How To Promote Your YouTube Videos For FREE (11+ Expert Tips)
Home Blog How To Promote Your YouTube Videos For FREE (11+ Expert Tips)

How To Promote Your YouTube Videos For FREE (11+ Expert Tips)

how to promote your youtube videos free

Ever wondered how some YouTubers receive millions of views while others struggle to hit triple digits?

If yes, then you’re in the right place! While YouTube is a great place to market your products, services, or video content, getting started on YouTube can be tough — especially without a huge marketing budget.

The good news?

Using our decades of experience in social media and YouTube marketing, we’ve created this post to show you how to promote your YouTube channel for free.

Before that, let’s take a look at some fantastic ways YouTube marketing can help your website.

Or, just click here and skip directly to our list of proven tips.

What is YouTube Marketing?

YouTube is currently the second most popular site on the internet, surpassed only by Google.

With over 2 billion monthly users based on our research on social media marketing statistics, marketing on YouTube can help you reach a large audience of potential customers.

Consumers turn to YouTube for entertainment, education and product research, and 70% say they’ve bought a product after seeing it on YouTube.

Jamie Gilpin, Sprout Social, Inc.

With so many people using YouTube, video marketing is a popular way for brands to reach new people.

example youtube marketing

Instead of telling people to buy from you, you can use videos to actually show them why they should purchase your products.

What is the Growth Rate for YouTube Channels?

On average, YouTube channels will take 22 months to get from 0 to 1000 subscribers.

If you want to reach more potential customers on YouTube, you’re going to have to work hard and stand out from the crowd.

What’s more, just gaining new subscribers isn’t enough. You need to make sure your subscribers are actually watching your content.

A general rule of thumb is that at least 10% of subscribers should be regularly watching your videos.

In case people aren’t engaging with your content, you can switch up your YouTube marketing strategy and try to reach new people.

Why is YouTube Marketing Important?

Using YouTube marketing, you can visually showcase your products. This means you can directly show them what your product is all about instead of just telling them.

When done well, it can be very effective at converting viewers into customers.

In fact, there are a few more highlights of YouTube marketing:

  • More than 84% of people say that a video has convinced them to make a purchase. This means YouTube video testimonials for your product can help you convert more people into your customers.
  • Videos can keep people engaged in your content much better than text. And 66% of consumers agree and say they prefer watching a video to reading about a product.
  • With YouTube marketing, you can get a massive audience. After all, YouTube reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than all cable TV combined.
  • You’ll get much more time with your customers with YouTube videos. In fact, visitors spend 60% more time on pages with videos, which means you’ll have a much better SEO ranking for your site.

Best Ways to Promote Your YouTube Channel For Free

Ready to promote YouTube videos and build a following? All you have to do is follow these tried-and-tested YouTube marketing tips.

1. Post Engaging YouTube Videos Consistently

First things first — if you want your YouTube videos to become popular, your videos need to provide something of value. Like popular Instagram videos, your YouTube videos won’t get promoted by the algorithm if your viewers don’t find any value in them.

Before you make one, you can ask yourself if your YouTube video is at least one of the following:

  • Helpful
  • Informative
  • Or entertaining

Similarly, you’ll also have to post high-quality content consistently. In fact, research shows that YouTube channels that post more than 1 video a week perform much better than others.

A regular schedule of 1-3 videos per week can be a great target for video promotion if you want to grow your channel.

Once you start posting regularly, you can get your audience into a habit of watching your content and get more views in the long run.

You can also check out this guide on the best time to post on social media to get more out of your videos.

2. Show Your YouTube Videos on Your Website

Similarly, you can just add your YouTube videos to your website in the form of video feeds.

This way, anyone who visits your website will see your YouTube content so your videos are going to reach a larger audience.

Since the people on your site are already interested in your product, they might check out your videos as well. After that, you’ll get more views and subscribers from people visiting your site.

All you need is the 100% free YouTube Feed plugin, and you can create video feeds with your YouTube content.

