With 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, it can be tough for a YouTube musician channel to get an adequate amount of traffic. Building a YouTube presence as a musician is not as simple as uploading great music and waiting for opportunity to knock on your door. It requires marketing, branding, hard work, and a lot of promotion.
Here are four ways to promote your YouTube musician channel in a way that will make your videos stand out.
- Create strong titles. When someone is considering whether or not to dedicate the next two minutes of his life to watching a video, he wants to know what he’s getting into. The first thing he’s going to look at is the title. This means that your video’s title needs to be brief, direct, and descriptive. If he’s looking for something very specific, he needs to know that the video he’s clicking on is the right one. If your title is not representative of the content of the video, you are going to lose your audience immediately.
- Create great thumbnails. The thumbnail will probably be the second thing your viewers look at to determine if the content of your video is worth watching. Even if you’ve come up with the perfect title, if your image is weird or irrelevant, your audience is less likely to click or share the link. Your videos will be much easier to promote if your content is attractive; having a clear and relevant thumbnail is an essential part of this.
- Optimize for search engines. Just as it works for other kinds of online content, search engine optimization (SEO) will help your videos reach a greater number of people. According to Alexa.com, YouTube is the second largest online search engine. To make sure your videos reach the top of the search results page, make sure your content is optimized for this site’s algorithm. The website Search Engine Watch recommends the following for YouTube search engine optimization:
- Write long video descriptions
- Use keywords
- Get more views from online communities
- Encourage subscribing
- Create keyword-rich playlists
- Collaborate with other YouTube musicians. To expand your own fan base, you should consider collaborating with other musicians. By doing this, you will gain exposure through other YouTube musician channels and add value to your audience’s YouTube experience by introducing them to musicians they may otherwise not know about. Luke Conard is one musician on YouTube who has worked with others to create great new music and build his fan base. Working with other musicians also provides you with new learning experiences. VlogNation suggests collaborating in a number of different ways, including:
- Exchanging mentions
- Guest vlogging
- Creating a collaborative music video together
YouTube is a powerful social network and it’s a great way for a budding musician to gain some notoriety. With the above tips, you can promote your channel and engage your audience while setting yourself up for stardom.