In my recent video where I share why the Video Creator’s channel took a break from posting content, I share that we’ve made the transition to serving established creators.

We left this term broad because there isn’t a subscriber or revenue requirement to work with us. We are still happy to work with new creators, but the pain point we kept hearing from our audience is… “Hey Tim and team, I know where to put a custom thumbnail. I know what a title and description is. I need more than the basics, tips, tricks, and hacks. What’s next for me and my channel?”

So, we’re here to help those more established creators, whether you have a large audience or you’ve just been at YouTube for a while now and you’re feeling stuck, we’ve got you!

One of the questions we get commonly from established creators is…

“Hey, Video Creators team! I have some videos blow up and some tank. What gives? How do I grow consistently?”

And we get it. YouTube is hard and growth is important.

If you are growing consistently, that means you actually get to create and do what you’re passionate about as your job (in some capacity or another), you get more opportunities professionally and personally, and you can keep doing what you love to do!

So, we’re here to share a couple things that’ll help you keep growing consistently on YouTube, even as an established creator. Here are some things to think about if you’re not growing very consistently.

  1. Determine the title and thumbnail before you hit record. It’s not uncommon for established creators to sit down for title and thumbnail brainstorm sessions and if they can’t craft a good title and thumbnail, they won’t film the video. You want to create intrigue, curiosity, or tension when creating these for new viewers. (Oh, and enough with the keywords. Craft a title that’s interesting and that a human would click on.)
  2. Make sure your title and thumbnail connect to the opening seconds of the video. New viewers will usually click on your videos because something intrigued them about your title/thumbnail. If you wait 1 minute and a half to get to the point… they’re gone. You’ve got to get to it relatively quickly if you want to hold a new viewer’s attention.
  3. Consistently target the same audience with the same value proposition. If you’re consistently targeting the same audience, you will often make similar pieces of content or say a lot of the same things (that’s good because it means you’re being consistent!) This leaves some creators feel like they’re in a rut, but this is actually a good thing because when someone subscribes to you because they liked one of your videos, but then you’re making all different kinds of videos… it’s hard to grow that way and you’re likely to lose subscribers. You can still grow by making lots of different types of content (and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing when starting so you can figure what you ENJOY making and what your audience enjoys seeing), but if you want that consistent upward growth, you need to be consistent with your content.
  4. Implement primal branding. Getting your viewer to help you FEEL something about your brand will help you win on YouTube faster. There are lots of channels that are similar, but they continue to grow because new creators are bringing their personality and their unique-ness to be different in their niche. We recommend reading a book called Primal Branding by Patrick Hanlon to teach you exactly what the elements are that helps people fall in love with brands like Disney, Apple, etc.
  5. Use a simple storytelling structure to guide your content. So many creators think we’re telling them they need to do a skit or sit down and read a storybook to incorporate story in their content. That’s not what we’re saying and this applies to EVERY niche. Good storytelling matters and it takes time to develop as a skill. Here are some guiding questions that every piece of content of yours should answer: Who is the character? What do they want? Why can’t they have what they want? What’s at stake if they don’t get what they want? Who/what comes along to help the character do what they couldn’t do what they couldn’t do before? How does the character get what they wanted? How is the character transformed by the process? Listen to the full podcast to hear some practical examples of what this looks like.
  6. Is it time to re-invent yourself? No musician, TV show, etc. stays the same. They are constantly evolving. They still have those primal branding elements that make them “them”, but a good director, musician, filmmaker, etc. is always working on their craft. If you’re struggling to grow when what you’re doing used to work, your audience may just be tired of your content, the format it’s in, etc. There’s a reason even the best of shows don’t go longer than 7ish seasons (and even that is rare or viewers don’t love the later seasons).
  7. Connect what’s unknown to what’s known. YOU are unknown to a new viewer, so how do you connect yourself with something that IS known? What value can you provide to your audience? We feature a channel in this podcast episode that did this really well for some practical examples on how to do this.​

I hope taking action on some of these things can help you get out of your growth rut. If you’re still feeling stuck, my team and I would love to work with you. Sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes on your channel to help you figure out what’s going on. You can book a session with us here.

Thanks for reading! Have an awesome week.

Keep changing lives,

Tim