Everyone Needs A YouTube Growth Strategy to Grow A YouTube Channel
Gaining YouTube Subscribers is getting harder and harder with an abundance of YouTubers entering the scene and people nowadays are pickier when choosing to subscribe to channels, as they don’t want to be bombarded with content they’re not interested in. The following YouTube Growth Strategy will allow you to gain subscribers more effectively and quicker than you have before. So get reading and start gaining a bunch of loyal subscribers!
Make use of YouTube Customisations – Branding YouTube Growth Strategy
Like any website you may visit, one of the few things you critique is the design, name/branding and the content on the page. The same can be said for a YouTube Channel. In a Branding YouTube Growth Strategy you have to establish credibility by having a completed channel which includes channel art such as Banners and Channel Icons, amount of videos and a completed bio. YouTube has a ton of customisation options to truly make the channel yours and brand yourself using the a Trailer Video, Icons and Headers, you can truly communicate who you are and what your videos are about with your Trailer Video and channel art.
Diversifying Content – YouTube Growth Strategy
One of the main factors of subscribers is views. Views are vital to gain subscribers without views how can people find and subscribe to your videos? There are two types of content fleeting and Evergreen. To Increase views you will need to have diverse content that pulls in viewers for a phase in time (fleeting) and indefinitely (evergreen)
Fleeting content describes videos that are only relevant for a certain time period that people will watch. For example Ice Bucket Challenge.
The Ice Bucket Challenge was fleeting, it was popular for a limited time frame of a few months and it was all people were watching. Lets say if you made a video about the ice bucket challenge that was humorous and contained compelling content it would have been watched a lot during that time frame but views would have fallen off towards the end of its popularity. In the process gaining you a lot of subscribers if Call to Actions were implemented correctly.
Evergreen content decribes videos that people are consistently viewing throughout the year. For evergreen content you have to put a lot of research into trends for example on Googles Trend Tool. If there is a niche or category that consistently brings in views you should do a video on the topic. For example, “How to clean make up brushes” People are always trying to clean their make up brushes throughout the year and its a problem a lot of people have. Should the video become an authority for this term it will gain views throughout the year for many years, no matter what happens.
It is not a fad. By using CTA (Call to Actions) and having compelling & related content these videos should pull in a lot of subscribers.
Call to Action (CTA) – Ask for engagement
A call to action is a vital part of a YouTube Growth Strategy and is basically asking the viewer to do something. For us, we want them to subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Call to actions are an absolute godsend to YouTubers and can be used to increase subscribers exponentially if used correctly.
There a few ways to place a call to action in a video such as Annotation, which are those small subscribe pop up text or buttons that show up at the bottom of the page. In these annotations you put a button with a link to subscribe to your channel. You can also ask in a more personal way by asking during the video, usually during the start and end is the best time to ask as users are most engaged at the start and gives a reminder at the end, with a mixture of both you can increase your subscribers by implementing this simple feature within your videos.
Distribution of Content – Share Your Video, Get Seen!
As said above without views your content is nothing. The more you get people watching videos, the more people can subscribe. Distribution is an important part of a YouTube Growth Strategy and you should share videos at any moment you can. You cannot simply place content and expect people to come find it, you have to show them where it is. There are many ways to do this.
Facebook – On Facebook you can post your content on your page so your friends and extended network can find it. You can also place the video in Facebook groups, when placing in facebook groups make sure the facebook group’s interests align with the content in your video. Therefore they will find it interesting and be more likely to subscribe.
Twitter – With the use of Hashtags you can post a link to your video so your followers and audience can see it, as well as hashtag the tweet with a relevant area for example #Kyshadow and @kyliejenner for a KyShadow review to increase exposure.
Reddit – Reddit is an interesting source of views, as described above it is fleeting but if you post in the relevant section on reddit with compelling content it has the opportunity to bring in a large audience to your video if it gets upvoted by the community. In some cases, Small and Medium youtubers have gone viral with the use of reddit which really built up their audiences.
Forums/Blogs – Blogs and forums are also a great way to bring in views, by guest posting or commenting with a link to your video on a topic that is related to your video you can also bring in some new viewers who may subscribe.
Collaborations – Make Friends
Collaborations are an excellent source of new subscribers that is beneficial for both YouTubers. When collaborating you gain access to another YouTubers audience and they gain access to yours. When doing collaborations as part of a YouTube Growth Strategy, do them with people who have a similar sized audience, lets say you have 4000 subscribers, try and do collaborations with those who have an audience of 3000-5000 subscribers as they are more likely to accept collaboration requests. You should also make sure that the videos your making and that their making are related in some way. For example You’re both gaming youtubers, you should do a collab with another gaming YouTuber as their audience is also interested in gaming, it would not be effective to do a Gaming & Beauty Channel collab as gaming subscribers may not be interested in beauty and vice versa.
Intro, Outro and Channel Trailer
These are vital elements of any YouTube Channel. They show viewers who you are and what you make videos about. The channel trailer is the first thing a newcomer to your channel will see and this is the moment you have to impress them, and gain them as a subscriber. A good trailer is one that’s informative and under one minute. The use of intro’s is always important as it re-enforces your branding, as well as a video outro which you can link to other youtube videos so they can keep watching or give them the option to subscribe and like the video (Call to Action).
Consistency – Everyone Loves A Regular TV Show
Consistency is key as the saying goes and YouTube is no different. Viewers want to see a consistent stream of videos. If you really want to be a youtuber you should enjoy making videos and it should have to be a task. Therefore uploading videos on a regular schedule should be no problem and with more videos = more reach for views = more subscribers. By uploading frequently on a regular YouTube Growth Strategy schedule you are building a good relationship with your existing subscribers and developing new subscribers through new videos which will expand your reach.
Interaction & Personality
If you’re a growing youtuber you should interact with your audience wherever you can, if they ask questions in the comment or compliment your video, interact and thank them. This will let your audience know you’re there for them and they will become loyal subscribers. Even seeing a YouTuber respond in the comments makes me like them and makes me want to subscribe as it shows me that they care for their audience and their work.
YouTube Video Optimisation – Video SEO
Video optimisation is absolutely essential for subscribers. Video optimisation allows you to rank well in YouTubes Search and Related videos section. This includes Title, Description and Tags. You should have a relevant and stand out title. For Fleeting videos make the title snappy and out there, for Evergreen Videos make it out there you should do some keyword research. Keyword research entails finding out what people are searching for using Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Type in a few terms and suggestions and related terms will come up. For example “5 Best MakeUp Brush”. You should try to target medium and high search volume keywords.
YouTube Giveaways
Giveaways are the incentivized way of getting new subscribers. When doing giveaways as part of a YouTube Growth Strategy try and make the giveaway item as relevant to your topic area as possible for example if you’re a gamer maybe give away a controller, this will ensure any potential subscriber who subscribes to win the giveaway item has a real interest in the topic you’re making videos about. When doing a giveaway you should ask the audience to subscribe and share the content on social media such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. This will also gain you new viewers from their bunch of followers too!
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Emma Blackery and Luke Cutforth’s Oreo Licking Race – YouTube 2014
