Building a strong and engaged audience is the best way to grow your YouTube following and promote your brand. Here are six tips to build an audience for your YouTube channel.
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Choose a niche
Creating content that appeals to many different types of viewers is the easiest way to grow a YouTube following. But choosing a specific niche and making your content for a very narrow audience is the best way to drive more traffic to your channel.
If you have an existing business, you may already know your niche. For example, if you’re a copywriter, your videos might teach your audience how to write a better sales pitch or create an email sequence.
If you don’t know what your niche is, take some time to consider your experience and expertise. Exploring other profitable niches may also help you identify new opportunities.
Post consistently
It doesn’t matter how good your videos are — if you go radio silent for a month, people will move on and forget about your channel. Consistency is vital when posting on YouTube, so aim to post a new video at least once a week. The more often you post new content, the quicker your channel will grow, but you should choose a posting schedule you can stick with for the long haul.
In addition to your posting frequency, the time of day you post can greatly affect how many views your video generates. Experiment with different posting times to see what works best.
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Engage with your audience
Part of the appeal of YouTube is the sense of community it fosters among viewers, so if you want your audience to grow, you have to be willing to interact with them. When you create new videos, ask your audience what kind of content they like and create new videos around their preferences.
If you don’t know what your niche is, take some time to consider your experience and expertise.
It’s a good idea to check your YouTube engagement rate periodically. You’ll start by choosing a recent video and using this formula:
(Total number of engagements / total impressions)*100 = Engagement rate %
For example, let’s say a recent video had five views and 100 total impressions. Using the previous formula, your engagement rate for that video would be 5%.
Include CTAs throughout your videos
With every video you create, your goal should be to turn a one-time viewer into a subscriber. The best way to do that is by including a call-to-action encouraging people to subscribe to your channel.
Include a CTA encouraging people to subscribe at the beginning and end of your videos. Most viewers won’t sit through an entire video, so including a subscribe button at the beginning ensures most people will see it before clicking away.
If someone does watch your entire video, they are far more likely to subscribe to your channel. Include an engaging CTA in the last 15 seconds of your video so viewers have plenty of time to subscribe.
Create different playlists
Creating different playlists is an easy way to grow your audience and increase subscriber engagement. A playlist is a collection of videos that automatically play one after the other. Once one video finishes, the next is automatically queued up and ready to start.
For businesses, playlists engage your audience and highlight your expertise. And you’re improving the user experience because, instead of searching for different videos, viewers will find everything they need in your playlist.
[Read more: How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel]
Collaborate with other YouTubers
Collaborating with other like-minded brands on YouTube is a great way to grow your channel. A YouTube partnership allows both creators to expand their current audience, plus it’s just more fun to create content with other people.
To find the right partnership, you want to look for other YouTube creators at your level. Not only should you have similar interests, but your audiences should be around the same size. For example, if you have 2,000 followers, you should look for someone with between 1,500 and 5,000 followers.
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