When you embed multiple YouTube videos on WordPress, your site visitors can watch your YouTube videos and subscribe to your channel right from your website.

The plugin will automatically inherit the design of your website. This means your YouTube feed will perfectly match the branding of your site.

Another added advantage of showing YouTube videos on your website is that people will stay on your website much longer when they’re watching videos.

But if you want an even better way to promote your YouTube videos, we have the YouTube Feed Pro plugin.

youtube feed pro plugin smash balloon

With this plugin, you can get a ton of extra features to help your YouTube channel get even more attention.

You can now add more types of YouTube feeds to your site, including support for livestreams. And with the new filter feature, you’ll get a lot more control over what your YouTube feed shows on your site.

And the biggest advantage of YouTube Feed Pro? It’s the dedicated support team, of course.

user reviews smash balloon

If you ever need help, this support team of WordPress experts will have your back.

Just grab YouTube Feed Pro for your site and promote your YouTube videos even more effectively.

For a quick start, just check out our article on how to add a YouTube feed to your website.

3. Run Contests and Giveaways

Want your YouTube videos to go viral? A great way to do that is by having contests and giveaways on your website.

The idea is pretty simple. People enjoy the chance to win things, and that makes them more likely to engage with your videos.

One of the simplest ways of running a contest is to have people like your video, leave a comment, or subscribe to your channel to enter. This way, you can get a nice boost in engagement and get more new subscribers.

example of giveaway on youtube

You don’t even have to break the bank for gifts. You can go for discount vouchers, free trials, subscriptions, and similar prizes.

And the great thing is that you have an easy way of running contests and giveaways for free. All you need is the RafflePress plugin.

You can just use the drag-and-drop editor to have contests or giveaways ready with no coding needed. Plus, with so many pre-built templates to choose from, you’ll have a contest or giveaway ready in minutes.

youtube giveaway with raffepress

Joining your contests and giveaways will also be super easy for the users since it takes a single click. And because of the advanced fraud protection feature, you won’t have to worry about fake entries either.

So, with the free RafflePress plugin, you can turn your site traffic into YouTube subscribers. For a quick start, check out this guide on how to run an online contest.

To get lots of participants for your contests and giveaways, you can also post them on your website as well.

You can do that with the YouTube Feed plugin that’s completely FREE. Then, people visiting your site can check out your video and participate in the contest or giveaway.

4. Cross-Promote with Other Channels

Another tactic that will help you gain more views on your YouTube videos is to cross-promote your content with other YouTube channels.

By doing that, you’ll get access to a new audience to market your content. And if that’s the right audience, you can turn them into long-term subscribers.

Cross-promoting with another channel or influencer can be pretty easy as well. You can make collaboration videos together, have a livestream session, or even just give each other shout-outs in your videos.

example of youtube collaboration

If your cross-promotion goes well, you can continue working together in the future. Just like that, you’ll have a long-term way to promote your YouTube videos.

You can also give your cross-promotion videos a boost by embedding them on your website with the YouTube Feed Pro plugin.

All you have to do is add your YouTube videos to your website, and your cross-promotion campaigns can get even more attention.

5. Post YouTube Livestreams

Did you know that people watch live videos for 10-20 times longer than normal videos?

That’s right, not only can you get views with livestreams, but you can keep people interested for much longer.

And using YouTube Live, you can start live streaming videos with ease as well.

Not sure what to livestream? Here are a few ideas that can get you started:

  • Question and answer session
  • Webinars
  • Live tutorials
  • Product demonstrations
  • Event celebrations
live stream youtube marketing example

Since the live videos are organic, that makes them compelling for lots of people. It’s all happening in real time, with no editing, so you can appear more genuine.

With Q&A sessions, you can engage and interact with your followers and even directly address them.

By interacting with subscribers on a personal level, you’ll be able to boost watch times, view counts, and engagement of your videos.

