Do you remember the first time you’ve discovered the wonderland of Youtube? I do. Back in 10th grade, I managed to overhear the majority of math classes. It wasn’t the smartest decision, but we have all been there pretending that we listen. I was always great at algebra. But the night before the exam I didn’t know what to do. I guess we also have been there pretending that we are doing our homework. I googled and discovered thousands of videos of people explaining step by step how to solve integrals and differentiation problems. Who knew that somebody would actually spend their time making those great tutorials.

Later during my university days, I took Harvard online courses available for free. I’ve learned to make money on Forex in a span of a few months from Youtube videos. During my early career, guess what? I opened Youtube to learn new skills I didn’t have.

70% of millennial users watch YouTube videos to learn how to do something new or learn about something they’re interested in.

Many people now come to Youtube to learn or digest cool content online for free. As a millennial, I don’t have a TV at home. I am not the only one. One of the reasons why smart TVs now have Youtube integrations.

If you are still here, read my side story. Keep reading.

This personal story of mine is essential to explain this to you: content consumption behavior is changing. And your Youtube online presence can become a powerful marketing channel. My example is only a small sample of millions of people who behave in the same way.

Your goal as a business owner or a marketer is to turn the hunger for good content and bring your target audience to your profile. Believe me, in a platform where 400 videos are uploaded every minute – competition is hard. It is the reason why your videos don’t accumulate traffic or desired subscribers number.

You invest your money, time and effort into creating Youtube video content and only 500 people watch it. The situation is more common than you anticipate. 90% of business profiles see the same problem.

Let’s discover together how your content can outperform Youtube competitors, what content you should be creating and what else is essential for your growth.

It was a long introduction (I know…), so without further ado, let’s begin!

These are the steps to grow your subscribers on YouTube:

1. How to outperform Youtube algorithm?

More than 70% of the time spent on YouTube is spent watching what the algorithm recommends, according to the company’s CPO, Neal Mohan.

The longevity of video, what it is about, time of posting, keywords in metadata, and call to action can affect not just one video’s popularity, but the whole channel’s success.

Youtube algorithm detects each user watching patterns and creates an endless stream of videos that users would want to watch, creating addicting watching behavior. Only in mobile average usage time is 60 minutes!

Let’s stop for a while and talk about those patterns for a bit (they are vital). Here are the things that the algorithm detects.

1. What does a user watch and what doesn’t? What kind of videos does person rewatch?
2. How long people spend on your videos? Do they bounce back after a few minutes or do they watch till the end?
3. How quickly a video becomes popular and “trendy”, it’s the rate of growth
4. How new or old is the video
5. How often a channel uploads a video
6. Engagement rates. Do people like, dislike or share the video?
7. Do people ban your videos from search recommendations?

Knowing this information you can optimize your channel to make your videos more likely to be discovered by the target audience:

Keywords: Use the right tags to help the Youtube algorithm understand what your video is about.

Video description and headlines: Use Google Adwords to discover keywords that your audience is using to find information. Use those keywords in the description and headline.

Use hashtags: It is a relatively new feature. Youtube hashtags work the same as in any other social media.

Watch time: Encourage viewers to watch until the end. It can be done by mentioning a surprise at the end of the video or adding funny videos so that people would anticipate the ending.

In order to understand how to grow Youtube subscribers number, you should understand not only how the algorithm works, but also how to create content that resonates with your audience.

The best scenario is to attract viewers to your page, make them “bing watch” your videos, engage with them and then encourage them to subscribe. Your videos automatically will appear in search results driving you more views.

The logic is simple to build high-quality content and attractive profile to magnet Youtube users around your company brand. You can use the platform to promote your product, core values, sell experience, and emotions buyers have with your product and moreover get to know your brand better.

2. What kind of content attracts subscribers?

Brand videos showcasing your business and your core values

Adidas Skateboarding creates absolutely incredible videos inviting talented skateboarders who skate around the city, do tricks, and have fun. Some videos receive up to 5 million views! But it is not the most important aspect of their success. They share emotions, experiences, and passion all skateboarders understand.

The engagement under each video is fun. Adidas has managed to bring skateboard lovers around the world.

Comments: “Its like ASMR for skateboarders”, “I love the vibe of these Adidas skateboarding vids!”, “I can’t love more the edition of Adidas videos”, “Once again Adidas understands”.

Your Youtube profile shouldn’t be just about you! It is about the community you create, a community that shares one passion.

You may want to take a look at “Everything you need to know about YouTube Cards“

Educational and how to videos

If your business doesn’t sell a physical product, you can turn your Youtube channel into an educational platform for your users. They are more likely to understand how a certain feature works, once they see it in action. Salesforce successfully implements this tactic.

