Growing a YouTube channel is just like nurturing a seed. It takes time, continuous effort, patience, and a little extra care!

And of course, it can’t be achieved overnight!

But there are a few things which can speed up this process. And in this article, we will cover the top 7 things that will speed up your growth on YouTube.

1. Research before you start creating videos

Creating video content takes a lot of time and effort. So, you might want to ensure that you are not wasting your energy on a video topic that has very little or even zero search volume.

Why?

Because if no one is searching for that topic then how can you expect to get more views for your video!

So, before you even work on the script or title, do an extensive research for selecting the best topic for your video.

This will help you ensure that your content caters to a larger audience and thereby increases your chances of getting more views.

The easiest way to do that is by leveraging the auto-complete feature of YouTube search

For example, if you have a food channel and you want to make a video on salads. From the search prediction, we can see that salad decoration tops the list. So, instead of talking a lot about salad making in your video, you can rather talk about ways and tips to decorate salad.

Apart from this, you can also use the following tools to do the keyword research for your video.

1. Google keyword planner – Google keyword planner is a part of the Google Ads interface, which allows you to just type in a keyword and find its search volume and related keywords.

2. Google trends – Just like Google keyword planner google trends is another free tool that helps you find out some trending video ideas.

If you are just starting off with your YouTube channel make sure you cover only a specific niche. Because YouTube defines the genre of a channel based on the type of content it has. If you put content from the different niche on your channel, YouTube won’t rank your channel for anything.

2. Create a hook within first 10 secs of your video

According to VideoNithch, approximately 20% of the people who start watching your video will leave within the first 10 seconds.

Also, a view is counted only after a person watches it for 30 seconds.

But there is a catch in the number of views displayed on YouTube!

When you upload a video on YouTube, views are counted as it is till 300 views but after that YouTube verifies the number of views with the help of a secret process (of course!) and then displays only the unique legit views.

And this is the reason why sometimes you see a discrepancy in the number of views shown on your video and in your YouTube analytics section. The same process is applied to the number of likes as well!

Now that you know how YouTube counts the number of views, let’s get into how can you create a hook that will make people stay on the video for longer than 30 seconds!

The best way to do this is by building curiosity at the very beginning of the video. You can do that by having a short intro about your video which tells your audience what they can expect from the video or just by asking some mindblowing questions that will make them stay on your video.

These hacks are very effective and are already used by a lot of YouTubers and SEO experts like Brian Dean and Neil Patel.

3. Rank higher by including keywords in the title and description

The cutthroat competition starts the moment you post your video on YouTube. Usually, the first hurdle that comes in front of YouTubers is ranking the videos at a higher position for a specific search result.

So, how do you make YouTube give preference to your video over others?

Well! The answer to this question is by helping YouTube understand what your video is all about. To do that, you can simply start by including the right keywords in your video’s title and description.

Make sure you spend enough time on this as it will do it’s magic only when you do it the right way!

To truly optimize your video for a particular keyword, we also recommend you to say the main keyword in your video itself. Now that YouTube is automatically generating subtitles for your videos, they are able to track what you are saying in the video and with that YouTube can understand what your video is about.

To make things even easier for YouTube to give preference to your video, try adding your main keyword at the beginning of your Video title. However, to prevent cropping of your main title, limit the number of characters in your video title to 50.

For the description, use the first 124 characters wisely to include some keywords as these characters will be shown along with your heading in the YouTube search result.

4. Win CTR battle with clickable thumbnails

Now that you have created an amazing video and published it, the next challenge would be making viewers choose between your video and thousands of other videos which are listing for the same topic.

The best way to ensure maximum clicks on your videos is by creating an enticing YouTube video thumbnail.

The YouTube thumbnail is the first thing people will see when they come across your video and by having an enticing thumbnail, you can improve the video’s CTR(Click through Rate) to a great extent.

In fact! YouTube itself reports that 90% of the best-performing videos on YouTube have custom thumbnails.

In a world where people take only a few seconds to decide whether to watch your video or not, your video will be judged by its cover!

And this is why thumbnails can be your trump card when it comes to winning the CTR(Click Through Rate) battle.

Creating a clickable thumbnail is a fairly easy task. You can create an enticing thumbnail by using a free YouTube thumbnail maker app like Picmaker.

To know more about which thumbnail type works better on YouTube and how to quickly create a professional looking YouTube thumbnail, check out this blog: “How to make a smashing thumbnail in 5 mins!”

5. Improve average watch time of your YouTube channel with playlists and end screen annotation.

It is no secret that YouTube ranks your videos based on average watch time.

But not many know that YouTube gives preference to videos of channels that have great watch times across their entire channel.

