YouTube is a huge platform, and plays a vital part in entertainment and education. If you can grow a decently-sized channel and monetize it accordingly, you can make YouTube your entire career, which is an enticing prospect. Likewise, if you want to advertise on YouTube, that can become the foundation of your marketing effort.
That said, it’s really hard to get ahead with so many channels and brands out there scrambling for position. To compete, you need a strategy to follow — and in this post we’re going to take a look at four great YouTube strategies that you can try, explaining what you can learn from them. Let’s get things started, shall we?
Advertising with creative leeway
Don’t we all hate YouTube ads? They disrupt the things we want to watch, inspiring us to skip them whenever possible (and ignore them whenever they’re unskippable). This makes it tough for the average advertiser to gain significant traction, even when they’re paying heavily to get their products and/or services mentioned by top content creators.
This is where a hands-off approach to the creative process can be so impactful. Perhaps the definitive example of how well this can be done is the Internet Historian YouTube channel. Advertisers don’t provide clips to be shown: instead, the channel creator comes up with entertaining (and often sarcastic) skits that feature their wares. See below:
You need to have a healthy dose of self-awareness to try this method, and it will require you to be less precious about your brand, but those are good things. Instead of annoying people with ads they’ll likely skip (though not always), you can contribute to content that they’ll search for.
Aiming for child-friendly content
A mistake that so many content creators make is trying too hard to be edgy and different. It’s certainly important to stand out, but it isn’t everything — and when everyone else is trying to shirk the norms, you can lean into them instead and be different by default. It’s vital to remember that YouTube attracts viewers of all ages, with many parents — particularly during the COVID-19 era — turning to YouTube videos to keep their kids entertained.
By concentrating on producing content that even kids can enjoy, you can reach a much broader audience and earn many views that you otherwise wouldn’t have managed. If you can do something like create simple stories or review toys while appearing personable, you might be amazed by how popular those videos can get.
Games in particular make highly-effective video material: the above video covering Sago Mini games (the company largely makes monthly make-and-play activities — kids’ subscription boxes — but also sells mobile apps) has over 41 million views. It isn’t particularly long, complex, or innovative. It’s just one example of how creating content suitable for all ages takes full advantage of the platform’s broad user base.
Using vague eye-catching titles
You spot a YouTube notification on your phone and swipe to take a look. It says “New Product Review | Regency TH450 | Full Teardown and Assessment”. Now, if that’s a product that interests you (I made that one up, but just swap it out for a real brand and product), you might make a note to check it out later, but it’s unlikely to earn a view right away.
Then along comes another YouTube notification to check out, but this one is rather different: it reads “This blew my mind…”. That has more of a hook, doesn’t it? You know that it’s from a channel you’re subscribed to, so it has that going for it, but it’s otherwise totally open-ended. The only thing you can infer is that it’s about something momentous: something mind-blowing.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0HFUFICYoiY
Above is an example of a video framed in such a way from the Linus Tech Tips channel (as the name suggests, it deals in tech tips, with a forum to accompany its channel). The first part — “This is HUGE!!!” — was the full title when it was first uploaded, with the second part noting the product added down the line. Is this clickbait? Well, technically, yes: but it isn’t the frustrating kind. The video doesn’t try to hide the product or use a misleading thumbnail. If you can tweak your titles in this sort of way, you can get more clicks without driving people away.
Commenting on YouTube events
Collaborating with other YouTube content creators can be very effective, but it’s also relatively challenging. If you have fairly few subscribers, why should someone with hundreds of thousands (or even millions) want to partner with you when they could team up with someone on their level? Usefully, that isn’t the only way to get ahead using brand recognition.
One option that can be done well (it can also be done very poorly, so it’s a tricky thing to manage) is issuing some commentary on general YouTube events. These can include updates to the platform, changes to the advertising system, or good old-fashioned drama between popular content creators. Controversy always gets clicks, after all. Mirror the language of the people you’re trying to hook: it’s always a great way to proceed.
Above is a video about the decline of YouTube, posted back in 2017 — and it performed far beyond the typical standards of the channel at the time. It brought in plenty of people who just wanted the YouTube equivalent of gossip, and many of them stuck around to check out other videos on the channel. You can do the same thing. If you’re happy with your content overall but it isn’t getting many views, try weighing in on a popular YouTube issue with a cogent but theatrical take: that could be enough to get people to give you a try.
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