283: What about YouTube? 

Ever thought “I should start a YouTube”... 

Let me play devil's advocate. 

I will never say “don’t”. But I will always question those who say “you should” do this, based only on their own experience.

So - let’s break it down, what about YouTube, should we all be on this platform that has more than 2.7 billion monthly active users? 

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

⁠⁠⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ The 3 things you need to know before starting YouTube 

✨ How to know if YouTube is right for you

✨ Why you should (and shouldn’t) start on YouTube 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

 This is episode 283, and we're talking all about, well, what about YouTube? Welcome to the Content Queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur storyteller, digital nomad, creator of Content Bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen. I'm here to teach you how to share your unique story, create content, and market your business with strategy through the channels that work for you.

Each week, I'll deliver a story, tell you connect to a powerful strategy around marketing, business and content creation. I'll also be joined by amazing souls and entrepreneurs who are here to share their own journey, along with actual steps, help you take your business to a whole new level through amazing storytelling, powerful line marketing and content strategy.

Let's do it. Hello gang. Coming to you from my microphone, but also if you follow us on Instagram at Content Queen Mariah, you'll see these really cool videos. Very good quality, very nice. But before we get into the episode, I wanna hear from you. So if you love these episodes, if you love what we have to offer, leave a comment on Spotify.

If you're thinking of starting YouTube, you could also comment on Spotify and share what you're thinking. I can reply because we can do that. So we can have a little chit chat about your YouTube journey, or if you just wanna share your feedback, share how you're finding my podcast. Please do. If you're on Apple, you can leave for a review, so I would absolutely love that if you have five seconds.

But this came about because I had a message from a client. Who was saying, you know, I was having a chat with my husband and sometimes social media can feel just too much. I freaking hate it. Like, you know, I love it in moments and I don't in others. And he said, get on YouTube. It's like a goldmine at the moment.

There's lots of people, like they're really favoring new creators. YouTube's been around for years and years. There's like billions of hours of YouTube watched. Like every day. It's actually crazy. So she's like, so what do you think about YouTube? Um, I'd love to know your thoughts. And so I thought, well, we create a podcast about it, right?

So, you know me, I will preach long form channels, always I. Right. I will always say I think some form of long form channel is really good for, as a business owner, especially if you wanna grow in the online space and you're in a business that needs more trust building. If you have a service where people don't just buy without knowing you, you need to create a community and an audience, I think, yes to long form.

Now, YouTube is a very interesting one because it has this combination of audio and visual. And you know, people seem to watch YouTube on their TV screens, so it's one of those platforms that you can really build community. I've seen it with a few clients. One, I tested some YouTube shorts and we saw a bit of an increase in reach on certain videos, so I said, oh, maybe there's room for long form on here as well.

So. If you think YouTube is a channel that you would like to try and it aligns with you, let's talk about it and let's make a plan. So the first thing I will always ask you to think about is goals, because there is lots of people that are gonna say to you, you should be here. You should be there because this channel's performing well, and the algorithm is favoring this.

I don't care about the algorithm. I care about your audience and I care about you. So if you are not going to put your all into it, you are just going to do it for the wrong reasons, then don't do it. I've had clients that have come to me like, oh, should I do YouTube? And I've asked 'em a couple of questions.

Are you prepared to do. Give it time to grow. Are you prepared to film a video that it can be anywhere from five to 10 minutes long? Are you prepared to do some editing? Otherwise, it is a bit extra for me to do that because editing takes time. Are you prepared like. Asking all the questions and is your audience there?

And they'll go, oh no. It's just, you know, shiny object and it happens. But if you are like, I feel like YouTube is for me, I feel, and I've seen people use it and it really works for them. I've mentioned many a times a client who was so blinded by the shininess of Instagram that she missed this massive opportunity on her YouTube that was generating quite a few leads to her website without her creating any new content.

So the first thing is, is YouTube right for me? Am I prepared to let it take time to grow? Just because someone says the algorithm is favoring new creators, doesn't mean that your videos are gonna go viral. It means that you have to be prepared to put the energy and the effort into the channel. Am I prepared to be consistent?

Now, consistent doesn't mean every day, but can you consistently create videos? Are you prepared to learn? And grow with this channel and know that you're not gonna get it perfect from the very beginning. Are you prepared to consume it? Right? So all these things, like if it's right for you, you have to ask yourself those questions.

And also, is it right for my audience? Are my audience going to show up there? And does it make sense? Do I wanna build a community? What am I gonna use these videos for other than just trying to grow on that platform? Do I need to be here? I. Just because it sounds nice, doesn't mean you have to, but also if it's like, you know what?

I really love the idea and it energizes me and it makes me feel really aligned, but maybe I don't know if it's gonna work, but I would like to try it. Do it. But you must know that things don't happen overnight. A lot of people that do see success on YouTube have experience in creating content. And I'm not saying that you don't, but it does take consistency.

Exponential growth is one of my favorite things to say with time and consistency equals results. So the first thing to ask yourself is, is it right for me right now? Is it in line with my business goals? Why do I wanna be there? Not just because Mary at a coffee chat told me that she's getting X amount of website leads and you should jump on it now.

