← The Think Media Podcast
The Think Media Podcast
387: (Part Two) NEW YouTube Report Reveals Why Some Channels Grow (and It's not what you think!)
00:31:25
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, before we jump into today's episode, I've got a question for you. Is your YouTube channel failing to bring in consistent leads and sales? If you'd say yes, then we are hosting an event that's probably perfect for you. I want to personally invite you to join me and the Think Media team this February in Las Vegas for an exclusive in person YouTube growth mastermind. Seats are limited, so make sure to secure your ticket today@thinkmedia media mastermind.com and over an intensive day and a half, I'll show you my proven strategies for creating videos that attract the right audience, generate real revenue and drive more sales. You'll craft your next winning video, learn the latest strategies for leveraging AI and attracting high quality leads. All without the complex funnels or expensive ads that can be so frustrating. Since we keep this Mastermind small and intimate spots are extremely limited and and filling up fast. So secure your spot for February 21st through the 22nd, 2025 and you can apply for this event at thinkmediamastermind.com before the seats are gone. Now, as of recording this, we're looking for about 10 more people, so grab your seat now. All right, let's jump into the podcast. So forget what you think you know about viral videos and YouTube growth because a study from Google and YouTube reveals what viewers actually want and the exact elements that that make successful videos. And in this episode of the Think Media podcast we are covering six of those science backed data driven insights. We're actually breaking this into a three part series. This is part two. Let's dive in. Here's our first big insight. Focus on clear audio over expensive cameras. Here's the stat. 84% of viewers demand clear sound but accept basic video quality quality. Fascinating. See, I've learned that most people are searching for what is the best camera for YouTube when really they should be asking what is the best microphone for YouTube, which I haven't answered that question in just a second. But the insight is that good audio with simple visuals or good enough video beats the best ever visuals or the best ever video quality with poor audio. And so I want to encourage you to invest in audio. The free way to do this is to just be thoughtful about where you're filming. And if you film in a home office or a bedroom that has lower ceilings, carpet, there's no echo in the room because of wood floors or tile floors. You can usually get pretty good on camera audio. And if you can get closer to the camera, that's going to be helpful. But your best bet, whether you're filming with a smartphone or a fancy camera is to invest in a microphone. And if I had to recommend one and I actually asked the, the Think Media team, our content team, Kyle and Craig and Nathan, they agreed that the DJI Mic Mini is the one. If there's a microphone in 2025 and it comes in at $169, which might sound like a lot for a microphone, but this microphone will do everything for you at every stage of your journey. So if you're just using your smartphone, worth it if you want to plug it into a fancier camera later. And what's cool about it is you have not just the receiver, but you also get two microphones at that price point. So if you want to do an interview which great content format to consider, then you can click on hook up a wireless microphone to two people's shirts to get that digital rich audio noise canceling ultralight. If you've seen any previews of this microphone or tests, in fact, in the show notes, I'll link the microphone as well as our Think Media video about it. That'll show you it compared to a few other options if you're on a budget or you don't want to spend that much, but really it's worth the extra dollars. That is the consensus here at Think Media. And so it has so many cool features, but the noise canceling is crazy. Like there could be crazy background noise going on and it can cut it out. So technology has come a long way in regards to audio. And from our why we watch 2.0 report, what viewers actually want is they, they want good audio, right? As opposed to really being too concerned about, about video. And this brings us to sort of the next insight, which is a sub point and that is maintain baseline quality standards. So 84% of viewers expect clear audio and viewable video as a minimal requirement. So the insight is good enough, good enough video, better audio, like good audio. But, and I sometimes think the problem with audio is sometimes there's like a hiss or a weird buzzing sound or it can even be frustrating. It's only in one ear. Like it's, it's, it's stereo, but it's only in your left ear and you're listening on headphones and the room's really echoey. I like to listen to YouTube videos when I'm taking a shower and I use a Bluetooth speaker, but sometimes people's audio is not good enough for me to hear it, even if it's at a very high volume because it's kind of Muffled because there's no precision in the microphone because of room echo and everything else. So here's the point. Baseline quality. Have good audio, have good enough