It’s a hard fact of social media marketing, that the only way your YouTube channel can consistently grow and maintain high levels of engagement is if you have a lot of subscribers.
Why is this a “hard” fact? Because even though it’s the truth, it’s not so easy to get people to subscribe to your channel. Yet it’s critical that you do persuade people to become subscribers, since that’s virtually the only way you can sustain steady growth for your brand on the YouTube platform.
If you’re stumped for ideas on how to grow your YouTube subscribers, never fear. We’ve got 32 tips and strategies that you can start implementing right away and turn your channel from a dead space into a hub of engagement.
But first, let’s explain why it’s so essential for you to get as many YouTube subscribers as possible.
Why YouTube Subscribers are Important?
Having a substantial number of subscribers on your channel offers a valuable asset: a consistent source of engagement for upcoming content.
At any time you post a new video or Short to your YouTube channel, your loyal base of followers will see the content drop, watch it, and interact with it. Even if not all of them engage, the more subscribers you have, the higher your engagement rate is likely to be.
A high engagement rate combined with a high subscriber count can bring you all sorts of advantages. For example, not only does it make your channel look more credible, but it also makes you look more popular. Both of those qualities have the power to draw in an increasing number of loyal viewers.
An even more amazing potential benefit, though, is access to opportunities for earning more money through the monetization features in YouTube Studio. Plus, if you’re not eligible for monetization yet, getting a lot of subscribers can help you secure the number of followers and watch hours you need to join the YouTube Partner Program.
32 Tips and Strategies To Increase Subscribers on YouTube
And now, here are the 32 tips and strategies that can help you grow your YouTube subscribers.
1. Improve the Quality of Your Videos
This first tip may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s something that a lot of YouTube creators might forget about. In the midst of hustling to promote themselves on social media and promote their brand, they neglect to pay attention to the one thing that will convert new subscribers.
The truth is that the quality of your videos, both in terms of the script and the footage itself, holds a lot of power. It can either attract subscribers or repel them, depending on how low or high it is.
If you’re having trouble gaining subscribers, take a hard look at your videos and see where they could stand to be improved. You may find that your concepts aren’t as solid as you initially thought they were, or your editing is poor, or your camera footage is too janky.
2. Hold a Giveaway or a Contest
Persuade your audience to subscribe to your channel by offering them an incentive: if they subscribe, that counts as an entry “fee” to a giveaway or a contest that you’re holding.
Once you’ve gotten plenty of entrees, announce the winner in a live stream on your channel. (Make sure you offer a great prize!)
3. Buy YouTube Subscribers
Buying YouTube subscribers is the industry-standard method of boosting your following. It’s fast, it’s inexpensive (with the right provider, of course), and it helps you achieve the appearance of credibility and popularity that can help bring more organic engagement to your channel.
However, Buying real subscribers is effective, unlike bots that vanish quickly post-purchase. Real users may engage with your channel beyond a subscription, unlike bots which won’t engage at all.
4. Post Content Consistently
Generally, the most popular and experienced YouTubers upload new videos to YouTube on a regular schedule. They may even plan, film, and edit their content months in advance in some cases.
This is a great strategy because it builds anticipation and trust in your audience. They trust that you will publish new videos on a certain day (or days) of the week, and they anticipate watching them. To ensure consistent posting, schedule your videos for specific dates and times, making it easier to maintain a regular content release schedule.
Plus, if your audience learns that you’re always creating fresh content, they’re more likely to subscribe to your channel than they would if you only posted once in a while or not at all.
5. Create Evergreen YouTube Content
“Evergreen” is a term that means, “always relevant.” When a video or another type of online content is labeled “evergreen” in the title, it means that it contains information that will retain its value forever. You can promote it over and over for years to come, and viewers will still find it relevant to their interests – even if it’s a few years old!
An evergreen video will be a constant stream of engagement for your channel. It’s also bound to attract more users to your channel, where they may convert into subscribers.
For evergreen video ideas, look into keywords your audience often searches in your niche. Create content based on your findings from the analyses, avoiding topics heavily reliant on statistics that quickly become outdated with new reports and surveys.
For example, if your content niche is beaded jewelry, create videos on how to make beaded jewelry. Since how-to’s don’t typically rely on statistics, there’s little danger that the information you share will become antiquated or less sought-after in the near future.
6. Create Different Types of Content that are Popular with General Audiences
There are certain types of videos that general audiences across all content niches like to watch. They include:
You don’t have to dip into all the above categories. But it’s a smart idea to diversify your content in this way, as different types of videos grab new viewers’ attention and help keep your channel fresh for your current subscribers.
