We’ve increased our YouTube watch time engagement by 149% since the start of the year.
We’ve also increased our subscriber count by almost 15K in the last year, which is a 999% increase.
And we’ve seen a flood of comments and likes across all our videos consistently as a result!
So if you want to know how to increase your YouTube engagement, read until the end of this post.
Because today, we’re covering 6 tips to improve your YouTube engagement that you can start implementing right after this post.
Let’s get started!
6 Tips On Improving Your YouTube Engagement
Tip #1: Choose video topics wisely
The first step to getting YouTube engagement is to create content around a topic your audience will care about.
And this often comes in the form of providing value.
So how do you go about choosing topics you know your audience will like? Here are a couple of quick ways.
Use historical data of what they have engaged with the most to date, either on your YouTube channel…
…or on other social media platforms, if you don’t have a great amount of data to look at on YouTube yet.
Use tools like Keyword Tools to research how often certain keywords are being searched, specifically on YouTube, that are relevant to your business.
Check out this post next to learn more keyword research tips.
If you’re not choosing topics that your audience actually cares about, it doesn’t matter what kind of tips and tricks you pull out to try and boost engagement.
This is because the viewers won’t care to watch the video to begin with.
So if you want to grow your YouTube engagement, choose your video topics wisely.
Make sure you’re providing value to your audience in some way, either in the form of helpful information or entertainment.
Tip #2: Ask for comments in your video
But don’t just ask people to “comment down below!” without telling them what to comment on.
For example, if you own a clothing store and you make a video on how to style a blazer you sell different ways, you could say:
“Comment below and let me know how you style your blazer!”
See how that gives people an idea of exactly what to comment on? An even easier option is to ask a yes or no question in your video and say:
“Comment YES if xyz or comment NO if xyz.”
For example, we’re going to ask you guys right now to comment “YES” if you currently ask for comments in your YouTube videos.
Or comment “WORKING ON IT” if not!
The less people have to think about their answer, the more likely they are to comment.
But asking for the comment, in general, is an easy, direct way to increase your YouTube engagement.
Tip #3: Reply to every comment you get in a timely manner
You’ve asked for the comments, your audience has left them, now it’s time to respond!
And respond back with a question to keep the conversation going even further.
Responding promptly will encourage users to comment again in the future, because now they know that you actually read and respond to the comments.
The more that a viewer converses with you in the comment section, the more trust they are likely to build in your brand overall.
Thus, not only boosting your YouTube engagement, but also moving them down your marketing funnel closer to a sale.
Tip #4: Tell your viewers to subscribe, like the video, and turn on their notification bell
This is an easy one, but it makes a difference!
Putting a subscribe, like and notification bell, graphic on the screen gives viewers a visual and audible reminder to do all of those things.
And if they turn on the notification bell for your channel too, it will alert them in the future every time you put out a new video or post.
This will help increase your watch times and overall YouTube engagement.
We’ve grouped all of these CTAs together into one tip because it’s usually easiest to ask for them all together at the same time.
You also want to add these CTAs close to the front of your video, because for most YouTubers, after so many minutes, your viewers start to fall off.
Most people don’t watch your video all the way through, so ask them to subscribe and everything in the beginning when the most people are watching.
Tip #5: Utilize community posts
Google says:
“Community posts can include polls, GIFs, text, images, and video. Community posts can allow you to keep in touch with your audience outside of video uploads.
They always appear on the Community tab, and may appear in Home or the Subscriptions feed.”
In addition to just posting whenever you have a new video…
…you can also create polls for your audience to participate in.
Ask questions that are relevant to your business, yet still fun for people to answer.
People love answering questions, and polls are an easy way to grow customer engagement.
Community posts are also just great for keeping your audience engaged in between YouTube videos.
If you don’t post videos every day, consider using these on the days in between to keep your YouTube engagement high.
Tip #6: Set your videos to premiere and engage in real-time
Google says:
“YouTube Premieres lets you and your viewers watch and experience a new video together in real-time.
Create buzz for your Premiere by sharing the watch page so viewers can set reminders, chat, and leave comments.”
So the biggest difference between setting your video to premiere vs not is that…
…premiere will go ahead and show your video and thumbnail to viewers on a public watch page, but the video just won’t be playable yet.
The sharing link and URL for the video will remain the same though once the video does go live, so you can promote and share your video in advance.
For viewers who have opted-in to notifications from your channel, YouTube will alert them about 30 minutes before your premiere video starts.
At the scheduled time of your premiere, YouTube will start a countdown on your video to give people time to get there.
YouTube will also send another notification to opted-in subscribers to let them know the premiere is starting.
And, the video will reappear in subscribers’ feeds with the “premiering now” badge.
Once your video starts, there is a live chat bar on the side where you can chat with viewers in real-time as you all watch the video together.
This is such a great way to improve your YouTube engagement, as well as build a connection between you and your viewers.
And it’s because sometimes people are more likely to comment or ask questions if they know you are in the chat with them available to respond immediately.
Just make sure if you do use the premiere feature, you have your thumbnail set up and your description squared away before scheduling it.
Because like we said, everything will be visible to viewers as soon as you hit “schedule” when it’s set to premiere.
Wrapping Up
So there goes our top 6 tips on how you can improve your YouTube engagement!
Note that these strategies have been driving success for us, and can drive success for you too. So be sure to try some, or all of them, for your channel.
And if you need more help with your YouTube marketing, be sure to check LYFE’s YouTube promotion services or YouTube SEO services.
Call us today to schedule a meeting!