Karol Krol
Ever since YouTube was acquired by Google back in 2006, the platform has been constantly on the rise, to ultimately become the third most visited website on the entire web. And along the way, it has attracted a new kind of content producers – video enthusiasts who are often called youtubers.
And youtubers are unlike the old-day publishers who relied on traditional media-like video creation, scripting and production methods. In fact, some of the most popular videos on YouTube look nothing like what the mainstream media has gotten us used to.
This creates interesting new opportunities for business owners who want to reach out to their customers and audience in an unusual way. After all, studies prove that people prefer visual content to text content (our brains process visual content 60,000 times faster than text).
YouTube has its own rules and its own path that every new content creator has to follow if they ever want to make their channel popular. Here, we’re going to look into six factors and qualities that make a successful YouTube channel.
1. Consisting posting
Some of the most successful channels, such as PewDiePie – currently, the biggest channel on YouTube, with nearly 40 million subscribers – post new videos every day or even two times a day.
Due to this frequency, PewDiePie’s subscribers are constantly reminded of the channel and get more chances to interact with its creator, as well as obviously consume the content itself.
Lesson #1: Make it a habit to post new videos regularly. If you can’t do one every day then start with at least one per week.
2. Using an angle
If you’re, say, in the cooking niche, then creating just another general cooking channel – sharing recipes and such – will probably go unnoticed. To make your project successful, you need an angle – something that sets you apart.
For instance, the guys from Epic Meal Time are the perfect example here. Instead of just cooking on the air, per se, they’ve decided to make their every “dish” (notice the quotes) epic. Where this has led them is to cooking things like “Fast Food Lasagna” (over 25 million views; a lasagna full of fast food), “Candy Pizza” (over 9 million views; pizza made entirely out of candy), and many more.
Epic Meal Time is just different. It’s highly recognizable and easy to explain to new viewers.
Lesson #2: Find your angle and make it easy to explain. What your channel does that’s different?
3. Content quality
Almost all YouTube channels from the top 10 most popular list publish only content that has high production value.
That is, content that’s recorded with a proper camera, on a well-lit setting, with good surrounding, and so on.
Video quality is huge in importance. Basically, if your content doesn’t look professional, every viewer simply won’t take you seriously, and this is especially crucial if you’re launching the channel for business purposes.
Lesson #3: Get a quality consumer camera, preferably one capable of shooting 4K video. If you’re not sure where to look, I’ve had a good experience capturing detail with the Panasonic Gh4 camera, even in lower light settings. Youtubers have it easier today than just ten years ago, with generally fairer value for your dollar on consumer cameras. This is part of the reason why we’ve seen such a massive growth of the platform.
4. Incorporate your products into the videos
The reason you’re thinking about launching a YouTube channel is because you want to turn it into another marketing method that’s going to help your business grow.
One of the main ways in which you can do so is incorporate your products into the videos themselves.
Let’s take the Epic Meal Time guys as an example again. In nearly every video, they use their custom cooking set that can be purchased from their official site (along with t-shirts and other items). That way, they get to monetize their videos and also make their products an integral part of the content.
Lesson #4: Make your products an integral part of your video content. Find a way to use them in the videos themselves.
5. International content
It would seem that in order to truly make it on YouTube, you have to publish your videos in English, but that’s not exactly the case.
One of the most popular channels on the platform today – HolaSoyGerman – is created by a man from Chile and is actually in Spanish.
Quite frankly, YouTube has become an international craze, with virtually the whole world browsing to the platform on a daily basis. Therefore, focusing on the language that’s native to you, your business, and your main market is likely to work very well.
Lesson #5: Your content doesn’t have to be in English. Cater to your local audience and customer base.
6. Delivering entertainment
Although there’s a handful of popular “professional” channels – ones focusing on various kinds of business-to-business content and tutorials, the huge majority of success on YouTube comes if you’re able to incorporate some type of entertainment into your content.
In fact, all of YouTube’s top 10 most popular channels are pure entertainment.
But this doesn’t mean that your channel has to be only gags and parodies. There are workarounds you can use.
Lesson #6: Whatever your content is meant to be about, deliver its message through entertainment. For instance, if you want to teach people how to garden, teach through entertainment. If you want to present the best real estate in your area, make it fun to watch for the average human being. Basically, whatever message you want to convey, make it entertaining to watch.
Conclusion
Finding your own groove and the way you want to present your message and your business on YouTube will take time, effort, and most importantly, experimentation.
The no. 1 thing you can do today is start analyzing your favorite channels and try figuring out what makes them great. Take notes. What do you like about them? And on the other hand, what doesn’t impress you at all? Then take action on those ideas.
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