30+ Ways to Grow Your YouTube Channel

Growing a successful YouTube channel involves more than just creating videos. It is about crafting quality content, making your videos appealing to a wide audience, and promoting your content through multiple channels.

With our expert tips you can significantly boost your subscriber count, increase likes, and encourage more comments, helping your channel thrive in the competitive and saturated YouTube landscape.

With the rise of super short-form content on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, it's crucial that your longer YouTube content is engaging and interesting enough to keep viewers watching until the end.

Here are our favourite ways to keep people interested:

Staying updated with popular trends on social media platforms is crucial. Use tools like Google Trends or check out the Trending pages on Twitter and YouTube to find hot topics in your niche. This approach is great for boosting YouTube traffic. Trending keywords draw in more viewers, increasing your chances of being featured on the discovery channel.

In general, you'll get the best feel for understanding how the trends are used by being a regular user of social media. The context of how you use trending topics is very important for it to work well and gel with your content.

When using trending songs or posting something that is popular right now, think about how it can be creatively integrated into your content without feeling forced or off-brand.

Tinder effectively incorporates viral trends like red nail theory into their advertising. These ads are effective because they not only use the trends in the right context but also align them seamlessly with Tinder's brand voice and the interests of their target demographic.

Focus on producing high-quality videos in terms of both content and production value. If your video quality is poor or the sound is muffled, viewers are less likely to watch the entire video.

It pays off to invest in your camera skills and a good setup.

You don't need to break the bank with a fancy video editor, expensive camera, or high-end mic. Just focus on the basics like good lighting, finding a really quiet spot, and having a tripod or a solid place to set up your phone or camera.

It's all about keeping things simple but effective.

So many people flock to YouTube when they're trying to learn how to do something or looking for a product demo or review.

With this in mind, you can provide value to your target audience with instructional or educational videos that offer practical knowledge or skills.

You can post videos or product demos showing your subscribers how to use your product and its benefits

A great way to provide structure and flow to your channel and videos is by creating a recurring series or show with a unique theme or format that viewers can look forward to.

For example, if you're a recipe or foodie content creator, you could create a series of festive recipes.

People love to feel like they are doing something good.

Contributing something to a charity, whether it be money, brand awareness through your videos, or dropping a donation link in your captions is an awesome way to not only create some different content, but also make people feel more invested your videos.

A community-driven project or initiative for charity is a great way to encourage users to engage with your content for a good cause, it is a perfect win-win.

It is super fun to make behind the scenes videos and day in the life content. People love to see what goes on behind the polished content you post of your brand.

Plus, it makes you a bit more personable and people can understand what your brand is all about.

A good way to show you care about your customers, answer any queries that may be putting off people from taking the plunge and making a purchase, and to show you're reputable, is to gather your frequently asked questions from your audience and create a video series answering these questions.

This video series can be a great way to directly address viewer curiosities and engage with your community.

It also means you shouldn't have to keep answering the same questions over and over again.

YouTube thrives on community, so the more returning viewers and subscribers you have, the better.

Check out our top tips:

Engaging with your audience on YouTube is key to making your channel more relatable and appealing. When you actively respond to comments, create posts specifically for your community, and interact with viewers, it shows that you're not just a content creator posting anything for paid ads or a business trying to flog your product, but someone who cares about their audience.

Replying to people who like your videos can make a big difference. It makes you stand out and become more memorable to them. This kind of personal touch encourages more viewers to leave comments and get involved.

Plus, new viewers are likely to join in when they see that you're responsive and approachable, it's a straightforward yet powerful way to increase engagement and attract more viewers to your channel.

Subscriber only giveaways are a great tactic to both reward your current subscribers and attract new ones to your YouTube channel.

By organizing giveaways exclusively for your subscribers, you create a sense of exclusivity, making your subscribers feel special and valued. This not only strengthens your relationship with your existing audience but also incentivizes others to subscribe.

