With video quickly becoming the most popular format of content when it comes to engaging your target audience, it’s led many businesses to start YouTube channels in an effort to capitalize on the latest trend.
Don’t think video is booming? Open up your Instagram app and look at the most popular content. Video.
Now, scroll down your Facebook feed and see what posts go viral and receive the most engagement. Again, it’s video.
You need to put in a little more effort than simply uploading video content to a YouTube channel if you want to see measurable results. After all, creating video content takes a lot of work and planning, so doing so without a concrete strategy to promote it is a clear waste of money.
There are some YouTube channels that have millions of subscribers, but those are unicorns, and if you jump into video content thinking you are going to easily replicate those results you need a reality check. It’s important to have very realistic goals. You don’t need millions of subscribers to leverage a YouTube channel — you just need quality subscribers that are genuinely interested in what you offer.
It’s the little things that add up to big results, as many users are too lazy to lay down the proper foundation required to build and grow a strong YouTube channel.
I’m going to lay out twelve simple hacks that you can use to help you grow your YouTube subscribers on a consistent basis.
1. Make a Trailer for Your Channel That is Very Descriptive
When someone lands on your channel, from organic search to referral traffic, you want them to quickly understand what your video content is all about. The description is very important, but so is having a trailer that is essentially an overview of what your channel covers.
You don’t have to spend money on a fancy produced video. You want this to be very raw and real, as this is often your first chance to make that connection and it will be more effective if the viewer doesn’t feel like they are watching a commercial.
Some of the best trailer videos I have seen were just the business owner and employees talking about what they do and what type of videos they plan to upload on the channel. You need to think of content that is going to be interesting to your target audience.
2. Fully Complete (Optimize) Your Channel’s ‘About’ Section
This, along with your channel’s trailer video are the two things that are going to help you attract loyal subscribers. Someone is going to check this out before they just start to watch your videos. They want to make sure your channel is worth their time and features the type of content they are searching for.
Your ‘About’ section is where you need to highlight your expertise and USP – what is your channel’s unique selling point? What type of information is someone going to see on your channel that they will not find elsewhere? What type of information are you the authority on?
This needs to be a combination of humble brags and selling points. Make sure you also optimize this section with SEO in mind, and include your target keywords, as google uses this information when displaying its video search results.
3. Promote Your Previous Video in Your End Screen
One of the most effective plugins on a blog is one that displays related posts at the end of each piece of content. They are designed to keep visitors on the website and engaging with more content. You can apply the same logic on your YouTube channel, and give the viewer the option to watch your previous video by simply clicking a link.
The more videos they watch, the stronger your relationship becomes, which increases the odds of them eventually converting into a customer. YouTube makes it very easy to do this, and I would also suggest that you also include a call-to-action on the end screen allowing for one-click channel subscription.
In addition, include a link to your last video and to subscribe in the video’s description. The more options you provide to watch more content, the more views and subscribers you will attract.
4. Create a Custom Channel Icon and Watermark
Video content is visual, so it’s important to make all efforts to have a visually pleasing channel, and something as simple as creating a custom icon and watermark for your videos will go a long way. It also helps to brand your channel.
When someone sees this kind of effort, they will take your channel more seriously and someone is more likely to subscribe when they get the feeling you will be consistent in creating new content. Nobody is going to subscribe if they see your channel as a fly-by-night hack job.
You don’t have to get fancy at all. A $5 logo from Fiverr is all you need and you can kill two birds with one stone usually and use the icon as your watermark as well. If a channel becomes popular, spammers will often try to rip the videos and upload them to other platforms. A watermark can help prevent that.
5. Embed Your Videos in a Blog & Share on Social Media
If you are diving into video content then you surely already have a blog, so create another category on your blog and start embedding your video content on your blog as well and then sharing each post on social media.
This is an easy way to introduce all of your social media followers to your video content, as well as potentially attracting brand new customers to your brand. Video content is so simple to digest, so many consumers that would normally ignore a blog post will watch a video.
Many brands are taking advantage of this and using their existing blog and social media to distribute their video content. When you roll out this strategy you cover all the bases and draw attention and traffic from all sources.
6. Encourage Comments & Reply to Every Single One
If you study the top YouTube channels you will see that the comment section is on fire on every video. You will also see that some of the most successful YouTube channels are VERY active in the comment section, replying to most if not all comments.
