YouTube
YouTube will be one of your most powerful allies.
Like I did with Spotify, I will list here the most important points about your YouTube profile and space.
I will also mention YouTube premium later.
YouTube has recommendation lists and they are similar to Editorial playlists. They can help you to get greater visibility.
I would say that YouTube, Spotify and Instagram are your three most precious tools along with Bandcamp right after.
A few ways to get your videos into YouTube recommendations
- Increase engagement (see below)
- By increasing engagement, therefore you will increase your watch time
- Make YouTube playlists.
- Interact with similar channels and with your Subscribers when they comment but avoid spamming
- Invite your community to like your posts and activate the “bell”
Item number 5, is an important detail that many musicians fail to do.
To allow a better understanding of how this small gesture (to invite your community to like, subscribe and hit the bell) will bring you better results, I will detail the type of viewers you may get on YouTube:
a- People who went to YT exclusively to view your video and will like and subscribe or the ones who found your video and liked and subscribed spontaneously simply because your work pleased them.
b- You have viewers who passed through and really enjoyed your video and music but didn’t like or subscribe because people tend to be distracted while browsing and they didn’t think about it (these can represent a large number of viewers).
c- You have viewers who watched and liked but not enough to subscribe and like the video.
d- You have viewers who simply watched and didn’t like just passing by.
Among these viewers placed on b* and c*, you could get a like and a subscription by simply REMINDING people to leave a like and to subscribe. You can also remind all subscribers to hit the “bell” to get all your notifications.
If you have lots of views but few likes and few subscriptions, you will get low engagement and fewer chances of having your videos picked by the YouTube algorithm.
You must remind people in each video either with written text or verbally to leave their “likes” and to subscribe to your channel. EACH time is necessary to remind viewers they can like, subscribe and hit the bell.
This simple gesture will help to increase likes and numbers with real followers who enjoyed your work and will engage, view your videos and like again.
Therefore YouTube is also a matter of QUALITY over QUANTITY and nothing should go to “waste”, you must remind viewers that liking and subscribing will help you to get visibility and you will be able to provide more entertainment in return in the future.
6- Spread the word using all your Social Media platforms
7-You must use all available tools to make your social media, YouTube, Bandcamp and Spotify as appealing visually as possible.
The more effort you put into your content, the greater will be the response.
Posting regularly videos is important as well. Make announcements indicating the dates of your releases and build up the desire to watch your new videos and releases in your community.
8- Another good strategy to get new followers is to do a certain amount of covers. Most bands only want to publish their own music on their Youtube channel but you must keep in mind that since you are new, the public is not looking or searching for you specifically. So a number of covers including artists who were a source of inspiration for your music can be extremely useful.
The same goes for Instagram for musicians and bands: covers bring followers.
9- Make video clips of your songs but also upload live content. This is extremely important for YouTube particularly since it is a video platform.
10- Do behind the scenes and if you feel daring, add a bit of humour when possible. With good music and video if you add a good laugh video now and then it will please your followers.
11- Check the “Storytelling Marketing technique” page since this can be adapted to any Social media to create an emotional link with your community by sharing the important parts of the story of your band by using Storytelling strategically.
On YouTube, this can be in the form of a video Blog.
However, it is important to find a balance between the right amount of information you will share. You don’t want to overdo but you can mention a certain number of difficulties found on your journey. You can inform your community of new moves like concerts or share what projects you are working on at that moment.
12- Another important point: reply to comments and interact with your community.
14- Use and optimize your SEO:
What is a YouTube SEO strategy?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the ever-changing practice of designing web content to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs). Search is often the gatekeeper to your content, so optimizing your content for search is necessary to attract traffic and grow a following.
Unlike Google, which uses backlinks and other factors to evaluate rank, YouTube SEO involves optimizing your channel, playlists, metadata, descriptions, and videos. You can optimize your videos for search both within and outside of YouTube.
The basics of SEO for YouTube videos, like including keywords in titles, meta descriptions, and tags. However, there’s more you can do for YouTube SEO through video accessibility. Since search engine bots cannot watch videos, they rely on accompanying text data to index them properly. A key component to a YouTube SEO strategy is harnessing the power of your video’s text in the form of transcripts, closed captions, and subtitles, which can positively impact user experience, engagement, watch time, viewership, and SEO.
Select a great keyword
Include accurate closed captions
Add a transcript to your video description
Write a keyword-optimized title, description, and tags
Say your target keyword in your video
Use a compelling thumbnail
Focus on user engagement
Track your analytics
Use Playlists
With all these items fulfilled, your chances of success and visibility will be greatly improved.
Avoid spamming by leaving comments directed to your page, no one likes spammers and these comments are spamming.
Contact influencers that are talking about your music style on YouTube to show your work. A large network of people you interact with actively is essential.
Good luck on your musical journey!