Suggestions as to how to get subscribers without asking for them?

[Uncivilized Elk]

Ask them in a way that it shows how it benefits them and not you. For example you could say "if you like my videos subscribe to my channel and you'll be notified of future videos" or "Subscribe to my channel so you won't miss any new ones"

I LOVE this (sarcasm). Subscribe to my videos! Why? Well, let me pretend that I think you're an idiot who doesn't understand what the point of subscribing is and tell you what subscriptions do in general!
I think I would de-subscribe out of principle when hearing this from a channel I was already subbed to.

Also, when people do these reminders because they think the viewing audience is too stupid to remember that subbing is a thing, well... to use a sexual metaphor, I go flaccid.

As for sub notes or vocal asking for subs barely a few minutes into a video, if I'm new to a channel I will often be on the fence and very skeptical of the video, even if I come out of a video liking it. If I'm asked for subs before the video ends, not only does it make me lose immersion in the video if I was immersed, but if I wasn't totally "sold" when that CtA comes up, I will exit out of video.

Really I wish there were more polls conducted to figure out if people like me make up a chunk of the population or if I'm really rare. Knowing how negative the internet often is, I seriously doubt there are only a handful of people who get annoyed by "call to actions".

And the problem with knowing how things turn out is that if your channel is generally growing, and just existing and making more videos makes it grow, de-coupling how effective certain strategies are from the background noise is ridiculously difficult. The best you can do is make annotation links which link to a direct sub to your channel, because then YT at the very least tells you how many people used this to sub to you. It will of course not tell you how many people purposefully decided to not sub due to that. If you have sub requests at certain times in the video I guess you can check audience retention to see if there's a drop, but as we all should know when you do studies you need a "control". Controls on YT aren't a thing. At best you can get statistical relationships but only from massive #s, which a lot of smaller channels don't have.

I dislike Game Grumps (some of their stuff is funny, most of it is godawful, especially nowadays), but they had a while where they would ask for subs during the video - it was even intended to be a recurring joke. Their fans went ****ing crazy about how annoying it was and they canned that pretty fast (they might still ask at the end, but I have no idea if they do or not).

As for audience retention, I just (shudder) checked PDP's videos, a lot of his gameplay videos go over 20 minutes. If that audience can handle it, I'm pretty sure a general audience can handle longer videos.
If a person is actually liking your video, they will come back and finish it if they can't in one sitting. If they like it, more is better. If you're making videos with the intent of having viewers barely like it or be lukewarm to it (why, why would you be doing this?), then you can worry about it being too long. I find it ridiculous to worry about a video being too long because of viewers' "attention spans". It should be a worry if you think you have too much filler. The problem otherwise wouldn't be the length, would it, it would be that people don't want to pay attention to your stuff, which is a whole other problem.

Aaaaaand rant over.

 

[Entityofsin]

The entire point of suggesting someone at the end of your video to subscribe to the channel is if it's the first time they see it. Maybe that needs to be actually made more apparent to the viewer but honestly I don't normally get to the end of many videos on channels I am subscribed to. I expect these reminders at the end of just about every video I watch on YouTube as that's the section of the video that is typically where any kind of Call to Action is. The take away piece of the video.

But each video you make is a gateway to having a new subscriber and daily viewer. If you have 300 videos on your channel all suggesting at the end of them to subscribe to your channel to not miss future content, that's 300 different directions people are coming from to find you, your channel, and the rest of your 299 videos. This has a very real compounding effect to long term growth.

The more creative you are about it, such as selling your channel's value proposition in your Call to Action, is best practice.

Think of it like this.. I know I'll have some of my subs watching my videos. So in the Call to Action I would address briefly my current subscribers to let me know in the comment section their thoughts on whatever the video is about and then go into addressing new viewers reasons why they should subscribe to the channel and really sell that value proposition.

So if this annoys people, then I don't really care if they subscribe to my channel. YouTube is so huge that a minority of people getting annoyed and not subscribing is irrelevant to me. No content creator should care about that kind of minority subscribing to their channel because of one thing that isn't even meant for them. To me it's kind of silly to even get upset over that stuff.

