New kids on the block, similar TikTok, are making a huge impact on social media right at present, but one video-sharing platform still rules all: Youtube. It'due south the second nigh-visited site on the web, with more than two.1 billion users worldwide. If yous want to harness the platform's potential, learning how to promote your channel is a must.

Here are some of our favorite tricks for optimizing your YouTube content to help new people find your channel. Each of these tips is simple, effective, and, better notwithstanding, 100% free.

Bonus: Download the free thirty-day plan to grow your YouTube post-obit fast , a daily workbook of challenges that will help you kickstart your Youtube aqueduct growth and track your success. Go real results after one calendar month.

How to promote your YouTube channel: 30 tactics that work

i. Choose Google-friendly keywords

A great YouTube channel starts with great SEO. And slap-up SEO starts with understanding what users are searching for.

People don't just look for videos on YouTube; they utilise Google as well. And Google now prioritizes video over other content for many searches.

There'due south no set rule for which keywords will aid your YouTube video rank well. But a bit of reverse engineering science tin become a long way.

Hither's how to find a Google-friendly keyword for any video:

  • Place possible keywords with a tool like the Google Ads Keyword Planner.
  • Google one of your options.
  • Clarify the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for each keyword. Are the acme-ranking results videos or written content?
  • Tweak your keyword and attempt again. Try adding words like "How to" or "Tutorial" if you're having problem finding keywords with video results.
  • Choose a keyword that prioritizes video and suits your content.

For instance, "Photoshop Tutorial" shows video results first, while "Photoshop Tips" start directs Google users to a web page.

Google search results for "photoshop tutorial" with video results at the top of the page

YouTube's autocomplete feature is another great manner to find popular keywords. Start by searching for a particular theme or topic, and meet what title YouTube suggests.

YouTube autofill feature in search tab

2. Use concise, descriptive video titles

The title is the first thing users see when they find your content. And if it isn't punchy, it might be the final.

Here are some basic tips for writing strong YouTube titles:

  • Keep information technology short and sweet. The almost popular YouTube videos tend to have the shortest titles. Stick to 60 characters or less or some of your title may get cut off when displayed.
  • Include your keyword(s) in the get-go half of the title to avoid losing valuable information. Nigh online readers focus on the commencement of the sentence and skip the rest.
  • Engaging doesn't mean clickbait. The best headlines offer an obvious do good or create an emotional reaction. Clickbait is tempting merely can damage your channel's reputation in the long term.

3. Create custom thumbnails

Thumbnails matter, maybe even more than than titles. That'south because our brains are hardwired to find visuals offset. Nosotros process them in less than 13 milliseconds, co-ordinate to one MIT study.

YouTube produces automatic thumbnails for all videos, simply they tin can be blurry or out of focus. To boost views, create an eye-catching custom thumbnail for every video you post.

We recommend these simple "rules of thumb" for best results:

  • Resolution: 1280 x 720 px (but any 16:9 aspect ratio should work, every bit long as the width is at least 640 px)
  • Format: .JPG, .GIF or .PNG
  • Size: respect the 2MB limit
  • Add text and colors to encourage clicks
  • Cull a close-upwardly image, if y'all can
  • Use a stock photo when in doubt
  • Be consistent with your other branding

Which of these two thumbnails are you more likely to choose? The first graphic has text that clearly defines what the video is about. It'due south more heart-catching and more clickable!

2 competing thumbnails in YouTube search results

4. Fill up out your contour information

Many YouTubers skip the profile section and become straight to content creation. Merely a compelling contour is one of the easiest means to promote your YouTube channel—and boost your SEO.

Hither are some best practices for creating an effective YouTube profile:

  • Be consequent. Utilize a similar color palette, writing style, and layout as you exercise on your website and other social channels.
  • Optimize your YouTube channel description. This is a great place to add together keywords. YouTube penalizes "tag stuffing," merely including a couple of keywords can go a long way.
  • Go along viewers coming back for more than. When and how frequently will you mail service new content? Let fans know your schedule—and then brand sure yous stick to it.
  • Include contact info. You never know who might want to reach you. Arrive easy for them and you could state some neat partnerships.

5. Optimize your video descriptions

Nosotros have a complete guide to writing constructive YouTube descriptions, which has tips for both individual video descriptions and channels and gratis, customizable templates.

In a nutshell, here's what you should consider when writing your YouTube video descriptions:

  • Front-load your keywords in the description and title.
  • Stick to the 5000-character limit, simply accept the most of import data in the commencement 100 to 150 words, which appears above the "Bear witness MORE" button.
  • Create a "contents folio" with timestamps that assist viewers observe what they're looking for.
  • Add links to relevant playlists (more on this later).
  • Include a few relevant hashtags. Be sure to follow YouTube'due south hashtagging rules before y'all post.

