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Every minute, over 300 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
With that much competition, you might have already counted yourself out and accepted the viewpoint that becoming popular on the platform is hard.
But what if you’re making a social media mistake? What if you could break through the noise and become a popular on YouTube?
One of the best ways of measuring popularity on YouTube is by looking at the number of subscribers you have on the popular social media platform.
The more subscribers you have, the more you can consistently achieve high view counts on your videos.
Not everyone who is uploading a video to YouTube has laid out a strategy that will allow for them to increase subscriber numbers.
And so, this is where the opportunity lies.
If you can come up with a strategy to boost subscriber numbers, you too, will be able to join the companies that are experiencing success with YouTube.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at how you can grow your YouTube subscriber count. We’ll analyze a variety of media marketing strategies and focus on how you can implement them.
By the end you should have a good sense of how to create a strategy that will allow for you to use YouTube as a means to grow your business through social networks.
Let’s begin!
Give your channel a theme
Before you do anything, you need to give your channel a theme.
If you take a look at a lot of the top YouTube channels, you’ll notice that many of them stick to a theme.
Take a look at the Derek Halpern channel for example.
Notice how a lot of the videos he creates stick to certain topics related to business and success.
Having a theme will help direct all of your later efforts when it comes to creating content.
On top of that, if you give your channel a theme, you can make it the ‘go to’ place for certain types of content. This is the goal of a social media platform.
If your channel caters to a specific niche, then people who care deeply about that niche won’t mind becoming a subscriber.
In doing so, they’ll learn something new about their topic of interest whenever you post a video — therefore furthering their ability to learn more about a topic they’re passionate about.
For example, imagine that your videos are all about Facebook marketing and you aim to help business owners.
If a business owner who wants to learn more about Facebook marketing subscribes to your channel, they’ll get an update any time you post some content on Facebook marketing.
This provides them with a way to stay ahead of the curve without having to do a lot of work.
This is incredibly valuable when you consider that 50% of small business owners don’t have enough time to get everything done in the first place.
If you’re struggling to come up with a theme for your channel, just think about the problems that your business solves and who it solves those problems for.
Then, produce some videos based on the topics that you know best will help the kind of people that your business serves.
Post incredible content
70% of marketers report that video converts better than other forms of media
If you want to experience results like this, you need to learn how to create incredible content in your media platform.
Plus, if you can create incredible content, then a lot of the work related to growing your subscriber count is done for you already.
When people subscribe to your channel, they’re essentially signing up to get updates whenever a new piece of content is posted.
If your content is great, people won’t mind hearing from you again, because their initial interaction with you and your content was so positive.
Subscribing is worth it, because everytime they click through to your video, they get something that is of value to them.
Whether that’s a learning experience, an entertainment experience or both — it’s worth watching your videos.
And, remember that people make the time to watch great content. 75% of business executives watch work-related videos every week. This is a good foundation for your media platform that will expand social networks.
If you’re content is really good, then you’ll benefit from the fact that 54% of senior executives share content with their social networks.
But, even if your videos are good, you still might need to remind them to subscribe — but it won’t be an uphill battle.
So how do you produce incredible content?
If you want to create incredible content, it’s worth focusing on producing content that is relevant for your target market/audience.
Provided that you’re sticking to a theme as mentioned before, it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with a way to produce valuable content.
Let’s say that you want to create a channel that covers the topic of ‘pencil drawing.’
One way we could come up with ideas is by simply entering the broad keyword of ‘pencil drawing’ into the YouTube search engine.
Over 3 billion searches are conducted on YouTube per month. So we know there’s going to be some relevant data here.
When we type in the keyword, we see the suggestions above.
Now, those topics might seem a little broad, so you may want to pick one of those keywords, and go through the same process again so that you can generate something more concise.
Let’s add the word ‘tutorial,’ for instance.
By adding the word tutorial, we are now provided with some more concise keywords.
The fact that these keywords appear in the suggestions lets us know that people are searching for these types of videos.
You might argue that there is a lot of competition for such keywords.
And while that may be true, later on in the post we’ll figure out how we can get people to view our videos, even when there is a lot of competition — so don’t let it be a concern for now.
The great thing about the approach above is that it gives us a place to start from.
If we want to produce content for a certain niche, this technique lets us know what kinds of content people will already have an interest in viewing.
You can also use the Google Keyword tool to come up with some content ideas. That’s because there will be some coherence between Google search results and YouTube search results.
Youtube also happens to be one of the biggest search engines in the world — after all, if people want to find a video they have to search for it right? Combined with social media marketing, the results grow.
Let’s stick with the topic of ‘pencil drawing.’
In the ‘Your product or service’ box, enter a keyword based on your business. If I was running a business that taught people how to do pencil drawing, I’d enter ‘how to do pencil drawing.’
You want to keep the keyword broad at this stage, because it’ll allow for the keyword tool to come up with a wide range of ideas for you.
Once you’ve entered the keyword, you’ll then see this page. It shows several ‘Ad groups’ of keywords.
