Alex RodiaEvery minute 500 hours of new videos are uploaded on YouTube. That’s a lot of videos! It’s easy to drown in the noise, especially if your channel is new and your brand is just starting out using video marketing.
Luckily, there are many things you can do to help people find, consume, and fall in love with your content. Keep reading for some valuable marketing tips on how to promote your videos organically on YouTube.
Related reading: B2B Youtube Marketing – A Complete Guide
What Is Organic YouTube Video Promotion?
After Google, Youtube is the world’s second-largest search engine. With more than 2 billion monthly active users looking for education, entertainment, and inspiration, Youtube holds a lot of promise for brands. But at the same time, it’s a very saturated platform.
So, how do you get found and build a loyal following in such a noisy place?
One of the answers spells organic YouTube video promotion. Organic promotion includes everything you can do organically, without paying for ads, to increase your content’s reach. To put it simply, you need to provide the best possible conditions for people to find, watch, and interact with your content. When they do that, the YouTube algorithm will notice, and it will rank your videos higher and show them to more people. This creates a flywheel effect that, in a best-case scenario, can propel your videos to worldwide virality – even with no money spent on advertising.
The YouTube Algorithm
YouTube’s algorithm selects videos for viewers with two objectives in mind: to find the right video for each viewer and to entice them to keep watching.
The algorithm (which is actually not just one algorithm, but several) takes many factors into account, but most fall under the following categories:
- Personalization (the viewer’s historical behavior and preferences): This means that YouTube offers videos to viewers based on their past behavior and watch history.
- Performance (the video’s overall success): This includes things like click-through rate, average view duration, average percentage viewed, likes, dislikes, and viewer surveys.
Organic Youtube video promotion is about optimizing for these areas to give your content the best possible chances of getting shown to as many people as possible.
You can also leverage the algorithm when you’re creating content. Using YouTube Analytics to check what other videos your viewers have watched can help you understand what related topics and interests your audience cares about. Then you can build on those insights when you plan your own content.
Now, let’s have a look at some of the things you can do to promote your video content organically on Youtube.
9 Steps to Boosting Your Youtube Presence Organically – and Building A Loyal Fanbase
#1 Write Attention-Grabbing and Click-Worthy Titles
Getting people to engage with your Youtube videos is a lot about presentation. You’re competing with millions of other videos for the viewers’ attention, so you need to make sure your content stands out and makes those thumbs stop scrolling and start clicking.
However amazing your video content is, titles can make or break your success. We all know what clickbait is, and that’s not what you should be doing. But having that said, understanding the psychology behind what makes people tick – and click – will help you succeed online in general and on Youtube in particular. Always ask yourself what the first impression of your content is: an intriguing “must-see” or…“meh?”
To create attention-grabbing titles, try finding inspiration from the playbooks of YouTube successes like BuzzFeed and WhatCulture. Their videos often include listicles, use question-based titles or venture into hyperbole by adding prefixes like “insane,” “…of all time” to ensure people won’t be able to scroll on by. Of course, the language you use needs to sync with your brand’s Tone of Voice, but it’s generally a good idea to turn things up a notch for YouTube.
#2 Optimize Your Youtube Videos For Search
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world after Google. And the same way written content needs to be optimized for search, you need to make sure you help your videos get found on YouTube. This means optimizing things like keywords, tags, and so on.
To increase the chances of people finding your content, we recommend you follow the best practices for YouTube SEO:
- Optimize all titles and descriptions: It’s crucial to include target keywords in your titles and descriptions. Tools like Keywordtool.io can help you find ideas for keywords.
- Mention target keywords in your video: The search engines are improving, and having someone saying your target keywords in your videos can help YouTube understand what your content is about.
- Create content that drives engagement: Like other social media algorithms, YouTube uses engagement (comments, likes, and views) to rank videos in search results.
- Leverage YouTube categories: Use the different YouTube categories to help YouTube understand who your videos are relevant for.
- Leverage YouTube tags: Don’t forget to add tags to your videos since this gives YouTube a better understanding of your content.
And just like in regular SEO, you don’t want to stuff your content with keywords. Use your target keywords in ways that make sense, and always keep the viewer’s experience in mind.
#3 Experiment and Iterate
Understanding what your particular audience wants is crucial to organic YouTube success. And what will get you there is usually a combination of thorough research and trial and error. Keep close track of your YouTube analytics to understand what type of content performs the best, and then build new content based on those insights.