You can besides mention keywords in the video itself. But just similar with text, people lose attention quickly. Apply a couple of keywords during a brief intro for best results.

Henry Media Group's descriptions make the nearly of timestamps in their how-to videos.

Well optimized YouTube video description

6. Don't forget nearly metadata

YouTube's metadata guidelines emphasize ii things when it comes to using keywords:

  • Be honest.
  • Choose quality over quantity.

These rules also apply to features like tags and categories. Only include tags in the "tags section" of your upload—not the video clarification. Add together i or two categories to assistance YouTube understand who to recommend your video to.

seven. Offer real value

This may seem obvious, but it's however worth saying.

Great content is the best way to continue viewers engaged—and the most effective fashion to rank well in YouTube search. That's considering YouTube's ranking arrangement prioritizes the viewer'due south experience.

Before yous publish any video, inquire yourself:

  • What problem does this video solve?
  • Is it entertaining?
  • Will it improve viewers' lives in whatever fashion?

Our "How to Use Hootsuite in thirteen Minutes" video is i of our about popular to date. By breaking things downwardly step-past-footstep, we helped viewers master a new tool. Provide real value, and y'all'll exist rewarded with real engagement.

8. Create loftier-quality videos

Poor video quality can undermine even the best content. And then make sure your content looks professional earlier you lot post it. Use a decent camera, do a soundcheck before recording, and learn some basic editing skills.

Of course, not everyone is a natural filmmaker. Brush upwards on these best practices for social videos if you're a piddling rusty.

9. Interact with your fans

Existent engagement doesn't end at content cosmos. The most successful YouTubers constantly monitor and collaborate with their fans.

Respond to viewers' comments—even the negative ones—and "eye" your favorites. Post response videos. Utilize analytics to identify your top fans and bear witness them some actress dearest.

Your viewers—and your subscriber count—volition thanks for information technology.

Musical artist Madylin Bailey writes songs using detest comments on her videos. She created this video in response to his "biggest hater." They get a lot of attention: one even earned her an audition on America'due south Got Talent.

10. Attempt a Q&A

Audience Q&Every bit are ane of the most effective ways to build a community on YouTube. Ask your subscribers to send you questions by annotate, email, or tweet. And so create a video to address them.

By showing your fans that they affair, you'll boost lookout fourth dimension, view counts, and engagement. Plus, Q&Equally can be lifesavers when you're out of fresh content ideas.

This Youtuber noticed a lot of her viewers called her their "internet big sister," so she did a Q&A with some of her best large sister advice—including tips on relationships, making new friends, and how to terminate comparison yourself to others.

eleven. Run contests

Contests are some other neat fashion to get your audience involved. With a single video, you lot can collect viewer information, encourage likes or comments, and proceeds subscribers.

We take a whole weblog mail about making the about of YouTube contests. But some quick takeaways include:

  • Get-go with a clear goal in mind.
  • Respect YouTube'southward contest rules and restrictions.
  • Cull a prize your viewers will actually savor.
  • Maximize your reach with other social channels.
  • Use a tool similar Hootsuite for YouTube.

Blendtec is famous for its "Will information technology blend?" videos. They were 1 of the early adopters of the YouTube competition: they've been using giveaways to increase their audience for over a decade.

Bonus: Download the free 30-twenty-four hour period plan to grow your YouTube post-obit fast , a daily workbook of challenges that will help you kickstart your Youtube channel growth and track your success. Go existent results later on one calendar month.

Go the free guide right now!

YouTube is all almost finding your niche and building your post-obit within it.

Subscribe to channels that target a similar audition as y'all. Watch, like, and share their content. Get out thoughtful comments or mention them in your own videos.

Not but will this give you a amend sense of what your competition is up to, it tin can also help you lot reach new viewers.

Learn how you lot can schedule your YouTube videos and engage your community from a uncomplicated, user-friendly dashboard with Hootsuite:

13. Work with (the correct) influencers

Partnering with influencers is another way to broaden your reach. YouTube personalities can help you tap into existing, highly engaged communities. They tin also help you come upwards with new content when you're stuck for ideas.

Merely there's one golden rule to any successful partnership: Be authentic.

Identify influencers who stand for values aligned with your brand. Does information technology make sense to partner with them? Volition it provide value to your viewers?

If not, continue looking. Inauthentic content can exercise more than damage than good.

For example, this collaboration between Jackie Aina and Anastasia Beverly Hills makes sense—a makeup artist partnering with a makeup brand.

