YouTube is constantly irresolute and evolving. Long gone are the days dominated by funny cat videos and dogs on skateboards. Today YouTube is also a place for marketers .

Over i billion hours of video are watched on YouTube daily — that's more than Netflix and Facebook video combined.

1 billion hours of YouTube video daily

Only, hither's the kicker… 62 percent of businesses use Youtube as a channel to post video content — which is crazy!

C razy-awesome for you lot that is — because when used finer, YouTube is an extremely powerful business organization tool. Simply in order to boost your sales , you've got to get more free YouTube views.

In this article, you'll learn xviii ways to get more than views on YouTube, build your brand, and boost your sales .

Merely first, let's talk quickly about how to brand a video on YouTube.

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Post Contents

  • How to Make a Video on YouTube
  • How to Get More Views on YouTube
    • i. Create Compelling Content
    • 2. Encourage Viewers to Subscribe
    • iii. Create Playlists to Go along People Watching
    • 4. Promote Other Videos with Terminate Screens and Cards
    • five. Add a Watermark to Your Videos
    • 6. Brand Certain Your Videos Are Embedding Enabled
    • 7. Promote Your Videos on Other Social Channels
    • 8. Sympathise the Importance of 'Watch Time'
    • ix. Nurture a Community
    • 10. Optimize Your Video Titles
    • 11. Optimize Your Channel
    • 12. Create a YouTube Trailer Featuring Your Best Content
    • 13. Create Compelling Thumbnail Images
    • xiv. Transcribe Your Videos
    • 15. Publish Your Videos at The Best Fourth dimension
    • 16. Invite Guest Vloggers
    • 17. Build an Influencer Customs
    • 18. Know What'due south Viral
  • Your Turn
  • Desire to Larn More?

How to Make a Video on YouTube

  • Plan Your Video

Before y'all first making a video for YouTube you demand to programme what y'all desire to produce. Generate a storyboard outlining each scene or department of the video. Recall nearly the messaging you want to portray to your audience and programme where in the video you lot will include calls-to-activeness . This is of import as you need people to want to do something subsequently watching the video.

  • Write Your Script

Based on your video plan, begin writing your video script. Endeavour to keep the linguistic communication relatable and highly-seasoned to your audience. If your video is a beginners guide, don't use too many technical terms. If you are making an in-depth YouTube video, make sure to include terms that are specific to the industry to build trust with your viewers. Don't create a long script if your storyboard is brusk as it volition mean a lot of lingering on screens that will non make for a expert viewing experience.

  • Create a Shot Listing

Having a shot listing volition encourage y'all to think well-nigh the smaller details, like lightning direction and photographic camera placement. Make sure to create 1 one time you're done writing your script. It should include all of the things that help requite a sense of direction to your production, such as the camera setup or action/dialogue each scene requires.

  • Organize Your Scene

Will your video exist animated, live-activeness, or real-time? What kind of props volition yous need when making your video so that your YouTube followers will stay engaged during your whole video? These questions are important to reply as they will help make your video expect more professional. Invest in branding to add together to the groundwork of your videos and thumbnails so that your video looks top quality .

  • Set Yourself

If you are starring in the video, or just directing it, it is of import to fix and exercise then that the real affair volition become off without a hitch. The devil is in the detail when it comes to making a YouTube video, so practicing will business relationship for all the things that could go wrong when shooting.

  • Edit Your Video

Subsequently doing a few takes of each scene the magic starts – you tin can start editing your video to omit small mistakes or elements of scenes that don't fit. Take the time here to ask whether each line sounds natural, and delete lines that don't fit into the overall video.

  • Upload YouTube Video

Within the YouTube platform, y'all tin can upload your video, including a title, tags, and a description for your audience . These things will aid your audience to find your video through. If you are planning to create more than i video on a particular topic, yous tin can create a playlist and add together it to this. Call up about adding cards and captions to your video to help users navigate more finer around your channel.

