Today I´m going to talk about how to promote a YouTube cooking channel and how you can get leverage from a few different strategies to reach a broader audience.

Although there are many tips and methods that could probably work well to promote any YouTube channel there are 7 ways I´ve found that can accelerate your growth as a cooking channel much quicker.

Let´s begin! 😄

1. Effective Forum Promotion

Forums are still alive and they are a great channel for promoting your videos and share what you do… if you do it effectively.

Although there are lots of dead forums out there you can easily find those where people are still engaged with what it´s being discussed.

And if you do a good job at them you can prompt them to watch your videos if you know HOW.

Actually, sharing your videos on Quora, Reddit, and cooking-related forums can be one of the most effective ways to take your channel´s growth to the very next level.

Now, let´s talk about the actual steps you need to take!

Here´s how to do it:

1. Go to Quora and create an account, then configure it so that ANY question that is related to your niche it´s notified directly to your email so that you´ll be able to be one of the firsts who answers. Then, make sure to do a good at addressing each question that could lead to embedding one of your videos and that will get you some high-quality views as a result.
2. Search on Reddit for sub-reddits that are close to your niche or area of expertise and begin to interact with other people trying to provide value to them, answering their questions to the best of your abilities or experience, and after doing that for a couple of days you can start suggesting some of your videos as THE answer to some questions that are being asked.
3. Type on Google “Forum” + “Cooking” or any sort of related keyword you can think of and see what comes out, like this:

As you see, you can find tons of great opportunities to get some leverage from and get both your videos and channel in front of more people.

The truth is that this is a simple yet effective strategy most people don´t use because it takes some previous work.

You have to become a part of an online community and get people interested in what you have to say first, and then ask for some of their attention whenever you pop one of your videos links.

Although I can assure you it is totally worth it!

2. Take Advantage Of Viral Videos

You can not only get inspired by viral videos but also learn a ton from them in order to mimic their results.

Keep in mind that it can only take ONE viral video for you to get out there and start getting real results, in terms of subs and revenue.

Video virality is one of those things many content creators talk about and analyze quite a bit as it is a quick way to acquire fast recognition within the platform as well as more views and subs.

So, let´s talk about how you can apply some of the strategies that are behind viral videos.

Here´s what you should know to get started:

• Use Unexpectency. You want to be unexpected, weird, rare, or at least uncommon. Make a bold statement, crack a joke, use a custom when cooking, any sort of pattern interrupt that you can use to grab people´s attention will also work, as long as you make it different from everyone else’s.
• Tell a Story. The second viral concept is to use effective storytelling, which is the same as saying that you got to have some sort of structure to your videos. You have to have an intro, a middle, and end, properly set and think of it beforehand. People are compelled to stories, not tutorials, but if you are able to combine both then you have a winner!
• Get Emotional. Finally, try to evoke emotion with your video, whatever that may mean, laughter, crying, joy, etc. This will make people want to share it, lake it, engage with it way more.

These are three characteristics most viral videos have in common and that you can easily copy from in order to get your videos to that same (if not similar) level of exposure and noticeability.

That being said, this doesn´t mean you shouldn´t work on your thumbnail, title, and description, nothing further from the truth really.

But I´m going to talk about that in a second, so keep reading.

3. Target Long-Tail Keywords

Applying some of the best SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices is one of the greatest ways to promote organic growth online.

Actually, one effective way to promote your channel´s growth in the cooking niche is by targeting super specific keywords nobody is actually answering, which is a common SEO practice.

Although it might not bring a ton of viewers and customers it is a sure way to get the ball rolling and take advantage of (literally) hundreds of underserved keywords.

What you´ll be doing is basically target what is known as long-tail keywords, which are specific questions people ask online.

It works like this:

Instead of making a video about “Vegetarian Recipes”, which is pretty competitive, you create content around a long-tail version of that, something like “Easy Vegetarian Recipes For Beginners”.

Which looks a lot more approachable:

In fact, the first three videos don´t even answer the question I´ve typed, an opportunity to jump in right there!

A long-tail keyword should consist of (at least) 4 to 5 words in order to be considered such.

It´s simple, usually, the more specific you get the better opportunities to thrive you´ll find.

On the other hand, you can also go too specific and create a video that doesn´t really reach an audience.

The sweet spot is for YOU to find on each occasion.

4. Benefit From Foodstagram

Although all social media promotion can prove to be a great way to grow your food-related YouTube channel Instagram should be your first priority.

It is, by far, the number one way to have a social media presence as a cooking specialist or recipe maker nowadays.

That´s why there´s even a name for it: Foodstagram.

So, it might be a good idea to benefit from this HUGE trend as it keeps growing and people love to watch photos and videos of your meals and the latest creations.