YouTube is bully down difficult on inappropriate content due to a rising number of underage users.

Don't post annihilation you wouldn't desire your little brother to come across. Otherwise, your video will go flagged and removed from YouTube'southward recommendation feature. This Statista report shows that in 2021, tens of millions of Youtube videos were removed through automated flagging alone. If you're ever unsure, double-bank check the community guidelines showtime.

Statistic: Number of videos removed from YouTube worldwide from 1st quarter 2019 to 3rd quarter 2021, by source of first detection | Statista

15. Create a series

Consistency pays off. Mail service videos on a regular schedule to keep viewers coming back to your channel once again and again.

Choose a tricky, keyword-friendly name for your series for all-time results. Create a custom thumbnail to give each video in the series a similar wait and feel.

VICE News keeps subscribers engaged with new content every mean solar day.

Vice world news series on YouTube

sixteen. Make playlists

Playlists are a cracking way to become people watching more than of your content in one go. That's because these collections are a piffling addicting. As soon as one video ends, the next begins.

Playlists besides help with discoverability. Videos in a playlist are more likely to announced in YouTube'due south Suggested Videos column. Plus, playlist titles are a great place to add keywords.

You tin can create effective playlists in two ways:

  1. On your aqueduct page, group existing videos together under a common theme. This keeps viewers on your channel and non your competitor'due south.
  2. Collect videos from other relevant influencers or partners. This signals to your viewers that y'all're "in the know" and encourages them to share your playlists.

The Cut's "Lineup" playlist is more than than a footling addicting.

The Cut's playlist on YouTube

17. Go live

YouTube is ane of the internet'southward near popular alive stream platforms, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person events were cancelled. Accept reward of this past creating content that actually engages viewers.

Webinars, Q&As, and events all work well live. Browsing YouTube Live is another not bad way to become inspired.

xviii. Add a call-to-activity

Include a compelling CTA in your video to make the most of your hard-earned audience.

Peradventure you want to push your viewers to like or share your video. Maybe yous want them to click through to your website. Whatever the "enquire," the best CTAs are always clear, compelling, and urgent.

YouTube has a call-to-action extension for in-stream ads. Only in that location are also lots of gratis means to add CTAs to videos:

  • Direct host mentions: Look into the camera and verbally tell viewers what you desire them to practice.
  • Video descriptions: Ask viewers to comment, share, or like your video in the description itself.
  • End cards: Add a customizable screenshot to the beginning, heart, or end of the video. These powerful visual cues add dial to your CTA.

We used this finish screen in our "The Real way to get free Youtube Subscribers" video to boost subscriptions.

End screen with CTA on Hootsuite Labs YouTube channel

xix. Cross-promote your channel

Reach out to audiences outside of YouTube to build a customs around your channel. Observe ways to incorporate videos into your blog, e-mail newsletter, and other social media accounts.

There are lots of creative ways to cross-promote a YouTube channel that don't involve posting the same message twice. But here are some simple ideas to become y'all started:

Social media

Unlike social strategies work well for different platforms. Tools like Hootsuite tin can help streamline this process—especially if yous're using many social media accounts.

Castor upwardly on the recommended video specs for each social platform. Then, optimize your video accordingly. Once again, make sure your make's overall look and feel is consequent everywhere. And make sure you lot use different captions every time you lot postal service.

GIFs are a fun way to promote YouTube videos on Twitter.

Blogging

Does your website have a web log? Embed videos in your posts, forth with searchable transcriptions. This will increase both video and page views.

You can likewise use your blog to generate new content ideas for your channel. Employ Google Analytics to notice which posts go the most traffic. Is there a manner to create a video on that topic?

Embed the stop result into the post itself. This will add value to your blog while encouraging readers to check out your YouTube channel.

Email marketing

Email may be old school, but it's nonetheless constructive. In 2020, the global electronic mail marketing market place was valued at 7.five billion dollars.

Create an email list of YouTube subscribers. And so, give them a heads upwards every time you postal service new content. Information technology's an like shooting fish in a barrel way to increase your video's view count early. This, in plow, will kickstart YouTube'southward recommendation algorithm.

You tin take reward of your email signature too. A simple link to your YouTube channel below your name is a non-pushy way to gain subscribers.

We recommend using a simple icon rather than a long, nasty-looking URL.

YouTube link icon in email signature

20. Promote your channel, not just your videos

You know how domain say-so affects folio authority in SEO? The aforementioned is true for videos.

Accept advantage by promoting your channel as a whole, every bit well every bit your individual videos. Push button for subscribers and link to your account wherever y'all can. This volition help your videos rank higher in YouTube and Google searches.

