Why 90% of Marketers Fail on YouTube (And How to Fix It)

[00:00:00] Most marketers think of YouTube as just another social media platform where you post content and hope people click through to your website. But here's the reality. If you approach YouTube like a Facebook or an Instagram or LinkedIn, you are setting yourself up for failure. YouTube is fundamentally different. It is a recommendation engine, and the best-performing channels get most of their views from recommendations, not subscribers.

[00:00:27] Plus, with AI tools now reading YouTube transcripts, your video content could be impacting your visibility in ways you never imagined. If you're ready to stop thinking like a traditional marketer and start thinking like a YouTube creator, then this episode is for you. So make sure you stay tuned for this next episode of the Your Digital Marketing Coach podcast.

[00:00:48] Digital. Social media. Content influencer. Marketing. Blogging. Podcasting. Vlogging. Tick-Tocking. LinkedIn. Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. YouTube. SEO. SEO. SEM. PPC. Email Marketing. There's a lot to cover. Whether you're a marketing professional, entrepreneur, or business owner, you need someone you can rely on for expert advice. Good thing you've got Neal on your side.

[00:01:17] Because Neal Schaffer is your digital marketing coach. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Your Digital Marketing Coach podcast with your digital marketing coach, Neal Schaffer.

[00:01:44] And today, we're diving deep into YouTube strategy. But not the way you've probably been taught before. Now, YouTube is not something that I have a dedicated chapter for in my modern marketing playbook digital threads. But it is one of these important channels that has only become more important with the emergence of AI. And I'm going to speak about that momentarily. But, you know, I just finished presenting to my digital first group coaching community about YouTube. It is a topic that has come up a lot recently.

[00:02:14] So I always pivot to look at the needs of the market, look at the needs of my members, and provide that content. And I realized, and I remembered, that most of us are approaching this platform completely wrong. We're stuck in this old mindset of create content post everywhere, drive traffic back to our website. That worked maybe five years ago. But YouTube has evolved and social media has evolved into something much more sophisticated, as we all know.

[00:02:42] And here's what most people don't understand. YouTube isn't just the second largest search engine anymore. With recent Google algorithm updates, you might have noticed that YouTube videos are appearing more frequently in Google search results. So they've become even more important for SEO. And now with AI tools scanning video transcripts, your YouTube content could be influencing your rankings in ChatGPT, Cloud, and other AI platforms.

[00:03:09] In other words, it's become more important for SEO and GEO, or whatever you want to call what people are calling GEO. But here's the kicker. YouTube success is not about having 1,000 subscribers. It's nice to have 1,000 subscribers for social proof. I mean, I have about 7,400 subscribers myself. But less than 10% of my views come from those subscribers. The vast majority come from YouTube's recommendation engine. And that changes everything about how we should approach content creation for YouTube.

[00:03:39] So today, as I prepared all this content for my group coaching community, I wanted to also share some nuggets of that. The strategic framework that I believe is working right now. The technical elements that actually matter. And why you need to start thinking less like a marketer and more like a YouTube creator. And that is a theme that I've been talking about a lot when it comes to social media marketing in general. So let me start with the most important concept. Let's call this the YouTube mindset shift.

[00:04:07] That YouTube is not a social media platform in the traditional sense. It is a recommendation engine, just like TikTok. Most of your views will come from three places. Search results within YouTube. This means you're not just competing for your subscribers' attention.

[00:04:31] You're competing to satisfy YouTube's algorithm so it recommends your content to people who don't even know you exist yet. Think about how you use YouTube. When you open the app, you see recommended videos on your homepage. When you finish watching a video, YouTube suggests what to watch next. Or maybe on the mobile phone underneath they'll have recommended videos. On a desktop it'll be maybe on the right-hand side. And when you search for something, YouTube obviously shows you video results as well.

[00:04:59] Very rarely do you go out of your way to go to a specific channel and watch their latest upload, right? I'm assuming that's the case. This is why the traditional create content for your audience and post it everywhere approach fails on YouTube. You need to create content that satisfies YouTube users first. Because if YouTube users aren't engaging with your content, the platform is not going to recommend it to anybody.