7. Analyze Your Audience’s Interests
If you ever get stumped for video ideas that will bring in new subscribers, just open YouTube Analytics, click on the Audience tab, and see what your audience’s interests are. What are their demographics? What other videos and channels are they watching?
There are so many insights you can learn and adapt to your channel using this tip. But most importantly, it takes the guesswork out of finding content that will attract your target viewers and convert them into subscribers.
8. Make a Point to Engage with Your Viewers
Viewers appreciate when a YouTube creator interacts with them. Much like customer service, it makes your audience feel like you’re a real human being and that you actually care about their engagement. It builds trust, and with trust comes a willingness to subscribe to your channel.
For that reason, make a point to engage with your viewers whenever possible. Here are a few ways to do that.
9. Collaborate with Other YouTube Creators
When you’re trying to grow your subscribers on YouTube, it can be extremely helpful to collaborate with other YouTube creators in your content niche. This tip will expose you to a brand-new audience of interested viewers in the form of the other creators’ followers. If they enjoy your collaboration, they may decide to subscribe to your channel, as well.
10. Promote Your YouTube Videos on Other Social Media Platforms
Cross-promotion is an essential social media marketing strategy. Posting your YouTube content on other social media platforms, like Instagram or TikTok, allows you to tap into audiences that may not know about your YouTube channel.
By turning a YouTube video (or a clip of one) into an Instagram Reel, for example, you could open a gateway for users on that platform to discover your long-form work. That in turn could create – you guessed it! – more subscribers!
11. Promote Your Videos with YouTube Ads
One way to reach more potential subscribers is by creating ads for your brand or channel. Using a feature called YouTube Ads, you can pay to promote your videos across the platform, so that they reach people who are interested in your content niche. You can use YouTube Ads to broaden your reach, boost engagement, and potentially attract more subscribers, enhancing your overall presence on the platform.
12. Promote Your Video as Much as Possible in the First 24 Hours After Posting
The first 24 hours after you publish a video, promote it as hard and as often as you can. That way, you’ll score high in YouTube’s First 24 Hours metric, which measures how much engagement your video gets in the day after you post it to your channel.
When we say, “promote hard,” we mean HARD. Use every tool in your disposal to let your YouTube subscribers and followers on other social media platforms know that there’s fresh content for them to view.
For example, you can: An eye-catching thumbnail on your YouTube video could mean the difference between someone clicking on your video and scrolling on to another video. And you want them to click because every interaction with your content is an opportunity to convert a new subscriber! To look the best, your YouTube thumbnail image should meet the following suggested parameters from Google: If you’re thinking, “But I don’t have any graphic design skills,” there’s no need to worry. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create a compelling and attractive thumbnail. There are free thumbnail makers out there with templates, so that all you have to do is copy and paste your video title, tagline, and photo. Here are four suggestions of free YouTube thumbnail tools.
The beauty of internet trends is they are almost universally applicable to any content niche. Whether your YouTube channel is about marketing, fashion, cooking, how-to videos, or politics, you can watch the latest trend going around on social media into an engagement-driving video. To generate buzz for your channel and keep your audience engaged, consider making an ongoing video series. If your concept is compelling enough, viewers will be eager to subscribe to your channel, just so they don’t miss the next installment. This tip can also help you with scheduling, posting, and content creation. Instead of shooting multiple videos with different themes, you can film one long video and then divide it into smaller installments. Then, you can schedule those installments to be published over a period of a few weeks or months. This will give you time to create new content. Often, when YouTube users find a video they like, they want to see more of the same kind of content. Guide your audience toward your videos that are similar to one another by creating playlists for different categories (e.g., one playlist for your how-to videos, and another one for your shopping haul videos). Then, you can share a link to those playlists in your video cards, the description box, or a pinned comment. The more of your content that viewers see and enjoy, the more likely they are to subscribe to your channel. A short, compelling video intro provides you with so many benefits that all lead toward your primary goal: growing your subscribers. First, it makes your channel appear more professional and put-together, which always attracts more subscribers. Second, it makes your videos stand out from everyone else’s. Third, different intros help you create consistency between different categories of your content. And finally, an intro lets the viewer know what they can expect to see in the rest of the video, so that they will be hooked into watching all of it, not just the first few seconds. That buys you time during which you can persuade them to subscribe to your channel. A well-written YouTube video description can help persuade viewers to watch your content to the end and potentially lead them to subscribe. A poor one, on the other hand, can confuse your audience, as well as make it harder for your video to rank high on the YouTube platform. Make