SBM 086: How to Gain Traction on YouTube with Sunny Lenarduzzi

Today’s Guest


In this episode you will learn about how Sunny was able to explode her youtube views and subscribers.

Sunny Lenarduzzi is the founder of youtube for bosses.

This is the 86th session of Smart Brand Marketing.

MY BIGGEST TAKEAWAY: Do not underestimate luck.

TOPICS DISCUSSED

  • How to pick a format
  • What to talk about
  • The editing
  • Visuals
  • Pricing and funnel for course
  • Structure of webinar – offer
  • Research and trending topics
  • The hot script formula
  • Backlinks
  • The phases
  • Hook outcome testimonials

Getting More Views on YouTube

Even if it’s just the second largest search engine in the world, and that’s saying much, becoming popular on YouTube is the more glamorous route to take when compared to being popular in Google. After all, how many Google celebrities can you name by heart now? Exactly.

Of course, if fame is not really at the top of your goal, there is still no denying how much of an effective tool YouTube can be in marketing your business. If done right, your YouTube account can effectively drive a lot of traffic to your web pages which, in turn, can help boost your rankings in Google.

Here’s the thing, though. YouTube is not exactly known for its consistency nor its leniency. If you want to be on top, you have to play by the rules; whatever form those rules take.

What Works in YouTube Now?

As was stated, YouTube is always changing the playing field even if the core concept of the website has remain relatively unchanged since the early 2000s. Simply put, what worked then is not working now and what works ow might not work again in the future. Since you want to make your presence known in the site NOW, it’s best that you know what things work in the site now such as:

  • 1. Watch Time over ClicksBack then, YouTube’s search algorithms would rank videos by the number of clicks they receive to rank them in search queries. The theory is if a video has more clicks, then it should rank higher on the results page. This has led to an abuse of the system called “click baiting” where creators lure viewers to their videos with a stark yet misleading video. If you remember back in 2014, YouTube was plagued with videos with headlines like “OMG! You Can’t Believe What Happens Next….” Only to have a video that does nothing with what the title promised.

    To combat this, YouTube changed the algorithm to measure how long people actually stayed in the video as opposed to how many times a visitor went there. For instance, a 20-minute video would not rank well if people stop viewing it somewhere in between 2 or 5 minutes but 5-minute videos that people actually viewed from start to finish will rank better.

    This is why YouTube seemingly favors shorter videos like movie trailers, talk show segments, and other easy-to-digest content. It’s not that they actually are biased to these channels but that these videos follow their new algorithms more than the old ones.

  • 2. Production Value no Longer CountsThis gradual shift towards community interaction means that how well a video was made no longer matters. It is how this video presents itself and is consumed by the public that matters more.

    And there’s no bigger proof of this than the popularity of streams and commentary videos of which production involves only one or a few persons in front of a camera doing something in the middle of a room. And then there’s Filthy Frank (now known as Joji) whose entire video collection involves him screaming and doing weird stuff in front of his dorm room using costumes involving one greasy shirt and 3 lycra suits. That’s as low budget as you can go.

    The point is that people don’t care much about how much you spend in producing videos now. SO as long as it resonates with them, it should rank decently in the search results.

  • 3. Pushing for More SubscriptionsAs of now, subscriptions are the best way to get more popular in YouTube. How it works is actually quite simple: when a person subscribes to the channel, all of the videos you have will show up in their own feed and they may even get notifications of whenever you upload something new.

    YouTube even uses a person’s subscriptions to mold that person’s YouTube feed for them, making it more personalized. If you get a subscriber, other videos and channels with similar content may also get recommended, making for this rather strong cross promotional scheme.

    This is where a Call to Action at the end of the middle of the video comes into play. You have to remind your viewers to like the video, hit subscribe, and make sure to turn the notification button off in order to make your content more visible to their feeds.

Ranking Better in YouTube

Surprisingly, the same rules in SEO apply in ranking better on YouTube. It’s all in the presentation and the content you are offering that will make the different in your rankings. To boost that up, there are a few things that you need to consider:

  • 1. Mind the TitleThe title is the first thing that a search engine bot goes through to check if your content is relevant to the search. Make it attractive to turn heads but don’t forget to make the title reflect the content in the video. If the video is about the Ugandan Knuckles meme (which is declared dead by Pewdiepie, mind you), then the title should say something about the Ugandan Knuckles meme.

    Also, don’t try to be too clever with the titling. Save the intelligent humor in the video because search engine bots are AI and AI still does not understand wit, sarcasm, or nuance. They are just there to check if your title has the right keywords to match the query.

