By allowing viewers to become subscribers, YouTube allows them to connect with the channels they enjoy more deeply. To subscribe to a channel, simply go to the channel’s home page and click the red Subscribe button or a link to the Subscribe button.
Each Subscribe button also displays the amount of current channel subscriptions, which is a terrific way to gauge how much interest there is in a specific channel.
Your community can do a lot to help your YouTube channel‘s viewership develop, but you must be a genuine and active member of the community for it to happen.
Many members of your community will eventually take the extra step and subscribe to your channel. Subscribers are more valuable than gold since they watch and interact more.
Obviously, this is a good thing, but there’s more: YouTube provides additional benefits to channels with a high subscriber count, such as fan insights and more monetization opportunities. YouTube gives you extra benefits as you gain more subscribers.
In this article, we will provide you with some tips on how to get more subscribers.
Table of Contents
Understanding Subscribers and Their Value
Understand that your subscribers have both YouTube value — in the sense that more subscribers let YouTube know that your channel and content are important — and in some cases monetary value.
If you make money from YouTube or are planning to, you’ll look at audience data and advertising performance to determine what your subscribers are worth.
Viewers must be logged in to subscribe to a channel. If they happen to click the Subscribe button when logged out, YouTube simply asks them to log in with their Google credentials.
If a viewer is logged in and visits a channel page that he has subscribed to or visits a video watch page that’s part of one of his subscribed channels, he sees a gray Subscribed box with a checkmark in it instead.
Note that each Subscribed button has the gear icon next to it — click that button and a menu appears, listing options that allow subscribers to control how they receive channel updates.
Best Ways To Get More Subscribers on Youtube
1. Make Quality Videos
This tip may seem obvious when it comes to creating and releasing quality videos in a timely manner in order to get a good number of loyal viewers, but many people overlook it. You can’t expect a significant number of people to be interested in your channel if you can’t provide timely, relevant entertainment or instructive content, because your views and followers will likely diminish.
For example, if you’ve recently started your channel and want to get 1,000 subscribers, keep in mind that innovation is essential.
Because you rely on your visitors and want to entice them to become subscribers to your YouTube channel, it is critical to understand what they want or what their interests are.
If you’re aiming for children, your videos will almost certainly include characters or elements that children like watching. You can utilize cartoon characters to capture the attention of these children.
On the other hand, if you want to attract adults, then your approach will be different. If your target viewers are, say, mothers, then you should appeal to their interests as well as their needs and their family’s needs. Learn more about how to make high-quality YouTube videos.
2. Convince Viewers to Subscribe
Channel managers have several options when it comes to getting viewers to subscribe:
Below the channel art: On every page that has channel art (such as the home page, About page, Watch page, and channel pages) you’ll find a Subscribe button, under the right side of the channel art.
On the Watch page: Users can subscribe to a channel by viewing a video on the Watch page — the page where viewers watch a video. The Subscribe button is underneath the left side of the video — below the channel name and next to the channel icon.
Through custom links: Channel managers can create subscription custom links that will appear on the channel’s About page and in the channel art. Start with the following line of code, and add the name of your channel to your channel name: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_ user=yourchannelname
In the channel description: Subscriber links can be useful in the descriptions uploaded as part of your video metadata. Just use the sub- scriber link code shown in the preceding paragraph.
Subscription links can get long and unsightly. Don’t be afraid to substitute a short link instead. You also get additional tracking to see which subscription links generate the most clicks.
Through annotations: A video overlay is a great way to add a subscription link to your channel. YouTube provides all the tools necessary to place these overlays, known as annotations, to video without requiring any editing.
Recommendations: Subscription buttons also show up under the Recommended Videos section of a channel page. The channel manager can hand-select specific channels that may be of interest to the viewer. (Note that, unlike other Subscribe buttons, which are red, these buttons are gray with no subscriber count.)
With web URLs: It’s easy to get people to subscribe from places not on YouTube; just include a Subscription link like the one shown earlier. Clicking the link brings them to a YouTube channel, so determine whether you want the link to open in another tab or window if you don’t want the subscriber to exit your site.
Many channel managers put a link to the channel page as the target of the Subscribe link. If you want to bring them to your channel, please let them know that; otherwise, make the Subscribe button trigger a subscription request.
The old-fashioned way: Have your video personality look straight into the camera and ask them to subscribe. They can say the name of the Subscribe link. There’s no harm in asking! You can even combine an annotation link here to make it even easier.
