Are you putting so much work into your YouTube channel and you’re still struggling to get your first 1000 subscribers? Well never fear because in this post, I’m breaking down 5 easy tips that you can start doing now to to get your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube fast.
So whether you are a new YouTuber who is just starting out or you have been on the YouTube train for a long time, these tips will teach you how to get your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube.
1. Create a Customized Subscribe Link
A customized subscribe link is an easy way to get people to subscribe your channel because it brings up the subscribe button as soon as they click your link.
When promoting their YouTube channel, most people ignore this and just direct people to their YouTube page, but having a customized subscribe link takes this one step further by not only directing them to your page, but also by having a subscribe box appears before they do do anything else.
Here’s what people will see when clicking this custom subscribe link:
This link should be your default link you use anytime you are linking to your YouTube channel. Include it in your email signature, on your social media profiles, in your email newsletter–everywhere! Don’t miss out on their easy way to get YouTube subscribers.
To create a customized YouTube subscribe link, just use the following formula:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/YOURCHANNELIDHERE?sub_confirmation=1
Simply swap our “YOURCHANNELIDHERE” with your unique YouTube channel ID, which you can find in your Advanced settings in YouTube.
2. Let People Know About Your Channel (Again and Again!)
Unfortunately, with YouTube it’s not “if you build it, they will come.” When you put up a YouTube video, you’re not instantly going to get subscribers or views. So use need to capitalize on the your current audience that you already have!
Whether your audience is on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, or even an email list, talk about and let them know your YouTube channel.
But don’t just talk about your YouTube channel (because after a while, that feels spammy and gets old). Talk about it in new and exciting ways: Share behind the scenes of filming your videos, share when you post a new video, share comments or testimonials from one of your videos.
I like to send my email list, a email every single week. And in that email, I give them a brief synopsis of what my brand new video is about. And the link to that video. That’s constantly reminding them that I have this YouTube channel and I remind them to subscribe in that email newsletter as well. A pro tip here is if you’re planning out your content for Instagram or on Facebook, always remember to plan in some promo for your YouTube channel, let your people know and remind them that they need to go subscribe. And why subscribing is really going to benefit them.
3. Set Up & Optimize Your Channel Homepage
Next up is properly setting up and optimizing your YouTube channel homepage. Most people leave their channel homepage blank, which makes your channel look boring doesn’t entice people to want more and subscribe.
Here are three easy ways to optimize your YouTube channel homepage:
1. Customized Channel banner
YouTube gives you this valuable real estate at the top of your YouTube homepage to customize with a banner that tells your audience more about you.
Customize this section to let them know your name, your value proposition, how often you publish your videos, and more. Use your brand colors and even a photo of you to draw viewers’ attention and make them feel like your channel is something special and something they want to be a part of.
By doing including this simple information, people are going to be more inclined to subscribe especially if they like your value proposition (what’s it it for them) and they know that they can count on your to publish videos consistently.
2. Customized Sections
The next thing that you can do to really give people an idea of what your channel is about to get them to subscribe is creating customized channel sections.
Channel sections are simply playlists that you can create. And so if somebody brand new comes to your channel, they’re going to be able to instantly see what kind of content categories you create. Think of it like a TV network: HGTV is the channel and has a variety of home improvement shows, such as Fixer Upper, Holmes on Homes, Love It or List It, etc.
Channel sections gives your audience a taste of the different series that you have. So make sure you are categorizing your different content and creating playlists of your content. This not only allows people to see the breadth of topics you cover, but gives them an instant opportunity to binge and love your content right away.
So yeah, as they scroll through my page, they’re able to see exactly what they’re going to get in further detail to give them a reason to subscribe.
To do this, just hit the blue “customize channel” button, and you can start to add your featured sections right there.
3. Channel trailer
A Channel trailer is another way for you to give potential subscribers a taste of what your channel is about. These are displayed prominently at the top of your video channel homepage, so are most likely one of the first videos new visitors will watch.
There are two ways you can use this section, depending on what your YouTube goals are: 1) you can create a specific channel trailer to feature there, which in 30-90 seconds will highlight what your channel is about, or 2) you can feature one of your existing videos.
If your goal is to get a certain amount of subscribers or a certain amount of views, you should consider option 2 and put a video here that meets those goals. For example, if your goal was to drive new subscribers to your channel, then look at your analytics and feature a video that already does the best at converting new viewers into subscribers.
4. Know Your Audience and What They Want
When it comes to your YouTube videos and content, you need to be crystal clear on who your target audience is. What kind of person are you speaking to? What are they struggling with?
Because remember, when you speak to everyone, you’re speaking to no one.
This might be scary at first because you think you are missing out on potential viewers and subscribers, but the more specific you are about who you serve on your channel, the better your content will resonate and more likely those people will find, like, and subscribe to your channel.
5. Analyze your YouTube Analytics (YouTube Trifecta)
You need to be looking at your YouTube Analytics, but there is so much data available there that it might be overwhelming (especially if you’re not a numbers person).
Instead, you should focus on improving just three important analytics if you want to grow your channel and get more YouTube subscribers:
1. Click-through Rate
Click-through rate is the rate at which people click on your video from YouTube search or other areas of YouTube. There are a lot of elements that go into click-through rate but the two biggest factors are your thumbnail and title.
Remember it doesn’t matter how great your video is; if nobody clicks on it, nobody is going to watch it. A good click-through rate varies by channel rate but according to YouTube, “half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impressions click through rate that can range between 2% and 10%”.
A good click-through rate will vary for your channel, but in looking at your analytics, if you find that the click-through rate for a video is low, then consider updating that thumbnail and title to increase this, which will lead to more views and subscribers.
2. Audience Retention
Next up is Audience Retention, which is what percentage of your video do people watch before they stop and click off.
If you have great content that is educational, informative, or interesting, then people will want to watch as much as possible of that video. You will see this reflected in a high audience retention percentage.
On the other hand, if your video is boring, has bad audio, or is off topic, then you will have a low audience retention percentage because people are not going to waste their time and stick around.
So even if you have a high click-through rate, if are bouncing after only watching 10 seconds, then that video has low audience retention and is not good in YouTube’s eyes. As a result, YouTube is not going to push that video and put it on valuable real estate of their platform, like in the search results, suggested, and people’s home pages.
Study your audience retention graphs of every single video to figure out what kind of hook worked best, what kind of style of video work best, which videos are keeping people watching longer and double down on those videos, because that’s the second piece of this YouTube trifecta. That’s really going to make you see a difference on your YouTube channel and getting subscribers.
3. End screen click-through rate
The third piece of the YouTube Analytics trifecta is your end screen click-through rate. This is actually a piece of data that a lot of people miss out on or ignore.
So what is a YouTube end screen? For the last 20 seconds of every video, YouTube gives you the options to show up to 4 clickable elements, including videos, playlists, subscribe buttons, and links.
If you can get people to engage with your end screens by either subscribing to your channel or watching another video, then YouTube likes that because you are creating engagement for their platform.
These are especially great if you can get people to watch another video from you because it creates a YouTube binge session where that person is staying on the YouTube platform watching videos. So make sure you are including links to relevant videos that people would most likely be interested in watching next.
YouTube loves when channels do this and rewards channels with high end screen click-through rates. As you do this in your video in your channel becomes much more valuable to YouTube and it’s going to start putting your video on the YouTube homepage on the suggested section, because you got people to click.
There you have it! Five easy things you can do right now to get your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube.
This video was done in collaboration with Trena Little, so make sure check her out and subscribe to her channel!