Each group of keywords centers around a certain topic.
As you can see, I’ve arranged the groups in terms of ‘Average monthly searches’ and descending order. This gives us a sense of where there might be a lot of competition
Let’s click on the mid-range group called ‘Drawing Techniques.’
I’ve highlighted a few keywords that might represent good YouTube content opportunities.
I chose these keywords because it’s clear to see how you could create a focused, high value video that could be centered around these keywords.
You might think that these keywords don’t have that many searches, and, therefore, aren’t worthy in terms of effort required.
However, it’s important to remember that we’re not just going to post a handful of videos and then be done with it.
Cultivating a YouTube channel so that it eventually has a lot of subscribers often requires for you to post a lot of content.
The biggest YouTube channel has over 2,466 videos in existence.
If you want to do that, while still keeping the content relevant, you need to be able to niche down your content as much as possible, so that each of your videos provides something new for a viewer to learn.
And, if you niche down, it’s only natural that the level of searches per month is going to go down.
Plus, even if you focus on low volume keywords, they’ll all come together to help you build momentum and establish yourself in a YouTube niche.
Also, you’ll notice that with a lot of the smaller keywords, many people haven’t created fully optimized videos for them.
Only 9% of small U.S businesses use YouTube, so if you’re looking to produce business content, this represents a great opportunity to develop a media platform that hits your target audience.
Look at what happens, for instance, when I type in the ‘Simple drawing techniques’ keyword.
There’s a playlist there, but other than that, there aren’t any fully optimized titles, or even videos, based solely around the topic of ‘simple drawing techniques.’
The next thing that can improve the quality of your videos is production quality. In a certain sense, however, this is not really a priority quite yet.
As long as your videos are rich in value and provide the viewer with the information they need, you’re doing a good job.
When the videos start to bring you a return, you can focus more on production quality.
But there are some caveats here.
You need to ensure that what you’re saying can be easily heard. It’s important that you speak clearly and enthusiastically. You’ve got to project your voice.
Otherwise, people might not be able to understand what you’re saying. They might even get bored.
You don’t need to act like an extrovert, just try and prevent your voice from becoming monotonous.
If you’re recording your content using a phone or a laptop, the microphone might not be enough. So, you may want to invest in a quality external microphone.
However, test it to see how things actually sound before you make this investment.
You also need to ensure that whatever you’re recording is easy to watch.
You don’t want to make it hard work for your viewers to see what is going on.
This means you need to always ensure that the lighting is adequate.
If you’re recording a talking head style video, where you’re talking to the camera, ensure that your face can be clearly seen.
If someone is recording you, then ensure that the camera isn’t shaking.
If you’re recording your laptop screen, ensure that your actions can be clearly seen and that anything that you’re typing can be read.
When it comes to video editing, you have a couple of solutions. When speaking about video editing, what we’re referring to is improving the style of your videos and not so much about removing minor mistakes.
More often than not, you’re going to make some minor mistakes when recording your video. You don’t need to put tons of focus into removing these bits, as they don’t harm your video all that much.
In fact, they might even help your video as they let other people know that they’re dealing with a real person rather than some sly media marketing salesman.
Where editing can come in handy, though, is when you need to create cuts in your video or add a title screen.
If you’re not an accomplished video editor, you could seek out someone from Upwork or perhaps even Fiverr.
Alternatively, you could purchase a video editing suite and learn to do everything yourself.
That method might save you a bit more money, though you might end up spending a lot more time learning how to edit videos on your own. This takes time away from your media marketing.
That might not be the best trade off, depending on your circumstances.
As mentioned, you don’t want to over-edit your videos, though you do want to give them a sense of style that separates you from the crowd.
Often, the easiest way to do this is by having some custom intro music and a custom title screen.
Another way that you can post incredible content, is by creating some videos based on your product being used.
Demonstration videos can go a long way in showcasing your product as something worth buying. This has social network value.
In fact, it might be worth considering the creation of some demonstration videos, when you realize that 78% of internet users conduct product research online.
You can even turn some of your blog posts into videos. 59% of executives would rather watch a video that read a chunk of text.
Okay, so that’s the basics of creating incredible content.
The next point is going to be essential if you want to ensure that your subscriber rates consistently grow.
Post often and consistently
This is probably the hardest part of growing a YouTube following — though it can also be one of the most important.
96% of B2B companies plan on using video marketing as a part of their strategy next year. Posting content consistently is a great way for you to compete.
Plus if you’re constantly posting new content, then people have a reason to become a subscriber and share it on their social networks.
After all, people are less likely to subscribe if you’re not going to post any more content — why should they?
If you use the tips mentioned earlier, then coming up with ideas for posting new content doesn’t need to be hard.
You just need to set a schedule and stick to it.
How often should you post?
If you want to keep things simple, you might want to take a look at what your competition is doing and then one-up them.
Often, however, the best plan is the one that you can stick to.
So, you may just want to create a schedule that you actually can keep up with. Either way, it’s important that you do everything in your power to stick to that schedule.
