Some people start a YouTube channel as an outlet for their creative energy or to share with the world whatever it is that they’re passionate about. Others use it as a means to begin or expand their business. Either way, you’re going to want to get more YouTube subscribers on a regular basis. To accomplish continuous growth, you’ll need an understanding of why it matters. Then, you’ll want to load your creator tool belt with tips to help you make it happen.
Why does the subscriber count even matter?
Here’s the thing. YouTube is a business. It make money from advertisers. Advertisers want exposure to audiences, and hopefully the right audiences who will click through to learn more about whatever they offer. That’s all very logical, right? It’s also logical that YouTube would want to build it algorithms around this concept.
YouTube strategically incentivizes creators to get more subscribers. For example, once you have gained 100 subscribers, you’ll be able to give your channel a custom URL. While this might seem like just another cool feature, it actually serves a purpose. It makes your channel easier to find in searches, easier for viewers to remember and share and easier for YouTube to monitor in the algorithms. Once you’ve reached 1,000 subscribers, you’re eligible to join the partner program to monetize ads. Then, as you get more subscribers, you’ll be able to reach Creator Award Milestones and gain upgrades for your channel.
So, how do you get more subscribers?
There are some obvious answers. It’s critical to create quality content that your subscribers are interested in. Find your niche and become an expert. Learn how SEO works and use it to your advantage. Beyond the basics, though, here are five small ways to be sure that you’re on track for more subscribers.
1. Post content consistently
While this could be grouped above with obvious answers, there’s actually an important nuance at play. Consistently posting new videos helps your channel stay visible for your viewers. However, you should not post new videos daily – or even weekly – if you’re not able to churn quality at that rate. Be consistent at the pace of bi-weekly or monthly if that means stronger content and better editing. You can increase the frequency as your skills progress.
2. Create playlists to feature
Playlists are an excellent tool on YouTube. They show up in searches with the same SEO and algorithms as single videos. Each playlist should have several videos that are related to each other in some specific way. It could be a playlist of every video you created in a calendar year. However, we recommend getting a little more intentional than that.
Make playlists that can be binged in order, similar to a series. Be sure that it’s clear there will be new videos added to the playlist. This will encourage viewers to subscribe so that they’ll get notifications. As noted above, be consistent.
3. Draw them in with a great trailer
Just like a movie trailer entices us to want to see a new movie coming out soon, trailers can be a strong lure to catch new subscribers. It’s common knowledge that people scrolling on social media have an extremely short attention span, and most seldom have the sound on. This is a perfect place to market your channel with a very catchy trailer.
Editing comes in handy here. Cut various videos together to tell your channel’s story. Use graphics and captions to make viewers pause their scroll. Trailers like these should always be either very important or very entertaining and, of course, they should click through to your channel’s best videos.
4. Interact with other communities
We strongly encourage creators to find ways to engage with their subscribers, because it helps create community by fostering a sense of friendship and loyalty. However, if you make time to interact with other creators’ channels and communities, it can draw casual attention to your own channel. We’re not talking about shameless self-promotion and constantly including links to your videos. That’s spam-like and basically bad manners.
Rather, try to just be engaging and start conversations. Some of the conversations will lead to a reason to provide a link. Other conversations won’t, but maybe people who find you interesting will check you out anyways. After all, if you’re friendly in the spaces they are friendly, chances are good that they’ll want to follow you, too.
5. Remind people to subscribe
Often, the most obvious thing is the easiest to overlook. This is that. Don’t assume that everyone watching is already a subscriber. When you talk directly to the camera, keep that in mind. You can say things like “if you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you know this about me… if you’re new, here’s a quick backstory…”
Finally, at the end of every video you make, always remind people to give you a like and subscribe to your channel so that they’ll be able to see more soon.
There are hundreds of things that you can do to get more subscribers for your YouTube channel. These are just five small ideas that we like a lot. If you follow these tips, you’ll get to hone your marketing, editing and social skills while increasing your subscribers.