Want your YouTube videos to generate more leads or sales?
Do you want to know the secret to making great business videos?
In this article, you’ll learn a super simple plan for making successful YouTube videos (they do not need to be ones that get tons of views) and how to avoid making some common mistakes.
Table of Contents
Why You Should Have Your Business on YouTube
When you go organic on YouTube, it’s a long game.
You can do YouTube ads if you want to move faster.
But if you want to use YouTube for organic marketing, you’ll find that by putting out strategic content over time, you can bring a huge amount of traffic to your business.
There are some obvious reasons to be on YouTube.
Google, which is the biggest search engine in the world, owns the search engine YouTube.
People go to YouTube to solve a problem or find an answer more than 65% of the time, and every business solves a problem or gives an answer.
So it makes sense for people who solve problems to put their answers on the same platform where people ask questions.
YouTube is a search engine, but it doesn’t only have content that people look for.
It has more content based on what the user wants.
YouTube tries to find you an audience when you set up your content around search terms.
It won’t necessarily happen in a straight line, where people search for you and then start finding you.
Instead, YouTube figures out what people want to watch and then shows them that content.
Think about what’s on the home page of YouTube right now.
If YouTube shows you a lot of tennis and football videos, it knows that you like to watch sport videos on the site.
Or if you want to improve your life in some way, you can find these things on your YouTube home page.
Use the Search Engine Wisely
YouTube learns what a user wants to see and starts putting suggestions for videos on their home page.
Once you know how the YouTube algorithm works as a marketer, you can start to focus less on what kind of content you want to make and more on what kind of content you need to make to reach your ideal viewer.
Businesses that know their ideal customers best and can put themselves in their shoes tend to do better.
This isn’t just something that happens on YouTube.
As we said, YouTube is owned by Google.
Every time a viewer looks for an answer on Google, YouTube learns more about what they want to watch and what problems they want to solve.
In fact, YouTube will start recommending videos right on Google.
So your goal isn’t just to make a bunch of videos and get them to rank high on YouTube.
Your goal is to get your content in front of the right people and to optimize it so that YouTube will show it to the right people.
This is where YouTube’s real power and best chances lie.
When starting out on YouTube, many marketers and business owners make a few big mistakes.
Here’s what they are and how to keep them from happening.
Not Having a Plan Before Jumping on YouTube
You shouldn’t just start using a site like YouTube without a plan.
If you don’t plan, you’re already planning to fail.
It’s important that your strategy works with how YouTube does things.
YouTube is just like other social media sites in that it has its own culture and best ways to use it.
You can’t just start a presence there using the same strategy you use on another platform.
Before you start a YouTube channel, you should make sure you’ve thought about and written down your plan.
This will help you get the most out of the money and time you spend making content for YouTube.
Overthinking Unimportant Things
The second mistake that many businesses make is that they start to think too much.
YouTube feels more scary and full of pressure than other sites.
Many marketers are comfortable making TikTok videos, Facebook vids, and LinkedIn stories, but there’s something that gets in their way when they try to make a YouTube video.
Since it’s a longer video, that’s part of it.
Most of the time, there is also more equipment involved.
So marketers start overthinking.
From one question comes another:
- What am I going to say
- Is it going to take too long for my channel to grow?
- Is this something I should do?
- What if I don’t learn anything?
- What if I don’t feel good on camera?
And that’s not the end of it.
When it comes to overthinking, the production value is the thing that marketers get stuck on the most.
Often, they’ll use the need to buy equipment as an excuse for not getting started.
They are going to wait until they get the right camera, the right lighting, the right background for their studio, or the right office space.
Worrying About Production Quality
Even though it’s important to learn about all of these things in the long run, the truth is that the smartphone you already have is good enough to get started.
If taking action now gets you going, you won’t be sorry.
Almost always, content value is greater than production value.
We’ve all watched a video that was a little blurry, the lighting was a little off, or the sound was a little muddy, but it was about a subject we were interested in or wanted to learn more about.
We were more interested in what was being said and thought in the video than in how well it was made.
Yes, you need to be seen and heard by your audience.
But that will happen regardless of the smartphone you use or video editing software you have.
Not Knowing Enough About the People You Want to Reach
The third mistake that many businesses make on YouTube is that they don’t know enough about who they want to reach.
They might know a few key things, but they haven’t really gotten into their heads.
If you’ve already put content on YouTube, look back at the last 10 or 20 videos you posted and ask yourself, “Is this what my audience really cares about?”
Are these the things they really want to hear from me?
Know your viewers
These are some of the most important marketing questions you can ask.
Many marketers spend a lot of time and effort making and posting videos, but they don’t really address the problems that their audience cares about.
