The audience for online video content is massive and it’s only going to get bigger. In a 2015 white paper published by Cisco it was predicted that video would increase from 45% of all consumer internet traffic in 2014 to 80% in 2019. While Facebook has recently become a serious challenger, YouTube is still easily the dominant platform for online video. Naturally, it is also the place that most people look to when developing their online video presence. Here are thirteen quick and easy tips for developing your audience on YouTube.
#1 Optimize how people find your video:
YouTube search engine optimization (SEO) is important for ensuring people can find your video. Each month over six billion hours of YouTube video is consumed so the potential audience is massive. But with over 360 hours of fresh video uploaded every minute, there is no shortage of competition either. Some quick tips for improving your discoverability on YouTube include:
* Determine your target keywords – Start by determining the keywords (search terms) that you most want to rank for. This YouTube keyword search tool can help you to find relevant keywords for your video. Enter your “seed” keyword and click on the magnifying glass. For example, if the main subject of your video was “gluten free diet” you could enter this as your seed keyword and the tool will provide related keywords that people use when searching on YouTube.
* Add in your keywords – Once you have determined your keywords you need to add them strategically to your YouTube video page. The main keyword will ideally be included in the title, several times through out the description and in the tags. You should also try to weave your related keywords into the description and the tags.
* Update your keywords – Make sure to keep abreast of any trends that are relevant to the content of your video. Update your video page with these trending keywords when appropriate.
You can learn more about YouTube SEO here.
#2 Work Together with Another Youtube Account
Henry Ford once remarked that “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” This is equally true when it comes to building your audience on YouTube. Ways to collaborate with other channels could be to put the YouTube link of the other company in your video, or to add an annotation on the video stating something along the lines of “This company is also doing something similar with their YouTube channel, you should check it out!”.
#3 Make Your Names and Descriptions Intriguing
People are more likely to watch your videos if you do not give everything away in the title. Questions can work well as titles because people will be compelled to learn more. A good title will almost demand that the viewer watch the film to find out what is going on.
#5 Make a Schedule For Updating Your Channel
If you state that you are going to post every Monday, then people will come to anticipate your next video. Subscribers and those that regularly follow your account can help to build the initial view count for newly released content. Those views will in turn bring in new viewers that may not know about your channel. This increase of viewership may lead to you gaining more subscribers creating a beneficial cycle.
#6 Go Over Analytics To Identify Areas Of Improvement
YouTube provides excellent analytics about your videos. This includes viewership by day, week and / or month. You can also see how long a viewer watches a certain video. If they stop watching very quickly, you know that your video was not interesting enough to hold their attention. Looking through your analytics can help you identify at which point you are losing viewers. You can then look at how to improve the video (or subsequent videos) to hold viewers attention longer.
#7 Engage With Your Audience
YouTube isn’t “TV on the internet”, it also a social media site where viewers can interact with video creators. It’s important to listen to their feedback, respond to questions, and even do contest videos or Q & A videos that make the viewer feel connected to your channel. This sense of connection is vital to developing an engaged audience. So if someone provides useful feedback that a lot of other subscribers like as well, listen carefully and respond. Some ways to develop this sense of connection is to make a fan of the week or fan of the month, where you give them a prize of being mentioned in your next video.
#8 Connect Different Social Media Platforms
YouTube is a very powerful platform for marketing using promotional videos, however, it can be even more powerful when coupled with other platforms. If people are asking questions about a product on Twitter, and you have a video on that same product, tweet the person the link to the YouTube video. The same goes for Tumblr. Tumblr is also nice because you can track tags, to see when people post about a specific thing. Put the links to your different social media platforms on your YouTube channel, and vice versa.
#9 Make Sure You Have a Channel Trailer
A channel trailer is a video that comes up at the top of your channel if the person looking is not a subscriber. Some channels choose to put a video outlining what the channel is about. Others put up the most viewed video. The video automatically starts to play when someone goes to the channel page. If the trailer is interesting the person will probably continue to watch it, therefore increasing viewership for that video.
#10 Work with Famous Youtubers or Well Known Websites
Teaming up with famous YouTubers or websites can help your audience grow exponentially. YouTubers are mainly followed by millennials, so if you are trying to market to this audience, capitalizing on YouTuber’s fame is a very smart idea. A very popular website, called Buzzfeed, can be useful tool to use. You could work together to make a Buzzfeed post that ends with the link to the YouTube video.
#11 Connect Your Uploads to Upcoming Events
People love inside scoops about large events, like the Oscars or the Super Bowl. Look for ways to connect your product to one of those events, through either an interview, or a backstage look into the festivities. Keep up to date with the most popular events going on in your city each week as these are opportunities to increase your viewership. Using celebrities connected to the events in videos can really help as well. Fans of that celebrity will often watch the video even if they were not previously aware product or idea behind featured.
#12 Have A High Impact Channel Banner
Your channel banner is the photo that is shown at the top of your channel. Make this a visually compelling photo that is related to your company. It is important to make sure that the banner will look good on different devices. Here is a link to a banner template that can help you create a great looking banner:
http://www.targetinternet.com/resources/YouTube-Banner_Transparent-Overlay.png
#13 Add Annotations
Annotations are the small boxes that pop up in YouTube videos, mostly saying something along the lines of “check out my other video that is about this!” or “don’t forget to subscribe!”. Many people get rid of the annotations, so they can see the full screen, however, they usually read them, and have the thought of watching the recommended video is in their head. This subconscious thought is extremely powerful in giving users something to do after they watch the video that is still connected to your channel, instead of having them watch a video completely unrelated to you.
Here is a video explaining how to put annotations into your video:
Also, here is an example of the finished version of an annotation. The annotations are in the top right corner and the bottom right corner.
Cater to your audience-Check What They Like Through YouTube Trends https://www.youtube.com/trendsdashboard
YouTube trends is extremely helpful for YouTubers to use, because you can look up specific countries and their most popular videos. If there is something going viral at a specific time, looking at the trending videos can help with figure out if you should make a parody video. Also, it is helpful to see if an extremely popular video is even that popular in your specific country. If your intended audience is the U.S., and you are making videos that would be more appealing to a Scottish audience, then you should probably look and see what is trending in the U.S. and base what videos you make off of that.
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