While livestreams are really useful, you can use them even more effectively with the YouTube Feed Pro plugin.

embed live streams example

With this plugin, you can actually embed your livestreams on your website. This way, a lot more people will see it, and your streams will get more views and engagement.

Plus, you can even use the YouTube Feed Pro plugin to show your old livestreams, in case anyone missed it.

If you want an easy way to increase the reach of your livestreams, get YouTube Feed Pro today.

6. Promote Your Channel on Other Social Media

Another great way to reach lots of people with your YouTube videos is by promoting them on different social media platforms. That way, people who aren’t browsing YouTube can hop in and watch.

Plus, it’s super easy to promote your YouTube videos. You just have to share the link to your new videos on other social platforms sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Let’s say you have a Facebook page or group for your brand. In other words, you’ve already got a community of people who are interested in your content.

share youtube videos facebook

By sharing new content with your group, you can easily get more views and likes. And when they share your videos on Facebook, you can get even more people to watch your videos.

You can do the same for other major platforms like TikTok and Instagram. In fact, you can even post short snippets or teasers for your videos there.

crosspromote youtube to instagram

This way, you can show people a taste of your content and get them to visit your YouTube channel.

And there’s a great way to build a following on all those platforms. With the Social Wall Pro plugin, you can get more followers on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube in one go.

You can use this tool to add social media feeds from all the major social media platforms on your site. So, you can even have posts from all the different platforms in a single feed.

social wall example

This means your website visitors can go and follow you on all the different social media platforms. You’ll then have a larger audience to share your YouTube videos with.

Using Social Wall Pro, you get the best social media feed plugins for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. And you get unlimited uses for unlimited websites.

Grab your copy of Social Wall Pro, and you can start promoting your YouTube channel effectively.

For a quick start, just check out our guide on how to add social media feeds to WordPress.

7. Add a YouTube Widget to Your Site

One way to make sure your videos get more views is to add a YouTube widget to your site.

With a YouTube widget on the footer or sidebar, anyone who visits your site will be able to see and engage with your videos.

Since your videos are going to be available across all your pages, you can turn your site clicks into views for your YouTube videos.

Interested viewers can even subscribe to your channel to get more content.

Plus, with the FREE YouTube Feed plugin, you can create beautiful YouTube widgets to show feeds of your videos. With these videos, your videos can get a lot more views.

And you can do it for free in just a few clicks. No need to touch a single line of code.

Another great thing about this plugin is that your YouTube widget will inherit the branding of your website.

On top of that, you can also customize the background color, size, and layout of your YouTube widgets.

youtube free customization

This way, YouTube Feed allows you to create YouTube widgets that can effectively promote your content. And if you want an even better way, then there’s YouTube Feed Pro.

With the pro version, you’ll get a lot more features, so your widget can get even more views for your site.

Plus, you get a live feed editor that you can use to customize your YouTube feeds in a few simple clicks. Using the live preview, you can track all your changes during customization.

You have more customization options, including a carousel layout and support for even more feed types, such as YouTube playlists, favorites lists, livestreams, and much more.

What’s more, you’ll also get priority support from a dedicated team of WordPress experts to make sure your site keeps running smoothly.

So what are you waiting for? Get your copy of YouTube Feed Pro today and make engaging YouTube widgets to promote your content.

Just check out our guide on how to create YouTube widgets for your website to get started today.

8. Create and Promote YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts lets you post bite-sized videos that people can quickly pick up and watch. Since they’re so short, people are much more likely to check out your content in full.

Short-form video platforms allow for creative storytelling, showcasing products or services, and building brand awareness within a few seconds, reaching potential customers where they spend a significant portion of their time.

Don Dodds, Founder at M16 Marketing

The best part? You can simply trim interesting parts of your longer videos to create YouTube shorts quickly and easily.

example of youtube shorts

Plus, you can create teasers for your longer content to get more engagement for your other video posts as well.

On top of that, you can promote your YouTube shorts on one of the fastest-growing social media platforms out there — TikTok!