video. Learn how to use your smartphone and consider investing in lighting. Because one of the best ways to improve video quality is lighting. An average camera with good lighting will oftentimes look better than a very fancy camera with bad lighting or filming in the dark or dimly lit. Poor lighting situations at your home or your office. You know, right now I'm sitting in front of a window at my home office and on the video version you can see the quality. It looks pretty good if you use just natural light. Now I've added a couple wand lights from Ulanzi, throwing a lot of stuff at you. These are some of my favorite lights as well. Good lighting, good audio can make your video look better. All with a big idea of maintain a baseline of quality for your videos. That's what viewers expect. Next, create content for specific viewer problems. Here's the stat. 90% of viewers value specific solutions over general topics. So the insight is focused problem solving content performs better than broad overviews. So an example of this would be instead of making a video in my niche, right, video production, YouTube, how to film. Like, three words, right? So broad. You can think about this in fitness, how to lose weight. Okay, it's. It's pretty broad though. Like, compared to how to film in a small apartment, compared to how to lose weight for women in their 40s at home, workouts. Oh, man. Specific problem. Like, okay, here's my age. That's going to insinuate some of the challenges I'm facing. That's going to insinuate what I have access to in regards like, no weights required, women over 40, workouts at home, no weights required. Talk about solving a specific problem. And what happens with the content then is it's resonating at such a deep level, I think that sometimes we're afraid to get that specific. But when you do, the viewer is so grateful because you're speaking directly to their situation. And, you know, we call this the answer specific question strategy. The key word here is the word specific. Because what some people think is like, oh, I should just answer questions on YouTube, how to film. It's not specific. And the key word is specific. And in a crowded world, as you start finding ways to find more nuanced solutions to people's problems, in terms of how you title your videos, in terms of your research, you can really grow. Now, of course, in some cases you're like, well, if the Video is so narrow, how many views will it get? But here's my challenge to you. If you're starting from scratch, how many views are you getting anyways? You're going to grow your YouTube channel one subscriber at a time. You're actually going to grow your YouTube channel one view at a time. And if you can stand out for something very specific. This is in traditional kind of online marketing called long tail keywords. A keyword a very long tail to say how to lose weight for a women in their 40s at home, workouts with no weights, that's a lot. It's very long tail. But what ends up happening is you're finding less competition in that space. And what's powerful about starting with that's why we start oftentimes with the ASQ strategy is it's just a good way to get momentum at the start. It's a good way to get your base of subscribers. It's a good way to start getting discovered. The rabbit hole goes deep. We in our main program teach 16 specific tactical proven strategies and we go to like beginner, intermediate and advanced levels and all of those. So sometimes it seems overly simple to be like, oh, you just say answer specific questions. Well, number one, this Google study backs it up that people want specific solutions and they value that over general topics. So it's already what viewers desire. But it's again a great way to start getting views when you're starting a new chann channel. And shoot, even if you're established, it's sometimes good to get back to those fundamentals. If you're ready to get serious about starting and growing a successful YouTube channel, then you're gonna love VRA podcast.com for a limited time we have a special sale happening on our YouTube course and coaching membership that includes the online course, the 80 page workbook and access to the private community. Inside of this program, you have everything you need for starting a successful YouTube channel all in one place. You get access to checklists and resources that will save you time, reduce stress and help you reach your YouTube goals faster. But also the most powerful part is the community. It's not just other creators and entrepreneurs that are ambitious and reaching for their goals, but it's also the think media faculty that's in your corner answering your questions and helping you stay motivated on your journey to YouTube success. And for a limited time, we are running a big sale@vra podcast.com so if you want to check it out, just click the link in the show notes or go to vra podcast.com. all right, let's get back into the episode. All right, the next insight from the Google study is transform sponsorships and your own promotions into valuable content moments. Here's the stat. 66% of viewers appreciate ads. I. It keeps going, but let me just hit that again. There are viewers that appreciate ads. Let's bust a myth. I can't really advertise on my videos. I can't promote stuff on my videos. Well, apparently there are viewers who appreciate ads. But let's complete the statistic. 