Ask any YouTuber and they will tell you that generating significant views and subscribers isn't easy. But with the right strategy and tools, any video creator can build an engaged subscriber base when they understand what those subscribers want to watch.

Appealing to an audience to watch content you are passionate about making is just the first step, you need to know how to reach them and get your videos discovered. Our guides to how to guide more views on YouTube will give you the best tips to succeed on the platform.

How To Get More Views on YouTube

Do you want to make money on YouTube? Millions of creators are earning a very good living from the platform by uploading content that drives huge views and engagements. Whether that income is from advertising revenue, merch sales, or brand deals, we keep you updated with best practises and ideas.

How To Make Money on YouTube

Do you know how to do keyword research so you understand what videos people are actually searching for on YouTube? Do you know how to create a custom YouTube thumbnail? Do you know how to create a Playlist on YouTube?

vidIQ has a ton of tips that will help every creator maximise their video content. We publish content every week to keep you up to date with all the best practices.

YouTube Tips & Tricks

If you’ve put off creating your own YouTube channel because you’re overwhelmed with the choices you need to make or are panicking because you feel you lack the right skills to succeed, worry no more and welcome to the only resource you’ll need to fulfill your video creator dreams.

If this is your first time here, we have a 

 that aims to educate you on your YouTube journey. And if it is your plan to grow your channel, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and click on our notification bell so you don't miss any of our latest tips, tricks, advice, and news.

How to Start Your YouTube Channel: 10 Top Tips

We promised 20 tips to kickstart your YouTube channel, so let's start delivering on that promise with 10 tips in this post and 10 tips in the 

. All the tips are covered in this video too:

So amazingly, there are still some people out there who are thinking of starting a YouTube channel and have been for months, possibly even years. My advice to you is, ready or not, start now. And I'm not telling you this as a New Year's resolution. Every moment you hesitate or procrastinate, there are thousands of video creators starting their YouTube channel today, and gobbling up all your potential audience. You don't want that.

Feel the fear, do it anyway. Start, press record. Record whatever you want today. It doesn't matter if it doesn't end up on YouTube. You need to gain experience in getting in front of the camera, getting behind the camera, using your editing program. You need to start creating content to find out whether or not you enjoy making videos before you know whether or not you enjoy being a YouTuber.

Tip #2 Learn How YouTube Works, No Seriously:

The chances are, that the first video you make is going to absolutely suck. Fantastic, you've made a video. You've made the first step, and in six months’ time, you'll look back at that first video and think yeah, that really was terrible, but you've gotta start the journey somewhere. And with that, you've gotta start your YouTube channel somewhere as well, even if you're not ready. Create a YouTube account, upload a video to YouTube. You don't have to publish it, that's the important thing.

You need to gain experience going through the workflow of uploading videos. The last thing you want is having a brilliant video ready to upload, but you don't know how the YouTube system works. Again, experience is going to trump any advice any of us can give you, so record a video, upload it to YouTube. You don't have to publish it.

Tip #3 Develop a Strategy you Will Actually Follow:

While getting some practical experience behind you is obviously a good thing, you also want some form of strategy. So, answer these questions:

What do you want your channel to achieve on YouTube

, and when you're answering this, try and answer it from a viewer's perspective, not your perspective. So I don't want to hear about hitting 10,000 subscribers, a million views, or whatever. If your viewers know that you're in it for your own self-gain, they will see through it and immediately switch off. Viewers want to know what they can gain from the content, and you want to sell that as much as possible in your videos.

 Again, try and be as specific as possible. What age range? What gender, if you are going to a particular gender? What type of demographic? What are they interested in? You need to know who's going to watch your content.

 There are millions of gaming channels out there, hundreds of thousands of Fortnite channels out there. How are you going to distinguish your content from everybody else who's already on YouTube making content? You need to disrupt the status quo, not join it, because you'll never be seen.

how are you going to deliver this content?

 Is it going to be every day, once a week, at a particular time of the day? Think about when your audience is most likely to watch YouTube, and how much YouTube they can watch per week, and then tailor your content to those watching habits, and think about whether you're going to do video on demand, live streams, what's going to be best for you and your audience?

Tip #4 Find Your Niche and Build the Hell Out of It:

live streams, you'll know this one off by heart. Niche down. Let me give you a quick example. What's your channel about? If you're giving an answer such as, "My channel's about beauty, and it's about travel, "and it's about vlogging," then it's about too many things. 

. It should be about one specific topic, when you start your channel, because you need to appeal to a very specific audience.

Once you've grown your channel, and you've got millions of subscribers who fall in love with you, you can take them on a journey wherever you want, but to begin with, the audience is only interested in the content. They have no investment in you. Try and remember that. It's a cruel lesson to understand, but it will help you when you first start out on YouTube.

Once you've thought about and answered all of these questions, I want you to wrap it all up in a nice little present, called your value proposition. This is your elevator pitch. Try and tell your audience who you are, and why they should watch you, in around about six words.

. It tells you the who, YouTubers, video creators, and why they should watch, because they will learn how to grow their channels. But we've managed to do that in four words. Now it's your turn.

