If you’ve got a skill to share, a product to promote, or a topic to teach, publishing educational video on YouTube is one of the best ways to reach whoever you're trying to reach. Every day, users open up the platform to learn how to fix a sink, use the software they just signed up for, or uncover the mysteries of the universe. 

But if you’re only getting a handful of views per video, you might be wondering how to grow your audience. There’s a lot of advice out there, but much of it won't be super helpful to educators—most of the common tips are aimed at channels whose main goals are monetization or entertainment. Here are some ideas to grow your channel if your primary mission is teaching people stuff.

Understand the algorithm

There are countless gurus and data analysts who will talk about hacking or mastering the YouTube algorithm. If you’re just starting out, focus on the basics: YouTube will distribute videos with high click-through rates and high watch times. In other words, make content people want to click on, and want to watch for longer periods of time. 

Here are some ways to do that.

Ask great questions 

You need curiosity gaps in your title and thumbnail, and the video itself should drive more curiosity that keeps viewers watching. An easy way for educators to create a curiosity gap is just asking intriguing questions.

Some of the best content stems from simple questions with complex answers. Consider Why Do Kids Have Their Own Bedrooms? from PBS Origins or Why Were Ancient Egyptians Obsessed with Cats? from The Brain Scoop. Crafting these kinds of questions requires that you think like a viewer, not an educator who already knows the answers.

‎In the case of The Brain Scoop video, it’s quite clear that creator Emily Graslie was looking to expose viewers to a museum at the University of Chicago (and talk about cats). But by framing the video around a particular question, Graslie can take the time to explain the museum’s work, and explain the place of felines in Ancient Egyptian society.

3 Blue 1 Brown does a particularly good job of this, even when explaining the science of light in a super technical manner. His “Explaining the Barber Pole Effect” introduces multiple questions about the nature of light within the first 30 seconds.

‎One note, however: Be wary of yes-or-no answers. For one, viewers who think they know the answer, even if they don’t, won’t be enticed. These questions also attract viewers who might be looking for a simple yes or no answer, not the kind of viewers who stick around for long periods of time—the kind the algorithm loves.

Tweak your intro 

A large percentage of viewers will abandon your video in the first 60 seconds. Even established channels might lose 30–40% of viewers in that time frame. Finding a way to get more viewers to stick around for that first minute will increase your watch time and help your video’s chances of getting promoted. It’s also a good sign you’re making something people want to watch. 

For educational creators, make sure you reiterate the premise of your title in the first few seconds. Viewers have been scarred by decades of clickbait, and they’ll stick around longer if you confirm why they wanted to watch in the first place. It doesn’t have to be fancy—for example, in this video, PBS Origins just restates the title.

Educational creators should also try to pack in something visually or intellectually intriguing into that time frame. In his video about light and the Barber Pole Effect, 3 Blue 1 Brown doesn’t start with the math formulas he’ll eventually get to. He starts with a beautiful shot of the light experiment he’s about to explain.

There’s an assortment of other tricks to use to boost audience retention in your intro, too. Some creators opt for starting with a great soundbite, others use a succession of quick cuts and graphics.

Channel your viewer’s interest

Some educational channels succeed by appealing to the innate curiosity of viewers about a specific topic. Consider PBS Space Time, which can get more than half a million viewers on a video about gravity. 

But there are lots of topics where the audience is less receptive. Some of the most successful educational videos have found that success by using popular culture as a gateway to teach science, math, or the humanities. The channel TierZoo teaches about animals by adopting video game jargon—like "OP" which means "overpowered" in the video-game world—and using the popular internet format of tier lists.

 A few years back, there was an explosion of science content about black holes because of the popularity of Interstellar. Science creator Kyle Hill similarly educates about science through popular film and TV. 

‎ 

Collaborate

Creator collaborations come in many different forms. At its core, a collab is a cross-promotion between two channels. Collaborations might include a guest segment on another YouTube channel or making content around a similar theme. 

For instance, two channels that teach guitar might make two videos covering different songs by the same artist. Two science channels might make two videos about different mysteries surrounding black holes. Each video should innately appeal to the viewer of the other, so that creators can plug the other creator’s content seamlessly. 

Podcasts are also natural places for collaborations since creators can feature each other as guests. 

It’s important that your collaborations attract a deliberate audience. Creators might be tempted to chase large audiences from channels that don’t have much in common, but this is a mistake. Those viewers will be disengaged and hurt your channel’s click-through rate.

Research what other creators are covering

Covering popular topics can bring in a new audience for your other educational content. But how do you know what’s popular? The easiest way is to look at similar channels in your space. What videos have done better compared to others in their catalog? Can we see a similar trend with other creators? An engineering creator might look at Real Engineering and see that their video on Japan’s trains got over 2 million views while their video on superconductors, by comparison, only got 600,000.

Repeat your successes

There is a creative impulse to not repeat yourself. A creator might have a viral video about primary colors and think “on to the next topic.” But educational creators should build on their successful topics, rather than abandoning them. That is to say, a successful video about primary colors should beget more videos about primary colors and color theory. This also creates a library of content that will make viewers want to watch one after the other. Let your past successes inform your future content.

Journalist and YouTuber Coffeezilla, for instance, often follows up his popular investigations with other videos.

Experiment

Many successful YouTubers try different formats and styles before gaining an audience. While you might be tempted to perfect a single format, that can be a strategic blunder, especially when your audience is small. The best time to try new things is when you’re first starting out. That might mean different title and thumbnail formats, or different series ideas. Seeing what viewers will and won’t respond to is infinitely valuable