In 2017, I began working for Hillsong Worship, a Christian music band. My first endeavour was to assist Hillsong Worship in developing and growing their promote YouTube music channel. Over the next three years, we increased the channel’s subscriber base by 3,000 percent, from 130,000 to over five million. The channel has 5.7 million members as of this writing, making it the second-largest Christian artist on YouTube. I’ve read hundreds of blogs on every hack and growth technique, and there are a lot of empty promises. What I want to share with you are the most effective tools and tactics I discovered for growing the Hillsong Worship YouTube channel. Here are 17 of the most effective methods.
1.Make your official artist channel official
Now, I’m presuming you’ve created an Official Artist Channel, uploaded your most recent cover art, added a welcome video, and uploaded your key assets like music videos and lyric videos, because if you haven’t done so, stop reading and go fix that.
2.Improve your thumbnails
When browsing on mobile devices, YouTube has raised the size of thumbnails to boost their effect. Expect a 30% drop in potential traffic if your image doesn’t convey the visitor what the video is about.
3.To increase click-throughs, use consistent naming
Make sure that any keyword that a user would search for is included in the title of your music and lyric videos, and adopt a consistent naming standard across your entire channel to keep things neat. The artist’s name should always come first on YouTube. This, in my opinion, is less effective because studies show that people recognise song names more than artists for the vast majority of songs. If you or your artist has a more well-known name than a song, such as “Beyoncé,” this may be different. Use the keyword “OFFICIAL” in the title to let the user know that this is premium material from your music label or sponsorship partner channel. If you’re posting content on your artist’s website, however,
4.Create subtitles for a 21% increase in five years
In my research on increasing views, I read a lot about how subtitles can help, but I couldn’t find any concrete evidence. In practise, I’ve observed a 5% increase in video views over the course of the year after adding subtitles. What causes this to happen? Each subtitle, on the other hand, informs Google about the content of your movie. This improves the SEO impact of your video, which increases the number of times it appears in a user’s feed or as a suggested video. Now, 5 percent may not seem like much, but if your channel grows at a rate of 30% each year (to be conservative), the cumulative impact of having subtitles alone would add another 21%.
5.Include international subtitles for a 4% increase over five years
In my experience, one out of every ten persons watches music with subtitles, and roughly 20% of those who listen to Christian music use the Spanish translations when they are available. Over the course of a year, I discovered that adding foreign subtitles to each video gave us an extra 1% boost. Again, assuming 30% annual growth on your channel, this 1% gain adds up to a 4 percent gain over five years. If you or your publisher have official song lyrics translations, use those. If not, crowdsourcing your subtitles using YouTube’s community translations could be an excellent alternative.
6.Use hashtags to increase visibility
Add three to five hashtags to the description of each video that is appropriate, and they will appear above your title automatically. They’re clickable, allowing users to see any other videos that use the hashtag. As your first three, I recommend utilising your artist name, song title, and official project hashtag.
7.Make use of tags to make your content and channel the top search result
When it comes to video tags and channels, the goal is to “predict” what a viewer could look for in order to locate your video. You have 500 characters to select from in each video as well as across your entire channel, and my recommendation is to use them all. VidiQ or TubeBuddy are the greatest tools I’ve discovered to assist with this. I generally try it myself, then use VidiQ or TubeBuddy to see what people are searching for to find my video after a week, and then change the tags accordingly. The goal is to have as many tags as possible as the top search phrase. Have fun tagging.
8.Your free advertisement in the top three lines
Your first three lines in your description are crucial. You can utilise this space to assist boost familiarity by repeating your song title and artist name, but I’ve found that using it to direct the audience to an action you want them to perform is more effective. Basic ways to exploit this space include using it for a call to action like “Listen To My New Album” followed by a clever URL or “Win A Signed T-Shirt.” Make the most of what is essentially free advertising. Use emojis or symbols to increase the visibility of your “commercial.”