Tip #6 Invest in the Right Audio Equipment:

If you've just started out on YouTube, and you're wondering what your first tech upgrade should be, it is 100% audio, and here's why. Bad audio is so much more distracting than bad video, and everybody hates onboard microphones. 

So if you can, get yourself a dedicated microphone for your camera,

 and if you're recording from a computer, you can't go far wrong with a Blue Yeti.

Tip #7 Create a Formula with Template Videos:

Videos need structure, so when you make your next video, try to think of how you will develop a show formula, that you can use as a template for your future videos. Remember at the beginning of this video, I literally gave you a hook. An introduction, a teaser to what's going to be going on for the rest of this video. Then we have the branded intro, followed by an introduction to who we are for new viewers, a call to action to subscribe to our channel, and then we jumped into the meat of the content where we are right now, and at the end of this video, you'll see how we round this all up.

Your show formula will take time to structure, and it will evolve over the course of your YouTube journey. Try and keep an eye out for this when you watch your favorite YouTubers. As rough and as random as they might appear, there is always structure and story behind each video, and that's why you watch them.

Some people love analytics, others hate them, but there are a couple that are crucial to keep an eye on, whether or not you want to look at that analytics. The first is 

This represents how enticing your titles are, and how clickable your thumbnails are. Check the click-through rate for your channel as a whole, and on individual videos as you test. I'm not going to give you all of the same target to reach. Check what your current click-through rate is, and whether it's two, four, six, or eight percent. I want you to try and improve that by two to three percent this year. It will bring in so many more views.

The other metric, as it always has been, is 

. Generally speaking, the more watch time you get, the more YouTube is going to promote your content. But if you make shorter videos, that doesn't necessarily mean you must make longer videos, because your audience might not react very well to those longer videos.

What I will say is maximize the value of your watch time in the videos that you have. That's by looking at relative audience retention. How does your video stack up to similar videos, in terms of whether people are still watching or not, and try and improve the relative audience retention. Having said that, if your average view duration is 60, 70, 80%, you're doing really well, and it gives you a license to try testing longer videos.

Verify your YouTube account. That will give you access to the most important tool on YouTube, which is custom thumbnails. We've got a video here on how to do it.

Tip #10 Create an Engaging, Interesting Channel Banner:

If I see another generic cityscape, or rolling hills in the channel banner when we do channel audits, I'm going to rip out my hair.

10 more tips or creating and growing your YouTube channel

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and 

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

Members of the vidIQ family that have upgraded to our Boost and Pro packages get immediate access to the Academy 

 so you can kickstart your YouTube success today! Access to the exclusive vidIQ academy will give you a huge advantage over your competitors from the get-go. 

Kick off your YouTube dreams with the tools you need to launch YOUR channel. We've got the top tips just for you!

How to Start a YouTube Channel: 10 Brilliant Tips

This post is all about how you can monetize your content on YouTube to start generating revenie. The are four golden rules to making money on YouTube, and they are:

You need to have 1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel

Your videos have generated 4,000 Watch Time hours over the last 12 months

You comply with all YouTube's policies and guidelines

#1 The YouTube Partner Program Requirements

Commonly known as the YouTube Partner Program, or YPP for short, you'll need to hit all four requirements before your channel will be accepted.

Let's start with the 1,000 subscribers. This one is pretty straightforward, it doesn't matter how long it takes you to get to 1,000 subscribers, once you hit that milestone, you've reached that requirement.

As well as 1,000 subscribers, you also need 4,000 hours of Watch Time on your videos over the last 12 months. There is some confusion with this one, so let me try and clarify that. First of all, this is not about how much video content you, the YouTube creator watch. This is all about how much video content is watched on your channel from people all across the world. It’s all those hours of video that people have watched on your channel in the last 12 months (from any given date). You could well have well 4,000 hours of Watch Time over the lifetime of your channel, but it's only the last 12 months that count for YouTube Partner Program requirements.

Another couple of things to tell you about Watch Time. Live streams do count towards that total. Unlisted videos also count towards that total. But if you delete any videos, that Watch Time will be removed from your channel Watch Time hours. And one more final thing, if you are already in the YouTube Partner Program, and if your channel falls below 4,000 hours of Watch Time, YouTube won't automatically remove you from the partner program, but they can do it at their discretion. If you want a much more detailed video on the topic of 4,000 hours specifically, check out this video:

If you want to check the progress of above requirements, you can do so by clicking on your logo in the top right-hand corner of most YouTube pages, and then clicking on YouTube Studio Beta. You can view all of your analytics here, but to quickly check progress on monetization, hover your mouse over "Other features", and then click on "Status and Features". On this screen, you should see a monetization box, and if you click "Learn more", it will tell you exactly where you currently stand with subscribers and Watch Time hours.

But if all of that sounds like too much hard work, then we've got a free tool that will do all of this much quicker and more efficiently. If you 

 on pretty much every YouTube screen, you will see a collection of real-time stats all about your channel. It will show you your channel's views per hour, views over the last 48 hours, and your subscriber count. But the really cool thing is that it will track your progress to 4,000 hours of Watch Time too! Once you hit 4,000 hours, that number will turn green to show you you've reached that monetization requirement.

