How to Double Your YouTube Subscribers (Without Buying Them)
Every minute, 500 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube. With that much competition, you might have counted yourself out and accepted that getting enough Youtube subscribers isnât worth the effort.
But what if youâre making a social media mistake? What if you could break through the noise and become popular on YouTube?
One of the best ways of measuring popularity on YouTube is by looking at the number of subscribers.
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 them to increase subscriber numbers, which leads some to buy YouTube subscribers â which is a huge mistake.
When you buy YouTube subscribers, many of those accounts are fake. Even if they are real people, they are unlikely to engage with your content and actually buy what you have to offer.
In short, buying YouTube subscribers is a waste of time.
Instead, work to build a strategy to boost subscriber numbers â then you can join the ranks of companies seeing massive success on YouTube and earn free YouTube subscribers.
In this post, weâll look at how you can grow your YouTube subscriber count. Weâll analyze a variety of media marketing strategies and show you how to implement them.
By the end, you should have a good sense of how to create a strategy that will allow you to use YouTube to grow your business.
Give Your Channel a Theme to Gain YouTube SubscribersÂ
Before you do anything, you need to give your channel a theme.
If you look at many of the top YouTube channels, youâll notice that many of them stick to a theme.
Take a look at the Derek Halpernâs channel, for example.
Notice how a lot of the YouTube videos he creates are on topics related to business and success.
Having a theme makes it easier to create consistent YouTube content.
On top of that, you can make your channel the âgo-toâ place for specific 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 will want to become subscribers.
For example, imagine 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 YouTube channel, theyâll get an update any time you post content.
This helps them stay ahead of the curve without having to do a lot of work.
If youâre struggling to come up with a theme for your channel, think about the problems your business solves and who it solves those problems for.
Then, produce videos based on the topics you know will help the people your business serves.
Post Incredible Content to Gain YouTube SubscribersÂ
Many marketers agree that video converts better than other forms of media.
If you want to drive conversions, you need to learn how to create incredible content on your media platform.
Plus, if you can create incredible content, then a lot of the work related to growing your subscriber count is already done.
When people subscribe to your channel, theyâre essentially signing up to get updates whenever a new piece of content is posted.
If your content is great, people wonât mind hearing from you again because their initial interaction with you and your content was positive.
Whether thatâs a learning experience, an entertainment experience, or both â itâs worth watching your videos.
And remember that people take the time to watch great content.
According to Hubspot, 54% of people want to see more video content from marketers. This is a good foundation for your media platform that will expand social networks.
If your content is excellent, then youâll benefit from the fact that 54% of senior executives share content with their social networks.
So how do you produce incredible content that makes viewers want to subscribe and share?
Start by focusing on producing content that is relevant to your target audience.
Provided that youâre sticking to a theme, as mentioned before, it shouldnât be too hard to come up with a way to produce valuable content.
Look for Popular Keywords on YouTube
Letâs say that you want to create a channel that covers the topic of âpencil drawing.â
One way to develop content ideas is by simply entering the broad keyword of âpencil drawingâ into the YouTube search engine.
YouTube is the second-largest search engine globally, so we know thereâs 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.
Letâs add the word âtutorial,â for instance.
By adding the word tutorial, we are now provided with more concise keywords.
The fact that these keywords appear in the suggestions lets us know that people are searching for these 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, weâll figure out how we can get people to view our videos, even when there is a lot of competition â so donât let it be a concern for now.
The great thing about the approach above is that it gives us a place to start.
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.
My tool Ubersuggest is another great YouTube keyword research tool. Simply type in your main key term and click âKeyword ideasâ in the right sidebar, and it will deliver more than 400 keywords for you to consider.
You can also use the Google Keyword Planner tool to come up with content ideas. Thatâs because there will be some coherence between Google search results and YouTube search results.
Letâs stick with the topic of âpencil drawing.â
In the âYour product or serviceâ box, enter a keyword-based on your business. If I were running a business that taught people how to do a pencil drawing, Iâd enter âhow to do a pencil drawing.â
You want to keep the keyword broad at this stage because itâll allow for the keyword tool to develop a wide range of ideas for you.
Once youâve entered the keyword, youâll then see this page. It shows several âAd groupsâ of keywords.
Each group of keywords centers around a certain topic.
As you can see, Iâve arranged the groups in terms of âAverage monthly searchesâ and descending order. This gives us a sense of where there might be a lot of competition.
Letâs click on the mid-range group called âDrawing Techniques.â
Iâve highlighted a few keywords that might represent good YouTube content opportunities.
I chose these keywords because itâs clear to see how you could create a focused, high-value video centered around these keywords.
You might think that these keywords donât have that many searches and, therefore, arenât worthy in terms of effort required.
However, remember weâre not just going to post a handful of videos and then be done with it.