Consistency in your media marketing campaign is important as it’ll keep existing subscribers coming back for more.
This will result in more views for your video and will also improve the engagement that your video receives.
Engagement on a video tends to come in the following forms:
- Thumbs up or Thumbs Down
- Social sharing
- Subscribing
- Commenting
- Favoriting
Ideally, you want to improve the levels of engagement in each of these categories through any social media site.
People like to engage with content on YouTube and did you know that over 100 million people per week take a ‘social action’ on YouTube every week?
You’ll also be surprised to know that 92% of mobile video viewers share content with others. This is organic social media marketing.
Another mind blowing fact is that 700 videos are shared every minute on Twitter. So while YouTube is not a social media site, it is a valuable tool for any social media marketing platform.
Great engagement will help make the video more visible in the YouTube search engine.
As you might have guessed, this will expose your video to more people, who can then become subscribers themselves.
If you want to view some statistics in terms of how your videos are performing then you can use the YouTube analytics dashboard.
You don’t have to be at a computer to consistently post content. That’s because you can use the scheduling feature provided by YouTube.
In order to gain access to this feature, you must first turn on monetization for your videos. This means that you are willing to show ads on your videos.
If you don’t want to show ads on your videos, don’t worry. You still have control over which videos are monetized and which ones aren’t.
Let’s take a look at how you can get that done.
Sign up for a YouTube account and then go to the ‘Creators Studio’ section.
Then, on the left sidebar, under the ‘Channel’ option, select ‘Monetization.’
Then choose ‘Enable My Account.’
Once you’ve done that, you’ll then be able to access the scheduling features provided by YouTube to program your media platform.
You’ll also be able to access a lot more in the way of analytics.
If you want to schedule a video, click on the ‘Upload’ button.
Then click on the dropdown menu and select the ‘Scheduled’ option.
Then drag and drop your video, or click the icon to upload it.
On the next screen, you’ll the ability to adjust the scheduling options.
All you have to do now is to enter in the date and time when you want the video to go live.
If people are subscribed to your channel, they’ll get a message when your video goes live.
Additionally, scheduling that date into your social media management platform, if you have one, is also a good idea.
![Subscribers Subscribers](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125777384/609984490.jpg)
This will ensure that Tweets, Facebook updates and LinkedIn posts are sent out in synchronicity with the video upload.
If you have an email list that is relevant to your video, you might even want to send a message out to those folks, too. After all, messages with video tend to boost open rates by 19%.
You might want to stagger the messages to ensure that you’re not bombarding people on multiple platforms all at once.
If you’re struggling to come up with a lot of content on a daily basis, you might want to split up some of your longer videos into shorter ones.
For instance, in each of your long videos you are going to cover various topics.
You could edit out certain topics and then create mini videos, using those topics. Shorter videos are more convenient for social network sharing.
You’ll notice that the channel ‘Inside Quest’ does this a lot.
Here’s one of the videos on their channel. Note how it is nearly 49 minutes long.
Even though the average mobile session on YouTube is 40 minutes, for someone who is new to the channel, that video length can be potentially intimidating.
So what you’ll also notice a lot on the same channel is that they have broken down the video into some ‘highlight clips,’ that cover interesting points and topics.
Note how short each of these videos are.
59% of people will watch a video to the end, if it’s under a minute long.
Short videos can be a great way to introduce people to your channel, by giving them a taste of your content and building your media marketing campaign.
78% of people watch videos online every week, so there’s a good chance that they’ll come back to watch some more of your stuff, if it is good.
Make some evergreen videos
A great way to consistently generate subscribers is by creating some evergreen videos.
These are essentially videos that will be of relevance whether they are being viewed today or they’re being viewed 5 years in the future.
This will apply to some niches more than others.
For example, I spoke earlier about the pencil drawing business and that one naturally lends itself to producing a lot of evergreen content.
Evergreen content is generally based on topics that are aimed at beginners.
A lot of ‘how to’ content tends to be evergreen.
And so, when you look at things through this lens, it becomes easier to understand how to create content that is going to be evergreen.
As a result, take a look at your niche and see if you can create some ‘how-to’ videos that will stand the test of time.
Even if you’re not looking to create evergreen content, it’s worth creating some ‘how to’ videos, because they are being watched 70% more year on year via social media sites and directly on YouTube.
Just in the first four months of 2015, 100 million hours of ‘how-to’ content has been viewed — there’s a lot of demand for this kind of content.
Get people to actually click on your videos
Even though 80% more senior executives watch online video than they did a year ago, you still need to get them to watch your video in the first place.
Because before anyone can become a subscriber to your channel, they need to first click on your videos.
No matter how good your video is, once it is seen in the YouTube search engine or sidebar, it is going to have some competition in the form of other videos.
So how do you get people to pay attention to and click on your video?
There are three things that you need to focus on — the image, the headline and the description.
These three elements will have the biggest impact when it comes to influencing YouTube users to click on your videos. Be sure the meta tag is relevant and includes key points.