For some audiences, it will be in-depth, long-form videos offering unique knowledge that will do the trick, and for others, it will be short and entertaining video clips that work well for social media sharing. There’s no cookie-cutter solution, and as always in marketing, the key is knowing who you’re targeting and understanding their behavior and aspirations.
#4 Get Social and Engage With the Community
Not everyone thinks of YouTube as a social media platform, but that’s precisely what it is in many ways. You have a lot to gain from viewing YouTube like a community instead of just a search engine. Remember that your visibility is primarily driven by users who engage with your content, helping the algorithm rate it with their “likes” and comments.
And in all social media marketing, the word social is key. This means you need to get social and engage with your viewers and other content producers. From a marketing standpoint, the social aspect of YouTube actually presents a huge opportunity.
Engaging with the comments allows you to increase your reach and build a stronger and more personal connection with your audience. Look at the comments section as an extension of your brand and remember to maintain an on-brand Tone of Voice and approach in all your communications.
#5 Optimize Your YouTube Thumbnails
Customized thumbnails are one of the easiest and most efficient ways to increase the click rate on your YouTube videos. If you don’t do it, YouTube will grab an image from your video by default. But trust us, spending the extra time creating a customized and optimized image will make an immense difference.
You can give your channel a coherent and on-brand visual style by designing your thumbnails. And even more importantly, it gives you a space to pitch your video to your user. Don’t waste this space with just a beautiful image – it’s almost always better to add an enticing text to your thumbnail that draws the viewer in.
Customizing your thumbnails doesn’t have to be time-consuming, and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel – you can create a template for each type of video that you reuse. If you work with a professional video production agency, they will be able to provide you with optimized on-brand thumbnails to present your videos in the best possible ways.
#6 Cross-promote Your YouTube Videos
If you’ve nailed your ideal customer profile, more than one of your videos will likely interest your viewers. But they need help understanding this! One way to help viewers discover more of your content is to cross-promote your videos and link to related content in your CTA:s and descriptions.
If you’ve created a whole series of videos on the same topic, you should always make sure to promote the next episode and encourage the viewers to binge-watch your content. If you manage to do so, that can speed up the buying cycle significantly.
#7 Organize Your Channel With YoutTube Playlists
Look at your YouTube channel as an extension of your website. Now, you wouldnät just randomly post things on your website, right? And yet, that’s exactly what many businesses do on Youtube. The post one video after another, and the more videos there are, the more difficult it becomes for your visitors to navigate and understand what your channel has to offer.
What you need to do is create an intuitive structure using the Youtube playlists. With playlists, you can group your videos and organize them into categories. This provides a much better experience and increases the chances that your viewers will stick around and watch more than one video.
#8 Leverage Live Streaming
Live video production is the process of filming and broadcasting a video in real-time. YouTube Live makes it easy for anyone to broadcast live from their phones with just a few taps.
Live video is one of the biggest social media trends right now, and when done right, it can give your marketing a significant boost. By nature, live streaming is often more engaging and feels more authentic than any other content format. The desire to connect with others is part of our DNA, and building genuine relationships has always been key to successful marketing.
Live video production allows you to humanize your brand by engaging on a one-on-one basis with viewers. Putting faces to your company name makes people feel more connected with you, strengthening trust and brand affinity.
Related reading: How to Leverage Live Video Production (Live Streaming) In Your Marketing
#9 Use Calls to Action to Increase Engagement
Surprisingly often, people will do what you ask them to. This is why simply asking for people to follow, like, and share your videos is actually a very powerful way to increase your engagement and reach.
Most people will not interact with your content even if they like it, but asking for their support will increase the chances dramatically. You can put reminders to comment and like both in the actual video content and the description. Especially if your channel is new, people are often happy to support you if they appreciate your videos.
Other useful CTAs include links to other related videos and external links to your website.
Related reading: 5 Calls to Action You Should Be Using In Your Videos
Partner With An Award-Winning Video Production Agency
Covalent is a video production company based in Pittsburgh. We cater to B2B companies of all sizes and in a wide range of industries. We’re well known for creating the best corporate videos on the market and combining experience and creativity with a strong marketing mindset.
We can help you shoot everything from brand videos and commercials to explainer videos and docu-style shoots. We also produce videos at various price points, always focusing on creating the content you need to reach your business goals.
We combine years of experience with cutting-edge creativity, and our productions have received numerous awards and accolades. Get in touch to discuss how we can help your brand build an exciting and engaging Youtube presence!