How to Promote Your YouTube Channel
If you’re struggling to get your YouTube channel started or if the thought of trying to get your first views is overwhelming, you are not alone. I was in the same place just a few years ago. Today I’m sharing with you ten ways to promote your channel. These strategies will give you a solid action plan to give you the growth you’re looking for. My goal for you after reading this is you will feel confident moving forward on your journey of becoming a creator.
***Disclaimer: these strategies are not meant to get you millions of views. They are not meant for scaling your channel long-term. They are strategies specifically meant to get you your first 1,000 subscribers. In my experience, getting your first 1,000 subscribers and few thousand views is the hardest.
Before we get into the 10 channel growth methods, here’s what it’s important that you understand: The key to growing your channel is discoverability. Gaining traction on other platforms is important because every view counts. These few extra views today are what will get you to your big goals in the future. So here let’s get into it! Here are ten YouTube promotion strategies for growth.
1. YouTube Hashtags
These are not to be confused with YouTube video tags, but they are added to the same section of your video.
In your video’s tag section, you can type in different keywords for your video, called YouTube tags… they don’t do very much anymore.
Alternatively, you can add hashtags into this section — and these hashtags do a lot more! These hashtags become clickable links directly under your video. If someone clicks on that hashtag they are essentially searching those words on YouTube and they will see a bunch of videos that are using that same hashtag.
This is an easy way to get your video ranking for the exact terms you want it to rank for.
2. Share your Videos In a Blog Post
You may not have any interest in becoming a blogger — and that’s okay. But hear me out: using a blog to promote your latest video can work well even if you don’t care about growing the blog itself.
Here’s how it works: Create a blog post that goes along with your latest Youtube video and embed your video into the blog post. The post can be super simple — just explain the main points of what your video is about.
This will get your blog ranking on google and your video can be discovered by viewers. Sending traffic from your blog to your YouTube channel will also give the algorithm good information about who likes to watch your videos.
The best part? Whether they watch your video in the post or on YouTube it counts as a view on YouTube.
Those views will help give you the watch hours you need to get monetized.
3. Tell People About Your Channel
You might be surprised by how many people don’t talk about their channel in “real life.” Or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised because maybe you’re doing exactly that. ? I don’t blame you, I did the exact same thing when I started my first channel. What I eventually came to realize was that I was embarrassed to share my channel with my family and friends because honestly, my videos weren’t great quality.
So here’s my question for you: do you want to tell people about your channel? If yes, great! Go do it.
If no… why don’t you want to tell people? And what could you do to change that?
My advice for you is: start making content you are truly excited about. Figure out what you don’t like about your channel and do what you can to change it. Chances are the more excited and confident you are about your content, the more willing you’ll be to actually tell others about it.
So, the secret here is simple, make really good content, and eventually, you will attract the right audience.
4. Collaborate with Other Youtubers
This strategy is one of my favorites! If you find a YouTuber with a similar niche as you, try collaborating with them.
This strategy allows your content to be viewed by a whole new group of people. Not only that, these people could be your target audience. And this will give the algorithm some very valuable information about who likes to watch your videos.
YouTube will most likely start suggesting many of your videos to their audience.
Since you know they like watching the same topics you’re creating, this will be the beginning of you not only getting views from that one collaboration video but also for all your videos to come.
5. Pinterest
Pinterest may be a platform you’ve never thought about using to grow your channel. It’s one that’s often overlooked but it introduces your content to a new user-base you may otherwise not reach.
First, go on Pinterest and scroll through to get some inspiration. Then, create fun pins using a site like Canva to promote your latest YouTube video. Use a nice photo, include the title, and add a link to your video in the description. Remember that word from earlier, discoverability. Pinterest is another platform you can use to your advantage so that more people have a chance of seeing your content. A big bonus with this strategy is if you can join some group boards.
Group boards are a collection of images from different users.
They’re a great way to extend your reach on Pinterest.
That’s because your pins are introduced to a whole new audience: the board owners, collaborators, and followers.
6. Add your YouTube Link to your Instagram bio
Instagram is a platform it seems like almost everyone on, and it’s really no surprise: Instagram allows you to deepen your connection with your audience and provides a space for them to get to know you on a different level. And for you to get to know them!
As you may know, Instagram allows you one link in your bio. Put the link to your YouTube channel in your bio for when you post a new video on YouTube.
You can direct your audience to the channel link in your bio instead of having to update the link for each video.