[00:05:22] So let's now, going to the next stage of how I teach this, let's begin to understand what YouTube likes or what YouTube recommends by understanding our competition through research. And here's an exercise I want you to do right now. And this is something that I learned from Daryl Eves in his YouTube formula book and from interviewing him on this podcast. You should check out that episode if you want. It's also available on YouTube. He calls it reconnaissance and research.

[00:05:51] Create a second YouTube account. I would call this a ghost account. Use this account purely to watch videos in your niche. Don't subscribe to channels you normally would. And the reason why you want to create a new account is you don't want the algorithm for your account to have any biases. So don't subscribe to channels. Instead, watch videos that you think your ideal customer would watch. Like content from creators you want to emulate. Pay attention to what YouTube starts recommending to you.

[00:06:19] And over the course of weeks and a few months, it'll be pretty clear as to what videos your target audience is watching. But more importantly, what are the types of videos, the types of content that YouTube is recommending to others, which is getting them lots of views. So over the course of a few weeks, this ghost account will show you exactly what the YouTube algorithm thinks people in your niche want to see.

[00:06:41] You'll start noticing patterns in the types of videos that get recommended, the thumbnails that work, and the content formats that YouTube favors. Now, most marketers who want results yesterday skip this research phase. And that is a huge mistake. You wouldn't launch a Google Ads campaign without researching keywords, right? Well, you shouldn't launch a YouTube channel without understanding what content YouTube actually promotes in your space.

[00:07:08] So now, let's talk about the tactical stuff, the technical elements that matter. I believe there are three key elements that determine whether someone clicks on your video or not. Obviously, above and beyond the content for the recommendation engine. The thumbnail, the title, and those crucial first 15 seconds. Let's break this down. When you go to your home screen, when you look at recommended videos or search results, you often see the thumbnail prominently and you might also see the title, right?

[00:07:37] So for thumbnails, I like to think two to four words maximum. Remember, most people are watching on mobile devices, so your text needs to be large enough to read on a small screen. I believe we should also include a face when possible. It creates that human connection. And try to evoke some emotion or curiosity. Look at how Mr. Beast does thumbnails if you're looking for ideas. Now, obviously, we can't replicate his style exactly, but notice how almost every thumbnail makes you think, wait, what's going on here?

[00:08:05] Now, for titles, be clear about what the video delivers, but don't necessarily give away everything. The future of AI in patent law is probably better than artificial intelligence patent figure generation. Keep it concise and mobile friendly. But here's where most people lose their audience. Those first 15 seconds.

[00:08:26] YouTube analytics, at least my YouTube analytics, show me that typically on a bad video, 20% of viewers drop off after one second and 60% are gone within the first few seconds. These are for my bad videos, right? You need to immediately confirm that the viewer is in the right place and preview what value they'll get. Not some fancy schmancy intro video, but get right to the point. Don't start with long intros or explanations of who you are. Jump right into the value.

[00:08:53] If your thumbnail promised information about patent law, start talking about patent law in the first sentence, for instance. So let me share what I've learned about creating videos that YouTube actually wants to recommend. I have a theory that in order to keep people engaged, and I tend to do talking head videos, I believe that every 15 seconds or so, this is, like I said, my strategy.

[00:09:17] You need to have what's called a pattern interrupt, something that changes on the screen to keep viewers engaged. And once I teach this to you and you begin to watch other videos that have a lot of views, whether they be in your niche or not, I think you're going to be able to see some patterns of this pattern interrupt. And these are the things that you want to try to incorporate more in your own videos to keep people watching, above and beyond getting them hooked in those first 15 seconds. This could be zooming in on your face when you're making an important point.

[00:09:46] It could be showing graphics or text overlays that emphasize what you're saying. It could be B-roll footage, even just a few seconds of you typing at your computer or walking in your office. I tell my video editors that every 15 seconds, something should change visually. It doesn't have to be fancy Hollywood production. Even simple text overlays or slight camera movements or zoom-ins can keep people watching longer. And here's something counterintuitive. Don't try to send people to your website during the video.

