- So you're looking for ways to get more subscribers
in this mini series, I'm gonna help you
with every fine detail.
Starting with branding.
(gentle bells chiming)
Hello, and welcome back to another video.
I'm Alan Spicer, your YouTube certified expert.
Now you're looking to grow your YouTube channel
and there's no better place to start,
than with your branding.
Your branding is possibly one of the most important things
for anything, really.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
so you could create a fantastic video,
but if the thumbnail's ugly,
no one's gonna click on it.
You could be the next big thing,
but if your YouTube channel looks unprofessional, untidy,
half of the time it's a picture of a random chicken,
when you're doing game reviews.
It could confuse people and put them off.
So let's touch on a few things.
One, your avatar.
Now in my case it's my face
because my channel is all about me.
So I want to reflect in my avatar what my channel is about.
In my case, me, blue background, me smiling.
It's eye catching, it clearly indicates that I am the focus
and it's quite easy to identify from a distance.
Now in an ideal world, you would match the color
in the thumbnail to your banner,
something, that I'll be honest, I need to update.
Let's say your colors are red and white,
so you need to match that in your avatar,
your banner and your thumbnails.
Two, your banner.
To improve your chances of lifting, attracting
and getting people to confirm subscribing with you,
you need to make it perfectly clear who you are,
What you do and when you do it?
In all best practices, which no doubt
I've probably ignored a few,
so I apologize for anyone cringing.
You need to clearly say who you are?
Mine says, Alan Spicer.
You need to clearly say what your value proposition is?
I offer YouTube tricks and tips
and this is the thing that I know that I miss,
but you need to clearly explain when you're arriving,
especially when you're first starting.
I've been doing Monday, Wednesday, Friday
for a year and a half.
Now people have got used to it, sometimes I do more,
but I virtually always do Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
no matter what.
You need to let the new people that
are coming to your channel know when they should expect you.
What you create?
And then that way they can work you around
their day-to-day life routine
and that's all you treat this all about.
You need to get into their routine,
cause then that way they know, okay,
I come home from school.
I sit down.
I eat my tea and then I turn on
and then there's always an Alan video
or there's always a you video.
Because you built you into their routine.
You'll be remembered for longer.
You'll be remembered ongoing.
You'll be suggested by friends.
The banner is an anchor point to that,
you need to tell them where, when, why,
they should be interested.
Maybe even point to the subscribe button
at the top of the banner,
therefore they know where it is.
And in those little links,
you make sure there is an auto-subscribe link.
I've explained how you can do this
in one of the I cards up here,
I suck at pointing in the right direction.
Three.
Thumbnails.
Now these are the window to the soul of your video.
At the end of the day, you need to catch people
in the relevant way to your content and your niche.
There's no point in me,
on this channel creating thumbnails that'll look fantastic
and very mind crafty, with block animation and bright greens
and bright blues and diamond swords,
because that's not what my content's about.
And in return, if you're a Minecraft user,
you wouldn't want my face and my background
on your thumbnail either.
Take some time to have a look at people within your niche.
Have a look at whose creating similar content to you.
Have a look at whose creating thumbnails
and see what is more successful.
So, I know in my niche, with Roberto Blake
and Nick Nimmer and Dean Nimmer and people like that.
Their faces are on the thumbnails,
subject to the un occasional case when their not.
But their faces on the thumbnails,
is them who you're engaging with
cause this person here is the focus of this video.
I'm spouting my knowledge and I'll give text up here
or up here, depending on the orientation of the camera.
So, what you need to do? Is go have and have a look
at your rivals and see how successful their doing it.
What color schemes are they using?
Is there a specific font or style?
Now I don't mean rip them off.
I mean, have a look, see if there's a pattern.
If there's four or five of them using a specific style
or a specific angle that clearly works
and has clearly been researched.
So, maybe, mimic, but with your own twist.
Add something that's unique to you.
Your own branding, your own banner, something,
but understand that those the thumbnail,
the people in your niche that are looking for those videos,
are looking for.
So you'll increase your chances, if your thumbnails
are in that similar vein.
Four.
Overlay graphics.
Now I from time to time have little popups that
are on the screen, that says, Go and subscribe to Alan
or hit subscribe or click here, whatever.
These overlay graphics add something different.
They're a reminder, they prompt people,
hello, why was you here?
Why don't you subscribe?
I know this might be daunting for some people
that don't understand editing,
but you can quite easily get them from places
like Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, or if your an Adobe user,
Adobe Stock and then drag-drop the motion graphics
onto them, you edit the text, they pop up
and you're done.
At the end of the day, any opportunity you get
to nudge people, to go Hi, remember.
Without going bup,bup,beep,urg, smash that like button.
Anything to avoid that is good.
But the reminder in itself, is that little thing
that knocks in the head,
that actually helps you.
Cause if they're watching through the video,
you've clearly got them engaged,
so therefore they might want to watch a bit more of you.
So, it's only manners to remind them.
Want more subscribers?
Click up here to watch the next one in the mini series
or click here for other,
how to get subscribers videos.