5 Must-Have Tools for YouTube Creators To Help You Grow Your Channel
Growing your audience is the ultimate aim of any video creator.
It helps you open up fantastic new avenues of channel monetization and increase your revenue from existing income streams.
Plus, of course, there are all the amazing interactions with your fans to look forward to.
But to achieve that growth, you need the right tools at your disposal.
To grow on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, you need to consistently produce high-quality, engaging content in your niche, promote the heck out of it, and manage your channel effectively and efficiently.
Having versatile tools to rely on is invaluable in achieving that.
But which are the best tools for YouTube creators?
We went ahead and asked three successful video creators for their opinions. Here are their answers!
Time Management and Scheduling: Later, Trello, and Google Calendar
Managing your time efficiently is essential. Otherwise, you’ll get bogged down with menial tasks, limiting your productivity and creativity.
“I find Trello and Google Calendar to be two useful management tools to use,” says Aimee White, a video creator on YouTube. “Trello allows you to make lists and move different tasks to different lists with ease, so you can see what’s been done and what still needs to be achieved. Google Calendar is useful as you can invite others to meetings, and keep track of your time management easily.”
One way to save tons of time is to stay ahead of the curve and schedule your content in advance. That way, you can batch content creation to keep your creative juices flowing, then tick all the posting tasks off in one go as well.
“I use the Later app to schedule my Instagram posts,” says Geeves, who creates videos for Real Girl Review on TikTok.
Cari Casas, also on TikTok, agrees. “Later is an essential tool for scheduling content ahead of time so that I am not constantly rewriting captions for each social media platform.”
Later can schedule posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok. There is a free tier for basic needs, which allows you to schedule up to 10 posts. After that, monthly pricing starts at $15.
Understanding Your Audience: YouTube Studio
To grow your audience, you first need to understand it.
“My biggest piece of advice would be to utilize YouTube Studio”, Aimee says.
“You’ll want to have a good understanding of your analytics so that you can notice any patterns or trends in the performance of your videos.”
“That way, you can gain a better understanding of your audience as a whole, so you can determine what works well on your channel, and what things you may need to change. There are so many aspects to explore on YouTube Studio, from the demographics of your audiences to the watch time and retention of your videos.”
Plus, one of YouTube Studio’s biggest advantages is that it offers all these insights to any creator for free.
Going the Extra Mile on Design: Canva
Next up, there is the solid graphics all-rounder Canva.
Canva offers a multitude of templates for all possible channel assets, from banners to icons. Plus, it can help you create video elements like intro and outro sequences, and even makes it possible to edit short clips. Cari, for instance, uses it as one of her secret weapons, alongside TikTok’s own editing features and Adobe Premiere Pro.
Canva has a free tier that includes limited design elements like graphics and fonts. To unlock its full power, pricing starts at $11.99 per month ($109.99 billed annually).
Competitor Research: TubeBuddy & VidIQ
Another secret weapon for YouTube creators are TubeBuddy and VidIQ.
You can use both of these tools to research your niche, keywords, and competitors.
For instance, TubeBuddy will give you insights into the performance stats of different videos and the search volumes of different keywords.
See it in action below on emmymade’s channel:
Plus, you can use either to manage your videos. Changing video descriptions or end cards in bulk is a breeze.
Finally, both tools also offer features to help you create custom thumbnails.
Both TubeBuddy and VidIQ offer a free tier that includes some basic video stats. Most research and video management features start at the Pro level.
For TubeBuddy, this starts at $10 per month. VidIQ’s Pro Plan starts at $7.50 per month, billed annually.
Keyword and Content Research: Keywords Everywhere and Keywordtool.io
Finally, there are a couple of dedicated keyword research tools that can help you pinpoint which kind of content will resonate with your audience.
Keywordtool boasts a specific YouTube tab. The data you see here is based on scraping Google’s auto suggest feature and combining the results with the search volume data Google makes available.
Keywords Everywhere is a freemium tool that shows you search volume and cost per click (CPC) data on several websites, including YouTube. Plus, it’ll help you check out which keywords your competitors rank for.
Both Keywordtool.io and Keywords Everywhere work via browser extensions for Chrome and Safari.
In terms of pricing, both have a limited free tier. To access Keywords Everywhere data, you can purchase 100,000 credits for $10. Each credit gives you data on one keyword. For Keywordtool.io, pro pricing starts at $69.
The Bottom Line
The tools above are invaluable assets when it comes to growing your YouTube audience.
Take the time to explore the free version of each, and think about investing in a pro subscription if they suit your needs.
By harnessing these tools, you’ll be able to better understand your audience, manage your time efficiently, and provide visually stunning video designs.
Tip: Want to go a step further? Check out what you can – and can’t – do with YouTube automation.
Contributing Creators
Geeves is a self-proclaimed “smile influencer”, “oversharer”, and founder of the lifestyle, travel, and review blog RealGirlReview.
Aimee White is the co-owner of Keyboard Kings, a website dedicated to all things keyboard- and computer-related.
Cari Casas is the social media coordinator and video creator at Herrman and Herrman, a law firm based in Texas.
Ready to give professional video editing a shot?
You, actually, but scheduling and keyword research tools make your job a lot easier. In terms of time you get back, you can’t beat outsourcing to a video editing service.
It’s a terrible idea, no matter what those services promise you, and no matter how positive the reviews.
YouTube Studio is full of great tools, and you can’t beat the price (It’s 100% free!). Other tools you might find useful are TubeBuddy or VidIQ for channel management, Canva for graphics, any web calendar for scheduling and planning, Trello to keep on top of tasks, and Keywordtool or Keywords Everywhere for research.
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