your banners as well, but whether you get the pros to do it or use a YT banner maker and customize it yourself, this will surely help market your channel.
Strategy #3: Harness All Social Media Platforms
YouTube is the easiest way to make money on social media platforms. You can build followings on other sites, but it is harder to make income as you need to become an influencer, with companies directly paying you to promote their products. You can monetize your YouTube channel before reaching that level of engagement and notoriety.
This doesn’t mean that you should ignore the other platforms. Building your brand and linking people to your YT channel is vital to increase subscribers and viewership. Post at least ten pieces a day of content across various platforms like:
- TikTok
- Snapchat
Social networking is your best marketing tool, so engage, inform and entertain on all platforms and direct them to your YT channel.
Strategy #4: Implement SEO
YouTube is a popular video streaming platform and the second-largest search engine on the net. People use Google and YouTube to find what they are looking for, and you need to use strategic keywords and phrases to appear in those searches.
Do some research and see what keywords rank high in your niche. This can also help you with what type of content to create. Put relevant keywords in your titles and your descriptions because they don’t just get read by viewers; these keywords are included to help in your SEO ranking and relevance. Make sure to make your descriptions long and include links to other videos. Add keywords in the thumbnail name to contribute to your overall SEO.
Strategy #5: Invest In YouTube Ads
Money makes money, and if you can strategically spend where you get the most bang for your digital buck, it will greatly help your YT channel grow.
YouTube ads include:
- Bumper ads
- Skippable and non-skippable in-stream ads
- Out stream ads
- In-feed video ads
- Masthead ads
- Video discovery ads
- Non-video ads
YouTube ads are a great way to help market your channel and overall brand, and they are fairly easy to implement by starting a campaign with your Google ads account.
These are five great YouTube marketing strategies to help you dominate the platform. Implement them and use YouTube’s analytics to see what works so you can adjust as needed to keep your channel growing. Then keep putting out content as you ride the success wave on the platform.