66% of viewers appreciate ads that enhance the videos value. This is the future of, I think, success on YouTube, monetizing on YouTube and being a very sponsorable channel. If you want to make money with brand deals now, I understand that maybe at this point you're like, well, I'm just growing. I'm just getting started. I don't have sponsorships going yet. As a side note, you could do this with your own promotions, which might open a series of questions. Well, I don't have anything to promote. Well, maybe you should make something. Did you know that your income is directly correlated to the amount of buy buttons you have on your website? But, Sean, I don't have have any buy buttons on my website. Cool. It's probably why you don't have any income. Just something to think about on the roadmap of building out your YouTube money map. What are your own promotions? What are your own sponsorships? I saw somebody in the comments on the Think Media podcast say, you know, I love your stuff. And I just, you know, but it's great and I watch all your free information, but I'm, I'm not pumped about the advertising. Okay, I appreciate it. I appreciate the feedback. I'm listening. But also takes money for the mission. This is how we even. That's how we give out the free stuff. It's how it's sustainable. It's how it's grown beyond just me to be able to support a team that creates really super valuable content. And there's a lot of people who do like our paid stuff. And as people discover it, they could be a part of it. Plus, there's also really cool tools like software that we use and brands that we work with that are powerful and important for getting the job done. You know, I mean, maybe it would feel we. We get weird in the creator economy, but if you have a DIY construction site or a site about how to, you know, build, maybe you want to build your own house or something, and you're like, you know, hey, this is the power saw I'm using. One alternative could be not use a saw and use your teeth. Or you could be like, this is a really great saw. This is how I like did all the framing and this is how I, you know. So all that to say is, I'm on kind of a tangent here that maybe not everyone is going to be pumped about the fact that you include ads or brand deals. But the insight is can you integrate promotions that solve your problems instead of just interrupting the content? So one of the ways to do this is demonstrate how a genuine product could solve viewer challenges in the video and weave it into the video. So one of the ways I've done this that I think it works out the best is if I'm crafting a video that I'm working with a brand on, I like to think about the video being powerful in its own right and it's educational on its own right. And to think about not needing the viewer to buy anything to get a result and then weaving the product into the video so that it's an option that'll enhance things or help them go faster. So to be more specific, I've done videos on how to optimize a YouTube video, like how to fill out the title description and all that stuff. And what I will articulate is that there is a free way to do it. Like in this video, you're going to learn how to do this and you don't have to buy anything, you don't have to invest in anything. So that's an option. And then in the video, I integration will be. And by the way, you could use a tool like Vidiq to go a lot faster to have better results right on page. Because Vidiq will, the Google Chrome plugin will plug right into. When you're on the page of building out and optimizing your YouTube video, you can come up with titles right there based on AI and they have an AI coach and you can tag your videos just right there and write the keyword, the keyword based description, all of that integrated. And then it's like, hey, but you don't have to buy that, but you could. And so either way, I hope this video is valuable and demonstrating that that could help you go faster. And I realize now I'm in a very meta situation where I'm kind of making a promotion and we're talking about promotions. But if you want to check out Vid iq, like it's really cool and it's, you could for a dollar try it out for A month. So there's not a lot to lose there, even if you cancel. That's vidiq.com forward slash. Think I'll link that up in the description as well. Bottom line is integrated into the video. And I hope that as meta as this is, as we're talking about promotions and, and I'm, you know, sharing things, it's that even that's insightful. Like, software tools will help you go faster, but there are workarounds where you don't need to use them. Again, buying some lighting or getting a better camera will make your video look better. But there's also free ways to enhance how your phone works. Here's my challenge to you. Whether you're doing brand deals now or you're thinking about doing brand deals in the future, transform sponsorships and your own promotions into valuable content moments. Find out ways to integrate them. Find out ways to educate and inspire and teach. And in one regard, you're ultimately just giving the viewer something that maybe they'll be better off for. They've learned