Just repost your short videos to TikTok, and you can start getting views on multiple popular social media platforms.

Better yet, you can use the 100% TikTok Feed plugin to embed your TikTok content on your website.

feeds for tiktok free plugin

Then, you can convert your site traffic into more views, likes, and followers with ease. If you link your brand’s YouTube account on TikTok, interested people can subscribe and help grow your channel.

For more information, you can check out this guide on embedding your TikTok profile on your WordPress website.

9. Use YouTube Analytics

If you want to promote your YouTube videos, you can first check how your videos are currently performing. And for this, you have YouTube’s own analytics feature.

By checking your analytics, you can see if your current methods of promoting YouTube videos are working. Then, you can just focus on the methods that are effective and try to rework the methods that are less effective.

check your youtube video analytics

For example, let’s say you worked with another YouTuber and had a cross-promotion campaign.

Using analytics, you then checked how it affected your channel’s performance and found a sharp increase in the number of viewers afterward.

youtube insights page

You now have proof that your audience responds well to cross-promotions with that channel. So moving forward, you can start focusing on them.

And you even get more info about your viewers, including their location, age, and gender. Then you can plan your content with these in mind.

As you can see, YouTube’s social media analytics tool can help you out when it comes to promoting your YouTube channel.

10. Optimize Your Videos for YouTube SEO

If you want to promote your videos on YouTube, you’ll have to make sure that people can find them.

And that’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. If your YouTube video has good SEO, then it will rank higher in the search results.

With these few simple changes, you’ll have an easy time growing your following and making trending content:

  • Brainstorm your main keyword

Before making the video, think of a search term that you want to rank for. For example, let’s say you’re making a video about doing keyword research. Then, you might want to rank for something like “how to do keyword research”.

This means we’ll use the keyword “how to do keyword research” for our example.

  • Add your main keyword to your script

Now, when you’re creating the video, make sure to include that keyword in the script.

YouTube can detect what you say in your videos. So, actually saying the keyword means you’re showing YouTube that your video content fits that keyword.

  • Create a video title that includes the keyword

After the video is done, it’s time for the title. Here, remember to add the keyword to the title of the video. And don’t forget to make it sound natural.

For example, you can make the title “How to Do Keyword Research for Your Website and SEO” to fit our keyword.

  • Add the keyword to the description and the tags

The next step is to write a description that fits your video. There, make sure to include your keyword as well.

example adding keywords to youtube videos

Now, add hashtags with keywords that are related to your video descriptions. This is another way to use hashtags to show YouTube that your video content definitely fits those keywords.

And that means YouTube search is more likely to show your video when people search for those terms.

add keywords to hashtag seo

Just select the right keywords and add them to your video and channel description to rank higher in YouTube search results.

  • Create an engaging thumbnail for your video

Before making the video public, you can also create a custom thumbnail image. A good thumbnail can convince people to click on your video on the search results page.

In fact, just adding an eye-catching thumbnail can boost your click rate by 40%!

When people click on your video, the YouTube algorithm will notice and rank your video even higher.

example of youtube thumbnails

As you can see, these are all simple to do and cost absolutely nothing. And in exchange, more people from your target audience can find your videos.

If you want to find better keywords to help you optimize your videos, check out our post on the best keyword research tools.

11. Celebrate Your Milestones

Whenever you reach a new milestone, like a sales goal, anniversary, or even a YouTube subscriber goal, it’s a chance to promote your channel.

In one go, you can improve your relationship with your subscribers and also get access to lots of new ones.

First, celebrating your milestones means you’re showing appreciation for the people who helped you reach them. It’s a great way to ensure long-term growth for your YouTube channel.

milestone celebrate market your youtube

By including your subscribers in these celebrations, they’re much less likely to leave and more likely to help you promote your content.

On top of this, you can also celebrate your milestones in creative ways and post different types of YouTube videos. For example, you can take this opportunity to announce a new product, run giveaways, organize contests, etc.