#2 Following YouTube Rules for Monetization

Next on the list is the rule book. If you want to monetize your content, you need to make sure you stick to it, as YouTube state:

When you apply for the YouTube Partner Program, you'll go through a standard review process to see whether your channel meets YouTube's policy and guidelines. Only channels that meet them will be accepted into the program.

YouTube also constantly check channels in the program to see whether they continue to meet YouTube's policies and guidelines. These policies and guidelines that are very comprehensive, given all of the growing pains YouTube have had of finding the right balance between creators, viewers, and advertisers. I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with these 

 if you want to monetize your content in the future.

However, if you are in a TLDR mood, to summarize, apply common sense. If you think a video might be inappropriate, chances are it is, and you make such content at your own risk.

#3 Copyright and Monetization Policies on YouTube

Among YouTube's policies and guidelines is the huge topic of copyrighted material. Essentially, if you use other people's work, then you could be using copyrighted material without their permission, and YouTube does not want you to do that. It will almost certainly get you demonetized or prevent you from entering the YouTube Partner Program. Let's look at this in a little more detail.

For most of you, this is the most important monetization policy. You have to make sure that you're adding value to any third party content you monetize, and that your content has significant original commentary, educational value, or editorialized statement. And let's be clear, that still might not be enough. This does not give you a license to use other people's content in your videos all the time, because if you do, YouTube may use this as an argument not to monetize your content.

YouTube confirms that if all or most of your channel is dedicated to reused content, and you're not transforming the original work by adding your own unique value, 

then your channel is not eligible for the YouTube Partner Program.

 The spirit of this policy is to make sure that YouTube are incentivizing unique and original content into the YouTube Partner Program, and that YouTube are protecting and rewarding the creators who work hard on original content.

Now, some may see YouTube's spirit of a policy as an excuse to demonetize channels they don't want in the monetization program, but let's have a look at it from this point of view. You spent days, hours creating a magnificent piece of content, and it goes viral on YouTube. And then a dozen random video creators steal that content, upload it, generate hundreds of thousands of views, and end up profiting handsomely from it. How would you feel if that happened? That's what YouTube is trying to protect - original content from video creators.

Admittedly, reused, duplicate content, and copyright content is a broad gray area on YouTube, and they don't always get it right. And you may look at some channels on YouTube and see that they're clearly flaunting these rules. Well, you don't know what their individual circumstances are, they may have permission to use that content, or they may get caught in the future, and you don't want to follow the examples of channels that are doing this. It's not a road to success.

Ultimately YouTube is the gatekeeper. They hold all of the keys. You are on rented ground, and if you flaunt these rules, and break them, then don't be surprised when YouTube comes after you.

#4 Linking a Google Adsense Account with a YouTube Channel

If you are going to earn money from your videos, YouTube needs a way to pay you, and at least to begin with, this will be done through an AdSense account. A few things you need to know about this, if you already have an AdSense account, you can use that. You can connect multiple channels to one AdSense account, and if you haven't got an AdSense account, you can set one up during the YouTube Partner Program application process.

#5 Applying to the YouTube Partner Program

Let's remind ourselves of those requirements one more time: You need:

1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel

4,000 Watch Time hours on your videos over the last 12 months

To comply with all YouTube's policies and guidelines

When you've applied YouTube Partner Program, it may take up to a month for the platform to make a decision. That’s because actual humans will review your channel so it’s a manual process. Some channels have been approved in days, so it could be quicker. However, if it does take longer than a month, then your channel will usually be placed in further review. When this happens, unfortunately, the wait times can get very long. Three, six, possibly even 12 months. In some unfortunate cases, YouTube never seems to come to a decision, leaving the creator in monetization limbo.

We appreciate that this can be a very frustrating position to find yourself in as a video creator, as many of you have commented about this on our videos here at vidIQ. Unfortunately, we ourselves cannot help push the process forward for you, so what we recommend you do is to talk to TeamYouTube on Twitter, make sure that everybody knows that you have an issue with your monetization decision.

YouTube say that this will never speed up the process, but at least having some decision is something you should deserve as a video creator.

#6 Being Rejected from the YouTube Partner Program: Next Steps

Now let's say that you've applied for the YouTube Partner Program, but you've been rejected. What can you do?

When you are rejected from the YouTube Partner Program, YouTube will give you a general reason why. Unfortunately, they won't tell you specifically what video or content is causing the issue, so you may be left blindly adjusting your channel. However, the good news is you can reapply for the program in 30 days' time.

Again, this is where you will have to use your common sense. If you think there are videos that are walking the community guideline and policies tightrope, then they most likely are and you need to adjust them. If there are videos that have copyright content on them then those are probably causing a problem with YouTube as well, so you will need to delete them.

Creators have asked when they apply for the partner program, will having a community guideline strike or a copyright strike against my channel prevent me from getting into the program? The answer is probably no, it definitely won't prevent you, but it is going to have an impact.

There is a dedicated support page with advice on what you should do if you are rejected from the YouTube Partner Program, and 

Once you are in the Partner Program, and you want to take your monetization a step further by earning money from Super Chats, membership, and merchandise, take a look at this video on the subject:

Want to know how to monetize your channel and start making money on YouTube? Take a look at our beginner's guide!