 

[babyteeth4]

Don't be afraid of your audience, you get the type of audience you wish for. Why would anyone want to build an audience who won't tolerate ads and solicitations, unless you want to keep doing this for free.

 

[Entityofsin]

Don't be afraid of your audience, you get the type of audience you wish for. Why would anyone want to build an audience who won't tolerate ads and solicitations, unless you want to keep doing this for free.

The thing that does anger an audience is when you're trying to hard sell products and services a lot. If the sales pitch is natural and organic to the conversation that is being held, then they are more accepting to it. People don't want to watch an advertisement video on a channel they subscribe to. That's why they most likely use Ad Block.

 

[Cinnamon Sweet Shoppe]

.[DOUBLEPOST=1439333221,1439333101][/DOUBLEPOST]

I LOVE this (sarcasm). Subscribe to my videos! Why? Well, let me pretend that I think you're an idiot who doesn't understand what the point of subscribing is and tell you what subscriptions do in general!
I think I would de-subscribe out of principle when hearing this from a channel I was already subbed to.

Also, when people do these reminders because they think the viewing audience is too stupid to remember that subbing is a thing, well... to use a sexual metaphor, I go flaccid.

As for sub notes or vocal asking for subs barely a few minutes into a video, if I'm new to a channel I will often be on the fence and very skeptical of the video, even if I come out of a video liking it. If I'm asked for subs before the video ends, not only does it make me lose immersion in the video if I was immersed, but if I wasn't totally "sold" when that CtA comes up, I will exit out of video.

Really I wish there were more polls conducted to figure out if people like me make up a chunk of the population or if I'm really rare. Knowing how negative the internet often is, I seriously doubt there are only a handful of people who get annoyed by "call to actions".

And the problem with knowing how things turn out is that if your channel is generally growing, and just existing and making more videos makes it grow, de-coupling how effective certain strategies are from the background noise is ridiculously difficult. The best you can do is make annotation links which link to a direct sub to your channel, because then YT at the very least tells you how many people used this to sub to you. It will of course not tell you how many people purposefully decided to not sub due to that. If you have sub requests at certain times in the video I guess you can check audience retention to see if there's a drop, but as we all should know when you do studies you need a "control". Controls on YT aren't a thing. At best you can get statistical relationships but only from massive #s, which a lot of smaller channels don't have.

I dislike Game Grumps (some of their stuff is funny, most of it is godawful, especially nowadays), but they had a while where they would ask for subs during the video - it was even intended to be a recurring joke. Their fans went ****ing crazy about how annoying it was and they canned that pretty fast (they might still ask at the end, but I have no idea if they do or not).

As for audience retention, I just (shudder) checked PDP's videos, a lot of his gameplay videos go over 20 minutes. If that audience can handle it, I'm pretty sure a general audience can handle longer videos.
If a person is actually liking your video, they will come back and finish it if they can't in one sitting. If they like it, more is better. If you're making videos with the intent of having viewers barely like it or be lukewarm to it (why, why would you be doing this?), then you can worry about it being too long. I find it ridiculous to worry about a video being too long because of viewers' "attention spans". It should be a worry if you think you have too much filler. The problem otherwise wouldn't be the length, would it, it would be that people don't want to pay attention to your stuff, which is a whole other problem.

Aaaaaand rant over.

Uncivilized Elk, may I ask how old you are? You have 74 subscribers on a channel that has been around since last November. I have 200+ subscribers on a channel that has been around since end of February.

I also have a Bachelor's degree in sales and marketing and my full time job is in sales. Youtube is my hobby, not my cash cow. So I guess I know a little more than you about persuading others to subscribe.

Now I could be really nasty about your arrogant response but I chose to be nice and educate you. Selling benefits of a feature is a well known and successfully used selling technique. Don't believe me? Google it. In fact, a salesperson at sometime of your life either approached you or your Mommy and Daddy and has used this technique.

