So I got to thinking thanks to another question of "how do I get more people to subscribe" and it made me think back to when I was a consumer of content only, long before I decided to start a channel, and I asked myself "why did I subscribe to people?"
The answer was always that I wanted to be reminded of when someone released new videos. Essentially all that "subscribe" is, is "remind me"
For the creator, it's a vanity flex to make you feel good that you've achieved a goal, a number... but for your audience, at the end of the day, all the "subscribe" button is, is a reminder. It reminds your audience when you next post your video, it does nothing more than that. If someone random sees your video being suggested, or even if your video comes up as a result from a search, they don't see your subscriber number, and THEN as an audience member, the only reason they'd subscribe is if they enjoyed your content so much, that they want to watch another 10 videos into the future... BUT they don't actually have to hit subscribe to do that. There's some channels that I don't have to be subscribed to if I want to see their content, but if I were to subscribe, all that does for me is it adds their future videos in my subscriber feed in among ALL the other channels I've done the same for, so other than a brief email of mobile notification (if they've even decided to opt in for that up) the only time that subscribe reminder benefits your audience, is if they happen to check their subscription feed, and you just happen to have a video in there at the time they're checking... so even IF someone has subscribed to you... you're STILL competing for time among the other channels that your audience is subscribed to as well.
If someone sees that I've uploaded at the same time as Jazza and Drawfee, and my audience is subscribed to all of them... they might just choose to watch those other channels instead. If they are that interested, they might come back to my channel later if they even want to or remember to.
So keep that in mind. "Subscribe" essentially is just a reminder, a reminder for your audience to come back next time if they feel like it, that's all. So if you really want them to hit subscribe, give them a good compelling reason why they should remember to come back.
The answer was always that I wanted to be reminded of when someone released new videos. Essentially all that "subscribe" is, is "remind me"
For the creator, it's a vanity flex to make you feel good that you've achieved a goal, a number... but for your audience, at the end of the day, all the "subscribe" button is, is a reminder. It reminds your audience when you next post your video, it does nothing more than that. If someone random sees your video being suggested, or even if your video comes up as a result from a search, they don't see your subscriber number, and THEN as an audience member, the only reason they'd subscribe is if they enjoyed your content so much, that they want to watch another 10 videos into the future... BUT they don't actually have to hit subscribe to do that. There's some channels that I don't have to be subscribed to if I want to see their content, but if I were to subscribe, all that does for me is it adds their future videos in my subscriber feed in among ALL the other channels I've done the same for, so other than a brief email of mobile notification (if they've even decided to opt in for that up) the only time that subscribe reminder benefits your audience, is if they happen to check their subscription feed, and you just happen to have a video in there at the time they're checking... so even IF someone has subscribed to you... you're STILL competing for time among the other channels that your audience is subscribed to as well.
If someone sees that I've uploaded at the same time as Jazza and Drawfee, and my audience is subscribed to all of them... they might just choose to watch those other channels instead. If they are that interested, they might come back to my channel later if they even want to or remember to.
So keep that in mind. "Subscribe" essentially is just a reminder, a reminder for your audience to come back next time if they feel like it, that's all. So if you really want them to hit subscribe, give them a good compelling reason why they should remember to come back.
