(logo whooshing)
- What's up Insiders?
It's Rachel here.
And today, I wanted to share five pieces of advice
that I often give to smaller channels or creators
who are just getting started
and looking to build an audience here on YouTube.
I've been at YouTube for about four years.
A lot of which I spent analyzing thousands
of videos and channels
trying to understand why some channels just took off
and were able to sustain their fame.
And on the other hand,
understanding why some channels decline.
I'm not a product manager
on YouTube's recommendation system.
All that being said,
let's get to the top five things
that I've learned during my time here.
I hope it's helpful.
Okay, the first is to build your channel around an audience.
And I know that sounds obvious
But what I'm encouraging you to do
is really design your content around people.
Think about who is watching your channel,
what they're interested in
and how their interests are likely to change
over the course of six months, a year to two years time
if you're in this for the long-term.
If you do go after short-term topics,
let's say how to make banana bread during the pandemic,
I'm sure that was very successful.
However, those viewers may be less likely
to stick around with you in the longterm.
And so design your content strategy around people
and their interests adjusted as their interests change.
And remember that you need to do two things
in order to grow.
You need to attract new viewers
and then keep those viewers coming back to watch more.
Number two is find your niche.
And what I mean by that
is that there's more content
on the internet and YouTube than ever before
and it is harder to stand out.
So in order to grow,
you really need to make something better
than what's already out there or something different.
So, for example, let's say
that I wanted to start a cooking channel.
I could either, A, go after a niche market
or B, find a gap in the market.
So an example of a niche market
might be instead of making regular recipe videos,
I go after a specific type of recipe.
So maybe all of my recipes are salad recipes.
Or maybe they're all surveyed.
A gap in the market could be something
that let's say I have identified
there's not a lot of videos out there
for budget conscious students.
So maybe my entire channel are recipes under $10.
So do your best to find your niche
so you can either make something better
or different than what's already out there.
Number three, watch lots of videos.
If you were gonna start a business,
you would be doing market research,
which is an exercise
where you go out into the market that you're entering,
figure out what's selling, what people love
and really understand what they enjoy.
And starting a channel is not that dissimilar.
So what you really wanna do
is look at some creators
that are producing similar content.
Think about, what are they making
that's working so well?
And that's not to copy them in any way,
that's to understand what viewers really enjoy.
So let's say I've started my cooking channel.
It's focused on salads,
I'm calling it Salad Crush.
I'm gonna start out
by searching for other videos about salad
and seeing what those popular videos have in common.
I actually did this right before I made this video
and a lot of the thumbnails had multiple recipes
in the thumbnail.
So maybe that's something that I'm gonna replicate
because there's lots of viewer demand
for three different, easy recipes in one video.
So maybe that's something I'm gonna make as well.
So understand what's out there.
Do a ton of market research.
Watch lots of videos.
Number four is to create and establish your brand.
Having really strong branding
or a consistent style between your titles,
your thumbnails, your colors, your graphics, and your fonts,
really helps your channel and content stick out
when viewers have so many options about what to watch.
And it helps them easily become familiar
with your channel
and recognize it
as soon as it's offered in recommendations.
So really think about what fonts, colors
and styles best represent your brand,
and then make sure that that flows
through your channel icon, your channel art,
even your channel description
and of course your channel trailer.
Number five and last but not least is be consistent.
It can take time and lots of experimentation
to start getting viewers
into a habit of watching your channel regularly.
And in order to do that,
to keep them coming back to watch,
there are some strategies
that some creators use like uploading consistently.
So on a schedule
so viewers know when to expect new content
and of course continuing to deliver on the promise
that viewers were first given
when they started watching your channel.
So maybe it's making a series
with similar topics and themes
as to the video
that they first fell in love with
when they hit subscribe
or started watching your channel first.
Of course, don't limit your creativity.
If you're gonna sustain audience's interest over time,
you will have to evolve
but consistency can help in the beginning
when you're trying to get viewers into a routine.
So to recap,
my top five pieces of advice for creators just starting out
are to build your channel around an audience,
to find your niche,
to watch lots of videos and do your market research,
create your brand, have strong branding
and then be consistent.
Best of luck
and if you're a more established creator
that has good advice
for other creators who are just starting out,
please leave it in the comments below.
As always, keep it real.