 

[babyteeth4]

The thing that does anger an audience is when you're trying to hard sell products and services a lot. If the sales pitch is natural and organic to the conversation that is being held, then they are more accepting to it. People don't want to watch an advertisement video on a channel they subscribe to. That's why they most likely use Ad Block.

Well yeah there are always lines you don't want to cross...but I guess I don't understand all the tip-toeing around just something as basic as asking for a sub. If someone reacts with moral outrage just because I do a call-to-action for a sub, then my channel probably isn't for them...nor would most channels.

 

[wasabiroots]

I do it twice. One in the beginning with an annotation that lasts 3 seconds and at the end my usual black screen with words popping out that lasts around 3-4 seconds. I think asking for subs is better than not asking at all because it lets people know you want it directly if not subconsciously.

But that's me. I still am playing around with the timing tho and have been doing the annotation for only a couple of weeks. So am still seeing how its going. For now, I still get a few subscribers a day after doing this and at the very least 1 subscriber a day.

 

[Uncivilized Elk]

Uncivilized Elk, may I ask how old you are? You have 74 subscribers on a channel that has been around since last November. I have 200+ subscribers on a channel that has been around since end of February.

You also have how many videos relative to me? Didn't even bother with that since it doesn't play well for the narrative or just too lazy? Would also have been an easy way to guesstimate my age if you had bothered (though you'll most likely guess on the low end - hint: I too have a B.S. degree).

In fact, a salesperson at sometime of your life either approached you or your Mommy and Daddy and has used this technique.

And got laughed at and mocked.
Unless your channel is aiming to garner the views of people discovering the internet for the first time in their lives, everybody knows how subscriptions works and there's no use wasting 5 seconds to explain it. It's akin to a car salesman going "On this car you see tires. Tires allow cars to move more efficiently without damage to the car." At least make a better pitch of describing your videos or goals or something, if nothing especially creative.

P.S. I would have had such a hard time guessing YT isn't your cash cow when you have as many as two hundred subs!

 

[Cinnamon Sweet Shoppe]

You also have how many videos relative to me? Didn't even bother with that since it doesn't play well for the narrative or just too lazy? Would also have been an easy way to guesstimate my age if you had bothered (though you'll most likely guess on the low end - hint: I too have a B.S. degree).


And got laughed at and mocked.
Unless your channel is aiming to garner the views of people discovering the internet for the first time in their lives, everybody knows how subscriptions works and there's no use wasting 5 seconds to explain it. It's akin to a car salesman going "On this car you see tires. Tires allow cars to move more efficiently without damage to the car." At least make a better pitch of describing your videos or goals or something, if nothing especially creative.

P.S. I would have had such a hard time guessing YT isn't your cash cow when you have as many as two hundred subs!

If you own a car, appliances, a house, jewelry, or anything of value, then the Benefits of Features sales pitch was used on you! If you went to college, the Benefits of Features sales pitch was used on you! You don't have a degree or any experience in sales and marketing or you wouldn't even be arguing this point.

And no, it's not akin to a used car salesman. All sales people use Benefits of Features sales pitch. You obviously don't know what you're talking about and I have no time to argue with a you, a pretend sales and marketing genius.

 

[Entityofsin]

I am just going to throw this out there.

If you've purchased anything in your entire life, you've had a sales pitch made to you whether you were spoken to or not by someone. That sales pitch can be in the form of branding of whatever was purchased.

Maybe it's a very business-like approach but it works. That's the kind of industry content creation is.

I also do this every day at my job in the restaurant I work at by making suggestions through asking the question if a customer would like to have a drink, chips, or cookies with their sandwich or even plant the suggestion to continue doing further business at the location by saving them as much money as I can within my job's limitations. It's called suggestive marketing and selling. These things are an actual thing even on YouTube.

None of this stuff is insulting to the customer of a business or a viewer on YouTube. It's normal. It isn't something that the creator has to do and that's the wonderful beauty of being a content creator. You make the content you want to make and how you want to make it. Simply as that.