How many times have you come across a channel and aspired to have millions of YouTube subscribers for your channel?
Agencies and content generators are always seeking creative ways to generate more video views and get more YouTube subscribers.
Today, you can’t just upload any random videos on your channel and expect to increase the subscribers out of nowhere unless you are a recognized authority of your niche.
Today, YouTube has become one of the most competitive social media channels that demand hard work and strategic approach by the content generator to increase subscribers and customers.
That is why I have made a detailed list of 25 powerful tips to increase YouTube subscribers in 2020.
At the end of this guide, you can confidently create a plan which will help you generate online buzz and acquire more YouTube subscribers.
25 Powerful Tips to Increase YouTube Subscribers in 2020
1. Get the Basics Right
Basics are the fundamental characteristics that you should not miss on your YouTube channel.
These parameters will help you grab more visitors to not only watch your videos but click the subscribe button as well.
These parameters will shape the overall look-and-feel to your channel.
These characteristics will enable the visual appeal of your YouTube channel.
Here are those:
a) Have a Self-Explanatory Channel Name
The name of your channel should not confuse the viewer.
If you are sharing YouTube videos on health and fitness, then you name your channel accordingly.
You can also stick to your business name or create a name that instantly gives an idea about what are you sharing on your channel.
b) Upload Relevant Profile Picture
Profile picture goes a long way when you are working in the digital landscape.
Remember that the image that you set as the profile picture is one of the first things that viewers see whenever they come to see your YouTube video.
A profile picture of your YouTube channel can be the logo of your brand.
c) Upload an Interactive Cover Image
The cover image is also an essential factor in creating a stunning first impression for your YouTube channel.
The cover image gives you more area to showcase your creativity and communicate effectively to online viewers whenever they click on your YouTube channel page.
d) Write a Creative Tagline
The tagline of your channel will complement the name of your YouTube channel.
It will give the crux and the objective behind creating the YouTube channel in the first place.
Be mindful while writing a tagline for your channel.
It should maintain the dignity of your channel and enhance your brand name.
If your tagline is apt, users can instantly relate and quickly decide whether to follow your channel or not.
Check how a leading cooking channel has leveraged all the parameters that we just discussed.
2. Pick a Niche and Stick to It
Niche is significant to have a growing YouTube subscriber list.
If you share the video of different types like — sharing cooking tips, movie reviews, marketing techniques, and mobile unboxing in your channel.
Now not all your subscribers need cooking techniques or interested in mobile unboxing. So, they would not engage those videos.
Instead, if you focus on only one type — say mobile unboxing, you can attract all the tech-enthusiasts to your YouTube channel.
The niche of your YouTube channel will help you plan your future videos and collaborations with brands and advertisers.
3. Write a Persuasive Channel Description
Your channel description will give more ideas to viewers about your YouTube activities.
You can share the idea or the objective behind creating the channel.
You can also share your personal story and showcase what inspired you to develop videos and share them online.
There is no proper length of writing description, but a descriptive bio would convince the viewer to subscribe to the channel.
Again, be mindful while writing the channel description and ensure that it represents ideology and objective behind creating your videos.
A single line that is not written properly can turn people away from your channel.
See how Tom has written his channel’s description on the platform.
You can write the bird-eye’s view; like — what kind of content you share, who should subscribe to the channel, and add the call-to-action to make people subscribe to the YouTube channel.
Most importantly, the YouTube description can help your channel rank higher in search engine result pages as well.
So, keep in mind to include relevant keywords inside your channel description so that interested viewers can find your videos quickly and then subscribe to your channel.
Avoid adding too many keywords in the description.
You can have two to three main keywords.
4. Focus on Quality of the Videos
Content is the king, they say. And to succeed in any form of online marketing activity, you have to invest in content.
Your videos should deliver value consistently to create an online reputation for your YouTube channel.
Understand the users’ psychology when they are watching videos online.
Videos effectively educate, entertain, and pursue them to try new solutions or products.
Once you pick your niche, you have to understand what are the pain points of viewers and how your expertise can help them solve those problems through YouTube videos.
This approach will give you so many creative ideas to create video content for your YouTube channel.
