In the vast landscape of online video content, building a successful presence on YouTube requires careful planning and strategic execution. With over 2 billion logged-in monthly active users, YouTube presents an immense opportunity for content creators to showcase their talent and reach a global audience. However, simply uploading videos and hoping for the best won’t cut it in this highly competitive space. So, if you’re wondering how to start a YouTube channel, and expand it further, this blog is for you. In this blog, we will explore five key strategies that have proven to be highly effective in attracting and engaging audiences, ultimately helping you achieve significant growth on your YouTube channel.
In this Article:
Building Your Website for Live Streaming
One of the foundational steps in growing your YouTube channel is to create a dedicated website for live streaming. By utilizing platforms like OneStream Live, you can seamlessly integrate your YouTube content into your website, providing a centralized hub for your audience. This digital marketing strategy not only enhances your brand’s credibility but also encourages viewers to engage and subscribe to your YouTube channel. By offering exclusive live streams on your website, you create a sense of exclusivity and incentivize viewers to visit regularly.
Having a dedicated website for live streaming can provide a centralized platform for your audience to access your content. It allows for customization and control over the viewing experience, making it easier for viewers to find and engage with your live streams. In addition, your website can act as a hub for storing and organizing previous live streams, creating easy discoverability for new viewers.
Pro-Tip: Create your own personalized landing page for embedding YouTube live streams using Hosted Live Pages. Customize your background, add social media icons and a clickable CTA, use Live Unified Chat, and much more, for a personalized web live streaming experience.
Building an Email List
While YouTube provides an excellent platform to share your content and engage with your audience, having an email list allows you to establish a direct, more personal connection with your subscribers. By encouraging viewers to subscribe to your email list, you can stay in touch with them even outside of YouTube and provide exclusive content, updates, and offers. Email marketing strategy is a direct channel of communication enables you to nurture leads, drive traffic to your channel and videos, and increase viewer engagement and loyalty.
With an email list, you have the power to target specific segments of your audience and create customized email campaigns. You can tailor your content to different subscriber groups based on their interests or demographics, effectively personalizing their experience and delivering relevant content directly to their inbox. This level of personalization helps to strengthen the bond between you and your subscribers, making them more likely to engage with your YouTube channel, share your videos, and become advocates for your content. It also provides a reliable channel through which you can promote new video releases, collaborations, or any other updates related to your channel, ensuring that your most dedicated viewers never miss out on new content.
Hosting Podcasts and Webinars
Podcasts and webinars provide an excellent opportunity to diversify your content and engage your audience beyond your YouTube channel. These formats allow for more in-depth discussions and interactive experiences that can complement your regular video uploads. By hosting podcasts and webinars related to your channel’s niche, you can invite industry experts, collaborate with other creators, and share valuable insights with your audience in a different format. This not only adds variety to your content but also positions you as a thought leader within your niche.
Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Start a Video Podcast
Podcasts are an audio-based medium that allows for longer, conversational episodes. Through interviews, discussions, or solo episodes, you can delve into topics that may require more time and exploration. Inviting industry experts or influential guests as podcast guests brings in their expertise, knowledge, and different perspectives, which can greatly enrich the content and offer unique insights to your audience. Additionally, collaborating with other creators on podcast episodes can foster a sense of community and introduce your channel to a wider audience base.
Webinars, on the other hand, offer a live interactive experience that can foster a strong connection with your audience. These events provide an opportunity for you to engage with your viewers in real-time, answer their questions, and provide valuable guidance or tutorials. By hosting webinars related to your channel’s niche, you can leverage your expertise and offer deeper insights on specific topics. Webinars also allow you to establish yourself as an authority within your niche and create a sense of exclusivity for your audience, as they have the opportunity to participate and interact directly with you.
Read More: Using OneStream Live to Delivering Successful Webinars
To maximize the impact of your podcasts and webinars, it is crucial to promote these events on your YouTube channel and social media platforms. Use teasers, trailers, or short clips from the episodes as promotional materials, enticing your audience to tune in to the full episodes or join the live webinars. Cross-promotion between your YouTube channel and the podcast or webinar platforms creates a seamless connection between the different mediums, driving traffic and increasing the visibility of both your channel and the podcast/webinar events.
