YouTube Marketing Tactics for Course Creators + Online coaches

In 10 days, I grew my email list by 115 people, all from YouTube. I posted two videos and combined those videos got just a little over 800 views. Not one video got over 800 views. One got like 301 got like 500. That's a 13% conversion rate from viewer to email subscriber. On top of that, I added a trip wire on the back end of this lead magnet. It was a $97 workshop, and that tripwire converted at 10%. That means 12 people bought my workshop from those 115 new email subscribers, generating over 1100 dollars in 10 days. No ad spend. Purely organic YouTube traffic. I share this with you because YouTube works to grow your audience, grow your email list, make you sales in your business. And I want to share with you the 10 most important strategies you need to know about being on YouTube as a business owner. If you're looking to grow your email list like I did, sell your stuff or book more clients straight from your videos, which, not even to mention your YouTube videos, will live much longer than a reel or a TikTok. So even that first 10 days, I got 115 email subscribers. I'm still getting email subscribers every single day and sales to that workshop every single day while those videos live on. As a business owner on YouTube, the first thing that you need to understand is your audience and making sure your video is offering real value. If you give YouTube the right information and you create the right content for your target audience, YouTube will put your videos in front of those people again for free. But you need to be creating the right type of content. This doesn't just mean beginner tutorial videos. These are the type of people that are going to be ready to buy from you. Now, I went into detail on this concept a few weeks ago on my YouTube channel. So I will link to that specific video right here for you to watch next. But again, as a business owner, you're not on here to attract the masses, because that's not who's going to convert into your email list, into working with you, into core sales. You want to attract quality viewers who need exactly what you have. They're aware of their problem. They're just not aware that you have that solution for them. For example, the video that I talked about that grew me 115 subscribers and made me $1,200 was targeted specifically for business owners, obviously, but struggling to stay consistent with their content plan. So in that video, I talked about what I do, and then I offered a free template for, for the exact marketing plan that I use and said you also get a free walkthrough on how to use this for your business as well. That's why I was able to convert 13% of those viewers into email subscribers. I was very specific with the video that I created, the person I created that video for, and the solution that I offered as a lead magnet. So as you're thinking about the content you're creating, the better you can create content for that specific person. Who's going to want that lead magnet, going to want your webinar, going to want your course. The better you can teach YouTube who your audience is and the quicker YouTube will find them. Put your videos in front of more people for $0. The second strategy you need to know is how to optimize your videos here on YouTube. When you optimize your videos right, not only are you going to improve your videos visibility, but you're going to be able to attract more viewers as well. But optimizing is not what you might think because it's not all about SEO. I'm going to be frank with you. I I use SEO research when I build out my initial strategy for YouTube and I teach my clients in the coaching program how to use SEO to build out their initial YouTube strategy as well. We use SEO to come up with the content ideas that we know a people are actually searching for. So is there search results or is there amount of searches per month on this topic and b is this topics that they're ready to buy viewer is looking for not just for the masses but people who are problem aware and they need to know you have the solution. That is how we use SEO. From there, when we're optimizing our videos, we're thinking about first title and thumbnail. I'm going to dive more into title and thumbnail coming up. But you've got to make sure your title stands out because if you just throw some boring SEO optimized title, it's not going to stand up alongside the other video titles that people are using to grab attention, Spotify, spark curiosity and really pitch the value of watching this video. So don't worry about shoving keywords to SEO your title. Think about the human that's going to see this video. What is going to cause them to click. The other pieces of optimizing your video you need to think about is what you're writing in your description box. Not just shoving keywords into like a micro blog which is important as well, but recommending additional videos that they may like based on that particular video so you're watching this video. If you look in the description box, I'm going to recommend you to specific videos around businesses wanting to use YouTube. Right. To encourage you maybe to binge watch some content on my channel. This is what YouTube wants. YouTube wants to promote videos that keep people watching. Now I'm going to talk about how we balance that with our business needs. But again, if you are making the