How to Quickly Grow Your YouTube Channel

Rashida Beal
Jan 7, 2023

YouTube, since its creation in 2005, has been a mainstay for many to share videos and grow as creators of online content.

YouTube is the second largest social media platform in the world and has over 2.6 billion active users, making it the perfect platform to reach out to a wide audience and grow as a content creator.

Videos are a great way to connect with audiences as they will stay for the duration of your video. Users of YouTube (both through the website and the app) consume over a billion hours of content a day.

On top of that, YouTube is the second highest-ranked platform for Influencer Marketing, which makes it the perfect option for you to grow your channel.

Many who have found success on the platform as YouTubers have learned the site’s best practices as they navigate through the constantly changing platform.

There are some good strategies that you can implement to help you grow your YouTube channel quickly. While you do not have to use every single one, these are helpful suggestions to help you maximize your YouTube channel’s outreach.

Stick to a Niche

If you are just starting your channel, think of a topic or genre you would like to discuss as the main point of view for your audience to take from.

Post videos within the same genre, this helps you build a dedicated audience. It’s hard to grow a channel posting about completely random topics.

For example, if you want to get into creating content about video games (let’s play, reviews, etc.) and then you post a makeup tutorial, you may give your audience a mixed message about your role as a creator.

The people who came for your gaming content may not be interested in makeup. If they see content they don’t expect and/or don’t like, they may watch less or even unsubscribe. Future visitors who see this juxtaposition of disconnected topics are less likely to subscribe as well.

You want your audience to watch your videos and feel like you will be consistent with the content you provide. You want to have a level of consistency that your audience can look back on.

If you have more than one primary interest, consider creating multiple channels. Dedicate each channel to a specific content niche.

Visually Appealing Content

Make sure your content is visually appealing so that your audience isn’t squinting to view the video or cranking up the volume to hear the audio.

But, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on high-end video equipment to make your content visually appealing. However, you should have video equipment that provides stability and reliability. There are plenty of affordable options, and even modern smartphones capture quality videos and photos.

The way you set up your filming area is even more important than the specific camera or equipment you use.

No matter what you are filming, you want to make sure you have nice lighting that ensures allows clarity of the images you are shooting. Make sure that your subject is in focus so that the end result is not blurry.

You also want to have a filming space that looks nice, and can even be related to the content you are filming. The background should be clean, and simple. Pick up the space and focus the camera to pick up primarily the wall area behind you when filming a sit-down or talking portion.

The background doesn’t have to be completely bare to be clean. Add some simple decor to make it more appealing. For example, if you want to review films, have a wall of movie posters or shelves filled with DVDs. This will connect your audience to the content of your channel in a visual way as opposed to verbally acknowledging it.

Create Winning Titles

One of the first things people will notice about your videos when they are scrolling through YouTube’s options is the video's title. Most topics on YouTube have thousands of videos, so creating a catchy title is important for getting viewers to yours.

Having a creative and enticing title that will draw the viewer into clicking on your video.

Choose buzzwords that will make viewers want to learn more about what is going on with your content.

However, make sure your title makes sense and is an accurate representation of your video. If you post a video title about DIY projects and then the video shows gameplay of a new video game, your audience will be left confused and less likely to trust you and your content.

If your videos are parts of a series, it’s a good idea to add episode numbers so viewers know which videos to watch in which order.

Video titles that are concise and to the point, while also providing a good representation of the actual content of the video, are the best choices.Add any additional information about the video into the description and leverage video tags as well.

Your video titles serve as calls to action without explicitly saying “click on me” and are meant to serve as either a teaser or an explanation of the video itself.

Choose keywords for your title that are common and short. By doing this, your video is more likely to end up on the search engine results page for viewers searching for specific content with the keywords they are looking for.

Enticing Thumbnails

A thumbnail is a visual representation of the video you post. It is something that provides a potential audience insight into what your video is about. Along with titles, the thumbnail is one of the first things people see about your video and can influence the choice to watch immensely. Strong thumbnails along with captivating titles promote high click-through rates.

A thumbnail can potentially be the difference between someone clicking on your video or scrolling through it. You want to create video thumbnails that are visually appealing and send a message to the potential viewer as to why they should watch your video.

The best images to use with thumbnails are faces, as humans hone in on them as recognizable images, and if it is your face, you can create a greater connection between yourself and your audience.

You can also use close-ups of imagery, such as foods or other images, to entice your audience into learning more about why those images relate to your video.

With simple drag-and-drop graphic design tools like Canva, you can create impactful, enticing thumbnails in no time. Add a few words, combine multiple images, and use professional-looking templates to craft yours.

Follow SEO-Best Practices for YouTube and Google

You may be wondering just how some folks can randomly pop onto your videos.

While your channel could be recommended to viewers based on similarities you have with other YouTube channels, they can also find your channel through YouTube and Google organic search results.

Both YouTube and Google search through thousands of different results based on an individual’s search, and will choose the best selections based on their search engine optimization (SEO).