Putting your YouTube link in your Instagram bio is a great way to direct traffic to your channel.
7. Create Instagram Stories to Promote Your Latest Video
The Instagram algorithm is different than the YouTube algorithm. And right now, Instagram stories is the place to be posting if you want to get traction. Similar to the Pinterest promotion strategy, if you create a story with a nice graphic, the title of your latest video, and direct people to use the link in your bio, this can gain you a lot of visibility.
For Instagram stories, I love to use an app called Mojo. There’s a free and paid version, and it makes it super easy to create a graphic to promote your video.
Adding stories to your to-do list might seem overwhelming — if so, Mojo is the perfect app for you.
It’s fast and won’t take you more than 5 minutes to make something that looks really nice.
8. TikTok
You may be a little skeptical of Tik Tok but it is a great tool to have as a YouTuber and here’s why:
TikTok’s algorithm is all about suggesting videos it thinks the user will like. Because of this, videos and accounts are known to take off a lot quicker than YouTube. TikTok may be a great place for you to get a lot of views quickly. Just like Instagram, with TikTok you can add your YouTube link to your bio. It’s important to make content on TikTok similar to the videos you are putting out on YouTube so you can make sure you’re attracting the right audience.
I want to take a moment here to mention something. You may have noticed most of these strategies involve putting out content on other platforms.
Growing your YouTube is our main goal and these strategies are a great way to get you more views and subscribers. But what I don’t want is for you to grow your audience solely on one platform.
If something happened to your account (which unfortunately isn’t uncommon) I would hate to see all your hard work go to waste.
Although YouTube may be your main focus, growing you platform on Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest will ultimately benefit you and the extra work will be worth it.
9. Email List
Having an email list is a useful way to promote your latest videos. There’s a variety of ways to do this. If you have a website, create a space for people to put their email to subscribe to your newsletter. You can also do this directly on your YouTube videos by putting a link in the description and asking people if they want to receive your updates.
People may be watching your videos but the truth is if they aren’t subscribed AND have their post notifications on for your new videos, they may never see them.
An email list is another way to grab their attention about your latest video.
Make sure to add a catchy subject line, a quick description of your video leaving them wanting more, and a direct link.
10. Facebook Groups
We’re at our final promotion strategy! You’ve made it this far and I hope you’re feeling inspired and ready to take on the challenge of promoting your channel. Before you go, here’s one more strategy:
These days, Facebook has thousands and thousands of niche groups. You can find so many groups about a specific topic or a group of people joining together with a similar goal. Joining some of these groups is a great way to meet new people and build connections.
What you don’t want to do is spam links to your videos in FB groups. Even if that doesn’t get you banned, it won’t earn you many views.
Here’s what does work: authentically answering people’s questions.
People in these groups ask thousands of questions seeking advice. If you are helpful and share a link to one of your videos that answers their question, this will easily direct them to your channel. Their questions may also give you ideas for your future videos and content!
Go on Facebook and look up some keywords for how you would categorize your YouTube account, you may just find a great community of people to join.
Bonus Strategy: Let the Algorithm do the Work for You
People are on YouTube looking for videos to watch: they want their questions answered and they want to be entertained. If you do your keyword research, discover popular topics, rank in search using SEO tactics, and make really good content, your videos will be perfectly positioned so they can find them.
Relying on the algorithm to do the work for you is the long game. The ten promotion strategies covered in this post are great for when you’re just starting out. But for scaling your channel long-term, you need the algorithm to recommend your videos to thousands of people at a time.
Although your videos may not be ranking in search at first, you want to make sure you’re optimizing your videos for search from the very beginning. This means doing your keyword research and using proper SEO tactics. It won’t pay off right at the start but long term it will be what makes your channel sustainable and eventually you’ll see that huge growth you’re looking for.
Now that you’re set up with a solid action plan, you’re ready to get started on making your dreams a reality. If you want to dive even deeper into growing your channel, then join me for my free online workshop, 3 Secrets to Reach 1,000 Subscribers and Get Monetized in Just 3 Months. Click here to find an available time that works for you. I hope to see you there!
3 Secrets to Reach 1,000 Subscribers and Get Monetized in Just 3 Months
Do you want to learn more about how to reach 1,000 subscribers and get monetized?
Join me in my free YouTube training where I walk you through the most important factor for racking up watch hours as quickly as possible and how to maximize every view that finds your channel.
