Beginner’s Guide to YouTube in 2023
In my personal opinion, YouTube is the most essential social media platform. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, following Google of course… but when it comes to video content, YouTube beats them all. If you are wanting to grow a brand or market your existing business, it’s time to finally start that YouTube channel. Which, might already be something you’re considering if you are here listening to this Podcast. This episode will help those of you who want to start a YouTube channel for the first time or even refresh your strategy and try something new to help reach your YouTube growth dreams. Let’s get into it.
Quality over Quantity or… Quantity over Quality?
I would say most of us have heard the term quality over quantity or the opposite approach, quantity over quality. But which is the right approach when it comes to your YouTube channel? Honestly? It depends on where you are on your journey.
New YouTubers:
If you are a YouTube newbie, just starting out, or only have posted a few videos with little to no growth, you might want to lean more into the Quantity over Quality approach. Here’s why… though YouTube is one of the best platforms you can use to grow your brand, it’s not the easiest - which is why you probably have avoided it until now or see so many creators struggle with consistency on this platform. There are many parts to the YouTube video puzzle - with the content itself - you have to worry about writing a script, filming your content, having clear audio, and editing… and then once it’s time to post you have to worry about the thumbnail, title, and description. It’s a lot and it takes practice. If you try to create quality over quantity as a newbie, it’s going to take you so long to harness those skills in all of these various areas of creating a YouTube video - whereas if you just create as many videos as you can, you will find your videos get better and better. If you look at my videos from years ago compared to now, you will see it’s a huge difference - and that’s because I have posted 100s of videos to get to this point. The idea is … if it takes 100 videos to improve your skills - well, you better start working on those 100 videos, right?
Seasoned YouTubers:
If you have already been around for a while, like me for example, it’s time to focus on Quality over Quantity. I have always been the type to say “done is better than perfect” and my focus on YouTube was being consistent and making sure I posted my minimum of 2 videos per week. But lately, I have decided that instead of posting 2 “okay” videos per week, I will focus on posting 1 banger video - which allows me to spend double the time on the video and make sure it’s the best it can be for my audience or potential newcomers.
Okay, now that we have settled the Quality and Quantity debate, let’s chat about the YouTube formula you should use as a beginner or really, no matter what stage you’re in.
My Viral Formula
Step 1: Before you even start the scripting process for your video, you should first put your focus on the title and thumbnail. If you can’t even get people to click on your video, then it doesn’t matter how amazing your video is - no one is ever going to watch it! I start my planning for every video by coming up with a compelling title, usually, I will know what the main concept or points are going to be - but the most important thing is that the title grabs your attention, and then I’ll make sure I script the video to match the title. This also helps make sure you deliver on the promise of your title and helps guide you when scripting. Because basically, if you can’t think of an attention-grabbing title and a great thumbnail concept, you might not want to make the video.
Step 2: Now that you’ve got an idea, you need to make your video plan. And lucky for all of you, I have a notion template for just that. I use this template to write every single one of my YouTube scripts - and I’ve structured it, and even left myself a few notes and instructions - to make sure I don’t miss out on any of the important details. Here is a brief rundown of what’s in the template - so essentially, the steps I take to write my script and I will use an existing script I wrote for a video called “How to become a full-time content creator” as my example for you.
Potential title concepts: of course, the first step in the script, which is the first step in my formula, is to come up with potential title ideas. Here are a few of the titles I came up with for this video
this is what it takes to become a full time creator (of course, this is what I settled on)
you can make instagram your full-time job
if i was starting from zero this is what i would do to grow as a creator
here’s what it takes to become a full time creator
wanna be a full time creator? here's how:
Video concept: next, I have a section where you can draft the idea you have behind this video. Here is what I wrote myself in this section:
Learning from the data about full-time creators, and their habits and strategies, beginner creators can glean the important steps required for becoming a professional creator. In this video, I’ll share a bunch of stats from the report, and compile a list of 4 steps to “grow from scratch” and become a full-time creator. The final CTA will be to check out the full report to learn more about the trends in the creator economy.
Visual Story Outline: This is a breakdown of really the entire story I am wishing to create with this video. It’s broken into 4 areas; character, desire, obstacles, and stakes.
Who is the character?
an aspiring creator who wants to grow a sustainable creator business, starting from scratch
What’s the desire?
go full-time as a content creator and get paid doing what they love (creating)
What are the obstacles?
finding the best strategies, actually growing an audience, developing a business model
What are the stakes?
finally achieving that dream career, finding work-life balance
Visual Premise: Next, I create a visual of what I want to see throughout the video, this will help me when it comes to planning the locations I want to film, b-roll, props I might need, etc. Here is the visual premise I wrote for this video:
Throughout the video, we’ll occasionally turn to the “b-roll story” - the alternate universe where Katie wakes up with zero followers. This version of Katie will serve as the visual demonstration for all the points that I’m making in the a-roll (ex. shots of me “picking the right platform” and “building out income streams” etc.).
What is the resolution of the story: One of the most important parts of this process is determining what resolution you want to achieve for your audience. Knowing this “end goal” will help you develop the proper path to get there. Here is the resolution I created for this video:
If you’re committed to the right strategies, you stay consistent, and persevere, being a full-time content creator is attainable. Our “b-roll story” will close out with our character finding that audience she’s been trying hard to grow - and looking forward to continuing on her journey as a full-time creator.
Thumbnail ideas: Finally, it’s time to find some thumbnail inspiration. Again, just like we talked about earlier, developing the thumbnail and title should always come before scripting - and this template is set up just for that. For this section, I pulled some examples from a couple of YouTubers who have great thumbnail concepts and dropped their examples in my template to reference, and then with those in mind, I jotted down some notes of how I would recreate these in my own style. This is also the time you will want to come up with the thumbnail text as well, something different from the title that will grab the attention of the viewer.
After all of that - it’s time to develop the script, just like a story, there are three sections - opening, body, and outro. Using this story concept as a guide, it’s time to tell your story.
The opening needs to hook them in the first 10 seconds, bring in the tease from the thumbnail and preview the end result before diving into deeper detail. Try to keep the intro 30 seconds long max.
The body needs to keep the pace up, introduce new questions that make the viewer want to keep watching. Tell a story in parallel with the information/education you’re sharing.
For the outro, you will choose a relevant video beforehand, tease the outcome or result of that video, and then mention it in the last 20 seconds. Also, make sure to link to the video on the end screen.
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I think a lot of the time - when someone is ready to start a YouTube channel, they start doing research and it gets too overwhelming, so they give up before they start - but it really can be simple. If you follow this formula for all of your YouTube videos and keep creating so that you can get the proper practice that you need - you will find success. The best thing to keep in mind with YouTube is that the only thing that truly will help you find success is creating good content. Make that your main goal for every video you do and you will see results.
If you want to grab my Viral Script Template, I will have it linked in the show notes or if you need some help with your YouTube channel, check out the services we offer at Creatorly Media - we have a wide range of ways we can provide you support on YouTube - just go to www.creatorlymedia.com/service - I will have this linked in the show notes as well.
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