Essential strategies to grow your YouTube channel: a comprehensive guide

Maria Ruocco

With over 2 billion logged-in monthly users, YouTube offers an unparalleled opportunity for content creators to share their videos, engage with audiences, and build a thriving community.
However, growing a YouTube channel requires more than just uploading videos and hoping for the best.

Every day we find ourselves inundated with these questions:

How do I grow my YouTube channel in 2023?
What is the fastest way to grow YouTube channel?
How to grow your You Tube channel and gain subscribers quickly?

So, in this comprehensive guide, we'll explore essential strategies that will help you drive organic growth, increase subscribers, and maximize the visibility and impact of your YouTube channel.

Define your target audience

The first step is to identify the target audience.

This requires analysis:

viewer demographics;
viewer interests;
interests and preferences of ideal viewers.

Once you have this data, you will be able to use it as a guide for creating content that is useful to your audience and to retain them.

Develop a content strategy

At this point, you will need to proceed to create a publishing strategy.

You will need to define:

the topics you want to talk about and the type of video (vlog, challenges, etc.);
the tone and style in which you want to cover the topics;
the average length of your videos;
the content publishing schedule.

Obviously, this is not an immediate matter. Initially, the key word will be: experiment!

You need to consistently publish quality videos that entertain, educate or inspire your viewers to figure out the format, length and topics that work best for your audience.

Optimize your content (Search Engine Optimization - SEO)

Proper optimization of your video titles, descriptions, and tags can significantly boost your channel's visibility in search results.

Video
To stand out on YouTube, focus on creating unique, high-quality videos that resonate with your audience. Develop skills in storytelling and video editing. Insert a short but recognizable introduction; vary scenes with multiple camera angles; insert music, effects, images and transitions to break the monotony of the narrative.
Keywords
Conduct keyword research to identify relevant and high-volume keywords in your niche. Incorporate these keywords strategically in your video title and description.
Thumbnail
The thumbnail is the first contact with the public. Create enticing covers that hint at the content of the video. Don’t forget to use the right thumbnail dimensions (16:9 aspect ratio, 1280x720 pixels).
Caption
Add an accurate description of your content. The key is to generate the right emotions. On YouTube there are numerous channels talking about the same topics, then you have to find ways to attract the audience's attention. If you need an assistant, you can use tools like Editby.
Subtitles
Remember to add sub titles to make your content accessible to everyone.
Tags
Tags can also prove very important in YouTube growth strategy. These are clickable words that unite videos that relate to the same topic. Thanks to tags, YouTube users can reach all published content related to the topic of interest. Therefore, thanks to a kind of chain reaction, it is possible for people to land on your channel.

Trends, Shorts and Playlists

Choosing topics to talk about is crucial. One way to grow rapidly is to take advantage of viral trends.
In this way, searching directly on You tube for the trend could make it easier to find our content.

Another aspect not to be underestimated concerns the creation of playlists.
These collections of video could attract the attention of viewers who might decide to view all videos related to a specific. All this will thus bring more and more views to the channel.

Finally, it is necessary to understand how to use shorts to grow on YouTube.
Creating shorts could prove very useful because the attention attracted by short content could cause YouTube to show longer content more frequently.
Also, the potential viability of a short could lead to a large number of users clicking on your channel allowing them to discover all of your content.

Engage with your audience

Building a loyal community of viewers is critical to channel growth.

Engage with your audience by:

responding to comments;
asking for feedback;
encouraging discussions.

Create a sense of belonging and make your viewers feel valued and heard.
Another important tool is the live streaming. Use live streaming in a way that creates a connection with your audience who will then perceive you as more familiar.

This interaction not only strengthens your relationship with existing subscribers, but also attracts new viewers who see active engagement on your channel.

Remind your audience to take concrete actions at the beginning or end of the video such as liking or subscribing to the channel (they may absent-mindedly forget considering the breadth of content they can easily access).

Collaborate with other creators

Collaborating with other content creators in your niche can expand your reach and introduce your channel to new audiences.

Seek opportunities for collaborations, such as guest appearances, cross-promotions, or joint projects.

Examples of this strategy are:

Mr Beast (USA);
Marcello Ascani (Italy);
Joe Burgerchallenge (Spain).

By leveraging the existing audience of your collaborators, you can tap into new subscriber bases and expose your content to a wider audience.

Promote your channel on social media

Utilize the power of social media to promote your YouTube channel.

Create a strong presence on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to share behind-the-scenes content, teasers, and updates.

Engage with your social media followers and provide links to your YouTube videos to drive traffic and encourage new subscriptions.

Analyze and optimize

Regularly analyze your channel's performance using YouTube analytics.

Monitor metrics such as:

Average viewing time (What is the average viewing period of your videos?)
Audience retention (Do your viewers come back to see your videos?)
Engagement and interactions (likes, comments, ecc.)
Click-through rates (the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown)
Subscribers growth rate (Has the number of your followers grown? How much has it grown?)

Changes on YouTube are commonplace.
So you have to keep analysing trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.

Use these insights to refine your content strategy, experiment with new ideas, and optimize your videos for better engagement and growth.

Read more: How to use TikTok Hashtags

Conclusion

Growing one's YouTube channel requires a strategic approach, ongoing commitment, and a deep understanding of one's audience.

By applying these steps, you will consistently succeed in creating a strong community for disseminating your content and building your personal or business brand.

Spanish version 🇪🇸

Maria Ruocco