With 2 billion users globally, YouTube is still one of the most popular marketing channels, giving it an ideal location for organizations looking to expand their digital presence.
However, as with every other social media channel, new features and trends emerge regularly, keeping marketers on their toes.
You're in luck if you're wondering how to surf the wave and build your YouTube subscriber base in 2023. In this post, we'll look at 11 ways to obtain more YouTube subscribers quickly and analyze brands that have done it successfully.
Tips to get more subscribers on YouTube in 2023
Create a strategy
Before embarking on the process, it is essential to develop a robust video marketing strategy. This step is crucial because, without it, your efforts will lack coherence and direction. You would be throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping for something to stick.
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Start NowTo begin with, define the goal of your channel. For example, if you are a homemade cosmetics brand, your objective might be to increase sales. Conversely, if you are a software company, you might aim to create educational resources that enhance customer retention. In any case, focus on a single goal and work diligently towards achieving it.
Subsequently, consider your target audience. Understand their preferences, demographics, and online/offline behavior. These insights will guide you in crafting your scripts, producing the content, and determining the appropriate platforms for promotion.
Josh Summer, the Owner of All Things Secured, presents a different perspective:
"First and foremost, if you want to grow your YouTube subscribers, it is imperative to create high-quality content that truly resonates with your audience," affirms Josh.
"While many emphasize the importance of consistent content, I believe the key lies in maintaining a 'consistent audience.' In other words, I strive to ensure that the content I produce consistently appeals to a specific avatar. This approach not only keeps my existing subscribers satisfied but also enables YouTube's algorithm to identify my channel's target audience and connect with similar individuals."
Hence, conducting thorough research on your intended audience becomes crucial in enabling YouTube's algorithm to refine its understanding of your target audience.
Channel’s Branding
To truly distinguish yourself from the masses, it is paramount to effectively brand your channel. There are numerous approaches you can adopt to achieve this:
Channel banner and logo: Craft a distinctive banner that prominently displays your channel's name and relevant background information. Strive for a minimalist design, accompanied by a few images (if pursuing a personal branding strategy), a captivating headline, and a succinct tagline that conveys the channel's purpose.
Video thumbnails: Create eye-catching thumbnails that captivate viewers and entice them to click. Take inspiration from Oversimplified's thumbnails, which feature their channel name, video title, and animated artwork encapsulating the essence of the video in a single scene. Although it requires upfront effort, the reward is evident in their videos amassing over 10 million views each.
Develop a 1-minute channel trailer: If you're seeking ways to garner your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube, it suggests that your viewer base is still growing. Produce a concise 60-second channel trailer that introduces yourself, outlines your content, and highlights the reasons why viewers should subscribe to your channel. Consider it as your elevator pitch for channel growth, so ensure clarity, brevity, and engagement.
Channel description: Compose a clear and compelling description that encapsulates your channel's essence. Elaborate on your identity and the topics you typically cover. For instance, take a cue from finance expert Ramit Sethi, who includes his bio, a concise statement about his core beliefs, and an overview of the subjects he discusses. If you have a book or course to promote, incorporate relevant links to redirect viewers to additional resources.
High-Quality Content Regularly
Consistency is paramount, regardless of the platform you aim to grow on, and YouTube is no exception. The more consistent you are, the higher your chances of achieving growth. This holds significant importance for several reasons:
- Viewers have a reason to stay engaged for more content.
- YouTube recognizes your channel as active, increasing the likelihood of discovery.
- Viewers gradually transform into an engaged audience or community.
- Enhances the probability of boosting overall channel watch time.
- Enables you to adapt your content strategy based on data-driven decisions and analytics.
This emphasizes the vital role of having a well-defined strategy. When you already have a predetermined set of topics, maintaining consistency becomes easier over time. The more content you produce, the better you understand the preferences of your audience, even if it doesn't always align with your initial assumptions.
Sintija Peterson, the Chief Marketing Officer at Desktime, echoes this sentiment. For instance, her team's video on timeboxing has steadily gained traction since its release, resulting in the highest number of subscriptions. Although it may not differ significantly from other content, the algorithm favors it. Therefore, it's crucial to take charge of your destiny and create opportunities.
Here is Ahrefs youtube channel. As you can see they post videos with a regular gap.
YouTube Shorts
In response to the surge of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube introduced its contender, YouTube Shorts. The popularity of this feature became evident in 2022, as it garnered a staggering 30 billion daily views, highlighting its immense potential. YouTube Shorts comprises brief, vertically-oriented videos crafted using smartphones.