Using a Combination of Short and Long-Form Videos
Using a combination of short and long-form videos is a key marketing strategy to boost your YouTube channel. Short videos, typically ranging from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, are excellent for capturing attention span-challenged viewers who prefer quick, bite-sized content. These short videos can be highly shareable, allowing them to reach a broader audience and potentially go viral. By creating short, impactful videos that hook viewers from the start, you can pique their interest and entice them to explore more of your channel.
On the other hand, long-form videos provide an opportunity to dive deep into topics, engage viewers on a more profound level, and showcase your expertise in a particular niche. Long-form videos, typically ranging from 10 minutes to an hour or more, offer an immersive experience where you can provide in-depth explanations, tutorials, or discussions. This format allows you to establish a deeper connection with your audience, instill trust, and position yourself as a reputable source of valuable content. Longer videos also tend to have higher watch time, which can positively impact your channel’s overall performance in YouTube’s algorithm, leading to more exposure and potential growth.
The combination of short and long-form videos caters to different viewer preferences and habits. Short videos cater to those seeking quick entertainment or information, while long-form videos satisfy viewers who desire a more extensive and immersive experience. By striking the right balance between the two formats, you can cater to a broader audience and keep them engaged on your channel for different durations of time. This social media marketing strategy also allows you to experiment with various content ideas and formats, keeping your channel fresh and dynamic. Ultimately, by leveraging both short and long-form videos, you can maximize your channel’s potential for growth, reach, and audience engagement on YouTube.
Multistreaming Your YouTube Videos
By leveraging multiple platforms, you can expand your audience beyond YouTube subscribers and reach viewers who may not typically follow your channel. While YouTube is undoubtedly the go-to platform for uploading and promoting your videos, there is immense potential in utilizing other platforms to enhance your channel’s visibility and increase the chances of attracting a diverse and engaged audience. Multistreaming opens up a whole new world of opportunities for content creators. By broadcasting your videos on platforms such as Facebook Live, Twitch, or Instagram Live, you can tap into different user bases and demographics that may have different viewing habits or preferences.
Read More: How to Live Stream on YouTube and Facebook Simultaneously
Not only does multistreaming expand your potential audience, but it also allows you to diversify your content distribution strategy. Each platform has its own set of features and functionalities that can be utilized to engage viewers in unique ways. For example, Instagram Live offers interactive features like Q&A sessions or polls, which can foster real-time engagement and create a more interactive viewing experience. By embracing these platform-specific features, you can adapt your content to suit each platform and cater to the preferences of your viewers, ultimately increasing their engagement levels.
Furthermore, multistreaming can help you amplify the visibility of your YouTube channel and drive traffic from other platforms. By providing teasers or snippets of your YouTube videos during live streams or uploads on different platforms, you can generate curiosity and encourage viewers to seek out more of your content on YouTube. Cross-promotion between platforms creates a seamless user experience and offers viewers additional opportunities to engage with your channel, increasing the likelihood of them becoming subscribers and returning for future content.
OneStream Live allows you to broadcast your YouTube videos simultaneously on platforms such as Facebook Live, Instagram, Twitch, and 45+ more social destinations. You can also embed your live streams anywhere on the web, be it your website, a social forum, your blog site, or any custom RTMP destinations. You can opt to go live in real-time using OneStream Live Studio or restream your live streams from your favorite external RTMP encoders such as Zoom, OBS, XSPlit, or Wirecast. Or, you can go for pre-recorded live streaming using OneStream Live. Simply upload and schedule your pre-recorded videos and schedule them to go live on your YouTube channel and several other social media platforms simultaneously.
Conclusion
Growing your YouTube channel requires a well-thought-out marketing strategy that incorporates various techniques to attract, engage, and retain viewers. By leveraging platforms like OneStream Live, you can seamlessly integrate your YouTube content into your website, provide personalized communication to your audience through email marketing, diversify your content through podcasts and webinars, cater to different viewer preferences with a range of video lengths, and expand your reach by multistreaming videos. Embracing these strategies will empower you to unleash the full potential of your YouTube channel, attract a wider audience, and ultimately achieve remarkable growth.
OneStream Live is a cloud-based live streaming solution to create, schedule, and multistream professional-looking live streams across 45+ social media platforms and the web simultaneously. For content-related queries and feedback, write to us at [email protected]. You’re also welcome to Write for Us!
