This post is also available in:
Ok, when was the last time you saw a cat video on YouTube? We just don’t see them now, do we? All we get are vlogs, reviews, streams and let’s play series from more than 12 million channels available!
That’s because we’ve entered a new era. Google’s major video sharing platform has now become a milking cow for everyone with the wits to use it properly, hence the new era of content creators has risen.
Entertainment aside, the platform is generally a better marketing fit for coaches, tutors and beauty salon owners, but anyone with a camera and an amazing idea can make the video format work.
We work with all kinds of businesses a SimplyBook.me and some of them have the craziest channels with content from Vedic mantras to sex tips. Needless to say, all of them gather their fair share of viewers.
You of all people should get your milking buckets ready as well as YouTube can make or break your future business. And I am about to teach you how to get started like a boss!
Identify yourself, private!
As always, any business idea is kicked off with careful analysis of the situation. In our case, we are to keep a close eye on nearest competitors, their following, style and methods of promotion.
But to do so we must understand our niche by analyzing ourselves. Here are the three big questions you need to answer:
- Who are you?
- What are you showing?
- Who is your target audience?
Here is a fine example straight off the bat. Let’s say I own a blog for foodies and I am a 100% meat lover. In terms of my positioning on YouTube, I should be a brutal guy who knows his ways with delicious, juicy, crusty meats.
That is who I am.
I am cooking steaks, barbecuing sausages made from all kinds of amazing meats from veal to ostrich chops. So, in short, I am showing amazing new recipes to people while providing them with feedback on the flavor of dishes they may never have tried.
This is what I show.
My audience is people who are as passionate about meat as I am. Most of us are allergic to vegetables as species and we live happily with dying livers from heart attack to heart attack and that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
This is my target audience.
I now have an imaginary guide for a field of operations. I still need to set up a clear goal of getting 1000 new subscribers per month and my plan is all set and peachy.
Where, oh where do meat lovers live?
Now I need to find my audience and analyze the content they enjoy. Looking up people subscribed to food-based vlogs may seem like a good idea. But it is not.
Here’s the deal: there’s a lot of food fans. Some are vegans, others prefer Italian or French dishes or simply enjoy home-made cooking. Will I find my hardcore meat loving audience on other people’s food vlogs? Maybe, but their numbers will be too few to count.
Alternatively, I could go for a better option and look around for barbeque review videos. If someone is going for the good old barbeque grill, he or she sure as hell loves a fine dinner of what I’m cooking.
Do the same for your channel. Forget about the obvious places to look for followers as they are probably an empty hoax by now and dig deeper into the mind of your viewers. Pinpoint some of the better fitting videos, channels, and streamers to analyze the heck out of them later on.
I suggest using BirdSong Analytics, but you are free to go with any other free or premium tool that gives you the following insights:
- The best time to upload videos
- Best days for videos to go live
- Effects of video duration on performance, comments, and shares
- The types of videos that generate more buzz
- Etc.
Thanks to such an analysis not only will you know the game, but you will understand how to play it.
The power of words
Ok, now you know how to make content your audience loves. But how to let them know that you have more of the goodness they look for? After all, it is too easy to lose yourself among 400 hours of other videos uploaded on a daily basis.
Keywords are the trick.
Sure people spend a lot of time watching recommended videos, but even YouTube’s algorithms are not smart enough to pick the best fit every time. At times like these, people resort to typing. And you as a prosperous beginner channel owner need to know what they look for.
The Bulk Suggest Tool is a perfect fit for the job. It is amazingly simple in use, friendly to newbies and packs quite a punch when it comes to looking for the right words.
It works just like Google, but instead of search results, you will see a list of suggested keywords. Pick a main and include it in the title of the video and the description. Pick one or two secondary keys (words that are not an exact match to your primary one but resemble it in meaning) and add 2-3 of them into the description and the first comment.
That wasn’t too hard, was it? And look at the results, you now have a search-friendly video!
Put on the sexy!
Let’s face it, we always judge the book by its cover, especially if the book is a YouTube video. Appearing in search results is not enough nowadays as there will be other videos next to your gem. Sure people will check out the title, but they will click on the sexiest snippet. Your job is in winning the sexy race.
Luckily today is the digital era and you don’t need any photo editing skills to make an amazing thumbnail. Just use an app like Canva or Fotor. I feel like Fotor has the better pre-set templates, but both of them are free, handy and rather intuitive so just stick with the one you like better.
Here are a few quick tips that make thumbnails irresistible:
- Use hi-res quality photos that showcase the content of your video
- 1280×720 is your go-to size
- Use crazy fonts
- Use bright, appealing colors
- Experiment until you succeed with the perfect formula
- Or steal the one that’s used on the most performing videos in your niche. You already have that data from the previous analysis anyway. Just don’t tell anyone I told you this.
Now that most of the ground is covered, all that is left for you to do is to actually shoot the video. Come on, what are you waiting for? Fortune favors the bold!