  • [Additional Tip] Go Live

Once you take enough feel creating videos, why non endeavour going live and talking to your audience in existent-time. Answer questions from your audition in the moment and give your viewers the ultimate viewing experience.

How to Get More Views on YouTube

Now let's jump straight into the specifics of getting more views on YouTube.

1. Create Compelling Content

It won't matter how many hacks or ads you employ if your videos aren't good. So how can you create compelling content that volition go more views on YouTube? Well, one of the best ways is to create 'how to' videos :

How-to Videos

Simply place what your ideal customers most want to know, and so create videos that see their needs. Does this work? Y'all bet. YouTube creator Graham Cochrane racked upwardly 51 one thousand thousand YouTube views by focusing on how-to content.

How-to YouTube Videos

Cochrane finds video ideas in the comments of his social channels. If that doesn't work, he asks his community what they'd like him to make videos about.

Simple, right?

Cochrane said , "An astonishing thing happens when you enquire people what they need and want, and so y'all go and get in for them — they think you lot read their mind!" Bottom-line: Consistently create content that solves your ideal customer's problems or meets their needs. Information technology's the way to develop a loyal community of fans and become more views on YouTube.

two. Encourage Viewers to Subscribe

Have y'all always heard the maxim, "Your best new customers are your sometime customers"? In other words, retaining customers tin can exist a powerful way to abound your business. Well, the same holds true for YouTube views.

Which is why one of the easiest ways to get more views on YouTube is to encourage your current viewers to subscribe because gaining subscribers will increase the number of views on each new video that yous release. How exercise you get viewers to subscribe?

The best way is but to ask at the beginning and end of each video!

YouTube Subscribe to Channel

But don't simply ask viewers to subscribe to your YouTube aqueduct. Make sure that you lot also prompt them to plow on the notification bong afterwards they've clicked 'Subscribe.'

YouTube Notification Bell

This way, once a viewer subscribes, they'll be notified every time you upload a new video. Growing your subscribers is vital to getting more than complimentary YouTube views, so start asking your viewers to subscribe now!

3. Create Playlists to Proceed People Watching

YouTube's own statistics show that "top-performing brands on YouTube build and promote twice as many playlists as the bottom 25%."

YouTube Playlists

Why exercise playlists work so well? Motorcar-play. It takes try to pull your attention abroad from videos you're enjoying when they just keep playing. In fact, in that location's a cognitive bias at piece of work called 'loss aversion.'

Loss aversion states that the hurting of losing something is twice as bad as the pleasure received from gaining something equivalent. For example, loss aversion suggests that people will work twice as difficult to keep $100, equally they will gain $100. Auto-play uses loss disfavor to reframe the situation.

The question is no longer, "Do you want to watch another video enough to actively click play?" At present, the question is, "Exercise y'all desire to cease watching plenty to actively click abroad?". It's subtle but powerful, and if your content is expert, viewers will often keep watching. Too, playlists can help better search rankings, as playlist titles are another opportunity to target keywords.

The easiest way to create a YouTube playlist is to navigate to each video you lot'd like to add and click the '+' icon underneath the video.

Add YouTube Video to Playlist

Then you can create a new playlist or add it to an existing playlist. To get more views on YouTube, create a playlist of your best content and get-go promoting information technology today!

four. Promote Other Videos with Finish Screens and Cards

Cards and finish screens are tools that yous can utilise to promote your videos to get more views on YouTube. First, you lot'll need to verify your YouTube account to access these features. To practice this, click on your profile moving-picture show in the acme right, and then click 'Creator Studio'. Next, click on the 'Condition and features' tab:

YouTube Creator Studio

On this page, you're able to view extra YouTube channel features and prepare them up. At present let'due south have a closer look at stop screens and cards.

An terminate screen is a dedicated frame that you lot can place at the end of your videos to wrap things up, and highlight calls-to-action.

Cards are a tool that you can set up to pop-upward anytime in the video. You tin prepare these to direct people to another video or playlist, or you tin can create a poll card which is a smashing way to enquire viewers what they'd like to see more than of (remember tip number 1?).

