If you want to grow your business you need an audience.

If you want an audience you need to go where the people are.

And where do the people go (online at least) every day? Well, the number one most visited website is Google (this is why we want to be creating content regularly).

But the second most visited website everyday of the week is YouTube – so it would make sense to be there as well in the form of videos.

But two questions come up:

1. How do I grow a massive YouTube following?
2. And more importantly how can I leverage YouTube to actually grow my business and put money in my pocket?

Today I’ll show you how to grow your YouTube following and reach more people but first we have to understand the best way to use YouTube to actually increase business revenue.

A Big YouTube Following Isn’t The Goal

First let me say that growing a big following on YouTube isn’t the goal – it’s merely a means to an end.

Take my business The Recording Revolution for example. I have over 380,000 subscribers on YouTube and my videos have racked up over 30 million views.

But other than feeding my ego and giving me some visible credibility in the audio and recording space, those stats do little for my business.

The secret is converting those views into subscribers on my email list – that’s where the money is.

What we want to do is grow a big YouTube following so we can be seen by  more people, but only so we can move them from YouTube land to our email lists.

Once there, we can offer them more free content and of course our products and services.

Promote A Specific, Relevant Lead Magnet In Each Video

Since you’re a smarty pants and have been paying attention, you know that creating quality free content is the best method for being discovered by your target audience.

But that piece of content is only the beginning of the relationship.

We always want to end our content with a CTA (Call To Action) to instruct the viewer on what to do next.

The best way to grow your business through YouTube is to get the viewers onto your email list and the best way to do that is by offering a relevant lead magnet at the end of each video.

This could be a PDF or bonus guide that’s free and downloadable in exchange for their email address.

Always link directly to a landing page where they can quickly and easily see the download and opt-in without being distracted (as compared to say your website).

You can use something like LeadPages or Kajabi to create a simple landing page.

Or you can even use a simple dedicated page on your WordPress site.

The key is to make it clear what they are to do on that page, so they opt-in and get the download.

For my business The Recording Revolution I have 5 different lead magnets based on different topics that I cover – but you only need to start with one.

In fact, for this website I have one lead magnet – my free audio training “Get Paid To Do What You Love”.

So where on YouTube do you link to your lead magnet’s landing page?

The first place is in the description box of the video at the very top, above the fold.

This way people actually see the link without having to click “Show More” which nobody really does.

Second, if your YouTube account has been approved to use Cards and End Screens then use those to link directly to your landing page as well.

You can get even fancier if you want by mentioning the specific URL for the landing page in the video (assuming it’s short and easy to remember).

Either way, the point of the video is to get them to download the lead magnet and join your email list!

Publish “Serialized” Content

YouTube really likes and rewards serialized content.

They are fighting Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu for your eyeballs so they can make more money on advertising.

So they want to keep people binge watching on YouTube as long as they can.

This is why YouTube rewards videos that are in playlists.

Think about it: YouTube wants to maximize viewership, and people are more likely to continue watching videos in a playlist than bounce around from one video to another.

That’s why channels like makeup tutorials, video game tutorials, etc. are dominating the scene right now.

So instead of creating one-off videos, focus instead on making multi-part playlists.

I’ve noticed that YouTube will reward you and put your videos higher in the search results if you create a lot of serialized content.

Not sure where to start with serialized content? Consider doing either

1. A miniseries or
2. Themed playlists.

Miniseries are a great way to get started.

Just pick one topic, and break it up into chunks, then release something like one new video per week.

In each video, be sure to tell viewers to subscribe so that they’ll automatically get the next video in the series. I get a ton of subscribers this way.

Themed playlists are another great way to create serialized content.

This is where you create an open-ended playlist for a certain category of video, which you add to from time to time.

For example, I might create a playlist called “Product Reviews.” Any time I review a new product, I’ll simply add it to that playlist.

Got it? OK.

Finally let’s talk about one of the biggest misconceptions about YouTube.

Don’t Optimize For Views – Focus On “Watch Time” Instead

One of the most important developments with YouTube is that they’ve recently changed what their main currency is.

Back in the day, YouTube cared about views.

That’s why you used to get a ton of videos with clickbait-y titles, misleading screenshots, etc.

People just needed you to click on the video for one second to rack up another “view” so they cared little about the video being good or relevant and more about getting you to click.

And so everyone was trying to optimize for views, because if you could get 1MM views, YouTube would reward you by moving you higher in the search results.

Not anymore: Now they value watch time.

In other words, it doesn’t matter how many views you get; what matters is how long people watch your videos for.

That has dramatic implications for content creators.

For example, people used to only create short videos because they didn’t want to scare away viewers with videos that were 20 minutes long.

That doesn’t matter anymore: now the way to win is to have longer, higher-quality videos that keep viewers’ attention for as long as possible.

YouTube actually makes this easy by telling you the “% watch time” for each of your videos.

So study your analytics and find out what videos are working best for your audience, and then do more of the same.

Here’s the big takeaway for you: Don’t worry about trying to “hack” your way into clicks and views, because it won’t actually help you that much in the end.

Instead, spend your time creating videos that are so good that your viewers will actually want to watch the whole thing — along with every other video you create!

Make YouTube Work For You

YouTube is where the people are, so create content there regularly.

But remember the point of it all is not to grow a big following, but to move people over to your email list so you can continue the relationship.

Create a quality relevant lead magnet for your videos, pitch it at the end of each one, and make YouTube work for you and your business by turning those viewers into email subscribers.

That being said, let’s continue the discussion.

I want to help you take your ideas and content and turn them into a stream of income.

Whether you’re just looking for extra money on the side or transitioning out of a day job you hate into something better, my free audio training “Get Paid To Do What You Love” will give you the 3 steps you need to pivot into the work and business you were meant for – and how to get paid handsomely for it.