How To Get Subscribers On YouTube

It’s more important than ever to get people to subscribe to your channel because you can’t begin to monetize your videos until you have 1000 subscribers. Subscribers are viewers who’ve indicated they want to see more of your content and click the Subscribe button on your channel. So how do you get them? To get more subscribers you need people watching your videos and sharing them, to get them to share you need a good video, to have a good video you need great content, to create great content you have to work hard (If you don’t think the top YouTuber’s work hard you’re mistaken). So there it is that is how you do it, much easier said than done.

The Algorithm

There are all sorts of rumors surrounding YouTube’s algorithms, and you may even hear that it has recently become harder than ever to make it big on Youtube. Well, this is true not because Youtube is making it harder, but there are a lot more people on the platform creating content than ever before. So here is what we do know has stayed consistent with the algorithm based off of working for nearly 5 years with numerous of the world’s most popular Youtubers.  The algorithm changes frequently but in general it is consistently looking at a handful of criteria to determine if your channel will become popular:

1. Subscriptions – Subscribers are so important that YouTube will send you a giant framed golden play button if you get over one million subscribers (We’ve seen many of these and they are awesome). Subscriptions mean that people care about the channel and will get alerts when new content is posted. If you are subscribed then you provide YouTube/Google with easier access to your demographics and gives the channel better data about who their fans are.
2. Interactions – No such thing as a thumbs up versus a thumbs down; they both are considered units of engagement and have the same importance. It doesn’t matter if you get 10k thumbs down it hurts only your ego it will count as 10k units of engagement and give a boost to your video and your channel. Posting comments, the video is shared, anything that has the audience interacting with the video gives it more value.
3. Watchtime – this is frequently overlooked. Yes, a view counts but the view duration has more importance. A video with fewer views but with longer view durations will do better than a video with more views and shorter viewership durations. Keep the audience there longer and you’ll be rewarded for it!

*A bonus criteria that is often overlooked but LOVED by the algorithm is family-friendly content. Our good friends, Dan and Lincoln from the Youtube channel What’s Inside are a great example of this.

Timely – Follow The Trends

People don’t share the same thing twice online. If we shared something on our social media, we don’t want to annoy our friends with posting the same content again later. Just because your ideal demographic shared something about Pokémon Go, if you create something that is EXACTLY the same, you’re cutting out potential shares from someone who has already shared what you just copied. If it’s been said online, don’t say the exact same thing.

DO FOLLOW TRENDS…but make sure you are changing it up enough to give a reason for someone to share it. If a subject is trending, creating content around that subject increases your chance to be seen by strangers. Your content will be endorsed by algorithms because they want to make sure they’re providing actual trending content at that moment. Make it new, make it bigger, make it tiny,  make it a Fortnite version! Whatever you do, make it different enough so they want to share it.

Who remembers the fidget spinner trend? Thank goodness that is dying down.

Relevant – Understand Your Audience

This is what separates the champions from the rest. Spend the time to research what your ideal customer/viewer spends time doing online and especially what they SHARE/post online.

Get to the point where you understand them so well that you can predict something they’ll share before they share it. Once you’ve honed in this well on your ideal viewer/customer, focus your creative on something that you’re confident they will share. Before we move on, let’s really think about this. Everyone thinks they do this, but then their videos aren’t being shared and they come up with excuses. Just because your viewer shared something about babies doesn’t mean they’re going to share a video in the future because it has babies in it. Or even puppies. Dig deeper when researching your target demographic. Ask questions like, “WHY did they share the video? WHO did they share it with? WHAT did they say in their original post/tweet with the video?” This will help you develop the same kind of mind as them.

Now that you’ve located what your ideal customer/ viewer is sharing on his or her social media, create some content to continue and build the conversation that is relevant. If they shared something about Pokémon Go, take note. Maybe there IS something you can create that will continue the Pokémon conversation they were having in a way that is relevant. (just remember to make sure it’s timely)

Authentic – Does the video feel real?

Create content that is different enough than other trending content online. An easy way to gauge this is to ask yourself, “Is this content authentic?” Is it unique enough that no one has seen it before? Does it speak true to YOUR voice and YOUR brand? If I were to ask you to describe a BuzzFeed video, you may go on to give me examples of listicles or trying random things. They do an amazing job with content! It may even inspire you to create a “Top Ten” list for one of your videos. This can be a great idea for your channel, but always make sure it fits with YOUR voice and brand.

Does the video feel like it really happened? If you’re filming a prank video, make sure you’re getting the long-lens, zoomed- in shots or security camera angles to capture the moment. If it feels staged at all, super-produced, or if everything goes as planned, the viewer may recognize that and be nervous to share it. No one wants to share a crazy video to then be shamed online with proof that the video was fake, so go to every effort to make it feel real and authentic.

You may have heard the term ‘clickbait’ and even worse you may have experienced it. Simply put clickbait is when a video title or thumbnail portrays something radical that isn’t true of the actual content at all. Well, many Youtubers rely on this tactic to gain more views and attract new subscribers. Unfortunately, this tactic often seems to work, but it is extremely short term. True authenticity attracts an audience that will be with you for the long haul, actually watch and interact with your content, and share it. SO long term you will actually get more subscribers on Youtube by being authentic.

In fact have you noticed how…weird YouTube thumbnails have gotten? They nearly always feature a human face looking at something, and that face is usually contorted into the most extreme emotion possible with some odd colored outline.

Infuse Strong Emotion

No one wants to be the boring friend. Everyone wants to be memorable and share memorable stuff. Remember that. Emotionally-charged events and experiences are easier to remember. Strong emotions can actually impair our ability to remember less emotional and boring information if experienced at the same time. What does this mean to us in the YouTube world? As your potential viewer is on his or her social media, he or she will remember the stuff that really struck a chord! Here is a list of emotions that spark the most subscriptions and shares:

• Happiness/Joy
• Connection
• Empowerment
• Fear
• Anger
• Shock/Surprise

People are more likely to share something if it’s positive and makes them laugh or intellectually engage with the content. The positive emotion is all-inclusive and helps everyone feel at home, therefore people are more willing to share something that is happy vs sad.

Now you might be saying, “I’ve seen plenty of sad videos get a lot of attention”, and this is true. However, the sad videos that are shared are actually sad videos with a positive resolve at the end. Go-Fund-Me videos about a struggling individual or family are indeed sad, but they have a positive goal attached to them, and this is why those posts are shared. Make sense? When creating content, always stay away from sad, unless you can attach a positive solution to it in a natural way. Most other strong emotions are safe and good to use. Anger and argumentative material seem risky, but controversy calls for constant attention so it scores high on the online algorithms.

Newness – The “First Ever” Effect