How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel - A Beginner's Guide

At vidIQ we often get asked the question, "What music do we use on our videos?" Well, we’ll tell you. Point your web browser to 

 and this will take you to YouTube's own growing stash of free music you can use in your videos. There are several filters you can use to drill down into a particular genre, mood, instrument, and all music duration. In case you’re wondering. ‘Arp Bounce’ is the exact music we use on all of our YouTube beginner's guide videos. The YouTube audio library is completely free, and anyone can use it and still monetize your YouTube content.

Referencing Music in Your YouTube Description

The one thing you need to be careful about is whether or not you need to reference the music in your video description. This is easily checked through the attribution filter in YouTube’s library. When you click on the tune, it will show you exactly what you need to copy and paste into the video description:

Free, Royalty-Free Music from Other Sources

Now, of course there are hundreds of services, both paid and free, off the YouTube platform that provide royalty free music. Although you're never 100 percent sure of where that music's coming from.

If you downloaded it from another YouTube video or a random website then it might not be royalty free and you could find yourself in very hot water later down the line. So, we always recommend getting your free music from the audio library on YouTube because you are guaranteed to be able to use it on the platform without any issues and be able to monetize your content. Oh and now would also seem like the perfect opportunity to let you know that you can also download loads of sound effects for free which you can filter by category and sound too!

What’s the easiest way to find music for free that you can actually use on YouTube without any copyright issues on your monetized content? Find out here!

How to Get The Best, Free Music For YouTube [Royalty Free!]

As a YouTuber, you possess the amazing skill of being able to tell stories via video, a skill that's absolutely necessary in today's business and marketing world. How can you use that skill to generate additional revenue? The answer is on this week’s episode of TubeTalk.

Video is an incredibly effective way of generating business leads - but your content needs to resonate with the target audience to be effective. So how do you get viewers to engage with your B2C or B2B uploads as part of your marketing funnel? We’re joined this week by Ben Amos, a video marketing expert from 

The key elements of the customer journey when it comes to video strategy

How to use the power of storytelling for your video content

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast!

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

Why Video is So Powerful for the Marketing Funnel: Full Transcript

Ben Amos:	Thanks, Liron. Thanks for having me on the show.

Liron Segev:	Oh, absolutely. Who is Ben in a tweet?

Ben Amos:	In short, I'm passionate about helping people engage their customers using strategic video marketing. It's the idea of having a strategy behind the videos that you're creating, so that it leads people to take the right sort of action. So, I don't know if that'll fit in a tweet, but that's the long and the short of it.

Liron Segev:	Well already, right off the bat, there's lots to unpack, because you've used a lot of keywords that are very close to my heart, and one of them is strategy. Lets start off the conversation there. Let's pretend I have a business and the business comes to you and says, "look, I need more sales." How do you start kind of connecting with that business and starting to guide them through that process?

Ben Amos:	Sure. So, I mean that's at the core of business, right, is making sales, is moving a customer towards making a purchase decision. And for me that's where it really needs to start. It is understanding who that audience is, or who that customer is, that you want to move through to actually make a decision to part with their cash and buy from you. So at the foundation of strategy when it comes to video, is about really understanding the audience, or the customer, or your ideal customer, and the journey that they, potentially will take, in order to buy from you.

So it's much more than just, "How can I convince them to part with their cash and buy my thing." It's more important to understand that it's a journey that they go on, and that journey starts with an emotion. People buy with emotion, and then they justify that decision with logic and reasoning later on.

So at the foundation of it, it's about understanding that journey that someone goes on to buy. The process that I'll share with you now, around understanding that journey that the customer goes on, to buy from a business, can be equally applied to other forms of digital marketing, other than video. But obviously video is just so powerful in moving people from a phase of an emotional connection that they have, through to actually making decisions, rational, thoughtful decisions to actually purchase something.

So video is very powerful across that whole journey. So, to kind of paint a picture for you, in marketing terms, we talk about the idea of a funnel. And I'll unpack this for you a bit as well. For those non-marketers out there. And it's the idea that basically we can apply different types of content, in different ways, as customers move through a funnel through to actually falling out of the bottom of the funnel, to basically make a purchasing decision.

Now when you picture of funnel, it's not a real funnel. We're talking hypothetically here. The idea that at the top of the funnel, it's wider. The opening, where people, ideally, come into your marketing funnel, is wider, which means you're going to catch more people. You want to get, basically everyone who potentially can buy from you to come in at the top of the funnel.

Now as you move people down that funnel, you want to be actually making deliberate decisions within your marketing, and the way that you communicate to people, to actually move them further down the funnel. So that, at the bottom of the funnel, you're going to get... Not everyone who comes in at the top of the funnel is going to fall out the bottom and buy, become a customer, right? So that's why we picture it like a funnel. And as we get to the bottom of the funnel, then we need to talk very specifically to people who are almost ready to convert. They're almost ready to buy. And the way we talk to people at the bottom of the funnel is very different to the way we need to communicate with people at the top of the funnel, who are otherwise disengaged with you, your business, or your solution.