You can also take a look at our article: How to create engaging short videos for social media

Interviews with experts and thought leaders in your industry

Share your expertise in your industry. By educating others you leave a positive impression about your own brand.

Behind the scenes videos

Videos, in general, are good at getting to know your company better.  Show an office tour, how the work is done. If your company produces a physical product, display how much works it involves.

Product videos demonstrating what your product can do for your target audience

Sometimes and only sometimes you are allowed to show your product and dedicate an entire video to it. Notice that native advertising has become almost a synonym for social media. It has proven to be more efficient and viewers are more likely to purchase or subscribe.

Video testimonials

We all know that Social proof is convincing. Imagine now the power of video testimonials with real people and clients, who share their true stories. Yes, it is powerful and if beautifully done it builds a great bond between you and subscribers.

Case studies

Your product is great and flexible and can be used in many ways, isn’t it? Educate your clients by showing cases in which your product can be used.

Documentary

Documentaries work best for companies that have a very long story to tell. Don’t be afraid to upload 40 minutes – 2 hours videos. If it is nicely done, your subscribers will watch it.

So, let’s imagine you are in a situation where you have uploaded videos, optimized your channel profile, created a branding strategy. Is it enough to grow your business account? I am sorry to say that… But NO. You are on the right track, but you need to do a lot more!

3. Get the appropriate equipment for your videos

To create attractive and engaging content, you don’t have to buy an expensive camera, if you can’t afford it. Anyway, many phones can do the recording well enough as much as professional cameras with the help of editing applications nowadays. But you still need some basic types of equipment such as a tripod, a simple background, and audio equipment to get the attention your content deserves. Besides don’t forget the find the importance of light while you’re creating the video.

4. Make an engaging channel trailer

The Channel trailer gives quick information about your channel and what visitors should expect from your content. Thus, it’s a great way to attract your first viewers to turn into subscribers and keep them engaged. Channel trailers should be short enough to catch the attention of the first visitors and informative about what will you offer them with your videos. 

5. Create a community by engaging with subscribers

Many overlook the main point of YouTube, that after all it is a social media channel and demands social interaction. If you’re just posting videos without encouraging comments and discussion, you’re missing the key point. Not only does Youtube rewards channels with high engagement rates but it also builds your brand’s credibility. We highly encourage you to respond to every comment you receive and ask users for engagements. For example, at the end of every video encourage users to leave you Feedback or ask you questions.

Users feel free under anonymous profiles and thus will be more likely to leave truthful feedback.

In order to not miss any comments try Sociality.io. It makes answering to comment under all your videos simpler. You won’t miss an important comment or complaint, because they all be displayed in an organized way on your dashboard. Moreover, there is an option to assign communication to your team members and collaboratively work on monitoring engagement rates. And if you need to submit a report to your boss, all reports are exportable and ready for your use in less than a few clicks!

If you want to learn about how to manage your account more efficiently; check out our article; 6 ways how technology can simplify social media management

6. Post consistently

Youtube is a social media, and consistency is important. It positively reflects on the discoverability of your channel. And you have more chances for your audience to get to know your better! You can schedule all videos in advance using the Sociality.io Publish feature.

7. Pay attention to numbers

Monitor engagement rates, subscribers growth, type of interactions, total views, etc. Detecting peak times for posting is also vital. You can also identify videos that require replacing or updating. Some data can be shown inside the Youtube platform or on the Sociality.io Reports section.

8. Be personal

People connect to channels with the faces of real people. Businesses tend to hide employees and show only their product advertisements. They turn their channel into online TV commercials. That era is long gone. On a platform where people can decide for themselves what and when to watch, you no longer have the power to aggressively push your product line.

For example travel channels. Personal travel channels collect millions of views. Travel agencies, on the other hand, struggle to collect even a couple of thousands despite investing way more money than Youtube influencers. Why is that?

Check out how famous travel profiles look like:

Do you see a commonality? Both profiles depict emotions in thumbnails, have a real person smiling at you, and in general description welcomes you to click and watch the video.

And now look at an example from a travel agency:

Boring and too polished hotel pictures. No wonder that only 200 people have watched it.

Conclusion,

Millions open Youtube every day to watch videos. It is a great challenge to bring their valuable attention to your profile and encourage them to watch your videos. Businesses find it hard to attract viewers and build a Youtube community, but it is not impossible. By understanding how its algorithm works and how to create content that will magnet your audience are the first essential steps in a successful youtube presence. You can start from there and move towards engaging viewers who hit the notification bell and watch your videos with smiles on their faces.