12 Ways to Grow Your New YouTube Channel

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As the second most-visited site on the internet, YouTube has over 2 billion users. Capturing the attention of those viewers has certainly become more challenging for new content creators, but it’s not impossible. Even if your YouTube channel is brand-new, there are ways to attract subscribers and achieve month-over-month growth. We’ve rounded up 12 simple ways to grow your new YouTube channel that even novices can tackle. With time and effort, you can start steadily growing your new channel and converting casual visitors into loyal subscribers.

One of the most important steps in growing any YouTube channel is to create great content that people want to see. For many people, this can be a daunting task. But once you have an idea of what makes good content, it becomes easier to create videos that will engage your audience and get them excited about following your channel. By doing some research into top-performing YouTube content, then you will be able to provide your audience with videos they are interested in viewing.

One place to start is by creating how-to videos related to your product or service. YouTube audiences gravitate toward how-tos, tutorials, and educational videos that walk users through a problem and teach them how to solve it. Among Gen Z internet users, for example, over half of male and female visitors had reportedly tuned in to a video in this genre in the previous week. Other popular genres among users aged 16 to 64 include comedy, gaming, and product reviews. 

 YouTube has a powerful search engine that can help people find videos related to specific topics. Keywords are what help make this happen.  The more relevant words you include in your video title and description, the more likely it is that someone will find your video when searching for those topics. 

A keyword planning tool like Google Keyword Planner is a good starting point for finding keywords related to your video. You can also type a few words into YouTube’s search bar, and YouTube will auto-suggest words and phrases. 

Plus, with YouTube’s new Search Insights keyword tool can help to inform your keyword planning — not only for your audience but for YouTube audiences across the board. Keywords with high search volume but fewer relevant results may be called out as a “content gap,” which could translate into opportunities to provide in-demand content to your audience. 

Hashtags are powerful tools that help you connect with your desired audience and expand your reach on YouTube. Simply place a hash sign (#) before a word or phrase, and include these hashtags in your titles and descriptions to call out topics of interest and stimulate discussion.

YouTube is relatively new to hashtag searches, having first introduced hashtag-search capabilities in 2018. Now, when users search for videos by hashtag on the platform, they see a dedicated page that contains videos with that hashtag. Far from perfect — especially compared to Twitter, the original hashtag pioneer — the technology is still in development. 

Still, using hashtags in your video titles, descriptions, and tags may help you grow your channel faster by increasing its visibility to more people who might want to subscribe. Combined with some of the other strategies in this article designed to increase viewership, your hashtags can help with your overall growth strategy.

YouTube thumbnails are the first thing people see when they visit your channel, and they can make or break a viewer’s decision to watch. A great thumbnail will catch their attention and make them want to click on it. A poor thumbnail will get passed over and never seen by anyone.

So what makes a great YouTube thumbnail? The key is to clearly highlight a certain element in the image so that people know exactly what they’re going to get when they click. Make sure your thumbnail includes:

1 – A high-quality image that illustrates the main focus of the video

2 – A face (whether human or animal)

3 – Bold colors and action shots

4 – Bolded text of six or fewer words 

It can be easy to fall into a “post once and forget about it” mentality, but this is not a good way to develop an audience. If you want people to find you, they need to be able to see your content over and over again.

 Posting content daily is likely not a realistic goal initially. To start, aim to upload new videos at least once every week or two.  This will give you the best chance to keep your audience engaged and build momentum behind your channel. YouTube’s analytics tools can also help you track the days and times when your audience tends to interact with your videos and then continue posting on a similar schedule.

When you post your YouTube videos on your social media pages, you can reach a larger audience on multiple platforms. This can greatly increase the number of people who see your content — and subscribe to your channel.

When you upload new videos to YouTube, it automatically creates shareable links that you can copy and paste into other social media platforms. When people come across your posts in their feed, either organically or through ads, they’ll see a preview thumbnail of your video with a headline. The more people who click over to your video and subscribe from these links, the more views your video gets and the higher it ranks in search results. This can lead to more subscribers for future videos and a growing audience on and off of YouTube.

