You can promote your YouTube channel quickly as an upcoming creator by leveraging keywords, collaborating with other creators, hosting live streams, and engaging frequently with your viewers.
Promoting your YouTube channel can help you reach more viewers and significantly increase your subscribers.
But being a small creator, you might think that you are slightly disadvantaged. I mean, how can you stand out among several other established channels?
It’s true that YouTube often recommends more established channels and creators. However, there’s a way around it. Even as an upcoming creator, you can get YouTube to promote your YouTube channel for free.
If you’ve been wondering how you can promote videos on YouTube as an upcoming creator, this post is for you. Here, you’ll discover 17 of the best ways to promote YouTube videos.
17 Ways to Promote Your YouTube Channel for Free
The first step in promoting your YouTube channel is understanding your niche and audience. An in-depth understanding of your niche and audience will help you tailor your content to their specific needs.
You also need to know the right keywords to target (you’ll find out why in a few minutes).
Ready to learn how to promote your YouTube channel?
Read on to find out how to promote YouTube videos on your channel.
1. Make Your Video Titles Captivating
One of the best ways to promote your channel and videos on YouTube is to write video titles to grab your viewers’ attention. Use “power words” that appeal to your viewers’ emotions and tickle their curiosity.
If, for example, you’re trying to appeal to your viewers’ desires, try a title like “Why You’re Not Getting Positive Feedback from Your Interviews.”
If you’re trying to pique their curiosity, a title like “How I Became a Millionaire with Just $5” would do the trick.
The general rule of thumb is to make your title emotionally intriguing while still inserting the relevant keywords.
Inserting the right keywords helps YouTube understand the content of your video and makes it easier for the algorithm to suggest it to the right target audience.
2. Create Eye-Catching YouTube Thumbnails
Your YouTube thumbnail can significantly boost your click-through rate. The more eye-catching your thumbnail is, the higher the chances of viewers clicking on your video.
Apart from making it eye-catching, your thumbnail must also match the aesthetics of your niche. If your niche involves cooking like Gordon Ramsay, a vibrant and attractive thumbnail that showcases your meals is your best pick.
But, if you’re more on the mellow, minimalistic spectrum, like Studio McGee interior designers, go for clean and simple thumbnails.
Here are some additional tips to consider when designing your thumbnail:
- Keep your design simple and easy to understand. Avoid clutter.
- Your thumbnail and design title should align with each other.
- Your thumbnail images should be related to your video’s topic.
- Insert texts that explain the content of your video.
3. Utilize YouTube Cards and End Screens
YouTube cards and end screens help you cross-promote another video in a video.
I’ll explain:
YouTube cards appear at different points in a video. You can use them to recommend other videos relating to the content of the present video; videos you think your viewers might be interested in because it relates to the present video.
If, for example, you’re discussing health tips in a video, and you mention the use of natural remedies in boosting the immune system, you can use a YouTube card to direct your viewers to one of your videos that discusses it.
End screens are short outros that appear at the end of YouTube videos. They’re a great way to promote your channel by directing viewers to other videos you think they might find interesting. Think of it as a CTA; your viewers won’t need to think too hard about the next video to watch.
Using a video to promote another video is called cross-promotion.
4. Post Consistently to Promote Your YouTube Channel
Consistent posting is the holy grail of social media growth. When you post consistently, you put your channel in the face of your subscribers and viewers. But more importantly, showing up consistently keeps you in the minds of your viewers.
The more consistently you post, the more they see your videos. Viewers see your videos more, and they think about your channel frequently. Plus, they’re encouraged to watch and engage with your posts.
Also, the more your channel runs rent-free in their minds, the higher the chances of them mentioning it to their friends.
5. Accurately Describe Your YouTube Channel
One of the easiest ways to promote your YouTube channel is to accurately describe it. Sounds simple enough right?
In your channel description, explain your YouTube niche, tell your viewers the kind of videos they’ll find on your channel, and properly articulate what they stand to gain from following your channel. See how the popular YouTuber, Like Nastya, describes what her channel is about below:
You can also insert some keywords for an added advantage. Inserting the relevant keywords in your description will help your channel rank higher in YouTube search engine results.
6. Pay Attention to Your Video Descriptions
Just like your channel, every video also needs an accurate description. Your video description helps searchers and YouTube’s algorithm understand what your video is about. The more detailed your video description is, the higher your chances of getting views, clicks, and watch time.
Keep your description engaging and avoid keyword stuffing.
Also, avoid making it too long or too short. Let the first 100 characters contain your best descriptors and the most relevant keywords so that viewers can get the juice upfront.
7. Add the Appropriate Hashtags to Your Videos
Adding the proper YouTube hashtags to your title and description is one of the most underrated ways to promote your YouTube channel and boost channel traffic.
Here’s how:
YouTube hashtags make it easier for users to discover and engage with your videos and channel. When a user clicks on a hashtag, they are redirected to the official hashtag page for that topic. Now imagine if your video appears at the top of this page — massive exposure!
Take the Hashtag #Copywriting for example. Following this topic’s hashtag leads to a page displaying several videos on copywriting.