Optimizing your videos for best SEO practices help you get to the top of the SERPs. This is crucial to reaching out to potential new audience members.

The best ways to be on the search engine results page (SERP) are to have concise and common keywords, appropriate tags, a well-written description, and to post longer videos.

Examine how your audience engages with your content by looking at your channel’s YouTube analytics.

YouTube will provide you with data for your channel that will give you a glimpse into how well your channel is performing overall.

The dashboard shows you the number of viewers, click through rate (CTR), average watch time, and the percentage of subscribers vs. non-subscribers who watch your videos.

Post Consistently

Posting consistently does not necessarily mean every day. Sticking to a regular schedule ensures your viewers know when to expect you.

It can help viewers to know when your posting schedule is, as it can be similar to their favorite TV show airing a new episode.

Whether it is once or twice a week,once a month, or every day, posting consistently can help your viewers keep your content in the front of your mind.

Choose a schedule that you can stick to while providing consistency to your audience. This also decreases the burnout that forcing daily uploads can cause.

Use the YouTube Shorts Feature

Short-form video content is in. But TikTok isn’t the only place people go to watch shorter videos.

YouTube was historically a platform for long-form videos, but with Shorts, you can post shorter TikTok-like videos. This can help you reach people who prefer shorter videos, but YouTube Shorts are also smart tools to use to entice people to watch your longer content!

They can be clips of your longer YouTube videos or be great methods to promote your YouTube channel. It’s also easy to recycle TikTok videos or Instagram Reels as YouTube shorts. Just be sure to download TikTok videos without the watermark.

Creating the Best Shorts

YouTube Shorts, as the name suggests, are short videos or clips (approximately one minute long) that can highlight moments from your longer videos or be similar to the content you post on Instagram Reels or TikTok.

All you need to do to access the feature is use the YouTube app, and the creation tool is located on the bottom section of the screen, next to the home button.

YouTube also has a “Getting Started Guide” to help you make your first steps into creating exciting YouTube Shorts. This guide provides valuable information about the feature.

YouTube has a few suggestions to help make your short stand out and grab the attention of a viewer.

Firstly, do something that will grab the attention of the viewer within the first few seconds. Since Shorts can be up to a minute long, you want to ensure viewers don’t just scroll past your Short.

If there is a video that seems like it would work well as a loop, work with it! Make sure it is short and has complimentary audio at the end and beginning so that the loop makes sense.

They also suggest leaning into the cringy, yet popular trends, as they will drive more traffic to your channel. While all of your Shorts don’t need to be trends, sprinkling in a few can help you reach more watchers. Just be sure to tie the trend back to your content niche!

Promote Your Channel

Don’t rely solely on your YouTube channel to generate its own audience and promote itself. You can do a lot more in order to entice viewers to watch your content and subscribe to your channel.

If you stream on another platform, such as Twitch, you can cross-promote both your YouTube and Twitch channels by posting Twitch streams as long videos. Encourage viewers to tune into your live streams when they occur. The same concept goes for podcasts.

If you have a blog page, you can also embed your YouTube videos when writing a blog post. This will encourage viewers of your blog to look into your YouTube channel.

In general, promote your YouTube videos with your social media. If you already have an established audience somewhere else, drive them to your YouTube videos and channel.

Make Videos Accessible

Accessibility matters, especially in online content that you make. To ensure you have the biggest reach to a potential audience, you need to make sure that your audience can access your content without struggle.

Adding subtitles to your YouTube videos go a long way to make videos accessible to those who are hard of hearing or from another country.

Statistically, you will have more viewers, user engagement, watch times, and your video ranking will increase just by adding subtitles.

You can automatically add subtitles to your videos with Maestra’s subtitle generator. The process is simple and easy to navigate so there is no excuse why you shouldn’t add subtitles to your videos.

This may seem simple, but it can negatively affect viewers who feel like they cannot enjoy your content because they cannot understand what you are trying to say.

Whether that is due to a disability or their not understanding the language you use, making content accessible to the largest amount of people is vital to your channel’s success.

You can also translate subtitles to reach even more people around the world. Maestra also assists with that as we have over 60 languages to choose from for translation.

Don’t rely solely on YouTube’s automatic closed captioning feature. Depending on the audio you have for your video, it can be difficult for the generator to transcribe accurate captions.

This can lead to inaccuracies in the captioning which results in confusion for your audience, especially if they are hearing the audio while reading the subtitles.

You should always take the time to ensure the accuracy of your subtitles and transcripts with Maestra..

Grow Your Channel Today!

Growing a YouTube channel can seem like a tall order, but if you take the advice listed above, you will find the task less daunting.

Maestra can help you by providing you with tools to help make your channel more accessible to the largest audience possible through our transcript generator tool. 

You can get a free 15-minute trial or sign up for a demo to see what other benefits Maestra can provide you and your growing channel.

Rashida Beal
Jan 7, 2023