These giveaways are effective for a few reasons. They show your viewers that their subscription offers more than just regular content; it also gives them a chance to win unique prizes. This kind of appreciation goes a long way in building a loyal and engaged community.

Additionally, the prospect of exclusive giveaways can be a strong motivator for new viewers to subscribe to your channel, boosting your subscriber count.

However, using this method can make it hard to pick winners and you'll struggle to drive actions outside of YouTube. Using Gleam to host your giveaway is an easy way to overcome this.

Using Gleam to run promotional giveaways is a fun and highly effective way to grow your YouTube channel. It's all about making things exciting for your viewers while keeping the process easy for you. When you run a YouTube giveaway with Gleam, you don't need to waste hours on making sure everyone who enters follows the rules, like subscribing then unsubscribing before you draw the prize or entering more than once with different emails. This means less hassle for you and more time to focus on creating great videos.

Your viewers will appreciate knowing that everything's legitimate, which is super important for building trust so that people make the effort to enter.

Since everyone loves the chance to win, this approach is a proven way to boost your YouTube channel's growth through channel visits, subscriptions, referrals, email signups, other social media actions, and loads more.

When you announce and promote a giveaway or competition through your social media channels or mailing lists, it grabs attention, gets people talking, and brings in new viewers. Plus, your current subscribers get even more excited about your channel.

It's a win-win: your audience gets to have fun and potentially win prizes, and you get to see your channel grow.

  Learn More   Use This Template

Incorporate ideas and suggestions from your subscribers to create content that your audience actually wants to see. It is a fun way to make sure you're always creating content and videos that your subscribers are interested in, that you engage with your audience, and to keep your content new and exciting.

You need to incentivize users to comment suggestions. Unless you have a great fan following which are really invested in your channel, it is a good idea to offer a shoutout, a prize, or another kind of reward in turn for the best video suggestion.

User-Generated Content (UGC) is a practical way to add variety to your channel and engage with your audience. It involves showcasing content that your viewers have created themselves.

A great example of user-generated content is GoPro, which features videos and photos from users who capture their adventures using GoPro cameras. This type of content is not just a testament to the product itself, but is a highly engaging and entertaining type of content in its own right. Many YouTube viewers are tuning in just for these awesome videos, rather than a GoPro camera testimonial or product review.

Gathering user generated content means you don't have to spend hours filming the videos yourself, your subscribers submit it for you. You can then repost it on your other platforms and repurpose it to make fresh and new content on your YouTube channel.

You can encourage UGC by running a video contest where devoted fans can submit videos for a chance to win a prize and be featured on your channel.

  Learn More   Use This Template

It is really fun to organize challenges that involve your YouTube audience or viewers. You can do things like a 30-day fitness challenge, anything that involves a sense of community and challenge.

The real benefit of this is that it gets people to continue watching your videos. Often, viewers may watch one of your videos and then move on to someone else's content, forgetting about your channel. So, by hosting fun and engaging challenges that people want to join, you give them a reason to keep coming back to your channel.

Plus, when you collaborate with another influencer, it brings over their followers to your channel, so it's worth teaming up.

Although it is extra work, you can expand your YouTube content and reach by starting a podcast related to your YouTube channel's theme, answering your YouTube channel FAQs, and expanding on your already uploaded videos.

You can post this on YouTube and on other podcast platforms. It is a nice way to create some different content, branch out, and to use one piece of content on different channels.

The Community tab on YouTube is a feature that aims to enhance interaction between creators and their audience.

You'll find the Community tab on a creator's homepage, both on desktop and in the YouTube app. It's not visible in mobile browsers.

The Community tab is great for boosting engagement. You can post behind-the-scenes footage, respond to comments, pin top comments, promote collaborations, conduct polls, give shoutouts, and share exclusive content for channel members.

Regular updates on the Community tab keep your audience engaged between video uploads, which is a perfect way to keep your channel active when you don't have time to create video content super often.