algorithm happy keeping people watching more content, YouTube will reward you by putting you in front of more people. And you can also put links to your lead magnet, your opt in your work with me page in the description box as well. Because if they're watching this video and they're like, dang, Trina's really, really talking about what I want, I need to sign up for her free masterclass on YouTube. That's coming up down in the description box. Trina little.com forward slash masterclass. People will do that for you as well. If they like what you're sharing. If they feel connected to you and you add links in the description box, they will click on it. The other key piece of optimizing your videos that a lot of people don't realize is teeing up that next video for people to watch. So when you stay to the end of this video, because you are, you will notice in the last 20 seconds that I go to the corner of the video and there's a video recommended on your screen and I tell you why to watch that video next, when you can create this binge watching session again, you make YouTube happy, but you're also warming that viewer up. It's going to take a couple of videos of watching you for them to be like, yes, this is the person for me. And so if you keep them watching more of your videos and you tell them why they need to watch that next video, you're warming them up. You're getting them more prepared to convert to work with you. The next strategy is engagement and I actually dove into this in last week's video which I will link right here. But by building a loyal community here on YouTube, that is what's not only going to get the algorithm to push you to more people, but how you're going to build a built in community here on YouTube that's going to want to buy whatever you have to offer. So there are two things that I want to talk about when it comes to engagement. First, you can't just say like subscribe and comment. I don't know how many times I'm going to need to say this, but Every time I hear this, I'm like, seriously, instead of saying that you want to engage them in conversations they want to actually have, give them a good quality question that they will want to respond to and have a conversation with you down in the comments. Just telling them to comment. Well, what the heck are they supposed to comment? They don't want to come up with that. Tell them what you want to have a conversation with down in the description box. So, for example, if you are wanting to use YouTube as a business owner, what would you say is the biggest thing holding you back? Or if you are currently using YouTube and you're not seeing the results, what do you feel is holding you back? Let's have that conversation in the comments. And that is a much more valuable conversation than just saying comment in the comments. The other thing that I said, two things is not posting and ghosting. So not putting videos up here on YouTube and then bouncing. Because sadly I did this for the first couple of years here on YouTube. But that's because I was trying to be on way too many platforms at once and I just honestly didn't have the time. And I wish I would have took more time to connect with those that of you that were commenting back in the beginning. And so you want to make sure you're taking time every day to engage with people because YouTube communities can be powerful. Why do you think so many YouTubers have brand collabs or businesses like Blippi started here on YouTube, Mr. Beast Ryan's toy Channel. You can create an amazing community here on YouTube that will follow you everywhere. But you've got to work on building that community. The next strategy involves content planning and consistency. And as a business owner, I know you've got a lot of things that you're doing. You don't need to tell me. I always feel like there's things that I need to do, but the thing that is number one priority for me is always YouTube. Why? Because YouTube is what runs my business. If I'm not posting content here on YouTube, I'm not marketing my business. I'm not growing my audience, I'm not getting people on my email list. I'm not getting people to apply to work with me. YouTube is my primary piece of marketing content and if I'm not consistent, all of that dries up. I did do an entire series here on my YouTube channel on content planning, how I fit it in, and all my tips and tricks. I will link for you to watch after this video. But you've got to be making time for strategic YouTube videos. You've got to be adding this time on on your calendar and treat it like a must attend appointment. You've got to be dedicating your time to write your game plan, to film your videos. If you're editing, edit those videos. You've got to be able to batch as much of this as possible because that's what's going to allow you to stay posting once a week and to stay consistent here on YouTube. Because if you're building a strong community here on YouTube, they are anticipating that next video, they are wanting to see that next video. So that's why it's important to be consistent. And consistency may not mean every single week. Maybe it's every other week. How does it best fit into your schedule? I'm currently in a cycle where I'm filming YouTube videos every other week. I'm just wrapping up a six week series of where I've been publishing three videos a week to test out a case study. But I still have 60 