You can further promote your YouTube channel by putting your work in front of a different audience and get them to subscribe by providing a link on your bio.

Like this:

Also, promoting your channel with a simple text effect in each video or post you make can generate enough curiosity so that others may take action and check out your YouTube videos too.

Okay then, let´s see how you can grow an online presence on Instagram as an upcoming star in the cooking industry.

Here are a few tips from other Foodstagrames:

• Be active. The algorithm tends to promote way more accounts that stay active on the platform, and it is also a great way to show your fans that you care and that you take this seriously as well, according to @bayarea.foodies.
• Authenticity. You need to develop your own style, your own way of showing your art and expertise so that you avoid that similarity that tends to kill newer accounts that get into the game for all the wrong reasons. Be your authentic self and work on your art.
• Networking is KEY. Finally, other Instagrammers (like @taipeifoodie) suggest finding food bloggers, restaurants, or any other potential partner that could link to your videos and help you grow your online presence if you link to them too, sharing customers and fans you both have grown on your own.

5. Get Leverage From CTR

The fifth step to making your cooking YouTube channel grow is to increase your CTR, which stands for Click Through Rate.

CTR refers to the percentage of actual clicks you get from the number of impressions your videos get whenever they show up all over the platform.

For example, if a 1000 people notice your video pop up on their YouTube homepage but just 10 of them click on your video then your CTR would be 1%, which is considered low.

According to the YouTube team, half of all channels have a CTR that can range between 2% and 10%. That would be considered “normal”. (source)

You can interpret your data by using theirs and see if there´s an opportunity for growth and likelihood that you can increase your viewership by making a few simple changes.

Here´s how:

• Use BOGY Thumbnails. Choosing the right colors is the first right step you must take in order to get noticed on YouTube by new viewers and to get more clicks you HAVE TO use BOGY thumbnails, that is: Blue, Orange, Green, and Yellow colors onto your thumbnail design to stand out, as those are colors not widely used by other YouTubers and are also different from the ones used by the platform itself, which are black, white, and red.
• A bold text title. Secondly, you want to have a bold big title that is easy to read, doesn´t have too many words, and evokes curiosity so that people feel compelled to click on your video.
• Show your face. Finally, showing a human face has been proven to be the number one way to increase CTR and get more people interested in your content as well.

Although these tips are great and work really well you should always keep in mind that you have to try to develop your own style and design.

CTR is a big topic within the YouTube community, so please don´t underestimate its power for growth.

6. Grow With Guest Posting

Not many people notice that there´s true power on guest posting and that they can get leverage from other sites traffic and authority.

If you take the time to contribute to some of the most known sites within your industry you´ll be able to increase your brand´s exposure much faster.

Guest posting is one of the surest ways to get viewers, loyal subscribers, and start making a name for yourself in the food niche.

There are lots of content creators that started out this way and now you see them on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and many other platforms because they knew how to take advantage of guest posts, among other things of course.

Check out this example:

So, as you see, you can get featured as a contributor in a well-established blog that has tons of readers already interested in your exact type of content.

Guest posting can be such a great way to promote and grow your YouTube cooking channel fast and effectively if you dedicate some time to it.

You can easily find tons of great opportunities by simply typing on Google things like:

• keyword “submit a guest post”
• keyword “guest post”
• keyword “guest post guidelines”

Make sure to have a list of reliable blogs you can post to and follow up with in order to build long-term relationships that can fasten your growth as a content creator within your niche.

7. Double Down On What Works!

Now that you´ve been trying a few different strategies and you have some results and numbers you can measure it is time to analyze the results you´ve gotten.

The purpose of this is quite simple, you MUST find the golden nuggets within your content and tactics that have outperformed the rest and double down on them.

You can do this by using tools such as YouTube Analytics to check out your best performing videos according to audience retention metrics and see what worked and what didn´t to apply the same things on future videos.

You will be looking for something that looks like this:

In addition to that, you should track your clicks!

This means tracking the number of clicks you get for every link you put into your video description, website, Instagram bio, and wherever it may be.

There are free tools as well you can use in order to accomplish this and they are super easy to use, one of such being Bitly.

It allows you to

That way you´ll be able to see EXACTLY how many people take action and where they go when they click your links.

By doing that you´ll easily identify what´s working and what´s not so that you can adjust your plan accordingly. 😉

The goal is really simple, track, analyze and identify what works, and do more of it. That´s it!

Here´s how to do it:

• First, say your keyword, the one you are going to target on your video, at least twice, Google understands the words that are mentioned throughout a video.
• Second, make sure to upload or optimize your transcript so that your video ranks up high on Google and appears into the video snippet.

Okay, that´s it for now, I hope this information has helped you, you can hit me up in the comments if you have any questions.

Have a great one!

Matt Porta.