To succeed on YouTube and appear more in search, you need lots of subscribers. Read on to discover 20 ways to increase your YouTube subscribers so that you can get your first 1000 subscribers fast, even if you are starting from zero.
Before we jump in, I want draw your attention to the fact that some of these tips will help get your videos discovered, while others will help turn viewers into subscribers. You will need to use a combination of these actions to attract viewers and build your subscribers. Implementing one or two tips alone will not get the desired results!
1. Know your audience, and keep it narrow
If you try to appeal to everyone, you will end up appealing to no one. Start by thinking hard about who your target market is. Make your audience specific rather than general. It’s easier to create content that works if you know exactly who you are talking to in your video.
Once you have decided your target audience, do plenty of research on YouTube to see what kind of content they are attracted to. Then you can create content you know your audience will enjoy.
2. Use the right research tools to get YouTube Subscribers
When creating anything, it’s important to do your research first. Creating YouTube videos is no different. One of the best ways to start your video research is with keyword research. Researching keywords helps you to brainstorm topics, and find alternative search terms, to include in your video title, description, tags, and script.
Your keyword research should give you an idea of what topics are performing well, so that you can build creative content around those high demand topics.
I currently use TubeBuddy, Morning Fame and Google Keyword Planner to research and plan my videos. SEM Rush is another brilliant too for SEO research. I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about YouTube marketing use these tools.
3. Create a plan and script for your YouTube videos
The first step in getting started on your YouTube journey is to planwhat your channel is going to be all about.
Then you need to plan the structure of the videos.
Videos tend to perform better if you write a script because following a script helps you talk to your audience at the appropriate level, address all of the points you need to cover in a succinct manner, and avoid veering off to an unrelated topic. This will result in a video that is to the point, and engaging.
Your video script should include
·The main points you need cover
·The exact words you are going to say (you don’t need to say these word for word, but you need to practice the words in advance)
·The footage you will be include in the video
·Use the relevant keywords that you have researched in your videos. This will help you become more discoverable in the YouTube search engine
·Any necessary calls to action, such as click on this link, subscribe to my channel, visit my website, etc.
4. Produce highly engaging content to get more YouTube subscribers
Obviously, your video needs to be engaging, informative, and entertaining, if you want your audience to continue watching, and to be compelled to subscribe to your channel. Content that works the best is content that is either entertaining or informative, or both.
You should also aim to upload a combination “current moment” or “relevant for a limited time” videos and evergreen videos. Current moment videos give instant hits, but will fade away as time passes by. Evergreen videos are the ones that will relevant irrespective of time. Ideally, you should try to create mostly evergreen content.
5. Uploading frequency
The key to developing a long-lasting relationship with your subscribers in consistency.
You should aim to release your videos in a timely, recurring, and structured fashion. Create a schedule and stick to it, so that you can condition your viewers to watch your videos at regular intervals. High views within the first 48 hours of publishing helps increase your “view velocity”. View velocity is one of the factors that the YouTube algorithm factors in when choosing how to rank your video in search results.
So you may be wondering how often you should publish your videos. Try to upload your videos at least one video per week. Many successful channels upload videos daily, however there will, at some point, be a trade-off between quantity and quality. Which leads me to the next topic of making videos with creativity as the highest priority, or less creativity, and more discoverability ads the priority.
6. Creativity or certainty?
For many channels, creating a production line of videos aimed at getting videos discovered in YouTube search based on a Search Engine Optimization techniques, will often end in a channel with similar level subscribers as a channel that produces videos less frequently, but with more imaginative, creating content.
It’s a matter of choice, and which type you have the skillset and motivation to produce. Would you prefer to create a large quantity of videos based on a template, with more certainty of discoverability, or less videos with higher creativity and less uncertainty of results?
I suggest you do a combination of both. Create videos that are easily discovered in search, and also videos that are going to keep your viewers engaged and coming back for more. You want to create a community, and if you only create videos for discoverability, you are not encouraging people who already know the basics, top stick with you.
7. Learn how to optimize your YouTube titles
To maximise the chance of getting discovered in YouTube and Google search, you need to understand the Search Engine Optimisation part of YouTube marketing.
Here are some tips for optimizing your YouTube video titles:
·Use Google Adwords Keyword Planner to understand what people are searching for on the web. Look for high volume and low competition keyword phrases
·Use your keywords in your title. This will help the Google and YouTube search algorithms understand what your video is about
·Don’t make the title too long. The ideal video title should be no more than 50 characters. Why? Because Google shortens the length of the title down to 66 characters as they add ‘YouTube |’ before the video title.
·Make the title descriptive and accurate. Don’t use clickbait titles. Make sure your title accurately reflects what they can expect to see in the video.
·Make the title interesting. Grabbing someone’s attention will get you more clicks.
