How To Use YouTube To Promote Your Spiritual Business During The Coronavirus Pandemic?
Spirituality, YouTube and the COVID-19 pandemic
The world today is grappling with a pandemic— the coronavirus or the COVID-19 pandemic. This is something that the present generation of people never imagined. It’s true that humanity has witnessed a couple of pandemics in the past, but there’s something different about this one. It was hard to imagine how a small virus that originated in China’s Wuhan province would permeate international borders and bring the entire world into its icy clutches that discriminate against no one.
People worldwide are leaving no stone unturned to stand strong in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The world has changed in a jiffy with lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, social distancing norms, and business closures. The times are tough, but just like any other challenge, the pandemic comes with a powerful lesson for humanity to learn. Believe it or not, it has thrown the spotlight on the idea of universal connectedness—something that shows we are all part and parcel of one large spiritual realm.
This is the time to focus on spiritual awakening and raising consciousness. The pandemic and the change in lifestyle resulting from it have pushed humanity to embrace spirituality even more than ever before. People have taken a step back and have started taking a closer look at their respective lives. This is an unprecedented period where people have started delving deeper into their inner selves and urging fellow human beings to do the same.
During the coronavirus pandemic, several spiritual practices, such as yoga and meditation, have come to the forefront to cope with the challenging times. If you believe in spreading awareness of these practices, then YouTube is the platform you should be on to grow your spiritual business.
Being the second-largest search engine after its parent Google, YouTube has become the go-to media for people seeking entertainment and information while staying indoors during the pandemic. As per a survey of social media users in the United States conducted in March 2020, 64% of people stated that they would use YouTube more if confined to their homes during the pandemic.
Promoting your spirituality channel on YouTube
So, if you have decided to cater to the spiritually conscious individuals during the coronavirus pandemic through YouTube, you should consider some best-practices for promoting your channel and getting real YouTube subscribers. It may sound intimidating initially, but with time and persistent effort, you can take your channel to enormous heights of success. Here are a few tips for using YouTube to promote your spiritual business during the pandemic:
1. Choose the right set of keywords
Just like a website or a blog, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for the success of your spirituality channel on YouTube. The key step here is to understand specific terms that YouTube users enter into the search bar while looking for content. It seems that users don’t just look for video content using YouTube. Google is a preferred search medium for them too. Not to forget, Google prioritizes and adds more weight to video content over other forms of content while ranking.
This is the reason why you should pay attention to your keywords—the terms that people search for on YouTube and Google—to get YouTube views and achieve growth in your audience base. Choosing the right set of keywords does not involve a one-size-fits-all approach. But here are a few points to note:
- Use a tool like Keyword Planner to identify search-friendly keywords.
- Google out your keyword options to check how they rank on SERPs.
- Scan the SERP to know if top-ranking results are written content or videos.
- The video search results appear when you add words like “tutorial” and “how to.” For example, “how to perform yoga,” “the ultimate meditation tutorial is here,” or “how to meditate?”
2. Write catchy video titles
After you have selected your keywords to rank on search, you need to now focus on the titles of your YouTube video content. You should know that the title is the first thing your viewers will see when they come across your content. So, it should be concise, descriptive, and preferably punchy to create the right first impression on your audience and get more YouTube subscribers.
To come up with effective titles for your video content, follow the tips below:
- Keep your video titles sweet, simple, and short. The ideal character limit is 60 or less.
- The first half of your video title should include your target keyword(s) so that your viewers get valuable information. It’s the starting of a sentence that tends to catch the most attention of your viewers.
- Your video titles should evoke an emotional response and showcase benefits, besides being moderately the click-bait style.
If you are unable to come up with a title for your video content, you can leverage the autocomplete feature of YouTube. This way, you can identify popular keywords and know what YouTube suggests when searching for a particular topic or theme.
3. Create a detailed profile
No matter how appealing your spirituality content on YouTube is, promoting your channel won’t give you much growth if your profile is incomplete. Just like your profile on other social media networks—be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the likes—your YouTube channel requires a compelling profile description to catch the eye of your viewers. Also, a well-crafted and well-optimized profile description can boost your SEO efforts and increase your YouTube views.
Creating a complete YouTube profile is easier than most people think. To help you through the process, here are some tips to follow:
- Remain consistent throughout the profile-creation process. Use writing style, color, and layout similar to your website and other social media profiles.
- Add relevant, search-friendly keywords to optimize your channel description.
- Add your contact details so that people interested in your content can reach out to you easily.
4. Use custom thumbnails
Just like your video titles and description, thumbnails have a huge role to play in the success of any video marketing initiative on YouTube. Believe it or not, the human brain is tuned to absorb more information visually than through written content. Visuals are processed by the brain in less than thirteen milliseconds, which is why thumbnails are important to catch viewers’ attention.
It’s true that YouTube creates thumbnails automatically whenever a video is uploaded on a channel. However, these thumbnails tend to be slightly blurry at times. To increase your YouTube views and ultimately your YouTube subscribers, you can customize your video thumbnails. Here are some rules to follow:
- Follow a 16:9 aspect ratio or a 1280×720 pixel resolution.
- Stick to the 2MB size limit.
- Use .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG formats.
- Encourage clicks and YouTube views by adding text, colors, and high-contrast images.
5. Focus on creating value
Your spirituality business can get more YouTube views and real YouTube subscribers only if you offer something of value to your viewers. This is the reason why you should pay heed to create high-quality and relevant content for achieving business growth. You should know that YouTube prioritizes the holistic experience of viewers while ranking video content. So, it’s all the more important to create video content that strikes an emotional chord with your YouTube subscribers.
Before you publish any piece of video content on your YouTube channel, you should consider its entertainment as well as the value quotient. Your video should address a problem that your viewers face—be it an emotional or mental health issue—and give them a valuable solution. Since the ultimate goal of your spirituality business is to enrich the lives of people, your videos should give your YouTube subscribers a reason to keep coming back to you.
6. Interact with your YouTube subscribers
Lastly, getting real YouTube subscribers will depend on how much you interact with your viewers and engage them. It’s just not about creating a piece of content and publishing it on your channel. You will have to maintain two-way traffic to attract and retain your YouTube subscribers. That’s only possible when you personalize your interactions and make your viewers feel valued.
The comment section is where most of your interactions with your YouTube subscribers take place. You should always respond to the comments given by your viewers. It’s likely that you will come across both positive and negative comments. It’s essential to take all of them seriously. Posting response videos is a good way to show that you care about your viewers’ opinions. Get in touch with your top YouTube subscribers, and don’t hesitate to thank them for their support.
Conclusion
The above are some of the many ways to promote your spirituality business on YouTube during the coronavirus pandemic. These times are challenging for everyone, and your business can truly make a difference in people’s lives if you focus on creating and publishing soul-enriching, superior-quality content. Doing so will surely help you get more YouTube views, expand your YouTube subscribers, and achieve incremental business growth.