YouTube is a platform used by millions of content creators. With thousands of hours worth of content uploaded every day, it is not only easy but inevitable, that your page will fall into redundancy and not gain views and subscribers as you may dream of if you do not make an active effort to gain them. YouTube is now the second largest search engine that exists, closely behind Google, and hence, the platform has emerged as one of the hardest and most competitive spaces to put out your creative content. Thousands of videos about similar topics exist and in order to gain an audience, you will have to battle with those more firmly established channels.
In a highly competitive online world, you will need more than just good content to gain subscribers and an audience. While buying youtube subscribers may be a viable option for those with deep pockets, this may not translate to a gain in real youtube views. In order to spread your outreach and channel’s popularity, you will have to reach out to real YouTube viewers. This may be aided by advertisements, but the advertisement will definitely not be an end in itself.
The following are methods that you can wield, in order to gain traction to your YouTube page.
1. Catch your audience
Make sure your video title is engaging. Use it wisely, in order to gain the attention of a viewer on YouTube. Use a question in the title if possible, to arouse the viewer’s interest and curiosity. They will then click on the title to answer the many other arising questions or possible answers in their head. The title is of immense importance, but so is the thumbnail. Make sure your thumbnail is also riveting, and speculative.
If you are able to capture a casual viewer’s interest by the thumbnail, you have succeeded in managing to gain more views. The thumbnail is a pictorial representation of what your title is, and will support it. In order to get a viewer to click on your video, make sure they are both attractive to a possible uninterested observer.
2. Hook your audience
Once you have achieved the desirable task of gaining the click on your video, you now face the immensely daunting task of hooking your audience to stay with you for a few minutes. Studies show that the first six seconds of your video are what make the difference. So, present your content in a brief but engaging manner over the first few seconds of the video.
A commonly used technique would be editing together the highlights of the video, or a quick montage helps in gaining viewers attention. A montage will capture the key elements of your video and the main aspects that you are going to cover. By giving your audience a quick preview of what they are going to see, it acts as a trailer of the video. By doing so you catch their interest in the things that are about to come, and they will stay with you now for the rest of the video, in anticipation of these.
3. A short message for viewers.
This may seem blindingly obvious, but do not forget to tell your viewers to subscribe to your channel. It is imperative to do this, as a new viewer may forget to do so, or not take the minimal effort of doing so unless reminded.
This will act as a reinforcer for doing so. Add a short message at the beginning of your clip, while introducing the video topic, and mention it again towards the end of the video. This will not seem like a desperate measure but only a gentle nudge to subscribe to your channel. This would call the viewer to action, and makes a huge difference to your YouTube channel.
4. Make your page aesthetic
Make sure that every area of your page is aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable to explore. Make sure your background art is reflective of your page and encompasses every aspect of what the page is about.
It should be artistic, and the colors should grab the attention of any viewer. Your thumbnail art should do the same. The page design should be easy to navigate, create playlists of similar videos or series in order for a viewer to easily assess different kinds of content that you create.
5. A reflection of you
Make sure that your page is a reflection of who you are, what kind of creator you are. Try to feature yourself in your video, if not for the entire video then at the beginning and end. Try and display as many emotions as you can, and make yourself relatable.
Connect with your audience as much as possible on a personal level, let them know what you feel, and what your views on topics are. Allow yourself to be genuine, as this will help create the most favorable impression that you can make.
Using these five tips, you will be able to expand your YouTube empire and create a niche for yourself on this incredibly hard-fought battlefield. However, do not fear, there is a seat awaiting you, awaiting your passion to carve it out amongst the millions of other users. Stay true to your content, and keep creating more, while simultaneously following these easy steps, and you will be able to gain more subscribers, views, likes and shares on your YouTube page.
