You want people to land on your video and stay there. That means you need to have some great content that will keep your viewers interested. You want them to watch the entire video. You want them to stick to your video like glue.
However, this concept goes even further than each of your videos. You want them to stick to your entire channel. Therefore, think of your channel as a Venus flytrap and each of your videos are like the lure. Your videos will entice viewers to see your channel and then BAM! The video will get them to subscribe and keep them coming back for more.
In order for you to do this, you need to employ some tricks to get your viewers to convert into long-term subscribers.
Doing this is very easy and it can be done in each video. How you perform each of these actions is up to you, but it is probably best to do so in a variety of ways because some ways may appeal to some people and other ways to other people. Therefore, the more ways you perform these actions the more likely you are to broaden your YouTube subscriber base.
Subscribe
One of the simplest ways of gaining more YouTube subscribers is to ask people to become a subscriber. No kidding right? At some point during your video, go ahead and tell people to subscribe to your channel. You can do this at the beginning or end of your video. It should be a simple line telling them to subscribe for more videos and stay up to date. You can vary the wording and placement in your video so that it doesn’t appear you are placing it in every video exactly the same, like a cookie cutter approach. People will like individuality.
In addition, you can also place some lower thirds or some YouTube end screens and cards that call people to subscribe to your channel. These are great text-based ways of getting more people to subscribe. As with the spoken request, it is good to mix it up among your videos. You don’t want to bombard your viewers. However, you do want to be persistent. So don’t be afraid to have two or three different subscriber requests in your videos.
Like
Not only must you ask your viewers to subscribe to your videos, you should also ask them to like your videos. Liking isn’t as important as subscribing but it is still something that you want to try and promote.
The more likes a video has the higher it will be ranked on YouTube. Therefore, go ahead and start soliciting likes. When you ask for likes, keep it simple. Don’t do it as frequently as you ask for subscribers. In fact, it is best to limit it to once or twice per video. Something along the lines of “if you like this video go ahead and say so” will be fine.
If you can get them to subscribe, that is the main thing. Chances are, they will like your video anyway if they subscribed as a result of that video. Still, some people like videos without subscribing to your channel so it is still a good idea to ask. This will help your videos gain more exposure because each time someone likes a video it is automatically added to a playlist on their YouTube account called “Liked Videos”. Whether or not they allow other people to see that playlist is up to them.
However, the playlist defaults to the public setting. That means that people will be able to see your video on their channel unless they have changed the setting on their playlist.
Comment
Not only are getting subscribers and likes important, but comments are another thing you should strive to receive. This can be done by simply asking people what they think of the video or if they have any suggestions or replies to what the video said. Oftentimes, people will be more likely to leave a comment on your video than to like or subscribe to your video.
Comments are a great way to engage viewers and help create discussion on your topic. This will help increase the exposure of your channel because it will seem like your video is “trending”.
Share
The last, but not least, thing you want to get people to do is to share your videos. Sharing is very important because it puts your video out there for a mass amount of people to see. These people will see your video and be more likely to watch it because someone they know shared it. It was referred to them by word of mouth, which is the most powerful type of referral. What’s even better is that these are people that you would never have been able to reach if your video wasn’t shared with them. Therefore, prod your viewers to share your videos. It will do wonders for your channel.
You may feel bad or awkward about asking people to help you in this way but it is pretty standard for the industry. Therefore, make sure to do it. It will help your channel and you will benefit from it. As long as you aren’t hounding your viewers then it won’t be a big deal. In fact, many people won’t even notice what you are doing. But that’s okay, some of them will and some are better than none!
Oftentimes, people will watch your videos and they may even really enjoy them. However, it won’t occur to them to sign up for more. Then, later, they will try to find your video and won’t be able to because they don’t remember. Save them this trouble and remind them to sign up. Asking for subscribers, likes, comments, and shares is an excellent way to remind them to stay tuned to your channel.
In addition, don’t be afraid to really explain exactly how important it is for you to receive these things. Tell people how much it will help you if they subscribe, like, comment, or share your video. You can point out that it took you a lot of time and effort to make these videos and that if they let you know what they think you would really appreciate it. It’s a simple strategy but it plays on people’s emotions so it works really well.