This is because they’ll help your rankings in the YouTube search engine. They’ll also improve your videos’ ability to entice users to click on them and share them in social media.
Just as you should spend a lot of time focusing on the titles of a blog post, you should also spend a lot of time focusing on the headline of a video.
So, how are you going to create a good headline for your video? If your video is based on a certain keyword, then it is essential that the title of the video reflects this keyword.
When you do this, you increase the chances of someone clicking on your video.
If the title of the video matches what they were searching for, they’ll assume that the video covers everything that they need to know in relation to that topic.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should be ridiculous in how you’re creating your titles.
‘Keyword Stuffing’ can hurt you much more than it can help you.
One way you can get around this problem, is by using a colon.
For instance, earlier we identified the keyword — ‘simple drawing techniques.’
If we had a video on that topic, we could write the headline like this — ‘Simple drawing techniques: 5 tips that will make drawing easier.’
Side note: An interesting experiment might be to split the ‘simple drawing techniques’ title into separate niches. This is a common social media marketing technique for blogs and helps videos too.
For example, ‘simple drawing techniques for cars’ or ‘simple drawing techniques for eyes.’
This is a great example of how you can take a big niche or keyword that is receiving a lot of traffic and identify opportunities within that niche.
As I mentioned, youll have to experiment a little when you do things this way. But, there’s no telling what kind of opportunities you might uncover.
As you can see in the example above, the title of the video makes use of a colon in order to separate out the text.
You’ll also notice that there are videos where the ‘|’ symbol is being used.
You’ll have to test which one works better, though it could just be that this symbol serves a similar purpose to what the colon would have done.
When it comes to creating YouTube headlines, you’ll want to follow the rules that already exist for blog posts.
You need to have a mix of something that people are searching for, but also something that grabs their attention. This is core media marketing that can lead to social network inclusion.
You can do that by using the keyword your video is targeting in the headline and then including some power words in the gaps.
As we’ve discussed, the style of your videos is going to influence the headline. If you have a ‘how to’ video, then you’ll need to account for that in your headline.
Similar to blog posts, numbers also tend to work well in YouTube headlines.
When it comes to the image/thumbnail, there are a couple of approaches that you could take.
The first is to show a clear image of whatever the video is going to be about. So for instance, if you were talking about laptops, you’d show a clear picture of a laptop.
Like this –
Alternatively, you could just show a picture of a person interacting with whatever the video is about.
Like this example --
However, one of the increasingly powerful ways of creating video thumbnails is by editing them so that they have some text.
Here’s one example of what that looks like.
You don’t have to only add some text. You can heavily edit the thumbnail image so that it clearly stands out.
Here’s another one.
If you want to create thumbnails like this, you need to follow these rules.
You can create a thumbnail using the Canva platform.
First, go to the site, and become a member.
Upon becoming a member, you’ll be presented with a variety of options that will help you to create an image.
If you want to learn more about how you can use Canva, then going through their initial setup process might be helpful.
However, adjusting dimensions from this stage can be a little tricky.
And so, you might just want to go to the Canva homepage, after becoming a member so that you can see the screen below.
There you’ll be able to select the ‘Use custom dimensions’ option.
Canva doesn’t have a preset option for YouTube thumbnails, so you’ll want to use the resolution guidelines provided earlier.
That means images must be 1280×720.
Enter in the dimensions mentioned and then click on the ‘Design!’ button.
You then have the option of creating your thumbnail image.
![Free Youtube Subscribers Exchange Free Youtube Subscribers Exchange](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125777384/445052819.jpg)
There’s a lot to experiment with here and you’ll need to test out a few of the options to get a sense of how things work.
If you have some images of your own, you can upload them into Canva and then overlay some text onto them.
I’ve just gone with the option of creating a basic thumbnail from scratch. Obviously you can create something much better than this.
If you want to upload a custom thumbnail for a video, just go through the normal upload process.
On the page where you can adjust the video information, pick the ‘Custom thumbnail’ option.
You’ll then have a custom thumbnail that will be shown around the YouTube platform.
When it comes to creating a description for your YouTube videos, there’s a lot you can focus on and this could become an entire post in itself.
What you need to keep in mind is that you have a lot of space here and YouTube tends to use what you say to rank your content. Don’t ignore the meta tag and its importance.
The first couple of lines on your description should be written so that they are easy to read in the search results.
Here’s a great example.
In this section, you may want to use some of the keywords that you used in your title. That way, you can ensure that it has some coherence. This will also improve the ranking ability of your video.
When people click on your video, they have the option to click on the ‘Show More’ text.
This will expand the description. You can use this space to insert a ‘subscribe to channel’ link.
If you want to do that, use the following link format —
https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=
Make sure that you enter your channel name after the ‘=’.
So, for Kissmetrics it would be —
https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=Kissmetrics
When people click on this link, they’ll be taken to your channel page, where a subscribe box will pop-up.
In the description, you can also enter some other information, such as your other social media profiles, important links and even your content posting schedule.
