- So you just started your new YouTube channel.
You wanna get subscribers,
you wanna get eyes on your videos.
We're gonna go over some strategies of how to do that
here on The Journey.
All right, so you're an entrepreneur who's finally decided
to start investing in YouTube.
We all know a video is just a powerhouse, right?
- Definitely.
About 33% of all online activity is spent watching videos.
I know I watch a lot, do you?
- I watch it basically all day.
- Exactly.
Even in the US an estimated 85% of all US audiences
are on the internet watching videos.
But of course, if you're watching this,
you already knew that.
- So we're not gonna sell you on the merit of video instead
we're gonna talk through different strategies to increase
your YouTube subscribers.
- So in getting more subscribers,
you wanna make sure you have a channel.
So you would wanna first of course, create your channel.
Think of focusing on something unique
and an engaging experience making, for instance,
an icon that's identifiable, unique and recognizable.
- Yeah, definitely.
And within your channel,
there's a place to create a trailer.
Now, this trailer is typically 30 to 60 seconds
that will essentially tell your potential subscribers,
even existing subscribers, what it is that you do
and what you stand for.
So when creating your trailer,
we recommend basically creating a little bit
of a highlight reel of all your best content,
because this is typically what people are gonna see first
when they come to your channel.
Now, Brian Dean of Backlinko has a bit of an acronym
that he uses to basically create that killer channel
and that's called TOP.
So starting with T that's your target audience.
So when you basically introduce who you are,
what you do, talk to your target audience.
If you create killer content for service-based providers,
introduce them and talk to them directly.
That way when they see your video and they hear it,
they're like, "Okay, cool this is for me."
- So they feel like they're included.
- Absolutely.
And then, O is your origin story.
What makes you unique?
What is it about you
that's really gonna compel your audience
and what's that story look like.
And then lastly with TOP is P and that's for your pitch.
With any of your videos, especially your trailers
you really want to basically just give a pitch,
whether that is to subscribe to your channel,
watch the first video, whatever that looks like
have a pitch in your video it's your call to action.
- All right, now that you've created your channel,
you wanna start thinking about how you can customize
your page.
For instance, you can have a unique header.
So for me, I'm a public speaker so I may wanna have
something where I'm talking, see people see me on stage,
but then also another very important about who I am
is my wife.
So I have a nice picture of her and I together.
So it shows people how unique you are
also different things when your page can be moved around.
Your playlist, you can have some of your most unique
and intriguing videos at the top to encourage people
to click on those as well.
- Yeah, ultimately, you wanna be very strategic about
what you do with your page since
many people go to your page first to see what you are
and what you do.
So you wanna have basic pictures of what you're doing,
those most prominent videos, everything there strategically.
- So next is writing a channel description.
This is your opportunity to tell them
a little bit more about yourself, it's like a bio.
You talk about who you are, what you stand for,
what you're gonna be talking about
and you can even put some calls to action,
you can have links to your other social media
or maybe a website.
So next is your channel description.
Now, this is your opportunity to give you a little bio
about who you are also, you can add a call to action.
Like going to your different social media links
or even your website.
- Yeah.
A pro tip with your about page or your description here
is also talk about how you help that visitor.
It's not always about me, me, me.
It's really what can they get from your channel.
- So in the same vein of answering pain points,
you wanna make sure that your videos are optimized
to actually speak to those,
making sure the know that YouTube is a search engine first.
So YouTube wants to make sure that its users
are finding relevant information
for whatever they're typing in.
So another tip is making sure that your titles
have certain keywords that are searchable.
Meaning what is your audience searching for?
Put that into your title of your video
and your descriptions.
- Yeah, and YouTube actually makes it pretty easy.
So if you start typing in your keyword or topic,
it'll try to basically give you a bunch of suggestions
on what it thinks you're gonna end with.
So your title could essentially be that
because that's what other people are searching for.
- So another little tip, add a transcript.
It may be a little easier for some of your audience
to just read through also some of your audience could be
speaking a different language.
This makes it a lot easier for everyone across the board.
Other things to add are thumbnails
and also what would you say Nealey?
- Yeah, definitely make sure your description is on par.
Add some content there in case they wanna kind of get the
synopsis of the video itself and have a call to action
in that video.
But you mentioned thumbnails.
