Gaining subscribers? That’s great! But just because your subscriber base has grown does not necessarily mean that your subscribers are active.  Result?  Even channels that exceed 500,000 or a million subscribers may be getting fewer views than when they had 100,000 subscribers! How can you make it so that your views rise with your subscribers? The following article gives you ways to increase your views thanks to your fan base.

Content: stay true to what attracted your subscribers

Try to understand what attracted your subscribers to your channel: of course, it could have been because of your particular channel theme (gaming, music, etc), but it could also have been the way that you speak in your videos, the way that you arrange the footage, your humor, etc.  The YouTubers who continue to gain subscribers AND views are very loyal to their style: JennaMarbles, Shane Dawson, Norman, Smosh.  If you move too far from the video style/format that brought you subscribers, your fans risk to become disinterested.  They probably won’t unsubscribe, but they’ll stop coming to check out your new videos or watch only a brief part of them which will give you a weak watch time and have an effect on your overall views.

This situation happens a lot on gaming channels.  We see a lot of gamers who think they can change games whenever without any problem.  What they don’t realize though, is that most of their subscribers came for one game in particular and are not interested when they change games.  Few gamers can easily get away with changing games at random, but this is usually because their subscribers are interested in them for other reasons (they are funny or have a particular style on camera). 

Of course, the difficulty is that you need to try to keep the same concept for your videos without repeating!  Taking subjects from the news or Google trends can really help you to make videos without repeating yourself. 

Programming: make video series and be regular with your publications

It’s great if you can post more than one video per month and remain faithful to your concept, however, it will be difficult to keep the same level of attention from your subscribers for each video.  They won’t necessarily find all of your video subjects interesting which is problematic because if they skip one of your videos, there is a strong possibility that your next video won’t appear in their news feed.  Instead, the space will be reserved for a video release from one of their other channel subscriptions.

To avoid this problem you can make video series that keep viewers in suspense from one episode to the next.  If you publish a dozen videos over a 3 week period your subscriber will be more likely to follow them if they are episodes than if they are all different/ unrelated. Of course, it requires more work and organization to develop this type of program, but it’s worth it! 

Another thing that helps is posting videos regularly and giving subscribers fixed dates for your new videos releases.  This is important because it lets your subscribers know when to look for your new video in their news feed (remember, your videos won’t always be visible!).  It will also give your other fans who are not subscribers but love your program a heads up as to when to come back. 

Post your publication schedule clearly and in several places to make sure that it’s visible and that your viewers don’t forget.  Add it to your channel description, your video descriptions, you banner, and even announce it out loud at the end of your videos:

Day and time of video release: post at the time that works best

To choose a day and time that is ideal for releasing your new videos, take a look at the history of your video releases.  Do you notice a trend?  For example, are your subscribers more present (views/interaction) on Monday or Saturday?  Morning or evening?  (Tip: a video that is released in the early evening often gets more views).

Warning: if you publish your videos at the same time as everyone else (on Friday night, for example), your video may get crowded out by other popular YouTubers. Try other slots. 

Promotion: teasers and bulletins

To peak subscriber interest, make video teasers that tell viewers about upcoming events/releases on your channel.  Making a video to present your upcoming projects not only gives your subscribers incentive to come back and visit your channel at a future date, but it also helps strengthen your relationship with them which is important in terms of subscriber loyalty.

Post bulletins to keep your subscribers informed about any news concerning your channel.  BUT be careful not to do too many things in a short time: YouTube monitors your activities and won’t necessarily notify your subscribers of everything.  For example, if you post a video on your channel, and then like and comment your friend’s video all in a few minute span, it’s possible that only the comment or the like will be displayed in your subscriber’s newsfeed.  You should wait a few hours (about 4 hours) between each action so that all your activities are displayed.  Or if you prefer, you can choose not to inform your subscribers of a certain type of activity (for instance, only new videos releases and likes).

Playlists: increase your subscriber views

A few hours after their release, place your videos into Playlists. Two advantages:
1. The information will be seen in the news feed.
2. Playlists automatically switch to another video, which can boost your views without any extra effort!

Example of a good schedule for a video release:

• 1 week before – Previous episode published: next video announced at the end
• 1 day before – Bulletin to notify/remind subscriber about the next video release
• Release of the video
• + 4 hours – Add the video to a playlist
• + 8 hours – Comment the video (every 4 hours for example)
• A few days later: “like” the video

Annotations: guide your subscribers through all your videos

Do not forget the power of annotations ;-) An annotation in an outro can encourage viewers to visit other videos.  Annotations can also be used to convince viewers to share, comment or like, which incites YouTube to boost your channel, making it more visible not only to your subscribers, but also to others who don’t even know your channel yet.

Build a relationship: interact with subscribers and respond to comments

Communicate with your subscribers: reply to comments, ask questions in the comment section or in your videos to encourage their interaction.  Ask them to choose subjects for your next video.  The interaction with your subscribers is essential because it creates a direct link with them.  Subscribers who feel close to their YouTuber are generally more active on the channel.

These tips will help you to have a more active community of subscribers!