What’s the secret to getting views on YouTube? These ten easy steps will teach you how to optimize your content to get more views and build an audience.
1. Add Attention-Grabbing Titles
In the same way we judge books by covers and titles, we’re also prone to judging videos by their thumbnail titles. When browsing news websites, readers tend to click on headlines that promise breaking news or a valuable learning experience. Video titles should also offer a promise. For example, if you’re making a promo video for your business, instead of “who we are”, try explaining in a short few words why the viewer should care to know who you are. Think about what you click on when browsing videos and why. How can you spruce up your title to make viewers hungry for your message?
2. Create Attractive Thumbnails
Never underestimate the power of a custom thumbnail. The thumbnail is like the book cover of your video. 70% of video views are discovered through related videos, so these little pictures can drive serious traffic to your video. The brain processes a visual 60,000 times faster than text. Before even reading the title of your video, the average person browsing the web will already have an opinion of it from the thumbnail. Consider working with a graphic designer to create good thumbnails, or try learning some simple photo editing techniques on your own.
3. Write Smart Descriptions and Include Relevant Tags
The description is the one part of the video where you can afford to be comprehensive. The more words you have in the description, the more likely it is for your video to come up in the search engine. The same goes for tags. Adding as many relevant tags as possible is key to video optimization. Adding “popular” tags that have nothing to do with your video will not get you the viewers you want. Add generic tags (“how-to” for tutorial videos, for instance), as well as content specific tags (e.g. how-to-use-a-blender) to help your video get more views.
4. Create Snappy Intros
Humans have shorter attention spans than goldfish, which means you have ten seconds to give someone a reason to stick with your video. Short, snappy shots or a fun text intro at the very beginning can mean all the difference for not only getting more views, but audience retention as well. And once you’ve grabbed the viewer, you can get into lengthier, slower-paced material.
5. Keep Videos Short
Viewers tend to stop watching a video after two minutes, no matter how long it is. It’s a good idea to stay on topic and avoid tangents as much as possible. Howcast has a lot of great examples of highly informative, concise videos.
6. Upload Content Consistently
If viewers see that you regularly upload content, you’re likely to get more views and more subscribers, especially if you have an upload schedule. Frequent and regular content creation also increases the chances of your channel being seen. Avoid, however, uploading cheap or irrelevant content just to have something new on your channel. Quality is always more important than quantity.
7. Make Your Videos Look Professional
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a super expensive camera to make your videos professional. Professional quality video does not always correlate to resolution. If you’re making a vlog (a recording of yourself), be sure to keep your background simple and distraction free. The lens should be above your eye-line and you should give yourself enough head space. If you’re new to marketing videos and need assistance with video creation for your brand, have no fear. You will find an excellent pool of international freelance videographers and video editors with reasonable rates right at Valoso.com.
8. Make Playlists
The playlist feature allows you to group similar videos into a list of videos that will play one after the other when a viewer discovers the one of the videos. This feature not only gets you more views across your content, it organizes your channel to make to make is easy for your viewers to find exactly what they’re looking for.
9. Leave Viewers with a Call-to-Action
At the end of your video, asking viewers to share, like, or subscribe to your channel for future updates can result in audience growth. It may not cross their minds to interact with the video unless you mention it. If you want your call-to-action to be more subtle, you can also use annotations to get subscribers. Creating a way of sharing your video will set you up to get more views.
10. Create Topical Content
What’s relevant right now? What are people searching for and how can you tie it into what you’re promoting? As Pokemon Go became popular, we blogged about ways to record your Pokemon hunting adventures. This is one example of how to get more views by applying a trend to a relevant message.
