The YouTube community consists of a billion viewers and counting. Each and every one of these visitors to the site represents a potential view for you as well as a potential new subscriber. However, before these people get hooked on your videos, you’ve got to reel them in.
Here are the five things that every video needs to attract new viewers.
1. A brightly colored thumbnail immediately catches a viewer’s eye.
If you take a walk through the toy aisle at your local department store, you’ll quickly notice all of the brightly colored packagings. Using vibrant colors in their product design helps these toy companies grab the attention of both the kids in their target demographics and the parents who are purchasing the toys.
You can apply the same marketing technique when it comes to your video thumbnails. Bold colors capture a viewer’s attention more quickly than a neutral or understated thumbnail design would. Bright yellow, blue, purple, and even red are popular with big-name content creators.
Vlogbrothers got trending with this video. Even though the title isn’t very interesting, the bright purple thumbnail grabbed the attention of thousands of viewers.
2. An expressive face on the thumbnail piques a viewer’s interest.
Watching a sitcom is a lot different than watching a crime drama. On a sitcom, the actors are often loud and expressive with their movements rather than subtle and thoughtful. Millions of viewers tune into their favorite sitcoms every single week. Many viewers turn to YouTube for the same type of entertainment.
Though you may not be an actor, you can still put on a great performance for your video thumbnails. You can be shocked, excited, confused, scared- anything that is going to make potential viewers want to click on your video.
Miranda Sings is one of the greatest examples of expressive thumbnails. She incorporates very exaggerated expressions into her video thumbnails, which in turn attracts hundreds of thousands of viewers to her channel.
3. A clickbait title works like a tabloid headline.
When you’re in the checkout line at the supermarket, what kinds of headlines grab your attention from the magazine rack? Odds are, you’re probably more intrigued by “Is this Kardashian pregnant now?” than “Katy Perry wears jeans and a t-shirt!”.
Though many of the more sensational headlines are just tabloid fabrications, there’s no doubt that they get people to purchase the magazines. For vloggers, clickbait titles work in the same way. However, you have to be a little more realistic than a tabloid magazine does. You can write a video title that sensationalizes your content without twisting it completely.
YouTuber Tana Mongeau made herself famous with sensational, clickbait video titles. Even though her titles seem too crazy to be true, she always delivers with a great story.
4. Putting the title in all caps grabs a viewer’s attention.
Your potential viewers might scroll through dozens of videos before they find one that they want to watch. For them, it’s like standing in a roomful of people who are all clamoring for their attention. How do they know who to talk to first?
The loudest person in the room would likely be noticed first. Noise gets attention. Though you can’t make your video titles scream, you can get the same effect by writing them in all caps. Your potential viewers’ eyes will go straight to your video titles because they’ll stand out from the rest.
Gabbie Hanna puts the majority of her video titles in all caps, thereby grabbing the attention of millions of viewers.
5. Including text on the thumbnail adds shock factor.
It’s not the images or the titles alone that make people want to pick up a magazine. Rather, the two work together to draw customers to one tabloid over the other. You can attract more viewers to your videos the same way.
Combine the power of colorful thumbnails with clickbait titles to create a truly awesome thumbnail. Simply add a few words of bold text to your thumbnail in order to add an extra layer of shock value. Make it different from the title, bold, and easy to read.
Joey Graceffa mixes colorful text and graphics to make video thumbnails that pop.
You can attract new viewers to your videos with bold thumbnails and clickbait titles. Incorporate these five things into your videos, and you’ll likely be welcoming new viewers to your channel soon!
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Kristen Harris enjoys listening to a wide range of music, from Taylor Swift to, on occasion, Celtic instrumental. She also spends her time writing, reading, and baking.
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