10 Ways to Grow Your YouTube Subscribers (Plus 5 Free YouTube Tools)
So you want to grow your Youtube subscribers? Anyone who has a Youtube channel wants this - to get more viewers and subscribers and finally get that monetization ignition going. But not everyone can reach this target.
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Cristos Goodrow, VP of Engineering At YouTube, reveals that every human watches YouTube on an average of 8.4 minutes per day. That’s a whopping one billion hours daily for all users!
That is how widespread its popularity is, thus, most marketers use this platform for their marketing campaigns. Perhaps, you yourself have already created your YouTube channel, made a solid marketing strategy, and set up some ads. But do you still find it hard to grow your subscriber count?
If so, here is a piece of good news for you:
With some strategic work, you CAN increase the count of your channel’s subscribers.
Interested?
Here are 10 ways to grow your YouTube subscribers, fast!
1. First things first – reassess your channel.
Your channel is not getting any views or subscribers.
If you are a marketer, this is not good news at all. And if you are experiencing this, you have to do one thing: reassess your channel.
You may want to do this especially if you find yourself in any of the following situations:
- You experience a continued drop in your YouTube performance for more than 90 days;
- You are feeling that the current formats of your video content are not sustainable, or,
- Wish to creatively explore a new direction
When conducting an assessment of your channel performance, you must look at its changes over a period of months or years instead of just looking at days or weeks. You can do this in YouTube Studios by opening YouTube Analytics’ Overview tab where you can see your channel’s key metrics over the past 28 days including subscribers, views, and watch time.
Then you can pull up the data for each of these items: Interest viewers, Earn revenue, Reach Viewers, and Build an audience. You can check each one of these depending on your goals or priorities. And you can build informed conclusions based on these data.
Also, check your content.
Do you have relevant stories to share? Do you also have exceptional video and sound quality? Is your content helpful to your target audience? Low-quality videos and commonplace content repel viewers. So if you are experiencing no channel growth for a time, you might want to reflect on WHY it is this way.
To push for more views and subscribers, a lot of creators make some creative experiments on it and end up establishing an even stronger presence on the platform.
You should also clean up your channel. Think of it as some housekeeping task. Take a look at your channel and reevaluate its content since these will most likely make you realize that there is some stuff there that needs deleting, whether they are poorly made, outdated or just a flop of a video that should have not been added there to start with. Delete them without hesitation.
2. Don’t hesitate to ask your viewers to subscribe.
There are a lot of things you can do to increase your subscribers. These include making videos on pop culture, posting and promoting your content in various channels, optimizing your videos for the search algorithm of YouTube, or simply asking your viewers to subscribe. The last one is the easiest on the list. All you have to do is to remind your audience to do so.
Perhaps you might feel that asking them to subscribe is too much a selling for you. Well, it can be if you do it too early or too late. Timing is the key.
Just make sure to show them the need and worth of having them subscribed to your channel. Only ask for the subscription after having provided them new and relevant information, or after you have made them laugh or two.
3. Offer playlists.
If you have several videos that can go together, a regular weekly video series, a set of webinars of a similar theme, or whatever it is, you can organize them into a playlist. In doing so, your viewers can continue watching your videos without the need to manually search for and select the next video. In the process, it will keep your viewers longer in your channel which is a chance to show them its quality content. With an organized playlist, your channel will not turn into a cluttered mess that pushes viewers away.
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4. Reply to ALL comments.
Replying to all comments is one of the easiest ways to grow your subscribers. In fact, data clearly show the positive correlation between the number of subscribers and replying to comments.
By interacting with your loyal viewers, your audience is encouraged to participate which will eventually lead to a larger fanbase. And if there are negative comments that you receive, promptly address them. And since most YouTubers do not reply to comments, doing so will instantly help you stand out. So, as much as possible, reply to every comment.
5. Create promos for engagement.
If you are a parent, you will know how powerful bribery is. You might tell your son that you will only allow him to use your iPad after he eats vegetables. Bribery or reward is something we cannot grow out of. It is human nature, especially in adults, to love free stuff. So, you can use bribery to grow your subscribers. It actually works however ridiculous it may sound!
The two ways to do this are to (1) run a cross-channel contest and (2) persuade viewers to subscribe for extra benefits in your videos.
Running a cross-channel contest is one of the oldest tricks in the books for marketing bribery, but if done well, it still works wonders. For example, you operate a bowling alley. You can make a contest where you advertise your business on Instagram and Facebook. Its guidelines of winning a night of bowling and food include liking and commenting on your post, and subscribing to your channel.
Doing a subscriber-only giveaway is another thing. You can broadcast in your video that you will send them a free e-book or a one-month trial of your software if they subscribe.
6. Optimize your Thumbnails.
The thumbnail of your video is essentially its cover. That is why there is a need for it to be unquestionably engaging. It is even argued that the Youtube thumbnail is the most crucial determinant as to whether or not a user will play your video.
So that they will play your video, the best tip is to use an image of a smiling person who makes direct eye contact as your video thumbnail. The picture could also be of a person interacting with whatever the video is about. This is because a person will relate to another person. Also, smiling is an outward demonstration of happiness and is a good start to connect to others.