There are many ways to ask your viewers to subscribe. Don’t feel that you have to use only one method. YouTube allows a good deal of flexibility in generating subscription requests, so go ahead and experiment to see what works best for your audience.
3. Specifying how subscribers get updates
Being a subscriber to a channel is a lot like being a supporter of a local museum: You get notified about things first, and you get to see things before anyone else. Yes, being a subscriber has its benefits. Subscribers can be notified when you
- Upload a video
- Add a video to a public playlist
- Like a video or save a playlist
- Subscribe to a channel
Subscribers can opt to receive notifications for all of your events or just your uploads. (They do so by clicking the gear icon next to the gray Subscribed button and selecting an option from the list that appears.)
You, as a channel manager, decide how much information to offer with your subscribers. This is accomplished via the channel feed, which is covered in greater detail in the following section. Don’t forget to manage the frequency of communication, which is triggered by all of the previous activities.
Your subscribers are your gold, thus it’s critical to keep them happy with your channel and the frequency of your notifications. If they receive too many emails from you, they may unsubscribe; if they receive too few, they may forget about you. Moderation is essential.
You should understand how your subscribers receive your channel updates:
- Mobile device notification
- Accounts connected to social media
- Channel feed
Your channel feed is your richest source of updates. Subscribers receive updates from several areas of the platform:
- What to Watch: When viewers log in to YouTube, click the YouTube button in the top left corner of their browsers, or start the YouTube app on their mobile devices, they land on the What to Watch page. This page is customized for each user because YouTube makes video suggestions based on a viewer’s subscriptions and recommendations derived from her viewing history.
- My Channel: This is your channel, not the public view. You can edit your channel page directly here or go into the Video Manager to make individual video-playlist edits or manage your channel settings and analytics.
- My Subscriptions: When viewers are logged in, they find their subscriptions on their home pages or in the guide. This is where all their subscriptions can be found and sorted by uploads or by all activity. Users can also manage subscriptions and create collections of channels in this section.
4. Treating Subscribers and Nonsubscribers Differently
To provide a more customized experience for viewers, YouTube allows you to treat subscribers and nonsubscribers differently when they visit your channel. (Subscribers don’t necessarily want to see the same video when they show up on your channel, because they’ve likely already seen it, so it makes sense to treat them differently than nonsubscribers.)
Working with a channel trailer
The channel trailer is a significant video that is displayed when people first visit your channel. It’s your chance to convert non-subscribers by informing them about what they can anticipate from your channel, getting them enthused about you and your content, and providing them with information on your programming schedule.
You won’t have to alter your channel trailer as regularly because a subscriber will never see it again. Instead of a channel teaser, subscribers are welcomed with a What to Watch Next page.
What appears on the What to Watch Next page is determined by a number of factors. If you’re live-streaming, that feed will be displayed first. Your adverts will appear here if you are running a TrueView YouTube advertising campaign. If none of these apply, subscribers will see your related video or most recent uploads.
Setting the Channel Browse view
To show a channel trailer, you need to set up a Channel Browse view. To do so, do the following:
- Log in to your YouTube account.
- Click the guide icon next to the YouTube logo on the top left of the screen and select My Channel from the menu that appears. The My Channel screen appears.
- Hover the mouse cursor over the channel name to bring up the Edit button. The channel name sits just below the channel art; the Edit button should appear on the top left, below any links you may have configured.
- Hover the mouse cursor over the Edit button and then select Edit Channel Navigation from the menu that appears. The Channel Navigation screen appears.
- Click the Enable button in the Browse section if it doesn’t already show a checkmark.
- Click Save.
5. Managing Comments
Many people tend to forget that YouTube is also a social media platform. That’s a bit odd because it’s one of the most heavily trafficked websites on the planet. In fact, one reason YouTube is so effective for creators and companies because its platform provides a powerful connection not just between a viewer and your brand but also among your audience.
Your interaction with your viewers and channel visitors is an important signal to not just your current subscribers but also potential subscribers. It tells them that your brand and your channel and content are worth their time. Encouraging comments is a great way to grow an audience and feed your community.
Make a concerted effort to add your own follow-ups to comments posted when you upload a video. Channel programming is about regularly scheduling uploads. Channel manager programming is about always responding to comments in a timely manner.
- Allow the comment.
- Allow and respond to the comment.
- Remove the comment.
