Looking to master YouTube marketing?
YouTube represents a significant opportunity for musicians.
Of course, anyone who says it’s “easy” is lying or making a sales pitch.
YouTube is an incredibly competitive environment, and as a musician, you aren’t just competing with other musicians. You’re up against ASMR artists, talking huskies, hysterical gamers, and more.
YouTube is an incredibly competitive environment, and as a musician, you aren’t just competing with other musicians. Click To TweetIf you’re here, I assume you already know the basics of YouTube marketing. In this guide, I will be getting into a few tips you may not have heard before.
So, here are my top six up-to-date tips for dominating YouTube.
✅ Prioritize the First 24 Hours to Nail Your YouTube Marketing
YouTube videos can continue to work for you while you’re busy doing other things. That’s right – the number of views on your videos will only go up over time, given you’re doing the right things.
But if you want to get the most out of each video you publish, you need to get as many eyeballs as you can on your video in the first 24 hours!
This will boost your video in YouTube’s algorithm and should result in more views, thumbs, and comments, which again helps the video gain more traction.
So, how do we go about getting those views?
I think it’s altogether too easy to rely on a few social shares. These might help, but are only going to get you so far.
Here are some other tactics that will stack:
- Build your website/blog
- Post your videos on your website/blog
- Grow your email list
- Share your videos with your email list
- Ask your fans to share your video
- Advertise
- Text your fans, friends, and family
You may also find this video helpful:
Each of these points are deserving of entire blog posts. But if you feel you’ve already got a good handle on how to tackle these and set yourself up for success, you’re miles ahead of most.
Otherwise, stay tuned for more posts on my blog.
✅ Get Your Viewers Watching for Longer
Everybody (including notable marketers) says short and snappy, snackable content is best. Two to three minutes. Over and out.
But that’s not the case for everyone, and when it comes to music, your videos could easily be 60- to 120-minutes or more.
Just look at all the meditation music or music mix videos out there. People love to keep these on in the background while they’re busy doing other things.
(I wouldn’t feel too sad about 15 million views on a meditation music video.)
I’m not telling you to go and make meditation music or music mixes. But you should be aware of the opportunity.
The bottom line is this – the stats don’t lie.
You can experiment with videos of varying lengths, whether it’s two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, or even 30 minutes. Once you’ve figured out what works best for your channel, stick with that.
Secondarily, make your videos fun and addictive. Entrepreneur Neil Patel has got a great article on nine ingredients that make great content. Read it. Study it. Implement it!
(Don’t be afraid to Google other great articles and resources too.)
Once people are hooked on your videos, they will stick around for longer and watch more. And that’s what you want!
✅ Keep Your Fans on the Platform
Your video descriptions are prime real estate. Well, the first line of the description is, at any rate, because people must click “SHOW MORE” to see beyond the first two or three lines.
The temptation is to send people away from YouTube because you’re eager to grow your email list or get people to listen to your music on another platform like Spotify.
But as with most social networks and video hosting sites, YouTube isn’t desperate to send people off their platform.
So, consider making the first call to action to subscribe to your channel or watch another video on your channel.
By the way, you can create a subscribe link for your channel by adding ?sub_confirmation=1 at the end of it.
So, my subscription link would look like this:
https://www.youtube.com/c/Dawcast/?sub_confirmation=1
(Use it in your description and elsewhere as you see fit.)
Secondarily, consider what other links you want to prioritize. I’d argue the most important thing for you to do is to get people on your email list.
So, perhaps the second or third link in your description could lead to your landing page, opt-in offer, or insane giveaway.
But always remember – YouTube wants to keep people on their platform. The best thing you can do is urge people to subscribe to your channel and watch your other videos.
✅ Use Emojis in Your Titles, Descriptions, etc. to Boost Your YouTube Marketing
Emojis are kind of an unfair advantage.
Not sure if you’re a Mailchimp user, but if you are, you’ve probably seen them recommend the use of emojis in the email subject line:
Turns out what works for emails works for social media, and that goes for YouTube too.
I’ve got a ton of content on my channel, and I’ve been tweaking some of my titles and descriptions as time allows. Here’s an example of a description featuring plenty of emojis:
Fun and cute, isn’t it?
By the way, you don’t need to do it how I’ve done it – you can pick and choose which emojis you want to use, and if you see something someone else is doing (and it’s working), model it! Always model what’s already working!
Always model what’s already working! Click To TweetCrafting descriptions like these takes some effort. But if you want to dominate YouTube, you’ve got to focus and put in the effort (more on this later). I’m passing on this advice to give you a fighting chance.
By the way…
On a PC, you can open your emoji picker by pressing and holding the Windows button with a period (.) or semicolon (;).
On a Mac, you can open your character viewer by pressing Control + Command + Space.
If this doesn’t work, you may not be using an up-to-date OS. All good – you can still take advantage of a tool like Get Emoji to copy and paste your favorite icons.
Shout out to entrepreneur Noah Kagan for sharing this tip in a video of his own.
✅ Collaborate Strategically
Has it ever occurred to you that you and your subscribers might have some things in common? If nothing else, you’d probably have some common interests, right?
Well, it turns out you can view who has subscribed to you. But that in and of itself might seem flaccid.
Just stay with me because there is a point to this.
Go to YouTube Studio and on the dashboard, you should be able to see your subscribers on the right-hand side:
You can also click to “SEE ALL”, which is awesome.
Why do I say that?
Because these are the people you should consider collaborating with.
Now, you’ll still want to pick and choose who to work with. But if you see someone that’s got about the same number as subscribers as you do (or maybe more), you could offer to make a video that would help them in exchange for a video that would help you.
You’ve probably heard a lot about “collaborating strategically” to this point, but you may not have heard of approaching it this way, so I thought you might appreciate it.
Here’s another shout out to Noah Kagan for sharing this tip on his YouTube channel.
✅ Publish Every Day (Focus!)
Conventional wisdom says publish weekly. Spend time creating great content. Edit. Quality over quantity.
Sure, that works for those with established channels. It doesn’t work so hot for new channels.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets impatient with these kinds of things. I want my following, and I want it now!
So, if you want to zag while others are zigging, I will challenge you to try publishing every day.
If you’ve got a brand-new channel, commit to publishing every day for a full year.
If your channel has been kicking around a while, and you’ve got a bit of traction, then try it for 100 consecutive days.
I know I’m asking for an insane amount of work on your part, but if you’re genuinely focused on YouTube (and not on a million other things), you should be able to take this on.
Know it or not, I’ve had daily publishing records lasting 20 months!
If you want to be good at anything, focus on it. If you’ve chosen YouTube as your channel, then commit to your success on that channel before you bother with anything else!
If you’ve chosen YouTube as your channel, then commit to your success on that channel before you bother with anything else! Click To TweetShout out to entrepreneur Russell Brunson for this tip.
YouTube Marketing for Musicians, Final Thoughts
If you apply the above tips, you will grow your YouTube channel. It’s practically guaranteed.
I don’t want to promise anything I can’t deliver, which is why I say “practically,” but you’ve hit the motherlode of tips here, so if you put them to use and stay consistent, you should see results.
And don’t forget to have fun with your YouTube marketing efforts because everything just works better when you’re having fun!
Is there anything else I should have covered here?
Leave a comment and let me know!