more, they know more, and they can choose whether they want to invest in the product or not. Next point, organize your content well and build playlists that guide viewer journeys. Here's the stat. 60% of viewers learn better from organized content paths, which just kind of seems obvious. It's like people learn better when content is organized as opposed to when it's disorganized. That's pretty profound. But here's the insight. Strategic organization increase increases viewer retention and learning. So I see this as two levels. Video organization and then creating series that are organized into playlists. So let's hit the first one. Make your videos better. Is that a good tip? Make better videos this year. But here's what I mean. Make them better organized, like more thoughtful. And one of the prompts you can use for AI would be this. If you've jotted down some ideas about what you want to share in a video, throw those at AI. And I mean, there's any type, any AI will work and be like, hey, what is the most linear or logical progression that I should teach through this? And it may reorder your points. What are maybe missing bridges or transitions that are. That the viewer that I'm not even thinking about, you know, is there anything missing that would frustrate listeners or viewers where they would get stuck? Because you might be like, in this video, I'm gonna share three tips. In this video, I'm gonna share five tips. Cool. But like, what's missing that could help them make some Progression and my and then the big idea is organize the video better. Now let's take it deeper. Tap into time codes and chapters so people could jump around to the tips or they could jump into part one or part two or find the section that they want. That speaks to the fact that it's better organization. And the insight is that strategic organization increases viewer retention, which means algorithm will love you, you'll get more views and it increases learning, which speaks to transformation of actually your content, getting results for the viewer. So invest a little bit extra energy structuring your content better, structuring your videos better, thinking about will this be understandable? Will people be able to follow along? Will there be good transitions from one idea to the next? Could I recap it at the end to take the learning deeper so people really walk away with something and then if we take it to another level. We mentioned this in part one of this three part series about this Google study and we talked about don't just make your next video, plan out your next video series and think about how when you really start to break down an idea or a series and I know I'm talking about heavy education here, but even in entertainment, you think about storylines. Part one, part two, part three, chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. And I don't mean YouTube chapters, I mean like a book. Like there's cliffhangers at the end and it gets you teased for the next. Think about a TV show. The greatest ones keep you up all night binging the next episode because they continue to stack on one another, but then it carries you into the next episode. Well, YouTube is big on this and there's even some new features about playlists, about series. And so I think this is a massive mindset shift for creators. That's why this is the new rules of YouTube success. The new way of thinking in 2025 is thinking about viewer journeys, is thinking about experiences and bringing people not just in an organized fashion through one video, but bringing people in an organized journey with you over months and years. Even as it pertains to building out playlists, series, your whole YouTube channel organization overall. Next, turn viewer comments into future video topics. Here's the stat. 74% of viewers engage more when their input shapes the content. So the insight is viewer suggested topics perform better than creator assumptions. So your goal is to get insight from your viewers. So let's talk about two categories. Category number one though is like you're like, I have no viewers though. So what? How do I get their insights? You're, you can still Solve that problem. And then we'll talk about category number two of some things you can do. Assuming you've got an audience of any size, you have some momentum. So if you literally have zero subscribers, you're just starting. It doesn't mean you can't do this. The steps are, first, identify who your target audience is. Who is your target audience? How specific can you get about them? At the beginning of the episode, we talked about women over 40 wanting to get fit and work out at home with no weights. You know quite a bit about them. In that case, then you could start tailoring content to serve that individual well. How would you do it? If they're not following you yet, what other shows are they watching? What other YouTube channels do they watch? Who do they follow on social media? Who are they subscribed to? Identify that and then say, what questions are they leaving? What pain points are they expressing on those other competitors or similar channels or people that have a similar audience that you want to reach? What are the pain points? What are they asking? Where are people getting stuck? That's going to require