You can also display a clear image of what the video is about in your thumbnail. For example, if you are talking about mobile phones, you would like to include an image of a mobile phone.
If you are not a graphic designer and you struggle to edit Youtube thumbnails, don’t fret!
You can use a Youtube thumbnail maker that is user-friendly even for beginners. There are a lot of free Youtube thumbnail tools available online.
7. Spread the word about your channel in social media communities.
You should promote your YouTube channel to significant online communities whether LinkedIn group, Twitter chat, Reddit, or other online communities in the industry that you are in. In these communities, you must spread your video content when applicable and be actively engaging.
For instance, you work in a dental clinic and are participating in a discussion where people are having dental issues. This is a perfect opportunity to share your valuable video to present your services that some of these prospective clients may even avail of.
8. Learn YouTube SEO
You must realize that SEO is key to success on YouTube. Optimize your video content for YouTube search as you would do for an article. Be conscious of the metadata such as your title and description. Just like in articles, you must also do keyword research and make sure the things your competitors are doing.
In Google, “How to” videos are performing extremely well. It has started showing video results along with its suggested timestamps in response to the specific query.
Your YouTube videos must rank in search engine results and within YouTube itself. It may sound highly technical – it is. But you can start optimizing your videos just by tweaking your descriptions. Create searchable titles, add a transcript for each video, put your target keywords in your video descriptions, and don’t forget about your Meta Tags.
For a comprehensive tutorial on Youtube SEO, you can learn about it from the Youtube Creator Academy.
9. Ask for help from other influencers.
You can also work with other influencers. This is a great way to be visible to your potential subscribers.
But before making up your mind on who to work with, you must do smart research first.
Check their followers. Remember, you must choose an influencer with whom you have a higher chance of gaining engaged or interested followers. See if that influencer’s audience reaches out to your type of target audience.
For example, if you are marketing a SaaS Product, you can reach out to authority figures in the technology industry or those who do product reviews.
Collaborating with influencers may sometimes come with a cost or an exchange though so be ready to negotiate with them.
10. Attract new subscribers with a channel trailer.
Channel trailers are YouTube’s top-notch feature that can help marketers who want to grow their subscription base. Channel trailers, as the term suggests, are short trailers that automatically play every time someone visits your channel page.
Remember that these trailers must only be 30 to 60 seconds. In that short span of time, your content must be compelling and convincing. You must tell a message that will make your visitor stay. It would help if they are beautiful, hilarious, and emotionally packed. But the key is that they should contain an effective call-to-action that would give viewers a reason to be a subscriber.
5 Free YouTube Tools You Can Use To Grow Your Channel
If you need help in growing your number of subscribers, here are the best free Youtube tools that we highly recommend:
1. VidIQ – For your analytics
Since evaluating your YouTube channel is crucial, as mentioned in tip number 1, you must keep an eye on your key analytics. VidIQ is a tool that can help creators like you in this regard. It provides a free and easy way of monitoring and tracking a YouTube channel’s audience analytics. VidIQ reports include statistics on who watches which type of content, thus, making it easier for you to create significant content according to your channel’s audience.
2. Pixelied – For your thumbnails and graphics
Tip number 6 stressed the importance of thumbnails. With Pixelied, you can make YouTube thumbnails in less than a minute. With this tool, you do not need to open an Illustrator or Photoshop again just to make them. Even if you are not a designer, you can create a stunning thumbnail for Youtube. Just customize Pixelied’s template so that you can give it your channel’s vibe. Try this out!
3. Tubebuddy – For overall channel management
Growing your subscription base requires effective channel management. For this purpose, Tubebuddy can be of help. This free browser extension for Chrome and Firefox works as a complete promotion and content marketing tool. Tubebuddy automatically integrates with YouTube and helps you in the management of your channel. It also enables you to test your titles, tags, thumbnails, and descriptions, and determine which one helps in improving your channel’s performance. Also, it allows video updating in bulk so if you have more than a hundred videos, you can alter their descriptions all at the same time.
4. Google Suggest Tool – For your keyword research
Keyword research is another important aspect to help you increase your subscribers count. You can use the Google Keyword Suggest tool if you are in need of unlimited suggestions. With this, you do not need to install or sign up for anything. This comprehensive tool will provide you with every possible diversification of common search results from Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Bing including your keyword.
5. Lightworks – For editing your videos
Your channel needs quality videos to attract viewers and subscribers. So, if you are in need of editing software to create high-quality videos, try Lightworks. This is available on Linux, Windows, and Mac systems. With this, you will be able to create videos that you might think could only be made using higher-end editing software such as Final Cut or Premiere Pro.
Takeaway
To wrap it up, here are the 10 tips on how to get subscribers on Youtube:
- First things first – reassess your channel.
- Don’t hesitate to ask your viewers to subscribe.
- Offer playlists.
- Reply to ALL comments.
- Create promos for engagement.
- Optimize your Thumbnails.
- Spread the word about your channel in social media communities.
- Learn Youtube SEO
- Ask for help from other influencers.
- Invest in making quality videos.
With the tips and tools presented in this article, are you now feeling somewhat ready to elevate your YouTube channel and increase your subscription base?
All you have to do now is to use this knowledge and continue learning as you do the work. In no time, your subscriber count will grow remarkably.
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