coaching clients that I'm attending to. I've got soccer practices and golf practices and an actual life outside of my business. But I still treat YouTube as my number one priority because that is what moves the needle in my business. That is what gets traffic to my offers and the traffic is what buys my course works with me. Because if you aren't getting traffic, you aren't making sales. Alright, so there's a lot of content here that I've linked to that you can dive into. More about content planning that I've done. But I want to talk about the next strategy and that's looking at your analytics and analyzing them. Because a lot of people don't realize the analytics YouTube provides you here for free is some of the most exciting extensive analytics any other social platform provides you. Because YouTube wants you to be successful. The more content that you create that people are watching and keeping on the platform, the more money they are making. So they are literally giving you everything you need to know in your analytics on how to be successful here on YouTube. So if you aren't taking time at least once a month to dive into some key metrics in your analytics, you really got to miss out on the opportunity of maybe like shortcuts or easy buttons to creating better content that YouTube is going to promote for you. You when I work with my clients, I tell them the three metrics you should be looking at the most if you are low on time is click through rate again, how well your title and your thumbnail is getting people to click. Because if you can't get people to click. Doesn't matter how good your content is, no one will watch it. Then you also want to be looking at your audience retention graphs. This is going to help you create better content. Every time I sit down to plan out my next batch of videos, I look at my audience retention of my last videos and figure out what why was this hook better? Why was this audience retention better? Why was this bad? What can I not do that I did in this video, in my next video? And that will be a game changer with your content. And then the other metric I tell them to look at is the end screen click through rate because this is telling you how bingeable your content is. And if you are getting 4, 5, 6, 7% of people to click on an end screen or another video after they watched it, you are giving the algorithm exactly what it wants and you are warming your viewers up to watch more content of yours should be adding time each month, even if it's an hour to take a look at these numbers. You want to start making more sales, booking more clients, start speaking at speaking engagements, getting asked to speak on podcasts because reaching more people means more opportunities for you. So don't skip your analytics. All right, the next strategy I mentioned a little bit earlier is your thumbnail in your title. This is basically your marketing package of your video. This is what's going to stop the scroll so they stop on your video and get them to click. Now like I said, I mentioned about SEO and titles and why you want to make it more clickable than SEO able and I believe I mentioned this. But this is why I tell my clients to come up with a title and a thumbnail first. Because if they can't come up with a compelling title or a FOMO inducing title or a value inducing or value promising title and thumbnail. We need to pick a different direction for this video because the title and the thumbnail will honestly make or break the video. You also want to make sure you're getting that imagery for your thumbnails. And so I know it's weird to take photos of yourself, but at the end of every single video that I record, I already have a mock up of what I want my thumbnail to look like. And then I turn my camera on self timer and I shoot different variations of that image. And I'm telling you, having yourself on that thumbnail, people being able to see the whites of your eyes just causes people to click more. There's been studies done, but it just makes you seem more Trustworthy when they can see your face, when they see the whites of your eyes. That's why you see so many thumbnails with people kind of close up, right? If you look at my thumbnails, because we can see the whites of your eyes and it makes you seem more trustworthy. You also don't want to be cluttering your thumbnails with lots of text. I say three to five words max on your thumbnails. You don't want to be repeating the title of your video on the thumbnail. That's a waste of space. That's a big no, no. And you don't just want to be putting a lot of different icons and graphics and making it super confusing to look at. And the last thing I want to say about thumbnails is you want to keep it consistent. Think about your branding. How can you keep it consistent? So if they happen to watch one of your videos, it's easy for the next couple of thumbnails to stand out as well. So keep your branding in mind, too, when creating your thumbnails. Let's get into money and different monetization strategies that you can have on YouTube as a business owner. Now, YouTube has something really powerful no other social media platform has at this level, and it is monetization. AdSense. YouTube can send you will send you a paycheck every month once you hit a certain threshold, which is a thousand subscribers, 4,000 hours of watch time. Now, this isn't money that I'm retiring over. For