All you’ve got to do is… ask

Why has it taken me this long?

Let me show you something.

The above graph charts the daily influx of new subscribers to the Mark Ellis Reviews YouTube channel, over the last 28 days. On the ‘worst’ day, 140 people clicked the subscribe button. The best day resulted in 1,107 new subscribers. In a single day.

In the last 28 days, we’ve gained more than 8,800 new followers of the channel. If the trend continues, there’s a good chance we’ll hit 10,000 new subscribers in less than a month.

I’ve never seen anything like this before.

How have we done this? It’s the simplest and most obvious tactic ever, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to realise how powerful it is.

But, there’s a catch. Because of course, there is.

While watching Rick Beato - one of my favourite YouTubers - do his thing, I realised that most of his recent videos featured a cut away to a pre-recorded request for people to hit the subscribe button. It was the same piece of footage every time - Rick sat in his studio, politely explaining that 87% of the people who watch his channel haven’t hit that button yet. He explained that if you would be so kind as to hit it, it’d help him out.

The same piece of footage. The same request. In every video.

This is a guy with millions of very loyal subscribers. If he can do it and avoid pissing too many of them off, I thought, why can’t little ol’ me?

I’ve never been keen on asking for subscribers. Like so many new YouTubers, I spent far too long asking for people to subscribe during my first batch of videos. I didn’t do it at the end of the video, either - I hit them with it during the intro. Bang - I’ve got you. Now, hit that subscribe button. Come on, you know you want to!

It’s such a presumptive move. Why on earth should someone hit the subscribe button when they’ve only just discovered you? You may not be their cup of tea at all. You’ve done absolutely nothing but draw them in with a title and thumbnail. The video might be shit. You need to earn their trust before they add you to their no-doubt weighty list of existing channel subscriptions.

Rick’s approach was different. It wasn’t speaking to new viewers - it was targeting people who had been watching the channel for some time but who simply hadn’t hit the button. I’ve been guilty of this; there have been numerous channels I’ve watched regularly without ever hitting the subscribe button. It’s like turning up to the same busker’s performance every weekend and never thinking to give him a thumbs up, let alone chuck a couple of quid into his guitar case.

So, I tried it. You can see the first effort here. To date, that video has brought in 884 subscribers. It’s a high-performing video, views-wise, but it would probably have brought in half that (maybe less) if I hadn’t placed the request for subscribers within the first third of the video. Every video we’ve published since that features the subscriber request has at least doubled the number of subscribers it has attracted. This strategy works. Big time.

A word of warning. I’m still a little cautious about begging for subs on YouTube. This method, where I’m reminding people who like the channel to do something which has simply slipped their mind, is gentle, unobtrusive, and fair. On the latter, it’s also important to add the reason you’re asking for people to click that button. In Rick’s case, it was because the bigger his overall subscriber number gets, the more impressive the guests he can attract for interviews. For us, that number is directly linked to opportunities with brands; press briefings and early product access are the lifeblood of what I do. The more I can demonstrate how big my audience is, the more chance I have of putting the most interesting tech in front of the people who follow me, as fast as possible.

And, yes, it’ll attract more sponsors, obviously. Without those guys, there is no channel.

However, this gentle approach hasn’t stopped the odd viewer from telling me to stop “going on” about how many people don’t subscribe to the channel. Those people have been few and far between, but their presence is a timely warning; I do wonder how long I can do this before it starts to grate on a larger proportion of the audience. I feel there’s probably a limit to people’s patience with the same request for subscribers, and that non-subscribed percentage is always going to be high.

If you’re wondering, mine is the same as Rick’s - 87%. If nothing else, that reveals just how hard it is these days to gain new subscribers on YouTube, no matter how big your channel is. For now, though, we’re making hay while the sun shines.