4 Strategies that Guarantee YouTube Growth
It makes sense because no one wants to invest
countless hours into creating videos and feel like they’re not actually
reaching people. We want people to
see our videos. We want them to change lives, influence people, and even
financially support us.
As a certified YouTube consultant and a
YouTuber myself, this is a question I wrestle with a lot, both on my own
channels and my client’s channels. However, after being active in the space for
the past seven years and being a part of many successful channels, I’ve learned
that the answer to that question isn’t based solely on implementing a bunch of
YouTube tips and best practices. That helps, of course, but YouTube growth
often comes from strategically wrestling through a series of other questions
first.
Your Channel is a Restaurant
Think of your YouTube channel like a
restaurant. Just as a chef focuses primarily on the food he prepares for
guests, creators often focus primarily on the videos they prepare. However,
anyone who has eaten at a restaurant knows that the likely hood of returning to
eat again depends on the overall restaurant experience, not just how good the
food is. Good food is obviously important, but so is price, mood lighting,
promptness, cleanliness, and more. They all contribute to a successful
restaurant that causes people to come back time and time again.
If we want viewers to come back time and time
again on YouTube, we need to consider the overall channel experience, too. What
contributes to a channel experience and how do we create a positive one that
entices viewers to be drawn into our content and subscribe?
I break it down into three strategies that’s
encompassed by a fourth strategy. Each is necessary to create a highly
subscribable YouTube channel.
1. Channel Strategy: How does your YouTube
channel present itself to a viewer?
If you’re a restaurant owner and you want
hungry people to stop and eat, the first thing people will notice about your
restaurant is it’s physical appearance. If they’ve never heard your place,
they’ll make a lot of assumptions about what kind of food you offer based on
what they see. Naturally, they’ll assume a restaurant that’s flashing neon beer
sign in the window will offer a much different dining experience than a place
that has a big friendly plastic mouse out front. (If that’s your restaurant and
I see the mouse, I’m totally mocking it publicly on Instagram. Just a heads
up.)
The same is true for your YouTube channel. If
someone in your target audience stumbles across one of your videos and then
goes to your channel to check out more, what would they assume about your
videos? Does your channel’s design make them feel like, “Yes, this place is for
me!” Does it quickly and clearly communicate what value your channel has for
them or will they need to invest some time into digging around to figure it
out? If so, you’ll most likely have a high abandonment rate of potential
subscribers.
Everything from your channel’s header image,
channel icon, channel trailer, the sections listed below it, and even how
consistently you publish videos should all be strategically aligned to
intentionally communicate why your channel is valuable to your target audience.
The easier you can make this for viewers the easier it will be for them to feel
enticed to watch more videos and subscribe.
2. Search & Discovery Strategy: How does a
viewer find your channel?
You just built your restaurant and you’re proud
of all the work you put into it. Your food is great, the experience is amazing,
and you’re ready to open for business. There’s only one thing missing: people.
How will people find out it? How will you get visitors to come check it out?
On YouTube, most people do this for their
channels by optimizing videos for search results, collaborations, and using
social media to promote their content. These are all effective ways to get
discovered, but there will always only be 20 videos in the first page of search
results, a limited number of collaboration opportunities, and a lot of noise in
social media to drown out your promotion.
When you think through your search and
discovery strategy, it’s important to think creatively. There are thousands of
ways to jump ahead of the competition and get your content in front of your
target audience. Yes, thousands and thousands. Maybe you can use your social
media accounts differently than anyone else, or you reach out for
collaborations in a unique and valuable way that gets attention. Creativity
with videos isn’t the only place where your creativity needs to shine.
3. Audience Development Strategy: How do you
intend to capture a viewer’s interest and turn them into an integral part of
your channel’s community?
Congratulations! Your restaurant’s search and
discovery strategy is working! New guests are arriving to check out the place
and get a bite to eat. Now what? Well, you need a strategy to ensure that they
enjoy the place. They need to easily relax and enjoy the friends who came with
them. They need to have an experience that compels them to come back for more.
Fortunately for you, a few customers turn into
regulars who start coming back every week for more. They even tell their
friends about your restaurant and, before you know it, your business has grown
month over month for 12 months straight!
On YouTube, it’s not enough to just get a few
people to watch your videos and subscribe. You must have a strategy that
intentionally turns those viewers into regulars who keep coming back for more.
Ideally you create a community around your channel, people who are not only
passively watching your videos, but actively talking with each other,
supporting each other, and contributing more value to your channel then you
could ever create on your own.
4. Video Content Strategy: How do you plan to
execute the aforementioned strategies with videos?
Fortunately, as a “chef,” most creators already
understand the “food” part of their “restaurants,” but it’s important that
videos are crafted in a way that supports the channel strategy, the search and
discovery strategy, and the audience development strategy. Each are stand-alone
strategies that involve much more than just your videos, but they all still tie
back to your videos.
How do each of your videos address your target
audience? How does each video deliver your value proposition to people in that
audience? How does it help them find you? How do you build relationships with
these people in a way that turns viewers into a loyal community?I realize these
are big questions, most of which do not have simple answers, but continually
tackling them head-on is what separates the flat channels from the growing
channels. I guarantee that if you think through question carefully and start
experimenting with different ideas, learning from what works for you and what
doesn’t, your channel will grow on YouTube.
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