YouTube has this beautiful feature for marketers looking to grow their subscription base, called channel trailers. These are just as they sound, short trailers that automatically play when a visitor arrives on your YouTube channel page.
This is the perfect opportunity to build your subscription base, if, and only if, you create insanely compelling content.
Source: https://wave.video/blog/youtube-channel-trailer/
These trailers need to be short (30-60 seconds), compelling, and most importantly they need to give your visitors a reason to stay. Do they need to be hilarious, beautiful, and emotionally charged? It will definitely help! What I really can’t stress enough is the need for an impactful call-to-action that gives the viewer a reason to subscribe.
2. Design eye-dropping video thumbnails
Thumbnails, in some ways, are more powerful than titles when it comes to enticing people to click a video on YouTube.
It’s worth investing time in making sure there’s some consistency across them because it makes your channel look coherent.
YouTube lets you choose which frame to use as the thumbnail for each video, but you should look into designing your own.
Use Canva (free) to create custom YouTube thumbnails for each video to grab attention and create a sense of cohesion across all your videos at a glance.
You can see the difference it makes below. Not only does it make each individual video clickable, but it helps to communicate what you’re about which every potential subscriber wants to know.
3. Post often and consistently
Yes, I understand this might be hard to fathom at first. Not every marketing team has a full-time videographer to be grinding out content after all.
Luckily, if you followed my advice in Tip #2 about building an in-house studio, scripting and creating well-done videos can easily become part of your weekly workflow. Consistency is key, because subscribers are not going to stay subscribed if you never update your channel or if you update 4 times in one week and then take a month-long hiatus.
If you’re at all into SEO, you have likely heard of Moz. Moz does a great series called Whiteboard Fridays, with a weekly video that breaks down some SEO concept on a crisp whiteboard.
Not only are these videos super-engaging and well produced, but they’re CONSISTENT. They are called Whiteboard Fridays for a reason. If you can nail down a re-occurring series like this, you’ll be golden for providing your subscribers consistent video content, leading you not only to keep current subscribers, but also attract new subscribers and increase video engagement.
4. Turn a set of videos into a Binge-Worthy playlists
Do you have a set of videos that go together? Perhaps you do a recurring weekly educational series, or you have a set of webinars around the same theme?
Whatever it is, you should make that grouping into a YouTube playlist. This will allow your viewers to continue watching without having to manually search for and click into the next video.
Playlists are a great way to organize YouTube content for users. They also have a chance of showing up in the search results on YouTube, depending on what they're called. You can use the Keywords Everywhere Chrome extension to see what the monthly search volume is like for any given search.
If you have enough content, consider organizing it into playlists. Not only does this help segment your videos under themes, but it gives you control over the next video that plays instead of letting YouTube show someone else's content.
Whenever you can, share a link to your video from within a playlist. This way, viewers are met with video after video from your own channel that relates to whatever video brought them there.
5. Promote your channel to relevant online communities
You probably already share your videos on Facebook or Twitter already. But have you explored other online communities, especially the ones where you know your audience spends their time?
Niche communities—on Reddit, Facebook, forums, and elsewhere—that relate to your video's audience might appreciate what you created and opt-in to get more once you've optimized your channel to get more subscribers.
Try to aim for relevancy instead of just the size of the community when you post in subreddits or in Facebook Groups.
Remember that these are communities and, as a YouTuber, you should be transparent about who you are and what you do (use your pitch from above!). Users are often very protective when it comes to maintaining the integrity of discussion in these communities, so be sure you’re adding value first and foremost.
6. Incentivize People to subscribe to your channel
Here are two ways to incentivize people to subscribe:
- Run a cross-channel contest: This is one of the oldest marketing bribery tricks in the book, but it works wonders if done well. For instance, let’s say you run a bowling alley in town. Create a contest where you promote your business on Facebook and Instagram, where the guidelines of winning a free night of food and bowling include liking your Instagram post, commenting, and subscribing to your YouTube channel. Inform contestants that the YouTube channel’s link is in your Instagram bio (#linkinbio) so they can easily navigate there and subscribe to your videos. And voila! Your YouTube subscription base has grown overnight.
- Encourage viewers to subscribe for additional benefits in your videos: Another easy way to grow subscribers is by working the viewers that have already landed on one of your YouTube videos. Clearly they are already interested in your brand on some level, so why not use this opportunity to get them to subscribe? Do a subscriber-only giveaway: Announce in the video that if they subscribe they’ll be sent a free e-book or be given a free month-long trial of your software. Of course you’ll need to deliver on those promises, but this is a great way to get more subscribers in the door.
SEO for YouTube videos can get a bit technically involved, but there are some very easy wins you can do to get your videos in good SEO shape. A few of these best practices include:
- Create Searchable Titles: Try to align your video with a popular keyword, and make sure to use the keyword you’re targeting in your video title (you can use AdWords or our Free Keyword Tool to do some quick keyword research and pinpoint some good terms people are searching for). Also, make sure your title isn’t too long; I’d recommend keeping it around 50 characters max.
- Add a Transcript to Every Video: Video transcripts are a great way to make your videos more accessible to a larger audience, and they also help with SEO! Transcripts essentially act as page copy, giving your video more indexable text so you can rank for more queries.
- Optimize Your Video Descriptions: Don’t just jam-pack this field with keywords, rather make it an engaging and well-written description of what the video is about, and do use your most critical keywords.
- Don’t Forget About Meta Tags: Meta tags are another way to get your keywords into your video, and make it more searchable. I’d recommend searching for popular videos in your space and seeing what meta tags they use. Again, make sure to not overdo it with the keywords here; just focus on the words that are most critical.
Ready for a lot more YouTube subscribers? Then get to work and make it happen! Best of luck
5 Comments
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