You can see this channel utilizes the community page to encourage people to check out paid subscriptions on her fitness app:

It's a good habit to start pinning a top comment or question to spark conversation and increase engagement. It shows you're active on your channel and means the comment you want people to see is right in front of them.

Try pinning comments containing information like your social media accounts, an answer to a frequently asked question, or positive feedback from a viewer.

With so many channels on YouTube, gaining traction can be tough.

Here are some great ways to promote your channel:

One of the most effective but potentially costly ways to promote your channel is to collaborate with brands and influencers to reach new audiences, add credibility to your channel, and attract their followers over to your own channel page. It is a great way to build anticipation and excitement to your channel.

Plus, it switches things up a bit, keeping things fresh and interesting.

Utilize other social media platforms to drive traffic to your own YouTube video or channel page. Don't presume just because people follow you on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, that they know you have a YouTube channel.

Post it on your stories, link it in your bio, mention it in a blog post, add it to your Linktree, repurpose your YouTube content on TikTok and Instagram- just promote it everywhere you can!

You can also link other videos in your descriptions and channel bio. Essentially, make the most of all the space you have in your bios, posts, stories, and descriptions.

Use relevant keywords, compelling titles, and effective descriptions to improve your videos' visibility in google search results.

It is so essential to nail this, you don't want to miss out on people searching for what your videos are all about but not being able to find them in search results because of poor titles, captions, and keywords.

Use detailed descriptions and wisely chosen tags to improve YouTube search results and YouTube ads' result visibility.

Building an email list is a great way to keep your audience updated. Use it to send out news, alerts about your latest videos, or special announcements. This helps remind your viewers to check out your new content as soon as it's up.

You can easily grow this list by tying it into giveaways on your YouTube channel. For example, make giving their email address a part of the entry requirement for any contest. It's a simple and effective way to build your mailing list while engaging your audience.

  Learn More   Use This Template

It is really important to encourage viewers to like, subscribe, or follow your other social media channels with a clear call to action at the end of your videos.

A simple end screen with a subscribe button and social media links combined with then saying something like, 'Remember to hit like and subscribe for more!' is a perfect way to do it. Mentioning your other social media accounts is a great way to diversify your audience too.

Combining the visual queue of the end screen with the verbal call to action is an awesome way to double check they saw and heard what you wanted them to do, like to follow your other social media accounts or the topic of your new video.

The YouTube Store page offers you an effective way to monetize your brand by selling products directly on your channel.

Eligible channels have to be part of the YouTube Partner Program, which has these requirements:

• Get 500 subscribers with 3 valid public uploads in the last 90 days, and 3,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, or

• Get 500 subscribers with 3 valid public uploads in the last 90 days, and 3 million valid public Short views in the last 90 days, can collaborate with merchandise partners to design and list products. This integrated store is conveniently located on the channel's homepage, allowing viewers easy access to browse and buy.

So, as you can see, you need quite substantial engagement to begin with, but it is a really good thing to keep in mind.

The benefits of the YouTube Store page include being able to check your Shopping analytics in YouTube Analytics to view the performance of tagged products, but even more importantly, when viewers are on your channel, they can see your shop and don't need to click on any links. It is an awesome way to capture the interest and turn it into a meaningful action, like a purchase, directly through YouTube.

It's also important to be familiar with all of the different features and formats on YouTube, and to make sure you have consistent channel branding so you stay recognisable.

YouTube Live Stream lets you broadcast live video to your audience. It's an effective way to grow your channel by offering a different kind of content that's interactive and engaging.

When you go live, viewers can watch in real-time and participate through live chat, making it a great platform for Q&A sessions, tutorials, or showcasing events.

Using YouTube Live Stream has several benefits for channel growth. It increases viewer engagement, as live streaming interactions are more personal and immediate.

It also boosts your visibility on the platform, as live streams can attract new viewers who are browsing for live content.

Hosting regular live streams can keep your audience interested and coming back for more, which can lead to an increase in subscribers and overall channel growth.