So when we talk about video, applying video within that marketing funnel, it all starts with, like I said, with emotion, right? Some of your listeners maybe have heard of, or seen a fairly well known Ted Talk, by a guy called Simon Sinek, where he talks about how great leaders inspire action. And it's the concept of basically starting with the why. But that idea is basically at the foundation of effective communication. And that is, recognizing that as humans, we connect with ideas emotionally in a different part of our brain, than we do with the rational kind of thoughts and decisions that we make.

So, as Simon Sinek explains, if we start by communicating with the why, that's an emotional connection that we make, right? So that's where the top of the funnel starts, with making the right emotional connection with someone who is feeling some kind of emotional pain, or some kind of emotion that's going to trigger them to move into your funnel. Right?

So, the first types of video we really need to be focused on, is videos that connect on an emotional level first, and don't worry at that stage about trying to make that rational decision and sell.

Liron Segev:	We talk about a cold audience versus a warm audience versus a hot audience. Do you want to go into those as well, because those also have an effect of where people fit into that funnel journey.

Ben Amos:	Yeah, absolutely. And that idea of a cold audience is, when you picture that funnel, that's at the top of that funnel. So people are coming into the top of the funnel. They are potentially, likely to be a cold audience, which means they haven't necessarily, come across your brand before, so they're cold to you. So you need to warm them up. And warming them up is the process of moving them through the funnel. Because a warm audience is those people that, I guess you would call them, kind of in the middle of the funnel.

They're in that consideration phase, where they're aware, now, of your brand, potentially aware of the solution that you can provide, but they're weighing up their options, and they're seeking more information. And then as you get to the hot audiences, they're the people who are, like I said, at the bottom of the funnel, and potentially just on the edge of purchasing, and they just need to be pushed over the line, right?

Liron Segev:	So can we use video throughout this process? Can we use video at the top and middle and bottom of the funnel?

Ben Amos:	Yeah, so I talk about a framework, which I call the full funnel video strategy framework, which is... And I can break it down in simple terms for you, it's the idea of, there are in the marketing funnel that we're talking about here, there are three main stages. And we talked about top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel. And the way to think about those stages is, the top of funnel is that emotional connection that we need to make.

The goal of video at the top of the funnel is brand positioning or brand awareness. So that's the first goal - connecting on an emotional level with people, and positioning your brand or your business or your solution, alongside the emotions that they're feeling. So the goal of that top of funnel content is to get people to buy in, well before you ask them to buy.

Okay? So if you can get them to buy in, it's an emotional connection, right? So if you can get someone through the videos that you use to make them feel that, "Man, they know me, they really get the pain I'm feeling. I buy in to them as being the right solution for me." Then if you've done that well, and the best way to do that is through using storytelling, through using emotional forms of communication, through video and stories are just so powerful at doing that.

So telling brand stories, like the big why behind the brands, positioning how the brand comes alongside their clients and helps them achieve their own goals through telling client stories as well. Not testimonials, testimonials are bottom of the funnel stuff. Client stories, helping people see the potential brighter future, that they potentially can have when they use this product or service or whatever it may be. So are you with me? We've got that type of emotional storytelling.

Liron Segev:	So what would be some good examples of top of the funnel type of content that could be put into a video form?

Ben Amos:	Sure. So, using that storytelling idea, and I think critical to understanding that is that every good story needs a hero, right? So you need a character or a hero, that's going to overcome adversity, and triumph at the end of the day. That's what drives a good story forward.

Now, when it comes to brand or business storytelling, the thing that trips people up a lot of times is, "Well, who's the hero of this story?" And obviously, in many brand and business storytelling cases, we don't necessarily want to create a fictional character like you would if you doing a feature film, right? So we need to use storytelling techniques in order to engage people emotionally, and to move them to take the right sort of action.

The best way to do that is to understand that the hero of the story is not the brand or the business. So, you are not the hero of your own story in your business. The hero of the story is the client, or a representation of who the ideal client is for your brand or business. Because like I said before, someone who is at the top of the funnel, who is cold to your brand or business, they don't care about you, they care about them.

So you want to be telling stories. And this is why I kind of favor the idea of using client stories, because if you're a brand or a business that helps people achieve a win, right? It helps them do something better or achieve something in their life, which at the heart of it, most businesses are in some way.

So, if you identify what that win is, and identify who that ideal client is, and if you can tell stories around how you come alongside as the mentor or the guide, to help that hero client achieve their desired outcome or win, in their life, then those stories can be so powerful in taking that action, which is to actually get people to buy in emotionally, and to feel something, that makes them feel more positive about your brand. And they want to actively come into your funnel, right, to use that terminology from before. If you can tell that story well, then you can get people warmed up nicely into the funnel, and we can continue to move them down towards making a purchase from you.

Liron Segev:	Perfect. So the message is, the brand is actually not the hero. The client is actually the hero, is going on some sort of a quest, and you're there to help them along and find the answers that they're looking for.

Ben Amos:	Absolutely, absolutely. And there are many different ways to tell that story. And you can look to YouTube for a lot of inspiration of brands doing this well. When you think about the big brands of the world, whether it be Heineken or Nike or any of the big brands, the key focus of their big campaigns, their big ad campaigns, is exactly this. It's a top of funnel content. And good storytelling is everywhere in that space. So, although you don't need to have the same budgets as those big guys, you recognize that they're coming alongside and positioning their customer as the hero. And you'll see this all the time.