If you keep providing value through your videos, people will revisit your channel.
They will also share with their friends and family members; that’s how you would get unique YouTube views and subscribers gradually.
When it comes to videos, there are several types of videos that are prevalent.
You have:
- How-tos
- Case studies
- Interviews
- Live streams
- Reviews
- Unboxing
5. Create a Trailer of Your Channel
The trailer of your channel will be a pinned post that users would see the first whenever they come to your channel.
You can showcase your YouTube journey, mention your experiences, and tell them what they will expect after subscribing to your channel through the trailer video.
Make sure that the trailer is exciting and communicate effectively to the targeted users.
The video would give all the necessary information that you want to share to the first time visitor of your channels.
See how a channel Cooking With Dog, has published the trailer on their YouTube channel.
Also, check the title of the video that gives the crux of the channel.
6. Embed YouTube Videos on Website
This is the most effective way to increase your YouTube subscribers.
You cannot expect your YouTube videos to be found on their own through YouTube or other search engines.
You must focus on broadcasting your YouTube videos on relevant sources, as well.
For example, if you have published a series of YouTube videos of preparing dessert at Christmas, then you can create a detailed guide for your blog and embed your relevant YouTube videos inside the content.
You can also find out relevant posts on the web and reach out to authors and request them to embed your video.
This way, along with blogs or articles, users will have another form of content to interact with, and they won’t feel bored.
Moreover, the YouTube video would not redirect users from landing pages to YouTube, unless they wish.
So, the authors can maintain better session time which will improve the ranking of the landing pages.
Once the users have found tremendous value from your videos, they would be happy to take the next step and subscribe to your channel to keep having the same user experience and acquiring more knowledge from your future videos.
7. Share Video URLs on Other Websites
Online platforms like Reddit, Quora, and other forums still hold high power to generate brand awareness.
Facebook and LinkedIn groups are also great platforms to engage with like-minded people.
You can engage in the relevant threads on these platforms and share your views to build thought leadership.
Then, you can also share your YouTube videos inside the relevant threads, so that other community members can acquire knowledge.
But don’t start spamming YouTube video URLs across the web.
Be genuine, and always share the video if it’s actually necessary.
8. Share a YouTube Link on Social Media
Nowadays, you cannot depend on only a few online channels to advertise your products.
You have to go omnichannel and be present almost everywhere to attract a relevant audience.
To get more YouTube subscribers, you also need to do effective online marketing, and there is no better option than other social media platforms.
You can include your YouTube channel link in your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter bios to encourage your audiences to check your YouTube channel as well.
If you have published any relevant video in recent times, you can create a dedicated post of announcing your new video on other channels.
A quick tip: shorten your URLs to keep track of clicks and engagement from social media audience.
This will begin the process of sending your social media audience to your YouTube channel.
9. Go for Content Marketing to Increase YouTube Subscribers
Content marketing is one of the most effective marketing styles to sell anything online.
As I’ve already said, you have to go omnichannel to promote your digital properties because individual platforms are becoming competitive and saturated with each passing day.
Some of the channels’ ecosystems are also kept evolving, so marketers have to keep brainstorming unique advertising ideas.
For example, if you are focusing on search engine optimization, you cannot have a steady growth due to various factors like algorithm updates, other competitors, and so on.
Unless you are an established brand like Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.
You need to invest in all the leading content formats to grab relevant audiences’ attention and convert them YouTube subscribers.
Consumption of eBooks, websites, articles, podcasts, webinars is increasing with each passing day.
You can write an eBook where you can mention your YouTube channel’s URL inside the book so that readers can redirect from the eBook to engage with your video content.
You can also leverage by webinars and create a funnel where you can promote your YouTube channel and request the viewers to subscribe to your channel to get relevant content consistently.
Podcasts are great to generate results in no time.
People who listen to podcasts want to know more about a particular field of study, so if you can promote or mention your YouTube channel in a podcast show, you would get several new serious subscribers for sure.
Blogs and articles are evergreen forms of marketing.
You can cite your video URL, which we have already discussed, inside your blogs to explain your point of view.
You can also create dynamic popups on the website to redirect users to your YouTube channel.
