Analyzing Your Success!
Sunny Lenarduzzi
Lessons
Class Introduction
13:07 2Finding your Fans
15:27 3Get 100,000 Subscribers in 10 months!
16:50 4Setting Up Your Channel to Attract Fans
14:37 5Topics That Attract Fans
09:04 6Script and Build a Fan Base off of YouTube
09:36 7Filming for Your Fans
05:51 8Editing Made Simple
09:58Lesson Info
Analyzing Your Success!
So we're going to get into data, a little bit. Dive into how this works. So, there are some really easy metrics to follow, and we're gonna simplify this as much as possible, because YouTube is a rabbit hole when it comes to data analytics, and you could go deep into it, but I think that there's only a few things you need to pay attention to. You don't need to know everything. You need to just pay attention to a few key metrics. Obviously views, which I think, everyone here... We know how to quantify those. We know where to find them, so we're not gonna focus on that, but views are important, to pay attention to the trends and what's getting more views than others. Likes, really important. Are you getting likes on your video, or dislikes on your video? Comments, very important. That's qualitative data, in my opinion, to see what people are saying to you. And people will tell you if they like or dislike your content, or what they really liked about it, which will help you figure out if y...
ou can make more content around that topic, which you usually can. Retention, we talked about this earlier with the HOT script formula. How long are people watching your videos? Are they staying tuned for the whole thing? Are they dropping off immediately? This is really, really vital to pay attention to because it's going to help you figure out what keeps people tuned in and what makes people tune out, and we don't want people tuning out. Traffic sources. What's great about this is you can use your traffic sources on your channel to figure out other topics that people are searching for when they find you. Meaning, that's even more video ideas. So, let's dive into each of these kind of individually. We're not gonna do views, likes, comments, because we all understand that. We're all smart here, we're all geniuses, so... We're gonna go into the more advanced ones right now. So, retention, as mentioned before. High retention, good. 30-50%, great. Anything above that? Unreal. This? Not good. So, we wanna avoid quick drop-off. Definitely, more than anything, if you see a flat line ever in your video, at the bottom, something's wrong. And, what's interesting to do, is that you actually can see this graph under the retention analytic on your channel, and you can actually watch the video at the same time. So, you can see at that point in the video, what are you doing? What made them drop off? Is there something that you've been doing in all of your videos that's making people go, "I'm over it." Then you can change it. So, data's really important to continue to grow, and not plateau on your channel. So, next up is the HOT script formula, as we mentioned: hook, outcome, testimonial. Sequential steps. This is gonna build your retention, right? This is why the script is so important, and you can use it for every kind of video, and the two-times call to action, I wanna reiterate this. At the end of the video, don't say, "Okay, bye," to people who watch you. Say, "So glad you found me, here's how we can connect further, let's build a relationship." And you do that by doing your conversion call to action, and your engagement call to action. Because the fun thing about this is the more people who engage with your content, the higher your content's gonna rank, meaning more people are gonna discover you, so you're building an audience faster. Cold traffic is actually finding you for the first time. Cold audiences are finding you for the first time, which then builds this whole machine that helps all of your videos rank higher, and helps all of them get more engagement. So that's why this is really important. Channel watch time. So, so vital, and especially now. I think this is probably... I mean not "I think", it is. It's the most important metric on YouTube. YouTube wants to see that people are putting in long "sessions", is what they're called, on your channel. So, what that means, is that people are going from one video to the next video, to the next video, and they're binge-watching, and that's what we want. We want the Netflix effect on your YouTube channel. And there's a way that you can set this up and make this happen. So, create binge-worthy content. I'm gonna talk about that further in a second. Really, the easiest way to do this is creating a series. So, if I were to give you an example on this, if we're talking about best camera settings for head shots, that's the first video we got started with, because we had the formula; search pool versus search volume versus views and velocity. You could also make another video. So, you have best camera settings for head shots and then your next video could be head shot lighting tips. And you could say, "Okay, now you about the lighting, check out last week's video on camera settings." And you just go through each of those little steps, and each video is driving to one another, I call it the spiderweb strategy, so that all of your videos are driving traffic to one another. So, that's how you create that sort of binge-worthy Netflix content, and cross-promote your video content. So, you don't want to think of YouTube videos as these individual pieces of content. You wanna think of them as little traffic engines for all the rest of your videos, and that keeps people on your channel, and it helps you build authority faster. Because the more watch time you have on your videos, the more authority you have