So what a lot of people struggle with is
they'll create their video and then try to capture
a thumbnail from within the video.
It's really hard to do, maybe you're making some weird,
awkward faces I know I do when I talk.
So what I would recommend doing is
take a separate photo for your thumbnail
and then use that.
Don't just try to grab one from the video itself.
- Pro tip.
- So building YouTube subscribers
is all about building connection with them.
So the way to do that is to actually respond to each
and every comment that you get.
- Yes, definitely.
And on top of that, take the opportunity
to actually keep the conversation going.
It's more than just saying,
"Hey, thanks for leaving a comment or thumbs up emoji."
Ask questions, make it conversational,
let that person know that you are really interested
and you're appreciative that they reached out
and left you a comment.
That's going to be beneficial to let people know that
you care about them and also encourage people
to continue to subscribe.
- So if you think about like some of the YouTube channels
that you watch, even if they're super popular,
if you've added a comment,
has that person ever replied back to your comment?
How did that make you feel?
You could essentially do the same thing with your fans.
- As we said, subscribers are people too.
- While this might sound counter-intuitive,
but we do recommend you actually go on other people's
channels and other people's videos and add comments
and add comments to other people's comments
and continue those conversations and show that
you're an authority in the field.
Somebody has a question that they asked
and no one's answered it yet and you know the answer,
give them the answer.
Or just add some value to that conversation
and keep it going because they're gonna see
someone else commenting on that post and go,
"Hey, who is this person?"
They'll maybe check out your channel
and then find out that you do X, Y and Z, that helps them
and now got that new subscriber.
- Exactly.
And another tip is competition, no, collaborations.
Don't think of actually helping someone else out
as you're just helping out your competition.
But think of it a way as introduction to
potentially collaborating with that creator
and you're both able to grow your audiences
at the same time.
- There's definitely that cross-promotion aspect there.
Now, the next thing you need to do
to really boost your YouTube subscribers
is to use your video real estate.
This is everything from the end screens
to the watermarks, all the way to those info cards
up above.
- Oh, look there. - Yeah.
The real estate on your video can be a useful place
to entice people to subscribe.
So don't remember the watermarks info cards
while you're creating these videos.
- And also the end screen is a good popup
that happens over your video that can also entice them
to subscribe or click on other videos to view later.
- Yes, and when you go ahead and add those videos on,
make sure whatever video you're recommending
them to watch is similar to the video
that they've just watched.
- [Sam] That's a good point.
- If they're watching something on how to increase
their YouTube subscribers like this, cool.
Make the next video is something about YouTube,
not about digital marketing strategies for your website.
It just doesn't make sense.
It's not that good transition that you're gonna want
to really entice them to keep watching.
- So next ask were subscriptions.
Speaking of subscribe now, if you haven't already.
The time for subtlety is gone,
you have to let people know what you want them to do.
So asking for subscriptions is completely normal.
- And our attention spans are nothing.
I know as a millennial, I'm all over the place,
but 20% of people actually bounce 10 seconds in the video.
So you wanna have those call to actions early
and then also at the end of the video subscribe now.
- So next tip, use social media.
It's great to be able to cross promote
on other channels like Facebook, Twitter,
but do know those sites don't necessarily like for
other links taking you off of those pages.
Cause just like YouTube, they want people to stay
on their platform.
But do know native video is actually encouraged.
So instead of just sharing a simple link on a Facebook post,
you wanna share some of your own native video
from your YouTube video on that post.
Say your video is say 10 minutes long,
a good two to three minutes segment of that video
in that post and it's captioned, then share the link.
Yes, we said they don't like links,
but having that native video will still help out
with your organic reach and encourage people to click
on that link, to see the full video.
- Yup, and it'll definitely entice them,
especially if you're creating killer content.
They'll see the first two to three minutes and they're like,
"Wait, I do wanna see more."
So they'll click that link and they kinda
counterbalance each other.
It hurts if you link off but it also helps
if you add those native videos.
- [Sam] Exactly. - So it washes out.
Figuring out how to really grow your YouTube channel
and subscribers takes a ton of time and commitment,
but I promise you it's worth it.
- Well, that's a wrap.
You just learned how to increase your YouTube subscribers.
Make sure you like this video and share it with someone.
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This is The Journey, we'll see you next time.