[00:10:16] YouTube penalizes videos that sends viewers away from the platform. Instead, at the end of your video, recommend another one of your videos or tell people to subscribe for more content on the topic. Do not have them end their YouTube session. Have them continue their YouTube session, which shows YouTube that they were satisfied with your video. And ideally, they watch another one of your videos, which gives YouTube another strong signal that they're very satisfied with your content. Now, here's something that might surprise you.

[00:10:44] I want to talk about the SEO benefits that you might not know about. YouTube success can actually improve your Google search rankings. When I look at my Google Analytics, YouTube visitors have the highest conversion rate of any social media platform. So we all know that YouTube has impact on Google search rankings. We see more and more YouTube videos that rank. We also know that there have been studies that show when you embed videos that you have on a topic into a blog post on a topic,

[00:11:13] it increases your chances that the blog post and or the video will appear in search engine rankings. But above and beyond that, I have found that YouTube visitors have the highest conversion rate of any social media platform. They don't bring huge volume, but the people who come from YouTube, I have found are more likely to subscribe to my email list or engage with my content. Now, why do you think this is? Well, my theory is that video builds relationships faster than any other content medium.

[00:11:43] Someone might skim a blog post in 30 seconds. They might flip through a short form video in a second or two. And by the way, the advice I'm giving you today is really about long form horizontal videos. But if they watch five minutes of that video, they are developing a pretty deep connection with you. Just like listening to this podcast for 30 minutes or 20 minutes, you're creating a deep connection with me. They are hearing your voice, seeing your personality, seeing you on screen and indirectly building trust.

[00:12:10] Plus with AI tools now analyzing YouTube transcripts as a source of content for their large language models, your video content very much could be influencing how you show up in ChatGPT results. And that goes the same for Claude, any other large language model, Google Gemini. I have started thinking of YouTube transcripts as another form of SEO content. And anecdotally, I know a lot of SEOers are now equally pushing video content like they would blog content

[00:12:37] to give you an idea of how important this has come in the SEO world. So let's talk about some optimization tactics that I think work. So we're going to get a little bit deep here technically, but YouTube has something called an end screen feature that you should be using. In the last 15 seconds of every video, YouTube allows you to add clickable elements that promote your other videos or ask people to subscribe. This keeps viewers in your ecosystem instead of leaving the platform should they click on one of those things.

[00:13:06] So what I do at the end of my videos is you can have a setting where YouTube will automatically recommend the video that it thinks your individual viewer will want to watch from your library of content. I also have another should this video be part of a playlist. I'll also recommend the playlist and I'll have a subscribe button. So that's the end screen feature. And this is available within YouTube Studio and it's free. Second, create playlists. I just mentioned this playlist for different topics.

[00:13:34] This might help a little with SEO, but at least it gives YouTube another signal about what your content covers. And then obviously that playlist can be added into the end screen. And if they're interested in what you have to say about a certain topic, why not give them more of that? Third, and this mimics a lot of other advice I've heard, don't obsess over tags. YouTube's AI can analyze your video content and transcripts to understand what your video is about.

[00:14:01] Focus on clear titles and descriptions and really a clear transcript instead. So even now, if you were to upload a video and I showed this in my group yesterday, if you were to upload a video, it doesn't even show tags. You have to see like more options in order to get that option. And here's another pro tip. If you get videos from other countries, consider adding translated titles and descriptions in their language.

[00:14:28] So YouTube has an auto translate feature that can help with this. And what you need to do though, is you need to have your own, what's called an SRT file, which is a transcript file. So my process is I record the video. Normally it's a podcast interview. So I download the audio. I feed it into otter.ai, which is my choice to create the transcript. I export it as an SRT. Then I upload that English file.