You can also describe the things that are being discussed in your video, like this --
You could even highlight what is discussed at certain time sections in your video. I.e 21:48 – How to prevent your website from being penalized by Google.
These timestamps, will actually take those who click on them directly to the specified location in the video.
Remember — 65% of executives visit a vendor’s website after having watched their video. Make sure that it is easy for those people to visit your site and find you on social networks, by putting a link in your description.
It’s also important that you give your video some tags. This will help improve the chances of your video appearing in the YouTube search engine.
You don’t want to use anything that is misleading here. Have mix of some really specific tags that describe your video. Then, have a few that are quite broad, but still related to the genre.
There’s no harm in using some of the suggested tags provided by YouTube, as long as they are in alignment with what your video is actually about.
Use annotations
Another, highly effective method for boosting subscriber rates is the use of ‘annotations.’
You’ve probably experienced YouTube video annotations in some form or another while on the platform.
They’re the little boxes that appear throughout YouTube videos.
Like this video from James Wedmore --
When people then click on that annotation, they’re taken to the following page.
This is an incredibly efficient way of boosting subscriber numbers through your media marketing.
Let’s take a look at how you can do the same thing for your own videos.
Go to the ‘Creators Studio’ section of YouTube.
There, click on the ‘Video Manager’ section.
Pick the video you want to add annotations to.
Then, from the ‘Edit’ drop down menu, pick ‘Annotations.’
You should then see the following layout.
To add an annotation, click on the ‘+ Add annotation’ button.
Apart from the ‘Title’ option, each of the choices listed will allow for you to create a link.
So, you might want to experiment over time, to see which form of annotation works best for you.
I’m going to pick the ‘Speech Bubble’ option, as it is the most pronounced in terms of how it looks when it appears.
You’ll want to put some text in the text box. This will end up being your annotation text.
In terms of the color of the text and the speech bubble, you’ll be able to experiment.
Obviously, you’ll want to pick something that stands out. However, what stands out is going to depend on the colors shown in your video.
Here’s what YouTube has to say about picking a color for your annotation:
Because my video has a black background, I choose the following setup, as I think it provides good contrast.
Once you added some text and you’ve adjusted the colors, you’ll then need to decide when you want the annotation to appear.
As with most things, you’ll want to experiment with this.
Thinking about it logically, you’ll want to put your annotation near the end of the video, when you can be seen asking people to subscribe to your channel.
At the start of your video, people do not really have a reason to subscribe to your channel, as they have not had a chance to experience your content.
And, if you put your annotation at the beginning of the video, there is a chance that it will distract and even annoy those who are watching the video.
YouTube has this to say about the duration of annotations:
Of course, if you put your annotation at the end of the video, you’ll be able to display the annotation for more than 5-7 seconds.
That’s because you will have earned the right to, because your content was good — you essentially know this because they stuck around until the end.
In terms of where the annotation should appear, it will depend on your video.
For example, in some videos you’ll notice that people will point to, or mention a certain section of the video, when they ask people to subscribe.
The place they point to or mention is usually where the subscribe box is located.
So, if you’re doing that, you’ll want to ensure that you have some coherence.
If you’re not going to be doing that in your video, YouTube recommends the following placements:
Once you’ve done all of that, click on the Link option.
Then select the ‘Subscribe’ option.
You then need to enter the channel name into the text box. Don’t worry about entering the actual URL — you just need to enter the name of the channel.
Click on ‘Preview link’ to ensure that everything is setup properly. If it is, you should be taken to the channel page and the subscribe box should pop-up.
Like this --
Once you’ve set everything up as you’d like it to be done, just click on the ‘Apply changes’ button at the top of the screen.
If everything is saved properly, you should then see the button change to this --
Remember to test your video to ensure that the annotations do everything that they’re supposed to.
You also have the option of using YouTube cards. This feature is a little less direct, as you can’t really use it to create a subscribe pop-up in the same way that you could using an annotation.
However, it can still be a useful thing to consider inserting in the middle of your video.
Here’s how you would go about creating a ‘YouTube card’ for your video.
Select the ‘Video’ option inside of the ‘Video Manager’. Then click on the ‘Edit’ drop down menu for the video you want to add a card to.
Then select the ‘Cards’ option.
You should then see this screen.
Click on the ‘Add card’ option and then choose ‘Channel.’
Then, enter in your channel name and some text.
The teaser text is the text that appears on the little graphic that appears in the video.
Here is how it will look --
If you want to adjust when the card displays the ‘teaser text,’ adjust the slider below.
You’ll notice, however, that the ‘i’ will always be visible in the video.
If people hover their mouse cursor over the ‘i’ they’ll see the following.
This card will also appear at the time that you have chosen above.
Clicking on this will take users straight to your Channel. However, no subscriber box will pop-up.
Engage with your audience
Another way you can boost subscriber numbers is by engaging with your audience.
There are a number of ways that you can do this.
The first is to respond to any comments you might have on your videos. This will make people feel as though you value their opinion. Plus, the fact that you’re going through this effort might encourage them to subscribe.