for your channel, which means that if there's someone brand new coming into the space, and they're starting to make videos, they're not going to have the amount of authority you do, so they're not gonna be able to compete and rank as high as you will. Make sense? Okay. So, channel watch time is really, really important. Let's drive that home. How do you find the traffic sources? This is where it gets really fun. You go into Creator Studio, you go into Analytics, which is on the left-hand side. It'll be easy to find, and I have tutorials on this on my channel. You go into Analytics, and then you dive into the Traffic sources option, which is about midway down. And when you find those, this is what's pretty interesting about it. What we want to see as traffic sources on your channel: suggested videos and YouTube search. Those should be in the top three. The reason we want them in the top three is because... Maybe you're getting sick of hearing this by now. YouTube is a search engine. So, we want to know that people are finding your videos because you're using the keywords that people are searching for, or you're using topics that other videos related to your topic can drive traffic to, which is what suggested videos are. So, you know when you're on YouTube, and, say, you go on a video about best camera settings for head shots, you're on one video, and then on the right-hand side, there's a bunch of other videos on that same topic? We can pull traffic from that. So, that video that I made on how to make a video with your iPhone? It pulled traffic from this other video that hand, I think, three million views at the time. And my video had just gone up, and because I used the right keywords and optimized it in the right way, immediately I was coming up as the first suggested video when people were watching this video with three million views. And that video was getting thousands of views a day. So, I was pulling traffic from other people's videos just by showing up in "Suggested". So, it's really powerful, but again, it all comes back to picking the right topics in the way that we chose them, and using the keywords and optimizing correctly, which we all know how to do now. So, suggested videos and YouTube search, super important. What I wanna go through here is... Remember I said you can find more video topics from your traffic sources? This is really exciting. So, if you look at Suggested videos, and that's the traffic source, you'll find a bunch of related topics. So, you'll find a bunch of things... I'm just gonna go back to that. That are kind of related, and videos that are kind of related to your topic, that are showing up, or, that when people are watching these, they're driving traffic to your videos. So, these can give you more ideas for video topics as well. You can go, "Okay, maybe I can make a video on one of these. Effective Descriptions in Tags, I've never done a video on that but people are looking at that video and then finding mine. Interesting. I can make a video on that topic or just about how to write really good descriptions." And then Search... This is what people are typing into YouTube when they find my video. So, if you're doing a topic like best camera settings, people could be typing in anything to do with head shots, and all this data is in your Analytics. So, you can go into your traffic sources and see what are the suggested videos and what are people searching for? And how can I use that to create even more content that my audience will be interested in? So if you currently have videos on your channel that are getting traffic, do the data. Figure out the analytics. See where that traffic's coming from. Is it coming from specific search topics that you haven't made a video on yet? Make a video on it. So this is a great way to drive even more traffic, increase your watch time, create a series on a specific topic. So, you can take a look here. How to Get More Views on YouTube. I analyzed the data on that video when I was showing you those topics, and one of the topics that came up was How to Get your First 1000 Subscribers. That was something people were searching for when they landed on that first video. So I used that to my advantage, and over the last couple of months, I think it's been four months now, I've had 310,000 views on it. So, because I paid attention to the analytics, I was able to create a video that got a ton of traffic on it because I knew my audience was already interested in it. So that's how you really focus on the analytics, figure out what your audience wants, and you can't do this until you've started making videos. That's why you want to start with the first step that we talked about. So you want to start with your Master That list, your FAQs, do the keyword research. Start making videos you know your audience wants to see from you. Once they gain a little momentum, pay attention to the data. That's gonna give you even more ideas. Pretty seamless process. So easy ways to cross-promote your content. YouTube cards and end screens. These are awesome tools. Because it makes it possible that if I'm watching a video on mobile, which a lot of people do, there's a little card that will pop up that will allow me to click on another video on the channel. So you definitely want to be utilizing these in your videos. So one of these things that you'll see is on all of my videos I have little cards up on the right-hand side. And I can link to my website, and I know some people here might not be able to because of the new rules and regulations, that's fine. If you can't link to your website, link to other videos. Relevant videos. So, How to Launch a YouTube Channel and Grow Fast, if someone's searching for this, they also wanna know how to