ImageWorks Creative Blog

Organic Ways to Market & Improve Your YouTube Presence

Posted by Jess April 19, 2016
Grow your audience on YouTube with these tips

Creating a compelling video is a step in the right direction - especially in today's marketplace. People love watching videos online. But if you upload your video to YouTube and forget about it, you can forget about being found. 

There are several steps you can take - during the creation of your video but also once it's been published - to make sure that your video is searchable and users are inclined to subscribe to your channel for future updates.

Here's how we help companies get found and grow their YouTube subscriber count at the same time.

Use calls-to-action

A call-to-action tells people what you want them to do. It should be clear and concise, and should tell users what they can expect if they perform the desired action. For instance, if you want people to subscribe to your channel, you should set up the following CTAs:

  • Within the video, verbally ask viewers to subscribe to your channel.
  • Add an annotation requesting subscribers.
  • Use an end-card (a large, clickable subscription button at the end of the video).
  • Add a “Subscribe” CTA in the video description.
  • Add a “Subscribe” CTA in the channel description.

Optimize the keywords used in your video and description

Google's algorithm is pretty good at determining whether a video might match a specific user query. For instance, someone searching to "learn how to knit" probably wants visual instruction. Recognizing this, Google returns a video as the prominent first search result. Other searches return even more video results. When you're working on your video and publishing it to YouTube, think about what question it answers and optimize those terms based on times when a video would be the most appropriate search result.

  • Make sure to target search terms likely to return video results.
  • Be niche and specific but not misleading.
  • Continually review and optimize.

Create custom video images

Most people don't want to watch low-quality videos when there are better alternatives. Using custom images is a good way to show your audience that you know what you're doing and have an appealing video for them to watch.

  • Use a custom thumbnail: it should be clear and visually describe what viewers could expect to see.
  • Embed a featured video within all of your other videos.
  • Embed a watermark in all videos across your channel with your logo, allowing viewers to subscribe easily.

Be consistent

Producing great videos takes time and effort, but if you want your channel to be successful, it's important to upload new content on a regular basis. 

  • Upload regularly so people know what to expect when they subscribe.
  • Weekly is the best option.

Promote elsewhere

Again, uploading and walking away is never the best option. Promote your video across all of your social networks, and ask others who post about similar topics to share it, too. There are lots of ways to engage an audience, so plan out a strategy and put them to work. 

  • Promote your YouTube channel on other social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) as relevant.
  • Consider running contests (when we get to 100 subscribers, we’re giving away X, for example).
  • Interact with people who comment on YouTube and elsewhere.

 

Sound like a lot of work? Growing a YouTube following takes time, dedication, and patience. We can help! Talk to us about video marketing options today. 

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