10. Relevancy is the Key
Whether it is 2018, 2019, 2020, or 2021; relevant content would always thrive, always!
On your YouTube channel, if you regularly share social media tips for small businesses and suddenly, you mix-up your YouTube library with your recent travel vlog or sharing cooking tips; you would get less engagement in the latter video.
Because you have published different kinds of videos, which even though are awesome and valuable, they are not relevant to your subscribers.
In this example, there is no wrong in publishing a great movie review, but your subscribers would not expect anything like it, and they might show different engagement compared to how they interact with your regular videos.
So, pick a niche and stick with it, period.
See how MKBHD is consistently sharing quality tech videos on YouTube.
11. Create Long Videos
Gone are the days when you can publish videos of a couple of minutes on YouTube and have thousands of subscribers, period.
Today, people expect researched and in-depth quality videos on the platform.
From mobile, mobile viewing session time is average 40 minutes per day, says YouTube itself and long videos often outrank short videos.
Because videos have a unique advantage of storytelling to educate, entertain, and pursue viewers; they comprehensively convey messages to viewers.
So, always strive to deliver quality through long-form videos.
You can combine several of your ideas and create a single YouTube video that would be a value-bomb to your audience.
12. Upload Engaging Thumbnails
Unless you are an internationally recognized celebrity, your focus should be on convincing people to click and watch your videos.
Video thumbnails play a crucial role in engaging viewers on YouTube.
So, always pay attention to them and create inviting thumbnails for your videos.
Don’t just use a frame from your YouTube video as the thumbnail.
Because a relevant thumbnail cannot only stop the user from scrolling their YouTube feed but also convince them to click and see the video.
You can also put the title of your YouTube video as a thumbnail.
You can also add emojis in your thumbnails to leverage emotions.
Long story short, try to incite relevant emotion, excitement or urge in users’ minds that make them watch your video.
When it comes to thumbnails there are a couple of YouTubers who I liked the most.
See how Gary Vaynerchuk excellently showcase what he is sharing in these videos through their video thumbnails.
13. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Whether you accept it or not, but the word-of-mouth is the most effective marketing technique that has the power to keep generating sales for any business.
Today, the form of word-of-mouth marketing is expanded in the form of influencer marketing to promote a product or service.
You can collaborate with an influencer who has a decent social media following and online recognition.
Now, that influencer would share your YouTube video or promote your channel on their personal social media accounts to redirect their audience to your channel and increase subscribers.
14. Observe What Others are Sharing
Observing others is a great habit of getting inspiration and identifying room for improvement in oneself.
Always check what other YouTubers are sharing with their audiences.
I am not at all implying to copy others and replicate their content for your upcoming videos.
Observing what others are doing can help you come with better and unique ideas and motivation to level-up your future YouTube videos.
Also, check the comments on other YouTube videos so that you can find fresh content ideas for your channel.
If you can conceptualize these ideas and come with better YouTube videos, your subscribers’ list would undoubtedly skyrocket.
15. Make Your Videos SEO-Friendly
SEO is one of the most powerful organic marketing platforms to attract relevant prospects and create sales and profits.
To increase your YouTube videos’ impressions on the search engine result pages, make sure that you are including relevant keywords in the title description of your video.
Because if your videos are optimized for search engines, they will rank your video in the SERP often, and you would get more views and subscribers.
16. Go for Live Streams
The live broadcasts can put you in direct communication with your audience.
For your YouTube channel, you can leverage live streaming and broadcast your activities to your subscribers.
Online gamers can broadcast their gameplay, and travel bloggers can share their surroundings to let their audience know what they are doing.
Brands can also broadcast their conferences or product launches to millions of people through YouTube live.
Every year Apple broadcast its famous event WWDC on YouTube where millions of people tune-in to know about the new products.
Influencers and industry leaders can also organize live Q&A sessions where viewers can ask questions in the comments, and experts can answer.
If your live streams are interactive and entertaining, people would always love to join and subscribe to your channel for future live sessions.
17. Invite Industry Leaders for Interviews
Initiate and maintain live communication with industry leaders and invite them for your YouTube videos to provide more value to viewers.
