15 Tips Start A Successful YouTube Channel in 2018

I want to help you have a successful YouTube channel, whether you're starting one for your business or it is a hobby of yours. So in this video, I'm going to share with you the top 15 tips I think you need to know to have a successful YouTube channel. Hi, my name is Trena, and on this channel I help creative business owners just like you get on YouTube to grow your business. And you've got to have a successful YouTube channel if you want to see these videos on YouTube result in in your business growing. So let's jump right into these 15 tips to have a successful YouTube channel. Tip number one is to have a clear branding. So your branding has got to connect through your channel banner, to your thumbnails, to all the little elements within your YouTube videos. You want people to realize when they're watching one of your videos, that's one of your videos. Or if they happen to see a thumbnail, they can recognize, hey, that's so and so's channel. The branding has got to be consistent throughout your entire YouTube channel. You can't just pick random fonts and random colors. They've all got to connect. The next tip is to have a channel banner. This is super important because this is basically the first impression people are going to get of your channel. If it doesn't look very professional, people aren't going to think you're very professional. So I suggest, you know, having your logo on there, maybe your name, also your value proposition. Why do you have this channel? What can the viewers expect to get out of your channel? And also when you upload, you want people to know you're uploading new content consistently. So they've got to subscribe so they don't miss all the awesome content you're going to be creating. Moving on to tip number three, and that's having a channel trailer. Now, my channel trailer here is pretty old and it definitely needs some updating. But when people land on your channel for the first time, that channel trailer is playing automatically. That, that is your way to pitch your channel, pitch the value you have and get new people to subscribe in that channel trailer. It needs to be only around 30 to 90 seconds, and you just want to let the potential subscriber know what you're going to do for them. What value are you going to bring to them? The next tip to have a successful YouTube channel, especially in 2018, is to know exactly who you are talking to. You can't be someone for everyone or you end up being no 1 for everyone. So. So you've really got to have that clear niche and know exactly who you are speaking to. For me on this channel, I'm speaking to creative online business owners. So they're running their business online and they're really ready to use YouTube in their business growth strategy. And more likely than not, it's generally a female that's watching me. But I also welcome the men that watch and get the tips as well. But I know exactly who I'm talking to. I'm not meant for everybody. I'm not necessarily meant for the hobby YouTuber or, or the tech YouTuber and more specifically for how you can use YouTube in your business strategy. So if you want to be successful on YouTube, you really got to understand who specifically you are talking to. The next tip to be successful here is you've got to know what your goals are and your goals are what you want them to be. It could be to get 100,000 subscribers, it could be to get a million views, or maybe it's to get leads over into your business or into your email list. But unless you have a clear idea on what your goal is on YouTube, what you're working towards, your strategy here on YouTube is going to be kind of a mess and people aren't really going to know what's going on here on your channel. So if you haven't set a goal yet for your YouTube channel, again, it could be anything you want it to be. But you've got to have some kind of goal in place to have a successful YouTube channel. The next tip is to think about your video strategically with playlists in mind. Playlists are basically the way to get people to binge watch your content. And what YouTube really values are channels that get people to watch multiple videos and consume multiple minutes of watch time. Right? So if you can create a playlist of videos that gets people watching one video after another after another, you look more valuable to YouTube because you're getting people to stay on the platform longer and watching more content so they're more likely to suggest more of your videos in suggested or on the home or browse feature. An example that I have is one of my students wanted to do a video on how to in process your clients how to create this workflow. So instead of just having one giant video, I said let's think about all the little elements that go into a client onboarding process, right? There's the onboarding email, there's the onboarding form, there's the onboarding trello board. What are all these different little videos that you could create to make one big Netflix binge style playlist. That's how I want you to think when you're creating your content Strategy here on YouTube. The next thing that I see a lot of people missing out on is using your end cards. Your ultimate goal at the end of your video as you're just getting started on YouTube should be to watch another video. So before your video ends, you want to tell people in a call to action to watch my next video that's on the screen right now. If you watch the end of my video, I'm going to tell you to click the video on your screen right now if you want to continue to improve your YouTube channel. Because I know that's going to get you potentially to another video of mine, which means another view and more watch time minutes. So as you're growing a channel here, if you want to be successful, it's really important to get people watching more of your content. So