Rob started out on YouTube in 2012, building up a tech channel before joining the vidIQ team. He now educates over 450,000 subscribers on the vidIQ channel which has over 25,000,000 video views. Today he is hard at work sharing everything he has learned on the YouTube platform; educating video creators on how to grow their own channels and turn hobbies into careers - just like Rob did in 2017.
How to Start an ASMR Channel on YouTube [Real Life Case Study]
ASMR. It is a huge topic on YouTube, generating Billions of views, with many creators wanting to get into this space. But how do you do that? We found a channel that's growing fast, and they have the perfect strategy.
ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response or auto sensory meridian response. It's an experience characterized by static-like tingling, and it is a cultural phenomenon on YouTube. So if you are a video creator who's been thinking about doing ASMR, stop thinking and start acting. Or whispering, in this case.
How to Start an ASMR Channel on YouTube
Now, I know what you might be saying at this point. I've seen ASMR, but the competition is so fierce. There are so many channels out there, how can I start a YouTube channel today and expect to have any success in this topic on YouTube? Well, the channel we are looking at today did just that.
The creator of ASMR MAG UK started an ASMR YouTube channel just a few months ago in the middle of 2019, and after 30 videos, they already have nearly 2,000 subscribers and tens of thousands of views. We're going to look at how they achieved this. Let's have a look at some of the fundamentals as to why this channel is already successful before looking at the topic of ASMR.
ASMR Success on YouTube: Standout Custom Thumbnails
First of all, take a look at the channel thumbnails. They all have rich, vibrant colors, and the saturation is definitely being upped in each of these videos so that the colors really shine through. These are the type of thumbnails that make you stop swiping or scrolling through a feed because they just catch your attention.
And there are some subtle consistencies throughout each of these videos. I'm not talking about the logo, which could probably do with a bit of work, but the red lipstick, and the action of placing food towards those lips in an eating motion. You see that through every single thumbnail. These are the type of thumbnails that you could mix in with lots of other ASMR channels, but you would always know that these thumbnails come from ASMR Mag UK.
ASMR Success on YouTube: Best Titles & Descriptions
Another consistency that you see throughout all of the videos is the titling strategy. Look at the first two or three words of every single video. And they always start the same ASMR Eating or ASMR Eating Edible. This video creator is telling YouTube every single time exactly what their video is about, very plainly and very clearly. And that helps YouTube serve this content to the right audience time and time again. And you can see that through the views.
This channel has 1,700 subscribers, but each video is hitting that mark or a little beyond because the content is so consistent. This creator has dialed in their audience perfectly with ASMR Eating or Eating Edibles.
Now, this SEO richness is reinforced throughout the metadata - on the channel and for the videos. In the description, the creator continues to talk about ASMR Edibles, but not only that, the creator talks about what's in it for the viewer. What's in it for you, not what's in it for the creator. And a lot of people make that mistake of being a little too self-indulgent about what they want and what they want to get out of a channel, rather than the value that they're giving to their audience. In the video descriptions, it's the same type of thing. Always reinforcing the keywords they want to use.
And although tags aren't that important these days, it's clear that this creator has done their research into the ASMR keyword topic, and includes all of those words wherever they can in some of the titles, descriptions, and tags, the channel description. It's all about the consistency of content.
ASMR Success on YouTube: Consistency
What you'll also notice is there is also a very consistent video length. The creator seems to be aiming for a sweet spot between eight and twelve minutes. And generally speaking, the advice is to make longer videos and create more watch time. But obviously, you need to appreciate your audience. Through me doing this process myself I'm understanding that ASMR appeals to a more relaxed, slow-paced type of video. Hence why this video is going on longer than usual.
But for this creator, each video is almost exactly the same length. So again, the viewer knows exactly what they're getting into every time they see one of her videos and click into it.
So those are several foundations of a solid channel, which any video creator would be proud of. But for this channel, this is where the magic happens. When you start to read the video titles, and you look at the thumbnails, something doesn't add up. It makes you stop for a second and go, how on earth can you eat a Coca-Cola bottle, or spanners and tools, or a Starbucks coffee cup, an iPhone 11?
All these things the creator talks about are very nonedible somewhat impossible items to eat. So how on earth does this person achieve this? As a viewer, you have me intrigued and you've earned my click.
But the big question is, do these videos deliver the valued prize in the title and the thumbnail? Well, as you can see from the views, and the continued growth of the channel, the answer very much is yes, because this creator's unique superpower on YouTube is to create edible versions of these items. Of course, it goes without saying that people want to watch good content. But when you can provide not only good content but something completely unique, in a very popular topic, that is a winning combination.
ASMR: How to Combine With Other YouTube Trends
And then beyond all of what we've already talked about so far, the video creator is trend warping. How can you take the topic of ASMR and combine it with the most popular smartphone release of the year, the iPhone 11? Well, you make it and you eat it! That is a very unique skill, and it is being expertly executed. Now on this particular occasion, the video didn't go viral, but the creator is giving themselves the best opportunity of doing that, and potentially in the future.
They've tried to do this with the Pixel 4 and Frozen 2, as both of those big releases loom. It's only going to take one of these videos to and a huge audience is going to see this content, and the channel will grow very, very rapidly.
For a channel that is so young at this point, less than six months old, it is incredible to see the channel focus, the discipline, to create videos on one topic. And this is a niche within ASMR. Making items and then eating them, with the audience watching. And the creator is already very farsighted because they added two other ASMR channels. They want to create silos within this topic. They have a channel about eating general foods, and another one for sleep relaxation.
Now those channels are very small right now, but as I've already said, it just requires one of these channels to blow up, and then the views will circulate through all of the channels very rapidly, and very effectively. The key to this success so far is the focus, and if they continue with this channel focus, they will get big rewards very soon. The channel right now is growing at over 500 subscribers per month. A third of its size.
Don't be surprised if this time next year they have tens of thousands of subscribers. And you can do the same in any topic if you follow those fundamental strategies.
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