Liron Segev:	I think it was Nike who had a running shoe ad, where it was all about the client, or some big guy who's starting to get into running, and it's his journey. And it was beautiful, because Nike was just happened to be the shoe, but it wasn't about the shoe. It was about the journey that this guy is going on, which was absolutely superbly done. All right. So now we have top of funnel. Now you've got me on an emotional level. You're going to solve a pain point that I have. What's next?

Ben Amos:	So now, as we move down into the middle of the funnel, we talk about the audience being more warm, which means, at this stage of the funnel, they're now aware of their problem. So they're actively seeking answers to their problem. So, at the top of the funnel, often people aren't even aware that they have a problem, but they're open to receiving messages that connect with them and resonates with them. So when we get to the middle of the funnel, now they're aware of their problem, and they're actively seeking solutions. So we talk about them being in a consideration phase of their journey as they move through.

So in the consideration phase, I talk about the goal as being social engagement. And I use those terms very specifically, because social, meaning person to person connection, conversation, right? This is where people want to engage and connect with someone who's potentially going to provide an answer to their problem, right?

So social engagement content is all about educating, informing, inspiring, or entertaining. So you want to actually kind of think about, How can I produce content in the middle of the funnel, which is targeted at someone who is wanting to learn more about this, or wanting to find out answers to this or, open to being entertained by me with this marketing message here, right? So, the goal for this content is to provide small wins to people, so that you can position your brand or business, over and above your competition.

So potentially, it's about people who's looking around them at this stage, they're now trying to find the best answer, the best solution, the best thing to buy, that's going to help them with the problem that they feel. And if they're seeing content from you, from your brand, that provides them with small wins, helps them feel more educated, informed, or inspired about this outcome that they're going to get, then they're going to move themselves towards the bottom of the funnel.

Liron Segev:	You're not teasing them saying, "'Hey, if you buy this product, I'll solve your problem, but you're actually providing little bits of value, at the middle of the funnel stage, right?

Ben Amos:	Absolutely. There's a term in digital marketing, marketing in general, which is the idea of moving the free line in your business. So, for so many businesses, they have a free line and that basically, you kind of picture everything above that free line is free. So it's the information they share willingly, without you needing to pay for it. And then below that free line is everything that, "If you want to learn this, you've got to pay me." Right? "If you want to get this solution, you've got to pay us." So in the past, basically, that free line was pretty high for most businesses.

Because prior to the internet and digital conversation, you would need to basically... Let's use a solicitor or a lawyer for example. You used to have to basically find them, go in for a meeting, maybe they'll do one free meeting with you, and then you had to pay to get any other kind of answers from them.

Now, of course, with the internet, it's kind of built on a foundation of free. You can Google anything and get an answer, right? Now, it might not be the right answer, but you can find the answer. So, with that in mind, how can you move the free line in your particular business, to give away value, before you ask people to buy from you. And who are people more likely to buy from? It's the brand, or the business they have had more value from. Does that make sense?

Liron Segev:	Yeah, absolutely. Because they've got to trust you now, they understand that you're there to help them. So you've got their interest at heart. And look at all this amazing free videos and free content that you've provided them. Well then you're the authority. You're the go-to person. So yeah, absolutely. That makes sense.

Ben Amos:	I mean you think about YouTube creators for example, and YouTube creators who are doing that for a business purpose, which many of them are, you recognize that their regular content marketing, the content they're putting out on a regular basis, is designed to build trust, and get people to be basically better positioned to part with their cash when they make some sort of offer. Right?

If there's someone that you've watched a lot of their videos on YouTube, when they offer a solution to the pain that you're feeling, you're not going to think twice about buying that thing, right, because you already trust them.

Liron Segev:	Okay, that makes sense. So, that's the middle of the funnel. So top is the emotional, make that connection. Middle of the funnel is little bits of golden nuggets of information given away free, earning those trust, earning those views, and really kind of making that connection. Is there a limit, like a time limit, between going from top to middle, or is this different and organically based on the businesses or the idea?

Ben Amos:	Yeah, it's a good question. And basically, it depends. So it depends on the business, it depends on the service. It depends on how much the person needs the solution, how ready they are to buy. So, for certain businesses, the customer or prospect can move through this funnel very quickly. If it's something that they're feeling an immediate pain, and they need an immediate solution, then potentially, they'll move through very quickly. But there are many other businesses that we can use the examples, where this customer journey takes weeks or years even, for someone to move through to actually buy from you.

Liron Segev:	Okay. So basically, don't stress. If your business, if you're going through this process, and you're creating all these amazing content, and amazing videos, but you're not seeing them falling into the bottom of the funnel yet, but we're going to get them to that stage, it could just be a time thing. It could be time of year, it could be a financial implication, something that's $10.99, is going to have a very different buying decision than something that's $10,000.

It's different. Just things happen at different speeds depending on the time of year, depending on finance, and also depending on how painful this is. Could I survive another six months not spending this kind of money, or do I absolutely positively need this right now, in which case I have to make a buying decision. So as we move through that funnel, so we've done the top, we've done the middle, we're now hot, we're ready to buy, what's the next stage?

