As marketers, we all know how important images and videos can be when optimizing our digital presence. With contrast to text, visuals invite engagement and add another level of understanding for people who may learn differently. This is why YouTube has become an increasingly valuable marketing tool that can elevate your brand’s presence and content. However, YouTube subscribers are not an easy audience to come by. Through this article, you will learn how to grow your YouTube channel and begin accumulating subscribers as a smaller channel.
Table of Contents
Consistency
The first aspect of your brand to be aware of when trying to gain YouTube subscribers is consistency. Consistency holds a place of importance across the marketing industry. This is because it allows for a more organized and easy-to-navigate experience for your consumer. The more your audience feels that they understand your brand, the more likely they are to follow along with what you do!
Brand Consistency & Integration
Maintaining a consistent image for your brand is the first step to connecting with your audience, no matter what platform they are using. You may now be wondering, however, how do you create brand consistency?
The idea behind this concept is displaying the same image, ideals, slogan, hashtags, etc. on any channel your brand is present on. This all leads back to making sure your consumer understands what your brand stands for, and is not confused when exploring different pages. All of this applies to YouTube too, and is necessary for connecting your video content to your product/service.
The first step to increasing your brand consistency through YouTube is to include links to your channel on all other platforms you currently utilize. Not only will this provide your channel with better visibility, but it will also ensure that people know your YouTube channel is connect to your brand. When this happens and the consumer is interested in your brand, they are much more likely to subscribe and look for your content.
The YouTube Side
Now that you have their attention, you have won half the battle. Another aspect of brand consistency is communicated through the content you provide. If you are a gaming company and your YouTube videos focus on cooking or clothing, your consumer may become confused about your ideals and look elsewhere.
Lastly, as we said that displaying your YouTube channel on your other platforms will help increase consistency and therefore subscribers, the reverse is also true. You must be sure to display your brand as well as possible on your YouTube channel to further increase the connection between platforms. Adding aspects of your brand like your logo, slogan, ideals, and partners to your page can further connect and integrate your content. Combining all of these aspects of consistency will lead to a more seamless user experience, altogether increasing the strength of your brand.
Posting Consistently
Another important point of consistency when marketing on YouTube comes down to the scheduling of your content. Consumers don’t only want to know what information is provided through your video. They also like to know when and where they will be able to find this information, free of inconvenience. When starting up your channel, try to establish a posting schedule that will provide your consumer with peace of mind. Eventually, if your content is enticing enough, a schedule may even lead to your videos being built into someone’s daily routine. Having a posting schedule can also increase the chances your videos will be found!
Having a posting schedule alone may not work in the way you would expect, though. The other side of posting consistency is considering what time of the day your posts will be made at. Optimizing this aspect may take some time, though, as you can only find out what time is best through experience. As you post, keep track of which videos perform the best and at which time they were first made live. Certain audiences are more interactive on YouTube at different times, so making sure you align with your consumer is essential.
All of these aspects of consistency are vital when it comes to gaining YouTube subscribers. Viewers are often drawn to videos that they consistently have a good experience with. Following the steps above will give your brand the best shot at optimizing the consumer experience, ultimately driving more traffic to your channel!
Optimize Your Channel
Beyond consistency, there are more technical aspects of putting together a YouTube channel to consider when trying to grow subscribers. Because there are so many, we will briefly cover each and describe how this can increase your chances at finding subscribers.
Channel Trailer
Channel trailers can help entice your target audience. They are a great way to welcome your viewers to your page and give them an overview of what you cover. These trailers pop up and play automatically when your page is clicked on, providing an unavoidable entry way into your channel. Trailers help you accumulate subscribers by giving prospects a look into your content and how it can help them.
Channel Description
Channel descriptions are not only important for attracting viewers to look at more, but they also help with SEO efforts. Like a meta description, these summaries can help further describe to Google what your page is about, moving you up in the search rankings. On the other hand, channel descriptions attract viewers in the same way that a trailer can. Providing your viewer a holistic introduction to your page can help convert them to a subscriber in no time.
Searchable Titles
Something that may seem obvious but is not always in practice, using searchable titles when uploading videos can give you a great shot at finding your target consumers. We all like to think we use searchable titles, but in reality, we do not always realize what this means. A searchable title is not just including a topic you think others will search for. It is also about phrasing your title in a way that embodies the consumer’s thought process. When crafting your next video title, try to truly put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. Think about what exactly they would type into the search bar.
End of the Video
One of the most important points to optimize when building your YouTube channel is the outro of your video. For a first time viewer who just enjoyed your video’s content all the way through, the end of the video is your prime opportunity to capitalize on their experience. The first way to do this is to offer then another video to watch, in order to deepen their connection to your brand. YouTube offers a convenient way of implementing this, as you can embed new video links as the original video is coming to a close.
YouTube also offers a direct way to subscribe to your channel at the end of a video without leaving the screen a viewer is currently on. The same way you can offer an embedded video to the consumer, you can also offer an embedded subscription button! This is a surefire way to increase your YouTube subscribers directly.
The last part of optimizing the end of your video is including a call to action. Many times while you are watching YouTube videos, you will hear something along the lines of “like, comment, and subscribe!” This is a classic example of a call to action that invites engagement and increases your chance of landing a subscriber. This call to action can be used at any point throughout your video. Feel free to customize your saying to match your brand voice or influence other actions, like visiting a brand website.
Focus on the Content
Now that we have assimilated your YouTube channel with your brand and optimized its features, we have to focus on delivering great content. At the end of the day, people visit your channel to watch the content you have created. Offering exciting and relevant content for your target audience is perhaps the best way to increase your subscriber count.
Because of how important your content is, one rule to keep is quality over quantity. You should never sacrifice your content’s quality just to get a post out. Videos that are well made are more entertaining, inviting, immersive, relatable and so much more than content made just to put out a video.
At the end of the day, people subscribe to channels on YouTube because they want to see more of their content. There is no better way to attract attention to your channel than being the best source of information!
Additional Considerations
Content may be king, but there are also ways you can better utilize this content to your advantage. Follow these last few steps to further increase your YouTube subscribers count.
- Respond to your comments– There are so many YouTube channels out there that you must take every chance you get to stand out. Replying to all of your comments is a great way to connect to your audience. Putting in the extra work that others won’t can really differentiate your brand!
- Create playlists– Organizing your content further can continue to add value to the consumer experience you provide. If someone comes to your page for a specific topic and finds all the necessary information in one place, chances are they will be happy with what they found. Make your consumer fall in love with your page.
- Utilize your data– Just as it is with any other marketing tool, analyzing your data can lead to many improvements on your page. Follow the trends you find and capitalize wherever you can! An important metric to look out for is your “Subscriber Magnet,” or a specific video that pulls in a large amount of subscribers for your page.
Maximizing your YouTube Subscribers
While we covered the basics of how to get your YouTube channel up and running, there are thousands of ways you can increase the amount of subscribers you are gaining. If you are looking for more ways to boost your YouTube subscribers or help with your page in general, make sure to reach out to our professional marketers here at SEO Design Chicago!
FAQs
- How do I gain subscribers on YouTube?
- How do I start my YouTube channel?
- What can I do to optimize my YouTube channel for SEO?
- How do I create better YouTube videos?
- What is the best way to organize my YouTube?
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