Cultivating a YouTube channel so that it eventually has many subscribers often requires posting a lot of content. In fact, the biggest YouTube channel has over 4,200 videos.
If you want to publish massive amounts of content while keeping it relevant, you need to be able to niche down your content as much as possible, so each video provides value.
If you niche down, itâs only natural that the level of searches per month will go down.
Even if you focus on low volume keywords, theyâll all come together to help you build momentum and establish yourself in a YouTube niche.
Youâll also notice there isnât a ton of content for those lower volume search terms, which represents an opportunity.
Look at what happens when I type in the âSimple drawing techniquesâ keyword.
Thereâs a playlist there, but other than that, there arenât any fully optimized titles or even videos based solely around the topic of âsimple drawing techniques.â
Improve the Production Quality of Your YouTube VideosÂ
Production quality shouldnât be a top priority, but it can definitely increase the number of YouTube subscribers after a certain point.
As long as your videos are rich in value and provide the viewer with the information they need, youâre doing a good job.
When the videos start to bring you a return, then you can focus more on production quality.
Ensure what youâre saying can be easily heard. You must speak clearly and enthusiastically. Youâve got to project your voice.
Otherwise, people might not be able to understand what youâre saying. They might even get bored.
You donât need to act like an extrovert; just try and prevent your voice from becoming monotonous.
If youâre 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 your video is easy to watch.
You donât want to make it hard work for your viewers to see what is going on. This means you need to ensure lighting is adequate.
If youâre recording a talking head style video where youâre talking to the camera, ensure that your face can be clearly seen.
If someone is recording you, then ensure the camera isnât shaking.
If youâre recording your laptop screen, make sure your actions can be clearly seen and that anything you type can be read.
Use Video Editing to Improve the Quality of Your YouTube VideosÂ
When it comes to video editing, you have a couple of solutions. When speaking about video editing, what weâre referring to is improving your videosâ style and not so much about removing minor mistakes.
More often than not, youâre going to make minor mistakes when recording your video. You donât need to put tons of focus into removing these bits, as they donât harm your video all that much.
In fact, they might even help your video as they let other people know that theyâre dealing with a real person rather than a 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 youâre not an accomplished video editor, you could seek 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 donât want to over-edit your videos, though you want to give them a sense of style that separates you from the crowd.
Often, the easiest way to do this is by having custom intro music and a custom title screen.
Another way that you can post incredible content is by creating videos based on your product being used.
Demonstration videos can go a long way in showcasing your product as something worth buying.
You can even turn some of your blog posts into videos. Nearly 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read a chunk of text.
Okay, so thatâs the basics of creating incredible content.
The next point will be essential if you want to ensure that your YouTube subscriber rates grow consistently over time.
Get More YouTube Views by Posting Often and Consistently
This is probably the hardest part of growing a YouTube following â though it can also be one of the most important.
The average company posts 18 YouTube videos a month. Posting content consistently is a great way for you to compete.
Plus, if youâre 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 youâre not going to post any more content â why should they?
If you use the tips mentioned earlier, then coming up with ideas for posting new content is pretty easy.
You just need to set a schedule and stick to it.
How Often Should You Post New YouTube Videos?Â
If you want to keep things simple, look at what your competition is doing, and then one-up them. If they are posting twice a week, aim for three times a week.
Sometimes, however, the best plan is the one you can stick to.
Consistency in your media marketing campaign is important, as itâll keep existing subscribers coming back for more. This will result in more YouTube views â and also improve engagement.
Engagement on a video tends to come in the following forms:
Ideally, you want to improve the engagement levels in each of these categories through any social media site.
People like to engage with content on YouTube â did you know that over 100 million people per week take a âsocial actionâ on YouTube every week?
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.
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 perform, you can use the YouTube analytics dashboard.
You donât have to be at a computer to post content consistently. Thatâs because you can use the scheduling feature provided by Google.
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 donât want to show ads on your videos, donât worry. You still have control over which videos are monetized and which ones arenât.
Letâs take a look at how you can get that done.
Sign up for a YouTube account and then go to the âCreators Studioâ section.
On the left sidebar, under the âChannelâ option, select âMonetization.â
Choose âEnable My Account.â
Now, youâll be able to access the scheduling features provided by YouTube to program your media platform.
Youâll also be able to access a lot more in the way of YouTube analytics.
If you want to schedule a video, click on the âUploadâ button.
Then click on the dropdown menu and select the âScheduledâ option.
Then drag and drop your video, or click the icon to upload it.
On the next screen, you can adjust the scheduling options.
Now enter the date and time you want the video to go live.
If people are subscribed to your channel, theyâll get a message when your video goes live.
Make sure to schedule that date into your social media management platform, if you have one. This will ensure that Tweets, Facebook updates, and LinkedIn posts are sent out simultaneously.