You could even argue that this counts as conducting customer service work that improves the customer experience.
When you look at it through that lens, you use the fact that 22% of people post positive things on social networks about a company after having previously posting something negative — all because they got a response.
If you’re getting any negative comments on your YouTube videos, you might want to address them promptly.
This will eventually contribute to a rise in subscribers because people will see this interaction on your videos and appreciate the fact that you do engage.
The second option is to host a Q&A session. You can do this using Google Hangouts. You might even just ask at the end of a video for viewers to post their questions in the comments section.
Then, in the next video you could spend some time going through the questions you received.
Another way you can engage with your audience is by creating videos based on what they want. For example, you could ask your audience what they want to see you talk about.
You can then create a video based on one viewer’s suggestions and call them out in the video that you made.
Consider doing some collaborations
When it comes to boosting subscriber numbers, you also have the option of doing some collaborations.
Collaborations can massively boost your video marketing efforts.
If you go about things in the right way, you may just end up joining the 18% of companies that regard their video marketing as ‘very successful.’
The best way to go about this is to find channels that have a similar audience to you.
Both of you could then arrange an event where you can both benefit from the interaction.
Here is what YouTube recommends, in terms of setting up collaborations.
When you do a collaboration, it’s important that you encourage people to subscribe to your channel.
On top of that, it is also essential that the videos you publish immediately after the collaboration are amazing, so that they justify the viewer’s decision to subscribe to your channel.
Alternatively, you could consider doing some interviews on your channel. If you can find a way to interview some of the top people in your niche, you’ll be able to attract their audience to your channel.
When your channel has a decent number of subscribers and it’s growing at a steady rate, you’ll have s greater ability to attract such opportunities.
Of course, you shouldn’t let that be an impediment that stops you from trying.
Email a few people who might be worth having on your channel and ask them if they’d be willing to be a guest.
If they say no, respectfully ask them if they’d be willing to do a show when your channel has more subscribers. See if they can provide you with a ballpark figure that they’d be happy with.
Remember, you don’t want to be rude, but there’s nothing wrong with asking for a potential future way to make it happen.
Use YouTube Ads
I’ve already spoken extensively about using YouTube Ads here.
In 2014 YouTube’s Ad revenue was $1.13 billion — people are spending money there for good reason.
And, it looks as though people are watching them as comScore found that the average person watches 16 minutes and 49 seconds of online video ads per month.
In order to make it work, you might want to target some of the keywords that your videos are being created around.
This will ensure that your videos appear at the top of the search results when people enter that keyword.
If you have a plan in terms of how you’re going to make money from your YouTube channel, then this could prove to be a very effective option.
Those who do have a plan probably belong to the group of 54% of B2B marketers who use YouTube for product launches.
Conclusion
YouTube can seem a little scary, because of its heavy reliance on video.
However, with its massive user base, it would be a mistake to ignore the huge potential that it represents.
One of the keys to consistent success on YouTube is to have a channel with a high subscriber count.
This will help improve the number of people that will consistently watch your videos.
Those views will result in a trickle down effect as people will subsequently engage with you as a business or individual after watching your video.
When it comes to boosting subscriber numbers, you need to implement a variety of media marketing strategies.
At the core of it all is creating exceptional content that will impress people so much that they don’t mind hearing from you again.
You could argue that the next stage is to ensure that you’re always making it easy for people to make the decision to click on your content.
This means you need to create brilliant thumbnails and killer headlines that translate to organic social network shares and engagement.
When people finally click on your video, you need to ensure that they’re aware of the option to subscribe.
This means that you need to use annotations to actively remind people by mentioning the option to subscribe at the end of your videos.
However, once you’ve got those fundamentals down, you’re free to experiment with things like collaborations and YouTube Ads.
If you put enough effort in, there’s no telling what opportunities YouTube will present to you in the future.
All you need to do is get started!
What have you found to be useful when it comes to boosting subscriber numbers on YouTube?
Welcome to Grin‘s ultimate guide for getting and keeping YouTube subscribers on the web. In this massive guide we’ll tackle everything you need to know to accelerate your growth on YouTube. So let’s begin!
YouTube Subscribers
Why are they important? How do they affect me?
On YouTube, a subscriber is a user that has chosen to subscribe to your channel. This means that when you post new videos, your videos appear in their subscription feeds and on their home page. Having an engaged subscriber base is important for landing YouTube sponsorship. When a user is subscribed to your channel it allows your followers to keep track of your work as you release new content over time, and gets you more consistent viewers. Consistent views means a more stable income for monetized videos, as well as a familiar audience that you can interact with in the comments of your videos.
There are some catches, however. YouTube is notably iffy about sending your videos to all of your YouTube subscribers- especially subscribers who are already subbed to hundreds of other channels- and will also, at times, remove YouTube subscribers from your total account for what might seem to be no reason. We’ll get to that in a bit- for now, let’s talk about how you can grow.
What is the most efficient way to gain YouTube subscribers?
