[bonoboTP]

What I had in mind was for example popularizing one's research as a scientist, or spreading your thoughts about your industry. In these cases it can be much more important to reach some people in your small niche, as opposed to a mass of a generic audience. Applying the same growth hacks as generic Youtubers may not be fitting in one's specific use case. Perhaps you could clickbaitify your content, and increase the raw numbers (makes sense in case of an ad-driven Youtuber) but if you're hoping for high quality feedback or getting to know other interesting people, you may better spend your time on catering to your special audience even when it's small. And instead of promoting it left and right, target it specifically through niche channels, like email contacts, etc.

This may seem obvious, but sometimes people can get caught up in cargo-culting the established trendy marketing strategies that are actually designed for another use case than yours.