If you have an email list relevant to your video, you might even want to send a message out to those folks.
Consider staggering the messages, so youâre not bombarding people on multiple platforms all at once.
Consider Turning Long Videos into Multiple Short VideosÂ
If youâre struggling to develop content ideas daily, consider splitting up longer videos into several shorter ones.
In long videos, you likely cover several points about one main topic.
You could edit out certain topics and then create mini videos using those topics. Shorter videos are more convenient for social network sharing.
In fact, Hubspot found that 2 minutes is the optimal video length on YouTube for their audience.
Youâll notice that the channel âInside Questâ does this a lot. Hereâs one of the videos on their channel. Note how it is nearly 49 minutes long:
For someone new to the channel, that video length can be pretty intimidating.
So, they have broken down the video into some âhighlight clips,â covering interesting points and topics.
Note how short each of these videos is â just around a minute.
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.
Create Evergreen YouTube Videos
A great way to consistently generate subscribers is by creating evergreen content.
These are videos that will relevant whether they are viewed today or five years in the future.
This will apply to some niches more than others.
For example, I spoke earlier about the pencil drawing business, which naturally lends itself to producing a lot of evergreen content. A video about Instagram marketing, however, might be out of date in five years.
Take a look at your niche and see if you can create âhow-toâ videos that will stand the test of time.
Even if youâre not looking to create evergreen content, itâs worth creating âhow-toâ videos to provide value.
Optimize Your Videos to Increase YouTube Subscribers
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 will have some competition in the form of other videos.
So how do you get people to pay attention to and click on your video?
You need to focus on three areas â the headline, the thumbnail, and the description.
These three elements will have the biggest impact on influencing YouTube users to click on your videos. Be sure the meta tag is relevant and includes key points.
This is because theyâll help your rankings in the YouTube search engine. Theyâll also improve your videosâ ability to entice users to click on them and share them on social media.
YouTube categories and cards can also drive clicks, so weâll cover those too.
How to Create a Good Headline for YouTube Videos
If your video is based on a certain keyword, then the videoâs title must include this keyword.
When you do this, you increase the chances of someone clicking on your video.
If the videoâs title matches what they were searching for, theyâll assume that the video covers everything that they need to know about that topic.
Of course, that doesnât mean that you should be ridiculous in how youâre creating your titles.
âKeyword stuffingâ 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 â âsimple drawing techniques.â
If we had a video on that topic, we could write the headline like this â âSimple drawing techniques: 5 tips that will make drawing easier.â
Side note: An interesting experiment might be to split the âsimple drawing techniquesâ title into separate niches. This is a common social media marketing technique for blogs and helps videos too.
For example, âsimple drawing techniques for carsâ or âsimple drawing techniques for eyes.â
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, youâll have to experiment a little when you do things this way. But, thereâs no telling what kind of opportunities you might uncover.
As you can see in the example above, the video title uses a colon to separate the text.
Youâll also notice that there are videos where the â|â symbol is being used.
Youâll 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, youâll want to follow the rules that already exist for blog posts.
You need to have a mix of something that people are searching for and 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 targets in the headline and then including power words in the gaps.
As weâve discussed, the style of your videos is going to influence the headline. If you have a âhow-toâ video, then youâll need to account for that in your headline.
Similar to blog post headlines, numbers also tend to work well in YouTube headlines.
Use Engaging YouTube ThumbnailsÂ
When it comes to the thumbnail, there are a couple of approaches that you could take.
The first is to show a clear image of whatever the video is about. For example, if youâre talking about a laptop, youâd want to include a picture of a laptop.
Alternatively, you could just show a picture of a person interacting with whatever the video is about.
However, one of the increasingly powerful ways of creating video thumbnails is by adding text, like this:
Donât just drop some text and call it good. You can also heavily edit the thumbnail image so that it clearly stands out.
If you want to create thumbnails like this, you need to follow these rules.
How to Create a Custom Thumbnail for YouTube VideosÂ
You can create a thumbnail using Canva.Â
If you want to learn more about using Canva, going through their initial setup process might be helpful.
They have a YouTube thumbnail template, so use that to get started.
If you have some images of your own, you can upload them and then overlay text onto them.
Iâve 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 âCustom thumbnailâ option.
Youâll then have a custom thumbnail that will be shown around the YouTube platform.
Create Better YouTube DescriptionsÂ
Creating a description for your YouTube videos could become an entire post in itself. Weâre going to cover the basics here.
You need to keep in mind that you have a lot of space here, and YouTube tends to use what you say to rank your content. Donât 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.
Hereâs a great example.
In this section, you may want to use some of the keywords 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 âShow Moreâ text.
This will expand the description. You can use this space to insert a âsubscribe to channelâ link.
