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How To Grow a YouTube Channel As a Content Creator or Influencer

Joanne Arguelles
Written By
Joanne Arguelles
Published On
Jul 22, 2021
Birds-eye view of a female influencer, editing her YouTube video

YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world. Every day, five billion videos are watched on YouTube by around 30 million daily visitors from around the world. But along with this opportunity, there is also fierce competition. There are around 37 million YouTube channels as of 2020, and within those channels, 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute.

So how do you stand out in this enormous community and get subscribers? In this article, we will cover effective strategies and tips you can try. 

Let’s begin!

Why It’s Important To Grow Your YouTube Channel

Growing your channel’s following is critical for the following reasons:

  • Subscribers will see your videos on their feed and will be more inclined to spend more time watching videos on your channel. This then contributes to your video’s performance which means it is more likely to be recommended by YouTube’s algorithm.
  • Subscribers will be more likely to share your videos or to tell their friends about you, meaning more subscribers for your channel.
  • The ability to cash in with the YouTube Partner Program. It enables content creators to monetize their channel on YouTube but requires 1000+ subscribers and 4000+ watch hours in the past 12 months before application. 
a hand holding a smartphone loading the YouTube app

How to Grow Your YouTube Channel 

1. Spend Time Learning What Your Audience Wants

In order to create high-performance content, you need to align it with the needs of your target audience. To learn more about what your target audience is inclined to view, you can look into competitor videos or other related videos to see which topics and titles perform well. 

If you have already posted videos on your channel and have data to work with, analyze your highest-performing videos and align your future productions with them. Then, observe if this boosts your engagement rates and subscriber count.  

If you have posted other forms of content like social media posts, blogs, and so on, you can also pick up insight on what your target audience responds to the most. 

2. Plan to Upload Content Weekly (Or More)

Create a workflow that allows you to post video content on your channel once a week or more. The newer the channel, the more it is vital to post more frequently, around three or more times a week. Along with this, it is also important to maintain consistency; create and follow a regular schedule for posting your videos. There are tons of free social media management tools for automating the cadence of your videos!

Maintaining frequency and consistency will boost your channel’s performance and rank on YouTube’s algorithm. Though having such a posting schedule may seem daunting, it will be a lot easier to sustain if you will make a number of videos in advance.

3. Optimize The SEO of Your Videos

Keep in mind that YouTube is primarily a search engine, and search engines love optimized content. Your potential subscribers need to be able to find you easily, so make sure to optimize the following: 

  • Titles and description – research on effective keywords and mention them in your video’s title and description.
  • Category – choose your category appropriately so that YouTube’s algorithm can better determine whom to suggest your video to. 
  • Tags – this helps to give YouTube more context about what your video is about.

By following the above practices, your video will have a better chance of showing up on Google’s search engine as well, as long as the search query is relevant. 

4. Be Mindful of First Impressions

First impressions count just as much in the digital world as they do in real life! So, here are a few tips to keep in mind when refining the three elements that viewers see first (the title, the thumbnail, and the video’s hook). 

  • Make your title short (around 55-70 characters long) but also catchy – and don’t forget keywords!
  • Make your thumbnails stand out using good graphics, interesting images, and large text.
  • Make your thumbnails consistent so that the audience can easily recognize your videos.  
  • Have a short hook for your videos that will motivate your audience to keep watching (e.g. the end result of your DIY, a compelling story, etc.).
an artist vlogger records themselves painting for their YouTube channel

5. Interact With Your Viewers

YouTube is not just a video-sharing platform, it’s also a social media channel. Interact with your viewers as much as you can. You can do this by encouraging them to leave comments by asking questions in your video, you can even ask what kind of videos they would like to see next! 

Responding to or liking some of the comments are great ways to keep engagement strong. Engagement will then help in boosting your video’s performance. And last but not least, don’t forget to ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel. In line with this, you can encourage them to be a part of your community in order to be notified of more awesome/useful content from your channel. 

6. Use Contests and Giveaways

Tangent to asking viewers to subscribe to your channel, you can also have contests and giveaways to encourage viewers to subscribe. The mechanics can be that they need to subscribe, like the video, and/or leave a comment on the video to enter. 

Make sure that your prize is something related to your content or brand. This way, you can attract people who are really interested and not just anyone who wants a high-stakes prize. If you have merch, this is a great opportunity to get more eyes on your brand. 

7. Make a Series

Binge-watching happens on YouTube too. Oftentimes, people who view a certain video will be interested in viewing another of the same topic or category. By creating a series around a high-performance topic, you can give more of what your audience wants. 

This strategy also works in your favour because you will be able to save time ideating. It’s much easier to build up a series than to keep making videos completely from scratch. Once you have your series, create organized playlists so that even new subscribers will know where to go.   

8. Use Other Social Media Channels to Promote Your YouTube Channel 

If you already have a following on another social media platform, tell them about your YouTube channel. Video content is a lot more immersive than other content types. So if you have followers that view your photos and stories on IG, your written blogs, and so on, they are bound to love your videos even more!

Convert Viewers Into Subscribers

By using the above techniques on how to grow a YouTube channel you will be able to get more viewers and convert them into loyal subscribers. This will then give your channel a better ranking on YouTube’s algorithm, which then leads to even more views and subscribers. It’s a beautiful cycle to look forward to.  

If you’re a content creator and liked this blog, you might also like:  

If you would like to learn more about what we do or are interested in joining one of the largest influencer rosters in North America, feel free to contact us!

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