1. Use “Power Playlists” 2. Publish Long Videos 3. Promote Videos In Your End Screen 4. Add a Brand Watermark 5. Focus On Video Quality 6. Reply To Every Comment 7. Write a Compelling Channel Description 8. Funnel People to “Subscriber Magnets” 9. Use an Awesome Channel Icon, 10. Create a Channel Tagline 11. Try “Hearing” Comments, 12. Make a Channel Trailer 13. Optimize for Watch Time, 14. Embed YouTube Videos In Blog Posts, 15. End Videos With a Strong CTA 16. Promote Your Channel, 17. Optimize Your Channel Page Bonus #1: “The Social Media Preview” Bonus #2: Include a Subscribe Link in Your Channel Art 1. Use “Power Playlists” “Power Playlists” are like regular playlists… but better. Here’s exactly how they work: You see, most playlists are organized by topic. Power playlists But Power Playlists are organized by outcomes. Here’s an example from my channel: Backlink, – Power playlists As you can see, the title of that playlist is an outcome: Power playlist – Name as an outcome Which makes people MUCH more likely to watch my playlist… and subscribe. 2. Publish Long Videos A while back, we did the largest YouTube ranking factors study ever. Backlink, – YouTube, ranking factors In that study, we analyzed 11 factors that might help video rank on YouTube’s search engine. And we found something surprising: Longer videos rank better on YouTube’s search results. Longer videos tend to rank better on YouTube, For example, some time ago I published this video. As you can see, my video is almost 13 minutes long: SEO for beginners – Video duration And that’s one of the main reasons that it ranks in the top spot on YouTube for the keyword: “SEO”: YouTube SERP – SEO 3. Promote Videos In Your End Screen Here’s the deal: The more of your videos someone watches, the more likely they are to subscribe. The question is: How do you get people to watch 2, 5, or even 10 of your videos? Promote another video on your End Screen. Here’s an example from my channel: Backlink, end screen – Next video This simple “Next Video” has led LOTS more views and subscribers: YouTube analytics – End screen video clicks Here’s how you can do the same thing: First, include 10 seconds at the end of your videos specifically for your End Screen. Here’s what mine looks like in the raw video file: Backlink, – End Screen template Then, use YouTube’s End Screen editor to add a link to a related video: Backlink, – End Screen editor That’s all there is to it 🙂 4. Use a Brand Watermark You probably know that you can add a Branding Watermark to your videos. Branding Watermark This watermark lets viewers subscribe to your channel inside your video. Backlink, YouTube watermark, Unfortunately, most Branding Watermarks are completely ignored. For example… I once added this watermark to all of my videos: Backlink, – First watermark And it didn’t work. So I decided to try something new. Instead of a watermark that looked cool… … I used one that looked like a normal YouTube subscribe button. Backlink, – The Latest watermark And my new watermark generated 70% more subscribers than my old one. Backlink, – New watermark success, pretty cool. 5. Focus On Video Quality When I first started my YouTube channel, I read the same advice over and over again: “If you want to grow your channel, you need to upload videos regularly”. Unfortunately, simply publishing a bunch of videos usually doesn’t work. I’ll explain: When I first started my channel, I published videos on a consistent schedule… …but no one watched them. Backlink, – Low YouTube view rate, And the few people that watched my videos didn’t even bother to subscribe. Backlink, YouTube channel – Low subscriber conversion, So I decided to change my approach. Instead of quantity, I decided to focus 100% on quality. And this “quality over quantity” approach to my YouTube videos worked super well. Flash forward to today and my channel generates over 189k views per month from only 39 total videos: Backlink, YouTube – Monthly views And because I make sure every video is high-quality, over 4k people subscribe to my channel every month: Backlink, YouTube – Subscribers 6. Reply To Every Comment, This is one of the easiest ways to get more subscribers. YouTube’s internal data has found a clear correlation between replying to comments and subscribers: “When creators take the time to interact with their local community, it can encourage audience participation and ultimately result in a larger fan base.” Why does this help? Well, most YouTubers never replied to comments. Which means you instantly stand out when you do. Brian reply to the YouTube comment, That’s why I do my best to reply to as many comments as I can. (Especially right after I publish a new video.) 