Do you have a YouTube channel and wonder how you can increase video views on YouTube?
If your answer is yes, read on to learn how to promote YouTube videos.
The fact is that it doesn’t matter how much time you invest in creating your videos; if you don’t market and promote your videos, your work will never be seen by the majority of your audience. It’s like throwing a big party without letting anyone knows the location of the party.
Best ways to promote YouTube videos:
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- Video Title (Optimize it for more clicks)
- Video Tags – Utilize the 500 characters limit
- Use a good thumbnail
- Use Intro and outro video for Branding
- Promote videos on Social media channels
- Start a blog for YouTube channel
- Use YouTube Playlist
- Use Call to action
- Share your latest video with your YouTube community
How To Promote A YouTube Video or Channel & Get More Views
I have covered all major YouTube promotion techniques in the sub-topics below
1. Video Title (Optimize it for more clicks)
The titles of your videos are a major deciding factor between them being widely seen & shared across the internet, or only getting a small number of views. The titles of your videos are a crucial factor in whether they are viewed and shared on the Internet or receive only a small number of views.
It’s a good idea to do proper YouTube keyword research to find what people are searching for and then crafting a great title around that.
Here are some tips for writing great video titles on YouTube:
- Keep them short and to the point.
- Add the current year if you can (Ex: Best Tips for 2020).
- Make it attention-grabbing.
- Capitalize your headline title. Use this tool to help you.
2. Video Tags – Utilize the 500 characters limit
One of the biggest mistakes that hinder the growth of your YouTube video’s organic promotion is incorrect tag usage.
Tagging in YouTube works differently than it does in a blog post. If you’ve never paid attention to YouTube tags, now’s a good time to start. You can even go back and edit all of your old tags.
Here are some rules for using YouTube video tags:
- Use a unique branded tag so that your videos are shown in related videos. Ex: Use your brand name in all videos. (See below screenshot.)
- Use your main keywords as the video tag.
- Use a variation of your keyword as a tag (take help of the YouTube auto-suggest feature).
- Find the tags used by high ranking videos & use those in your video. You can use the TubeBuddy Chrome extension to help you find tags used by others.
Do remember, YouTube video tags are an important factor for the organic ranking of videos.
3. Use A Custom Thumbnail on YouTube
Verified YouTube accounts can take advantage of the custom thumbnail feature. A good video thumbnail helps you stand out in the related video and suggested video section.
Here are some tips for thumbnails:
- Have a resolution of 1280 x 720 (with a minimum width of 640 pixels).
- Upload in either .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG.
- Keep it under 2MB.
- Try to use a 16:9 aspect ratio as it’s the most used in YouTube players and previews.
4. Use Intro and outro video for Branding
There are a few branding things that you should do from now on which will ensure every video stands out. One of those things is using a branded intro and outro.
- YouTube intro: A 3-5 second clip that runs at the beginning to showcase your brand.
- YouTube outro: This runs at the end and can be as simple as showing related videos for your channel or asking users to like & subscribe to videos.
5. Share Videos On Social Media Channels
If you are a video blogger, you should have some social media properties for your YouTube channel. This gives you an opportunity to create a community outside of YouTube & direct traffic from other popular social media/social networking channels. These
These are the sites to promote your YouTube videos:
6. Start A Blog For Your YouTube Channel
If you are a YouTuber, you shouldn’t miss out on creating a blog for your YouTube videos. These days, it’s pretty easy to embed YouTube videos onto a blog & you can start a blog.
I recommend you to create a blog & use a video-specific WordPress theme. If you are already making money from Youtube, It’s better for you to use Managed WordPress Hosting so that you don’t have to worry about blog maintenance.
7. Utilize YouTube Playlist Or Add Video To An Existing Playlist
A YouTube playlist is a great way to get more views on your existing videos. When you are done uploading a new video, add it to a playlist (either one you create or an existing one).
If you are creating a new playlist, follow these steps:
- Give a meaningful name to the playlist & have a keyword in the title of that playlist.
- Add a detailed description of the playlist and put your keyword(s) in there.
- Group similar videos into one playlist.
- A single video can be listed in more than one playlist.
YouTube playlists also appear in search results. By doing this, the further discovery of your videos is increased.
8. Use Calls To Action
People on social media sites need to be told about the actions you want them to take.
At the end of the video, or even somewhere in middle, ask viewers to like & subscribe to your channel. At the same time, you can ask them to share the video with others who might benefit from it.
Most of the prominent YouTubers use “Call to action” technique to amplify their video reach with existing subscribers. If you have never done this before, start doing it from your next video onward.
You will be amazed to discover that by simply asking your existing subscribers, the number of shares increases to a great extent.
9. Post to your YouTube community
YouTube is silently building a social network and you can promote a video on YouTube by using the post to community feature. Simply click on the + icon on YouTube web or mobile app, and click “Create post“.
Now, type the message and link to the video that you want to promote. You can add .gif or images or even run a poll to make it more engaging. Your community can like and also comment on your post which is a great signal for higher engagement. This is yet, one of the untapped free video promotion techniques.
Now, your turn…
If you find any of the listed tips useful, share them with your YouTuber friends! And don’t forget to join me on YouTube!
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