Tip: A Better YouTube Trailer

If you have a YouTube channel, an important element of marketing is your channel trailer. This a video you can select to autoplay every time a unsubscribed visitor shows up to check out your wares. YouTube instructs you to keep this brief and to give an overview of your content, but I think their advice isn't very effective.

I used to have a brief trailer, which lasted on my channel for a couple of years. It was short, sweet, and to the point, but I wasn't featured (just my old intro) and it quickly got old. Every time a potential subscriber came for a look-see, that same old trailer would play. It really needed an update and was always on my to do list. But wouldn't it quickly get old as well?

I'm of the belief that, like a website, your YouTube channel should always have fresh content. This would mean a fresh trailer every month or so, right? Wrong! Some channels just use their most recent video as a trailer, and while that does take care of the requirement to have new stuff featured, I don't think it's always the best idea.

The best YouTube channels have a variety of content, not all of which would make a good trailer for the unsubbed visitor. I post reviews, tips, Q&As and short films, but none of them really represent the main thrust of my channel: DIY filmmaking. My DIY videos are the best representation of what I am all about, so that is what I now use as my trailer. I rotate these into the trailer position as I make them, so the content stays fresh. It also gives a view boost to those vids that have already had their initial run.

In this way the trailer will never become stale and a visitor will never see a talking head telling them what the channel is about. The trailer will actually show them what the channel is about, with an actual video. This removal of an extra step of engagement for them (if you like the trailer, click below for more!) should help promote what you are really all about and get you some new regular viewers in the process.