In order to have people subscribe to your channel, you need to encourage them. Don’t think that people will simply subscribe because they enjoy or will benefit from your content.

ASK THEM

As obvious as this sounds, it’s the most overlooked strategy.

ASK WITHIN YOUR VIDEO

There are several places you can ask someone to subscribe to you. If your video has a host, then the most common place is either at the start, or at the end of the video. As your host talks to your viewers, you simply drop a line such as “Please subscribe to our videos for more excellent content, and so that you won’t miss any of our future videos.” Of course, you should tailor that specific line to your own Association.

ASKING AT THE FRONT

Asking at the front of the video gets it out of the way early and can be a good reminder. You have you audience’s attention here, since they’re still waiting to watch your content. The potential downside is that they may forget to subscribe to you by the time the video is over.

ASKING AT THE END

Asking at the end of the video is also a cue to the audience that the video is winding down. The audience has seen your content, so now seems a good time to ask. The more interaction you have with your audience, the better, so it’s at the end most creators request that people leave a comment in the comments below. Don’t ever just expect people will do this, you need to guide them to it. Ask any question you think would have them type a response.

NOTE: Asking people to leave comments or give you a thumbs up for your content will also help your videos be seen more, as YouTube encourages interaction and will push videos with more comments; as it shows the audience is engaged.

THE GRAPHIC ASK

If you don’t have an on-person host, or voice over that can ask, do it with graphics.

If you have a logo open at the start of your video, you can add in a “please subscribe” there.

Or you can create or license a “Please subscribe” video roll and have it at the end of your video.

END CARDS

At the end of every video you make, you can add an END CARD.

An END CARD has multiple functions. They are mostly used to funnel your audience on to future videos but they can also be used to help people subscribe, and you’re given the option of INSERTING a SUBSCRIBE button into your END CARD – so that if people click on it, they’ll subscribe.

THE SUBSCRIBE LINK

You can actually create your own subscribe link, which you can pass along to people. When clicked it will allow someone to SUBSCRIBE to your channel.

Placing this in your description, and also on your ABOUT page works well. When clicked, it takes you to your channel page and asks directly if you would like to SUBSCRIBE.

To make this link, navigate to the front page of your channel.

Once there, click on the URL of your channel. In this case, our URL is https://www.youtube.com/user/AssociationStudios

Then add      ?sub_confirmation=1     next to it.

Your final link will be:

https://www.youtube.com/user/AssociationStudios?sub_confirmation=1

Now, when people click on this link, the will be asked if they want to subscribe.

You can place this link in your ABOUT page and in your DESCRIPTION for videos, so that after someone reads what your channel is about, hey can easily subscribe if they want to.

CAUTION: Marketers often ask people to subscribe before they have actually seen content, which by some, can be seen as giving a negative impression of your channel. So spamming your subscribe or using the subscribe link in a clickbait fashion is not advised.

REMEMBER

There is no point getting people subscribing to your channel who don’t actually want to watch your content. So just throwing around the link won’t actually result in real long-term growth. You will come across people/schemes who say they’ll give you 1-10,000 real life subscribers if you pay them x. These are all scams and will only be harmful, long-term, to your channel. No matter how good their salesmanship is, these are bot farms and/or computerized accounts and are in no way encouraged.

BUYING SUBSCRIBERS THROUGH GENUINE ADVERTISING

The way to find any real subscribers is by exposing them to your content.

You can directly advertise and place an ad on YouTube itself, for your channel.

You can highlight one of your videos and encourage people to subscribe to your channel or cut a trailer for your channel and pay for it via Google AdWords to be placed at the front of other people’s videos.

For example, if you’re A DAIRY ASSOCIATION, you could create an ad on YouTube about your YouTube channel, and then place that video at the start of existing videos connected with the Dairy Industry. This way you know you’re reaching the right audience, and hopefully will have a good click-through rate to your own channel.

CAUTION: There is a considerable learning curve to placing ads that are effective and target the audience you require. Make sure you understand exactly what you’re doing before you attempt to place ads or your budget can we wiped away quickly.