Wake Up YouTube Subscribers!

Something I've been wondering about lately is the relationship between the number of YouTube subscribers to the number of views for every video released. I realize that views happen based on many factors (consistency, interaction, interest, etc.), but I am ultimately confused by this disparity. How can a channel have a decent number of subscribers and a much lower view count? Where are those subscribers every time I release a video?

I've noticed that other channels have similar view counts with far fewer subscribers. Lately I've been getting around 5,000 views despite 75,000 subscribers, which is 6% of views/subs. Lame. Other channels seem to easily match or exceed views per video despite their lower subscriber total.

Part of the reason the channel's taken a hit (I believe) is that I stopped posting regular videos late last year when I was heavily involved in the production of my thesis project. My content became inconsistent and I moved away from DIY material and instead posted videos related to my film production. This was all I could really do under the circumstances, but I know my channel and blog lost momentum and my numbers dropped as a result.

The subscribers are still there. I just need to let them know that so am I. One of the great features YouTube offers is the option for subscribers to select email alerts for new uploads. This feature is not the default, however, and must be selected manually. Simple, right? Just send a mass email to all of your subs and ask them to turn on email alerts and your views should go way up. Well, YouTube doesn't let you mass email your subs (I guess that is considered spamming). Now what? How do I "wake up" these untapped and potentially interested viewers?

One idea I am trying out is to use the "branding" feature found in InVideo programming. This is found under Creator Studio/Channel/InVideo Programming and offers you the option to "Add a branding intro" which is meant to add a short intro to some or all of your videos. When you click on this you are allowed to select only those videos you have uploaded that are three seconds or less.

It's not much time for anything, but it is something and you can effortlessly add this intro to every video in your upload library. I then created a brief message with screen capture information on how to turn on the email alert. It has been the only way I know of to contact anyone watching your videos.

Sadly, despite all of YouTube's wonderful analytics, there is no way to tell how many of your subscribers have email alerts turned on. All I have to go on is if my number of views increase the next time I release a video. It's not very good way to measure if my efforts are paying off or not. We'll have to see what happens in the long run. Right now, I'm relying on a three-second wake up call.