How to Get Your First 1000 YouTube Subscribers

Learn how to grow your subscription box business on YouTube. Start your journey to 1000 subscribers and beyond when you create engaging content, leverage your existing audience, optimize your channel for searchability, and maintain consistency.

Audience building means finding ideal customers for your subscription box business where they are and inviting them into your world. 

I’ve spent years building audiences for my retail business and my coaching business. Facebook and Instagram have been my social media platform go-tos. And they’ve worked. But last summer I realized it was time to add another platform. Another place to find new audience members. I decided to start a YouTube channel. 

YouTube is different. It has the characteristics of both a search engine and a social media platform. Millions of people turn to YouTube to search for video content every day. Videos to answer a question or solve a problem or simply entertain. YouTube is also a place where you can be social, engaging with creators and other users in the comments. 

YouTube is powerful. If you produce good quality content, it’s a great way for your ideal customers to discover you - and your subscription box. 

I wanted to grow my audience for my coaching business. And I realized YouTube was the perfect way to do it. After all, I could serve my audience with short and long videos and even go LIVE. I had years of experience telling me that connecting with my ideal customer through video and especially LIVE was the best way to bring them into my world. 

Since YouTube was a new platform for me, it took a little time to learn what it wanted and what I needed to do to grow my audience. My first goal was to reach 1,000 subscribers. I met that goal and have continued to grow. 

Keep reading to learn whether a YouTube channel is right for your subscription box business and what you can do to get your first 1,000 subscribers. 

Why should you consider adding YouTube?    

Facebook and Instagram outages. Facebook accounts being hacked - more and more all of the time. Decreased reach and increased ad costs.  

It just makes sense to get your content on another platform. Why should you consider YouTube? 

• Putting all your content in one basket leaves you vulnerable. 
• There are different audiences on different platforms. Adding another platform means getting in front of more of your ideal customers. 
• Adding another platform, like YouTube, gives you flexibility in advertising. If Facebook Ads aren’t working - like they haven’t been for so many business owners lately - you have another platform to advertise on. 
• Adding YouTube is a solid SEO strategy, making your content even more searchable. 
• Content on YouTube lives for so much longer than on Facebook or Instagram. Video access, searchability, and ease of use all add up to increased longevity of your content. 

Create content on YouTube for your subscription box audience.       

If you send people to your new platform, you need to have something ready for them when they arrive! That means creating content before you “launch” your new channel. 

Don’t worry. This isn’t going to be difficult or take a ton of time. Work smarter not harder and remember the power of repurposing content. 

Create content on your YouTube channel by: 

• Streaming current content to your new YouTube channel. I do this with my Monday Momentums. I used to only stream into my public Facebook group and my coaching memberships, but now I also stream LIVE onto my YouTube channel!  
• Upload past content to your new YouTube channel. This can be past LIVEs, podcast episodes, reels, and more. 
• Create new and exclusive content just for YouTube. Remember, a YouTube audience is different from a Facebook or Instagram or TikTok audience. Create content specifically to appeal to your (future) YouTube subscribers. 

Leverage your existing audience to gain YouTube subscribers.  

Members of your audience - especially those highly engaged members of your audience - will be excited to follow you over to a new platform.

Others will need an incentive to subscribe to your new YouTube channel. Run a YouTube contest to drive your existing audience over to subscribe.  

• Giveaway something juicy - something they’ll see as valuable. Give them a reason to follow you there. 
• Email your list - drive the contest with emails whose call to action is to join the contest by subscribing to your new YouTube channel. 
• Post on socials - talk about your contest and your exciting new platform. Sharing your excitement will get your audience excited. 

When I was pushing to reach 1,000 subscribers, I ran a contest. If someone subscribed, liked a video, and left a comment, they were entered into a drawing. Three lucky winners received a copy of my book, One Box at a Time, a Launch Your Box t-shirt and other Launch Your Box SWAG. The contest was just the boost my YouTube channel needed and it got me to 1,000 subscribers and beyond. 

Optimize your YouTube channel to attract new subscribers. 

You’ve created content for your YouTube channel and leveraged your existing audience to gain subscribers. Now it’s time to go after that new audience. 

People who are on YouTube are looking for a specific type of content. YouTube as a platform works for you when you optimize your content to increase its searchability. YouTube is a search engine. 

Make it easy to be found by: 

• Continuing to create great content, focusing on what drives consumption on YouTube. 
• Creating a clear channel description and a visually appealing banner & profile picture. 
• Organizing your videos and playlists. 
• Using relevant keywords in your video descriptions and video titles.  

Put work into YouTube to put it to work for your business. 

Just like any other marketing channel, you have to be consistent for it to be effective. For YouTube, this means publishing regular content, sharing YouTube content regularly off of YouTube, and actively engaging with subscribers. 

When you add a YouTube channel to your marketing strategy, you can’t just “set it and forget it.” You have to actively work at growing your channel… just like any other social media platform. But, if you build it into your routine and follow these tips and strategies, you’ll have 1,000 subscribers in no time!