How to Grow Your YouTube Channel [New Data]

Did you know that YouTube currently has 2 billion monthly active users and is projected to grow to nearly 3 billion active users by 2025?

It is one of the fastest growing and most popular social networks today. Plus, it helps people grow their business.

In fact, the number of channels making six-digit annual earnings on YouTube grew more than 40% year-over-year, the number of channels making five-digit annual income on YouTube grew more than 50% year-over-year, and the number of channels with more than a million subscribers, grew more than 65% year-on-year.

After all this you might be wondering “How do I grow my YouTube channel so that I can drive more traffic to my website and more sales to my company?”

To help marketers and business owners answer this question, we asked 300 users why they subscribe to YouTube channels the most.

Now that we’ve looked at the data, we’ll dive into our results so you can develop more effective strategies for engaging with your audience on YouTube.

Let’s begin.

Why do consumers subscribe to YouTube channels?

30% of respondents said they most often subscribe to YouTube channels because the channel publishes instructions or educational content about their careers or industry.

21% of respondents subscribe to channels because the channel publishes instructions or educational content about their hobbies.

And 17% of respondents said they subscribe to YouTube channels because they post funny or entertaining videos.

To check the rest of the answers, see the graphic below:

Data Source

Now that we know why people subscribe to YouTube channels, let’s see how you can use this information to grow your channel.

1. Create educational content about your audience’s careers.

As the survey found, the main reason consumers subscribe to YouTube channels is because they are posting educational content about their careers.

Think about it. The reason people get online is to find an answer to a question they want (or to be entertained, but we’ll get to that later).

So, a great way to grow your channel is to post the topics that your audience wants to see. At HubSpot, for example, we publish instructional videos on YouTube about marketing, sales, service, and general business content.

All of these videos help our audiences learn and develop in their careers. Obviously we want people to use our software to do this, but you will get some benefit from the video whether or not you are a HubSpot customer.

2. Post educational content about your audience’s hobbies.

Let’s say your company isn’t exactly focused on your audience’s careers. What do you post then

Well, according to the survey, you can post content about your audience’s hobbies. Let’s say you are a landscaping company. Your website could post gardening content and really appeal to people who garden as a hobby. Then there is a clear conversion path for using your services.

However, you want people to convert and become customers, but your videos should add value and educate your audience for free. The more they see you as an expert in the industry and as a point of contact, the more likely they are to convert later.

3. Create interesting, dynamic, interactive videos.

The third most common reason people subscribed to YouTube channels was because the videos were entertaining or funny.

If you’re a YouTuber who wants to post funny, interesting, and entertaining videos, there is an opportunity to expand your YouTube channel by thinking of an audience that likes to watch certain entertainment.

For example, let’s say you have a YouTuber channel and you mostly post lifestyle videos. To make these interesting and fun, you need to know what your audience likes and what they don’t. That brings me to the next strategy.

4. Know your audience.

The best way to grow your YouTube channel is to know what your audience likes and wants to see. Would you like to see educational content about your career? Or maybe they just want to relax and watch people clean the house because it’s satisfying and fun.

Be sure to think about the reasons from our survey that resonate the most with your audience, and then use these ideas as a basis.

5. Reformat high-performing content.

A great way to focus on growing your YouTube channel is to reformat content that has already worked for you. That could mean converting your most popular blog post into a video.

You need to revise the information and make a video on the subject, but you are already getting started. You know that your target audience likes this content and wants to see it.

Think of your top performing content from any content marketing channel and reformat it into video.

6. Optimize your content.

Of course, we can’t get through a content marketing discussion without talking about SEO. But how do you optimize your YouTube videos?

To do this, you should include your target keywords in your titles and descriptions. Then make sure to mention these keywords in your video.

The YouTube algorithm uses these contextual cues to understand what your video is about. And then when you get engagement, it’ll rank higher in search results.

You may be wondering “How can I quickly expand my YouTube channel? And how long will it take for my YouTube channel to grow? “

According to data, it takes an average of 22 months for a channel to reach 1,000 subscribers. However, if you don’t optimize your videos and have fewer than 1,000 subscribers, you will get less than 10% of the total views on YouTube. That’s why it’s so important to grow your channel and subscriber list.

7. Find unused keywords.

Another strategy you can use to quickly grow your YouTube channel is to find unused keywords. You can look at related searches on a topic on YouTube or Google and then look at those related searches in a keyword tool.

Which keywords are searched for frequently but have little competition? These are the keywords that you want to target.

8. Optimize the playback time.

Like any search engine, YouTube wants people on YouTube. One of the main factors that the website takes into account for ranking is view time.

When posting videos, it is important to analyze how long people have been watching your videos. According to Backlinko’s research, longer videos tend to outperform shorter videos. And it makes sense. The longer your videos, the longer your playback time can be.

But how can you make sure people get through the first few seconds of your video? A great way to do this is to remove redundant content from your intro. In the first few seconds, a viewer should know what they are learning and how they benefit from watching your video.

If you’ve got your audience right with the right content, they’ll watch your long videos because you caught their attention.

Growing your audience on YouTube is a great way to attract your audience to your business. And more than 1,000 subscribers are essential to rank higher in search results. This means that you need to post content that your audience wants to see and that is optimized to show up in search results.