You can also request the guest to share the video on their personal social media accounts to let their audience know about the new video.
This way, more people would know about your channel and happily subscribe to it to get more awesome content in the future.
18. Leverage Playlist Features
A YouTube playlist lets you deliver a consistent set of videos to entertain viewers.
So, whenever someone searches for a topic on YouTube, they usually look forward to getting as many relevant videos as possible.
You can create a playlist revolving around one topic and add all the relevant videos so that users get everything they should know about the particular topic under one group.
Since all the videos are in one group, known as a playlist, they would stream in autoplay and increase the watch time of your videos.
This will allow you to entertain viewers for a long time and convince them to subscribe to your channel to keep getting more exciting videos.
You can create playlists of:
- Onboarding videos for first-time viewers
- Task-oriented videos (guides, how-tos, case studies, etc.)
- User-centric videos (beginners, intermediate and experts)
19. Suggest More Videos at the End Screens
To improve the subscriber count, you need to ensure that people keep watching your videos as much as possible.
Because if you keep providing them lasting experience, they would likely to subscribe to your channel to keep getting similar experience from future videos.
One way to ensure that is to suggest more relevant videos at the end screen of a particular video.
For example, in one of your videos, if you are reviewing kitchenware products that users should have.
Then, you can suggest to them your videos of delicious recipes that users can make through those accessories that you have mentioned.
See the screenshot below how other videos are coming in recommendation after watching a video of TVF on YouTube.
20. Use Relevant Annotations
Annotations will help you enable smooth navigation across your YouTube channel.
Through annotations, you can cite other videos at different screen positions to redirect users to check out your other YouTube stuff.
You can:
- Cite links to other relevant and informative videos of yours.
- Let users subscribe to your channel.
21. Write Inviting Titles
I cannot stress this enough. To get more subscribers, you have to practice organic ways to improve video views.
Along with the profile picture, the title of your YouTube video is the first thing users observe when they come across your video.
So, make sure that your titles are incredibly relevant and pursue users into clicking your video.
The title of your YouTube video should have relevant keywords to get higher search engine rankings.
22. Host Contests
Based on your niche, you can host contests and giveaways on YouTube to attract unique prospects to your YouTube channel.
As a part of your giveaway, you can tell the participants to follow your YouTube channel and share your videos on their personal social media profile.
For example, if your YouTube channel focuses on health and fitness tips, then you can host a contest to the giveaway of protein shakes and powders to winners.
This way, you can intelligently increase your subscriber count while also securing more social media presence by attracting a relevant audience.
23. Add Watermark
To put it plainly, you have to ensure that viewers come across the Subscribe button as much as possible.
The perfect way to do that is to add a Subscribe watermark inside your YouTube videos.
With the help of this watermark, users can quickly subscribe to your YouTube channel for upcoming updates.
See how Neil Patel does that in his videos.
Some YouTubers also add their name or channel logo as a watermark, which is also legitimate for branding purposes.
However, I am not sure how that can increase the subscriber count.
Because unless the users don’t hover over the logo, the Subscribe button would not turn up.
So, it is a less effective way to add a channel logo to increase subscriber count according to me.
24. Add Relevant Meta Tags
Meta tags are power words that you can add to improve the discoverability of your YouTube videos online.
You have to research and find out relevant meta tags for your videos.
An excellent way to start your research is to check how your competitors are leveraging it.
Now don’t make the rookie’s mistake of copying those meta tags in your videos.
This won’t help you, and it is not ethical.
You can observe how they aligned their meta tags with the context of their video and users’ interest and the video.
Then, you can research relevant keywords based on your video and add them as your meta tags.
25. Leverage Your Website Traffic
What if I tell you that you can leverage your website traffic and make them your YouTube subscribers?
Sounds interesting, right?
Of course, it is.
YouTube allows you to embed a link on your blogs or landing pages to seamlessly engage your visitors to make them your subscribers.
Conclusion
These are the most effective techniques that you can apply to increase your YouTube subscribers in 2020.
I am excited to know what are your thoughts on increasing YouTube subscribers.
Feel free to drop your thoughts about the topic in the comments.