7 SMART WAYS TO POSITION YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR SUCCESS IN 2023 | #THINKMEDIAPODCAST #184
You want people to take your YouTube channel seriously, but you can't even post one video a week. But if you want a strong brand, if you want to be respected, if you want to build momentum, these are smart ways to position your YouTube channel for success. As you dial in these details, you're going to be able to go further, faster, and get better results this year. 7 smart ways to position your YouTube channel for success this year in today's episode of the podcast, we're going to be talking about how to create a winning YouTube strategy this year.
Clarity questions to help you dial in your YouTube marketing and branding and also how to earn more money this year, even if you're just starting or you want to scale your revenue. So let's dive into this. A lot of people underestimate the power of positioning. It's a really good book. It's a little bit older now, but it's called positioning. And the question is where are you positioned on YouTube? How are you positioned different? Different is better than better in business.
They call it a USP What is your unique selling position? And what's powerful is that as you dial in your unique positioning, you can start to either beat your competitors or make your competitors irrelevant because you have found your own unique angle to make you a one of one in the marketplace. Think about restaurants. How are they positioned? It could be as simple as what they do their sushi restaurant or a Mexican restaurant. How they do it? Is it affordable? Is a little more expensive? Is it fine dining and fancy? There's white tablecloth. But even why they do it? Is it mission driven? Is there? Do they give a percentage of profits away? Do they have an ethic for only social sourcing local ingredients? There's positioning that happens.
It's the branding. It's their logos. The same is true on YouTube. How can you increase your success by positioning yourself on the platform? And I want to share 7 smart ways in the form of questions that will also help you just dominate YouTube this year overall. Number one is who is your Channel 4? This is the positioning question, who is your Channel 4? Who is your channel? Not for if you try and reach everybody you know, you end up reaching nobody.
And so when you define the specific audience that your channel is for, I was studying a lot of the big marketing firms about some of the trends for this year. And one of the trends they said is that those who win an online business building YouTube channels are going to be those that go deeper in understanding the audience they want to reach. I'm talking about knowing what communities they're a part of, knowing their problems and ambitions at another level, knowing. Who they are more than demographics, psychographics, knowing what they're into, what are the other things they're passionate about? What communities are they a part of? How do they feel about certain issues in the world, in culture? Who is your channel for now, you might be like, Sean, I think you've heard you talk about this before.
This is a new information, friend. This is an information that you shouldn't even just consider annually. You should actually think about this even monthly. I am constantly asking who is my YouTube Channel 4 and practically you know what ethic media we are bringing you the best tips and tools for building your influence with online video. Here on the Fake Media podcast we go deeper into kind of the mindset and the strategy of really building a highprofit YouTube business or using YouTube to scale your business revenues and get more leads and customers.
Really more tactical stuff, deeper conversations like this. And this is where our video podcast lives. And so this channel's for people who even want more deeper conversations like this. And this is the place where this format is put out. But here's what I did. I went to my YouTube channel. On the home page of your analytics, there is an area where you can click on the people that are subscribed to your channel and actually see who's subscribed. Now disclaimer, this box has to be checked by.
The person who subscribed to allow you to see this information. I do believe that I have it set to private. So I think people wouldn't know if think media subscribed to them. I haven't checked recently, but I think last time I checked. So it's not necessarily an indicator, an indication whether somebody because you might be like that's. I can't believe my friend's not even subscribed to me. It doesn't mean they aren't. It's not necessarily that information has to be shared. But here's why I bring this up. As I went through and looked at the people subscribe to think media, I was actually pretty surprised. You know, we have 40 % US viewers and this is on our other channel, this is on our tech channel.
And so we have 60 % international viewers. And this made me really think, how can we better serve them a lot of the huge, there's some major channels subscribe to us. A lot of them were in Spanish or in other languages or in other countries. That was fascinating to me as I look through. I also looked at the topics and the niches that were subscribed, many that I wouldn't have guessed that was subscribing to me. Listen, the creator who understands the viewer best wins.
You got to go deeper this year on who is your channel forward number two. What problem does your channel solve? If it's an entertainment channel, you might solve the problem of boredom. If it's education, you might help people save money on their taxes, recover after divorce right have more energy? Sleep better. What problem does your YouTube channel for? Learn a new skill be a part of a community? Does it solve the problem of learning how to play board games like the really new complex ones and. You know that are more in depth there's all kinds of niches on YouTube. But being clear about your niche, being clear about your channel topic and being clear about the problem.