To capitalize on this tactic, you have various options. You can fragment your existing videos into smaller segments for promotional purposes, or repurpose your TikTok and Reels content to maximize your viewership. Keeping the duration under 30 seconds ensures ease of consumption, and incorporating a compelling call to action encourages viewers to subscribe or explore additional videos on your channel. Given its potential for organic growth, leveraging YouTube Shorts presents the optimal opportunity for success.
YouTube SEO
It is crucial to recognize that YouTube functions as both a video-sharing platform and a search engine, boasting an impressive monthly user base of 1.5 billion. Therefore, investing in search engine optimization (SEO) becomes essential to ensure that your videos reach the right audience. Consider the following elements when optimizing your content:
Video title: The title serves as the initial point of contact for viewers. Make sure it incorporates relevant keywords and effectively communicates the video's content. Conduct a quick keyword search using tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or Keywords Everywhere to identify popular topics and analyze the structure of top-ranking videos within those topics.
Video description: The description should provide a concise summary of the video's content. Include relevant keywords, a compelling call-to-action, and any necessary links. Describing the video and incorporating timestamps makes the internal content searchable, enhancing your visibility on both YouTube and Google.
Video transcript: Having a transcript allows search engines to crawl and index the textual content within your video. Transcripts also improve accessibility for individuals with disabilities or those who prefer reading. Simply enable the transcript option, and the platform will automatically generate it for you.
Video meta tags: Tags serve as additional markers to improve the discoverability of your video. Use tags that are relevant, specific, and closely aligned with the content of your video. Additionally, include tags with high search volume to enhance the likelihood of your video being found.
Hashtags: Hashtags, denoted by the # symbol, function as keywords that aid in discoverability. Incorporate relevant hashtags within your video description to facilitate easy searchability and increase the chances of people finding your video through YouTube search.
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively optimize your content for improved visibility and reach on YouTube's search engine.
Increase Accessibility
When it comes to video content, viewers cannot simply "scroll" to quickly find the information they need. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that your videos are accessible, even for viewers with disabilities. Here are a few strategies to achieve that:
Create topical playlists: If you have a series of videos or discussions on specific topics, organize them into topical playlists. For instance, take inspiration from YouTube influencer Ali Abdaal, who created a playlist to guide new visitors through his most popular or preferred topics. This approach provides viewers with a summary of the subjects covered in your videos, thereby increasing the likelihood of them subscribing.
Add video captions: While YouTube automatically generates transcriptions for videos, they may not always be completely accurate. It is advisable to manually add captions to your videos to ensure accuracy and accessibility for all viewers, including those who prefer reading over listening.
Incorporate timestamps: By including timestamps in your videos, the platform automatically creates chapter divisions, allowing viewers to navigate directly to specific sections. This feature caters to individuals seeking particular answers or wanting to quickly access key information within your video.
By implementing these accessibility measures, you enhance the viewing experience for all users and make your content more inclusive and user-friendly.
Collaborate with Influencers
Collaborating with influential figures in specific niches presents a powerful method to drive subscriber growth for your channel. Already, 38% of YouTube brands are harnessing the potential of influencer marketing and achieving remarkable results.
When selecting influencers, consider factors such as their niche relevance, target audience alignment, channel engagement rate, follower count, and previous success stories from influencer campaigns. By leveraging their existing audience, you can guide viewers back to your channel and encourage them to subscribe. Here are a few effective approaches:
- Conduct giveaway contests, ensuring that participants are subscribed to your channel before entering.
- Collaborate with influencers for advertising campaigns, where they endorse or promote your channel to their audience.
- Invite influencers to your channel to participate in challenges or interviews, creating engaging and collaborative content.
A compelling example is Dyson's partnership with several tech influencers to review its new vacuum product. This collaboration exposed the product to a fresh audience, resulting in increased awareness and sales. By strategically engaging influencers, you can tap into their reach and effectively expand your channel's visibility and subscriber base.
Promote Videos
To expand your reach and foster subscriber growth on YouTube, effective promotion of your videos is essential. Social media platforms serve as an excellent starting point for promotion, including LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, which collectively boast millions of active users.
Conduct thorough research on your target audience and competitors to validate the demand for your content. Utilize these insights to promote your videos across these social media channels. Furthermore, leverage the power of email marketing by sharing your video with your entire subscriber list, encouraging them to watch and engage with your content.