If you're already livestreaming on Twitch, this is a no brainer.

Tap into the short-form video trend by creating your new YouTube videos as Shorts to attract viewers who prefer quick, engaging content.

This is all the craze right now, and the bonus is that you can repost these on Instagram or TikTok.

Create engaging Shorts by focusing on trending topics, previews to your new videos, quick tutorials, or entertaining snippets that can be shared across social media platforms.

Make your long videos and content accessible to a broader, international audience by providing transcriptions and translations. This is really important so everyone can access your videos, whether they have hearing difficulties, speak a different language, or are watching in a quiet place.

Ensure your video content is optimized for mobile viewing as a large portion of viewers will be watching on their phone.

If you're effectively promoting your YouTube channel on your social media accounts like Instagram or Twitter, they're likely to be viewing on a mobile device, so it is important to do this.

It's a really good idea to plan and organize your content in advance with a content calendar to maintain a consistent posting schedule so your subscribers know when to expect the next video.

Consistently posting videos is definitely one of the best ways to grow your YouTube channel as it maximizes the chance of them gaining traction.

Make sure you plan special theme-based video content or event-related videos well in advance, for example your Christmas campaign.

Tools like Google Calendar or Trello can help you organize and track your content strategy.

Make sure you design eye-catching, custom video thumbnails so people click on your video over others.

Try to steer clear of click bait. Once viewers realize the thumbnail isn't related to the actual video at all, they will click off and be put off from your channel.

You can add a caption or video titles on the thumbnails as well to make it more informative.

Continuously experimenting with and refining your video titles and thumbnail designs will lead to more view as it's what will convince people who are browsing to engage with your channel.

You can categorize your YouTube videos by subject, video title, relevant keywords, or theme and curate playlists on your channel.

It is a great way to make it easier for viewers to access similar videos on your channel and to keep content organized and accessible.

For example if you're an artist, it is worthwhile creating a YouTube music playlist.

Keep your channel's visual branding, such as banner, profile picture, video descriptions, and video graphics, fresh and updated.

This can make your channel more appealing and professional-looking. Make sure you use high resolution and correctly sized images that represent your brand or business well.

It is also a good idea to ensure consistent branding across all your social media platforms to create a cohesive and recognizable brand identity.

An awesome little trick to increase subscribers is to add this parameter to the end of your Channel URL:

http://www.youtube.com/user/S2Games?sub_confirmation=1

Add this to the link you share promoting your channel on social media, your website, and in your emails.

It will add a pop up asking if they want to subscribe to your channel. This has been shown to improve your subscribe rate by over 400%!

You then need to check if your hard work is paying off and identify what’s working and what isn’t.

Here are some useful ways to measure success:

To make sure your efforts are worthwhile, you should use YouTube Analytics to understand what videos perform well and adjust your content strategy accordingly. Look at metrics like watch time, viewer retention, and engagement to identify what works and what doesn't.

There's no point spending time and money on ineffective content strategies.

You can also try out some A/B testing using different thumbnails, titles, hashtags, video descriptions, video tags, lengths, and more, to ensure you're posting worthwhile content.

Encourage viewers to provide feedback by offering the chance to win a prize. This approach not only means you receive valuable insights but also increases engagement and viewer investment in your channel.

You can do this through Gleam with an entry form contest, or you can ask users to comment on your latest video.

  Learn More   Use This Template

To wrap it up, how to grow a YouTube channel boils down to mixing great content with smart promotional strategies. Keep up with trends, team up with cool brands or influencers, create high quality content, and really talk to your audience.

Remember, the key to success on YouTube is creating videos that viewers love and find helpful. Consistently posting content and engaging with comments is essential. This is what drives viewers to subscribe to your channel and like your videos.

Throw in some fun giveaways, engaging live streams, and maybe a podcast, and you're almost guaranteed success for your channel. Stay creative, keep experimenting, and have fun with it!

Keep your content true to your brand and you can't go wrong.