7 FREE WAYS To Promote Your YouTube Videos (FOR MORE VIEWS)
So you've got your YouTube video all ready to go, it's live and you're ready to get views! But let's be honest. It can feel hard to gain momentum on YouTube, especially when you're just starting out! This week, I'm going to share 7 ways that you can start promoting your video for free! After five years of creating video content, I've learned how to promote your video for free to get more views.
Getting views on YouTube can absolutely feel like a grind. When I started out on YouTube, I decided that I didn't want to wait for YouTube to start sharing my content so I became a promotion machine. I learned how to promote my videos for free and I'm sharing the ways the worked best for me!
Social Media.
Now this can feel obvious and maybe even a little overwhelming. I get that! However, social media is a powerful way to grow your views... if you do it correctly. Here's the thing. Each social media platform favors a different style of content. This means you need to cater your promotion to each platform specifically.
Facebook is often misused. People think they can throw a link to their YouTube video and that's that. But YouTube is one of Facebook's biggest competitors so if you send a Facebook user to YouTube? Well, YouTube is going to know. And they're going to keep it from being seen as much.
Instead, add teaser clips or even the entire video. Yes, this means that it won't count as a view on YouTube but it'll introduce you to a new community and eventually lead them to subscribing on your channel!
Instagram is another platform that is great for promotion. However, unless you have 10k followers, you can only link to something in your bio. So what you can do is create a post where you explain the importance of your video. Then send them to the link in your bio. Another way that I've enjoyed sharing my videos is by polling my audience. I ask if they want me to send them the link and send the link and a quick message to the ones that respond with a yes!
Pinterest is amazing and one of my top traffic sources! It's a long game strategy though so don't expect overnight results. That being said, I have pins that over a year old that are sending traffic. We've been posting video pins on Pinterest that go to my video or my blog and they do so well. We also create multiple pins for each video.
Collaborate.
This is another strong way to get seen. Collaborate with other people who aren't necessarily doing the same thing as you but are serving the same people. This will get you front of a brand new set of eyes and send people your way.
Engage on other Channels.
Now this step does take more work but it's an important step. The fact of the matter is that YouTube is social platform, in order to make the most of it you need to be social on it. This means going to other channels and commenting on their videos! This can feel like a lot but it's so worth it. I like to set a timer to engage daily and it's really helped not only get views but build connections.
Email Lists.
One of the most important things for you to do in your business is build an email list. And this is a great place for you to share your content. Your email subscribers may be coming to you from a different platform and may not even realize you have new content coming out regularly! So tell them! I send an email out each week to my audience to let them know that a new video is live. It's got a little value insight to it and a clickable thumbnail to make it super easy to engage with.
Make Better Content.
I hate saying this because it might hurt a little bit. YouTube will actually promote your content if your videos are good. So what constitutes a good video in the eyes of YouTube? It all comes down to three key metrics.
Click Through
Rates Audience
Retention End Screen Click Through
If your views from YouTube are low, you need to look into those analytics to see where they are. If they're low, you can tweak your thumbnails and titles to make them work better for you!
Use Your Videos!
This is so fun and a great way to keep people watching. Mention other videos you have in your video and link to them! You can also send them to other videos in your end screen. The point is that if you have someone watching one video, you can lead them to another. Thus improving your views! The other thing this does is create a binge style watching session for a viewer. This tells YouTube that your content is desirable and may help you to get them to share more content of yours. It's a win win!
Do Your Research.
You really can't just post whatever content that comes to mind. You have to create content that people are actually looking for. This means doing the research to see what people are looking for on YouTube. You can go into YouTube and start by searching for certain industry related topics to see what results come up that are performing well.
One cool thing about this is that when you start typing, you'll often have YouTube trying to "guess" what you're looking for. That means those are popular topics and great for you to create content around. Once you've done that, you can dig into the content that is already out there. See how creators are approaching topics, how they open their videos and what their title and thumbnails are like.
Another resource for research is the comments. Look to see if any viewers have left questions on those videos and determine if you can create a video that answers that question. Chances are, if one person asked, others are wondering too!
And that's 7 ways that you can promote your YouTube channel for free. If you want to see how I've built authority on YouTube and learn what it takes to build a 6 figure business from YouTube videos, be sure to click the button below to grab my FREE Video Authority Starter Kit!
