Here's What The Top YouTubers Taught Us About YouTube Marketing

Summary

Neil Patel discusses key lessons from top YouTubers about succeeding on YouTube. Emphasizing the importance of consistent, high-quality content, he highlights that initial efforts must prove commitment to YouTube’s algorithm. Successful content should aim for broad appeal to gain views, though niche content can drive valuable leads. Patel also touches on the significance of diversification in marketing channels, avoiding overextension into unrelated businesses. He shares insights from notable YouTubers like Ali Abdal and Russell Brand, stressing that organic growth on YouTube remains viable long-term.

Takeaways

• 😀 Consistency is crucial in YouTube content creation; it's essential to be a reliable 'employee' of YouTube.
• 🏆 High-quality content is key, but consistency in producing hits is even more important for maintaining momentum.
• 🔄 Content that becomes hits can significantly boost a channel's visibility and viral potential.
• 🚫 Avoid releasing mediocre content after creating hits, as it can negatively impact the channel's performance.
• 🌐 Broad, general content tends to attract more views, but niche content can drive more qualified leads.
• 💡 Thumbnails are critical in YouTube marketing, as they can significantly influence a video's performance.
• 🌟 YouTube is a powerful social channel for organic growth, but diversifying marketing channels is recommended.
• 🔍 Focusing on a single marketing channel is beneficial, but diversifying into unrelated businesses can be detrimental.
• 💼 Staying laser-focused on a business with a large total addressable market (TAM) can make marketing more effective and profitable.
• 📈 Diversifying marketing channels is advisable once you've mastered one, but maintaining focus on a core business is essential.

Q & A

What is the main point Neil Patel is making about YouTube marketing?

Neil Patel emphasizes that consistency and quality are crucial for success on YouTube. He highlights the importance of being a 'consistent employee' for YouTube by regularly producing high-quality content.

Why does Neil Patel believe that producing hits is important for YouTube success?

Producing hits is important because it helps maintain momentum and ensures that more content goes viral. Consistent hits increase visibility and engagement on the platform.

What challenge do Ali Abdal and his girlfriend face with their YouTube channels?

Ali Abdal and his girlfriend struggle with the commitment required to stay on the YouTube 'hamster wheel,' finding it challenging to maintain the level of content creation necessary for success.

What is the trade-off Neil mentions between broad content and niche content?

Broad content tends to get more views but generates less qualified leads, whereas niche content may get fewer views but attracts more targeted and high-value leads, especially from large enterprise companies.

How does Russell Brand's YouTube presence compare in terms of subscribers and marketing effectiveness?

Russell Brand has a large following with 6.7 million subscribers, and his thumbnails are noted for their effectiveness in attracting viewers, despite recent controversies.

What is the long-term outlook for YouTube marketing according to Neil and Eric?

Neil and Eric believe YouTube will continue to be a highly popular and effective platform for organic growth over the next five to ten years, despite the prominence of paid advertising on other platforms like Facebook.

What is the potential risk of focusing solely on YouTube for marketing?

Focusing solely on YouTube can be risky, so it's recommended to diversify marketing channels to avoid dependence on a single platform.

Why is it important to stay focused on a single business according to Neil?

Staying focused on a single business is crucial because diversifying into unrelated businesses can dilute efforts and resources. It's better to target a large total addressable market (TAM) within one business.

What advice does Neil give about diversifying marketing channels?

Neil advises that once you master one marketing channel, it's beneficial to diversify into others. However, diversifying should be within the same business context to maintain focus and effectiveness.

What should viewers do if they have questions or enjoyed the video?

Viewers are encouraged to leave comments with their questions, and Neil will respond to help them out. Additionally, if they enjoyed the video, they should like, share, and tell others about it.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Consistency and Quality in YouTube Marketing

Neil Patel discusses the importance of consistency and content quality in YouTube marketing. He emphasizes that YouTube expects creators to be consistent, akin to employees, and that initial promotions are not guaranteed. Ali Abdal, a YouTuber with over five million subscribers, shares his concerns about the commitment required in YouTube content creation. Patel highlights that while having a large subscriber base is important, consistently producing high-quality content that resonates with viewers ('hits') is crucial for maintaining momentum and driving more views. He also notes the difference in viewer engagement between broad, popular content that drives more views but fewer qualified leads, versus more niche content that may not be as popular but attracts more lucrative leads.

Keywords

💡YouTube Marketing

YouTube marketing refers to the strategies and practices used to promote and grow a brand or content on the YouTube platform. In the video, Neil and his co-host discuss the importance of consistency and high-quality content for succeeding on YouTube, emphasizing that creators should treat themselves as employees of YouTube and produce content that can go viral.

💡Consistency

Consistency in content creation means regularly producing and publishing videos. It is highlighted as crucial for YouTube success because it helps maintain audience engagement and satisfies YouTube’s algorithm, which favors channels that consistently upload new content.

💡High-Quality Content

High-quality content refers to videos that are well-produced, engaging, and valuable to the audience. The video stresses that consistently producing high-quality videos is key to gaining and maintaining viewership on YouTube, as mediocre content can negatively impact the channel's performance.

💡Viral Content

Viral content is content that rapidly gains popularity and widespread sharing on social media. The discussion in the video points out that once a channel produces a few viral videos, it becomes easier to maintain momentum, but it is crucial to continue creating content that has the potential to go viral.

💡Lead Generation

Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in a company's product or service. In the video, Neil mentions that certain types of content, even if they do not go viral, can still drive qualified leads and generate revenue, especially from large enterprise companies.