Here's what I learned in business one of the things they discovered was that the business owner that creates a product or service that understands the problem better than the customer does always gets the sale. And you've probably noticed this you know what I mean? You've got a problem with your car so you drive it in somewhere they go Oh yeah you know it's it looks like your timing belts a little bit off and. This is happening too. Did you even know that this was happening? And you go, Oh my gosh, I didn't know about any of that stuff.
Now of course, if they're ethical and tell you the truth and not just trying to up sell you stuff, you go out. You understand this. All I knew was it was making a horrible noise and I was barely going and it was puttering around. And so when somebody can come to you where you're confused, you're looking for answers, and they bring clarity because of their understanding. It builds trust. It builds excitement. So when you understand the problems and the ambitions of the viewer better than even they do, like they understand what it is, but if you can articulate it, put it into words better than they do.
So This is why these are smart ways to position your YouTube channel for success. As you dial in these details, you're going to be able to go further, faster and get better results this year. This video was brought to you by stream yard. Stream Yard is our go to platform for streaming to Youtube and Facebook with an incredibly easy to use interface for builtin branding, transitions, text, lower thirds and seamlessly bringing on guests.
It really is one of the best options when it comes to live streaming and what's so cool is they've implemented a brand new feature called local recording. Take control of your audio and video with local recordings. By separating out your audio and video from your guests, this feature gives you the control over your content for later use. Making it perfect for podcasts and video creators. Just go to streamwiththink.com to get started. Now number three is what promise does my channel make to the viewer? Maybe you haven't heard this one before. Maybe you've never made a promise to the viewer before. This is, I think, one of the biggest opportunities we have as YouTube creators.
What do I mean? What I've kind of learned. That my summary of what business is ultimately making a promise and then fulfilling on it. I promise that if your car doesn't run, drop it off, pay us and drive away with a car that runs and what breaks the cycle, drop it off, pay for it. Two days later it stops running. No warranty, they don't back up the product business and contact creation is about making a promise. Youtube channels that make a promise you're going to laugh. Problem is, if you don't laugh and you're a comedy channel, you might give that person a few more tries, but if they don't deliver on the promise of the channel then trust is reduced.
If you can be consistently delivering on the promise that you make, then trust is increased and this is ultimately what builds your brand. Branding is about consistency and proverbs, the book of Proverbs, it talks about a good name. Is better than great riches. What is a good name? It's a brand. What is Nike? Nike is a name. You might love Nike. You go. Yeah, I can trust their shoes. I like their apparel. I like their clothes. It's cool.
What is Chanel or Gucci? That's a name. Why is it so premium priced? It's a good name. You might not care, but there are people who are willing to pay a high price. Because of the name, because of the brand. Because it's came to mean something. Because it's carrying weight with it. What does your name mean? What does your channel mean? How do you? Well, Sean, I'm just starting. That sounds like a daunting effort. This is how you build an unstoppable YouTube channel is you live up to the promise you make.
And if you make a promise and you keep showing up with the promise. So here's the promise on think media. We're like we're going to bring you the best tools and the best tips for building your influence with YouTube and video. So the best tools. So it is our responsibility to test cameras, test lighting. Test setups. This is also why we hold ourselves to a rigorous standard and we have Omar doing video production inside of a church context. Kyle's doing audio and video production in the same environment. Omar is doing freelance clients and shooting photography on shoots. Is in the trenches these days I'm mainly running the business and operationally as a CEO of Think Media, but in the trenches of client work, freelance work, putting cameras to the grueling test of traveling and being in, you know, in cases, editing, putting editing software to the test.
Nolan is in Arizona. Hammering different computers and setups and cameras and trying this stuff so we can pass along the answers to you. If we get a brand deal, we test the product and we make sure we actually believe in it before we do. Or sign the brand deal because our name means everything. And if our name comes to mean they sold out, or if our name comes to mean, oh, you know, they kind of made a promise that it's going to be the best tips and tools.
But this camera that I purchased on thinks Media's recommendation kind of sucks. It actually isn't easy to use and they said it would be easy to use. We broke our promise. So what I've noticed is that sometimes people are afraid to make a promise because it puts it puts skin in the game. But two, that many have not made the promise and then held themselves to the promise to. Show up consistently. By the way, the reason this will position your YouTube channel for success is, again, this is how you build a brand.
This is how you build your momentum. And one of the things you'll consistently hear about YouTube success is you got to be consistent. But what I've learned is that people make a mistake on what consistency means. They think it means upload every Tuesday. That's not what it means. If you upload a pile of poop every Tuesday, is that going to succeed? You might become known for just uploading a garbage video once a week. Consistency is not just about frequency. Consistency is about. Are you showing U with a consistent quality of information? Are you showing U with consistent energy? Are you showing U with a consistent message? If you make a promise and you say, come to our restaurant and you're going to get sushi, and then people come on their Tuesday night date night, the couple super excited and they sit down and you're like, all right, you want some chips and salsa? Here's our menu.
