How to Get More Subscribers to Your YouTube Channel
You have barely 8 seconds of your audience attention. What are you going to do to keep them interested in your 10 minutes video? Why should it be a 10-minute video? Why not a 3-minute video? If you aren’t asking the right questions, you will definitely not be getting the right results anytime soon.
When deciding to start a YouTube channel and grow your YouTube subscribers, it is essential to brush up your knowledge on the YouTube algorithm.
Just like life, sometimes this algorithm is unfair to the most excellent content creators with minimum reach.
You might feel so enraged to notice that there are many YouTubers with unique and high-quality content, but then, they have a small number of subscribers.
You might be wondering - what if I start a YouTube channel and never get a significant number of subscribers for my quality content? This is an objection most Youtubers have at the initial stage of starting out.
Of course, this could demotivate you and make you quit on the idea itself but hold on just a bit.
There might be no life-hack here, but there is certainly a growth hack, which can help you increase your YouTube subscribers!
You CAN get a million subscribers if you apply the right tactics and you stay consistent. Nevertheless, here is how to get more subscribers for your Youtube channel.
Think About Your Content
If you want to get more views on YouTube, then you have to think about your content. Your content is what will drive more people to your channel.
It is what will keep your YouTube channel going. Therefore, deciding on your content is very crucial. Now, there are 2 ways to decide on your content:
- Bring something mainstream on YouTube that people will want to watch
- Bring something unique that would grab people’s attention
Anything in between may or may not really work. For example, if the prank genre is getting a million views - You can decide to do something; similar, however, you must bring something different to the table, if you can. This advice goes for other niches.
Also, if your content has been propagated by hundreds of other channels, then why bother with yours? Just think about the Unique Selling Point of your channel and use it to get more YouTube subscribers for.
Develop a marketing strategy
It doesn’t matter what will you do or how long you will work each day on your YouTube channel.
Without a solid YouTube strategy, you will be spinning your wheels. Want to know more? Make sure to also read how to plan YouTube marketing strategy.
Consider the Theme of Your Channel
What theme would you represent? Will your theme be about fashion, technology, fitness, etc? How do you intend to portray your channel’s theme? These are a few questions you should consider. Deciding on your channel’s theme is important as this will help keep you focused.
Nevertheless, you can simply pick any theme you like and just roll with it for starters. By doing this, you can build your channel according to the inspiration you get.
Work on The Aesthetics
Now, the next part is about making it aesthetically pleasing and coherent to your theme.
Here, it is essential to invest in a good graphic designer who can make a good YouTube banner for you and probably handle the branding of your channel.
You can easily use freelance websites to source for experienced graphic designers who could help you with this. However, for a starter, it doesn’t have to be extremely expensive.
Another factor that comes under the aesthetics is the sound and video quality of your contents.
A lot of people will move on to another channel if they realize that your audio or video quality is poor.
Hence, it is vital to invest in a good camera and microphone that will not disappoint your viewers.
Decide on The Time Duration
When it comes to your channel’s contents, it is important for you to know certain things that are crucial to your success of getting more YouTube subscribers.
Unfortunately, if you fail at this, you might realize that you would rarely be getting new subscribers. Hence, for your contents, it is essential to consider the duration of your videos.
Now, this is what you need to know:
- If you are building your channel, stick to 5-minute videos until you get at least a significant subscriber base.
- Once you have established yourself considerably, you need to design your content according to this time duration:
- If it is going to be a TED talk type of content, then don’t exceed more than 18 minutes
- If it is going to be a Podcast, then don’t exceed more than 20 minutes
- If it is going to be a SlideShare video, then do not exceed more than 6 minutes.
Fun fact: After you gain a couple of thousands of subscribers, you might be approached by sponsors. Most of the time sponsors target those content creators whose videos run for at least 8-10 minutes. This would give the creators enough time to introduce the sponsor.
Utilize the Title of Your Video
Now, you need to search for what people are looking for and use it in your title. Make it look and sound interesting!
This simple SEO trick will get you the views that you want and would further multiply it. You can easily use AdWords to look for what is trending and find the related keywords that you can use in your title.
Make sure your content has what you put in your video title and keywords or else, people could start to lose confidence in you and may not trust you. It is also essential to make sure your title is not more than 50 characters.
Utilize Your Description and Annotations
Keep your descriptions short and crisp. Don’t exceed more than three lines about what your subscribers can expect out of the video. Many YouTubers also add keywords right at the end of the main description after leaving out a considerable amount of space. This is just to impress the YouTube algorithm.
Also, you should know that there are annotations that can work as call-to-action. Use it frequently to ask for likes, shares and subscribes! There is no harm in doing so. Adding more call-to-action words and annotations will really help in jumping the numbers.
Make an Impressive Channel Trailer
When people get more interested in your video, they will click on your channel to explore more content. Having an interesting channel trailer or introduction will give them an insight into what type of content they can expect to see.
This will keep them engaged and interested. Hence, this will help you get more subscribers for your YouTube channel.
Be ruthless while editing
Do you feel the sound byte of your content is terrible? Re-do it. Do you think you are ranting a little longer about a said topic? Edit it. Edit it ruthlessly and keep it interesting.
It is essential to know that if you want to increase your Youtube subscribers, the appearance of your video matters a lot. Therefore, it is very crucial that you edit your video to perfection!
Therefore, if you are starting with a new YouTube channel, keep it short, well-edited and interesting! This will increase your YouTube subscribers without boring your audience.
Make that thumbnail count
An interesting thumbnail will make people click on your video faster. In this case, you need to have an attractive thumbnail and an interesting title!
YouTube generally lets you select a thumbnail from 1/4th, 1/2th or 3/4th mark of the video.
You can also make your own thumbnail that deems fit for the video. Make it attractive and make it interesting!
Join all trending social media platforms
It is crucial to know that you do not have to limit yourself to just your YouTube channel. You should make a Facebook page, have an Instagram account, and create a Twitter account as well!
Increase your influence and promote your content everywhere.
Don’t forget to use the right keywords in those posts as well.
The idea is to promote yourself and your content on every social media platform for maximum shares and views.
Interact with your audience
Not only should your content be engaging but you should also interact with your audience. Audience love to get a response from the people they follow.
They could be asking a question about the topic you posted, or it could be about anything.
You can either make another content answering their questions, or you can simply answer them in the comment section.
Collaborate with other artists
By collaborating with other artists or perhaps, YouTubers, this can help generate a significant amount of buzz for your channel, therefore, helping you promote your channel to an audience you normally wouldn’t have reached.
Also, collaborating with other artists will give you more inspiration for your content as well.
You will most likely get more exposure, so would your channel. It is basically a free promotion which could be very effective for someone who is looking to grow his/her YouTube channel.
Are you ready?
Conclusively, these are the tips and tricks that would help you increase YouTube view and subscribers count faster.
Once you get to a stable subscriber number and start to get more views on YouTube, you can begin to experiment with your content.
Now, the main part of the plan lies in your execution.
Start preparing for your channel because it is never a crowd – the more, the merrier!
Karen is a senior technical writer and copywriter here at GrowFollowing. Her area of expertize are social media apps and new media.