Marketing blogs are quite effusive in their praise of video marketing, and more specifically YouTube.
But as anyone who has published a video on YouTube will tell you – the competition there is INSANE.
Maybe it’s just me, but it’s easier to rank on Google with a blog post than it is to rank on YouTube for equally competitive search terms.
This is particularly frustrating because producing a good video is a lot more difficult than putting together a brilliant article.
Again, maybe it’s just me.
Recently, I got in touch with Mark Webster from AuthorityHacker – their website has tons of legitimately insightful case studies on various online marketing tactics.
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you about this. If you have come as far as to my tiny blog, you must have checked out AuthorityHacker already.
Mark shared with me one of his recent marketing wins – DOUBLING their YouTube traffic in under 90 days.
How did they make it happen?
Here is a 5 point plan that helped Authority Hacker double their YouTube traffic in such a short span.
Point 1 – Post regularly on a schedule
Authority Hacker committed to a weekly schedule by announcing this to their audience and then sticking to it.
Why does it matter? Well, in addition to keeping it predictable for your viewers, posting regularly also helps compound your viewer engagement.
This is how it works. Viewers who watch a video on YouTube are recommended more stuff along the same lines.
If you have plenty of recent videos, then YouTube recommends all these different videos to the user even if they are coming off from a different channel.
However, if you are an infrequent poster, there is nothing from your video list that would make the cut.
In short, posting more videos regularly helps you get a lot of views from YouTube’s recommendation engine.
Point 2: Quality thumbnails
You could have the best (or the worst, for that matter) content in the world. But how is anyone supposed to know that till they click and watch your video?
Your video title is so important – everyone knows that. But what often gets missed is the quality of your thumbnail.
When users search for certain keywords on YouTube, they are served dozens of results which are all a good match in one way or the other.
The only way someone is going to sort through the clutter and pick your video is based on what you have in the thumbnail.
AuthorityHacker hired a graphic designer for this purpose. The objective of each thumbnail was to:
- Be engaging
- Be colorful, and
- Contain select keywords
In doing this, they were able to capture an audience and bring them to their video.
Now, since the YouTube algorithm uses the click-through and engagement metrics to rank their videos, AuthorityHacker’s strategy helped them rise above competitors in YouTube search.
Point 3: Adding timestamps to videos
This is a genius move. Imagine searching for the answer to a very specific question and landing on a video that is an hour long.
Nobody has the time to watch an hour-long video unless you are subscribed to their content.
There are two things that Authority Hacker does that’s genius.
First, they share timestamps in the YouTube video description area. So if you are only interested in a specific section of the video, you could easily click and watch that particular section.
Second, the video itself includes the currently discussed topic displayed at the bottom of the screen. Timestamps are a part of the description and are often hidden (unless you expand the description). So, by showing the section in the video itself, users are nudged to skip parts they are not interested in, and only go to the sections they are interested in.
Overall, these two tactics help improve viewer engagement which is such an important metric in YouTube’s video ranking algorithm.
While Mark from Authority Hacker did not mention this in my discussion with him, I also feel the ‘Subscribe’ button that is displayed at the bottom at all times is a great tactic.
Not everyone watches the complete video. But if you are someone who enjoyed the content and would like to come to it in the future, the omnipresent ‘Subscribe’ link will make sure that this visitor becomes a subscriber.
Point 4: Video premieres
In case you are not aware, YouTube has a feature called ‘Premieres’ that is sort of a mix between livestreaming and a regular video.
What you do is that you pre-record a video, but instead of publishing it at your chosen time, you announce to your feed when the video premieres on your channel.
So, although it’s a prerecorded video, users get to live chat on premiered videos.
Authority Hacker has used this strategy to great effect to grow its channel. Mark Webster says that the premieres were successful in getting their subscribers together to the channel at the scheduled time.
Also, he and his co-host would spend the time on live chat interacting with the audience. This improves engagement and also helps build a connection with subscribers.
Point 5: Interaction is key
The previous point sort of gave it away, but Authority Hacker places a huge emphasis on interacting with their audience. They engage with almost every commenter in the YouTube comments section and answer their questions.
This is a positive signal for YouTube and Mark says this has made a significant impact on viewer engagement.
Truth be told – compared to its competitors, Authority Hacker is still a relatively small channel. However, the strategies listed here appear to have helped the channel grow immensely in a very short period of time. This is priming them for excellent traction over the next few months.
I am excited to watch their growth on YouTube from here.