YouTube is still the most popular online video-sharing platform, despite the recent emergence of Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram as potential competitors. Every day, YouTube users watch at least one billion hours of video. Contributors, on the other hand, publish at least 300 hours of video per minute to the social media platform.
Going by the numbers mentioned above, it is clear that YouTube can be an incredible marketing channel. The main challenge, however, is the stiff competition among various content creators for the attention of the site's users.
The number of subscribers on your channel is the best metric to gauge your popularity on YouTube. Obviously, a higher number of subscribers translates into more views for the videos you publish. A higher view count means more earnings, and for business owners, it can potentially increase the traffic to your commercial website.
So, how can you get more subscribers to your channel?
Well, it is not easy. However, you should find some comfort in the fact that a considerable percentage of content creators have no knowledge of strategies that can help them attract subscribers to their channel. Therefore, if you can come up with tactics to woo YouTube users to your channel, you will soon leverage the numerous benefits of this popular platform.
Enough said, here are some proven ways of getting more subscribers to your YouTube channel.
Choose a Channel Theme
Think from the user's point of view. Why would they subscribe to a particular channel? Often, the main reason subscription is because a user knows what to expect from your channel.
For instance, a channel that publishes random videos on various topics is unlikely to attract many subscribers. Contrarily, a channel that is focused on one subject, say 'digital marketing tips' is far much likelier to get the attention of YouTube users. Also, ensure that your videos are relevant to the chosen theme.
Create a Great Trailer
After choosing your preferred theme, the next step involves making a channel trailer. This is essentially a short video that auto-plays whenever someone visits your channel. It is a great way for unsubscribed visitors to get a preview of the theme of your channel.
A channel trailer should be as good as any other first impression. It is highly recommendable to get an expert video editor to make it on your behalf. Such services are available on the cheap on most freelancing websites. Ideally, the trailer should not exceed 30 seconds.
Publish Amazing Content
Focus on creating quality content. The best way of doing this by thinking from the perspective of your target audience. What are their challenges? Does my content solve such challenges?
Remember, when a user subscribes to your channel, it means that they want to get notifications every time you post new content. If you post great stuff, more people will subscribe because they want to get more of the same. Your existing subscribers are also likelier to recommend your channel to friends if you maintain high-quality content.
Edit Ruthlessly
As mentioned above, content must maintain a certain level of quality for your YouTube channel to experience success. Always make sure that you ruthlessly edit your videos before posting so that only the best bits go online.
If you put too much emphasis on frequent publishing and compromise on quality, the reputation of your entire brand will suffer as a result. When shooting videos, it is advisable to make several recordings and later choosing the best of the bunch. You must also invest in quality editing software to assist you in this demanding process.
Personalize Video Thumbnails
Video thumbnails are essentially what a cover is to a book. In fact, thumbnails can be more effective in luring a visitor to click on a video than the titles. Hence, it is important to maintain consistency throughout your thumbnails because it makes your channel articulate.
With YouTube, you can choose the video frame to appear as the thumbnail for each video. However, it is better to design them on your own. One of the best online resources for making custom thumbnails is Canva, which is available for free. Using this platform, you can design thumbnails that make your channel coherent and grab the attention of visitors simultaneously.
Publish Consistently
There is absolutely no reason for subscribing to a channel that posts three times a year, regardless of the quality of the content. If you decide to do bi-weekly videos, make sure you stick to that schedule (YouTube has a scheduling feature to help in this regard).
In addition to increasing subscriber numbers, consistency also boosts the level of engagement on your video posts. Some of the forms of engagement you may receive on your videos include likes, sharing to other social media, and comments and so on.
Create Searchable Titles
One strategy that most YouTubers overlook is the use of SEO-focused titles and descriptions for their video publications. Adding relevant search terms to your video titles will certainly increase the visibility of your channel and can potentially lead to new subscriptions.
The easiest way to identify popular search terms is through YouTube's auto-fill feature which automatically suggests SEO-friendly titles upon typing a few keywords. Another method of optimizing your titles for search is including the phrase 'how to' followed by the challenge your video intends to solve. This tactic ensures that your content remains evergreen because 'how to' videos are the most watched on the internet.
End Videos with Strong Call to Action Statements
Don't leave your viewers hanging at the end of your videos – ensure that you always end in a remarkable fashion. For example, you can ask them to like the video and issue their feedback in the comments section. You can also freely ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel to get more of the same. Another clever way of ending your posts is creating an intro with your branding as well as a subscribe annotation in all of your videos.
Make Use of YouTube Playlists
Playlists are particularly important in keeping your channel orderly. They can also play a key role in converting casual viewers into subscribers. This is because playlists encourage binge-watching, which in turn increases the chances of a user subscribing to your channel.