- Report spam or abuse.
- Ban the commenter from the channel.
You’ll typically allow and respond to comments. Learn more about how to manage Youtube comments.
Similar to likes and dislikes on video, viewers can like and dislike comments as well. Pay attention to comments that receive both large numbers of likes and dislikes.
Viewers generally appreciate being recognized by creators and channel managers. You can add the name of a viewer in a comment by typing a plus sign (+) and then their name. YouTube helps by autocompleting the name, so you’re assured that the person will be notified of your outreach.
You can respond to comments in one of two ways:
- On the Watch page: Both viewers and channel managers can add comments just below the channel description. The Comment field is in the All Comments section; just type right where it says “Share your thoughts.” Commenters must be logged in to make a comment. If they are not logged in, YouTube asks them to do so.
- Community Comments Section in Creator Studio: Only channel managers can respond here. The idea is to provide a convenient place for channel managers to respond to comments on all their videos.
Learn more about how to manage YouTube comments.
6. Using Messaging
Sometimes your audience prefers not to have a discussion in a public forum, so YouTube came up with a messaging system. With it, your viewers can communicate directly with you.
If you’ve been using YouTube for a while, you may be familiar with the Inbox feature, which has been replaced by Messaging. Be sure to clear out your old Inbox and start using Messages in its place. New users don’t have to worry about this.
Messages are an important way to get more subscribers, but as with comments, managing a large number of messages can be time-consuming.
Managing messages follows the same pattern as moderating comments, except that you don’t see links to your video content and you have different tabs. To access your messages, do the following:
- Log in to your YouTube account.
- Click the Channel icon in the top right of the page and then click Creator Studio in the menu that appears.
- On the left side of the screen, click the Community heading in Creator Studio’s navigation menu.
- Select Messages from the drop-down menu that appears.
Note that the Messages page has four tabs — not the three you see with Comments:
- Approved messages: These are audience messages that have made their way to you. Feel free to respond to a message, remove it, block it, or report a message as spam. Check your messages regularly and respond to important subscribers or audience members in a timely manner.
- Filtered Messages: These are messages caught by the filters you set in the Community Guidelines section.
- Likely spam: As with comments, YouTube wants to do its part when it comes to filtering out spam hiding as messages, but ultimately you have the yea or nay here. Just double-check to make sure YouTube made the right decision when characterizing a message. If a message is not spam, just click the check button; otherwise, click the Trash icon to remove it once and for all.
- Sent messages: These are messages that you’ve sent.
As with comments, anything you can do to a single message on the Messages page can be done to multiple messages in one fell swoop. Simply check one or more of the messages you’re moderating and take bulk action.
7. Getting Viewers to Engage
After you have a solid channel and an active audience commenting, messaging, and sharing your content, you have to ask whether they’re doing everything you expected. Here your goal is getting more subscribers. Therefore, you need to get your audience to click on the video and subscribe to your YouTube channel.
Working with annotations
Annotations are overlay elements that you can add to your existing videos. They allow a viewer to do something when they click on the annotations, such as subscribe, get more information about you, or view more content. (An annotation also happens to be one of the best ways out there to get your audience to engage with your channel, just in case you were curious.)
For channel managers, annotations are editable fields that can be added to videos after they’re uploaded.
Annotations can be modified and updated at any time. In other words, you’re not stuck with an annotation once you’ve created it; you can change it, delete it, move it, and so on. Annotations can just be plain text or links back to other content on YouTube, or off YouTube, such as specific social networks, nonprofits, fundraising, retail accounts, and other associated websites.
Use annotations to create what are called custom end-cards — a collection of one or more annotations at the end of a video that helps instruct viewers on what to do when the video is completed. This can also include subscription requests. Custom end-cards are good for branding consistency, and they always help your audience identify with your content.
Exploring the annotation types
YouTube would seem to subscribe to the notion that variety is the spice of life, given the number of annotation options it offers. The following list gives you an overview:
- Speech bubble: This annotation is a lot like the clouds you see in newspaper comics. Use it whenever you want to visually express thoughts or spoken words.
- Note: This annotation is similar to a speech bubble, except that the text is enclosed in a box.
- Title: An overlay name for your video, like the one you might add during the editing process. Doing it as an annotation lets you be more flexible later on if you decide to change the title. Titles are non-clickable.
