I was recently invited to The Morning Marketer podcast, run by Roimata Wilkey, who has worked with 400+ brands and generated $200M+ in client revenue, to talk about what I have learnt growing YouTube channels for myself and our clients.
So that’s what we did, and I really enjoyed going on the show, so I thought I’d cover some of the key lessons I shared.
Of course, I won’t be able to cover everything we talked about, so if you want to watch the whole podcast, you can do that here.
Now, if you are new here, at the time of recording, my own channel had just hit 100,000 subscribers, which I’m pretty stoked about.
It has been eight years on YouTube, and my first videos were me in my bedroom as an 18-year-old, trying to talk, with terrible lighting and horrendous thumbnails, haha.
Right now I help businesses and creators grow their channel, most notably, Keep The Change, of which we’ve grown from less than 1,000 subscribers to over 27,000 subscribers and consistently above 100,000 long form views per month.
Pretty much all of my clients have come through my personal brand, or referrals that have come from that personal brand.
I’ve even had clients come through where someone I don’t know referred them because that person had watched my YouTube videos.
That’s why I want every business owner in New Zealand to get on social media and put some content out, because it helps people, demonstrates your expertise, and builds trust with potential clients.
Anyways, let’s jump into those lessons I was talking about from the podcast.
1. Know What You’re Actually Trying To Do On YouTube
Knowing exactly what you want from YouTube before creating any content will give you a ton of clarity and direction.
For example, if your goal is to grow your business, chasing as many views as possible can throw you all over the place.
In another scenario, if your goal is to attract clients,
But you make one video about a specific topic, and it does really well, then keep creating more videos going down that line…
You can end up with an audience who want something completely different to what you offer.
I think I’ve pigeonholed my own channel a little bit around Instagram because that’s what I’ve talked about for a long while.
And now, if I make a video about how to grow on YouTube, people don’t really watch it in the same way.
On the flip side, if I’d focused my content on how business owners can grow their business with social media, it would have opened me up to creating one video about Instagram, another about YouTube, and another around paid ads.
I’ve built a strong channel around Instagram, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
But it’s something worth thinking about before you start.
Get clear on exactly what you want out of creating content.
2. You Don’t Need Hundreds of Video Ideas Before You Start
One of the key topics Roimata brought up was the idea of having hundreds of video ideas, with all the titles ready, before even launching a channel.
I personally don’t love planning that far ahead when starting, because you don’t really know what’s going to work.
You might post five videos and notice something about one of them performed really well.
So you have to do a little bit more of what worked there in the next videos.
But if you’ve already spent all this time planning a hundred ideas, then realise your strategy needs to pivot, those other ninety ideas might just be a waste of time.
I’d plan five or ten ideas and start posting.
You’re probably not going to learn a ton from one video, but as you get a few down the road, you’ll start to notice which topics, titles and thumbnails perform well, and you’ll start to see a pattern you can build around.
3. A Good Idea Matters More Than Fancy Production
When it comes to YouTube, it’s almost all about the idea and the topic more than anything.
We work with Luke (Keep The Change)
We have been working together for over two years, and the channel has grown from about 800 to 27,000 subscribers.
Recently, Luke made a video about taxes on rental properties, which did really well because it was topical (trending topic).
That video was filmed in front of his whiteboard, with no fancy lighting or setup.
It just goes to show that you if you a have a really good video idea, lighting or production almost dosen’t matter.
Don’t get me wrong, a really solid idea filmed with a good setup can do incredibly well too.
But if you try to start perfect, you’re never going to start.
You could have a really cool setup but still be awkward on camera.
No matter how good your first video is, a hundred videos later it’s going to be so much better.
So don’t worry too much about the setup or production side of things when starting, and put more time into coming up with interesting ideas for your audience.
4. You’re Probably Not Giving Away Much
I’ve had clients worry about giving away too much information through educational content.
I’m sure there are niches where proprietary information is really important.
But in most situations, people are still going to need help executing what you teach.
No matter how much information you give away, there are always going to be people who need help with that execution side.
Social media in general is about building trust, and long-form content is one of the best ways to do that.
Anyone can talk for thirty seconds about a subject.
I could ask ChatGPT or Claude to tell me about a topic and make a video pretending to be an expert.
But I’d struggle to talk for twenty minutes about something I don’t know much about or have experience in.
So don’t worry about giving away too much. I’d actually encourage you to give away more!
5. Give It Enough Time To Work
One reason I think business YouTube channels struggle is that they put in so much effort at the start that they burn out before seeing results.
It’s not that easy to make business content go viral compared to generic fun or comedy videos.
Again, this is why your goal with YouTube should be clear before you start.
I have seen people try to post tons of content, even daily, and then feel disappointed when they’re not seeing results after a while.
I think they’d be better off slowing it down a little, committing to six months, and putting out a video every second week instead of every week.
That gives them time to build traction without expecting it to happen in the first month.
We had a finance client with around 300 or 400 subscribers at the time.
We recorded two videos ahead of an OCR announcement, based on the probable outcomes, then published the relevant one as soon as the announcement went out.
It got about 10,000 views, and that brought in people interested in personal finance in New Zealand.
From that point onwards, his content did well because he’d found that audience.
That would not have happened if he had tried to post a video every other day and had given up before the OCR announcement.
I assume I’m helping you understand this.
Commit to a longer time and focus on improving as you go instead of trying to be perfect and trying to do as much volume as possible.
Planning to grow on YouTube?
At Cleverpreneur, we help businesses and creators build an organic YouTube system around their actual goals.
A Few New Zealand YouTube Channels We Have Worked With:
Keep The Change (27k subscribers)
Josh Ryan (101k subscribers)
Making Cents with Frances Cook (8.37k subscribers)
Shane Cameron (13.8k subscribers)
NZ Everyday Investor with Darcy Ungaro (4.29k subscribers)
John Kenel (8.72k subscribers)
If you are planning to grow on YouTube and want a clearer idea of what kind of support and strategy makes sense for your business, feel free to book a call with us at cleverpreneur.com.
We will look at where your channel is right now, what you are trying to achieve, and help you understand what kind of YouTube support and strategy makes the most sense for you.