In 2022, it’s not common to find someone who doesn’t watch at least a few minutes of YouTube per day. Everyone uses it to watch stand-ups, music videos, tutorials, documentaries and more. You can even go as far as to say that YouTube has become an integral part of our daily lives. Some people even prefer watching YouTube videos to accompany their meal times.

It is understandable that we’re all so crazy about the video-sharing site. After all, YouTube is free and easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Which explains why there are over 2 billion monthly active users on YouTube.

This makes YouTube the perfect marketplace for content creators to make a name for themselves and for businesses to promote their products and services. Plus people tend to interact more with content in video format as it is very engaging. It would be a great loss not to leverage the benefits that YouTube offers to businesses.

But all that is easier said than done. A lot of effort and planning goes into making it on YouTube. So you need to know how to implement proven growth hacks to increase engagement on YouTube. Read on to learn about a few tips and tricks that can help your channel grow organically.

Optimise Your Channel

You can start by creating channel art that portrays your brand’s image and the message you want to send out. The next step is to set your official brand icon as your profile picture to establish your brand identity.

You also need to ensure that all your other social media accounts and business website are linked to your channel. This way, interested users can simultaneously discover more about your brand and increase engagement on YouTube.

Create Custom Thumbnails

Besides your video title, the thumbnail is the most important element that can drive users to watch your content and increase engagement on YouTube. YouTube provides automatic thumbnails but they can look blurry and vague. So you can go ahead and use stock photos or create a custom thumbnail to stand out. Ensure that you use appealing colours and images to attract the viewers.

Remember to follow YouTube’s preferred dimensions, sizes and formats for the best results.

Post Valuable Content

You can optimise your channel all you want, but that alone won’t increase engagement on YouTube. In order to bring in viewers and convert them into subscribers, you also have to offer great videos. In short, they need to be amusing, entertaining, informative and valuable.

An attractive channel can make users visit out of curiosity, but high quality is what makes them stay and come back for more. So you also need to edit your videos well and add multilingual captions.

Use the Right Keywords

When it comes to YouTube marketing, using the right keywords is critical to ensuring your visibility. If you use keywords that are relevant to your target audience, your videos will get the chance to rank higher on search results and recommendations.

You can also use less competitive keywords that are still untapped to stay ahead of everyone else. The right SEO keywords on your videos, titles, descriptions and tags can ensure that you increase engagement on YouTube.

Participate in Your Community

A great way to increase engagement on YouTube and grow organically is to find your niche and build a following. You can reach your target audience if you increase your interactions with the community you’re in.

It will also give you a better understanding of what your competitors are doing to grow their channels. So subscribe to similar channels, engage and leave comments of your own too.

Use Influencer Marketing

Working with influencers can bring great growth to any social media platform. Similarly, on YouTube, you can collaborate with influencers in your niche to broaden your reach. As users are more likely to visit your channel if a trusted influencer associates with you, you can tap into a highly engaged audience and increase engagement on YouTube. Be sure to approach influencers who have values that resonate with your brand.

Use a Call To Action

So you’ve managed to reel the target audience to your channel. The next step is to use a compelling call to action in your videos to seal the deal. You might want the viewers to like, subscribe or share your video. Maybe you want them to click through to your brand website. Whatever your goal is, a clear, compelling and urgent CTA can edge them on to complete the task.

Conclusion

Video content is truly a powerful medium to make your brand heard and convey your messages to the target audience. It also keeps them engaged from the beginning to the end and helps them retain the information better.

So there has never been a better time for creators and businesses to utilize YouTube as a marketing tool. The platform with its bottomless pool of content and large audience holds so much potential that you need to take advantage of it.

And these tips will help you grow your YouTube channel organically and increase engagement on YouTube like never before.