Do you want the burritos or the enchiladas? They go, what? I thought this was a sushi place. I've been coming here for the last couple of weeks and it was sushi. When did it change to Mexican? And you're like, oh, sorry, we're just kind of creative. We just felt like doing something different, friend, do you know how many YouTube creators do that? I'm just kind of creative. Doesn't really matter. I just kind of feel like doing something different on my channel.
Now, listen, it's YouTube, it's your tube post, whatever you want. But if you want a strong brand, if you want to be respected, if you want to build momentum, Nike's not opening sushi restaurants. They're making athletic apparel and shoes. Nike doesn't make board games. Nike, you know, like Nike, knows their niche, their product, their category, their brand. What's yours? So making a promise is also about promising to show up. This gets a little emotional, and I don't mean to go deep and maybe bring up some old wounds, but I think about this in, like, parenting. You know, I'm a child of divorce and I have a great relationship with all of my parents.
I got my dad and my stepdad and my mom on my side. And the truth is, though, that back when my parents got divorced when I was three. My dad had visitation, right? And one of the things you learned as a child, what does a child need from their parent? They need consistency. That if you make a promise to show up and you don't show up, the child is crushed. And I'll admit like over the years I have so many fond memories and my dad did a great job a lot in terms of those visit visitation times, but I remember.
One time, specifically in Briarcrest, very young, standing on my porch, it was a sunny day that my dad was going to show up to pick me up, and he didn't show and I was absolutely crushed. I remember crying and beasts being broken up because he made a promise, but he didn't follow through on that promise. I'm not trying to throw my dad under the bus. I'm trying to call you to a higher level of responsibility to make a promise and then show up. You want people to take your YouTube channel seriously, but you can't even post one video a week. You want people to take your brand seriously, but you're all over the place talking about divergent topics that aren't even related.
You want people to take you seriously because you went out. It's a new year, new me. Here's what I plan on doing this year and then two weeks later you're not even following through in a 14 day window of the thing you said you were going to do. Friend, what promise do you need to make? And then what is your commitment level to following through on that promise? I think that'll change everything this year number four am I in the best niche or channel topic for reaching my goals? There's another way to put this do I need to pivot my channel topic? We're talking about smart ways to position your channel for success.
I don't want to blow up your whole world because you just answered the first three questions and now you're having a ton of selfdoubt. But the truth is. That many businesses have understood that the thing they even started out doing isn't what they eventually ended up doing. They were willing to pivot. Are you willing to slightly adjust your content strategy and the types of topics you're covering, the types of videos you're making? Are you willing to completely change your channel topic? If you haven't heard my story, I have three failed YouTube channels before I got to the successful one, so.
Even though I was committed to the vision of YouTube is the future, there's ever been more opportunity and that's more true than ever. In 2020 three 2 6 billion monthly active users influencer marketing goes up by about three billion dollars a year with how much money is in the industry and it's going to micro and nano creators. The crater economies valuation continues to go up. Youtube shorts are being monetized now on as well as the traditional YouTube partner program.
There is massive opportunity on YouTube, more than ever before. So the vision of succeeding on YouTube can be the vision doesn't change, but you may start a channel and realize I learned a lot. I wasn't quite right. It wasn't quite working. And you don't abandon the whole vision, but you might abandon the vehicle. You might say, man, I was trying to get cross country and my car broke down. You don't just go, it's not going to go. You get on a bus, you get on a plane, you buy another car, you hitch a ride, you find another vehicle to get you towards the goal, and that vehicle could be pivoting your channel topic.
Am I in the best channel topic for reaching my goals? You know, it reminds me of Johnny Law, who was actually a part of our video Reiki Academy. He worked with us for a little while, helping us with brand deals, and he's done a lot in his life. He's actually the most. Interesting man. I know he's been in the rodeo, he's been a marine, he's worked as a police officer in the crime Scene investigation department. And Fast forward to today, he's retired and he was doing photography and video production stuff and then we eventually linked up at a Vegas influencers meet up, which side note, if you go to vegasinfluencers.com It was just a waiting list.
At some point in 2023 we'll do just a it's just a free meet up that we do in Las Vegas if you want, if you're there, want to fly in. Met John once and then eventually he'd helped us with some stuff and was part of our team. Here's the point, his YouTube channel was struggling. He's doing all right, and he was doing photography tips and it was something he was good at. It was something he was passionate about, but it wasn't his ultimate sweet spot.