YouTube as a company wants more people to stay on their platform as long as possible. Hence YouTube rewards the best performing channel by pushing its content to the related videos section. This again leads to a phenomenal increase in the views of that particular video.

Now, let’s talk about how you can increase your channel’s average watch time with less effort!

• One way to do that is by creating a playlist of all the related videos on your channel. Playlists are a great way to increase the average watch time as it pushes your viewers to watch more than one video in a single session. Thus making viewers stay longer on your channel.

  But when you are creating a playlist, make sure you name your playlist in such a way that it precisely reflects the video content of your videos. Check out this article by google to know how to create a playlist on YouTube.

  
• The second way is to use end screen annotation in your videos. The end screen annotations will give your users a way to dive deep into your series of related content. The best way to leverage this option is to include a playlist of videos or to include a video which is related to the currently playing video.

If you notice, the annotation in the video and the current playing video are related as they both talk about the camera basics.

Check out this article by Google to know how you can use end screen annotation

6. Make your channel homepage brandilicious

Most people, after being exposed to your video will check out your channel’s homepage. If you want them to subscribe, it needs to look as attractive and professional as possible. Treat your youtube channel as a brand! The impression you create in your viewer’s mind in the first 5 seconds, matters a lot!

But, creating a custom channel art can be tricky because channel art looks different on different devices.

Check out this simple 7 step guide on how to make make a stunning YouTube channel art to get started with creating some professional looking YouTube channel art.

To create some professional looking channel art, you can use a free YouTube channel art maker.

7. Embed your YouTube videos on your blog or website

If your site or blog is getting some good traffic, then embedding your YouTube videos can do wonders for your views.

How?

Because once you embed your YouTube video on your blog or website, any view that you get on your video will reflect on your total view count. So, by embedding your video in your blog or website you are actually creating an extra inflow of more views for your YouTube video.

Check out this article by Google to know how to embed your YouTube video.

We hope our list of 7 quick ways to grow your YouTube channel helps you climb the YouTube ladder easily.

Did we miss any awesome way to grow your channel? What are your top 7 ways to grow on YouTube? Let us know in the comment section.

1. Telling a great startup story

Many of us use it but only a few have mastered it. Storytelling. Yes, a story is worth a good start. In an era where consumers are bombarded with irrelevant information, success in business will be had only by those who have mastered the art of narrating a captivating story. “Tell it, Don’t sell it” should be your mantra. Your customers are mobbed by millions of advertisements, campaigns, hoardings and so on. Precisely, they live amidst noise and cannot hear you. But you can edge out your competition with a powerful and convincing story; the most powerful way to put ideas in the world, today.
Even the tech-titan Apple had to learn the importance of a good story. In 80’s, Apple attempted to persuade IT executives and top companies to adopt Mac through ads but they failed. Overtime, they turned the stone only with a gentle persistent storytelling.

2. Define your brand

Branding is a survival tool. It helps you to sustain in the competition before a fierce combat. Branding involves 2 components- Naming your business and discerning the logo of your product.

Naming your startup right

Naming your startup is an overwhelming and an exhaustive experience. Name is like an address for a startup. Names might seem simple. But, in this cluttered information highway, startup names should be unique to mark them well from the competition. It has become a trend to reach out to consultants and name developers who suggest the right name that fits your product and brand. A brainstorming of the company’s mission and vision is followed by a linguistic and context analysis. Language patterns are analyzed in the consultation and the study resolves the cultural nuances of a name.

• Know what makes a good name.
• Brainstorm a list of names.
• Narrow it down to a few decent names.
• Pick the one that is perfect.

Names generate emotional responses. In fact, popular brands such as Apple and Google, made the cut recently in an Adweek survey that measured emotional responses from consumers to major brands. Define your brand with the right name and site a triumphing address. Create a unique brand personality.

Spend time for your logo

Logo is the face of your brand. It is related to every aspect of your business. An identity to your company and forms a first impression on the consumer’s mind.
The reason behind a logo design is knowing your startup story. Know your company’s objectives and how you are going to brand yourself, while knowing what your consumers will respond to. Company principles and values come alive in logos, and it shouldn’t just be carried by market data. Know that your logo can emerge along with your brand without losing the core of your business.

3. Social Media Branding Plan

Social media is both bane and boon for marketers. It is one of the most standardized marketing strategy. There are 3 steps to follow,

• Ascertain your startup goal.
• Decide your target customer.
• Build real world relationship with them in the media.

4. Founders’ business behavior

A startup founder should be a good leader. He should set a role model to the members of his organisation. There are certain virtues that portray a fine business behaviour and always keep a founder in control,

• Trust and Integrity.
• Focus only on things that are primary for the business.
• Reinforce productivity.
• Establish Authority in the market.