You tin can encounter both at work in this example from the Oberlo YouTube channel :

YouTube Cards and End Screens

To add together end screens and cards to your videos, go to the Creator Studio and click 'Video Director,' and then click 'Videos.' Notice the video that y'all want to add the end screen card to and click 'Edit.' In one case y'all're on the video editor page, y'all can add finish screens and cards past clicking the menu items at the pinnacle of the page:

Add YouTube End Screen and Cards

End screens and cards are powerful tools, so make certain you use them to present calls-to-activity in your YouTube videos.

5. Add together a Watermark to Your Videos

Watermarks allow you to gain more subscribers and costless YouTube views by promoting your aqueduct across all of your videos. Substantially, a watermark is only an image that you can set to announced on all of your videos — most brands use their logo. When a viewer hovers their mouse over a watermark, it prompts them to subscribe. Which is why the Shopify YouTube channel has called a watermark saying 'subscribe':

YouTube Watermark

Once once again, yous need to verify your YouTube account to be able to upload a watermark. Information technology'south worth pointing out that yous can't pick and choose which videos display watermarks and which don't — they either appear on all of your videos or none of them.

To add a watermark to your videos head to the Creator Studio and click 'Branding.'

Add YouTube Watermark

So click 'Add a Watermark' and upload your image.

In summary, utilise this simple tool to promote your make on your YouTube channel.

Tip: Design a watermark that is foursquare, transparent, and above 50×l pixels. Equally YouTube shrinks down watermarks when displaying them in the corner of the videos, creating a larger one will help ensure your branding is visible to your target audience .

6. Make Sure Your Videos Are Embedding Enabled

You've spent ages creating an awesome video and at present your viewers want to share it on their websites and blogs!

…but they can't. Because you forgot to enable embedding.

* Gulp*

Allowing viewers to embed your video on their websites and blogs is an effective way for your brand to reach new audiences and get more than views on YouTube. If a video has embedding enabled, when a viewer clicks 'Share' underneath the video window, YouTube will show them the 'Embed' option:

YouTube Video Embed

Once they click on this, they'll exist able to copy the video's embedding code and paste it onto their blog or website.

YouTube Video Embed Code

To enable embedding, head to the Creator Studio and navigate to the video'due south edit page.

And so click 'Advanced Settings' and scroll down to the "Distribution options" and brand sure the "Allow Embedding" is ticked:

Allow YouTube Video Embedding

Bottom-line: Make sure your videos have embedding enabled to encourage viewers to share your content.

If y'all have followers on other social channels, let them know each time you upload a new video to YouTube. A skilful way to practice this is with a short teaser video. In the example below, we created a minute-long teaser for a new YouTube video, so nosotros posted information technology on the Oberlo Facebook folio with a link to the full video on the Oberlo YouTube channel .

Share YouTube Video on Facebook

To make things easier, attempt using a social media scheduling tool similar Hootsuite or Buffer . Simply don't only stick to social channels. Yous can besides embed your YouTube videos in relevant blog posts and pages on your website.

And don't forget nigh e-mail marketing . With an manufacture boilerplate open charge per unit of xviii percent and a buy rate of 66 percent, email marketing is a powerhouse when it comes to sales conversions. It doesn't need to be too complicated either.

Hither at Oberlo, we send out a simple electronic mail letting our subscribers know when we release a new video.

YouTube Video Email Marketing

(Psst! If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to learn more near how to build your online business.)

YouTube isn't a standalone social channel, and then brand certain to cantankerous-promote your videos through your free marketing channels .

8. Understand the Importance of 'Watch Fourth dimension'

YouTube describes their algorithm as a " search and discovery system ."  This algorithm determines which videos are shown:

  • On the homepage
  • Every bit suggested videos
  • In search results
  • Under the Subscriptions tab
  • Through notifications that viewers have created

What's more, the algorithm doesn't just touch on private videos, but entire YouTube channels. YouTube'southward algorithm is circuitous, only the most important matter to understand is that it'south heavily based on 'Watch Time.' In fact, co-ordinate to YouTube , "Each video uploaded — likewise as every channel on YouTube — is 'ranked' past watch time."

