A clear content strategy aligned with business goals is crucial for growing a YouTube audience.
Keyword research helps understand audience needs and optimize videos for discovery.
Crafting attention-grabbing titles and thumbnails, while delivering on promises, improves click-through rates and viewer engagement.
Deep dives
Importance of Focusing on the Right Things for YouTube Growth
Growing a successful YouTube channel requires focusing on the right things. Many creators make the mistake of focusing on the wrong metrics, such as views and subscribers, instead of delivering value to their audience. Justin Brown from Primal Video emphasizes the need for a clear strategy that aligns with your business goals. This involves understanding your target audience, conducting ideation research to create valuable content, and optimizing your title and thumbnail to get clicks. Once viewers are engaged, it's crucial to keep them watching by delivering on the promise of the title and thumbnail and providing valuable content throughout the video.
Using Ideation Research to Drive YouTube Content
Keyword research, or ideation research as Justin terms it, is essential for shaping your content strategy. It's important to consider your audience, their language, and their journey while brainstorming video topics and optimizing for search. Identifying the demand and supply of specific topics helps you understand what people are searching for and whether there is a lot of competition. By focusing on creating valuable content that meets the needs of your target audience, you can increase the chances of your videos being discovered and creating impact.
Key Elements in Getting Clicks on YouTube
Getting viewers to click on your video requires attention to detail in your title and thumbnail. Justin suggests experimenting with different visual elements, such as colors, text, or graphics, and observing how they impact click-through rates. Crafting titles and thumbnails that spark curiosity or create intrigue can entice viewers to click on your content. Additionally, providing a clear preview of what viewers can expect within the video helps set expectations and keeps them engaged.
Keeping Viewers Engaged Throughout the Video
Once viewers have clicked on your video, it's crucial to keep them watching. Justin highlights the importance of addressing viewer anxiety and reassuring them that they are in the right place with valuable content. Through strategic storytelling and avoiding generic introductions, creators can ensure that viewers stay engaged. Experimenting with video structure, such as using top X lists or revealing answers upfront, can also improve watch time and provide value to viewers.
The Value of Prioritizing Audience Needs over Subscriber Count
Rather than solely focusing on the number of subscribers, Justin emphasizes the importance of delivering value to the audience. He suggests concentrating on business goals, understanding viewers' pain points, and creating content that resonates with them. Growing a dedicated audience that actively engages with your content can lead to long-term success, regardless of subscriber count. By continually providing value and meeting viewers' needs, creators can build a strong, lasting connection with their audience.
The YouTube hamster wheel has gotten the best of many of us (myself included.) We want to grow, get more views, get more subs, make more money, etc. But, it all comes at a price. And many people never get there because they focus on the wrong things. A couple weeks ago, I was able to sit down with Justin Brown from Primal Video and talk about just this.
During our interview, Justin broke it all down into 3 things to focus on in order to help you grow a massive YouTube audience for your business, without sacrificing everything you love in the process.
