A lot of creators come to us with the “sprint mentality.” They want to blow up their channel with their next video. And although we strongly preach that YouTube is a marathon and not a sprint, there are things that you can do now that can help your channel grow faster. So if you are needing some practical strategies and tools to see a quicker boost, this is for you.

Known to Unknown

The first strategy for highly discoverable content is “known to unknown.” You want to connect something that is widely known to something that is not known. A common way to do this is to connect someone famous (known) with someone unknown (you). Maybe you’re a music channel and you take a famous musician and review their music and explain “Why [This Band’s] remaster is so bad.” That is so intriguing because it connects the known to unknown and is going to polarize your audience. Even those people who love it are going to click just to hear what you have the audacity to say about their favorite band.

Jump on Trends/Seasonal Content

Following a trend isn’t necessarily going to do anything for your channel, but it can help if you get in early. It’s really all about timing. Think about your niche. If there is something that is happening that people will be thinking about, jump in right away. For example, if you’re the last person to post about the Superbowl, nobody cares anymore. But if you are posting super early when people are just beginning to think about the event, you are going to get a lot more views.

A good way to make sure you don’t miss out on these trends is to map it out. If you are a tech channel and you know that the apple event happens around September or you are a fashion channel and you know the holidays are coming up when people are going to be thinking about going to parties, etc, you can plan these video ideas and film them so that you can post them right at the forefront.

Collaborations

Another great way to gain more viewers is with collaborations. Sharing audiences is always a good thing. Collabs are helpful if you are in exact same niche or you can find great success with a connecting audience as well. Maybe you are a fitness channel that collaborates with a nutrtion channel or a soccer channel that collaborates with a shoe channel. There are so many ways to broaden your reach in a way that benefits both parties.

Become a Suggested Video

Targeting search isn’t necessarily a great growth technique. Usually viewers from search have come for something specific. Because of this, they will skip around the content and abandon it as soon as they get it. The retention is terrible from these viewers. So overall, this isn’t really the source you should be aiming for.

Instead, you can make your goal to be a recommended or suggested video. To do this, you just need to do a little detective work. Search for your topic idea and find a similar video idea from a creator with high views and low subs. If you find this, you know that this video idea really went far. Then, create a video that you think can be the part 2 of that video or maybe a better version of that video. Doing this, will draw on that crowd that is enjoying that evergreen content and will want to watch your video next.

Shorts Feed

Creating shorts can add a massive surge of growth to your channel. Shorts are…well… short! So they can be an easy lift. There are a ton of people out there watching shorts. Throwing some hooks in that pond isn’t a bad idea. Our main advice with this is to make sure you are still targeting the same audience and provide them the same value, just in a bite size form. If you do this, there is a much better chance that they will make the journey over to your long-form content.

Tools

There are a lot of tools that we use with our creators that help them significantly. Here are some of them that I would recommend to you as well.

​Thumbsup.tv​ This is a great tool to asses your title and thumbnail. You can see if your title will be truncated and just how it will look on the home screen.

​VidIQs Daily Ideas​ The free version of this will give you 5 ideas a day based on your channel and the content you post. Having ideas thrown at you is a great way to get some inspiration for what you are passionate about creating.

​VidIQ 1:1 Coaching​ Working with a coach is hands down the most helpful tool you can have when you feel stuck or just need someone to come alongside you and help direct you where to go.

​Creator Hooks ​ This is a weekly email that is full of helpful title ideas. They breaks down why the titles work (or don’t work) so that you can apply them to your own channel.

​Stable Video Diffusion ​ This tool is rolling out soon. But it’s a Generative AI tool that will generate b-roll for you. You just type in a prompt and it generates the video for you to use. Jump on the wait list and see if this program can help you.

Keep Changing Lives!

Tim Schmoyer

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