Or just because someone told you you should be there. It doesn't mean you should. So this is my first question. I'll always play devil's advocate 'cause I wouldn't be very good at what I did if I didn't. The second one is promote, are you prepared to share this on other channels and build the platform? So this could be creating your content strategy around sending people to these YouTube videos.

If you watch videos or short form videos on. Instagram on TikTok, you will see lots of YouTubers say, you know, check out the full video on my YouTube. They show up to promote that channel. Are you prepared to have community conversations where you're sharing your content? Because it's not just about putting a video on YouTube and just watching it grow.

Just like this podcast, I didn't just decide to have a podcast and never share it across my channels. You have to be prepared to share it and share it a lot. Any opportunity that you get, you wanna share the content so you can get as much feedback on it as possible, but also see the growth. So the second thing is, yeah, building a plan and a strategy around promoting it.

Now again, you are a business owner, not a content creator, although content creation is fun. So it has to align with your marketing plan and, and can you use it within your funnel? So could YouTube act as your middle funnel? And your top of funnel is your social media. And the goal of your social media is actually to funnel people to your YouTube.

And your YouTube is there to build your email list. So that's when we can also go back to step one and go, okay, what is the goal of YouTube? Is it here to generate website traffic? Is it here to get email leads? Like what is it here to do? And you can't just sell on the platform and show up and go. Hi, I am Mariah.

I'm a content marketer, and then I talk about bootcamp for 10 minutes. You've gotta actually give the value, and then as a byproduct, people check out more on your website. So you also have to remember that just because your goal might be to get more sales doesn't mean you can just show up for 10 minutes and talk about how good your product is.

You have to give the value for people to trust you. So it really is a trust platform. It does not sit at the bottom of your funnel. It sits in the middle and arguably the bit of the top. So it does have to align with your overall strategy so you can promote it and put it out there. And the third thing is all of the in platform things to think about.

So SEO being a big one, search engine optimization. But now even how your content is getting used in AI agents to deliver information. So really plain English, you can't be talking about. Jargon and things that no one is going to be searching because no one's gonna find your content. So when you are uploading videos onto YouTube, you wanna think about when I'm creating and thinking about the content, what are the things that people need to know?

Or want to know, because sometimes there's a difference what they think they need versus what they actually need. Happens a lot. You know, for example, in my business, people think they need to hack the algorithm of Instagram, or they think they need to know how many hashtags they need to use, but what they actually need is a content strategy.

So it's up to me to bridge that gap. So you need to think about the words people are searching, the the content that people need to know, and you bridge that gap. So then you wanna think about. Okay. When I am creating a video, how am I optimizing it for my audience? Making sure that what I'm talking about is relevant and what they'll be searching for and saying those words, because now we know how SEO is working is through the words in our voice, in our subtitles, in our thumbnail, which is the up picture that you upload when you upload your long form YouTube.

And a lot of them can be very engaging and. Clickable because when people are searching, you want people to click on your video. So to do that, your picture, your cover art of your video, which is called a thumbnail, YouTube needs to be engaging and stand out and give people what they want. But then when they're searching, your title and your description of a YouTube video also needs to be optimized for the key words.

Now, you might be listening to me and going, oh my God, that sounds way too hard. I don't wanna do it anymore. That's okay. It is totally, totally learnable. You can learn this. It is not difficult. It's just about understanding what needs to be put on the channel and what people are searching, and it really, I mean, just having conversations with people can give you a lot of those answers, but also just doing a bit of Google research or some AI research can help you.

Then of course, we wanna optimize this channel. Now, YouTube brought out YouTube shorts about 18 months ago, maybe 12 months ago. Yeah, actually no, it would've definitely been closer to two years ago now. And basically it is like your TikTok, your short form video, anything under a minute. So to optimize your longer form videos, which can be anywhere from over one minute to 10 minutes and beyond, you wanna create some short form content to.

Continue to engage your audience because you might not be able to create a 10 minute video every week, and I don't really expect you to. So if you do wanna keep some consistency on the channel, creating YouTube shorts to continue the engagement with your audience and to build community will really help you.

So that's when we wanna create some sort of strategy around, okay, if I'm creating a long form video, how can I break it up into some short form clips to share across my social media, but also in my YouTube shorts, and keep the audience engaged. There also might be a need for some more unique content, so not just chopping up the video, but some other bits and pieces just to keep people going.

How often should you show up on YouTube shorts? It depends on you and your business. I can't give you that answer. That's why a strategy is so important. And we have our audio guide, which you can download in the comment in the show notes, and it's free. And I'll take you through strategy and it will help you map out your YouTube video, your YouTube platform.

And then thinking about how you optimize your videos, having hooks at the start to generate people's attention, giving call to actions like people to follow, subscribe, and like your video. There's all these things. And should you know this from the start? Absolutely not. I'm giving you a very high level version of.

Optimizing YouTube and helping you get started, but thinking, watching and consuming and learning will take time. So you won't perfect it from the very beginning. But hooks at the start, like any video on social media grabs people's attention, and that's what you wanna do. So to keep people watching, because how YouTube works, it goes on.