  • 2. Add Some SubtitlesYou have to understand that not all people absorb information the same way. Some are content with just the video and the audio while some cannot fully experience your content without some text on it. Of course, there are just those people with bad sound systems and cannot fully hear what you are saying.

    This is where subtitles come into play and its best that you add them via the Closed Caption button on the lower-right side of the video panel. You can do this yourself or you should activate the CC function to let somebody else do it for you. As for the auto-generated subtitles, they can work but they still leave a lot to be desired; especially if you talk fast or have a strong accent. The point is to let a human being write the transcript for your video to give it subtitles.

  • 3. Make Use of the Description sectionThat description part in your video should never be underestimated. You want to make sure that the person gets the gist of what the video is offering without watching it. However, you may want to follow the KISS (Keep it Short, Stupid!) rule when describing your video.

    This is because YouTube tends to cut descriptions longer than 150 characters short and hide the rest with the “Show More” button. This gives the reader the option to read more or not and most would decide on the latter.

    Your description section is also where you can direct your audience to other webpages through a call to action. As such, make sure to link all the relevant pages of your site to the video here.

  • 4. Find a Good ThumbnailA few weeks ago, YouTube decided to run a little experiment where an automated program will decide on the thumbnail for a video based on the same footage. The kindest thing that you can describe o YouTube’s stunt is that their thumbnail AI has still a lot of room for improvement.

    If possible, you have to do the thumbnail for yourself. You can choose a certain section of your video, edit it with headlines and enhancements, or use a separate image. Whatever you do, make sure that the image is of good quality and reflects the kind of content your video has.

  • 5. Make Use of Every Minute of the VideoA common misconception in YouTube is that longer videos are favored by the algorithms. This may be true but the actuality is that the algorithm will boost videos more that offer value on a minute per minute basis.

    What does this mean? If your video has only 5 minutes of quality, then the uploaded file should have roughly the same length. This way, viwers can find value in every part of your video which influences them to finish it, boosting your content’s watch time and, of course, ranking in the search engine.

    One controversial creator by the name of LeafyisHere was caught abusing the video length by adding in between 30 to seconds to 1 minute of nothing but blank space just to make his videos look like they were 10 seconds long when they were just in between 7 to 9. Needless to say, his channel tanked hard when YouTube introduced the new algorithm.

Surviving the Adpocalypse

Aside from being an effective marketing tool, your YouTube account can also help you earn money on the side from ads. The problem here recently is that YouTube is trying to make their site “ad friendly” which means that all videos have to be “ad friendly” if the creator in it wants to monetize it.

Surviving this so-called Ad-ocalypse is a must if you want to make the most out of your stay in YouTube and, since this is like an online state of calamity of sorts, there are survival tips that you need to pay attention to.

  • 1. Mind the New Community GuidelinesYouTube has a new set of rules for the community to follow for creating videos. The guidelines are a bit extensive but the gist is that your content should be safe for ads to be played at. This means it should not have sexually explicit content, does not promote violence, and respectfully covers some sensitive social issues. Even cussing in your videos can get you de-monetized.

    If you think that big creators are exempted from the guidelines, think again. Logan Paul was hit hard for his antics which include showing a corpse in the Aokigahara forest and electrocuting dead rats. Some Youtube Drama channels like Keemstar’s Drama Alert have been hit hard in the past with demonetizations for explicit content and language. It’s safe to say that you can’t rely on your popularity right now to stay afloat in the site.

  • 2. Beware of Fair Use RulesAnother method of getting demonetized is if you use somebody else’s content like music or footage for your videos. This will get you slapped with a copyright strike which prevents you from monetizing the video until the issue can be resolved. Most reviewers encounter this problem although some online businesses might also get their own strikes if they are not careful with the content they publish.

    If possible, you must make sure that you properly credit some footage or music to their creators or use them for no longer than 10 seconds. There is also the option to use royalty-free content online like Kevin Macleod’s music to avoid copyright issues.

  • 3. Find Another Way to Earn MoneyIf your video is having a hard time earning money for you via YouTube, then you can leverage it to earn money from other sites. Other creators tend to urge their viewers to donate to the channel via sites like Patreon and other crowdfunding sites. It’s not exactly e-begging because you are giving these people valuable content.

    If you have a business tied up with your account, then there’s nothing in YouTube’s new rules that prevents you from marketing your products and services in your videos. You can even use them as the subject of your videos especially those that revolve around you teaching people new tricks and tips in dealing with certain problems.

    How you make your videos informative yet marketable is all up to you. Just make sure that you have an up-to date knowledge of YouTube’s new rules in order to make your stay there worth the while.

    Do you know of other ways to adapt to YouTube’s ever-changing policies? What other challenges have you faced in making marketing your videos at the platform? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

RESOURCES

SUNNY IN ACTION

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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