In short
Podcast Episode Notes: Here's What The Top YouTubers Taught Us About YouTube Marketing
Podcast Title: Marketing School Hosts: Neil Patel & Eric Siu Episode Number: 2611 Air Date: [Insert Date Here] Listen Here: [Marketing School Podcast](https://www.marketingschool.io)
Episode Summary In this episode, Neil Patel and Eric Siu share valuable insights learned from successful YouTubers that can help improve YouTube marketing strategies. The discussion emphasizes the importance of content quality over the number of subscribers, the need for consistency in publishing, the significance of engaging thumbnails and headlines, and diversifying marketing efforts across channels.
Key Takeaways
- Subscriber Count vs. Content Quality
- Subscribers Don't Matter: The number of subscribers is not as critical as producing high-quality content that attracts views.
- Example: The Marketing School channel received only 10,000 views with a high number of subscribers, while a clips channel with fewer subscribers garnered 50,000 views.
- Consistency and Quality
- Consistency is Key: Regularly publishing content helps build an audience and increase visibility.
- Quality Matters: Consistent production of hit videos is essential to maintain momentum and engagement with the audience.
- Commitment to YouTube
- Long-term Engagement: Success on YouTube is not quick; it requires dedication and ongoing effort, akin to being an employee of the platform.
- Producing Viral Content
- Focus on Hits: Creating engaging, high-quality videos that resonate with a broader audience can lead to viral growth.
- Avoid Mediocrity: A few mediocre videos can undermine the success gained from previous hit content.
- Content Types and Audience Engagement
- Different Content Types Yield Different Results: Not all video formats will perform equally; some may attract more views while others drive more qualified leads.
- Importance of Thumbnails and Headlines
- Engaging Thumbnails: Thumbnails should be compelling and clickable to draw viewers in.
- Examples from Successful YouTubers: Analysis of Russell Brand's thumbnails highlighted the need for interesting visuals that promote clicks rather than revealing too much about the video's content.
- Diversification of Marketing Channels
- Don't Put All Eggs in One Basket: Although YouTube is a powerful marketing tool, it's important to diversify marketing efforts across different channels.
- Focus on One Business Niche: While diversifying marketing channels is beneficial, businesses should maintain a clear focus on their core market.
Learning from Others
- Feedback from Successful YouTubers: Insights from other YouTubers like Ali Abdaal and George Gammon provide perspective on effective strategies and the commitment required to succeed in the platform.
Conclusion The episode wraps up with a reminder to focus on producing high-quality content consistently, to engage in the YouTube marketing journey as a long-term commitment, and to diversify marketing efforts without branching too far from core business objectives.
Call to Action
- Rate & Review: The hosts encourage listeners to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast.
- Follow on Social Media: Connect with Neil Patel (@neilpatel) and Eric Siu (@ericosiu) on social media.
Links Mentioned
- [George Gammon’s YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/GeorgeGammon)
- [Russell Brand’s YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/russellbrand)
---
For more insights and actionable tips, visit [Marketing School](https://www.marketingschool.io).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00All right. So for today, we're going to talk about YouTube marketing.
0:30these are organic views. And he was kind enough because he listens to this podcast. I think he listened to like 100 episodes in a week in meal when he was playing golf a couple weeks ago. And he's heard us talk about how, you know, I personally don't think you and I are the best at YouTube and we're going to try to get better. Right. And he's like, you know, I want to get on a call. So he got him. He offered a call with his Josh from his team and they're both obsessed with YouTube. Right. And they gave me a couple of thoughts on how we can grow our YouTube because they're like, there's no reason why we shouldn't be crushing it.
0:57And Josh kind of made fun of us. And he says, he's like, yeah, your guys' channel is shit, right? And so, you know, we wanted to share some of the takeaways. Neil and I were down for feedback, but we wanted to share some of the lessons here. You ready? We love feedback, by the way. Eric and I don't think we know everything as well. And we also have a problem, and it's not necessarily a bad problem. Him and I tend to focus on what drives the highest ROI for our businesses versus the spray and pray approach. And the spectacle. Yes. All right, so let's jump into it. So they gave us some feedback here.
1:28And also yesterday I hung out with Ali Abdaal. He has like 5 million subs or so. So I'll start with Ali first. And so the first thing we should all understand here is that your subs no longer matter. As long as your video is good, you're going to get views. I'll give you an example. The marketing school channel that we have right now, we got like 10 ,000 views in the last 30 days. It's pitiful, right? And then I have a Clips channel that got 50 ,000 views or so. It has like 700 subs. So the subs don't matter. If you have good videos, it's just going to do well, right? And here's what George said.
2:02This is probably the best takeaway I got here. You have to look at if you're going to be creating on YouTube, especially YouTube, right? You're an employee of YouTube. And so if you're an employee of a company, they're not just going to give you all the views and give you all the promotions in the beginning. They want to see if you're going to be a consistent employee. If you're going to be posting consistently over time, are you going to be talking about the same thing? And is your content actually good, right? And so we've talked about this concept of YouTube jail before a couple episodes ago.
