Making videos is fun. But what isn’t fun is figuring out WHAT to talk about. And the longer that you’ve been creating, the less fun this can be. Well, today we are going to put the fun back into ideation.
Creator Spotlight
But first, I want to introduce you to Amber Hollingsworth. She is a therapist who uses her channel to help loved ones of addicts through the struggle of not having good information to lean on. She ended her first year on YouTube with 100 subs and had incredibly slow growth even after that. After working with us, she is figuring things out how to use storytelling and community strategy to serve her audience better and see consistent growth.
Ideation Strategy
Every YouTube channel starts with a passion. But, eventually creators get to the point where they don’t know what to do next. Sometimes certain content hits, so creators feel like they have continue to produce the same kind of videos. Give the people what they want! Right? But, if you want to be able to really succeed at YouTube, you must have a strategy that you are driving and that you are passionate about.
First, look at your audience. Who exactly are you talking to? As creators we can feel like we are just throwing ideas out into the void and sometimes the algorithm likes them and sometimes it doesn’t. But, you must treat your audience like real people. Think about your channel and how you are helping individual people with each video. This can give you a lot of clarity about what you create.
After that, do a brain dump. Just throw out as many video ideas as you possibly can that would serve your audience. Don’t worry if it’s a good idea. Just throw it down. Then, whittle it down to the 1, 2 or 3 best ideas out there and work on those. The goal is to just make the best quality videos you can that will help the most people. Don’t waste your time making a million videos just because you feel like you need to make another one. Instead, spend your time making better quality content. Your performance will be better and you will save yourself so much time. Also, by creating less you are going to feel like you are less burnt out and start to get that passion back.
So how do you get that right idea??
Think through your value proposition and create some topic buckets that fall under that value. Maybe you have one bucket that is more trendy – something that is relevant about current events or a current trend on YouTube. These might not last the test of time, but the may draw in some new viewers. Then, you can think through more evergreen content. These are going to let YouTube just do the work for you and let the content continue to serve creators.
Look back through your content and see what went the farthest. What topics hit the best? Are you still passionate about these topics? Do they still serve your current audience? Would it be fun for you to make updated videos on these same topics with all the new storytelling skills, editing style, and other skills you have acquired since making them? If one of these videos are still really serving your audience, can you make a part two?
Now, we aren’t saying just do this forever. Experiment! Have fun. Try something new! You aren’t going to break your channel. Even if you try something and don’t get the results you want, step back and ask yourself what was the lesson that I learned here? The more you make minor tweaks to your content, the closer you will get to the place that you are trying to get to. You NEED to look deeper than just views. Are you connecting more with your audience? (Getting better quality comments) Are you getting higher impressions and therefore reaching a broader audience? There are a lot of wins that are not connected to your view count. Don’t forget about those.
Analyze your Competition
If you have an idea, do a quick YT search and see if there’s a similar video out there on the same topic. Look for videos with lower subs and higher view count. That will show that their video was discoverable for them. Learn from them. What do you notice about their thumbnail? How is their title structured? Watch the video. What do you notice about the first and last 15 seconds? Grab some new ideas and see how you can be inspired to twist it to serve your audience. And you can be inspired by a completely different niche as well! So go watch some YouTube!
Balancing what’s important with Analytics
There are so many good tools in the backend of YouTube. Our team looooves to talk about those tools and how to make data-driven decisions with your analytics. But there has to be balance. You can’t be buried so deep that you lose your passion and replace it with stress. Knowing your intent with each video will help you know how your videos succeeded.
Look at your retention graphs. But look at the big picture. If you are sharing a personal story, you may have a bit of a loss at first, but does it then result in a flat part of the graph? Are the people that stay in sucked in? That’s a win. But be honest with yourself too. Rewatch an older video. See the parts that were skipped. If you wouldn’t sit through your branded spot or your call to actions, why would your audience?
But remember: The ultimate goal is to have fun. So get back to your passion. Passion will always connect.
Power Tip
One of our pet peeves is the ranking “X out of 10” that you see in YouTube Studio. It can be such a source of anxiety! YouTube is running an experiment on Studio Mobile. You can click a little down arrow right next to the ranking and it will actually collapse. Finally, it won’t throw it right in your face if you don’t want it to. We love any changes they make that look out for creator health. So if this is a source of anxiety for you, just collapse that baby and it will be closed when you login next time. (Let’s hope it moves to desktop soon.) Until then…
Keep changing lives!
Tim Schmoyer