research. Go read other people's comments. Go to a website like Quora, which is a Q and A website, and inspect the detailed questions people are asking. Because in this case, even though you don't have viewers yet that are ultimately like, oh, cool, you're answering my question. You're speaking to, like, the greater community of a particular people group. Like, that's the thing on everybody's mind. The mission is to figure out what is on everybody's mind in your niche. What's keeping people up at night? What's hot? What are people talking about? Really success on YouTube for some, where they get stuck and their views go down, is there starts to be a widening gap between what's actually on people's minds and what they care about. And the content that creators are making. And the ones that are succeeding are actually keeping the gap closer together of what do people actually want to watch? Topics. The things they're interested in, the things keeping them up at night and the things they're actually, actually talking about. They get a lot of momentum. They're, they're, they're locked in. Which means you, you gotta be sharp in your niche, in your industry, in understanding viewers, and you can do that when you're starting from scratch. Now, the second category is if you have an audience and you have a following, please do your best to get feedback from the audience and get questions submitted or get ideas or get stories. You hear stories all the time on The Think Media podcast of our students, of people applying our strategies, of people that are we bring actual viewers on the podcast like we we've had Techno dad on recently. Today we just had a meeting about the next five to ten of our students that we want to have on the podcast who are doing big things, are bringing their own unique insights, plus how they've applied our whole video ranking academy strategy and all of that. Well, that's, that's a whole community thing that we're hoping is inputting the content. But there's a few other things you could do. Check back in on your comment section when you post a video, but also a week later or even a month later if you're still getting comments on a video and do a community tab post. The Community tab is so underutilized by most creators. And I did a series on our Think Media channel where I did a community tab post. I got however many responses, let's say 30 or 50. And then I narrowed it into like 10 videos and I got a question and I made a video about it. But here was, here's what's interesting is on the one hand, if you just want questions to answer, you can go to answerthepublic.com and type in Motherhood and it'll give you a bunch of ideas of what the public wants to know about motherhood generically. But what I loved about what I did on the in the Community tab and some nuance that I said was I actually said, hey, can you give me as much detail as possible? Where are you at? Where your subscribers at? What is it you're struggling with? What are you going through? What is like the new what's the context? Because now it's much, it could be much more of a rich answer in a 2025 world. Like, how do you get views on YouTube? It's a cool question, but it's, there's just a lot of information out there with, with like so many different ways to do it. The question is, well, what niche are you in? Like, what resources do you have? How much time do you have? A week? You know, what have you done so far? How much skill do do you have already? Like, so the more nuance. In fact, let me just pose this. Maybe you've only listened to the Think Media podcast on audio. Maybe you're here on the YouTube version. Drop me a rich, detailed question. What's your specific question? What's your situation? So it's like I've been doing YouTube for two years. You know, I've posted 75 videos I post about once a week. And this is my niche and the specific problem I've been facing because again, what you're hoping to accomplish now, and even if you can't answer everybody's question, which you can't, especially at some level on the other side of growth, what you can do is. One of my favorite quotes is do for one what you wish you could do for all. And hopefully it creates more of a community thing that I hope you feel as a podcast listener that, yeah, think media is trying to lock in, trying to, you know, trying to help, trying to answer questions. I hope you see when I do those community tab posts, there's sometimes quite a bit of time goes by because I plan them and then I actually craft like pretty good responses and then I shoot the videos and they might come out two and a half months later, but eventually I'll shout out the person that asked the question. We put the question on screen, we do some other things like at the end of our videos, on the end cards, we've been putting up viewer comments. And bottom line is the insight from the study is turn viewer comments into future video topics. One of my favorite comedians right now, his name is Damon Darling, and really I started following him on Instagram, but his YouTube channel is doing great. He's pretty funny and he is so articulate about. Tell me your ideas for my next video. And he does very like real life comedy where he'll walk through a Walmart and have the most hilarious conversations with