4 Ways to Be More Intentional With Your Youtube Video Strategy
Using YouTube as a dumping ground for your business videos isn’t going to help you actually grow your business. Period.
Just like with Facebook ads, Instagram posts, and TikToks, you’ve got to be intentional and work out a strategy for making sure you stay consistent. You need a strategy if you want to see the hard work you’re putting into YouTube pay off.
Skeptical? I understand. I would be, too, if you’ve been burned by all the work you’ve already put into YouTube or other platforms. But I know it works because my ENTIRE business was built from my YouTube channel. And while it has a “small-ish” subscriber base, we made just under half a million dollars in 2021 — giving you proof that you don’t need a large following to make YouTube your biggest lead generator.
If you’re ready to make that work pay off, let’s dig into creating intentional YouTube strategies for your business.
Stop Relying on Keyword Research
It’s not as strong of a strategy as you think. SEO is great, sure, but SEO isn’t necessarily a strategy for YouTube. Why? Because YouTube doesn't rely on keywords as much as they do user data points of your audience, aka your analytics. How long are people watching your videos? Are they watching more and more of your videos?
The cool thing about YouTube is that it focuses more on user behavior than anything. They want to keep people on their platform as long as possible and focusing on keywords isn’t going to make people binge your content.
Focus on your title, thumbnail, and the actual content itself. YouTube doesn’t need these to be keyword stuffed — they want them to be clickable. Only focusing on search topics isn't building your community.
When you have a search-based channel, people are one and done, and you can expect to see your viewer retention plummet (hint hint: YouTube isn’t going to push out videos people aren’t watching).
Piggyback Off Your Neighbor Niche
Who is your target audience watching? Whose content are they resonating with and responding to the most? Neighbor niching is all about paying attention to people in similar industries with similar audiences to yours.
You want the YouTube algorithm to start associating your channel with their content.
Don’t be afraid to get specific here. Knowing the ins and outs of your target audience is the best way to make sure you’re niching correctly. Get well-informed on their pain points and the types of content they’d be looking for on YouTube.
Take a look at your neighbor’s videos. What are they talking about? What are people saying in the comment section? Any questions you see that you could potentially have the solution for?
Start brainstorming how you can fill in the gaps in your industry.
Work Out The Deeper Purpose of Your Content Strategy
Talking about the same thing over and over is going to bore your audience.
You can’t keep posting how-to videos and expect people to keep coming back for more. They’re going to eventually learn how to do the thing you’re teaching them to do and then what?
How-to videos aren’t great for building a connection with your audience either…which ties back into why you don’t want to always rely on keyword research to guide your content strategy.
Content that gives value, ties in with content that shares YOUR journey, keeps people connected, and makes them eager to come back for more. As business owners, we’re on social media to make money, but the bottom line of being online? Creating and nurturing connections.
That’s why your audience shows up. They want someone that just gets them. That understands what they’re struggling with.
Videos I've done like sharing the truth about entrepreneurship, things I'm quitting in my business, and even goal videos, have historically done pretty well because people can make a connection with the person behind the videos.
Get YouTube to Recommend Your Videos
Like I said, YouTube LOVES it when people binge your content. If you can get YouTube to recommend your videos, you’re well on your way to making your channel do the work for you (aka bringing in leads).
My secret sauce for getting the YouTube algorithm on my side? The firework approach.
The basic principle is this — you have one core video that drives leads to your offers, using a CTA that gets your audience off the YouTube platform. YouTube doesn't like it when people leave their website for another, so you have spark videos that drive views to your core video.
Your spark videos talk about subsets of the content in your main video. Here’s an example of how this all works:
My core video talks about how learning in a community can help you produce better YouTube content, with the CTA leading viewers off of YouTube and onto my Video Strategy Academy membership sales page.
I create a handful of spark videos that tell people to go watch my core video as the CTA.
My spark videos talk about why learning with a coach is better than DIYing it, how brainstorming with other people in your industry is beneficial, etc.
Each month I have a new core video and make the rest of my videos spark videos. The true amount of spark videos will depend on how often you want to post new content, but I like to do six per month.
Putting the Pieces Together
Once you have all these pieces of the puzzle on your table, you need to know how to put them together. What good is a strategy if you don’t know how it works?
If you’re ready to learn more and see how these 4 tips work together to build a solid content strategy, my FREE workshop is going to help you put that puzzle together.
I’ll walk you through more of the firework approach and how to find your next steps in actually implementing these strategies for YouTube into your marketing plan.
Seriously, it’s 100% free, so what do you have to lose? I’d love to have you join me, friend (but don’t think about it too long, you only have until May 25th to register.