When you do this, your post will have a much better chance of going viral. Plus, this also makes people more invested in your brand since they also get something from your milestones.

If you want even more reach, you can also use YouTube Feed Pro to embed your milestone celebration on your site.

embed single video youtube feed

Then, you can let your website visitors know that you have an active YouTube presence.

On top of that, you can also add a call-to-action to your video’s end screen and direct more people to your YouTube channel.

Just check out our tutorial on how to embed your YouTube channel on your site, and you can promote your milestone celebrations more effectively.

12. Interact With Others

Want the easiest method to gain views on your videos? It is to interact with your subscribers, commenters, and other content creators on YouTube.

Some people don’t think of YouTube as a social media platform. But it’s also a community where people communicate through likes, dislikes, and comments.

That means treating it as a social media platform and garnering interactions can be great for YouTube promotion as well.

respond to youtube comments example

Engaging with your audience helps to foster a strong connection with them, which can turn into a loyal fanbase.

Plus, discussions in the comment section can keep people in your channel for longer. You can easily get that started by asking questions on your video and encouraging viewers to respond.

You can even show appreciation for some people’s comments by pinning them at the top. With positive interactions like this, you’ll have a much easier time getting people interested in your brand.

There’s also the YouTube community post section, where you can show status updates, polls, and behind-the-scenes content.

interact with youtube community grow channel

It’s a great way to build up hype about your future content, promote your other products or even get to know your audience better.

And that’s it!

As you can see, it can be super easy to promote your YouTube channel for free. With these tried-and-tested hacks, you can promote your videos and gain a dedicated audience in no time.

For a simple way to grow your YouTube channel, you can embed feeds of YouTube videos on your WordPress site. That way, successful YouTube channel promotion can be much easier.

Want to give your YouTube channel a serious boost? Get YouTube Feed Pro for your site.

Looking to get more out of your YouTube channel? Then check out our article on how to easily grow your YouTube channel.

FAQs on How to Promote Your YouTube Videos for FREE

Is it worth it to promote my YouTube videos?

Yes, it’s definitely worth it to promote YouTube videos since it’s one of the biggest social platforms out there and a fantastic place to find customers or interested users.

While you have to compete with a lot of large YouTube channels, using simple hacks like embedding YouTube widgets, SEO optimization, and more can help you stand out and get more views easily.

How can I promote my YouTube channel without spending money?

You can use a free tool like the YouTube Feed plugin to embed YouTube feeds and get more views and subscribers easily — even if you don’t have money.

Plus, you can use tried-and-tested techniques like:

  • Interacting with existing subscribers and making community posts
  • Tracking your analytics to check if your current strategy is working
  • Posting regularly at the right time to reach your YouTube audience
  • Promoting your YouTube channel on your website and other social platforms

Which is the best place to promote YouTube videos?

If you’re looking for the best place to promote your videos, you can try using your website. After all, people on your site are already interested in your brand, so they’re more likely to check out your videos as well.

To get started, you can try following this guide on how to embed YouTube videos on your website.

Should I upload the same Shorts twice on YouTube?

No, reposting the same Shorts can actually harm your channel’s growth since YouTube might flag your content as spam. For a better way to get views easily, you can embed the YouTube shorts on your website.

Plus, you can repost the YouTube shorts on TikTok or Instagram to get more views across different social media sites.

And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter if you want more social media marketing tips and tricks.

author avatar
Sajjan Sharma Senior Writer
Sajjan has been writing about WordPress, social media marketing, and online businesses for over 10 years. His professional interests extend to include influencer marketing, content curation and digital marketing strategies.

Comments 3

  1. Fmp studio 2 years ago

    Thanks you for teaching.

    Reply
  2. Irot Ruth Christine 1 year ago

    Thanks for the support given

    Reply
  3. Diana Bussey 1 year ago

    Thank you!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Diana Bussey Cancel reply

We're glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our privacy policy, and all links are nofollow. Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.