If you’re looking for free YouTube subscribers, the only real way to do it is by putting in the work. In this part of the article, we’ll be discussing all the ways you can earn your free YouTube subscribers. After all, outright paying for subs is usually pretty shady.
Working for natural growth like everyone else will ensure your success on YouTube.
Use YouTube Collaborations to Cross-Promote
Ever heard of a YouTube collab? YouTube collaborations are a term used to describe when two or more content creators or YouTube channels decide to work with one another. If you haven’t heard the term “content creator” before, it actually describes a wide range of Internet users. Today, people aren’t just writing stories, updating their blogs and directing videos. They’re creating content of all different kinds, and YouTubers are called content creators for this reason, since it’s such a diverse platform and they often use the Internet’s unique capabilities to go beyond just video.
Of course, this doesn’t tell you how YouTube collabs work or why they’re effective. Let’s look at it from the perspective of a small YouTuber. When you’re growing your YouTube channel, it’s typically agreed that the most difficult milestone for a YouTube to pass is their first 500 subs. One hundred is also a popular figure, but this can be reached with just a few good videos: reaching a total five times that requires regular, quality content being produced on a regular basis. Earning people’s subscription isn’t just about making one good video, it’s about them having multiple to watch after they see your first.
Unfortunately, a YouTuber working in an isolated pool may never reach that number and start boosting their growth. Think of your favorite channels on YouTube- beyond any doubt, there are literally hundreds of other creators on YouTube making content suited to your tastes. The thing is, you haven’t heard of them, and you may never get the chance. The world is a massive place, and YouTube reflects this.
The only way for YouTubers to grow in this massive ocean is to start working with others. A basic YouTube collaboration between just two creators will cause their audiences to bleed into each other and combine, effectively multiplying their power on the site. Small channels can take advantage of collaborations to become stronger than the sum of their parts, and big channels can collaborate with other big channels to keep their growth at a steady rate.
Everyone on YouTube is collaborating with someone, and it’s important that you don’t go it alone, either. To get more YouTube subscribers, you have to work together.
Pay Attention to YouTube video SEO
This may be a new term for some of you, so for right now we’re going to go ahead and explain what exactly SEO is. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and refers an assortment of actions people might perform to make their site more attractive to search engines. It is one of the most effective ways to get your content discovered organically and organic discovery leads to free YouTube subscribers for your channel. Since you’re an Internet content creator, everything you know is being silently policed by search engine bots through a process called indexing. Indexing, as the name implies, indexes and sorts your content, but it also looks for things like keywords and statistics to determine how relevant and helpful your content actually is.
SEO basically determines whether or not people are going to find your content online. You can’t earn your free subscribers if you aren’t giving YouTube and other search engines the necessary information to find your channel and your videos out of the millions already available on YouTube.
In order for your video to meet proper SEO standards, you’ll need to mind both your description and your tags. The tags in your videos are used for search results, meaning you want to have as much info as you can in your tags. However, you don’t want to falsify tags or lie about the content of the video, as that can be punished. Here’s some tags you should include in all of your videos:
- Your channel name or identifier. :Using your channel name in the tags means that people searching for your channel will see the video. You can also use tags like “[your channel] commentary” or “[your channel] fashion tips”, all depending on what you’re doing in the video.
- What you’re actually doing. There are many genres and subgenres of videos on YouTube, so you’re going to need to include these in the tags. For instance, you may be doing a review of a particular video game. If you were reviewing Metal Gear Solid 3, you’d want to have the tags “mgs3”, “mgs3 review”, “metal gear”, “Metal Gear Solid 3 Review”, “video game review”, etc.
- Prominent fixtures in the video. Is there a cat? Everyone knows that cats = free subscribers, so tag that video “cat video”.
If you aren’t sure how to tag your content exactly, don’t hesitate to take a look at how other creators are doing it. Most creatrs with a high volume of YouTube subscribers under how to properly tag their videos. Checking them out is often fairly enlightening, and there’s no harm whatsoever in finding out how people who make similar content are tagging it. Categories, too, are an important SEO factor.
Besides your tagging and categories, you’ll also want to have an effective description. Your description should always start with a sentence or two describing the video, because this is what is going to appear in the search results. Is it a video about earning free subscribers? Then you open with that. You want to make sure they can tell what your video is about while also sneaking in one of your keywords.
After the first few lines, you have more room to stretch. You can add a longer synopsis below, or a table of contents if you have a very long video covering multiple topics. You can also start adding links here- the bottom of your description should always have links to your social media outlets, such as Snapchat, Facebook or Twitter. If you’re reviewing something, link to that product (with an affiliate code, if you can).
Last but not least, be sure to link to any videos used within your own or as reference. YouTube is a community all about sharing the love, so don’t forget to do that.
Use Good Graphics And Polish
Your channel is not just your videos. It’s what’s holding those videos and for this reason having strong branding can be one of the most effective ways to drive free YouTube subscribers. Learning design doesn’t cost a thing. What you want to do is have a stunning channel banner and channel avatar that includes any signature logo or imagery that connects with your channel and your brand. In today’s age of tightly-designed modern web UIs and digital art, you have no excuse not to have a well-designed channel for your viewers to enjoy. To ensure that this is the case, you might want to look into hiring a dedicated graphics artist to help you polish up the appearance of your channel.
