Are you looking for a simple way to promote your business’s YouTube channel?
As a general rule, the more content you have on your YouTube channel, the easier it is to grow your brand and increase views and subscribers.
The more content you have, the more likely your audience is to see you as a trusted authority. They’re also more likely to recommend your videos to others, leave comments and subscribe.
But what else can you do to drive engagement and give your YouTube channel a boost?
Do you need to constantly check in with viewers through comments and messages? Or should you focus on ensuring your channel has a consistent look and professional feel?
Here are a few things I’ve found helpful if you want to promote your YouTube channel.
Write (and re-write!) engaging, clickable video titles
The title you give your YouTube video is the most important part of YouTube marketing! You could even say it’s more important than the video itself. If you have a fantastic video with incredible content but a terrible title, you’re massively limiting the number of people who are likely to see it.
A good YouTube title is concise and tells people exactly what they’ll get from your video. Keep it between 20 and 60 characters long, and include keywords as close to the start of the title as possible.
To get the most out of your older YouTube content, you’ll probably need to review your old videos and update their titles. If you’ve got several years’ worth of videos to go through, there’s a good chance some of those titles might no longer be relevant.
Perhaps a new search term or keyword is now driving more viewers to your latest videos. Could you incorporate that into your older video titles? Maybe there are inconsistencies in phrasing or terminology. Or perhaps the quality of writing or grammar in your older videos isn’t great.
Here are a few tips I use when writing a YouTube title:
- Keep it concise (20 to 60 characters max)
- Use your main keyword as close to the start of the title as possible
- Use emotion
- Consider the audience
- Avoid click-bait or anything misleading
The key to crafting a good YouTube video title is grabbing your audience’s attention without resorting to lazy, click-bait headlines. Similar to how you’d carefully consider what an engaging email newsletter headline would be, think carefully about what will make people click.
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Use playlists to organize your YouTube content
The more video marketing content you create for YouTube, the easier it is for your channel to become disorganised. If that happens, you’re bound to lose engagement.
Visitors to your channel may be put off by how confusing it is. They came urgently looking for an answer but can’t find what they need. Frustrated, they give up and go elsewhere.
It’s a bit like shopping in a hurry. Imagine you’re on your way to an important meeting, but your morning coffee spills all over your white top. Do you want to waste time hunting through messy baskets of clothes in an untidy shop, or would you rather head to a department store with clear displays and a well-organised layout?
Keeping your YouTube channel neat and tidy is like window dressing for video marketing!
How to create YouTube playlists
Creating different playlists allows you to group your videos into categories and organise your channel better. This makes it easier for people to navigate your content and find what they need (as well as what you want them to find!).
Not only that, but playlists also appeal to viewers’ desire to binge-watch. For example, if you have a series of video blogs on similar topics (like I do!), putting them in a playlist makes it more likely that people will discover and watch more of your content.
Playlists can be grouped by content type (e.g. – video blogs) or by different audience interests. Whichever option you choose, organising your videos into YouTube playlists makes them easier to binge-watch!
Cross-promote your older videos on YouTube
If you’ve been uploading to YouTube for a few years, you probably have multiple videos covering similar topics.
To get more value from your older content, make sure you cross-promote your videos when it makes sense. For example, you can add a link in the new video’s description, encouraging viewers to check out an older video. You might also reference it in the video itself and add a link to the description.
YouTube’s End Screen feature is another great way to help viewers find older, relevant content. An end screen appears in the last 20 seconds of your YouTube video and acts as an interactive call to action. You can link to a video or channel you think your viewers will enjoy next.
Pointing viewers to your older content encourages binge-watching. Once they realise there’s a wealth of still-relevant content on your channel, they’re much more likely to subscribe and engage!
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Target the search engines (but not too much!)
Since YouTube is owned by Google, a strong presence on YouTube can massively impact your search engine rankings. Naturally, this also helps promote your YouTube channel.
The problem is that many people focus only on search engine optimisation (SEO) and forget about their audience. You need to strike a balance between the two.
Videos like product reviews, how-to guides, explainers and other niche-specific content tend to rank well. These videos naturally lend themselves to SEO-friendly titles, descriptions and tags, making them easier to find online.
But it’s just as important to focus on quality. Just like when writing a blog or email newsletter, don’t fixate only on optimising the title or headline. The quality of your content and how it helps your audience should always be your top priority.
Some of our most popular videos have come from brainstorming search terms that our clients use to find us online!
Get engaged with the YouTube community
Starting conversations in the YouTube comments is a personal and effective way to promote your channel.
While YouTube isn’t a social network like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, it does have a community where users interact through likes and comments.
Engaging with your viewers is a positive signal to YouTube. It helps you build stronger connections with your audience and encourages growth. Liking a comment only takes a second, as does pinning a top comment to add a personal touch for your subscribers.
Don’t just upload a video and forget about it! Interacting with your community through comments and likes should be a key part of your YouTube marketing strategy. You probably do the same on other social platforms – so why should YouTube be any different?
If all else fails, just ask!
Sometimes, the simplest way to boost engagement and promote your channel is just to ask! After all, not everyone who watches your video will think to like or comment.
If you’re new to YouTube, there’s no harm in asking for feedback and a thumbs-up. However, you don’t want to fill the first half of your video with desperate requests. Long-winded appeals to like, comment and subscribe, or to “hit the bell for updates”, can be off-putting – especially for new viewers. They came for content first, so make sure you give them that before asking for interaction!
To avoid this, get creative with how you ask for engagement.
For example, you could ask viewers a question in your video and encourage them to answer in the comments. Ask for feedback on what they’d like to see in future videos, or invite them to submit questions with the promise that you’ll read each one (even if you can’t reply to them all!).
Growing your business and brand on YouTube doesn’t happen by accident.
And yes, it can certainly feel like an uphill struggle if your niche is crowded with competition.
But that’s why it’s a great idea to have different ideas to keep your audience engaged in your channel and to push for growth. Some require more direct, ongoing effort, and others might only take half an hour but have a profound effect. Whichever you choose, each of the ideas above will help you get more eyeballs on your YouTube channel and more subscribers.
