What Sophie Did Differently to Grow FAST With a Small Channel | Ep. 51

How to grow a small YouTube channel fast?

In this video, fertility coach Sophie Byfield shares the strategies she used to grow her channel from 600 to 1,000 subscribers after joining Video Brand Academy.

Sophie dropped so many golden nuggets in this episode (especially the whole “niche within a niche” thing!!)

Learn Sophie’s “secret weapons” for consistent weekly video publishing, even as a busy entrepreneur and new mom.

Discover how to build an effective video content strategy by focusing on your top-performing topics. Get tips for outsourcing video editing to save time and stay consistent. Plus, find out how to leverage your TikTok audience to drive more views and subscribers on YouTube.

If you’re struggling to grow your small YouTube channel, this video has the proven tactics you need to see fast results. Implement Sophie’s methods and take your channel to 1,000 subscribers!

What Sophie Did Differently to Grow FAST With a Small Channel | Ep. 51

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Setting Goals and Staying Consistent

How to grow a small YouTube channel fast? When Sophie first started her YouTube channel, she didn’t set a specific goal for reaching 1,000 subscribers. Instead, her main focus was on consistency. She committed to publishing one long-form video every week, which drops every Tuesday morning. This consistency has been key to her growth and has helped her build a loyal audience.

After joining Video Brand Academy and implementing the strategies she learned, Sophie gained another 400 subscribers in just one month, reaching her 1,000 subscriber milestone by April.

Even more impressive? Her viewership numbers skyrocketed after hitting 1,000 subscribers, jumping from 2,000 to nearly 3,000 views in just four weeks.

While she initially struggled with slow growth, Sophie knew she needed to find a way to accelerate her progress. That’s when she decided to join the Video Brand Academy, which provided her with valuable insights and strategies to boost her channel’s performance.

Related: How to Grow on YouTube when you have 0 Subscribers | Ep. 36

The Power of Niche Within a Niche

One of the most important lessons Sophie learned on how to grow a small YouTube channel fast was the power of focusing on a niche within a niche. For her, this meant combining fertility and nutrition. Her most popular video topic has been fertility nutrition, which blends two highly sought-after subjects.

As a fertility coach, Sophie’s expertise revolves around helping women overcome obstacles to conception. Her YouTube content focuses on unlocking the missing pieces to fertility—whether that’s nutrition, mindset, or lifestyle changes. However, Sophie soon realized that to truly stand out in a competitive space, she needed to narrow her focus even further.

This led to her creating content around a very specific niche within the broader fertility space: fertility nutrition. Not only was this a unique blend of two high-demand topics—infertility and nutrition—but it also allowed Sophie to target a specific audience, ultimately leading to higher engagement and more subscribers.

By identifying this winning combination, she was able to create a series of videos that resonated with her audience and drove significant growth. This approach not only helped her gain subscribers but also increased her overall viewership.

Related: YouTube Growth Strategies for New Channels (under 1000 Subscribers) | Ep. 17

The Spiderweb Strategy

What was the game-changer for Sophie’s channel growth? Something I call the “spider web strategy.” A technique Sophie learned from the Video Brand Academy. This approach involves taking your most popular video and building out related content from there.

Here’s how it works:

1. Identify your most popular video topic (for Sophie, this was fertility nutrition)
2. Create additional videos that expand on different aspects of that popular topic
3. Link these videos together by referencing your other related content

By building this content web around her most successful topic, Sophie created a viewing pathway that kept viewers watching longer and subscribing more often. This strategy has been incredibly effective in keeping viewers engaged and encouraging them to watch more of her content. As a result, her viewership has skyrocketed since implementing this approach.

“Every single video, I point to another fertility nutrition video. So they keep watching longer and longer,” Sophie explained. This strategic approach not only increased her subscriber count but also dramatically boosted her overall viewership.

Streamlining the Content Creation Process

As a business owner and new mother, time management is crucial for Sophie. To maintain consistency with her weekly uploads, she had to find ways to streamline her content creation process. Here’s how she does it:

1. Outsourcing Video Editing

Sophie’s background as a video editor gave her a distinct advantage when it came to training her editor. One of the most significant time-savers has been outsourcing her video editing. Sophie found a virtual assistant who matches her style and understands her vision.