Ben Amos:	So then we get to the conversion end of the funnel. So the pointy end, the bottom end of the funnel, I talk about the goal of conversions. And when we talk about conversion content from a video strategy perspective, it's content that's designed to get a hot audience, basically an engaged, qualified prospect, across the line. So the types of videos we want to be creating here, need to answer any lingering questions that someone has. So they're now aware of your solution. They are aware of your product or your service or whatever, but what is holding them back from purchasing?

So this is where... Because, remember we started at the emotional end, at the top of the funnel, and we're moving through to rational at the bottom of the funnel. And people need rational answers to rational questions, before they rationally part with their cash, right?

So although you can do all the kind of emotional selling at the top of the funnel, no matter how quickly someone moves through the funnel, there's always a rational decision, where they actually enter their credit card number or pick up that phone or make that booking or whatever it may be. So, the types of content you want to create here needs to, basically do word a face to face sales person would do when you walk into a store.

A good face to face sales person will basically take you through this same journey, through the conversation they have. They'll start by making an emotional connection with you. "Hi, how's your day?" They would look nice, they'll smile at you, they'll ask you questions to try and better understand. Then they'll give you some value, right? So in the middle of the funnel, that face to face sales person will answer some questions about this product that you're looking at, and compare it to this product that you're looking at over on the shelf over here.

And so they'll position themselves as the expert, and answer your questions, and then they'll move you through to the sale. So, in order for that face to face sales person to close the sale, they're going to say, "Okay, so you know what's going through your head now? Is it about payment structure? Is it about different ways that we can actually get it home to you, our delivery options?" So find out, what are those sticking points that's preventing your ideal customers from actually purchasing from you, and deliver video content to them that overcomes those questions. That's the goal of the conversion focused videos.

Liron Segev:	Okay, wow. So how do we know what those questions are? Do we survey people, do we get friends and family to answer those kinds of questions so we could create content around it? How do I dive into that?

Ben Amos:	Yeah, I mean it's all of the above. It's about really understanding your customers, really understanding them. And often it can come down to the simple idea of asking your existing customers what was going through their head before they purchased. So, surveying existing customers, or even better, I feel, is surveying those people who don't buy from you. So, depending on your business, you capture some sort of lead, or you capture some sort of information from your customer as they're coming through that funnel, then you can reach out to them and say, "Look, just wanted to ask, what stopped you from buying from us today?" Or, you know, "Why didn't you purchase, when you showed so much interest."

It's a hard question to ask sometimes, but if you can build that into your processes, you can gather a lot of information. And obviously, then you've got these answers to those questions, which can form the basis of the video content that you use here. The other side to look at it is also, just really being intuitive, and understanding your product. If you were going to buy this product, what questions would you have? What would you want to see before you made the decision to buy? And I think that's a good place to start as well.

Liron Segev:	Why am I not pulling the trigger? Why am I not giving the credit card details? There's something that's stopping me. What is that? And if you can answer those questions, it's going to make me feel a lot better, and will be one less obstacle standing in my way.

Ben Amos:	Yeah, absolutely. And, when you're talking about businesses doing business online, there's so many potential barriers to selling and doing business online, that so many people are just overlooking. And that's holding the sales back.

A great example I use here is Zappos, a shoe retailer you're probably aware of. What's the biggest barrier to buying shoes online, as opposed to going into a shoe store, or shoe shop, and…..

Liron Segev:	You don't know if it's the right size?

Ben Amos:	Yeah, trying it on, right? So, they recognized very early, and Zappos, a huge example of doing this really well, that the barrier to selling shoes online is actually, people want to try them on, they want to see if they fit. They want to, kind of make sure that they're making the right decision, because it's a scary thing to buy online, and get it in the post. So how they overcome that, obviously, they can't have you try it online, through the website. They can't, have you try it on.

Ben Amos:	Well, not yet, yeah, maybe that'll change. So what they did very cleverly is, they actually used video for almost every single one of their product lines. So at the conversion end of the journey, when people are on the individual shoe page, so this brand, this style of shoe. They're on that page, there's photos of the shoe from different angles, like you see on most shopping cart software.

But then there's a video, and for most of their products they have a video. And this video is very simply produced. It's often someone from the Zappos team, so within their staff, who fits the demographic of who is likely to buy that shoe. So, you can relate with that person, kind of like it's you, if you're looking at the shoe. And they're just talking about the shoe, much like a salesperson would in the store, they're bending the shoe, they're holding it up there. You can see it kind of, in real life, so to speak, through this video. And then they actually try it on, and you can see the shoe, kind of, walking across the screen.

Very simple videos to produce. But if you're going to buy a shoe, you want to see what it looks like, with someone like you wearing it. Now obviously, they've also got videos that talk about their returns policy, and they make that a bit of a no brainer about the fact that if it doesn't fit, I can get it back, and get a different size, and all that sort of stuff.

But just by having individual sales focused videos on their product pages, makes the potential barriers to buying that shoe online, makes those barriers just drop away.

Liron Segev:	Does the top, middle and bottom of the funnel apply to all businesses, or does it, you know, I'm a small business, therefore, I just don't have to worry about this. Just make videos.