When creating playlists, avoid adding videos randomly. Instead, ensure that the content is segmented into categories that focus on specific topics.
To create a playlist on YouTube, follow the steps below;
Select the video you wish to add to a playlist.
Under the video, click 'add to.'
Click 'create new playlist.'
Enter an appropriate name for your playlist.
Select the desired privacy setting for your playlist in the drop-down box. If you set it on private, it will not be visible on YouTube's search results.
Click 'create.'
Interact with Your Audience
Constant interaction with your audience is also an effective way of adding subscribers to your channel. There are several ways of doing this. The first method involves responding to all the comments you have on your video posts. This makes your audience feel that you value their opinion and might even encourage them to subscribe.
Replying to comments can also be considered as offering customer support services. Indeed, a significant number of users who post positive comments do so after getting responses to their negative feedback. This means that you should prioritize negative comments when doing replies.
Alternatively, you can hold a Q&A session in which you answer various queries from your audience. At the end of the video, you can ask users who didn't get a chance during the live session to post questions that will be answered in subsequent videos.
Lastly, you can engage your audience by creating videos based on their needs. To find out the nature of the content they want, you can ask them to give suggestions through various channels.
Share to Various Social Media Platforms
Nowadays, the majority of social media websites support video content. You can increase the popularity of your YouTube channel by sharing videos on different social networks.
To increase the effectiveness of your activity on social networks, ensure that you share to groups that are related to the topics you cover on your channel. Such groups can be easily found on websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit.
It is worth noting that the aforementioned communities emphasize integrity. This means that you should be straightforward and honest when posting content on such groups.
Collaborate with Other YouTubers
Another way of boosting your subscriber numbers is by working with fellow content creators. This strategy is used by the biggest YouTube channels, and so should you. Collaborating with other creators exposes you to their audience and increase the chances of growing your own.
The channels you choose to work with must share a similar audience with yours. Additionally, the number of subscribers should not vary greatly. For example, it is impractical for a channel with 100 subscribers to reach out to a channel with 1 million subscribers for collaboration.
Add Mentions in Amazon Reviews
What topic does your YouTube channel focus on? If, for instance, it covers origami, you could leave reviews on popular Amazon products and mention your channel lifesang.
Amazon's guidelines on reviews prohibit the posting of URL links to external sites in product reviews. This means that you cannot post a link to your YouTube channel unless you want your account to get banned. Rather, you can subtly mention your channel by name. For example, you can say that 'I have reviewed product X in my YouTube channel known as Top Home Appliances.'
Translate Popular Videos
Achieving success on YouTube is no mean feat. This is why you should look to capitalize on every possible opportunity to increase the viewership of your videos.
After consistent publishing, you will most likely have a few videos that go viral. You can further such success by translating the popular videos into various languages such as French, Spanish German and so forth. Translation will certainly expand your global reach and open up new markets with new subscribers. If translations are unattainable, you can opt for the much simpler addition of multilingual subtitles.
Make the Most of Ads
Advertisements are a proven way of increasing the visibility of your YouTube channel, which in turn increases the chances of landing new subscribers. In 2014, YouTubers spent a whopping $1.13 billion on the YouTube Ads platform, an indicator of the effectiveness of ads in boosting the performance of YouTube channels.
It is vital to incorporate relevant keywords in your ads to increase their ranking on search results. Furthermore, ensure that the ads remain concise and relevant to your area of specialization.
Besides YouTube Ads, you can run marketing campaigns on other platforms such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads. You can also leverage the Pinterest Ads service by creating SEO-focused collections that link back to your YouTube channel.
Organize Contests with Giveaways
Everybody loves a freebie. You can gain considerable advantage over your competitors and lure new subscribers by occasionally conducting contests with free giveaways. If the prizes are really good, there is a huge chance that your existing followers will convince their friends to join in.
The best approach for such competitions is requiring participants to subscribe to your channels to be eligible for prizes. If possible, the giveaway should be related to your niche. However, users will still appreciate a freebie even if it is not related to your channel theme.
Conclusion
For a beginner, competing with established channels for subscribers can be intimidating. Regardless, you should chin up and employ the strategies mentioned above because the potential gains from the platform's massive user base are simply too good to ignore.
Eventually, your channel's subscriber count will grow, as will the number of views on your videos. A higher viewership means that more people are likely to engage with you or your business after watching your video content.
The fundamental tactic of attracting more viewers is generating high-quality, informative and engaging content. The next step involves making your content clickable by optimizing titles, thumbnails, and descriptions. Once you're done with the basics, you can try out the other strategies to further boost your subscriber count.
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