get your first 1000 YouTube subscribers. So I'm keeping people on my channel by sending them to relevant content. I like to call it complementary content. And the end screens is where I can add videos for people to go watch next that I know they'd be interested in. So, How to Launch a YouTube Channel and Grow Fast, I know they're gonna know how to get views, and they're also gonna want to know about subscribers. So all of that at the end screens. Who here is using cards right now? On their videos. Awesome, awesome. Good job. And then have you tackled end screens at this point? Very well done. And with your end screens, one of the things that you can do is actually create a graphic that goes into your video. Have you tried doing that yet? No, I haven't made the shortcut graphic, I think you're talking about, but I do have a graphic that I use on every video, and I just always just put the video in the same spot and the little subscribe circle in the same spot. Perfect. Okay, that's awesome. So one of the things that you can do, and what we're talking about here, is you can actually add into your video edits, when Lauren and I were editing that video, at the very end of it, I could make a graphic on Canvas, that says, maybe "Watch this video next" and then you add the end screen where the arrow is pointing. So it makes it even more interactive. So, you can have a lot of fun with end screens, and they're really, really important because again, it's how you cross-promote your content, and it's how you keep people on your channel. Because, it's almost as bad, or just as bad as me making a video that gets millions of views and then not telling people where they can find me anywhere else. So they're watching the video and then saying "Bye", and not knowing who I am. And so, you wanna capitalize on that opportunity. Question in the back, yeah, we can go to a question. Thank you, Sunny, this is great. Yeah, no problem. So, I wanna talk a little bit about conversion to website. Why don't you drive people straight to your blog, to email capture. To talk a little bit about the theory and philosophy you have about that, in driving them to subscribe instead of going straight to a blog or website. So, I do send my people to either a download, I send them... When I was first starting the channel, and I didn't have checklists or cheat sheets and I just figured out I could have an email list, because I didn't even know it was a thing when I started on YouTube, and built it. I would just say, "Head over to my website." I sent out a weekly email every Tuseday with new videos, and subscribe, and that started to build the list pretty quickly. So I do verbally drive traffic to the website, plus I added in two... You'll see it right there, where it says "How to Rank Number One on YouTube," or "On Page One of YouTube". It's a guide, so we send people to that website, and then that's the subscribe option at the top. So, I do that on my channel, but I also understand with the new rules and regulations on YouTube, some channels aren't eligible to be linking to websites or to guides, or to any other external link. So, the work-around for that is to say, "Below this video", which is what I used to do when there were no cards or end screens, I'd just say, "Below this video, check out my cheat sheet, or my guide, or go to my website and sign up." Does that make sense? Cool. So, I had a question about the repurpose, when you're doing your distribution. Yeah. A couple of the steps were talking about the repurposing after you record and upload to YouTube. A couple of the steps were Facebook page, Facebook group. Now, I know from what I've been learning, it's best to upload native to YouTube to Facebook, because it's one of their main competitors. And so, they seem to favor native video uploaded to Facebook versus a link to your YouTube channel or to the YouTube video. Yeah. What do you suggest, and I think you mentioned it, where you're using a thumbnail or a graphic, and then linking to it, in the comments, versus being up in the description, probably, because it's based on the algorithm. Yes, great question, and a question I get a lot. So, my first work-around for this was I would post native videos on Facebook, but it would be a 30-second clip. So, I would do a 30-second clip of my full-length YouTube video. I would take that, I would edit it down, and I would upload it to my Facebook page, and I would say, "Did a video on this topic". To watch the full video", at the very end of that little 30-second clip, it would say, "Go to YouTube.com/SunnyLenarduzzi". So I'm promoting my YouTube video without actually telling Facebook I'm promoting it. Yeah. So you can do that. The other work-around that works really well is why I wanted to talk about Live, because Live video does so well on Facebook, and it gets pushed up in the algorithm. So it's using that to your advantage. It's using Facebook Live to talk about your YouTube video, because Facebook doesn't know you're talking about your YouTube video. (Laughter) And then, once you've gotten all this traction, all these views, and all your people are showing up live, then say, at the end of this broadcast, and then put the link in the comments, to go watch the full-length YouTube video. So it already has reach, it already has engagement. Don't you still upload directly to Facebook? No. So I wouldn't upload my entire... Is that what you're asking? Your entire YouTube video? Yes. I would not upload my entire YouTube video to Facebook, and this is why. Really important, pay attention. The reason you do not want to upload your entire YouTube video to Facebook on the same day that you publish your video on YouTube is because you're gonna get views on Facebook, and no