Additionally, you want to focus on usability as well. Content in your channel should all be organized into easy-to-browse playlists. A YouTube user should always be able to find what they’re looking for on your channel. Your thumbnails, too, should have easy, clear design. A user should be able to glance at your thumbnail and at least know the general topic of your video, even if they don’t know exactly what it’s about. This is what mobile users see before your title or description, so your thumbnail needs to be good!
Be Smart With Cross-Linking Videos
We covered a massive list of YouTube video ideas in our previous post and this is essentially an extensions of how you launch those videos. You’ve all seen it. You’re watching a YouTube video, and at the end someone pleads you to like and subscribe, in that exact order. There’s nothing wrong with this CTA (call to action) necessarily, but veteran YouTube viewers have filtered this out, and these messages often sound like white noise. For your end-video CTAs to actually be effective, you need to be able to smoothly segue into them and present them differently every time. LinusTechTips is one example of a channel that always has a different CTA.
Additionally, don’t hesitate to jump on trends to drive YouTube subscribers. Reaction videos are huge on YouTube, not just because they cover a popular topic, but also because they allow your viewers to get a better idea of who you are and how they relate to you based on how you react to certain news and events. If a lot of people are doing it, it’s generally worth exploring in some fashion: that doesn’t always mean you need to do it, too, but you should be smart and watch for trends. Don’t miss out on what could be a good opportunity for you.
Mind The Community
Last but certainly not least, always mind the community! YouTube isn’t just a platform for creating video content, it’s also a community full of like-minded creators with goals and ideas, who are all looking to improve and grow. You don’t exist in a vacuum, so don’t act like you do. Watching your favorite videos, you may notice that the comments are often full of other high-profile YouTubers. This is because engaging in the comment section is a great way to get people to check out your channel, and this is one way to interact with the community (and other audiences!) that’ll help you get more subscribers.
Additionally, you should socialize with your fellow creators. If they have more experience or subs than you, don’t hesitate to ask for their feedback or advice. More often than not, two creators can learn from each other and become friends, and in a community, that is quite valuable. In fact, they’ll often decide to give you a shoutout, which is one great way for you to receive free YouTube subscribers.
Lost Subscribers on YouTube
How to deal with one of the toughest issues on YouTube
Of course, this wouldn’t be a definitive guide to getting free subscribers on YouTube if you didn’t know what to do about lost subscribers.
Why You Lose Subscribers
- YouTube Spring Cleaning happens periodically to purge bots and inactive accounts. Nobody knows the exact timing, but it means you can lose a few subscribers- sometimes even a very large number, if you’re as massive as PewDiePie.
- Over-flowing feeds are the bane of a YouTube user’s existence. If you’re posting a lot of content on a regular basis- multiple videos per day- people may choose to unsubscribe just so you aren’t filling up their inbox. Keep this in mind.
- Offensive topics are divisive, and sometimes you may say something that’s so politically-charged that people feel like they don’t want to follow you anymore. This is an unfortunate fact of life on the Internet.
How You Can Avoid It
- Ignore Spring Cleaning losses- these are decreasing a number on a screen: nothing more, nothing less. You aren’t losing real subscribers in these purges- if anything, you’re getting a more accurate picture of who’s keeping track of your channel. Dropping numbers may hurt at first, but it’s important to move on.
- Focus on quality over quantity! Too many YouTubers think they can just flood their viewers with a large amount of unedited video content. This simply isn’t the case. You should upload 7 videos a week, maximum, and no more than 2 videos per day on the same channel. Learn to edit down so only the best content remains in your video, and evaluate the quality of your content if this is a difficult process. You won’t get free subscribers by flooding them with generic content.
- Tread lightly with controversial topics. In addition to YouTube’s advertising guidelines, sometimes it’s just best not to share your opinions if you know it’s going to be trouble. Unless that’s the explicit point of your channel, you have no reason to do that.
Performing Cross-Promotion
Cross-promotion is what happens when two brands choose to promote one another. Swap brands with content creators, and you’ll see why we’re talking about cross-promotion here, as this also frequently helps you with YouTube subs. Cross-promotion will allow you to share an audience with another YouTuber in a manner quite similar to collaboration. None of these methods cost anything, either, so they are yet another method for acquiring free YouTube subscribers.
Ways To Do It
- Host one another’s content.
- Use playlists on your channel pages to show off each other’s content.
- Shout each other out in videos and video descriptions.
- Promote each other on social media outlets.
- Do guest blogging, if they own a site.
Using Grin To Help
Finally, you may be wondering what we have to do with all of this. Here at Grin, we help YouTubers land sponsorships. Our simple tool helps you connect with advertisers who want to pay you money for your content.
Additionally, we also host our blog, which is chock-full of informative posts like this one. Stick around for more!