So, you are new YouTuber, and you have a channel to launch. I’m going to tell you exactly seven things you need to consider before, and during, and after you launch it in order to make it as successful as possible.
Phalluman wrote and asked this question–
Great videos, Tim. Would it be better to upload multiple videos when you first start a channel or only one?
Know Your Target Audience
That’s a good question. Let’s talk about the overall launch strategy as a whole for a new YouTube channel. And I want to answer that question as a part of it. So, there’s a couple of foundational things you need to set first. Number one is you need to know clearly who the target audience is for your channel. You need to know who cares? Literally, who is it that cares about your YouTube channel?
And you need to make that very specific, because you need to make somebody feel like, ahh, this channel’s for me. I’m so glad I found this channel. Like, this person is exactly addressing the problems, or the issues, or concerns that I’ve been looking for. You need to do that. If you just have a general channel about gaming or beauty or vlogging, and don’t know who it is you’re exactly specifically targeting, you’re going to make it very difficult for anyone to feel that way.
Know Your Value Propostion
And number two, you need to know the value that you propose to deliver to that target audience through the content on your channel. We call that the value proposition. Now that answers the question– why does that person care? So, you know who cares, but why should they care? What is it that you are giving to them? Because we all consume content, because it’s valuable to us in some way. And so, you need to know what value you are delivering for your target audience to consume from you.
Develop a Content Strategy
And then once you’ve nailed down those two things, and then third, you need to develop a content strategy that supports it. So, you know who it is, and you know why they care, but you need to know how are you going to deliver that value to them. So, you need to come up with a strategy for consistently and regularly being able to deliver that value to your target audience, over and over and over again, so that that person feels like, I don’t care what type of video they’re publishing, I want to go watch every video they publish, because the value that they continually, consistently offer me is so good and so high, and I just know that they’re going to do that every single time they publish a video.
Have a Growth Strategy
And then number four– and this is a mistake a lot of creators make– is you also need to plan an intentional strategy for growth. A lot of creators just make their videos, and they just hope that they perform, based on nothing more than their own merit, or that the YouTube gods will suddenly somehow have favor upon them, or something. Because of all the hard work and investment you’re making into creating your videos, you should also put hard work and intentionality into a strategy that is going to make it more likely that your videos are going to be discovered by the right people, by the target audience you’re going after, and how you do all that is actually a conversation for another video.
In fact, I have an ebook, if you’re interested, it’s called, “30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel,” that will walk you through the exact process you need to go through to determine who your target audience is, to figure out what your value proposition is, and be able to clearly define and state that. And then also, to figure out these growth strategies we’re talking about, and the content strategy. All that is in that book, “30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel.” So, I’ll put a link in the description below, in case you’re interested, you can go check it out.
Have Content Prepared Before Launching
Number five, and this is what answers your question directly. is that I recommend having at least six videos, preferably, more like 10 or so, and that’s not true for every channel launch, but generally speaking, you want to have a little bit of a library of content there, so that when you do start promoting it, and getting traffic to it, there’s a few things there for someone to watch, to evaluate whether or not they want to subscribe, if your channel’s for them, if it’s valuable to them, and all the type of stuff.
Tell Everyone You Know About Your Channel
And number six, this is when you actually launch it. And you go out there, and you just let all your friends, your neighbors, your family, people know, coworkers, that you have this new channel, and you do whatever you can to tap into your existing network to get people to check out your channel. Now you might not have like a huge network of people to do that, and so you might be a little bit disappointed when you launch it, and you’re like, oh, that was not really at all what I was hoping. But that’s OK. Everyone starts somewhere. You will grow. The key thing is just to start getting some feedback for some of those people as you start growing your channel.
Evaluate Your Progress
And then number seven– and this is so important, guys– is to evaluate the progress you’ve made, the things that you’re learning from your audience, and the content, and the process, everything. Just learn, evaluate, and then fix things. Like, what’s working poorly that I need to fix? What’s working great that I need to learn from, and keep doing? And then, go back and rinse and repeating that, and implementing those updates and those changes that you’re making to your content, all the time.
Especially, if this is your first channel you’ve ever done, there’s a lot of lessons to learn. A lot of experiments to be had. And a lot of mistakes to be made. And so, make them, but learn from them, and then keep going.
There’s a lot of other ways to launch a YouTube channel, and different tactics, and things to consider. This is just a general one that would probably apply to the majority of the channels that you’re doing. And so I love to hear from you in the comments below. How do you launch a YouTube channel? What advice would you give to someone who’s just getting ready to build a channel from scratch and share it to the world? If that is you, definitely read the comments other people are leaving down there. I know you’ll learn a lot from them, as well, and get a lot of other great ideas.