21. Have advantage of the holidays

Win some extra eyeballs by anticipating what people are looking for. Employ holidays, popular movies, and trends as opportunities to post relevant content. You lot'd be surprised how well this strategy can work!

For example, home organizer extraordinaire At Home With Nikki made this "How to Decorate a Christmas Tree" video ane calendar month before Christmas—close enough to the holidays to be timely, simply not so close to December 25th that folks would take already finished their decor.

22. Brand evergreen videos

Upload a few timeless videos that your subscribers will render to over again and again. Popular evergreen content includes how-to guides, tools and resource lists, stat collections, tip roundups, and more than.

This kind of evergreen content tin rank well for years, increasing traffic and boosting SEO.

23. Detect out what works (and exercise more of information technology)

YouTube's analytics are powerful. Use them wisely!

Have a swoop into your data to understand your audience on a deeper level. How old are they? What languages do they speak? Which video styles do they prefer? Use this information to create content that truly captures their interests.

Youtuber Rob Kenney's "Dad, How Do I?" videos take diddled up recently. He institute his niche: judgment-free "Dad" how-tos for folks who need help jump-starting a car, using a camping stove, installing a ceiling fan and other classically Dad activities.

24. Mail service teasers on your TikTok

TikTok is taking the earth by tempest (here are some stats to prove it), but the video-sharing app's 3-minute maximum can't compare to Youtube's limit—15 minutes for not-verified users and upward to 12 hours for verified users.

You can use TikTok to promote your Youtube by posting a teaser-type video, or by posting the outset three minutes (or 15 seconds, or 60 seconds) of the video and encouraging your viewers to head over to your Youtube channel for the rest. Brand sure the link to your channel is in your TikTok bio.

@asapliu New YouTube video out in my bio :) #vlog #university #dayinmylife ♬ mural with a fairy by aspidistrafly – ♡

25. Participate in Youtube trends and challenges

Run into what'south trending on Youtube—the explore page is a skilful identify to see content that's new and hot. Trends and challenges are instant inspo for new content, and the ones on Youtube often concluding longer than trends on other apps (for example, the Boyfriend Does My Makeup Claiming that offset popped upwardly effectually 2006 is somehow even so going). Videos like morning time and nighttime routines are big in 2022.

26. Make virtual reality videos

360º videos and virtual reality offer a unique video experience, and the massive growth in VR headset sales shows that viewers are here for that 3D content. Youtube offers two different formats: Youtube VR180 and 360º. There are guides for each to get you started, including what kind of gear you'll need, how to flick, and how the videos are stitched together.

27. Mail service videos in multiple parts

Kind of like a cliffhanger on a TV evidence, posting videos in multiple parts will ensure that viewers keep coming back to your aqueduct (every bit long equally they're non also long).

The fox to this is not posting videos in multiple parts because y'all have to–for example, this late-night segment with Jeff Goldblum was posted in two parts (each seven minutes long) even though they are just over 15 minutes together.

Posting in more digestible chunks makes users more likely to click on your video, where you can gently point them towards Role ii.

28. Get verified on Youtube

If you have 100,000 or more subscribers, you can utilise to exist verified on Youtube. (And if you lot need help getting at that place, hither are fifteen strategies y'all can utilize to get more than subscribers. We've also put together a guide to Youtube'south verification process.

You don't need to be verified to be successful on Youtube, just having that extra stamp of credibility will just help your channel grow.

In order to get the Youtube Community tab on your channel, you as well need a certain number of subscribers—but different the 100k required for verification, merely k subscribers are needed for Community admission.

Your Youtube Community tab has a feed that looks similar to Facebook or Twitter, where y'all can post video announcements, polls, questions, and other media for your audience. (Warning: they do pronounce GIF as "jif" in the following video).

30. Do what your favorite YouTubers do

Odds are, you started your Youtube journey as a fan. The website has been around since 2006, and worldwide, people sentry more a billion hours of Youtube every twenty-four hour period. Your favorite YouTubers aren't only a source for comedy sketches, makeup how-tos, and vlogs—they're an excellent case report for marketing and promotion.

Find successful channels that are similar to yours, and watch what they do. Then, put your own spin on it. You've got access to a gigantic library that is e'er growing (500 hours of new videos are uploaded every infinitesimal). School is in session.

With Hootsuite, yous tin can easily upload, schedule, and promote your YouTube marketing videos across multiple social networks from 1 dashboard. Try information technology costless today.

Get Started

Grow your YouTube channel fast with Hootsuite. Easily moderate comments, schedule video, and publish to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Try it for Complimentary