How to Grow a Successful YouTube Channel

There is no denying that video marketing has gained momentum in recent years and has become more popular and accessible to brands. While popular sites like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram and your website are great places to invest, starting a YouTube channel may be the best place to promote your brand as people spend a billion hours every day watching videos on this platform.

Building your video around a single topic or keyword is the best way to drive traffic and increase your YouTube audience. Marketers unfamiliar with SEO may miss this step to rank videos, but it's crucial to include this step if you want your videos to get the maximum viewership. Use a keyword tool like KeywordTool.io, which is specific to YouTube, to find the most searched keywords in the niche you want to target. It is important to choose your keyword before creating your video content as it will help you build the best information on that particular topic. It also helps you remember to include your keyword naturally in all content so that YouTube picks it up when captions are added. After you pick a keyword, you can check out the videos currently ranked for that topic to make sure you're on the right track in terms of intent and always optimizing your title and descriptions. This is how you generate more search traffic with SEO on YouTube.

Of course, the best way to grow your YouTube channel is to create and deliver great content. But that content doesn't always have to be rebuilt from scratch. Some of your best videos can be made with engaging, valuable, useful and actionable content you already have. Many people turn to YouTube for answers and how-to videos, especially during the COVID19 pandemic, where people watched 4 billion hours of 'how-to' videos in just one year. Content that solves your audience's problems is therefore a great way to generate traffic. Run a content check to find the best performing blogs, tutorials, and other stuff you currently own, and think about how you can reuse them to create relevant and engaging videos. Keep in mind that the most successful YouTube videos are usually between one and five minutes long, so don't feel like you have to make a movie or write a novel. Keep it short and sweet.

It is important not to overlook that YouTube is a social media channel and therefore requires social interaction. If you're just posting videos without encouraging comments and discussions, you're missing out. YouTube rewards channels with high engagement, including total time spent on the channel, watch time, likes and dislikes, and most importantly, comments. So try to respond to every comment you receive (if possible!) and encourage users to respond to the audio/visual prompts. You can also take the time to visit other channels and get involved, it could be a brand similar to yours or just a brand you admire. Also, don't always wait for the public to take the initiative. Post questions or comments that can increase engagement by asking relevant content questions or even just asking what content they like or want to see more of on your channel. And don't forget to thank people for sharing on YouTube and other channels.