How to Increase YouTube Subscribers: A Guide for Beginners

YouTube is one of the most popular and powerful platforms for content creation and marketing. With over 2 billion monthly active users and billions of hours of video watched every day, YouTube offers a huge opportunity for anyone who wants to grow their audience, brand, and business. Increase YouTube Subscribers

But how do you get more YouTube subscribers? How do you turn casual viewers into loyal fans who eagerly await your next video?

In this blog post, I’ll share with you 8 tips that will help you increase your YouTube subscribers and grow your channel. These tips are based on proven strategies that successful YouTubers use to attract and retain their subscribers.

1. Craft amazing content

The most important factor that determines whether someone will subscribe to your channel or not is the quality of your content. You need to create videos that are valuable, entertaining, informative, or inspiring for your target audience.

Your content should also be consistent with your channel’s niche, theme, and style. Don’t try to cover too many topics or genres that are not relevant to your audience or your brand. Focus on what you’re good at and what your viewers want to see from you.

To craft amazing content, you need to do some research on what your audience likes, what their pain points are, what their questions are, and what kind of videos they watch. You can use tools like YouTube Analytics, Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and Social Blade to get insights into your audience’s behavior and preferences.

You should also study your competitors and see what kind of videos they make, how they title them, how they optimize them, and how they engage with their viewers. Learn from their strengths and weaknesses and try to differentiate yourself from them.

2. Use playlists to increase engagement

Playlists are a great way to organize your videos into categories and themes that make sense for your channel and your viewers. Playlists can help you increase your watch time, retention rate, and engagement rate by encouraging viewers to watch more of your videos in a sequence.

Playlists can also help you rank higher in YouTube’s search results and recommendations by boosting your channel’s authority and relevance for certain keywords and topics. For example, if you have a playlist called “How to Increase YouTube Subscribers”, YouTube will recognize that your channel is an expert on that topic and will show your playlist to more people who are searching for it.

To create effective playlists, you should follow these best practices:

Use descriptive titles and descriptions that include keywords and phrases that your audience is searching for.
Add a catchy thumbnail image that represents the theme of the playlist.
Include at least 5 videos per playlist and update them regularly with new or relevant videos.
Arrange the videos in a logical order that guides the viewer from one video to the next.
Promote your playlists on your channel page, in your video descriptions, in your end screens, and on your social media platforms.

3. Add a subscription CTA to the end of your videos

One of the easiest ways to get more subscribers is to simply ask for them. If your viewers already really like the video they are watching, why wouldn’t they subscribe?

If you don’t prompt your viewers to subscribe with a quick reminder with a visual prompt, you have a big crack in your pipeline that potential subscribers are sliding through¹.

To add a subscription CTA to the end of your videos, you can use YouTube’s end screen feature. This allows you to add interactive elements such as buttons, links, images, or other videos to the last 5-20 seconds of your video.

You can use the end screen feature to add a subscribe button that links directly to your channel page. You can also add a link to another video or playlist that is related to the current video or that showcases some of your best work.

When adding a subscription CTA to the end of your videos, make sure to:

Be clear and direct about what you want the viewer to do.
Explain the benefits of subscribing to your channel (e.g., more videos like this one, exclusive content, giveaways, etc.)
Use a friendly and enthusiastic tone that matches your brand personality.
Thank them for watching and supporting your channel.

4. Optimize your videos for SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s the process of improving the visibility and ranking of your website or content on search engines like Google or YouTube.

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, after Google. Millions of people use YouTube to search for information, entertainment, education, and inspiration every day. If you want to get more subscribers, you need to make sure that your videos show up when people are looking for them.

To optimize your videos for SEO, you need to pay attention to three main elements: your title, your description, and your tags. These elements help YouTube understand what your video is about and how relevant it is for certain keywords and queries.

Here are some tips on how to optimize your title, description, and tags for SEO:

Use keywords and phrases that your audience is searching for in your title and description. You can use tools like Keyword Planner, Google Trends, or TubeBuddy to find the best keywords for your niche and topic.
Make your title catchy, clear, and concise. It should capture the attention of the viewer and tell them what to expect from the video. Avoid using clickbait or misleading titles that don’t deliver on their promise.
Write a detailed and informative description that summarizes the main points and benefits of your video. Include a call to action that invites the viewer to subscribe, like, comment, or watch more of your videos. You can also add links to your website, social media platforms, or other resources that are relevant to your video.
Use tags that are specific and relevant to your video. Tags are keywords or phrases that help YouTube categorize and rank your video for certain topics and queries. You can use up to 500 characters for your tags, but you should focus on the most important ones that describe your video’s content, genre, and target audience.

5. Vary video lengths to figure out what your audience wants

There is no definitive answer to the question of how long your YouTube videos should be. The optimal length of your videos depends on various factors, such as your niche, topic, format, style, audience, and goal.

Some types of videos tend to perform better when they are shorter, such as tutorials, tips, reviews, or news. These videos are meant to provide quick and useful information or entertainment to the viewer.

Other types of videos tend to perform better when they are longer, such as stories, documentaries, interviews, or vlogs. These videos are meant to provide in-depth and immersive experiences or insights to the viewer.

The best way to figure out what length works best for your videos is to experiment with different lengths and see how they affect your views, watch time, retention rate, engagement rate, and subscriber growth.

You can use YouTube Analytics to track these metrics and compare them across different videos. You can also use the Audience Retention report to see how long people are watching each of your videos and where they drop off.

By varying your video lengths and analyzing their performance, you can find the sweet spot that satisfies both YouTube’s algorithm and your audience’s preferences.

6. Don’t be afraid to ask for subscribers directly

Sometimes, the simplest way to get more subscribers is to just ask for them directly. This might seem obvious or even pushy, but it actually works.

According to a study by Wistia ², adding a verbal call-to-action at the end of a video can increase conversions by 23%. This means that if you verbally ask your viewers to subscribe at the end of your video (or even at the beginning or in the middle), you have a higher chance of getting them to do so.

Of course, you don’t want to sound desperate or annoying when you ask for subscribers. You want to sound confident and genuine. Here are some tips on how to ask for subscribers directly:

Explain why they should subscribe. What value will they get from subscribing? What kind of content can they expect from you? How often do you upload new videos?
Give them an incentive. Do you offer any perks or rewards for subscribing? Do you have any giveaways or contests for subscribers? Do you have any exclusive content or access for subscribers?
Make it easy for them. How can they subscribe? Do they need to click a button or a link? Do they need to turn on notifications? Do they need to follow you on other platforms?
Thank them in advance. How do you appreciate their support? How do you value their feedback? How do you acknowledge their contribution?

For example: “Hey guys, thank you so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it and want to see more videos like this one every week, make sure to hit that subscribe button below and turn on notifications so you don’t miss any of my new uploads. I also have a special offer for my subscribers: if you subscribe right now, you’ll get a chance to win a free

How to Increase YouTube Subscribers: A Guide for Beginners