people and, and he's worth checking out. I mean, I'm, I'll link up Damon in the, in the comments just because he's great. What's the point? He's realizing as a comedian, he's got his own ideas, he's realizing he's got his own kind of format that he pioneered and now he's getting much larger of a following. So we're talking entertainment, we're talking comedy, but we're talking about audience engagement and like the two way conversation. But you also never know what you're gonna get. You're outsourcing creativity, you're, you're outsourcing creative ideas. And now the inspiration I get from reading your comments and having the specific context, I'm like, wow, I never really thought about it that way. Or that's kind of something we haven't really covered. How could there be YouTube topics we haven't covered in 2025? What are you talking about? There's like thousands of topics. Because it's the nuance Right. It's the detail and the world and the landscape is already changing in light of AI, in light of 2025, in light of all of this. So turn viewer comments into future video topics. Okay, so I got one more insight for you in this episode. But as a reminder, there is so much information in the why we watch 2.0 report from Google and YouTube that it's a three part series on the Think Media podcast. So subscribe if you want to not miss any of the future episodes. And wherever you watch or listen, like rate, share, subscribe. It would mean the world to me to get the word out. The last point of episode number two of our three part series is include at least one clear teaching moment in every video. Here's the stat. Educational takeaways rank in the top five reasons for subscribing. So this is obviously for education channels, but the report revealed that the viewer tangibly feeling like, okay, I listened to a lot of stuff, but what was the takeaway? What was the big idea? And let me actually pull this into entertainment. Like for example, the Lion King. Remember who you are, right? That was Mufasa's spirit to Simba, urging him to embrace his responsibility as a king. Or Beauty and the Beast. Don't judge a book by its cover. And that was highlighted by Bella's love for the beast, despite his appearance. And the Beast learning, kindness and selflessness. Or Aladdin, be yourself. And so even good storytelling that has entertainment and maybe at the end of, of something that's a challenge, you look at some of the best creators, some of the best YouTubers, they're doing that. But if we take this back to education, include at least one clear teaching moment in every video. At least one, I hope in a video like this, because we broke it down amongst six points in this particular episode that these are actual takeaways, like tangible. There's a stat, there's an insight, there's an application. So you leave with something. And here is why this is powerful. It's one of the five reasons for subscribing that viewers have. So if you want to grow your subscribers, you want more momentum and channel growth, consider being more specific in how clear you are on what the takeaway is. And the insight is viewers return to channels they learn from consistently. And it's not just one video that people learn from, but one of the reasons why you'll build a brand and build momentum is someone's like, man, they're good for it. Like when I go there, I might hear some repetition, I might hear Some other stuff I might not even click on every video, but I'm gonna keep them in my, like, top three, my top five of my favorite channels, because they consistently are moving me forward, adding value. And so here's the application. Write down your key learning outcome before filming. Like, if you think about these Disney films, Frozen love is putting someone else's needs before yours, right? Expressed by Olaf and demonstrated through Anna's acts of true love to save Elsa. Like, these are written in the script writing before anything's ever animated, before anything's ever created, good storytellers think about, what's the motif? What's the theme? What's the, you know, takeaway? And educators should think the same. What is the outcome? What do I want them to feel by the end of this video? What do I want them to take away by the end of this video? What will they have learned by the end of this video? Get fierce clarity of what that takeaway is. And then don't hesitate, hesitate to recap the takeaways, which now I just feel pressure and guilt that I should do that. So today we learned focus on clear audio over expensive cameras. We focused on maintain baseline quality video and audio quality standards. Like, just have a baseline. Good enough. With audio being very important content created for a specific viewer problem. Create content that answers specific problems. Transform sponsorships into your own promotions. And then finally, if possible, recap the takeaway. Like, sometimes there's a summary of, like, the lesson we learned, right? The big takeaway. Now go forth, be great and crush it. And that would be my message to you. Now it's your chance and your turn to go. Press record on your next video to punch fear in the face, punch perfectionism in the face, and get to creating. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel. And I will catch you in the next one.