2:31And I told George about this. I was like, hey, my friend Patrick, he's like, there's this concept of YouTube jail. He's like, it's not that. It's that Patrick, he got no play on his YouTube shorts for probably a year or so. And then all of a sudden, one of his videos got 11 million views. Another one got 2 million views. Another one got 1 million views. The shorts game started to recognize him because he was playing it consistently. What George said was this. He said back in 2019, 2018 or so, sorry, 2019, he condensed all of his audition period with YouTube into like a span of three months. So he was working 80 hours weeks, and he was publishing these like – he spent like eight hours per video, and these were like 20 to 30-minute whiteboard videos.
3:14And he just went to town for three months, and he was only getting like 200 views a day, whatever. And all of a sudden, the algorithm just shot him up 20 ,000 views per day, 40 ,000 views per day, 60 ,000 views per day. And then he just didn't look back, right? So I think the key thing to understand here is that if you're going to play the YouTube game, which I think is probably the best long-term social channel for the next 10 years, just understand that you're an employee. And here's the other thing. I was talking to Ali yesterday. His girlfriend's also a YouTuber as well. And they're like, man, I don't want to continue on this YouTube hamster wheel.
3:42It's like, yeah, it's a commitment. It is a commitment. and they're spot on right about the subscribers. I have a million subscribers. Whether they have a million or 10 million, it doesn't matter. What matters is the content, but here's the kicker. You gotta A, be consistent in producing content, but B, and B is even more important. If the content you're producing isn't hits, it's hard to actually get more hits. But once you get two or three hits consistently, assuming your content's really high in quality, it's easy to maintain that momentum. But the moment you create two or three hits and then you just put out a few mediocre pieces of content, it actually screws up the whole channel.
4:21You got to make sure that you're consistently trying to produce hits. And what you'll find is more of your content will just go viral. And it's hard to do that. And what we found is when we produce hits that are more broad, like in the marketing world, like here's a hack that'll help your WordPress blog rank higher on Google. We get a lot more views, but then on the flip side, we generate a lot less qualified leads. But when we produce content that's not as much of a hit, like, you know, should you use a subdomain versus a subdirectory for SEO? What do you do for a site that is in 50 different languages or something like that?
4:59Bad title, but you get the point, right? Should you use subdomains or subdirectories for your blog when your website is in 50 plus different languages? Content like that won't get the views, but for us, it drives leads. and leads from like large enterprise companies. And that's what we're seeing revenue from YouTube at least. Dude, check this out. Here's another one. This is, I almost forgot this one. So can you see my screen over here? It's loading. Okay. Yeah. So this is Russell Brand. I don't know if you follow him at all. I just know he's like a purple belt Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy, but he's really popular, right?
5:34Like 6.7 million subs. He had some controversy recently, but here's what George Gammon and Josh said, right? It's like his thumbnails are the best, right? And so it's like, look at this war with Iran right now or Israel versus Palestine, what's happening. And then it's like you have this one with Hillary Clinton wearing a jail jumpsuit. But key thing is that his thumbnail – he was making fun of our thumbnails, right? On your channel, on my channel, on our marketing school channel, it's not that interesting. And here's the thing. We make a lot of videos where in the thumbnail and the headline, we kind of just give the video away.
6:11And it's just like, what's the point of watching the video? Right. And so all of these things that the thumbnail, the hook, the headline, you know, all that stuff matters. And here's here's another thing I'll say. So Russell Brand, definitely follow his stuff. Check out his thumbnails. It's like it's very clickable. Like, look at this one with the the do you see this one with the the Vax over here? yeah so anyway point being it's like they spend a lot of time a lot of time a lot of time and money on thumbnails that's fine um one more thing i'll say with george gavin is that his channel he has a separate channel called rebel capitalist i believe and he does like three reaction videos a day and and he's just he's basically winging it right he'll just open like an article and just start reacting to it and that channel gets like i think like two or three million views a month or so so a lot to learn from that yeah yeah dude a lot of these youtubers do well but the one thing i would say is youtube marketing is great even though eric and i think it's the big social channel that you should pay attention to that's still going to be extremely popular over the next five ten years like you know facebook is great but the real money in facebook is just running ads it's not really on the organic side youtube we still think you'll be able to do really well organically in the long run.
7:24But I still wouldn't recommend putting all your eggs in one basket. Yep. Yeah. Diversify once you nail one and then scale it and then, you know, move on to the next one. So, and here's, I'll leave with this final piece over here. So Ali yesterday, we're doing a podcast and he's like, yeah, you know, I struggle with the focus thing because it's like, well, I have YouTube. And then like, what if YouTube max out? I'm like, the marketing channels, you can diversify all day, right? Like the worst thing is if you diversify in too many different unrelated businesses, like that's a completely different story.
7:53So it's okay to diversify marketing channels once you figure one out. So yes, but not businesses, businesses, you should stay laser focused and you know, just make sure you're after going after a big Tam Tam sounds for total adjustable market. It also makes your marketing easier because if you can appeal to more people or a bigger audience, or even if it's a small audience, but they spend a lot of money, it's just easier to generate revenue. Yep. All right. So that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe and we'll see you tomorrow. Thank you.

