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.

Youtube has unequivocally become the ultimate platform for video marketers and its numbers speak about its importance for brands.YouTube is the darling of online video marketers and there is no doubt about that.

It is understood that quality content plays a major role in boosting the performance of the videos, but there should be a significant marketing effort put in to it. This is possible only when we understand what makes a video click and how to make it click. That is when Analytics comes to our rescue. YouTube has some interesting metrics but that alone would not help. Here are a few companies that can help you in online video content marketing.

1. VidIQ

VidIQ helps you to organically grow your viewership and subscribers on YouTube. Right from video SEO to identifying influencers and engaging them to tracking conversations around your brand VidIQ will take care. They help brands, Agencies and Networks in coming up with the right market research that will help them in creating relevant and appropriate content for their target audience. Their insights also take into account the engagement across Facebook and Twitter.

2. Vidooly

Vidooly is a video marketing and analytics suite that helps in building a strong base for you on YouTube. Their intelligent analytics suite helps content creators, brands and MCNs to maximize their YouTube organic views, build audience base and earn more revenue. Their services include video tag suggestions, the best time for uploads, search rank analysis, competitor tracking, subscribers behavior analysis, influencers collaboration and testing which are all focussed on organically growing your brand reach.

3. Tubularlabs

Tubularlabs’ dashboard is very simple to use and shows extensive insights on video analytics. Gives you brand and industry intelligence by identifying trending topics and videos by searching a directory of its channels and videos. Tubularlabs is the best tool to kickstart a hypertargeted video campaign. They also provide optimized marketing and sales campaign management by bringing down your costs in media planning and buying.

As part of a successful video content marketing strategy, Analytics is a great way to keep track of your performance and creating content after understanding the market pulse. A clear data on your performance will help you cut costs and increase your brand reach in the shortest time possible.

1. Brian Clark

Follow Brianclark

170k followers

He is one of the top 10 social media marketers to follow on Twitter. The sole genius behind Copyblogger Media which is an astounding and important resource site for content marketing. A site that preached people the essentiality of powerful content to flourish as a business. Follow him on Twitter for fantastic and free online marketing strategies, updates on the latest marketing trends and answers to all your marketing questions.

Hot Spots

• The infographic on The Amazingly Simple Anatomy of a Marketing Story. It helps to gain insight on the importance of compelling stories, How to tell the right story? How to structure the story? and 5 Elements of a story. This infographic is smartly designed to look like an old story book.
• Focus on 4 steps to harness the addictive power of Email and turn traffic to your business.
• 4 ways to break the insanity of content marketing competition.

2. Matt Cutts

Follow Mattcutts

384k followers

He is the head of the webspam team at Google. He helps the startups by his articles on gadgets, Google and SEO. His blogs are mostly on how to secure your Google account. He wrote the first version of SafeSearch. He states the decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO.

Hot Spots

• Great advice for small business owners
• Video on How To Start A Startup
• Article on iCloud

3.Rand Fishkin

Follow Randfishkin

200k followers

Rand Fishkin is the co-founder of SEOMoz, a successful and popular SEO resource of all time. The fame and reach of SEOMoz compelled him to establish it into a big company named as Moz. Currently, one among the top provider of online marketing tools and internet services. In order to concentrate on his book on startup marketing, he stepped out of the shoe of a CEO. On Twitter, he regularly shares his observations on the state of the online marketing industry and tips on how to use social media marketing to your best advantage.

Hot Spots

• How to be ranked as No. 1 on Google for “best X apps”
• The Landing Page Manifesto- A Slideshare which serves as the guru for landing pages.
• Superb analysis of title tag length & how/when Google might change them for you.
• Is it possible to have good SEO with great content?
• 7 concepts of advances on-page SEO

He retweeted many SEO secrets that a startup can adapt and frame better marketing strategy.

4. Neil Patel

Follow Neilpatel

114K followers

He is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and blogger. He has started 2 SaaS analytics companies, CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics with hnshah. He clearly states what to do and what not to do in social media.