me, I'm making a couple hundred dollars. I have some clients that are making more, you know, 800, 900. I have a particular client that's making, you know, thousands of dollars on ad. But it's a nice paycheck to get for content you're already going to be creating because meta is not sending you a check, right? My goal with my AdSense is to be able to pay for my video editor. And if my AdSense pays for my video editor, I'm good to go. But there are more monetization opportunities on YouTube because brands and companies are willing to spend more money partnering, sponsoring people who have YouTube videos. Why? Because those brands and those businesses know YouTube videos live forever. And when you do a collaboration with them on a story or a reel, they know the lifespan of that content is maybe a few days. But they will pay more for people who are doing YouTube videos because those videos live longer and they get more value. So you can make more money from brand deals and sponsorships with YouTube content. I have also been able to use YouTube to get me paying speaking engagements, engagements that I didn't even apply to speak for. They found my content, they watched me, they like how I spend, spoke, they like how I taught, and they reach out to have me speak at their event and pay me for that. So that's another way you can open up monetization strategies. The other way is affiliates. There are softwares and tools and things that I use every day in my business that I share with you. Then I talk about, you know, if you want to learn more about them, they're in the description box. I make over a thousand dollars a month just from affiliate revenue from software companies. And then I have an Amazon store where I share with you my favorite equipment that everybody asked me, some of my office essentials like my standing desk and my Wal walking pad. And people go to my Amazon shop every day, buy things, and I make money from Amazon as well. So YouTube really has this power of opening up revenue streams for yourself. And one of my clients in my coaching program, she said she has six revenue streams just from YouTube alone. Do you have that on reels? The next strategy I want to talk about is your video production. Now, I talked way more about video production in last week's video, which I will link here. When it comes to video production, I get asked about this all the time, like how fancy does my camera need to be, how do I need to set up my background, what about my editing? And then the truth of the matter is you can get quality video content if you're thinking about who your audience is and the value they want to receive from you. Nowadays, you can get quality content or quality video straight from your cell phone. In fact, I've shot multiple videos with my cell phone. There are budget pieces of equipment like refurbished cameras and cheaper microphones and much cheaper ring lights than when I started eight years ago. So there are ways to get really quality video without needing to spend spend a lot of money. I mentioned my Amazon shop earlier and I will put that in the description box. And you can see some of the equipment that I use. Then other equipment that I've tested and then other equipment that I've heard is great because I'm not buying every single piece of equipment that comes out. I don't want to buy all of that stuff. I like my tried and true, which is my Sony ZV1 on my Joby tripod and my rode mic, right, connected into my camera. So if you're interested in having a conversation about what you want to buy or what camera you're looking at drop it in the comments and I can give my feedback on what I've heard or what I've tried. So you can feel really confident creating content with quality video options. The key when it comes to this, though, is making it simple. I worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and they're busy, you're busy. And the easiest way to stay consistent on YouTube, which is a strategy I told you earlier, you need to focus on, is making filming easy. That's why my camera is always ready to go here on my desk, so I can get these videos shot when I need them to get done. I want to next talk about personal branding here on YouTube and I did a video on one of my Transparency Sunday videos all about personal brand or company brand, and I will link that up here. But I honestly believe if you are starting out as a coach, course creator, or a membership owner, you've got to have a personal brand because people are going to buy from you. They aren't buying from a company. They need to like you. They need to like your style, your way of teaching your vibe, so to speak. And so you need to think about your personal brand showing up here on YouTube and YouTube is one of the best places to build that personal brand because it is you on camera speaking eye to eye with somebody on the other end. You're also able to tie in stories or examples in these videos to connect with that person listening to you, to be like, she's gone through what I've gone. That happened to me too. And that's what makes you that person they want to work with, that person they want to buy from. Because odds are what you do, other people do. And you are going to stand out being yourself. And the people that like who you are, the way you teach, the way you show up, are going to buy from you versus your competitors, our niche