Watch time. So the longer people watch your videos, the more they'll deliver your videos to more people. So you want people to watch your video for as long as possible and how you do that, you capture them at the beginning and then of course you keep your video engaging using storytelling, keeping it less promotional and more valuable.

Keep people engaged. Could be little bits of editing that you do, depends on your style, and that's what you have to figure out. And it takes time. You're not expected to learn it from the very beginning, but if it sounds like such a fun project for you, why wouldn't you? It teaches us so many skills. And then the other thing in YouTube is looking at those analytics, learning what videos perform, learning how long someone watches your video and keep optimizing.

Your YouTube channel. 'cause that's what it's about. Like any platform we have to continue to optimize it. I was just doing my quarterly review. I look at all my numbers, I looked at my podcast, I made some assumptions based on some things I'd noticed. I noticed that the series that I did recently, part one, two, and three, performed really well.

So I'm like, oh, maybe you guys like a little series moment. Um, and I was looking at things and going, oh, let me try this. Let me try that. I noticed when I had like a how to in the start, in the title of the. Podcast it was more engaging or got more listens. You know, so you can start to make little goals and optimize based on what the analytics are telling you.

And I have many of things in programs that I do to help you with that. In bootcamp, when you purchase bootcamp and you do bootcamp, and I take you through creating a strategy, and I can absolutely support you in optimizing it for YouTube. I then have a three month become a measurement queen workshop, which is for free.

And basically you come and you look at those numbers and you can tell me a little bit more about them. And I can help you make some goals and assumptions. But this is a learning experience. You can only learn with time. So if you've thought about YouTube and you've listened to this and you've gone, oh God, no.

I can't do all that. Maybe you could get some support, or maybe it's just not right for you. But if you're like, oh, it sounds challenging but not too challenging, I'll give it a go. Start with creating a strategy around it. So download my free audio guide. Go through it as if, okay, I'm doing this with the pure intention of YouTube being kind of like my core, core channel and how I can use that in.

In the My marketing funnel as like the middle of the funnel and how I can use my social media to generate more views to that YouTube. Because if you think about it, someone that watches a YouTube that goes for like 10 minutes, they're more engaged than someone that's gonna watch a video that goes for 10 seconds to one minute on your social media.

So you want people to go further down the funnel and trust you, but if you send them to somewhere where you are just selling all the time, then it might not work. But if you're a business. That your entry level's very low. You don't necessarily need to engage people from that level of depth to build trust, then it might not, you might not have to do that again, it depends on everyone's business, so.

Think about your goals, make sure you build a strategy around promoting it and think about all the things within the channel that you can optimize. You are not gonna know it from the beginning, and that's okay 'cause you'll learn as you keep watching. When I started my first ever podcast, I set myself a 30 day challenge.

Every day for 30 days, I learned something new about podcasting. By the end of the 30 days, I launched my first episode. So maybe that's something you can do every day for 30 days. Learn a little bit more. Watch YouTube videos on starting YouTube. Of course, if you listen to this episode, that's day one.

You've gotten a little bit of an insight into starting YouTube, but I really wanted this episode to help you. If you're thinking about it, decide whether it's right for you and to think about a few things that you might wanna do some research. If you're like, I don't have a starting point, the starting point is setting that goal, thinking about how you can promote it.

And then the third part is, yeah, thinking about the SEO, how I can use YouTube shorts. Creating a really clean, optimized thumbnail, thinking about hooks in my video and learning the Google, the YouTube analytics. That's a perfect place to start, and then you can keep learning and growing from there. So this client, I'm not sure, I'm sure she's listening to this if she will start her YouTube, but we'll see how that grows and expands.

But I've seen it with other clients. Take the plunge on a long form channel or take the plunge on a channel that really resonates with them and they've had success because they've really enjoyed it. The point of content marketing as a marketing strategy is there is an element of creativity and an element of enjoyment that you have to have to make it work.

It's that self belief that I've talked about in other episodes. But if you're like, oh, I would like to get started, but I feel like I can't do this alone and I'm not really sure where to begin. I haven't asked me anything. WhatsApp group, it's $30, so it's $2 a day, 14 business days, so it doesn't include weekends and from business hours.

You can contact me and ask me any questions about growing on YouTube. I do have a checklist that's part of my membership, so if you do join the WhatsApp group and you let me know that you wanna start YouTube, I'm more than happy to share that with you for free and you can ask me anything. Voice note me, send me messages and I can help you get Kickstart your journey on YouTube if that's something that you're interested in.

I'll put all the links in the show notes, but be a content queen or king, and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining me today, and please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends. You can do this by adding it to your Insta Stories and tag me at content Queen Mariah, or just simply tell 'em about it.

If you do rate and review on whatever platform you're listening to this on, it does help me get this out there. This podcast, it attracts amazing guests and it just continues to deliver amazing content to you all. Follow me on Instagram or TikTok, and if you liked episodes like this, if you ever have any questions, let me know because I can absolutely turn them into podcast episodes like this.

But I will talk to you next week. Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment