How are you doing? It’s getting close to back to school time and I know a lot of you parents may feel overwhelmed. My wife and I actually chose to homeschool our kids long before there was a global pandemic (and we have seven of them). 😉
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If you’re new to homeschooling this year, you got this! Like many things, the more you do it, the easier it gets.
I think the main struggles are getting used to an unfamiliar weekly rhythm and addressing the holes it exposes in our parenting skills. The reward that comes from spending more time together and deepening relationships with our children is absolutely worth it.
Did you know that YouTube works pretty much the same way?
When you expose the holes in your YouTube strategy, you’re able to get better as a creator and strengthen your relationship with your audience.
This week, my team and I hung out to talk about the growth strategies that have earned our favorite channels several million subscribers. I’d recommend listening to the full podcast to get all the good stuff. But if you’re short on time, here are some things they did that allowed them to grow to their channel to multi-million subscribers.
- They rarely try to create “high ranking” videos. YouTube IS the second largest search engine in the world and there is tons of search traffic, but 70% of watchtime across the ENTIRE platform is driven by suggested videos, not search.
- They ARE thinking about titles and thumbnails. I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again… titles and thumbnails are EVERYTHING (aside from good content). Your title and thumbnail needs to set an expectation for your target audience. The multimillion subscriber channels that we work with make it a point to entice their audience to NEED to click on it (we share some practical examples in the podcast episode), but you need to create tension in the brain for your viewer and give them a reason not to click away.
- They build tension in their hook. Once your viewer is compelled to click on one of your videos, don’t make it easy for them to click away. For example, if you’re making a video about making a PB&J sandwich, you starting with “today, I’m going to teach you how to make a PB&J sandwich” relieves all the tension in the viewer’s mind and that’s when we see drop off happen. Instead, adding B-Roll and storytelling can actually increase the tension in the video and make the viewer want to watch even more. (You don’t want to wait to deliver the value/reason they clicked TOO long, though, or you’ll lose trust with your viewer.)
- They deliver value and make good videos. Each video you post performs independently from the rest of your channel. The algorithm isn’t working against you. There are no participation trophy. If your content is good (better than all the other content out there), your video WILL perform well. If it’s not performing the way you want to, it doesn’t mean it never will, but blaming the algorithm isn’t going to get you anywhere… especially not to where you want to go. Be willing to be a humble human. Learn and get better. It takes time to hone your skill, especially if video is new to you (or talking in front of a camera, storytelling, etc.)
Do any of these resonate with you? What area do you feel like you need to work on to grow on YouTube?
Let me know.
Thanks for reading!
Keep changing lives,
Tim
Channels mentioned:
– Pro Home Cooks: https://www.youtube.com/user/BrothersGreenEats
– Seth’s Bike Hacks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu8YylsPiu9XfaQC74Hr_Gw
– Mark Rober: https://www.youtube.com/user/onemeeeliondollars
Register today for, “30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel,” here: https://videocreators.com/30-days-to-a-better-youtube-channel/
CREATOR SPOTLIGHT: Ingrid worked on her channel for years and slowly grew to 5,000 subscribers, but after going through, “30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel,” she removed some of the barriers to her growth and quickly grew to 35,000 subscribers. Today she shares with us what the main thing was that she had to change on her channel in order to grow.
Check out Ingrid’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/IngridBlackburn