2 tips for creating YouTube videos that people actually want to watch

It’s the start of a new decade and if you’ve been trying to grow your YouTube following there is no better time than now. YouTube hit the internet in 2005. In the last 15 years, it’s come a long way from silly cat videos and having only one video metric to measure— views. 

Today YouTube is a thriving community of creators, influencers, and people looking to be educated and entertained. The metrics are so sophisticated that you can post your videos and then see how your audience consumes content and what they want to see. With 400 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute it can get intimidating for creators that are just starting out or trying to grow a channel. How do you get watched by YouTube’s 2 billion-plus users? 

I recently listened to a podcast from Ben Amos called Engage Video Marketing Podcast in which  Ben interviewed Erika Viera a YouTuber and YouTube coach. In that episode, they took a deep dive into how to achieve YouTube success in 2020. I highly recommend listening if you have the time to check out the episode and follow Ben’s podcast. Ben has a lot of great guests and provides a ton of video marketing information to help you grow your business using video. After listening to Ben’s interview with Ericka, here are the two key takeaways that I got from the episode.

Answer those distress calls

Gary Vaynerchuk said in his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, “A story is at its best when it’s not intrusive, when it brings value to a platform’s consumers, and when it fits in as a natural step along the customer’s path to making a purchase.” This is great advice. Even if you are not necessarily trying to sell a product or service with your YouTube content Gary’s logic still applies. Look at it like this, your goal is to get people to watch your videos and follow your channel. If you’re not providing value to your viewers they will stop watching your content and won’t follow your channel.

Tip #1 is to create helpful content for your consumers. Don’t talk about you, your accomplishments, and how amazing you are. The only person who wants to watch that video is your mother and odds are she probably won’t stick around for the whole thing either. When you talk about yourself, you are only creating content for you and that’s going attract a lower retention rate and zero engagement. Instead, when you are writing your script or outline ask yourself, what does my audience want to learn? How can I help them? If I was in their shoes, what content would I be searching for? What questions would I have? Creating content that is helpful is the currency required for growth in today’s online video world. Todd Hartley from WireBuzz said it best when he stated “Helpful is the new viral.”

Stop acting on camera

Every time we work with a new client it’s always interesting to see how people react when we put them in front of the camera. I’m always amazed to see charismatic people clam up and introverted people ham it up once they are in front of the lens. After a bit of coaching and a couple of dry runs, our producer is usually able to get our talent to feel a little more comfortable in front of the camera. If you’ve ever worked with a video producer you probably recall them asking you the same question three times or ask you to perform the same action over and over again. Why is that? We are trying to get you to be yourself on camera. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get you to relax and forget the camera is there.

Tip #2 is to be yourself on camera. People can spot a phony from a mile away, and people that are fake are less credible on camera. Viewers are looking for raw authentic content. Messing up is ok, being corny is ok, and so is being a little nervous. Viewers don’t want you to be the next Seth Rogen or Matthew McConaughey. If they wanted to see actors they would go to a movie or binge Netflix. That doesn’t mean don’t have personality in the video. Just make sure it’s your personality. Plus trying to be someone you’re not on video can become very exhausting really quick. Next time you set up your camera take a few practice runs and record a couple takes. When you review the footage you will see your real personality come out toward the end.

Go create something great

With these two simple tips, creating helpful content and being yourself on camera, you will start to see better results with your YouTube videos. Of course, this is just one piece of the puzzle. You still need to create good strategies, test your content, and watch your analytics. However, these two tips will help you get started and they are easy to implement today. Next time you go to create a video keep them in mind and see how your video performs. So stop talking about you and trying to be perfect and go create some content!