one's gonna go to the YouTube video, so it's gonna cut your traction and your traffic in half. Whereas as on Facebook, that video will perform well for a couple of days, and then it's gone. On YouTube, the more traffic you get in the first 24-48 hours, that video can rank number one and bring in leads, sales, customers, audience growth, for years to come. Does that make sense? Yes. Cool. Thank you. No problem. You wanna do more questions? Yeah, we're good? Okay, cool. Hey, Sunny. Hi. So, when you do this little... Is it about under a minute video promoting... Yeah, under a minute, and I don't do them as often anymore, because I find Live works better. Okay, so you're... Okay, so then I have two questions. Okay. So, I'm actually... My head's spinning. (laughter) We don't want that. Because I have multiple Facebook groups. Yes. Business Facebook group and personal. So, do you ever share this on your personal page? Like a clip to also drive traffic? Because I have 5000 friends there, too. Yeah, so one of the things I've started doing recently, and with my different kinds of content, because I have very business-related content on my YouTube channel that comes out every Tuesday about YouTube tips and how to grow your business with YouTube, and that. That comes out every Tuesday, so generally I promote that in my Facebook groups. I promote it on my Facebook page and on my professional platforms. My videos that come out on Sunday are generally a little more personal, and more about mindset, and health, and all that. Those videos I've started writing posts on my personal Facebook profile, and putting a link to the YouTube video in the comments, and it performs insanely well, because Mark Zuckerberg has made changes to Facebook to make organic and personal relationships more important. So, your personal profiles are getting way more reach than your Facebook page, or than any business profile. So, again, it's kind of figuring out how to use these algorithm changes on all of the platforms to your advantage. Just like stories on Instagram. The moment they came out, I was like, "Ooh, people are watching these. This is where I'm gonna start posting my YouTube links, and I'm gonna do it every single week." So it's adapting and evolving as these things evolve. Okay, so. Question two. (laughter) So, there's two things here. So, one is to do a little promo-ish organic video talking about the YouTube. Yes. And putting the link in the comments. Yes. Always. The second is going live for how long? Three minutes? It's usually about five minutes. If that, yeah. And then driving traffic, again, over to YouTube with just teasing them. Maybe saying one or two things and then go over to the channel to get it all. So, usually, it's that live script of providing what the video is about, what the benefit is to the audience and why they should watch it, giving them one tip out of the video and talking about it in-depth, then saying, "If you wanna see the rest of these five, ten tips, go to the full-length YouTube video, link is in the comments." Okay, I'm doing this today. Yay! I love it. Yes? Okay, I have two questions real quick. Great, I love the double-whammies. These are awesome. (laughter) So, the formula you shared with search volume versus search pool versus views/velocity? Yes. Do all three have to be right in order for it to work? So, what if it's two out of the three? I mean, in an ideal situation, that formula is the one to follow step-by-step and have all three. Mm-hm. The one that I would say, if it's not there, it's not the end of the world, you just probably won't see the same amount of velocity on your video or the same quality or level of views is the views versus velocity. So that's probably the least important. Okay. The most important is search volume being decently high, depending on the size of your channel, and we talked about if you're a new channel, 100 to 1000, search volume is great. Mm-hm. And the search pool being small. Most important, yeah. Okay. And then, my second question, so my expertise is mostly Facebook Live. Awesome. And I want to start tapping more into YouTube Live. Yeah. So based on what you shared with us today, what are your thoughts on going live on YouTube on a weekly basis, doing the keyword searching and all of that? Does YouTube livestreams rank higher in algorithms like they do on Facebook Live? I don't know if they rank higher in the algorithm, to be honest with you, but they are a great way to reengage your audience. Okay. So I like to do... This is the differentiator for me between a Facebook Live and a YouTube Live. Facebook Lives are awesome because there's this level of virality, and this level of "Let's just interact and build relationships." Whereas on YouTube Lives, why I like to use them is it's an easier way to create content. And so, it's a way to create these keyword-heavy topics and contents and tutorials, and interact with your audience live, but also know that those videos can rank later on. Okay. So, you wanna keep the content still focused on your whole entire strategy, which in the beginning is to focus on the things that are searched. Okay. Make sense? Yeah, okay, cool. Awesome. Yes? And Lauren, did we have any questions from online that we wanna get to? I'll definitely sneak one in but we'll get them from the audience first. Okay, thank you. I was wondering how often we should upload in an ideal world. And also just, if there's any secret algorithm-pleasing tips you have. Okay. All of my secret algorithm-pleasing tips I think I've shared, and mostly it's just doing that research in the beginning. Finding the right tags, optimizing. So that's really, really important. As far as how many times a week you should upload, and this is a great