All you need to promote your YouTube channel —and succeed.

Cover image 

As part of the audience myself, there are videos I scroll down because the feature image doesn’t show me enough or I don’t find it aligned with what I’m looking for. If I’m looking for some psychology subject, I don’t click on a video with an eclectic pink pattern under the text, or if the person in the picture doesn’t look serious to me.

Have you ever stopped to think about how your cover images are performing? There are some amazing ones. The ones from creators who know what they are doing. That’s the first thing you need to fix. 

Snippets

If you draw traffic to your videos from social media, create snippets of your video that give some value or entertainment, in a way that people want more and actually go check out your full video.

However, the snippets need to be adapted to every social media ratio. No cut edges, no people out of the frame, and no blurry images (if possible).

We live in a super rushed era in which the attention span of someone scrolling videos is, if lucky, two seconds. What do you say in two seconds? Nothing, it’s not about what you say but the emotional first impression they get after scrolling to your post.

Trailer

Create a cool trailer for your Youtube channel. You can hire a freelance video editor to create a great one if you don’t know how to do it. If you can’t pay for it, look for a tutorial on Youtube. There are some simple, good editors online. 

Comments on!

Set your comments “on”. Youtube penalizes you if you have them off. You always have the option of enabling a filter for offensive comments. It works pretty well. 

Make it shareable

If you share them on Tiktok, allow people to duet them. They love it if it’s good material and it’s a way to organically grow the eyes on your content. And why not? I see lots of them that you cannot do it, and I can’t find a logical answer to that from a marketer’s point of view.

Beware of the commercial rights of music!

If you want to add music, if you have a business account, the platform already filters the tracks for commercial use. One less thing to worry about. 

Crossed platforms

Share the videos on Reels. The audience is normally higher by far. At least in our campaigns, Instagram keeps on being a leader in reach. TikTok rarely converts into sales. It all depends on what you are selling or offering.

Encourage the subscribers

Create a standalone video encouraging people to subscribe. Share it as an ad but cool enough to be interesting. 

SEO

Let’s talk descriptions. 

*Deep breathe.*

Do you know how many times I have been looking for information about a creator or a podcaster and the “About” is EMPTY? Sometimes not even the social media links. 

Let’s go back to the good practices of bios:

Who am I?
What do I do?
What do I offer you in my channel?
Where to find me.

Hashtags and tags

Now, on your videos. Remember to add the proper tags and hashtags. It’s important, even more on Youtube, since The study by Google found that including a hashtag in a video title or description increased the number of views by 26%. And, when looking at comments, videos with hashtags included had 14% more engagement than those without hashtags. 

The descriptions have to be captivating. For example, if you are a podcast, people many time don’t much care about who your guest is, they are interested in what you’re talking about and what’s the bite for them in the conversation.

Think of it, how many times you have searched for a podcast episode about something you wanted to learn or gain wisdom about, and you just didn’t care what podcast or what hosts were present in that episode? You just want the information. 

If searching for the same subject, you come down to them several times, you will end up creating a bond with that specific creator or host.

Well, then if it happens to you, my friend, it happens to a lot more people too. What do we learn from this? The first lines cannot be a boring bio about your guest. The first line and maybe two lines have to be something very catchy. 

“Everything this person knows about haunted houses!!” 

You name them, but you’re also saying why they’re cool to listen to. Believe me, this will take you the long way. 

Length

The length, mon ami. When the interviews are more than 40 min, break them down, because people tend to scroll past when they see the video is too long. At the end of the first part, you can link the second one. 

Again, Youtube states that the best length for a video is 8 min. Alright, when you’re interviewing that’s not possible. But you can upload a long one and another one in parts of 15 min. People will follow through if they’re interested, or if it’s an important video you can also create a playlist, so videos autoplay one after another and you will favor the algorithm odds towards you since Youtube will register that:

• Your video length is ideal
• People stay during the entire video
• They play the next video
• They watch several videos in a short period of time, in a row

Extra tips:

1. If you don’t have a website, create one. Even if it’s a simple WordPress one. It’s necessary to put all your info together. There’s nothing more annoying than when I’m searching for someone and I have to jump from one social media to the next to put all the pieces together, and still don’t quite understand all their magnitude.
   
   I do it because it’s my job. Someone who just wants to listen to a video or are pretty interested in you, won’t.
   
   Nowadays it couldn’t be easier. Just trust me on this, okay?
2. Email list. Start one. You can offer special episodes only subscribers will receive. You need to own your audience, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket and depend on algorithms. What will happen if some day Youtube no longer exists? Stranger things have happened.
   
   What happened when a few months ago Instagram broke down for a few hours? Holy crackers, hell broke loose among the influencers and creators that had only aimed for that platform.
   
   Don’t be like them. Own the power of communicating with your audience even if the platform gods shut them down from tonight to tomorrow morning. You can always email all of them and say “hey! Don’t worry, you can find us on our website with all our episodes available online!”
   
   You’ll need:
   
   – One leading magnet (what special goodie you give them in exchange for their email)
   – A cool landing page to collect their emails
   – An account on an email management software like Mailchimp. Free plans are pretty wide at the beginning, and if you need more it’s because you’re already making money and you’ll be alright with paying a fee to the guys who allow you to make that money, capiche?
   
   If you’re insecure, just collect the emails and say hi every now and then with a little gift for them, until you put your guts together to start an actual plan or funnel for your email list. I’ll talk about this another time because I don’t want to distract your attention now that I have it.
   
3. Merch.
   Nothing cooler than wearing a hoodie of your favorite podcast, show or brand, isn’t it? You have several websites that print on demand and it will cost you zero. What on earth are you waiting for? I found Teespring to be the best for us, but that’s up to you. (Say thanks to Teespring for the free shoutout!)
   
4. Find support from your loyal fans. Patreon seems to be popular but it’s losing a lot of clients and users since it has a lot of voids. A jolly ol’ Paypal subscription will do the job and avoid several headaches. Everyone understands automatic payments on Paypal, but some people still think that Patreon is an old Greek emperor. Make it as easy for them as you humanly can.
   
5. Cross-promote with others. Reciprocity is great to cross audiences. They are normally happy to help.
   
6. Share your video with the proper people, in case they’re interested in having a look and sharing it, but don’t be that person that sends you a DM without even knowing your name, with a link saying “support us!! Watch and like!!”
   
   I have even ended up muting accounts that I followed to support, but then they DMed me constantly with a link and “We have a new video! Watch it!!”
   
   I always think hum… nope? LOL I do, because I don’t want to be rude, but I find it annoying. That doesn’t mean you can’t pitch a few influential people and reach out respectfully and get some high-quality backlinks. Good! Just don’t be a pain. You’ll loose all your effort. Off the window. 

If you put time and effort into all the above, you will slowly increase your audience in an organic way, and they will stay with you. It’s true that there’s a lot of material out there, but most of it is trash. I scroll episodes on Spotify like there’s no tomorrow because many of them don’t say anything of value.

They just talk about themselves and why they are awesome. I don’t care, I have a goal and I’m not getting it through you, so I can’t lose my time. Be smarter than that.

Also, consider all the people that can’t stop watching a video, like me. Extract the audio and upload it into a Spotify, Google Podcasts or Apple Podcasts version. Otherwise, you’re losing a huge audience. 

And remember to update your website. 

If you need more help or a campaign tailored specifically for you, reach out! 

Do you want us to take care of the tedious marketing part?

If you want the best place to advertise your horror content fast and efficiently, you’re looking for SLASHER