How to Build a Winning Strategy For Your YouTube Channel

There are 4 pillars to any great channel on YouTube 1. A captivating personality/Brand 2. A unique value proposition 3. A compelling narrative 4. An engaged audience Building these 4 pillars is essential if you want your channel to be successful. 1. Personality/Brand It is rare that you find people who can truly captivate an audience. A talent that comes naturally to some but can be learnt and practised by all. Your audience must feel a sense of connection to your onscreen personality or brand, be that via shared interests, personality traits or philosophies and ideals, you must find a way to present your channel as a means to express and explore something that brings you together. 2. Value proposition Time is our most precious resource, why should a viewer give theirs to you? What value do you offer that cannot be gained elsewhere and how will you deliver it efficiently so as to respect the time invested into consuming it? The best content on YouTube can inform and educate more efficiently than a degree whilst entertaining its viewers through a unique experience. 3. Narrative Hooking a viewer with an engaging concept is one thing but getting them to stick around for the length of a video and beyond is a whole other story. To keep your viewers engaged you need to wrap your content in a compelling narrative which not only spans the length of a video but also connects one video to the next. Plan ahead and consider how you will develop your channel's narrative over time and how you will keep it engaging so your viewers keep coming back for more. 4. Audience Your channel is nothing without an audience, after all everything you post is built for them. But to truly capture your audience you must actively engage with and develop your connection to them. There are three types of viewers on YouTube: Passive viewers, Active viewers and Fans. Passive viewers will make up the bulk of your views but are unlikely to engage with it, whilst active viewers are less common but far more likely to do so. Fans however will not only engage with your video but are likely to do so with much of your content, even outside of YouTube. Converting your casual viewers to fans is a lengthy and difficult process but doing so will ensure the success of your channel and promote its long term health whilst enabling you to go further with the support of your community. With all of this in mind you should now have everything you need to begin building out a winning strategy for your channel.