5 marketing tips to grow your YouTube channel

Many creators start YouTube with the hope of attracting and earning millions. But, with 51 million YouTube channels creating 500 hours of YouTube content every minute, it’s becoming tougher to grow on YouTube.

So, how do the pros do it? We have researched tens of YouTube channels and found the five secrets to growing your channel. Here they are:

1. Do keyword research

Keywords are the reason someone finds your content. So, if you don’t target the right keyword, you won’t rank higher on search results and hence miss views.

Here’s how to do keyword research:

a) Note your seed keywords

Seed keywords are broader terms of your industry. For example, if you’re related to the digital marketing industry, your seed keywords would be: Search engine optimization, paid marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and more.

b) Find related terms

You don’t have to create videos targeting the seed keywords because they are highly competitive and won’t yield desired results. What you should instead do is use these keywords to find related ones.

Use KeywordTool for it. For example, put the seed keyword, and it will show you related keywords. I put “search engine optimization,” and here are the results:

Or you can even use the YouTube autocomplete suggestions.

Note down these related keywords.

c) Filter keywords with low competition and high volume

Use Tubebuddy to find keywords that attract thousands of views and are easy to rank for—so you can rank higher on YouTube search results. All you have to do is put these related keywords into Tubebuddy to find the ones with low competition and high volume. After that, start creating content.

2. Write a persuasive title and description

YouTube has confirmed that it uses click-through rates to rank videos. Put another way: the more people click on your videos, the higher they will rank. The best way to incentivize viewers to click on your video is to write a title that makes them curious.

For example, your title can show the benefits (mention what they’ll learn), like how Neil Patel does:

(Ensure it’s less than 70 characters and has the targeted keywords)

Now, onto the description:

YouTube advises writing long descriptions. The trick is to summarize the video: mention what it is about, how the viewer will benefit, and add research/data to back your claims.

3. Use SEO to rank on Google

You’ll see that Google ranks YouTube videos for search results—especially for ‘how-to” keywords.

If you optimize your YouTube videos for SEO, you can attract organic traffic both from Google and YouTube results. Here’s how to do it:

a) Include your target keywords in your video title and description.

b) Mention your keyword 4-5 times in your video. This way, Google will understand what your video is about and can rank it accordingly for related search terms.

c) Add tags to your videos that give Google and YouTube context about them. For example, if your video is about social media marketing, you can add the following tags: social media marketing, social media marketing strategies, social media growth, etc.

4. Create an engaging hook

According to YouTube, the first 15 seconds of the video if you want the viewers to keep watching. I myself don’t watch videos if the first 15 seconds aren’t educative, entertaining, or funny. I bet it’s the same with you.

So, how to hook your viewers right from the start? Here’s what YouTube recommends (the do’s):

• Start off with something that will immediately grab attention, whether it’s what you say or a stunning visual (You can start with a story; example, a shocking statistic/fact; example, or a joke; example)
• Make it clear what your video is about early on—so viewers aren’t confused about what they’re watching; example
• Tease the rest of the video—so the audience is intrigued to see where you take them; example

Pro Tips:

a) If your video is how-to content, you can show the results to intrigue your viewers; for example

b) Never start with your channel branding. Let the viewers first see your content, and you can promote your channel afterward.

5, Repurpose your video

You put in a lot of hours and money to create a video—from deciding the topics to shooting a video to writing titles and descriptions. So, you would want that it reaches more people, right? You can repurpose your video into various formats on different platforms.

Here’s how:

a) Break your long video into short clips.

b) Create a YouTube short/Instagram reel

c) Turn it into a blog post

d) Create social media posts: carousels, threads, graphic posts, and more.

So, these were the marketing tips you can use to grow your YouTube channel. By following them, you’ll attract more viewers, subscribers, leads, and traffic. You’ll also increase your brand awareness and revenue.