Hey guys. My name is Tim Schmoyer and its Wednesday, time for our weekly Video Creators
YouTube tip and today we're going to talk about a couple different ways that you guys
can build subscribers for your channel.
Number one, I see a lot of YouTubers making this mistake and that is they talk like they
are assuming everyone has seen their videos before, but you have to keep in mind that
every single video you do that it is potentially someone's very first time to watch one of
your videos. So when you talk about your content or your channel, remember that someone might
be watching who really has no idea about who you are or what you do or anything. So make
sure you kind of keep those new, first time viewers in your mind as you're trying to present
your content.
But number two, the best place to do that is at the very beginning because, at least
give them the benefit of the doubt that they're going to watch maybe at least the first 10,
15 seconds of your video. So if you can summarize accurately what your content is about in that
very first little bit, that'll hook people and help them watch your content on much longer
than they would if they, like, start watching, 30 seconds in and they still don't really
know what it's about, they just kinda click away. I know a lot of content really isn't
conducive for that, but people like Philip DeFranco, you know, he does it every single
show. I do it over at Real SEO's channel. I kick off every single video saying, "Welcome!
This is what we're about," and I get on in the content. My branded intro here at Video
Creators does that a little bit, although I'm going to tweak it and edit it sometime
soon to kind of make it better at doing that. But what did I even do on this video? I told
you who I am, I addressed the target audience which is video creators and I said we do weekly
YouTube tips and if you found this video through search, you probably found it because you
were looking for YouTube tips for building subscribers, which is kind of the title of
this video, and then we enforced that you are in the right place and you are interested
in this content and probably other content that I'm doing in the future, all within about
five to eight seconds.
But if you're doing content where you really just can't launch into that at the very beginning
like I do?
Well, number three is do it at the end of your video. Anyone and everyone can encourage
their target audience to subscribe at the end of their video. But here's the key. Don't
just say, "Hey guys subscribe for more videos." I mean that's not really helpful; there are
plenty of videos on YouTube. The question that everyone is asking is, "Why should I
subscribe to your content?" So get inside the mind of your target audience, who is the
viewer that you are trying to reach and hit - who is the viewer that will most likely
engage with your content and the stuff that you are doing on a regular basis - and answer
that why question for them. It doesn't have to be long or drawn out, just in a quick little
sentence or two, explain what value you are going to bring to them if they subscribe.
And the end of your video is probably the best time to do this because if they're still
watching by that point, then they've already expressed some kind of invested interest into
the content that you're making. So just answer that why question for them and just kind of
push them over the hump.
But there will still probably be people who are like, "I like your content and I like
what you're doing but I'm not sure if I really want to subscribe to this or not."
And that's number four, when it's important to plug your other content and point them
to other videos that you've done, but don't just pick any old video that happens to be
your favorite. Pick the video that has already proven to perform the best in converting non-subscribed
viewers to subscribers. And you can easily look that up in the analytics of your YouTube
channel. Select the video that you want to look into and then in the left sidebar, click
on Traffic Sources and then you'll see a list of how many people watch this through their
subscriptions and you'll see a bunch of other sources, which presumably are people who are
not yet subscribed to your content. So tally up an estimated non-subscriber views that
you think you got for that video and then in your left sidebar, click on Subscribers
and you'll see how many subscribers that video picked up. Look through a bunch of your top
performing videos and then select the one that does the best job at converting non-subscriber
views into subscribers, and then at the end of your video start highlighting and featuring
that video until it kind of becomes a little bit too repetitive or you have another video
that starts performing better.
Another thing that you can do instead of just sending someone to another video is send them
to a playlist of videos that you think are probably the most valuable videos you've made
for your target audience. Use an annotation to send them to that playlist and then let
them pick which video that they think is probably the most interesting to them. There's a number
of different ways you can do this. I'll put a couple links in the description below this
video that you can go check out that has some examples of how different people are using
their outro slates at the end of their videos to drive views and traffic to other videos
and other playlists and subscriptions, and all that kind of stuff.
And ultimately because we know that how your video contributes to a viewer's overall viewing
session on YouTube affects how it ranks in search, it's in your best interest to do this
anyway because if you can show YouTube that your video sends traffic and views to other
videos and they don't just abandon YouTube after watching your video, they will put your
video a little higher in search than someone else's who lets people just abandon YouTube
after watching it.
And number 5, a good idea is to tease your upcoming content at the end of your video,
as well. Talk about what's coming up. If you have something, like, really cool that you're
working on, if you can give a little plug and someone who's not subscribed says, "Oh
that sounds cool. I would love to see that video when it comes out." Then they will hit
subscribe and they will get it. So do that to create some anticipation, both for non-subscribers
and for subscribers and what's coming next. Keep them coming back and looking forward
to the next video that you're producing.
I'd love to hear from you guys in the comments below this video. What tips and ideas and
advice do you have for building subscribers to your content? How do you convert those
non-subscriber views into new subscribers? And the rest of you guys, make sure you go
read the comments that are down there because there are a lot of really smart people who
watch Video Creators and they leave some really good advice. So go read what they're writing
down there.
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