Hot Spots

• The 5 marketing must haves of an online startup- Forbes website.
• How to persuade customers to convert on a high-priced SaaS products
• 4 Techniques That’ll Double Your Landing Page Conversions

5. Michael Hyatt

Follow MichaelHyatt

232k followers

He is the author of New York Times best seller, Platform: Get noticed in a noisy world. He is one among the Forbes list of Top 10 Online Marketing Experts. Most of his blogs are value-based, imparting knowledge on the qualities a entrepreneur should adopt.

Hot Spots

• Changing your perspective goes a long way
• Why keeping your commitments is critical to your influence?
• 7 Apps that help you achieve your goals

6. Danny Sullivan

Follow Dannysullivan

411k followers

He is widely considered as Search Engine guru. He is the founding Editor of MarketingLand and SearchEngineLand. It covers Google, Facebook, Twitter, SEO, SEM and all things about digital marketing, search marketing and search. His expertise helps startups in their online marketing efforts.

Hot Spots

• Analysing social media and optimising SEO’s.
• Retweets from Search Engine Land and Marketing land.

7. Gary Vaynerchuk

Follow Garyvee

1.1million followers

Realizing the importance of e-commerce, he created WineLibrary.com and WineLibrary TV. He became the CEO of Vaynermedia and the most wanted host of AskGaryVee show.

He suggests on strategies that has worked for his business and how you can make social media work for you. He throws tips on social media marketing and insights into the inner workings of the online marketing world.

Hot Spots

•Videos that play the best of his own shows

•A short film on How I do a business?

•How to determine ROI of social media?

Thanks for following the footprints of some great entrepreneurs. These gurus on twitter will enable you to follow their trail and plan a successful marketing strategy. We must have missed a few of them, do take a few minutes to mention them in the comments section below.

Myth 1: Republish the same content to different sites

Nowadays, content plagiarism is becoming a big issue. Especially with brands who outsource their writing efforts. Even a small line of content copy can hurt our effort. We can also see more number of people share copied contents in social media especially in Linkedin Post, assuming search engine rules won’t apply to social channels. But be aware that there is a fair chance of hurt.

Free tools to check plagiarism:

• Smallseotools
• Plagiarism checker
• Plagtracker
• Paperrater

Myth 2: A Longer post is better than Shorter

It is an absolute myth.  Most famous blog that reach millions and millions of people are fresh small content than a big post. People love short and crisp information to get going with their busy schedule.

Also, stop instructing writers to count words before delivering, better ask them to read again for any grammar or punctual mistakes.

Tools :

• Still Need to count words? Here we go
• Grammar & Spell Check
• Grammarly
• Paperrater

Myth 3: Assuming Text Content is better for everyone

Most of the content making machines are writers, but  “Content is like an art”.  It needs a Conceptualist, designer and finally writer. Yes, text is important but content in this era works well on images, videos and other forms of visual elements than just Text. Use below tools to craft some nice visual support to content marketing.

Tools :

• Image Maker -Canva
• Video Maker -Animaker
• Infographic -Piktochart
• Photo Editor -Fotor

Myth 4: Posting the most valuable content to Guest blog

Very worst myth in content marketing is , We make so much of effort to write a guest blog in Techcrunch or TheNextweb. We don’t spend 1/10th of its effort for our own blog post. Obviously, results vary, top blogs become better day by day but our own blog dies, shortly. Yes, we should pay some good attention for guest blogging, but don’t dry out all the resources for just 1 guest blog.
Better to make the content worth enough to read.

Myth 5: Most Important : More content = More success

This is totally different from Longer posts. It means keep writing, keep publishing and keep sharing. Do not bother about the audience, also do not care whether the posts are really read. Are we checking our analytics? Is our writing effort really paying off or we just pushing content for sake.

Give the best effort before writing and after writing. It means research more before writing. Is this topic really worth? Does my audience like this? What is the real problem they face? Did my content really work for them?

Also check after writing on, Has  my audience consumed  the content well? or Do they want something different? Instead of pushing more content which is unnoticed; better to create less researched content which gives better results.

Overall, content marketing is a good area to invest for startups as well as corporates. But what matters a lot is the way we do that.