- Spotlight: Use this annotation to create custom end-cards or to highlight an element in the video. Spotlight annotations are different from other types of annotation because they only appear when the viewer moves the mouse over the section of the video that has the annotation. It minimizes viewers’ distraction while still providing a path for engagement.
- Label: When a viewer hovers the cursor over the annotation, your label appears. This is commonly used for videos featuring multiple products at a time on the screen. Viewers can choose what interests them most and interact with only that item. Labels prevent the video from getting cluttered and do not take away from the viewing experience.
Setting up annotations
To create annotations, follow the same path you’d use when working with any video on your channel — in other words, you need to pay another visit to the Video Manager. To set up annotations, do the following:
- Log in to your YouTube account.
- Click the Channel icon in the top right of the page and then click Creator Studio in the menu that appears.
- On the left side of the screen, click the Video Manager heading in Creator Studio’s navigation menu.
- Select Videos from the drop-down menu that appears.
- Scroll through your videos to find the one you want to annotate. If you have quite a few videos, you can use the search bar on the Videos page to track down the one you want.
- Click the Edit button to the right of the video. Doing so brings you to the Video Editing page; the Info & Settings tab is shown by default.
- Select the Annotations to the tab above the video. The Annotations tab of the Videos page appears. You can alternatively select the down arrow next to Edit, which provides a drop-down where you can select Annotations that will drive you to the Annotations section on the Video Editing page. In the first way, you have to take two steps, in the second way you only take one step to get to the Annotations tab.
- Click the + Add Annotation button on the right side of the video.
- Choose an annotation type from the menu that appears.
- Choose when the annotation runs by either dragging the mouse cursor over the Play bar to the point where you want the annotation to show or manually entering the times in the Start and End boxes.
- Add text to the annotation text box and customize the font size, font color, and background color by using the editing toolbox that’s provided.
- To make your annotation a clickable link, select the Link check box.
- Paste the URL into the field under the Link check box.
- Click the Video button to the right of the Link check box and select the link type.
- If you’ve chosen a linked video, set the start time.
- Click the Open Link in a New Window button if you want the clicked link to open in a new window.
- On the Annotations tab, preview the newly annotated video.
- Using the sizing handles, change the annotation size and location, if necessary.
- Click the Apply button to save your work.
8. Adding subtitles and closed captions
Language and sound should not be barriers to connecting with your audience. YouTube provides tools for subtitles and closed captions.
Subtitles and closed captions allow viewers who don’t speak your language to watch and understand your video. Even viewers with hearing disabilities can enjoy watching your content, too. This can encourage more viewers to subscribe to your channel.
Don’t let the thought of dealing with closed captions and subtitles scare you. Working with these elements is similar to working with any other video element on your channel — in this, as in all things, Video Manager is your friend. Use the following steps to create subtitles and closed captions:
- Log in to your YouTube account.
- Click the Channel icon in the top right of the page and then click Creator Studio in the menu that appears.
- On the left side of the screen, click the Video Manager heading in Creator Studio’s navigation menu.
- Select Videos from the drop-down menu that appears. By default, clicking on Video Manager should bring you automatically to the Videos section.
- Scroll through your videos to find the one you want to work with. If you have quite a few videos, you can use the search bar on the Videos page to track down the one you want.
- Click the Edit button to the right of the video and select the Subtitles and CC tab from the menu that appears above the video.
- Click the Add subtitles and CC drop-down menu to the left of the video to view your language choices.
- Choose your language or search for it in the search box. After your language is selected, you’ll be prompted with how you’d like to add your subtitles or closed captions.
- Select your method: (I) Upload a file. Add a text transcript or timed subtitles in the form of an uploadable file. (II) Transcribe and set timing. Type or paste a transcript into the video transcript box that comes up on the right of the video. YouTube autoconfigures the timing. (III) Create new subtitles or CC. Add captions as you watch the video either by uploading a transcript file or by entering the text directly into a transcript box. You can pause and play while doing this.
Some channels, known as participating channels, allow their own viewers to submit subtitles and closed captions. Expect this limited function to be more broadly available in the future, representing a great way to get your audience to help out.
For more information on subtitles, closed captions, and participating channels, see https://support.google.com/youtube.
Final Words
Ultimately, the best way to invite more subscribers and keep your previous ones is by staying true to your word. Part of this is being consistent with uploading new content every week at the same time so that your subscribers could treat your channel as something that they could look forward to every week. Learn more about how to optimize your YouTube channel.