Want to stealthily promote your YouTube channel without making your marketing needs too obvious? Try guerilla marketing! Guerilla marketing is essentially marketing in unconventional ways, places where your audience least expects it. While product and media companies have been using guerilla marketing strategies for years, you too can do the same as a YouTuber.
1. Undercover marketing
Many companies use undercover/stealth marketing to promote their products. For example, in 2002, Sony planted paid actors in tourist destinations to ask unsuspecting strangers to click their photo. As they handed over the latest Sony phone to the stranger, they would talk about the various features that the phone has, thus hyping up this upcoming phone.
To promote your channel, you can go “undercover” as a viewer/subscriber of your channel and talk about it on Reddit, Quora, and other similar platforms. A lot of these platforms may have questions, discussions on topics about your niche. There, you can talk about the topic and leave a related link to one of your videos.
2. Viral marketing
A viral piece of content markets itself. But it’s not easy to create viral content, especially on a crowded platform like YouTube. Try to create challenges, giveaways, etc that can trigger more user-generated content that talks about your channel.
For example, the ALS Foundation created the Ice Bucket challenge in 2014 to raise funds for medical research. The challenge was a huge success, with millions of people participated, raising over 115 million dollars in donations.
3. QR codes
Something as simple as a QR code leading to your YouTube page is bound to grab people’s attention. You can display the QR code in local stores, malls etc., where you might expect your target audience to come frequently. And if you’ve got the budget for it, get yourself a billboard! Display something unique to trigger people’s curiosity, making them scan the code instantly.
4. Event ambush marketing
What do you do when you already know that an audience will be present at a particular time and place? Leverage it to promote your channel, of course! This could be in malls, outside movie theatres, stadiums or parks where you can expect a large gathering. You can try different tactics to grab people’s attention and market your channel to them.
Remember flash mobs? A lot of flash mobs were a type of event ambush marketing, where the audience’s attention was grabbed by dancers, and then the troupe would endorse their project/products during or at the end of the performance.
Marketing is one of the most important things to do for any YouTube channel. With guerilla marketing, you not only promote your channel, but also create word-of-mouth chatter about your ingenious strategies which can boost your audience growth.
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