Another valuable strategy is embedding your video within relevant blog posts. This approach not only caters to organic traffic from search engines but also increases on-page time, effectively engaging visitors and raising awareness for your YouTube channel.
By implementing these promotional tactics, you can tap into the vast potential of social media platforms, leverage your existing subscriber base, and maximize visibility through blog integration, thereby expanding your YouTube audience and driving growth in subscriptions.
Subscription Tools
Retain viewers on your YouTube channel by strategically incorporating additional videos in the end card segment of your content. The end card refers to the final moments of your video, during which clickable elements can be showcased to lead viewers to other engaging videos on your channel.
By leveraging the end card, you create a continuous loop of watch time, enticing viewers to explore more of your content. As they delve into multiple videos, the likelihood of them subscribing to your channel increases significantly.
Utilize YouTube's built-in end screen tool to craft your end card. This tool empowers you to include up to four clickable elements, such as videos, playlists, channels and calls to action (CTAs). Select videos that are relevant to the topic at hand, allowing you to extend your brand's narrative and maintain viewer engagement.
Another effective strategy to drive subscriptions is to leverage the multiple "Subscribe" CTAs offered by the platform. Consider incorporating the following examples:
Add a subscribe button by incorporating your channel's logo within the video.
Include a subscribe button on your end card, providing a clear and compelling call to action for viewers to subscribe to your channel.
By implementing these techniques, you can enhance viewer retention, increase watch time, and effectively encourage subscriptions, fostering the growth and success of your YouTube channel.
Monitor Channel Analytics
To ensure continuous growth, it is crucial to monitor your YouTube channel's analytics and adapt your strategy accordingly. Pay close attention to key metrics such as retention rate, video completion rate, click-through rate (CTR), and impressions. These metrics provide valuable insights into the number of new viewers you attract and the extent to which your videos resonate with them. If any of these metrics are low, it signifies areas for optimization and improvement.
Furthermore, it's important to acknowledge that trends evolve, and algorithms change. Consider hiring an expert who can stay abreast of these developments and provide valuable guidance.
Josh Summers highlights the challenge of being an expert in every aspect of running a successful YouTube channel. He emphasizes the value of hiring someone who can offer expertise or dedicated time to develop an effective YouTube strategy. This external support allows you to step back from the day-to-day operations and identify more efficient ways to drive growth.
Another valuable recommendation comes from Brian Dean, the Founder of Backlinko, who suggests adding subscriber magnets to your videos. Analyze your YouTube Analytics to identify the video that has attracted the most viewers within a specific period. Promote this video extensively across various platforms since its performance has already been validated by its audience.
By consistently monitoring these metrics, you can stay ahead of algorithmic changes and trends. Outsourcing certain responsibilities enables you to adopt a long-term perspective and focus on the core aspects that contribute to your channel's success.
Bonus: Build Community
To foster a loyal audience base, it is essential to make your videos engaging and captivating, encouraging viewers to follow and actively engage with your content.
One effective strategy is to actively respond to comments and solicit feedback from your audience. By fostering a sense of community, you create a connection that keeps viewers invested in your videos. Each time you like or heart a comment, the commenter receives a notification, which can bring them back to your video. In some cases, this may even trigger an email notification. Furthermore, organizing contests and giveaways can incentivize viewers to subscribe to your channel, further strengthening audience loyalty.
Take advantage of YouTube's "Community" tab, where you can regularly post updates, similar to platforms like Instagram or Twitter. This provides an additional channel for interaction and keeps your audience informed and engaged. Additionally, consider offering loyalty programs that provide exclusive benefits to paid subscribers, showcasing the popularity and value of your channel.
By leveraging these tools and fostering a strong community, you can accelerate the process of reaching your first 1000 subscribers and cultivate a dedicated audience that remains connected to your content over the long term.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, gaining more YouTube subscribers in 2023 requires a strategic and well-planned approach. The key factors to consider are content quality, consistency, audience engagement, and effective promotion. By creating compelling and relevant content that resonates with your target audience, maintaining a consistent upload schedule, actively engaging with viewers through comments and collaborations, and utilizing various promotional strategies, you can significantly increase your subscriber count. Additionally, staying updated with the latest YouTube trends, optimizing your video titles, descriptions, and tags, and leveraging social media platforms for cross-promotion can further enhance your chances of success. Remember, building a loyal subscriber base takes time and effort, so stay dedicated, adapt to evolving trends, and continually refine your content to foster growth in your YouTube channel.
