How to Start Using YouTube as a Small Business Owner
You’re not on YouTube to be a YouTuber. So why are you treating your content as if you were?
The sad truth about most educational content about YouTube itself? Many people are targeting influencers and content creators, not business owners, with it.
Now, I’m not trying to put anyone to shame. All I’m saying is that YOU as a business owner, should maybe reconsider, or at the very least, take much of what you hear online with a grain of salt. Because that advice isn’t for you!
You want to find a way to work YouTube into your business strategy, drive leads, and help you convert those leads…not get paid from sponsorships and AdSense, right? (You don’t own the platform anyway. It’s better to focus on driving sales to what you DO own — your offers).
If you’re ready to start using YouTube as a small business owner, then keep reading to see everything you need to make it work!
Small businesses on YouTube need to create relevant content
Knowing your ideal client and your target audience is crucial — and so is creating content that caters to them. Because if you can truly understand your audience, and what they’re looking for on YouTube, then the algorithm will play to your favor, push your content to more people, and help you get seen by the right audience (and all without paying for ads…boo yeah!).
A friend of mine, Tom Martin, actually taught me how to do something called “keyword harvesting” — it deep dives into understanding who your audience really is, their pain points, and THEN using the YouTube algo to figure out what kind of content they want to see. This just reiterates HOW IMPORTANT is for us to truly understand our audience if you want to reach them with the right topics.
If you’re having trouble doing that solo, VidIQ has a feature that can help you do that!
You can also use a method I like to call piggybacking, where you find similar channels to yours, with similar audiences/niches, and look at the types of videos that are performing well. Don’t straight up copy them, but use them as inspo and to help guide you in the right direction.
The metrics you should be focusing on
I know it’s hard to get out of the mindset of wanting more views and subscribers, but the videos that do “traditionally well” aren’t always the ones that are bringing you the most ROI. I’ve had several videos do “below average” in terms of those metrics, but brought me some of the highest numbers of leads from a video I’ve ever had.
So when it comes to numbers on YouTube, make sure you’re looking at the right ones to see what’s actually helping you create profit.
(P.S. — all these metrics can be found in your YouTube analytics dashboard!)
Click-through rate (CTR)
Having a healthy CTR means that people want to see your content — and that’s where having a great title and thumbnail come into play. Because if those two things are a flop, it could mean that no one will be clicking on your videos. And if that happens…no conversions!
Audience retention rate
Audience retention is the percentage of people who clicked on your video that stay and watch until the end. If audience retention is low, there’s a problem. You either aren’t attracting the right people or aren’t delivering what you promised in the title and thumbnail.
BUT if you have people that stay and watch until the end, then you know those people are really, truly serious about hearing what you have to say — and are more likely to convert into a lead.
Engagement
Just telling people to “Like, subscribe, and comment!” is lame. That’s not good engagement. It’s boring!
Instead, try to facilitate conversation throughout your video. Ask them questions they can respond to in the comments. Encourage them to take action (use those CTAs) throughout the video, not just at the end.
Whatever you do, just don’t be generic!
Incorporate CTAs for conversions
Ultimately, you’re not on YouTube to be a YouTuber, right? You’re on it for business! So don’t forget to send people in the right direction — aka to your offers. That’s the whole reason you’re on the platform in the first place!
Whether that’s a lead magnet or freebie, a course, a program you’re in the middle of launching, or even just to watch another (related) video at the end, make sure you have somewhere to direct people (and make sure it’s somewhere that can help grow your biz, not just asking people to subscribe like I said earlier!).
Get a game plan together
Want to ensure you have a solid game plan for this audience? Then join me inside my coaching program, $10k On Replay!
I’ll not only teach you how to use YouTube strategically as a business owner, but also show you how to build a business model that ensures you have all the pieces of your biz fitting together — including your YouTube content. Figure out how to make sure everything you create — from Instagram posts, to YouTube videos, to the offers themselves — is generating the right kind of traffic to your offers, and ultimately, how to increase that profit!