it descriptive without revealing too much, so that users get the gist of what your video is about. Be sure to use a grammar and spellchecker, too, especially if writing isn’t your forte. Most of your viewers will find you by searching for relevant key terms on YouTube and Google. To ensure your video gets ranked in those searches, use a strategy called YouTube search engine optimization(SEO). Here are some ways to optimize your YouTube content for searches. Keywords are key (no pun intended) to helping your YouTube videos get seen by more people. They should be relevant to your content, so that when someone enters specific keywords in the YouTube search bar, the YouTube algorithm recognizes your video as a match and ranks it higher in the results. Include relevant keywords that describe your content in your video description, tags, hashtags, transcript, and title. Don’t overuse them, however, as that could cause your video to register as spam and drop in ranking. To find keywords in your content niche to base your YouTube videos on, try these keyword-research tools:
Developing a compelling video title that attracts potential subscribers can feel like an art, but it gets easier when you know the most essential elements to include. Keep the following points in mind when you’re creating a title for your YouTube video. Sometimes you can gain new subscribers simply by asking them to subscribe! This is called a call-to-action(CTA). At some point in each video, take a few seconds to ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel. Remind them that it’s the best way to see more content like what they’re currently viewing. One way to increase subscriptions to your channel is to make subscribing as easy as possible. To that end, you can enable viewers to subscribe to your channel simply by clicking on the video they’re watching. What could be easier? Here are the Steps to Adding a YouTube Subscribe Button to Your Video. Step #1: Log into your YouTube account and open YouTube Studio. Step #2: Click Customization in the left-hand menu in YouTube Studio. Step #3: Click on the Branding tab. Step #4: Scroll down the Branding tab to Video watermark. Step #5: Click UPLOAD and select a 150×150 pixels image in PNG, GIF (no animations), BMP, or JPG format from your files. The image should say “Subscribe” somewhere on it. Step #6: Finish customizing the image and then click DONE. Step #7: Customize when you want the watermark to start displaying in your videos and for how long with the Display time feature. Step #8: When you’re done editing your watermark and adjusting the time, click PUBLISH. The YouTube Subscribe button will now be live for all your future videos! Because you can never make it too easy for viewers to subscribe to your channel, here’s another tip: add a subscription link to your video description. When someone clicks on the link, they are immediately subscribed to your channel. Here’s How to Do It. Step #1: Navigate to the homepage of your YouTube channel and copy the URL. Step #2: Open Notepad or some other document or text editor on your computer. Step #3: Paste your channel URL into the text editor. Step #4: Add ?sub_confirmation=1 to the end of the URL. Step #5: Add the edited URL to your video description with a CTA telling viewers to click the link to subscribe to your channel (be sure to test the link first). It’s as simple as that! If you have a website or are writing a guest post for someone else’s blog, you can promote your YouTube channel to your readers by embedding a video into the text. Unlike a normal URL, an embed link will display the full video in your text, so that readers can watch it without having to navigate to YouTube. However, they may want to go to YouTube after they see how great your video is and subscribe to your channel! To embed a YouTube video, follow these simple steps. Step #1: Click on the YouTube video you want to embed and select the Share button. Step #2: Select Embed. Step #3: Copy the HTML code that appears. Step #4: Paste the HTML code in the text editor for the webpage or article you want the video embedded in. One reason that users subscribe to YouTube channels is it allows them to see when a creator they like puts out a new video without having to search for it. Use this logic to your own advantage by posting teasers – short, 15-30 second trailers – of your upcoming content to your channel. This way, your viewers will see that you have an exciting video coming out soon and subscribe to avoid missing it. Share the teasers to your other video social media accounts, too (like Instagram)! As of June 2022, YouTube Shorts had around 1.5 billion monthly active users, or MAUs, worldwide. Furthermore, Shorts were getting roughly 30 billion views daily. What we’re trying to tell you with those statistics is that posting YouTube Shorts, as well as publishing long-form videos, could help you get more subscribers. There are literally over a billion people using the YouTube Shorts platform, so why not tap into that and convert some new followers out of it? Cards are boxes that pop up during a YouTube video. They typically contain a link to another video, a playlist, the creator’s channel, or an external link (e.g., your website or online store). Inserting cards throughout your video can get your viewers to keep watching your content, which could eventually result in new subscriptions. If you’re going to promote yourself or your brand on YouTube, you need a unique logo. A logo helps you stand out and will contribute to your overall professionalism and authoritativeness that attracts would-be subscribers. It also helps viewers associate you with specific colors or imagery, so that whenever they see it, they’ll immediately think of you. You can post your logo everywhere in your videos: in the intro, the end screen, and even in the watermark. Try these free logo maker tools to help you design a logo that perfectly captures your brand of content.