Watch Time is how much fourth dimension people spend actually watching your videos:

YouTube Watch Time

Bottom-line: YouTube rewards quality. The better your videos are, the more than time people spend watching them. This volition increase your Lookout Fourth dimension minutes then YouTube will favor your videos and aqueduct.

One more than matter: Your YouTube channel can besides earn 'scout fourth dimension credits' for referring viewers to other videos. Information technology's basically like affiliate marketing .

In summary: Focus on retaining viewers for as long as you can, and don't be agape of promoting other YouTube channels in your niche!

YouTube isn't just a video search engine. It's too a social network. So to get more views on YouTube, you need to use information technology similar other social networks. In other words, it isn't enough to just regularly share videos, you likewise need to actively engage your audience.

How? The all-time way is to simply respond to comments — peculiarly if someone asks a direct question. Because other viewers volition be more likely to comment themselves if they know they'll receive a response.

As you lot can run into beneath, we practice what we preach here at Oberlo!

Reply to YouTube Comments

It only takes a second, and yous can do it while you're browsing your comments for new video ideas (remember tip number 1?). You should also be an active member of your niche customs. Subscribe to other channels in your niche, leave comments on their videos, and share whatever that your ain audience might savor. In other words, give earlier you lot become.

If you engage generously and authentically, viewers will notice and it volition exist much easier to institute your brand in a niche of passionate fans. And remember, promoting other videos will score you Watch Fourth dimension credits, which will help to boost your channel in YouTube's algorithm. Lastly, you can also involve viewers directly.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to hold a contest or prize draw. For case, you could enquire viewers to share your video on Facebook and leave a comment to be entered into a draw to win one of your products. Growing a loyal, agile community is a surefire way to become more views on YouTube.

10. Optimize Your Video Titles

YouTube is a search engine. Which means search engine optimization (SEO) matters.

YouTube'southward algorithm takes multiple items into business relationship when selecting videos for search results. And the platform provides a number of opportunities to optimize your channel and videos — including video file names, titles, descriptions, and tags.

Then include as much information as possible. Crucially, you need to know which keywords y'all desire your videos and channel to rank for.

Keywords in YouTube Video Titles

YouTuber Graham Cochrane discovers relevant keywords by typing potential keywords into the search bar to see what appears in the autocomplete. Y'all tin also utilize free keyword tools like Google Trends and Google Ads Keyword Planner .

But beware… YouTube will penalize you for including keywords that aren't relevant to your video. Also keep your titles between 60-70 characters long . This gives you the most room to create a compelling title, while also ensuring that it won't be cut short in search results. Lastly, don't forget the humans!

Sure, you need to use keywords to help your videos rank in search results, merely to get more gratuitous YouTube views, you lot also need your video titles and descriptions to entreatment to viewers. In general, aim for a balance betwixt accurate, informative, and attention-grabbing.

As the famed copywriter David Ogilvy once wrote , "When y'all have written your headline, y'all accept spent eighty cents out of your dollar." So whatsoever y'all do, pay close attention to your video titles.

eleven. Optimize Your Channel

Optimizing your channel is vital to strengthening your brand and boosting your YouTube views. And YouTube provides plenty of ways to optimize your channel. Hither'due south how Daniel Wellington has done it:

Daniel Wellington YouTube

Let's rapidly run through some of the principal components:

Create a strong, consistent brand aesthetic.

Ensure that your YouTube branding is consequent with your website and other social channels. This ways using the same logo, images, and colors . Your profile moving-picture show should be 800 ten 800 pixels. Information technology should also still wait skilful when displayed smaller. Your banner art should be at least 2560 x 1440 pixels, and there's a template to help you design your banner art in YouTube'due south Creator Academy .

Optimize your YouTube aqueduct description.