So he had to make the decision and he was only at a couple hundred. Subscribers if he was a lot further than that, he may have wanted to start a new channel, but he had to make a decision to pivot his channel. Or he did make that decision. And based on strategies that he had learned inside of our video ranking Academy as well as our niche Finder course, he pivoted his channel to what's now called Johnny Law. He made all of his old videos unlisted and what he started to do was react to true crime cases.
Because he's a crime scene investigator, retired. So he has a unique set of skills and a unique perspective. And boom, his channel just took off. He sent me a message. In 48 hours, he qualified for monetization. He wasn't even close. In two days, he went from zero to 100 real quick. Like Drake, he ultimately grew to 20.000 thousand subscribers in a month. And even Doctor Phil reached out to him, which he had to turn him down.
He got a chance to go on the Doctor Phil Show. Like, how do you turn down Doctor Phil? I mean, he was busy, but. Ultimately pretty wild. All of that actually happened because of a positioning move he repositioned himself. I just want to ask you, this could be the key to you really experiencing breakthrough on YouTube this year number five. Do I need to update my channel branding and positioning? That could be colors cover avatar who? Who are you showing up as? What's your personal brand? What's your look? What's your feel? What's your tagline? What is? What is unique about you? How are you distinct? What makes you different? Those are all things you could ask.
And then finally, these first five questions were about positioning, but the last two are all about profit. So number six is what is the best business plan for my channel topic? Ways of making money. But what is the best business plan for my channel topic if you're in entertainment? It's usually I need a lot of views and I'm going to do YouTube ad revenue, I'm going to do Patreon of some kind people supporting the art with Patreon or YouTube channel memberships, I may create merch of some kind and eventually as I build some financial momentum, I may actually invest in something that is even like a consumer packaged good.
If you look at Logan, Paul and KSI they have their prime drink. You look at mister. B's, TS B's, burger and he's got a chocolate bar. It's not that you would necessarily launch a business that big, but it is the fact that as you first generate basically seed capital and brand with your YouTube channel as an entertainer, you think about the other businesses you can launch as a result. On the education side, the opportunities I believe are actually. Not only more, but they're also more practical. You do have YouTube ad revenue. You do have the potential to make a channel memberships or membership community.
But in this side, you can also create online courses. You also can create coaching or events. You could do a lot of things like that one that other overlaps. Both are brand deals and sponsorships. And as I mentioned earlier, the dollars are actually continuing to flood into the brand deals and sponsorships arena influencer marketing. Last year did around I think eighteen billion dollars that's like how much money was in the system. Some of that goes to middle men, most of that goes to creators and it goes up about 3-4-5 billion a year. And so this next year more money is flooding into the system. How are you getting positioned now to capitalize? What's the best business plan for your channel topic? And then number seven am I making the videos with the highest income producing potential? This is one of the biggest mistakes people make.
If they want to actually go full time on YouTube, you're making videos. They may be even getting views, but they don't have the highest income producing potential. Sean, are you saying that money is everything? No, that's not what I said. I did not say that at all. I just said if you want money for the mission, you should reverse engineer and think about which type of videos. Would actually earn me the most money. And it's not as simple as just getting views and doing ad revenue, unless that's your only business model. But what's exciting is that there are multiple different creator economy business models.
Another word we use that think media is money plans, plans of making money and the goal is to get your channel in alignment with the best ways of earning revenue. Like we have a lot of creators that have small channels and make big money. But the key is you have to have the right business plan. If you are using those strategies on a channel where you're trying to get millions and millions of views but you are not getting the views, it doesn't work. But if you have the right business plan and you're only getting 16.000 thousand views a month, I'm thinking of a creator.
Recently I was talking to in our YouTube boot camp. She has multiple people working for her and she has 16.000 thousand views. A month. Now that's pretty cool, but in YouTube that's like a rounding error. Like in the YouTube world, 16.000 thousand views is a incredibly small number. Yes, she has a incredibly profitable business built around her channel. This is answering the question, am I making the videos with the highest income producing potential? If you love to Think Media podcast, what really would bless my heart if you would just take a minute or two. To leave a review on Apple Podcasts about your feelings on the podcast, even if you watch it on YouTube, opening up Apple, you're like Sean, I don't even have an account.
Okay, fine. But if you specifically use Apple, that's kind of a big hub. Obviously of the audio side of this podcast. Leaving a review would be huge and I would love you forever. And then additionally, I know wherever you watch this, give me some feedback, even some topics for a future episode you'd love to hear about. Maybe a guest or. The topic you'd love covered. Hit like button and subscribe for more.
