Ways to Promote Your YouTube Channel
- Iegor Bakhariev (Unlicensed)
We’ve seen how aggressive promotion might give that additional boost to your channel in the early weeks and months. However, as always, content is the King, the Queen, and the Holy Ghost.
So think about producing top-quality videos first, and match that with a top-notch promotion.
But before we begin…
Just to be like all the cool kinds, you need to create a subscribe link for your channel. This link will automatically subscribe a person to your channel.
In order to create it, add: ?sub_confirmation=1 at the end of your channel URL.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzDHTVhThC_VIT7kTchIQAg?sub_confirmation=1
To trace the clicks, sources, etc, generate a link at https://app.bitly.com/.
What has worked before?
1. Instagram
If you have a chance to adapt your content for Instagram without much additional work, it’s a good idea to do that. Instagram has a few useful tools that might increase external traffic to your channel.
It’s a good idea to start working on that 2-3 weeks before the actual launch. What is good to have:
Catchy bio with the link to your channel.
A few highlights where talk about your project.
At least 6 posts/reels.
Your goal is to find creators with under 100K followers, who could be interested in collaborating with you. If you present your channel as a small project with a small team of enthusiasts (without referring to being part of a larger media), there are chances you can get a free collaboration. Or at least a reply.
The golden rule of negotiations: Make it for the person to say “NO” as hard as possible.
Be nice in communication and straight to the point. Some rules:
Keep it concise. Too much text will bore the reader.
If you can already prepare something for the person, do it: a visual example, the reels, story, or text for a post.
Prepare all the necessary links in one place, so that the person doesn’t have to look around.
Always think about what could be there for the creator. Promise future mentions on the YouTube channel, and offer any sort of services your team could provide with little effort.
Types of content that work:
Story with a link
Pined link to your channel in bio
Collaboration option
Make a list of creators that work in the same field but are not your competitors per se.
E.g. if you’re a celebrity channel, writing to a similar media would not work. Rather write to an influencer who posts on a similar topic, or likes celebrity content.
Possible flow:
A short introduction of your channel and your goals. Do not include the link to your channel in the message, rather direct them to your home page on Instagram.
Mention that you are a small team and ask for their feedback on your work. Don’t request a collaboration right away. Friendships are more important.
If they don’t reply within 3 days, follow up with a new message.
If they reply engage in a conversation and ask if they’ll be interested in mentioning you in a story or a reel.
If nothing, ask for a paid promotion and dance from there.
It’s a good idea to take advantage of a “collaboration” tool on Instagram if you can create a piece of content FOR them or TOGETHER with them.
On average, 1 out of 10 people replies. So you really need to work through a lot of creators. But this effort might pay off in the long run as well.
2. Reddit
Check relevant Reddit communities. Quite often you’ll be able to embed the link to your video.
Remember to check each community’s guidelines before posting.
Scroll through the community to see if other people posted YouTube links before.
Monitor activity under your posts in the first 24 hours and engage with anyone who writes a comment under your video.
3. Existing YouTube channels
Run promotional content on our partner channels for as long as needed. However, communicate with the respective Video Lead as to the optimal content plan.
Include your channel as featured on their channel.
2. Create community posts. Remember to adapt it to their style, tone of voice, and audience. You’ll get more subscribers that way.
Photo posts work best, with a natural, emotional photo. Format — a square.
Sometimes you can also create a square gif.
Polls work quite well too.
3. Ask to include one of your videos as an end screen on recent popular videos. But remember, that it’ll only work well in case their audience is potentially interested in your content.
4. Create a personalised end screen background for someone else's channel. A partner channel will have your stylised background for the end screen, directing to your video. (Example coming soon).
5. Create a banner that will appear during the video. Call to action will be to the link in the description.
6. Include your channe as cards in a video. Not super helpful, yet possible option.
4. Banner on YouTube
Since everyone sees it when they go to your channel, it’s a good chance to ask people to subscribe. Just try to make it as natural and funny as possible.
Ask to reach the nearest milestone: 500/1000/5000 subscribers.
Example
or even better:
5. Comment under competitors' videos
Be friendly and use natural language, even with mistakes. Try to establish a friendly relationship with subscribers of your competitors:
Comment as your channel.
Go to the latest videos on the competitor’s channel.
Using the VidIQ extension for Chrome, filter the comments to the “newest” or “containing questions”.
Don’t include any links, just try to engage in the conversation or answer a comment.
In case someone answers, talk about your channel in the second message:
E.g.: we made a similar video on our channel, I just talked about this in my recent video, et.c
Again, don’t use links.
Make a funny pun on their comment.
Ask questions, if the comment allows.
6. Banner Promo on our Websites
Coming soon. Waiting for the first results