8. Optimize your YouTube video thumbnails
Your thumbnail is like a mini movie poster advertising your video. Your video can come up in search, but it’s your thumbnail that will captivate or repel your viewers. Use your thumbnail to capture their attention, interest, emotion, and compel them to click.
Aim to stand out from others in the search results. Look at the top ranking videos when you search for the keyword phrase you are targeting and aim to be the most visually compelling and appealing in the search results.
Bright, high-resolution, photographs and images are attracting. A smiling face is often the most compelling, and despite the fact that you see so many thumbnails with text, the ones without text have been proven to outperform those with text, providing the imagine is compelling.
9. Use YouTube’s Free Analytics
Understanding how to use the Audience Retention Graphs in your YouTube analytics will help you immensely.
Perhaps people are clicking away from your video at a particular point. Perhaps this is a trend across all of your videos. Analysing your analytics and making adjustments based on your findings will help you understand what works and what doesn’t and over time you will create better videos.
10. Create a YouTube channel trailer
Your YouTube channel trailer is a feature that lets you automatically play a video when your viewer visits your main YouTube channel page.
The main goal of your channel trailer are to communicate your brand message and entice your viewers to subscribe to your channel.
Your channel trailer is something you must carefully work on, and constantly improve to keep visitors engaged. You can monitor the success of your trailer in retaining your viewers for the length of the video, in your YouTube’s Channel Reports. If it is not doing well, tweak it or completely recreate it.
11. Use YouTube cards for your “Call to Action”
“Call to action” cards are the popups that you can create in your video. These cards can give information, and provide links that your viewers can click to follow.
When used well, you can increase your channel subscriptions with these cards added to your videos. If you use these cards to send viewers away from your video too early in your video, it can harm your video performance, as YouTube considers the length of view time of your video as an important factor in ranking your video in search.
12. Create YouTube Playlists
Playlists show up in YouTube search results just like videos do. So when someone searches for a keyword, not only will videos appear in the results, but a thumbnail for a playlist will also appear. This means that you have an additional chance to appear in search results, without even needing to create another video. So why wouldn’t you?
Additionally, if you group your similar videos in playlists, it will encourage your viewer to keep watching more of what they like from your channel, increasing the chance that they will get to know, like and trust you, and the chance that they will subscribe to come back for more.
13. Edit your YouTube videos
Every single video you post should be edited to ensure it is of the highest quality you can possibly achieve, within the limitations of time and budget you have allowed.
In addition to this,publish your best videos. Creating videos can be a long and arduous process, and it can be hard to leave a video unpublished if you have put a lot of time into it. But sometimes, videos are best left unpublished if they are going to harm your brand more than help it.
14. Optimize your YouTube video descriptions
Video descriptions can help your videos to be discovered in the search engines. They can also give potential viewers an idea of the content in your video.
Just as in your title, you should use your keyword in the description, but make sure you keep it natural and authentic. Don’t try to game the systems by putting in your keyword over and over again. This will hinder rather than help your efforts.
15. Use your YouTube meta tags well
When users type keywords related to your tags your video will appear in their search results. To make sure your video has the right tags, first make sure that you include the most important keywords, that you should also have used in the title and description of your video. Next, include a few more keywords that are specific to that video. Then include a few broader keywords that apply to all of your videos and your channel as a whole. Make sure to keep them updated. This will help viewers see your videos more often, and in return increase your total YouTube views.
16. Collaborate with other YouTubers
Collaborating with other YouTubers who have a similar audience can be one of the fastest ways to build your channel. You can access a new audience, and your collaborator will be able to connect to your audience. It’s a win-win-win.
18. Engage with your followers on YouTube
When your fans know you care, they will care!
Additionally, listening your audiences input in your video comments section gives you access to the minds of your viewers.
This can give you deep insight into the type of content that they want to see.
19. Host a Giveaway on your YouTube channel
A free giveaway can increase your engagement and follower count as quickly as collaborations. Just make sure the that item you are giving away is relevant to your audience, and irrelevant to other audiences, if not, you risk attracting the wrong viewer demographic, which in turn can harm your channel as you will have a lot of subscribers, but now many views on your future videos.
20. Promotion of your YouTube videos is essential
The platforms you promote you videos on will be dependant of what you are selling and who to, however you should at least have a profile on Facebook, and, depending on the demographic you are targeting, Instagram is almost a must too.
Other popular platforms where you can promote your videos include Pinterest, Twitter, and SnapChat.
You can use an auto-scheduling app like Buffer to help you avoid overwhelm, and keep on a promotion schedule, without losing sleep over it.
Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads are another way to promote your videos.
Whatever you do, you need to include promotion to get your first 1000 subscribers as quickly as possible. Relying on your videos being found in YouTube search alone can be a long and slow process without active promotion on other social platforms.
Ready for a lot more YouTube subscribers? Then it’s time to make it happen!
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel right now, so you can get more of my topics and insights to create content that your audience loves, and to grow your channel fast.