This is shown on your channel's 'About' tab. You only get one,000 characters, so make 'em count. What should you write in your YouTube aqueduct description? Well, starting time with a quick description of your make and the benefits of your products.

And then tell viewers why they should picket your YouTube videos. Are you lot educational activity them something? Or is your aqueduct mostly about entertainment? Bottom-line: Tell viewers what'south in it for them. Just similar your individual video titles, brand certain that you include your targeted keywords in your YouTube aqueduct description.

Add your social channels, links to your website, and a style to go far contact.

In other words, brand it easy for viewers to notice out more about your brand.

Add aqueduct keywords.

One time yous've researched and decided on the keywords you lot want your aqueduct to rank for in the search results, click "Channel," and then "Advanced." And so simply input your keywords into the box titled "Channel Keywords."

YouTube Channel Keywords

Lastly, enable related channels.

"1 of the biggest mistakes I see business channels brand is that they turn off the 'related channels' feature on YouTube," said Syed Balkhi , the founder of List25 (which has over 2.3 million subscribers and 582 one thousand thousand views).

By turning it off, you remove your channel from YouTube's recommendations. As a result, you lot'll lose the network effect that makes YouTube such a powerful tool.

In summary, make sure that you optimize your YouTube channel and that all of your information is consummate.

12. Create a YouTube Trailer Featuring Your All-time Content

Your YouTube trailer is a short video that'southward shown to new visitors on your channel. It'south a fantastic opportunity to:

  • Testify viewers what kind of content you create,
  • Highlight the benefits your channel provides,
  • And, encourage them to subscribe.

There are no specific rules effectually the trailer's maximum length, but virtually YouTubers keep information technology between 25-30 seconds.

What makes a fantastic YouTube trailer? A nice short video that conveys your story, ambitions, and vision. So, when thinking of ideas for your trailer, ask yourself, "What's my background"? "What do I hope to attain"? "What compelled me to create a YouTube channel"?

Continue the most interesting things you have to say reserved for the beginning few seconds, merely sprinkle your personality throughout the trailer, like international series entrepreneur Peter Sage did:

To create your trailer, go to your channel homepage and click "Customise Aqueduct." This will redirect you to a page where you tin upload your trailer's footage. One time done, write a description, enter your SEO tags, and click "Publish."

how to create a YouTube trailer

After publishing, head dorsum to your channel homepage and click the Customise Channel push button once again. The trailer should now be present in your video library. Gear up it every bit your YouTube trailer by clicking the "For New Visitors" tab.

And that'due south it. Your channel trailer is ready to make an impact. Let it do the legwork of impressing whoever decides to check out your channel.

13. Create Compelling Thumbnail Images

A thumbnail is a video's preview image. This piddling epitome is extremely important if you want to go more than gratis YouTube views. When you upload a video, yous can choose ane of the auto-generated thumbnail images.

Don't. Instead, create and upload your ain custom thumbnail epitome. YouTube reports that ninety pct of the top-performing videos on YouTube use them — and for practiced reason.

YouTube Custom Thumbnails

(If you haven't yet, you need to verify your YouTube account to admission this characteristic.)

An constructive thumbnail paradigm can help your videos stand out.

YouTube Video Thumbnails

YouTube says , "Thumbnails require an art director's eye for branding, and shouldn't be an reconsideration." In fact, they recommend that you think nigh your thumbnail earlier y'all starting time filming. That way, you can brand sure you lot capture the footage needed to create a compelling thumbnail paradigm. A good thumbnail is ane that is eye-catching, compelling, congruent with your brand, and accurately represents the video'due south content.

In general, effort to include:

  • Brightly colored backgrounds
  • Close-ups of faces
  • Text overlays
  • Subtle branding — similar a small logo or watermark

Okay, what virtually the technicalities? Your thumbnail should:

  • Employ a xvi:ix aspect ratio, as this is the about used attribute ratio in YouTube players
  • Have a resolution of 1280×720
  • Take a file-size of less than 2MB
  • Be formatted as a .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG

You tin also use a free image editing and graphic design tool similar Canva to create your thumbnails. Remember, thumbnails are 1 of the all-time ways to catch the attention of people browsing YouTube, so make sure that yours are effective and compelling.

