YouTube remains the biggest video platform on the internet, with over a billion hours of video watched every day. Because of its massive marketing potential, there is stiff competition for watch time on YouTube. While YouTube can be a powerful business tool, you need to have a large number of views if you would like to leverage its massive potential. In this article, you will learn eight effective ways to get more views on YouTube, which will directly translate to increased brand awareness, increased sales, and discoverability.
Create Great Content
No matter how many tricks you use, strategies you follow, or ads you buy, your numbers are likely to stay low if you do not post compelling content. This is content that people find useful and relevant, which compels them to either share your videos, subscribe to your channel, or watch other videos on your channel.
Creating compelling content entails identifying your ideal audience, what they want to know, and the needs they would like to have met. Once you understand all three, your audience will feel you are catering to them specifically, which can drastically increase your views. Catering to your audience’s needs is also a great way to build a loyal community that drives views.
Encourage Viewers to Subscribe
Encouraging people who watch your videos to subscribe is another great way to increase views. How? When you increase your number of subscribers, you also increase the number of people who will watch your video once you released them. This is especially true if you also encourage them to turn on notifications.
Due to how easy it is to turn people off when you constantly ask them to subscribe, limit yourself to asking at the beginning and end of the video. It would also be a great idea to ask after an intro to the video, so people can decide if they would like to subscribe. After all, you do not want a large subscriber count with views that do not match up.
Use Compelling Video Descriptions
YouTube has confirmed that its algorithm uses video descriptions to know what videos are about. By understanding your video’s content, the algorithm can then promote your video to people who are likely to click on and watch the video.
Creating a great video description is easy when you follow a simple template. The first part of your video description should be a strong intro. These first few lines are very important, and this is where you include your main keywords. Ensure your target keyword is near the beginning of the intro. Note that YouTube will also display this description on its search result pages, so it should also sell your video.
The next section is your outline, which explains what people will learn by watching your video. Although you have total freedom over word count, try to add at least 150 words in this section. Do not forget to include the necessary keywords.
The last section is the description link section. YouTube encourages you to add various links to other videos, websites, and social media pages. You can also use this section to add a call-to-action subscription link.
Create Playlists
In a 2018 report, YouTube says that top-performing brands and channels consistently use playlists. Playlists work so well on YouTube because of autoplay, as it is a lot harder to pull yourself away from interesting videos if you do not have to put any effort into switching to the next video. Playlists are also another great way to improve search rankings because of the ability to add target keywords to their titles.
While playlists can help people view more videos once they click on a playlist, how do you get them to click on additional playlists? Use horizontal and vertical layouts. If you do not use different layouts, different playlists look like one playlist and people are less likely to click on the next one. But using alternate layouts gives a delimitation between playlists, which can compel people to click on additional playlists to see what the different playlist is about.
Use Video End Screens and Cards
End screens and cards can promote other videos on your channel, thereby increasing views. Do note that you need to verify your account to use this feature.
End screens are dedicated frames placed at the end of videos when wrapping things up and they can be used for calls to action. Cards are pop-ups that you can add at any point in the video. These can direct people to playlists, other videos, or polls that collect user feedback for additional video ideas.
Enable Video Embedding
Shares and embeds on user websites are great for increasing views, but they only work if you enable video embeds. Enabling embedding allows anyone to embed your videos on their blogs, websites, and social media pages, which can help you reach new audiences, gain new subscribers and increase your views.
Leverage The Power of Social Media
If you have any kind of following on social media, let your followers know when you post new videos. You can do this either through a brief message that says what the video is about or using a short teaser that piques their interest. Ensure that you include the video’s link in the posts to ensure people can view the full video on YouTube.
If you have a busy schedule, you can use social media scheduling tools to send out the announcements and the video teasers. For even more reach, you can always embed the full video on your website or blog.
Engage With Your Community
YouTube favors videos that have high levels of engagement. To achieve this, interact with your audience. The best way is to encourage viewers to leave comments you respond to. When other viewers know their comments are likely to receive a response, they will start posting comments too.
Getting more views on YouTube usually entails creating compelling content, optimizing your channel, and engaging with your community. The tips above should help you with all three.