question that I get asked all the time. It's not about quantity. So, I've always, until now, I've been doing this for three years, I stuck to one video a week every Tuesday. That's it. Because we put everything behind that one video. We do the distribution, we do the uploading properly, we do the optimization, we do the research. That's a process. We have a whole system, whole checklist, whole process, and YouTuber bosses. We have this all laid out for you to make sure that it's easy for you to understand how to do it, because it's the only thing that's gonna get you long-term results. So, to give you context, I have a video that you actually just saw... Well, no, it's not up there. But I had the video, How to Get More Views on YouTube when I first started my channel, and I was starting to grow pretty rapidly, so it's like, "Oh, I'll make a video on this." That one video, I have a checklist associated with it that's pretty outdated and old, but it's bringing me in hundreds of leads every single day from my email list. Still, and it's three years old. So, the more you put into each video, the better results you're gonna get, and I think it's really important to understand context and what season you're in as an entrepreneur. My friend John Kennel and I were talking about this, and we have a video coming out about it, in the sense that if you're a solopreneur, please don't try and do five videos a week. Please, save your soul. It will kill you. And it will kill your business. It's not gonna be beneficial to you, because there's not a chance you're doing all these steps for every video if you're doing five videos a week. So it's a waste of your time and it's a waste of your resources. If you're a solopreneur, if you can do one video a month, but that one video has all the information, it has all the work behind it, and you know it's gonna get views, you've done the research, do that. Stick to that. The more that you can stick to once a week, the better, because it creates that Oprah effect, and people come back. There's people I know who have created one or two videos in the last couple of months, but those videos were done right, following their process, and they're bringing in leads for them without them having to actually do any extra work. Make sense? Okay. Awesome. Audience questions? Yes, I have one that's recurring, so I'm just gonna pick one in the same kind of area, and I'm sure that'll help a lot of people who have been getting in touch. So, axhax asks, "I started a YouTube channel a couple years ago, and it now has around 6000 subscribers." Great. "The channel is a how-to format." Okay. "I have since started my own business with products for sale that could appeal to the same audience. The company name and the formal channel name are different", so there's a difference there. "Would you suggest converting my existing channel into a channel to promote the new business, or start a new channel altogether? And also, what would be the best ways to convert my existing subscribers into customers?" Okay, great question, and I get asked this all the time, so I'm not surprised it's recurring, and I'm gonna talk directly to... What's the person's name? Axhax. Axhax, I think I got that right. I think that's the channel name. Great, okay, so here's my answer for you. If the audience is related, on your older channel, keep it. Because I would rather have you build that authority with that audience and start from a solid base than trying to start from scratch. So, how do you convert to your current subscribers and tell them you're gonna be doing this new content, and really start building momentum again? Follow that launch strategy. Set up a Live date. Let people know on your channel. Reengage your audience by showing up for them live, having a conversation with them, showing them that you're a real person, and then say, "Okay, great. We did this Live today, and now every week, moving forward on every Thursday and this time, you'll see a new video on a subject that you're interested in." So, that's really the best way to engage people and to show your older subscribers that you're still there, you're still around, you're still relevant, and you still wanna help them, but you need to reengage them. So Live is the best way to do that.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
OLIVAfilms
I make videos professionally. Perfect videos will not necessarily do great on YouTube, and not perfect videos may do well on YouTube. The secret is "the strategy behind them". Sunny´s class is great to help you give your videos a better chance for a "successful life" on YouTube. Thank you from Costa Rica.
Nadine T.
Amazing! Great class. Precise. Concise. Highly Engaging. Love the Q&A here. Sunny is such a boss on Youtube marketing. I binge watch the entire 3hrs and grab my phone and my mic to start making my first vdo right away! So empowering. Lots of great practical tips.... will come back and rewatch again.
a Creativelive Student
Awesome class! When I launched my latest YouTube channel, I watched a TON of Sunny's videos for guidance on how to build great content and an audience! I had decent initial growth, but when work got busy, I stopped creating long form content. I'm launching my Patreon this month and was pleasantly surprised to see this course with Sunny on CreativeLive! My favorite part was diving into analytics. If I'm being honest, I've ignored this part for a long time because it seemed complicated and arduous. Sunny made it easy to understand and pointed to the exact places I need to look to see why my top ranking videos are getting views. I will also be stealing the Outdoor Partner Workout idea, since I am a fitness professional ;)
Student Work
Related Classes
Social Media