I’m guilty of this on my own channel for one section of it.
I run a PLR brand too.
And I add some of those videos to my channel, even if the videos do not get tons of traction.
But from a Youtube growth perspective, that might not be the best way forward.
Making videos to answer those more general questions can be helpful.
For example, if you are a coach who teaches email marketing, a more general video on how to build an email list could be helpful without focusing on a specific problem.
But you can go to a whole other level when you know what really bothers and hurts the people you want to reach.
Learn who they are by getting inside their heads.
If you make videos about how to do something, are they for beginners, intermediates, or experts?
Who is looking back at the camera?
When your message fits your audience and comes from a place of authenticity, and when you add something of value, you can start to gain traction on YouTube.
The Key Ingredients to Making a Great YouTube Video:
The first important part is your “big idea” or main subject.
Once you know what the big idea is, think about how you can use your YouTube title and thumbnail to tell people what it is.
The hook comes next.
This is about your first 15 seconds, but it could last up to two minutes.
This is how the video starts, and it gets your attention right away.
On YouTube, those first few seconds are the most important.
Then there’s the content and how you can optimize it or add things to it to make it more interesting.
Creative editing, music, and other elements can make your video much more interesting than a simple talking-head clip with almost no movement.
Last but not least, there’s the change from one thing to the next.
No one cares about the ending in the YouTube world.
People will leave if you tell them the video is coming to an end.
They got their answer, and you told them you were ending, so they’ll click on another video because they don’t need to watch the credits.
So, your goal on YouTube isn’t to tell people that the video is over.
Instead, you should move on to the next strategic video.
To sum up, come up with your big idea, grab their attention with a hook, keep their attention with interesting content, and then draw their attention to the next video with a strategic transition.
How to Think of a Great Idea for Your YouTube Video
Now that you know the most important parts of a good YouTube video, let’s talk more about the first one: the big idea.
This is the main idea behind the video.
Find out what your audience really cares about, what they want to learn, and what they are looking for on YouTube right now.
A lot of marketers pay more attention to the titles and thumbnails of their videos.
Both of these are important and need a lot of careful thought and planning, but neither is as important as the topic.
No matter how interesting and creative your thumbnail or title is, it won’t matter if your topic isn’t right for your audience.
Your audience won’t click on your links to watch your videos.
But if you can get all three—talking about the right topic at the right time, having a strong title, and having a strong thumbnail—then you’ve got the winning combination.
Find Ideas for YouTube Videos You Could Make
You can get ideas for YouTube video topics from a number of different places.
First, you should always know what’s going on in your niche or industry.
You can type your topic into Google News to find new articles and news about things that are coming out.
Talk to the people who already know you—your customers.
Find out what’s stopping them and what’s on their minds.
You can do this by asking everyone on your email list to complete a simple survey.
If your YouTube channel has a “Community” tab, you can post polls to find out what people think.
You can also use a tool like vidIQ to track certain search terms and find out what kinds of YouTube videos are popular and why.
If you’re just starting out, you should focus more on your audience than on your competitors.
A lot of businesses go on YouTube and start looking at what their competitors are doing right away.
They then try to do something about what they see.
But if you serve your customer and deal with the things that keep them up at night, your YouTube channel, your business, and your customers will all benefit.
Of course, you should also look at the channels of your competitors.
In fact, you can learn a lot about your audience by looking at the channels of your competitors and watching the videos that are still doing well for them even though they were posted months ago.
Making a Standout Thumbnail Image
Once you have the main idea for your video, it’s time to give it a title and a small image to represent it.
Don’t make a YouTube thumbnail too busy when you’re making it.
There’s just too much going on if you put your logo in the corner, repeat the title, show a zoomed-out view of your office, and add an emoji.
It’s hard to see.
Instead, to get people’s attention, keep your thumbnail simple.
As a general rule, you should only use up to three things.
If you’re going to be in the thumbnail, your face should show some emotion.
It doesn’t have to be a typical YouTuber face with a lot of exaggeration, but it should show some emotion.
Research has shown that people respond to faces, so it does make a difference to show your face.
Aside from you, your thumbnail could also show something from the video or something that shows what your video is about.
Don’t just repeat the words from the title for the text overlay.
Since the title is always shown with the thumbnail, that would be a waste of space.
You could also try increasing the color’s contrast or saturation by 20% or 30% to make yourself stand out in the mobile feed or on TV.
Keep it simple.
Simple things stand out.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to stage your thumbnail if you can do it in an interesting, honest, and real way.
You should never trick someone into clicking on your video, but your thumbnail is there to get them to click.
That could mean using the video to draw their attention to one desk before showing them the whole office.