5. Know your competitors

Study the competition you are facing. By doing so, you will identify the areas you need to improve. Who are they? What are they selling? What is their USP? How do they stand out in the market? The answer to these questions will enable you to gain insight on the competitive nature of the market and helps in resolving solutions to handle the fight.

6. Connect with customers

To combat potential poaching, build and maintain a relationship with your customers. Deepen your customer relationship by being responsive to their needs. Take time to survey and understand what they really want?

• Price
• Quality
• Service
• Latest Product

Once you have gained insight on their requirement, attempt to meet the customer expectation. Be flexible and reassess your marketing strategy. Excite your customers with innovation. Promos bring excitement. Plan a new promo every month.
Early Bird promo, invite a friend promo, Get one buy one promo, Weekend promo and so on.

7. Stand Out

Establish your uniqueness. Show the market that solid reason to buy your product and draw the customers towards your product. They should not have a second thought of going back to your rivals. Explain to the market Who you are? What you sell? Why customers should come to you? It can be a small flyer or, brochure or a classy and expensive media campaign. Frequently, emphasize the freshness in your product or service. Customers fantasize and are attracted towards newness.

8. Leverage a skilled team

The success stories of many businesses is backed by a strong team. Attract fresh and motivated skilled talent by providing a healthy work culture and environment. Throw an opportunity for a structured career growth. And hence draw in the key resources that can serve the best for your organisation. The key resource can equip your product to stay ahead of the competition.

9. Stay ahead in technology

Technology is the need of the hour in any field and is unavoidable for a mobile startup. A mobile launched with the current technology is more likely to take the market by storm. A mobile technology which offers real-time interoperability solutions, a compatible platform for all mobile networks can definitely stay ahead of the competition. Be it Android or IOS, look out for innovation and exploit it in your product. Update with the latest technology to pull the customers towards your product.

10. Maintain a business blog

Brands are incomplete without a voice, and there is no better way to deliver branded messages than blogging. Content Marketing is going to stay, we may see changes only the forms of content. Hence, it is good to maintain a blog and regularly post content supporting your business. Content that are keyword rich and optimized by search engines can enable you to reach your goal.
There is beauty in brevity. Reach your target customers with crisp informations about your product in the form of infographics and explainer videos.

Hope this article aids all startups, especially to stay ahead of the competition. Wishes for a successful startup branding. Share your views on startup branding and your experience as a startup in staying ahead of competition.

      You don’t need to drastically change the look of your brand, but a few tweaks of existing designs (includes Logo, colours, Website, Headings, email signatures, and brand icons) could freshen things us a bit.

      Other than the above visual identity of your brand, there is much more to it than just good design.

      Good design is what gets people “through the door” and good branding is what “Keeps them coming”.

      Here are 12 new year branding tips for the startups:

• Plan for offers with gift vouchers and sponsorship with the existing big brands
• Make your New Year’s Eve-themed cover photo, Profile picture, Thumbnails
• Send personal holiday wishes list with inspirational eBooks
• Write your branding thoughts to the paper and envelope
• Write New Year blog post and articles
• Optimize your online profiles with keywords for your industry
• Invest on storytelling videos and editing tools
• Always share your solution for a problem through social media
• Providing branding calendars and collateral’s
• Join business event, public events and encourage feedback
• With simple branding message, remind people about your brand
• Send your new or existing press releases to your contacts

      A great thing to do at this new year start is to give yourself a big old boost of inspiration to spark your creativity.

      Set your goals and plan for the future to create a structure for your year that you can work to. It’s a great way to look back and see what you have achieved, what needs to be improved on.

      Schedules can help too. Writing a list of tasks that you would do an average day working on your brand, and write what parts of the day are busiest, quietest, etc. which allows you to plan upcoming to do’s for branding.

      Remember, everyone in your team is a brand builder. Gather them and have a dedicated session to identify your true focus. Get your core value and make your message in single word, then even better. If not, then try to keep it clear, specific and relevant.

Some of our personal tips:

• Hard work is hard, but necessary
• Don’t sell short
• Know your local creative community
• Try anything/everything, Love what you do
• Always document your work
• Take risks, its ok if that becomes mistake
• Share if you have the answer for a question
• Be you, not them
• Make the things happen by yourself, for yourself
• Work/life balance is key

After All:

      All we have a list of New Year’s Day resolutions as long as possible as the piece of paper that you wrote them on.

      What is your resolution for the ‘brand’ new year? Planned to grow your brand bigger than last year? Or do you have a new social initiative planned?

      To make the things simpler just write “Improve Our Brand” and focus/refocus more on your brand’s focus.

      With your right branding strategy, whatever your resolution, welcome this brand new year and best of luck in 2014!