To larn more about the perfect YouTube thumbnail size and best practices, check out our guide here.

14. Transcribe Your Videos

Creating videos is great, merely sometimes your audience will need a transcription due to linguistic communication constraints or disability. YouTube allows for airtight captions where a transcript is added every bit subtitles to a video. Viewers can toggle these subtitles on and off at will. If you plan on opening your videos to an international market place, transcriptions can be a great idea. Translating scripts are useful for helping those with other linguistic communication abilities to understand your videos better.

How do you create a transcription document for upload to YouTube? Information technology is quite simple actually. You create a SubRip Subtitle file, SRT for short, which includes the start and finish times next to the text.

SRT Subtitle File

This tin can then be saved as a file with timings included and then that text displays at the right time in the video.

SubRip Subtitle File

Once uploaded to YouTube, or whatever other video platform, double cheque your timings are correct and viola, y'all've got yourself a closed caption video.

Upload YouTube Subtitle File

15. Publish Your Videos at The Best Time

The best time is when your target visitors are watching your videos. Fortunately, this is no longer a mystery as YouTube tracks the hours and days when your audition is on YouTube. Y'all tin dig into your "When your viewers are on YouTube" report to identify peak times and publish content in an hour or two before those peaks. Publishing earlier volition give your audience a gamble to discover your new videos, resulting in more than free views.

To access the report, go to your channel homepage, click Customize Aqueduct, select Analytics from the left-paw tab below your aqueduct contour picture show, and click the Audition tab. You lot should now see the option to generate a "When your viewers are on YouTube" report. If you don't have enough daily views to generate this study, then yous can endeavour publishing in the hours we've mentioned in our postal service The Best Time to Mail service on Social Media in 2021 .

xvi. Invite Guest Vloggers

Guest blogging is a great fashion to gain new followers and viewers. Identifying influencers who have a similar audience to yours will open your channel up to potential viewers who accept the same interests as you. Building a shut relationship with these influencers after creating a video with them will mean that they will share your videos with their followers if you do the aforementioned for them. This reciprocity is a surefire mode to gain free new views on YouTube.

Guest Vloggers are smashing not merely for gratuitous ways to get more than views but also to add together more than variety to your videos. Having some other person to begin video ideas with can open the door to artistic videography which volition, in plow, create more views on your YouTube channel.

Digital marketer and author Hashemite kingdom of jordan Platten often records videos with influencers:

guest invite free YouTube videos

For certain, it's non only his audience tuning in and sharing these videos, but the influencer's too.

Post-obit on from invitee vloggers, building a strong influencer customs that shares customs content and works together to help anybody involved is a great way to get more views on your YouTube channel. Existence an influencer can be very lonely and competitive. Reaching out to influencers similar to yourself to share knowledge and information tin can help to build a customs of influencers that await afterward each other and help people who are struggling.

Identifying similar influencers through tools like Unamo or Buzzsumo and reaching out to them volition start the ball rolling but be sure to have a goal and compelling reason to maintain contact so that it is a reciprocal relationship and not one-sided.

xviii. Know What's Viral

Keeping up to date with things happening in your manufacture can be the deviation between becoming pop or sinking into the background. Those with a deep agreement of what is happening in their world can create videos that are current and interesting to those researching the niche. But this noesis of your manufacture also helps you identify viral content every bit it happens so you lot can share it with your following before anyone else. Being the first to share information volition identify you as a leader in your field, leading to more than exposure to your content and more views.

Your Plow

There you accept information technology: eighteen ways to go more views on YouTube!

In summary: First, focus on creating nifty content that your target audience will dear.

And so do your all-time to optimize your content and channel, and promote your content through other channels.

Lastly, get involved in your niche community and nurture relationships with your viewers!

Which one of these tactics are you going to utilize first to get more YouTube views? Leave a comment below and permit us know!