💡Thumbnails

Thumbnails are the preview images for YouTube videos. They play a significant role in attracting viewers. The video highlights the importance of having eye-catching thumbnails, referencing Russell Brand’s success and the quality of his thumbnails as an example.

💡Diversification

Diversification in marketing refers to spreading investments across various channels to reduce risk. The video advises not to rely solely on YouTube but to diversify marketing efforts across multiple platforms to ensure long-term success and stability.

💡Total Addressable Market (TAM)

Total Addressable Market (TAM) represents the total demand for a product or service, or the maximum revenue opportunity. The video suggests that focusing on a large TAM can make marketing efforts more effective and generate higher revenue.

💡Organic Reach

Organic reach refers to the number of people who see content without paid promotion. The discussion contrasts organic reach on YouTube with platforms like Facebook, noting that YouTube still offers significant opportunities for organic reach and long-term growth.

💡Marketing Channels

Marketing channels are the various platforms and methods used to promote and distribute content. The video discusses the importance of focusing on and mastering one channel before diversifying into others, to avoid spreading resources too thin.

Highlights

Creating content on YouTube requires consistency, as YouTube wants to see if you're a reliable content producer.

Consistency is crucial for building momentum and maintaining viewership on YouTube.

Producing high-quality content consistently is essential for getting more views and keeping the audience engaged.

Content that goes viral often leads to more consistent viewership and growth on YouTube.

Broad content topics tend to get more views but may generate fewer qualified leads.

Niche content, while generating fewer views, can attract more qualified leads and drive revenue.

YouTube is seen as a key social channel for the future, with potential for long-term organic growth.

Diversifying marketing channels is important to avoid relying on just one platform.

Staying focused on a single business is crucial, especially if it has a large total addressable market (TAM).

Russell Brand's success on YouTube is attributed to his excellent thumbnails.

The quality of thumbnails plays a significant role in attracting views on YouTube.

Running ads on Facebook is considered the primary way to generate revenue, as opposed to organic reach.

Ali Abdal, with millions of subscribers, emphasizes the challenge of staying focused on YouTube amidst potential diversification.

The importance of focusing marketing efforts on appealing to a large or lucrative audience for easier revenue generation.

Consistent production of viral content can significantly boost a YouTube channel's success.

Transcripts

(bell dings) - [Neil] This is Neil Patel,

helping you succeed through online marketing.

- All right, so for today, we're going to talk about,

here's what the top YouTubers taught us

about YouTube marketing.

Neil, you remember the George Gammon, who spoke at my thing?

This is probably the best takeaway I got here.

If you're going to be creating on YouTube, especially YouTube,

you're an employee of YouTube.

They're not just going to give you all the views

and give you all the promotions in the beginning.

They want to see if you're going to be a consistent employee.

Also, yesterday I hung out with Ali Abdal

and he has like five million subs or so,

his girlfriend's also YouTuber as well.

And they're like, "Man, I don't want to continue

"on this YouTube hamster wheel."

It's like, yeah, it's a commitment.

- It is a commitment.

And they're spot on right about the subscribers.

They have over a million subscribers.

Whether they have a million or 10 million,

it doesn't matter.

What matters is the content, but here's the kicker.

You got to A, be consistent in producing content,

but B, and B is even more important,

if the content you're producing isn't hits,

it's hard to actually get more hits.

But once you get two or three hits consistently, assuming

your content's really high in quality,

it's easy to maintain that momentum.

But the moment you create two or three hits

and then you just put out a few mediocre pieces of content,

it actually screws up the whole channel.

You got to make sure that

you're consistently trying to produce hits.

And what you'll find is more

of your content will just go viral.

And it's hard to do that.

And what we found is when we produce hits

that are more broad, like in the marketing world,

like here's the hack that'll help

your WordPress blog rank higher on Google,

we get a lot more views.

But then on the flip side,

we generate a lot less qualified leads.

But when we produce content that's not as much of a hit

like, should you use a subdomain

versus a subdirectory for SEO?

When your website is in 50 plus different languages,

content like that won't get the views.

But for us, it drives leads,

and leads from large enterprise companies

and that's what we're seeing revenue from YouTube at least.

- So this is Russell Brand.

I don't know if you follow him at all.

I just know he's like a purple belt,

Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy.

But he's really popular, like, 6.7 million subs.

He had some controversy recently.

But here's what George Gammon and Josh said.

It's like, his thumbnails are the best.

- Yeah, dude. A lot of these YouTubers do well.

But the one thing I would say is YouTube marketing is great,

even though Eric and I think it's the big social channel

that you should pay attention to

that's still going to be extremely popular

over the next five, 10 years.

Like, Facebook is great, but the real money

in Facebook is just running ads.

It's not really on the organic side.

YouTube, we still think you'll be able

to do really well organically in the long run.

But I still wouldn't recommend putting all

your eggs in one basket.

- Ali yesterday, we we're doing a podcast

and he's like, "Yeah, I struggle with the focus thing

"because it's like, well, I have YouTube

"and then what if YouTube maxes out?"

I'm like, the marketing channels you can diversify all day.

The worst thing is if you diversify

in too many different unrelated businesses,

that's a completely different story.

So it's okay to diversify marketing channels

once you figure one out.

- Yes, but not businesses.

Businesses, you should stay laser focused

and just make sure you're going after a big TAM.

TAM stands for a total addressable market.

It also makes your marketing easier

because if you can appeal to more people

or a bigger audience, or even if it's a small audience,

but they spend a lot of money,

it's just easier to generate revenue.

Now, if you have any questions, leave a com below.

I'm here to answer them and help you out.

If you enjoyed the video, like it,

share, tell people about it.

Thank you very much.