Now, this isn’t saying that it’s the actual channel owner doing this, but the commenter doesn’t think like that. In their eye they are receiving a reply directly from the channel and that type of engagement keeps them coming back and leads them to subscribe. “EGG HUNT”
In the early stages of your channel, the comments will likely be on the light side, so it will take very little effort to keep up. As your channel and engagement grows, it might make sense to hire a VA to handle your engagement. It all comes down to the return. If you are seeing great results, by all means spend the money to scale.
7. Create Videos Longer Than 8 Minutes
You need to find your “sweet spot” in terms of video length. Channels that are geared towards younger kids are uploading content that is 15 – 20 minutes long because they know they can keep that audience engaged for long periods of time.
Most adults on the other hand don’t have 20 minutes to watch a video. But they do want longer videos that just 3 to 5 minutes. You want to create your videos in a way that delivers your main point quickly so you don’t miss any opportunities if people can’t watch it to the end.
You want to also make them informative so your viewers see your channel as a source of solid info and not just short commercial-feeling clips. I believe that 8 to 10 minute range is the best, hitting on your point in the beginning, middle and then again at the end with a final CTA.
8. Promote Your Channel in Your Email Signature & in Newsletter Footers
Think of how many emails you send each day and how many people come in contact with your email newsletter on a monthly basis. This gives you a huge opportunity to introduce people to your YouTube channel that are already familiar with you and your company.
A little “Check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel” link at the bottom of your email signature and within your email newsletter will help attract quality subscribers. This is something that takes 5 minutes to set up and it markets your channel on autopilot without you doing anything.
9. Optimize Your Video Descriptions with SEO in Mind
YouTube is the second largest search engine, and many people forget that. Each video’s description is a chance to pull in organic traffic, and the beautiful thing is that you can implement some old school SEO here and not risk penalizing your website.
You can be much more aggressive in your description with keywords and using them more often than you would on your website out of fear that a high keyword density will set off alarms. Now you don’t want to be spammy, but don’t be afraid to pack your descriptions with your target keywords and several variations.
I see some videos that are literally just copy/paste results from keyword tools. Don’t do that. It looks so spammy and won’t help you in the results. Find ways to incorporate all of your targeted keywords and search phrases related to the video in a natural way but understand that most people won’t read them word-for-word.
10. Consider Uploading a New Video Daily
If you look at the top YouTube channels based on subscribers you will see one very common trait — they are all uploading content on an almost daily basis. Some of the most successful channels are daily vlogs.
In fact, this strategy is so effective that many companies are now hiring full time videographers and editors, who create daily content. This takes a huge budget, but this should be enough to show you how beneficial video content can be and why it’s something worth your time.
It’s much easier to do this if you have an interesting business, as well as a good grasp on editing software. If you can publish new videos daily by putting in just a couple hours of work it could be very helpful. Not for all, but those that it does make sense for should at least consider testing daily uploads.
11. Create Clickbait Thumbnails and Titles
Clickbait is almost a necessary evil these days if you want to thrive on YouTube. With so much content being uploaded that is similar, it’s often the video titles and the thumbnail images that dictate whether or not a video will perform well.
You have to find ways to stand out among all of the other videos, so coming up with thumbnails that spark curiosity or video titles that command clicks are a must-do. Now, you want to make sure that your titles and thumbnails are always somewhat related to the actual video content, because you don’t want to deceive your audience, but you can be a bit creative here in order to attract the clicks.
Again, the top channels in the world have mastered this, so look to them for some ideas and inspiration.
12. Splurge for Custom Channel Art (Relax, it’s only $5)
Custom headers for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages are common — everyone does it, and YouTube is no different. It’s just another way to help brand your channel as professional. Have it professionally done and make sure it includes a call-to-action, like urging people to subscribe to your channel.
There are endless options on Fiverr, costing very little money. Look for a designer with several examples and one that specializes in channel art. This will ensure you receive a file that will be properly optimized for desktop, tablet and mobile screens.
If you don’t want to spend any money, use Canva and their templates to make something, which is still better than not having anything and taking advantage of that available marketing space. Look at popular channels to get some design inspiration.
Conclusion
As you can see, these are all tips that you can jump right into and start knocking out. You don’t need to break the bank either, as many of these tips can be executed for free or very little money.
Just like with blog content, it takes time to grow a following, so make sure you go into this fully dedicated to put in the work, even if that means not seeing results for a year or more. Online marketing is such a competitive space these days and those that stick it out and don’t give up will benefit the most.
Are you currently using YouTube in your marketing strategy? What are you doing to successfully grow your subscribers? If you have some additional tips drop them in the comment below. Or if you have specific questions related to YouTube, drop them as well, and I will try to answer them for you.