Deleting low-quality videos from your channel is essential for maintaining a positive viewer experience. As your skills evolve, removing outdated and subpar content ensures that your audience sees only your best work, enhancing your channel’s overall quality and appeal. By doing so, you ensure that your subscribers only see your more recent, high-quality videos and aren’t put off by the other. Part of the trick of drawing viewers in and converting them into subscribers is making your channel memorable. You need to remind your audience, both old and new, who you are and what you do. How do you accomplish this reminder? One option is to coin a channel tagline! Your channel tagline should be a unique, catchy phrase that hints at or describes your content. It should also be short enough that you can post it in your channel banner, your About tab, and every video. (You may even want to pair it with your logo.) Basically, you want it posted just about everywhere. Now, even if users know nothing about you to start out with, they’ll have a good idea after reading your tagline. And if it intrigues them, they’ll want to subscribe. Our final YouTube subscriber growing tip is to try YouTube growth services. These are engagements (i.e., likes, comments, shares, etc.) that you purchase for your videos. As you probably already know, the more engagement your videos get, the higher they’ll rank on the platform. This, in turn, means they’ll get seen by more users. Thus, by buying growth services, you can make it easier to grow your subscribers organically. How do you know if your subscribers are truly growing? You can discover this by using these tools to track the growth of your YouTube subscribers and overall channel.
It takes a lot of time and effort to grow your YouTube subscribers. Follow the tips and strategies we shared in this article to smooth the way. Instagram Reels are an excellent way to promote your YouTube videos and gain more subscribers outside of the YouTube platform. You must have at least 1000 subscribers to your YouTube channel if you want to get monetized. Having more YouTube subscribers doesn’t automatically mean you get paid more. However, more subscribers typically result in more views, which can contribute to your earnings. Yes. Buying subscribers helps kickstart your channel growth. Use other marketing strategies to keep that momentum going long-term. You only need 1000 subscribers to become eligible for the YouTube Partner Program. However, more than 1000 is always better. When you have 1000 subscribers on YouTube, plus 4000 watch hours acquired over a 12-month period, you can apply to the YPP and get monetized. It’s best to only cover one or two content niches, so that you can attract small, but high-converting audiences. You don’t earn money on YouTube based on the number of subscribers to your channel. Building your YouTube channel following doesn’t seem so daunting when you have 32 amazing tips and strategies in your arsenal! Refer back to our list anytime you need a refresher on how to grow YouTube subscribers for your channel.
13. Design Eye-Catching Video Thumbnails
14. Adapt the Latest Internet Trends
15. Make an Ongoing Series
16. Create Playlists for Different Categories of Videos
17. Hook Viewers with an Amazing Video Intro
18. Write Better YouTube Video Descriptions
19. Optimize Your YouTube Channel and Videos for Searches
20. Add Keywords to Your Video
21. Develop a Keyword-Based Video Title
22. Incorporate a Call-to-Action (CTA) in Your Videos
23. Include a YouTube Subscribe Button on All Your Videos
24. Add Subscription Link in the Video Description
25. Embed Your YouTube Videos into a Blog Post or Website
26. Post Teasers of Upcoming Videos
27. Post YouTube Shorts
28. Insert YouTube Cards Throughout Your Videos
29. Design a Unique YouTube Logo
30. Delete Low-Quality Videos from Your Channel
31. Coin a Channel Tagline
32. Try YouTube Growth Services
Tools To Track YouTube Subscriber Growth
Frequently Asked Questions
How Difficult is It to Grow Your YouTube Subscribers?
Which social media platform is the best for sharing YouTube videos?
Do subscribers matter if I want to get monetized on YouTube?
Will I Get Paid More Money If I Have More YouTube Subscribers?
Will Buying YouTube Subscribers Help My Channel Grow Faster?
Does more subscribers increase eligibility for YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?
What Happens If I Have 1000 Subscribers on YouTube?
Is it better to focus on one niche or multiple on a YouTube channel?
How Much Money am I Able to Earn with 10K YouTube Subscribers?
Conclusion
