How to get subscribers on YouTube (with tips and tricks)

Updated 30 September 2022

Many businesses and organisations use YouTube to promote their goods and services. If a business's YouTube channel has a high follower count, it can help increase customer engagement, improve brand visibility and generate income. If you're thinking about a career as a social media manager, it's important that you understand how to make the most of YouTube as a service. In this article, we discuss the importance of YouTube subscribers, explain how to get subscribers on YouTube and provide some tips on how to boost your channel following.

Why are YouTube subscribers important?

If you're interested in using YouTube to boost a company's marketing and branding efforts or to showcase your own talents as an individual, it's important to first understand why YouTube subscribers can be so beneficial. Here are some of the main reasons why YouTube subscribers can help a channel grow:

It can increase your income: If you gain 1,000 followers on your YouTube channel, you can begin to monetise your videos by offering your followers a channel membership. Channel memberships are where your followers pay a subscription fee, and you reward them with exclusive content and discounts.
It can increase your SEO: YouTube channels with a high follower count tend to rank highly on search engines, which means that more people can see your videos and interact with you.
It can improve your branding and credibility: A YouTube channel with a high follower count may look more credible than a channel with very few followers, and if you create well-designed and professional videos, your followers and viewers may consider you to be a credible source. Moreover, a well-designed YouTube channel can help define the brand.
It can help you sell more: If you're running a business or managing a YouTube channel on behalf of an organisation, a high number of subscribers can help you market products and services. When your channel hits 10,000 followers, you can begin using YouTube to showcase and offer specific branded merchandise.

How to get subscribers on YouTube

Although there are many reasons why subscribers can be important for business, knowing how to get subscribers on YouTube can be difficult if you're new to content creation and social media management. Doing so takes patience, planning and providing quality content that's both engaging and informative. Here are some steps you can take to get more YouTube subscribers:

1. Create a detailed content plan

One of the most important ways to gain more followers and create a consistent style is to produce a dedicated content plan for your channel. A detailed content plan can help you stay organised when posting your videos, but it can also improve the chances of your videos ranking highly in search engines. If you post regularly, it can also help ensure that your subscribers know when new videos are coming out, which increases the likelihood of them watching your content.

2. Write an interesting channel description

Your channel description is a bio at the top of your channel that acts as an explanation of who you are, what your channel is about and the type of content you produce. Good channel descriptions are unique and enticing in ways that can attract new followers. To write an interesting channel description, make sure that you say exactly what your channel is about, include any important information about your channel and add a call to action to encourage users to subscribe. Here are a few things you can add to your channel description:

Channel overview: This can be a short sentence that accurately describes your channel.
Topics you cover: Include two or three sentences highlighting the different topics you cover and how often you plan to post videos.
Who your target audience is: Add a sentence explaining who you think may get the most out of your content.
Call to action: This can be a simple sentence that encourages viewers to like, subscribe or visit your website.

3. Create specific playlists

Playlists are compilations of videos that relate to each other. By creating a range of playlists about a different topic on your blog, your subscribers and viewers can discover new content that might specifically relate to what they're looking for. By displaying your playlists in an ordered manner and supplying them with regular, high-quality content, new viewers may be more likely to subscribe to your page.

4. Undertake keyword research

Keyword research is the process of finding specific search terms that relate to your content and using them to boost the likelihood of your video ranking highly for that specific keyword. Once you know the keywords you wish to rank for, add these keywords to your video titles, descriptions and meta tags. This increases the chance of viewers finding your content and subscribing to your channel.

5. Add transcriptions

Transcriptions can be incredibly useful for users who are hard of hearing, deaf or don't have access to sound. YouTube automatically offers you the ability to add subtitles to your videos, or you can manually create transcriptions that you can add to the description. Transcriptions can also boost your video's SEO rankings, which may lead to an increase in subscribers and make your videos more accessible to a wider audience.

6. Engage with all followers

An easy method of boosting your subscriber count is by regularly interacting with all your viewers. If viewers see that you're responsive to comments and questions, they may be more likely to follow you. Here are some ways that you can engage with your current viewers, which could help you to gain more subscribers:

Reply to all your comments: Regardless of whether someone comments with a question or a ‘wow!', treat every comment the same and reply to the commenter with a thank you, or offer advice if they ask you a question. This can help boost channel engagement and increase the likelihood of viewers turning into subscribers.
Run contests: Running a competition is an easy and popular method of boosting subscribers. For example, you could hold a competition encouraging people to follow your channel and share it on social media, rewarding one randomly selected individual with a free product or service.
Offer discounts: Another way to gain more subscribers is to offer your most loyal viewers a discount code that they can only access by watching one of your videos. Not only can this boost your follower count, but it can also boost sales.

7. Generate longer views

YouTube has its own way of ranking videos, and this includes ranking longer videos more highly than shorter videos. Therefore, to increase your subscriber count, consider creating content that's longer than ten minutes. Although shorter videos can grab people's attention, longer videos can provide your subscribers with more detailed and more valuable information, which may lead to an increase in followers.

8. Add strong calls to action

A call to action is a sentence or two that typically features at the end of an article or video that encourages viewers to like, comment and subscribe. By asking your viewers to complete a specific action after they watch your video, it can increase the likelihood of a subscription. Here are some types of calls to action that you can use at the end of your videos or descriptions:

encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel
encourage viewers to like and comment on your video
encourage viewers to share your content or visit your website

9. Customise your layout

YouTube has a range of tools and settings that can help you structure your content in a unique and informative way. For example, you can add specific banners and organise your videos by specific topics, which can help viewers find relevant videos faster. For example, if you create recipe videos on behalf of a cookware company, you can split your categories based on the different cookware that you use. You may also consider using a design tool to create banners that make your channel more appealing and engaging.

10. Invest in better recording equipment

Viewers are much more likely to watch a video and subscribe to a channel if their content is clear and high-quality. If you have the funds, consider investing in professional recording equipment such as cameras, lighting and digital voice recorders. Try to make this enhanced quality obvious in previews and thumbnails, so the professional nature of your videos is immediately noticeable.

Please note that none of the companies, institutions or organisations mentioned in this article are affiliated with Indeed.