using those end screens and telling people what you want them to do at the end of your video is super important if you want to be successful here on YouTube. The next thing is thinking through your thumbnails. A lot of times we spend all of this time on our actual video and then the thumbnail becomes kind of a side thought and we just throw something up there. But your thumbnail is actually your main marketing material on the search or in the suggested feed. So you want to think about what kind of story or what kind of emotion can you show in a thumbnail that's going to get people to click through? Is there text that you could add to make that thumbnail more clickable? Your goal is to grab people's attention with your thumbnail. So you've really got to think that through while you're planning your video as well. It should not be an afterthought. The next tip to be successful here on YouTube is to have your title of your video in mind before you even shoot it. Your titles have to be value proposed or a story teasing title. You can't just throw up how to XYZ because there's so many other videos out there. Maybe you teach somebody how to tie a tie in 30 seconds. That's much more value proposed than just how to tie a tie. If somebody wants to learn how to tie tie and you're going to tell them you're going to teach them in 30 seconds, that's obviously more likely to get clicked on, right? So when you are thinking about your videos and you're thinking about these titles, what can you tease in that title to get people to click through. The next tip I have for you is create content. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in analysis paralysis and we keep researching and studying and figuring out the exact keywords and what we want to create that we don't create the content. So just get the content out. Once you have that content out there, you're going to be able to analyze that a little bit better to really start molding your YouTube channel specifically for your audience and what they are responding to. So just start creating videos. The next tip to be more successful is study your analytics and more specifically, your audience retention graphs. I've talked about this so many times in my videos, but that's one of the biggest mistakes I made when I first got started. I didn't pay enough attention to these audience retention graphs because the goal for every single one of your videos is to get 50% of people watching at the end of your video. So you want to check those audience retention graphs to see, do you have 50% of people at the end of your video still watching? If not, what are you doing that needs to be fixed? If you have a steep drop at the beginning of your video, obviously your hook isn't doing well. What could you do to make that more value proposed or story teasing? Maybe that hook isn't tying back to your title and thumbnail. So maybe think about that title and thumbnail before you film your videos. Just study those graphs and figure out how you can make better content that makes people watching longer. The next tip is to collaborate. I know sometimes we get so afraid to reach out to somebody and ask if they want to collaborate, but here's the thing. The worst thing that could happen to you is they don't respond to your email. I reached out to Michelle over on Channel Notes, never expecting her to respond to me, but I thought, hey, let me just see if she wants to collaborate. And she did, and we created a collaboration together. It was great for her channel, great for my channel, and, and it was actually great for us personally because now we have this friendship that we can ask each other YouTube questions, think about people you can collaborate with, and just ask them. The next little secret. Tip that a lot of people don't realize is to add links to playlists down in your description box. Again, your goal is to get people to watch as much of your content as possible. So if they're looking in the description box, make sure it's really easy for them to find a bingeable playlist to watch. So find some of your best playlists put them down in your description box and see if people start watching more of your content by adding that sneaky little link to playlists down below. The next tip that I have for you is research your videos before you create them. So if you're just creating videos to create videos, it's basically like throwing spaghetti at a wall. It might stick, but more than likely it's not going to stick. So do some research here on YouTube. What are some videos in your niche that are performing well, that are getting lots of views on? What are some similar questions or what are the same questions being asked over and over again in Facebook groups or on your Instagram or in your email? Those are the videos you want to focus on first, but you've got to research that first before you start filming. This is the biggest tip that I have for you to succeed here on YouTube. And it's don't stress for perfection. Listen, this video that I'm creating right now is not perfect in my eyes. My videos last week were not perfect. My videos next week probably won't be perfect either. We're never going to be this perfect image that we have of ourselves. And if we don't just let go of that perfect idea that we have, we're never going to get content out. We're never going to get more people on our content. We're never going to grow our business. So if you've learned nothing from this video, the biggest tip that I have is let go of perfection and just do. If you want to continue learning more about how you can make your YouTube channel better, make sure you click that video that is on your screen right now and grab my YouTube channel roadmap. There's a link on your screen right now so you know exactly what you need to do to launch a YouTube channel. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.