neighbors. And I know a lot of you think, well, I don't want to get pigeonholed into this brand. Your brand can evolve and change as much as you want to. In fact, I did an entire series on my first five years in business and the eras that I went through during that time. I will link that playlist in the description box because I think I maxed out my cards up here. I am involved through those first five years of my business and I'm currently feel like I'm going through this evolution of a new era as well. So even though you show up as one person today, two years ago, six months from now, you can show up differently and evolve your brand. And that's relatable. People will connect with that and want to follow you on your journey and hear your story in that evolution. Next, I think is really important to understand if you're going to show up on YouTube and you want to see results and it's don't be afraid to experiment and try new things here on YouTube. YouTube landscape does change the algorithm not so much, but the types of videos, the styles of videos do. And I think in today's world, we're so caught up in having the perfect strategy, the perfect video, and sometimes it's just trying something new that you're excited about, that you're passionate about. That's exactly where I was when I started posting my Sunday videos. I wanted to just, just post real thoughts, almost like a stream of consciousness and what I'm going through, share that business isn't always rainbows and butterflies and it's doing really well and it's not strategic. I didn't have some big game plan behind it. I just wanted to try a different style of video, a super raw, simply edited video where I'm sharing my experiences. And I wouldn't have known those videos would connect with you all so much if I didn't just take a step out of my strategy and try something new. We also had a client recently who said, I want to do some different videos. And we like to call these wild card videos. And if you look at her channel, Ashlyn of Ashlyn writes, she did two different videos and they really skyrocketed for her where she talked about how she hates the seven figure business that she built. And I'm showing the other one on the screen right now, but I can't think of it. And these were no strategy behind them. These were just her wanting to share her insights, her thoughts, what she's currently going through right now. So don't get so wrapped up on. Once you build a YouTube strategy, that is exactly how you need to do it. Give yourself some leeway, some wiggle room to test different styles like a vlog or different types of content that you want to share with your audience. I help my coaching clients with these steps every single day. I provide them daily feedback, I provide them milestones that hit and then we get on milestone calls to talk about what they did in that milestone. We also do one on one hot seat seats together as well. I'm also handing over training videos, swipe templates processes that help them get started on YouTube and see results quicker. There is not any other YouTube coaching program out there like the one that I am providing to business owners who want to focus on YouTube as their marketing strategy. And there's not one out there that's providing the level of feedback and support that I provide my clients on a daily basis. And so if you know YouTube is where you want to hang your hats and you know you want to see results from YouTube and if you're on YouTube and you're not seeing the results that you want to see from YouTube, you want someone looking at your channel and saying, oh, your click through rate is down, change it like this. Oh, your audience retention is down. Maybe change your video up the next time to do this instead. Oh, this topic is doing really well. How about we build a strategy around that topic, stop procrastinating and go join my coaching program right now@treanalittle.com y t c e YouTube coaching experience. We're not going to have the doors open to this coaching experience very long because I do have a limited amount of spots available because it is so high touch. I am answering their questions and giving them feedback every day and I understand their YouTube channel and strategy and their offers and their business in and out and so I can't have loads of people in there. This isn't something that I'm scaling. This is very high touch. So if you want a chance to grab your spot now to be working on your YouTube channel this summer and launch it by the 4th of July. We are going to be going through a YouTube launch sprint starting on May 22nd with my clients inside the YouTube coaching experience so that they can get it up and running and they can actually enjoy their summer while their YouTube videos do all the hard work for them. If you are committed to getting on YouTube, starting on YouTube, elevating your YouTube strategy, getting more out of your YouTube channel, join us today because once we have our spots full, that is it. That is all I can take until someone decides they don't want to be a client anymore. So if you have questions about this, this program, share them in the comments or reach out to me personally. And I hope I see you in this program because it is my passion right now working with these clients one on one in my program. Now if you want to learn more ways how to DIY this, watch the series that's on your video right now.