By most accounts, growing your YouTube channel is not something that can easily be accomplished as soon as overnight; in fact, it can often take months of consistent work before you begin to see returns. However, there is work you can do in between posting to boost your reach and engage with even more viewers–so you keep progressing in the right direction with your channel’s expansion.
Let’s take a look at the top 5 best ways to promote a YouTube channel, including YouTube shorts, as well as ways to promote your YouTube channel for free!
5 Best Ways to Promote a YouTube Channel 📢
While the option always exists to buy subscribers on YouTube, this practice alone is not always a long-term recipe for success. In fact, the more ways you can diversify your outreach and self-promotion, the better. That’s why we’ve come up with the best ways to promote a YouTube channel–with both free and paid options to accommodate YouTubers at every stage of their development journey!
1. Cross-Promote Your Channel on Other Social Platforms
Whether this is by way of an RSS Feed or manually uploading your content to other social “watering holes” on the internet, cross-promoting your content is essentially like free advertising for yourself across as wide an audience as possible.
For example, blasting your filmed podcast to Spotify, YouTube, your Facebook story, etc. can capture viewers on multiple platforms and direct them to your content. You can even share “previews” or “teasers” on multiple platforms leading up to a release, building anticipation and brand recognition with your viewers! Providing your audience with consistent messaging and scheduled posts can be a great way to establish yourself as a credible creator dedicated to their work!
2. Keep Your Channel Organized and Optimized
Aside from a cluttered YouTube channel just looking plain chaotic, this can be a turn off for your viewers–and for YouTube’s algorithm. Furthermore, the more organized and professional-looking your channel, the more likely you are to earn viewer retention, which is a factor in YouTube’s algorithm when it considers which content to feature.
We suggest you dedicate some serious time to your channel, creating a captivating description of your content and your mission, organizing thematically relevant videos into playlists, and leveraging SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practices wherever possible.
3. Create a Brand Kit for Yourself and Keep Things Consistent
Especially if you’re not inherently comfortable or gifted with graphic design, it is definitely worth it to throw down some cash for an experienced designer to create a logo and brand kit for you. A brand kit is a collection of information and visuals that together form the identity of your brand. Examples include fonts, colors (usually by way of hex codes), logos, templates, and more.
Once you have a visual brand identity, it becomes much easier for viewers to recognize when a video on their feed is from your channel–which can improve Click Through Rates.
This is not to mention taking the time to gather your brand kit and create templates can save you countless hassle when it comes to things like creating compelling, high-performing thumbnails!
4. Collaborate With Other YouTubers 🤝
Working with other content creators is almost always a win-win scenario. Even if you’re worried that your channel is “too small” to benefit another YouTuber in terms of traffic generation, don’t discount the potential quality of your traffic.
For instance, if you are intentional with your choice of collaborators, while you may not direct the highest volume of viewers to their site, the conversion rate for subscribers might be exceptionally high if their content is related to your own niche.
An example of this might be a DIY entrepreneurial woodworker who collaborates with a larger, business-owned channel that promotes products like artisan saws or industry-leading finishing solvents. While you might not be sending them hundreds of thousands of views, those leads you are shooting their way are much more likely to convert than viewers of an unrelated niche.
In this way, you both win–the creator further along in their journey gets potential leads, and you get access to more viewers!
5. Promote Videos Through Ads (Paid Option) 💵
While so-called “organic” growth tactics have their place, it is generally a good idea to supplement your reach through paid advertising as well–which YouTube makes relatively easy.
Especially if you’re particularly confident about a video or series of videos–down to their SEO, branding, titles, descriptions, thumbnails, and the content topics themselves–it can be a good idea to pay for YouTube to give these videos a little “boost.” Alternatively, you can also invest in an ad plan that promotes your business across the algorithm.
How to Promote YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts are a powerful way to call in even more viewers and capitalize on short attention spans. Here are some helpful tips💡on how to promote YouTube Shorts:
- Make Sure YouTube Shorts are Optimized: Like we shared above, Shorts deserve all the SEO planning and strategy that your long-form content gets–if not more, as this can be a piece of “gateway” content drawing in visitors for the first time!
- Create Shorts in the Right Format: Shorts must be just that–short! They cannot exceed 60 seconds, must be filmed vertically, and ideally should be set to loop in order to get the most effortless views. Don’t forget to use trending audio and add your hashtags!
- See What’s Trending: While you don’t always have to hop on the “viral bandwagon,” paying attention to what’s trending in your community can be very helpful when it comes to generating content ideas. Whether trends revolve around hashtags, audio, challenges, or something else, this kind of content can add personality to your channel.
- Add Shorts to a Playlist: Remember to keep it clean, people–and invite your viewers to easily consume more content. YouTube’s algorithm rewards this behavior, after all!
- Run YouTube Ads: Did you know you can run YouTube ads for your Shorts as well? Take your top-performers and send them into the stratosphere
How to Promote Your YouTube Channel for Free
Looking for next steps for getting your message out there–for free? Here are the best ways to promote a YouTube channel without shelling out tons of money:
- Repurpose Content: Especially if you capture long-form video content, this can easily be reworked into Shorts, Instagram reels and stories, Facebook content, and even still images that can be used across all different platforms. All it costs is a little additional time!
- Run Giveaways and Contests: Especially if you’re tapping into already trending challenges, creating contests and giveaways is much more likely to boost engagement–including video shares–and to get your content out to even more folks!
- Engage With Your Viewers: Never underestimate the power of responding to comments or video responses! While you’re at it, don’t forget to engage with other creators’ content that you admire!
Promoting Your YouTube Channel Doesn’t Have to Be Stressful
As long as you are thoughtful in your content creation, optimization, and branding, promoting your YouTube channel can be as simple as engaging in the community atmosphere of YouTube. You may be surprised at the amazing possibilities that open up to you in reaching out to viewers and other creators alike–so believe in yourself, and shout your mission from the hilltops!