Ben Amos:	Yeah, look, absolutely, it applies. If you're in the business of selling to people, then you need to recognize that people, whether they're buying a shoe, or they're buying the services of a law firm, or subscribing to a piece of software online, it's still people making a decision to buy. And people start that decision to buy, whether you recognize it in your brand's marketing or not, they start that decision with some kind of emotional connection, some kind of emotion they're feeling. It might be a pain, it might be excitement, it might be various emotions, but they're starting at the top of the funnel, and they're moving through. And if they buy from you, no matter whether you're a small business or a large business, then they've coming out at the bottom of the funnel.

Now as a business, you need to try and consider how your marketing is addressing people or speaking to people, at those different stages of that journey they're going on, because they're going on that journey anyway. How are you actually using content to reach out to them, to connect with them at the right stages of that journey?

Liron Segev:	Okay. Sounds like good advice. Ben, if people want to get more information, and they want to check out your website. How can they do that?

Ben Amos:	Yeah, so a really good place to start would be, I have a free three-part video course. It's a mini course basically, which is all about developing the foundations of an online video strategy for a business. And so that's probably a good place to start, and they can jump into that at 

, and that'll just basically walk you through what we talked about here today, and apply some processes to help you get started on this journey.

Liron Segev:	Ben, thank you very much for hanging out with us, kind of, sharing the experience from the business side, because we all know it from the YouTube side, we know how to create the video, but sometimes we forget that businesses out there, that are hungry for content creators, looking for people to create those videos for them. And if we can offer that as a service, perhaps there's another revenue stream to our YouTube business, which never thought of. And this is a great opportunity, since we do understand how to tell a story. So really appreciate you hanging out, and educating us on this process.

Ben Amos:	Yeah, no problems. Thanks very much.

Video is the marketer’s secret weapon for all stages of the marketing funnel. Find out why on this week's episode of TubeTalk.

Why Video is So Powerful for the Marketing Funnel: TubeTalk 184 with Ben Amos

Have you ever noticed this message appear in your creator studio as you've been rummaging around your analytics?

Let's be honest, to the average creator that's a pretty scary message to encounter, as it almost suggests that you are personally responsible for some nefarious YouTube activities. Don't worry. This is not a personal attack on your channel. This message will have been received by every YouTuber in the Creator Studio over the last couple of days because it affects absolutely everyone.

In YouTube's own words they do "regularly verify the legitimacy "of accounts and actions on your channel." And that includes checking the validity of your subscribers. Now you might call this YouTube's version of channel auditing. Whatever you want to call this, it happens to some degree on YouTube every single day. That's why during the Pewdiepie versus T-Series subscriber race, you saw one of the channels lose thousands of subscribers in seconds. It's all to do with YouTube making sure that the numbers are alright.

Every three or four months, YouTube will do a massive purge of subscribers, or they will fix a problem with subscriber counts. Last December YouTube acknowledged they had an issue removing spam accounts, which led to a huge subscriber killing spree. We ourselves lost over 700 subscribers in that single purge. For the vast majority of channels, they will lose subscribers through accounts that either the user themselves has closed, or because YouTube have terminated them due to a policy violation. Nothing to do with you.

On the other hand, YouTube subscribers gained through artificial means, such as purchasing subscribers through a third party service, could be your fault, and as well as losing those subscribers, you may lose your entire channel. So if you're ever tempted to buy YouTube subscribers, don't do it. And this video will explain exactly why:

On the other side of the coin, you have to consider this. Your channel could be whiter than white, clean as a whistle, but ultimately you have no control over those subscribers. It could be that someone else is acting nefariously not in your best interest. So if you do ever notice anything suspicious happening on your channel, loads more subscribers but no increase in views, it might be better for you to contact YouTube first, if you can.

If you do ever want to scrutinize the subscriber numbers in more detail, in the new Creator Studio you can click the ‘see more’ link on you channel analytics, and then click on ‘subscriber source’ to see a full breakdown of all the subscribers you lose. You gain subscribers, you lose subscribers. Bada bing, bada boom. It's the life of a video creator.

Now, while you may notice a change in your subscriber counts because, let's face it, all video creators have an eagle eye on how many subscribers they've got. The public may never even notice a thing. That's because since September YouTube have been abbreviating subscriber counts to the public, depending on the size of your channel.

In our case, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, our number increments every thousand. So you might not have even realized we lost 700 subscribers. And at the end of the day remember this. If YouTube is deleting subscribers from your channel, that's because those subscribers don't mean anything to your channel. They're illegal, illegitimate, not wanted by anyone.

Have you noticed a drop in your YouTube subs and wondered what happened? We explain why the platform may have deleted a percentage of your subscribers lately.

Why Did YouTube Just Delete My Subscribers?

If you are a video creator, you may have noticed that the YouTube tools you use to create your videos and check how well you're doing have undergone a radical change over the last six months. We’ve already brought you lots of news about the changes, but now we’ve talked to a YouTube expert about how the new Creator Studio (AKA YouTube Studio Beta) works.

By now, all creators should have seen the New YouTube Studio (AKA Creator Beta Studio). But how can you get even more out of it? YouTube showed us in an exclusive live stream!

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