[00:14:52] Once I upload that English file, not only can I create subtitles in any language because YouTube will, if I choose a language for a subtitle, I can automatically translate those captions using YouTube's Google translation feature. And it's right there in the UI, very, very easy to do. But I can also add a title and a description in a foreign language using a chat GPT, a DeepL or any other AI translation tool. And then your video has a higher chance of being seen in the local language of that country.

[00:15:20] And because you have the captions in their language as well, they can actually read and understand. And I have seen growth in international viewership by simply translating my titles and descriptions and including subtitles for Spanish, Arabic, and other languages where my analytics show I have viewers. All right. So finally, out of all this, I think the most important takeaway here is you need to create a content strategy to be able to take advantage of everything I talked about.

[00:15:48] So instead of trying to create one type of video perfectly, I recommend you experiment with different formats. And this is sort of the same content bucket concept that I brought up in Maximize Your Social back in the day. I think I talked about it in digital threads as well. If you have four categories of blog content and you consistently equally publish, you know, one post per category per week over the course of a year, you'll have 12 blog posts for category A, 12 for B, 12 for C, 12 for D.

[00:16:17] They're going to rank differently in search engines and they are going to convert differently. And then you should double down on those topics that rank well, bring you more traffic, bring you more leads, bring you more conversions. Same thing we want to do with YouTube, right? If we have four different types of content and we upload one video per week for each type of content over the course of a year, we're going to have 12 different videos or I should say 12 videos per category over four different categories.

[00:16:45] And then we can look at our analytics because YouTube provides really, really robust analytics to see which format YouTube recommends most often. Then we double down on that format while still maintaining some variety. So maybe one week you do a talking head video where it's just you on camera. Another week you do an interview. Another week you do a credit tutorial. Maybe another week you record a video while walking outside or speaking at an event. You just want to shake it up.

[00:17:12] And in doing that, you have different types of content which will engage with people differently. This is part of this experimentation that comes hand in hand with modern digital marketing. So remember, you're not trying to create content necessarily for your existing audience. You're really trying to create content that YouTube will recommend to people who don't know you yet. That is how you grow above and beyond your existing audience.

[00:17:38] So let's recap the key mindset ships for YouTube success. First, stop thinking of YouTube as a traffic generation tool and start thinking of it as a relationship building platform. Everything that I've teached about social media, it is the same message, right? Second, understand that most of your views will come from recommendations and search, not subscribers. So you need to satisfy YouTube's algorithm first. Third, focus on those first 15 seconds. That's where you'll lose or keep most of your audience.

[00:18:07] And finally, experiment with different content formats to see what YouTube favors for your niche. Now, there's obviously a lot more to YouTube than what I've covered today. There are advanced strategies for descriptions, community posts, so much more. But I've found that most businesses haven't even mastered what I talked about in this episode. So this is a great starting point. The businesses that figure out YouTube this year, I believe are going to have a massive advantage going forward.

[00:18:34] Not only will they build stronger relationships with their audience, and we know the younger the audience, the more they actually use YouTube. But they'll also benefit from increased visibility in Google search results and potentially even in AI platforms. If you want to dive deeper into any of these strategies, I'm going to include some resources, some links, tools in the show notes. Make sure you check that out. And if you found this episode helpful, I'd love for you to subscribe and leave a review. It really helps other marketers, entrepreneurs, business owners discover the show.

[00:19:03] Finally, if you need some additional help, go to my landing page for my group coaching community, neilshafer.com slash membership. Or if you want to go further and engage with me as a fractional CMO, go to neilshafer.com slash CMO. That's N-E-A-L-S-C-H-A-F-F-E-R. Until next time, keep leveraging digital marketing to grow your business. And I'll see you on the next episode. This is your digital marketing coach, Neil Schafer, signing off.

[00:19:32] You've been listening to your digital marketing coach. Questions, comments, requests, links, go to podcast.neilshafer.com. Get the show notes to this and 200 plus podcast episodes at neilshafer.com to tap into the 400 plus blog posts that Neil has published to support your business. While you're there, check out Neil's digital first group coaching membership community. If you or your business needs a little helping hand.

[00:20:02] See you next time on your digital marketing coach.