Here’s how she trained her:

  1. Provide both rough cut and final edited versions of a video so your editor can see the transformation
  2. Have them try editing a rough cut on their own
  3. Provide feedback and gradually refine the process
  4. Give clear guidelines and examples of your style
  5. They went through a process of feedback and adjustments until the VA understood her preferences.

While it requires some back-and-forth at the beginning, this investment pays off as your editor learns your preferences and style.

For Sophie, this process has been incredibly effective. She’s able to record her videos, send them off for editing, and trust that the final product aligns with her vision. Plus, with the flexibility of working with an editor, Sophie can stay ahead of her content schedule, ensuring that she always has videos ready to publish.

Now, Sophie can focus on planning and recording content while her assistant handles the editing, which has been a game-changer for her productivity.

2. Efficient Recording Process

To make the most of her recording time, Sophie follows these steps:

– She creates a rough outline with bullet points for each video.

– She aims to keep her raw footage to about 22 minutes for a 10-minute final video.

– Before recording, she listens to a “hype-up” song to get into the right mindset.

– She has a checklist of technical aspects to verify before hitting record (e.g., mic placement, camera settings).

Leveraging Other Platforms

While YouTube has been Sophie’s primary focus, she’s also found ways to use other platforms to support her channel growth:

TikTok Integration

With 40,000 followers on TikTok, Sophie has created a smart cross-platform strategy that fuels her YouTube growth. Sophie hosts a weekly live “Ask Me Anything” session on TikTok every Friday. This has been a great source of content ideas for her YouTube channel. When she sees questions repeated multiple times, she creates a long-form YouTube video addressing the topic in-depth.

To drive traffic from TikTok to YouTube, she:

– Mentions her YouTube channel during TikTok lives.

– Places her YouTube link as the first button in her TikTok bio.

– Creates TikTok content that teases more in-depth information available on her YouTube channel.

When she notices questions that come up repeatedly in these sessions, she creates in-depth YouTube videos addressing those topics.

Email Marketing

Sophie sends a newsletter to her email list every Tuesday, announcing her latest YouTube video. This helps drive views and engagement from her existing audience.

Turning YouTube Success Into Business Growth

While reaching monetization milestones on YouTube is exciting, Sophie’s primary focus has been on using the platform to grow her business. Here’s how she’s integrated YouTube into her business model:

1. Offering freebies: She creates downloadable resources mentioned in her videos, encouraging viewers to join her email list.

2. Promoting her automated webinar: She directs viewers to a webinar where they can learn more about her services.

3. Mentioning her paid community: Throughout her videos, she references her “Heal to Conceive” tribe, a paid membership community where she dives deeper into fertility topics.

By using YouTube as a trust-building platform, Sophie has been able to attract clients and grow her business organically.

Advice for New YouTubers on How to grow a small YouTube channel fast

Based on her experience, Sophie offers these top pieces of advice for those just starting their YouTube journey or feeling stuck:

1. Don’t give up: Consistency is key. Keep creating content and refining your approach.

2. Utilize shorts: Incorporate YouTube Shorts into your strategy to drive more traffic to your channel.

3. Be authentic: The videos where she speaks from the heart and shows up as her true self perform the best.

Remember, growing a YouTube channel takes time and effort, but with the right strategies and persistence, you can achieve your goals. Sophie is proof that it’s possible to go from zero to 1,000 subscribers in just nine months, and she’s excited to see where her channel goes from here.

Conclusion: Start Your YouTube Journey Today

Sophie’s journey to 1,000 subscribers is a testament to the power of consistency, strategic planning, and leveraging available resources. Whether you’re a fertility coach or in another niche, the key to YouTube growth is staying focused, creating valuable content, and building a system that works for you.

If you’re ready to take your YouTube channel to the next level, start by implementing some of these strategies today. Stay consistent, find your niche, and build your spiderweb of content. You might just see your subscriber count skyrocket too!

If you want to get some of the same strategies that she’s been using like the spiderweb strategy, for example, you can find it inside of Video Brand Academy along with a ton of other growth strategies beyond just doing basic keyword research.

Related: Consistent Sales of Your Online Course with YouTube

If you have an online business with a course, program, or any other kind of offer, and you’re not currently generating consistent sales on autopilot, I’d like to introduce you to the hands-off YouTube funnel that has made me over $20k on a $147 course! That way, you too can make consistent sales of your offer, with the beauty and simplicity of organic, evergreen traffic from YouTube! Start here with my free “AIT Method” training.