If you want to do that, use the following link format â
https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=
Make sure that you enter your channel name after the â=.â
So, for Kissmetrics, it would be â
https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=Kissmetrics
When people click on this link, theyâll be taken to your channel page, where a subscribe box will pop-up.
You can also enter some other information, such as your other social media profiles, important links, and even your content posting schedule in the description.
You can also describe the things that are being discussed in your video, like this â
You could even highlight what is discussed at certain time sections in your video like this: 21:48 â 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.
Add Tags to Increase YouTube ViewsÂ
Itâs also important to add tags. This will help improve the chances of your video appearing in the YouTube search engine.
You donât want to use anything that is misleading here. Have a mix of some really specific tags that describe your video. Then, add a few broad tags that are still related to the genre.
Thereâs no harm in using some of the suggested tags provided by YouTube, as long as they align with what your video is actually about.
YouTube Annotations used to be the best way to engage users by directly adding links and other content to your video.
However, annotations were disruptive and were discontinued and then deleted in 2019.
Today, you have the option of using YouTube cards. You can add up to five cards to your video with a customized image, text, and call to action.
Hereâs how you would go about creating a âYouTube cardâ for your video.
Select the âVideoâ option inside of the âVideo Manager.â Then click on the âEditâ drop-down menu for the video you want to add a card to.
Then select the âCardsâ option.
You should then see this screen.
Click on the âAdd cardâ option and then choose the âChannel.â
Then, enter your channel name and add 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 âteaser text,â adjust the slider below.
Youâll notice, however, that the âiâ will always be visible in the video.
If people hover their mouse cursor over the âi,â theyâll 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 YouTube channel. However, no subscriber box will pop-up.
Engage Your YouTube AudienceÂ
Another way to boost your YouTube subscriber numbers is by engaging with your audience and creating a community.
There are several ways that you can do this.
Respond to YouTube Viewer Comments
Responding to comments is a simple â but effective â way to engage users. This will show YouTube viewers that you value their opinion. Plus, the fact that youâre going through this effort might encourage them to subscribe.
You could even argue that this counts as 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 â all because they got a response.
If youâre getting any negative comments on your YouTube videos, address them promptly.
This can increase YouTube subscribers because people see this interaction and appreciate the fact that you engage.
You can do this using Google Hangouts on Air or YouTube Live. 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.
Ask Viewers What They WantÂ
Another way to engage your audience is by creating videos based on what they want. For example, you could use a survey to ask your audience what they want to see you talk about.
You can then create a video based on a viewerâs suggestions and call them out in the video to say thank you.
Consider Collaborating With Other YouTube Video Creators
When it comes to boosting subscriber numbers, you also have the option of doing collaborations with people in your industry.
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 âvery successful.â
The best way to go about this is to find channels with a similar audience.
Both of you could then arrange an event where you can both benefit from the interaction.
When you collaborate, you must encourage people to subscribe to your channel.
Also, make sure the videos you publish immediately after the collaboration are amazing, so they want to subscribe.
Host Interviews to Increase YouTube Subscribers
Alternatively, consider doing interviews on your channel. If you can find a way to interview the top people in your niche, youâll be able to attract their audience to your channel.
When your channel has a decent number of subscribers, youâll have a greater ability to attract these opportunities.
Of course, you shouldnât let low subscribers be an impediment that stops you from trying.
Email a few people who might be worth having on your channel and ask them if theyâd be willing to be a guest.
If they say no, respectfully ask if theyâd be willing to do a show when your channel has more subscribers. See if they can provide you with a ballpark figure that theyâd be happy with.
You donât want to be rude, but thereâs nothing wrong with asking for a potential future way to make it happen.
Iâve already spoken extensively about using YouTube Ads.
To get the most out of ads, target keywords your videos are created around.
This will ensure that your videos appear at the top of the search results when people enter that keyword.
If you are just getting started, you might want to get a feel for the platform first. But, if youâve got a solid YouTube monetization plan, ads can be an effective way to drive subscribers and YouTube views.
Ignoring the potential on YouTube is a huge mistake.Â
One of the keys to consistent success on YouTube is increasing your subscriber count â but donât fall victim to those buy YouTube subscribers scams.
Instead, work to create exceptional content that will keep your audience coming back for more.
Then, make people want to click on your content using brilliant thumbnails and killer headlines that draw them in.
When people finally click on your video, then you can ask for a subscription.
Once youâve got those fundamentals down, youâre free to experiment with things like collaborations and YouTube Ads.
If you put enough effort in, youâll see those subscriber numbers start climbing â which can lead to website clicks and more.
All you need to do is get started!
What have you found to be useful when it comes to boosting subscriber numbers on YouTube?
The post How to Double Your YouTube Subscribers (Without Buying Them) appeared first on Neil Patel.
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