Six Tips For Saving Your YouTube Channel From Irrelevance

How Steven Seagal can supercharge your video views, with ACM's YouTube supremo Ruth Cutts

Telling you that YouTube is a social juggernaut is like describing Everest as “that really massive mountain”. Even your screen-fearing elderly relatives would call it the most obvious statement of the day, while no level of hyperbole will ever quite do it justice. In fact, I think you can only get a real idea of the scale of the beast - approximately two billion monthly active users (YouTube, not Everest) - when you’ve been at the receiving end of a post or campaign that’s reaped the rewards of such a monumental global reach, and raked in the sort of numbers that would set any monthly report ablaze.  

Throughout my career in digital marketing, I’ve seen YouTube shift from a ‘nice to have’ for brands with a creative flair, to a crucial component within any marketing mix. Now, brands look prehistoric without a YouTube widget on their website.

Whether you’re a global brand with an existing channel, or a business that’s starting to build a presence, getting noticed in the crowded and noisy social space of YouTube is, and always will be, a huge but essential task. So, here are the six biggest lessons I’ve learnt from delivering social strategies on YouTube, and that will help you max out the potential of your online video content.

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1. A bad thumbnail can derail your content

There once was a time when VHS and DVD covers helped inform us what videos to invest our precious time into, rather than Netflix or Prime algorithms. In the same way that seeing Steven Seagal peeking up at you from a box would prompt you to pop a film back on the shelf, a poorly executed YouTube thumbnail will have your audience scrolling right past your precious content. 

Luckily, there’s a formula for making thumbnails “clickworthy”. Our designer Daniele knows it well, having created tens hundreds thousands hundreds of them for our clients. He’ll tell you to: 

1. Show a face

2. Follow the rule of thirds

3. Use bold text and graphics 

4. Stick to a 1–to-4 word count 

5. Adhere to a colour palette through your channel

6. Leave room for the timecode

7. Test readability with a scaled down view

Need further convincing? Here’s the actual science to prove it.

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2. Bend, break, and banish the rules

Uh, well, this is awkward. In what sounds like an absolute U-turn on what I’ve just advised, whilst there are formulas that have been proven to work on the platform, a good YouTube strategy remains pliant. This doesn’t mean that a strategy should be crafted on a whim; it means it should be curated with a view to experimentation. 

Test everything. Try different publishing dates and times, lengths of titles, and thumbnail layouts. Throw your YouTube channel at the proverbial wall and see what sticks, and don’t be disheartened if you’re left with a big sloppy mess on the floor; changing your thumbnail, title, or description won’t have a negative impact on the algorithm, so don’t be afraid to give something new a shot.

While you might find a certain formula brings good results to your content and you continue to use it time and time again, this reductive view potentially limits further success, and can leave your channel feeling stagnant.

3. Long-form loves Shorts 

YouTube Shorts are the best (and an extremely efficient) garnish to your longer-form content.

Introduced globally in mid-2021 as a response to the short-form video revolution, YouTube Shorts sit alongside a channel’s main videos, and have proven themselves a great tool for gaining long-form subscribers.

The secret to great Shorts content? Play into the nuances of the platform: make the content snappy; utilise behind-the-scenes footage; tap into your community to showcase self-captured UGC content; or use them for montages or blooper reels.

You don’t always have to create a new Short from scratch, though. Some of my favourite examples are repurposed clips from existing longer-form videos, and packaged up as mini trailers or teasers. Minimal input, maximum output.

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4. Brand + performance marketing = two thumbs up 

Magical things happen when exceptional storytelling and effective data-driven components collide. 

When we married compelling creative narratives and effective SEO optimisation work for a client’s newly formed YouTube channel, we were able to earn their three top-performing videos 81k views in 12 weeks, 16k views in 4 weeks, and 10k views in 12 weeks, with organic views continuing to climb.  

While I totally believe that the algorithm should never be the driving force behind a creative, it should inform it. Platform trends, algorithm updates, SEO-optimised copy, curated thumbnails, target audience viewing habits, and editing style will always have a say in the impact of your organic performance.

5. Keep the conversation flowing

Never think of YouTube as a video library. It’s absolutely not a one-way platform where viewers digest content and get nothing in return. I see far too many brands ignoring the capabilities of community building on YouTube.

Contemporary social users want to tap into niche communities and connect with specific, like-minded audiences. These spaces present a significant opportunity for brands to create that community, and sell products to people who are genuinely interested and already engaged. The Web3 digital space is turning the traditional sales and marketing model on its head, and brands will benefit from building a community first, then working alongside its engaged participants to identify a product need, and finally engage in sales.

With YouTube becoming a more saturated space, it’s more important than ever to find a way to break through the noise and craft a community unique to you, and that keeps coming back to your channel. If there was one thing you could do today to help make that happen? Use the Community tab on your channel. There, you can promote new videos, talk about upcoming events, and ask your audience about new things they might want to see. 

Encourage users to comment on your posts, reply to them, like their comments, start debates, and ask questions in your videos, and you’ll quickly see how these conversations lead to engagement, and ultimately more subscriptions.

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6. Use the f-word

Freedom.

After an unpredictable and crisis-riddled few years, and stemming from long-term consumer exhaustion, social media users are gasping for light relief in their entertainment. They’re finding it in content soaked with creative playfulness. 

Let your YouTube channel become a place of solace, of fun, and of comfort. There’s a reason why TikTok exploded during the height of the pandemic. There’s a reason why abstract, funny, or cute memes paired with relatable sentiment are golden, and why you’re getting a warm fuzzy feeling seeing this for-the-joy-of-it OK Go video - an eternal icon of YouTube creativity - again. And while kids caking kitchens in flour and cats getting spooked by cucumbers is the sort of content that would lend itself to YouTube Shorts, it’s the relatability that can be transferred over to longer-form content.

Viewers want raw emotions, irreverent comedy, glimpses behind the curtain, and real people doing real things. They’re done with paint-by-numbers glossy content. Bring a sense of freedom to your content approach, and promise it on your channel. Become a refuge from reality, and soon the numbers will follow.

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