Contests and giveaways are a great way to grow your audience by getting people interested in your content. People may not subscribe to your channel just because they like what you do; they may subscribe because they want to win a prize.

The benefits of running a contest on your channel include:

Growth. A contest will help you gain new subscribers, which can lead to more views, likes, comments, and shares. 

Watch time. The more people who subscribe and view your content, the more watch time you’ll get. Watch time is an important factor in YouTube’s search and discovery algorithm. And contests are a great way to get people watching!

Engagement. Comments, likes, and shares also help to boost your search rankings. When people engage with your content, it tells YouTube that your videos are valuable. With a contest and strong calls to action that encourage people to engage, your videos will likely get ranked higher.

Strategically placed calls to action (CTAs) can help you boost your subscriber count and get people watching more of your videos. One simple method is to use YouTube’s “cards” feature. These cards appear as small, clickable icons in the corner of your videos promoting additional videos in your content library. 

Other types of CTAs include those at the beginning and end, in the description, and via popups at key points in your videos. Be sure to read our complete guide to using CTAs on YouTube for more information on incorporating calls to action and increasing your subscriber base.

There are many reasons why you should consider collaborating with other YouTubers. For starters, it’s a great way to get more exposure for your channel and content. When you partner up with a fellow creator, you get the benefit of their audience while they get the benefit of yours. Collaborating helps you grow your channel by giving you exposure to more of the people who would like your content. It also provides a unique experience for your viewers that they may not have seen before.

For example, if you’re a house-cleaning expert, you can team up with a content creator who makes videos related to residential real estate. The two of you can create a video discussing the benefits of properly cleaning and staging a home before putting it on the market. To find collaborators, try searching for videos on that topic, and reach out to creators whose content you like. Then, together you can plan the details of your collaboration.

A playlist is a collection of videos that you want to group together in categories. This might be because they have a similar subject matter or they’re all part of a series — say, a collection of healthy cooking videos for people who follow a ketogenic diet.

Playlists make it easier for viewers to find the videos they want to watch and increase the likelihood that they’ll subscribe to your channel. Instead of just watching one of your videos, they may click on the next suggested video in your playlist and keep watching — much like binging a series on Netflix. Why stop when there’s another great video to play? As you create new content, you can then add it to the appropriate playlist.

Most social platforms include a livestream feature that allows creators to go live with their audience, and YouTube is no exception. Livestreams allow you to feature Q&As, webinars, product demos, and other types of content that lend themselves to a live audience.

The primary benefit of livestreaming is that it creates unscripted, real-time engagement with your audience. People enjoy watching other people speak authentically about something they’re interested in — especially when they can ask questions directly in the comments section or chat with others who are watching at the same time. This allows viewers to interact with each other as well as with their favorite creators while they’re live on camera. In turn, this makes them feel like they’re part of a community where everyone knows each other — even though they may never have met face-to-face.

As with social media, promoting your YouTube content on your website can help to grow your audience. You can embed your videos within your blog content, product pages, about page, and other areas where you want to add video content. You can also add a YouTube widget to your site to encourage visitors to see and engage with your videos.

Essentially, promoting your content on your website is another way to increase views and grow your subscriber base. More views, more watch time, and more subscribers will only help you boost your rankings in search results, potentially helping you grow even more.

There are several methods to attract subscribers and grow your YouTube channel that works well for many creators, depending on your marketing channels and budget. No matter which method you choose, remember to be genuine in everything you do. Ultimately, visitors want to see content that’s authentic, entertaining, and useful — that’s the whole reason they click over to YouTube in the first place.

No doubt, creating a new YouTube channel is an exciting endeavor filled with possibilities. And while achieving steady growth is not always easy, if you are dedicated and follow the tips we outlined above, you should be able to build a strong foundation for your YouTube channel.  These strategies can take you from a handful of subscribers to thousands if you are consistent with your efforts. However, part of that process includes posting high-quality videos.  Vidchops can be your dedicated video editor, helping you post great content that performs at a high level and helps you achieve your growth objectives. To learn more, book a call today.