How to Makeover your YouTube Channel to Get More Views
Are you looking to makeover your Youtube Channel?
Today I’m with Tina from Tina Time TV, a reaction video channel with over 110,000 subs. Recently her viewership went down after she went on a break for a couple of months. So she's in a unique situation and we're going to help her figure out how to get that momentum back up on her channel.
I’ve made some videos with Tina before. I've helped her work on the content of the video itself. Make sure you check that out on the playlist that I have.
Right now though, we're going to do a channel review. I'm going to look at the overall performance of her channel, how it looks to potential subscribers, to existing subscribers, and figure out what can she do to get more of her subscribers to watch. But also I'm introducing her to the concept that she doesn't need to just focus on getting more of her subscribers to watch, but also to just make her videos more discoverable to potential new subscribers.
This is part 1 of a 4 part series. You can also watch the entire session on my Youtube channel.
How to Makeover Your Youtube Channel
Tip #1 – Value Proposition
All right, so I really like the front of her channel. She has a really nice professional looking logo.
The front of your channel is your chance to give a very short five to eight-word summary of not what the channel's about, but what the user is going to get out of it.
So whether your viewers are they going to laugh at your awesome reaction videos, or they are going to get great advice from a big sister to help them in life, this is the place that tells then what to exactly expect of your channel.
It's called a value proposition.
It's really important to think about what value are you giving to somebody else. Instead of thinking of it as how do I get more subscribers, think about how and what can I do to give value to people that would make them want to subscribe to me.
Think about what is the value of what you offer.
If you're not sure, ask your subscribers.
Do you have a lot of them? Ask them in your videos to let you know, what did they get out of it.
Or somebody just leaves a comment – Haha! You're so funny to see.
Give them a response – That's great. Can I ask you a few questions?
And then just start serving them. It really works. A great thing about Youtube is that you have direct access to your audience. You can get more information out of them.
If they say, oh, it's because when I'm having a bad day, you cheer me up.
Or if it's not, it's I like that you give sass and you don't care who you know are.
Or You give me the confidence to say things like they are because you, you do that.
How to give value to your readers?
It's up to you what value you want to give to people based on that information. Make sure it's authentic to you. I asked Tina to come up with the value proposition and I would put it on the front of her channel right on her banner.
Now when a person reads your value proposition, they will either say, yeah, I'm going to buy into that and I'm going to subscribe, or, Nah, that's not really my thing and they leave.
That's good. You don't want somebody who doesn't like your content to subscribe because then they're not going to look at your videos. And that's bad because YouTube is going to see, her own subscribers don't watch her video so this must not be a good video.
It's important that you know your audience and you serve only them and don't worry about everybody else.
Tip # 2 – The Aesthetics in Your Profile Picture
I'd also suggested Tina a heavy and higher contrast. Her previous black and white photo was replaced by a color photo for her. It instantly became something that stands out.
Do you go and comment on other people's YouTube? Are you active in the community?
When you do that, you want to be recognizable. When your profile picture's small, and you're leaving a comment, it's very hard to tell that's even a person.
Just imagine how little it will be on somebodies phone.
You want something that stands out, especially because, it feels good when somebody recognizes you on somebody else's YouTube channel and they say, oh my gosh, it's the Tina Time TV. I love you.
You want people to be able to recognize you so they have a chance to get to know you and get used to seeing your face. I would suggest something that is more recognizable, preferably in color, just because it will stand out more.
Tip # 3 – A Strategy to Plan How the Channel Looks
Looking at Tina’s channel as somebody who is subscribed, I had to make out what is where. So I asked her, Have you had any strategy to how it looks in the front? Her answer was no.
I noticed because it just shows uploads. I would definitely set it up so that she has playlists and I would break it up.
I would do some like the long horizontal playlist, and then also the ones where a whole playlist is represented by just one graphic thumbnail so that you have some horizontal and then some individual thumbnails and some horizontal.
You want to just break it up so that it's easy visually for people to travel through and decide what they want to look at. You definitely want to take advantage of this real estate because this is your chance to shine, show your best content and organize it.
If you only put it up like the way it was on Tina’s channel, I could only see a few of her latest videos. What if none of those are interesting to the viewer?
Channel Trailer
All right, so next looked at Tina’s channel like someone who is not subscribed. As a non-subscriber, the first thing I saw on her channel was a reaction video “Yas more money”.
That was a choice by Tina herself as she wanted people to know she did reaction videos for the UK as well as The US music videos.
Although that was a strategy it wasn’t going that well on her channel. I suggested she tried a different video on the main area of her channel.
This video didn't have like a ton of views. Also, I wouldn't necessarily say you have to put your most popular video but more of what is a really good representational video that you think people would really like. Also, it would give people a good idea of what they'd be getting themselves into if they came and were considering subscribing.
Usually, that can be indicated by how popular video is, but not always. The front video of my music channel isn't the most popular one. But it is something that represents my channel. It's colorful, it's bright, it's well done. It has pretty good views so that there is some authority there. People will see, okay, this is pretty okay because so this person must know what they're doing.
I don't worry about, oh I must show my most viral video in the front. Think about it as a commercial for your channel.
A channel trailer is a very good option. Not everybody decides to put that, some people just post their most recent videos. So it's up to you. But I do think channel trailers are good because it allows you to show highlights from many of your videos.
Do you need a Channel Trailer?
Many people are successful on YouTube without doing a channel trailer, but if we're talking about best practices and you're trying to do anything you can to improve on YouTube, then yes, a channel trailer is a great way to just show highlights of the best things on your channel.
What should a channel trailer have?
You can introduce yourself. Don't make the intro too long verbally. Give people that visual punch right away to draw them in because you can always do a different video that's more of a story time about yourself for your biggest fans. Don't expect that to go viral. That's more of a bonus video for the people who do really like you and want to help encourage your most deep-rooted and fans.
But I do think a mistake people make in their channel trailers is spending too much time talking about themselves instead of showing people what they're going to get out of the video. So your YouTube Channel makeover needs a sound video as your intro video.
Related: Your Video Will Never be Perfect
YouTube Channel Makeover in Conclusion
So, in short to makeover your YouTube Channel:
- Come up with a value proposition statement and put it up in your banner.
- Give your channel a very catching and vibrant feel with the help aesthetically pleasing colors.
- Come up with a strategy to organize your videos on your front page.
- Get your most exciting intro video up as the main video on your channel’s page.
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Michelle Osorio is a singer, filmmaker and content creator turned entrepreneur sharing her secrets to growth on social media and livestream.