8. Comment on Other YouTube Videos
Want to raise curiosity on who you are and what you have to offer? Try leaving interesting comments on videos within your niche.
Here’s how it works:
When you leave intriguing and interesting comments on other YouTube videos, you’ll catch the eye of other viewers and soon they’ll be following your comment out of curiosity.
The best way to leverage this is to leave comments on videos within your niche. Not only that, consider replying to the comments of other viewers.
Disclaimer: do not spam the comment section. The idea behind this is to leave thought-provoking, intelligent comments that prove your industry/niche expertise and encourage other viewers to follow your page.
9. Leverage YouTube Shorts
YouTube shorts allow you to reach more people and gain popularity. With the recent algorithm update, YouTube now recommends long-form videos to users after they watch a YouTube short.
If, for example, someone watches your YouTube short, that’s popular. At the end of the Short, YouTube will suggest a longer video from your channel to that viewer.
From there, it’s left to the viewer to follow through and click on the suggested video. This is why your thumbnails and video titles must be captivating.
10. Encourage Your Viewers to Promote Your YouTube Channel
Encouraging your viewers to share your channel is one of the best ways to promote your YouTube channel. Always encourage them to like, share, and subscribe.
You can add this to the end screen or mention it at the end of your video. You can also make it into a challenge or giveaway.
11. Leverage Current YouTube Trends and Challenges
One of the best ways to get discovered as an upcoming creator is to jump on current YouTube trends and challenges. Jumping on these tracks can help you grow your channel quickly.
However, bear in mind that not all trends are for you. Neither will all trends align with your niche. Ensure you only jump on trends that align with your niche so that you don’t attract the wrong audience who won’t stay.
Jumping on trends and challenges that suit your niche is one of the most effective ways to promote your YouTube channel free of charge.
12. Make YouTube Playlists
Creating a YouTube playlist doesn’t just help visitors navigate your channel, it’s also one of the best ways to promote YouTube videos on your channel.
Search results pages don’t just display videos as answers to queries. When you search for something on YouTube, the search algorithm allows you to filter your results by content. This means you can filter your results by playlist, channel, video, or movie.
Creating a YouTube playlist increases the chances of your channel getting discovered in the search engine.
13. Engage Your Viewers and Non-Viewers on the YouTube Community Tab
The Community tab on YouTube acts as a social network platform where YouTube Creators can interact with viewers and non-viewers. On this platform, you can create polls, share GIFs, share pictures, and spark conversations.
It’s very easy for polls to go viral on YouTube. The more users engage with your poll, the more YouTube will suggest your poll to viewers and non-viewers alike.
14. Collaborate with Other YouTube Creators
Looking to promote your channel with ease? Then collaborate with other YouTube Creators. When you collaborate with other creators, you expand your reach to their followers while they expand their reach to yours.
The most productive collaborations are intentional and well-planned. Here are some things to keep in mind when planning a collab:
- Collaborate with creators at your level or slightly above (in terms of subscribers)
- The creator should be in the same niche as you
- Decide on a video collab style (will it be remote or in person?)
- Include collab ideas in your mail
- Come up with a date that works for everyone
15. Go Live on YouTube
YouTube’s algorithm is designed to promote live streams. The platform has a section dedicated to live streams, and you don’t have to bend over backward to get featured there.
Fear not, live streams are not as complicated as you might assume. You can build a following by being engaging and discussing topics your viewers find interesting.
16. Promote Your YouTube Channel on Social Media
Social media is one of the best ways to promote your channel. A platform like TikTok for example, can double as a free YouTube channel promotion app.
You can also promote your channel on Facebook groups, Instagram stories, Discord servers, and Reddit communities.
It’s not enough to simply promote your channel on any of these platforms. You must understand how the communities on these platforms work.
Ask yourself, what kind of discussions do they engage in the most? Are they serious or laid-back? Do they favor life hacks, DIYs, or memes?
Understanding these factors will help you decide which platforms best suit your channel’s audience.
17. Feature Your Video on Your Blog or Website
Embedding your video in your blog or website can do wonders for your YouTube channel promotion.
If you have a company website or blog, you can feature your videos on different pages of your site. Just make sure that the videos you embed are related to the content on the page.
You can add a video that explains the content on the page, answers some frequently asked questions, or shows how to use a product you reviewed.
FAQs
Can You Promote Videos on YouTube?
Yes, you can, and there are two ways to achieve this. You can either pay YouTube to promote your videos or optimize your videos yourself using the methods we shared above. This way, YouTube’s algorithm will automatically suggest your videos to users who might find them interesting.
How Does YouTube Promotion Work?
YouTube promotion increases your reach by exposing you to more users. This happens when YouTube suggests your channel to new subscribers either on the recommendation tab or when users insert a relevant keyword in the search bar.
Do I Need to Pay to Promote My YouTube channel?
You don’t need to pay to promote your YouTube channel. You can promote your YouTube channel without cost by optimizing your video title, writing a clear channel description, creating eye-catching thumbnails, and collaborating with other creators.