7. Write a Compelling Channel Description Sadly, most Channel Descriptions look something like this: Bad YouTube Channel Description Imagine that you’re about to subscribe to that channel. Is that description going to make you lunge for the subscribe button? Probably not. Contrast that weak description with this one: Pat Flynn about section See the difference? This about page works because it: Tells you what the channel is all about Gives you important information on the channel (like the upload schedule) Includes a strong call to action to subscribe Here’s a template that you can use to write your Channel Description: YouTube description template Pro Tip: Sprinkle in a handful of keywords in your description. This can help your channel rank better in YouTube searches. For example, I used a few different relevant keywords that people on YouTube would search for… …like “SEO”, “link building” and “content marketing”. Keywords in about section 8. Funnel People to “Subscriber Magnets” Here’s the step-by-step process: First, head over to your YouTube Analytics. And click “Subscribers” → “See More”. YouTube analytics – Subscribers – See more Next, identify the video that brought you the most subs last month: YouTube analytics – Subscribers – Top video (This video is your “Subscriber Magnet”.) In my case, this ONE Subscriber Magnet from my channel brings in as many subscribers as 13 other videos from my channel… combined. Subscriber magnets Why is this important? Your Subscriber Magnet video is already proven to generate subscribers. And if you can get these videos in front of more people, you’ll get more subscribers Here are 3 ways to get more eyeballs on your Subscriber Magnet. First, feature that video on your End Screen. Second, make a playlist that starts with that video. Finally, promote that video on a card. You can even make your Subscriber Magnet your channel trailer. For example, Evan Carmichael uses his popular Matthew McConaughey video as his channel trailer: Evan Carmichael – Channel trailer That way, Evan’s high-converting video gets in front of everyone that visits his channel page. 9. Use an Awesome Channel Icon Your Channel Icon shows up pretty much everywhere on YouTube. YouTube channel icon your channel icon is like a custom thumbnail… for your entire channel. That’s why it’s really important to use the right one. So if you’re a personal brand, use a high-res headshot: Marie Forleo channel icon If you’re a company channel, use a version of your logo designed for YouTube. For example, ESPN rounded their logo so it works perfectly as a Channel Icon: ESPN channel icon 10. Create a Channel Tagline In the early days of my channel, I completely ignored the positioning of my channel. Backlinko – Old YouTube channel And it was one of the main reasons that I struggled. Once I started to strategically position my channel, my monthly views and total subscriber count shot up significantly. Views and subscribers after update Fortunately, you don’t need an MBA to position and brand your channel. All you need to do is create a simple tagline. Here’s the 3-step process: First, identify ONE thing that makes your channel unique or different. Maybe you’re a busy mom that can deadlift 500 pounds. Maybe your channel teaches SaaS companies how to increase their MRR. The exact “thing” doesn’t matter. As long as it’s different than the other channels in your niche, you’re set. For example, My videos teach people marketing strategies they can use to grow their business. Backlinko videos But if I made my tagline “I teach marketing strategies” or “I help you grow your business”, I’d blend in with thousands of other channels on YouTube. So I decided to focus on the ONE thing that my channel focuses on Higher rankings and more traffic. Second, put that tagline in big font on your Channel Art. Here’s mine: Tagline in channel art Finally, say your tagline in your Channel Trailer. Say tagline in channel trailer 11. Try “Hearting” Comments Creator Hearts make it easy to highlight awesome comments from your community: Backlinko- Creator's heart Now for the interesting part… When you hear a comment, that person gets a notification (and sometimes even an email): Creator heart – Email notification And according to YouTube’s data: “We’ve found that viewers who have received a heart on their comment are three times more likely to click on the notification (than with other types of notifications), potentially leading more viewers back to your channel.” That’s right: Heart notifications get 300% more clicks than average. So whenever someone leaves a solid comment, hook them up with a heart: Brian hearting a comment As you just saw, this will bring them back to your video… and make them VERY likely to subscribe. 