Video collabs can fast-track your online growth when you find the right partners. When you create smart video collaborations on YouTube or any other platform, you get access to an entirely new potential audience in an organic and positive way. On this guide, you will learn why video collabs should be part of your marketing strategy, how to choose the right partners, how to contact them, what to keep in mind when creating the content and how to promote it.

Why should online collaborations be part of your marketing strategy?

Online collaborations and more specifically, video collaborations, are one of the best ways to expand your reach, grow your audience and increase your exposure. In a smart video collab, both parties would have similar audiences, with similar interests but not necessarily the same subject, so the collaboration brings something new to the viewers.

This organic exposure is the best way to get more viewers and subscribers because you’re already in front of the right audience. Plus, you’re receiving the stamp of approval of someone the viewers already follow and care about.

It helps you build your authority around a subject or niche, like the example below.

When you collaborate with others, keep in mind that you’re also putting your stamp of approval on them, so choose your partners wisely.

The Ultimate Guide to Smart Video Collaborations

How to choose the right collab partners

Content creators often think they should collaborate with others with the same number of followers and overall theme. Though that’s partially true, there’s much more to this than that.

Sometimes, on YouTube, you can find smaller channels with a highly engaged audience that can be much more fruitful to collaboration than a creator with millions of random subscribers. If you find creators that produce high-quality content for a low number of followers, you should still consider doing a collab. Also, it’s always easier to get a yes from a creator with a smaller following or similar one, than someone with much higher numbers.  

More importantly, though, is who the viewers of a potential partner are. For smart video collaborations, you should look for complementary audiences with similar interests. Let’s say you create content about nutrition, apart from other nutrition-related channels. You could partner with cooking related creators, fitness or health. Chances are the audiences will cross over from one subject to the other.

Create a list of potential video collaborations and ask yourself:

• Do we have similar audiences?
• Do I enjoy their content and would it make sense for someone to go from their content to my videos?
• What value could I deliver to their audience?
• What value will they deliver to my viewers?

What do you bring to the table?

Collaborators don’t need to create the exact type of content as you do, as long as they compliment your creations. Maybe they bring other skills to the table that you might not have, and you can also create off-camera collabs with special mentions. The same way you can get others to mention your content by sharing some of your skills with them.

Before pursuing youtube channels, influencers or businesses, think about what’s your value to any other content creator. In other words, what do you bring to the table that will be valuable to them and their audience? This will help you decide which collaborators you want and your pitch to them.

To determine part of your value to others, consider:

• What unique skills make you a great collab partner? Maybe you know a lot about live video production, SEO or editing that you can apply during the collab and it will have a massive impact on the final product.
• What/who do you have access to? Perhaps you know interesting people, have access to particular shooting locations or cool props that could enhance the content production.
• Do you have any special resources? If you have any high-quality gear or software that might upgrade the quality of the videos, you should consider an asset.

Reaching out to influencers, YouTubers, or any potential collaboration partner

The way you contact potential collaborators is crucial to your pitch’s success. The number one thing to keep in mind is real interaction. Spamming all content creators in your niche is not the way to go. Consume their content and engage with it. Likes, comments, shares, etc. This will get you on their radar. When you reach out to them, and they already know who you are, it’s a huge plus.  

When you get in touch with potential collaborators, make sure you have an excellent pitch. Tell them what is it about their content you appreciate and why you want to collaborate. Also, let them know what value you bring to the table and what you have in mind as a possible collaboration. Get them excited about your idea and keep both audiences in mind.

Sometimes you might need to contact a person more than once, everyone is busy, and your message might get lost. But don’t send them 100 messages in a day. Instead, contact them sporadically throughout the year, with different personalized messages.

POWER TIP: Create a Collaboration list and track your interactions with each possible collab partner

Smart video collaborations to grow audiences

When it comes to the actual content creation, the possibilities are endless. You and your partner can get creative and find what works best for your styles and audiences. The most popular types of video collab are interviews and two-video collabs.

Interviews are great because they are a relatively easy way to create sustainable content. They help you build your authority and increase your exposure. Plus, it’s an attractive format for the collaborator, since it’s a lot of publicity for them, so there’s a higher chance of getting a yes.

Two-video collabs are a fantastic approach to collaborations because each creator ends up with their material. This is when the creators create one video for each of their channels, which might have similar content and different styles or complementary content that drives people from one video to the next.

In the example below, the influencers Peter McKinnon and Casey Neistat made a video together that become two videos, one for each of their YouTube channels. As a result, they got 2 million views combined.

Promoting Video Collaborations

To take full advantage of your online collab, you and your collaborator need to cross-promote the content. Promoting the material to both audiences will give each of you a fantastic opportunity to grow your audience.

Make sure you provide links for viewers to navigate from one creator to the other, in the description and throughout the video. Also, give viewers a clear call-to-action to visit the collaborators’ content page. In other words, tell your audience to click somewhere and go to the other video.

If you both have emails lists and other communication channels with your audience, don’t forget to let them know about the video collab and invite them to watch it.

You can also consider creating a series of collabs, which is a great way to keep viewers coming back for more, like the example below.

Key Takeaway

Collaborations are an incredible way of growing your audience and reaching more people online. If you choose the right collab partners for your videos, it can help you fast-track your growth and deliver exciting content. Make sure you create an eye-catching pitch and start contacting other creators today.

What are your favorite collaboration videos out there?

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