12. Make a Channel Trailer You probably know that a channel trailer can help you get more YouTube subscribers. Here are 3 tactics for making a channel trailer that works: Kick things off with your tagline Start your trailer off with your channel’s tagline. (Don’t have a tagline. Check out technique #10 from this post.) For example, I say my tagline (“Higher Rankings and More Traffic”) within the first 3 seconds of my trailer: Stick to 60 seconds (or less) YouTube themselves say that shorter trailers convert best: Shorter trailers convert best That’s why I made my trailer about a minute long: Backlinko's trailer is about one minute long Show off your best stuff Your trailer is a GREAT opportunity to promote your best content. That’s why the middle of your trailer should be a 20-30 second highlight reel. For example, my trailer includes LOTS of clips from my other videos: That way, viewers can quickly get a feel for the type of content that I publish. 13. Optimize For Watch Time Yup, Watch Time is a massively important YouTube SEO ranking factor. And not just for YouTube SEO. Videos with high Watch Time numbers get promoted more often on the YouTube homepage: YouTube watch time promoted And in the Suggested Video sidebar: YouTube watch time sidebar That’s why YouTube states that: “The longer you can keep people watching on YouTube because of your content, the more your content may get surfaced.” Question is: How do you maximize Watch Time? Use lots of Pattern Interrupts. PI Pattern Interrupt noun DEFINITION An event that changes a person's thought patterns. Pattern Interrupts make your videos more dynamic… …which keeps people watching. That’s why I use TONS of Pattern Interrupts in every video. Including graphics: Jump cuts: And corny jokes: Remember: Pattern Interrupts don’t need to be fancy or complicated. For example, check out this video from Safiya Nygaard: Safiya uses lots of super simple Pattern Interrupts (like camera angle changes and simple graphics) to keep things fresh. Safiya pattern interrupts 14. Embed YouTube Videos In Blog Posts Your blog is a HUGE untapped source of views and subscribers. Why? Well, if someone’s reading your text content, they like your stuff. Which means they’re primed to subscribe. That’s why I embed lots of videos in my blog posts. Sometimes the video makes up an entire step or tip: Video as an entire step But I also embed videos as a way for people to learn more about something from the post: Embed videos to impart extra information, Either way, these embeds get my videos in front of more people. And not just random people. I’m showing my video content to people that are very likely to subscribe to my channel. 15. End Videos With a Strong CTA When someone gets to the end of your video, they think: “What’s next?” And unless you give them something to do, they’re going to click over to another video from another channel. A user clicking on another channel's video What’s the solution? Tell them to subscribe to your channel. And don’t be afraid to tell people exactly what to do. For example, here’s how I end all of my videos: Video ending captions I tell people to click on the subscribe button below the video. That way, there’s no guesswork or thinking involved. And that’s one of the main reasons that so many people subscribe right after watching one of my videos: People subscribe after watching Brian's videos 16. Promote Your Channel The next time you create a blog post, podcast episode, or Instagram Story, ask yourself: “How can I funnel people from this content to my channel?” For example, I include a link to my channel in every lead magnet: Link to channel inthe lead magnet I even promote my channel in podcast interviews: Brian promotes the Backlinko YouTube channel in podcast interviews 17. Optimize Your Channel Page When someone lands on your channel page, two things can happen: They leave right away They watch more of your videos and subscribe And I can tell you from experience that an optimized channel page can increase your subscribers by 2-5x. For example, my channel used to look bland and unprofessional:
17 WAYS TO GET MORE YOUTUBE SUBSCRIBERS HOW??????
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