What to Post on YouTube if You Have an Online Course | Ep. 4

You probably know by now that YouTube is the most powerful way to build your audience online but if you create courses that you charge money for, what are you supposed to post on youtube for FREE if you have content in your paid course or program? that people pay for?

Let's talk about it here on episode 4 of the Video Brand Infusion podcast!

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Transcript

Meredith  0:00  
You probably know that YouTube is the most powerful way to build your audience online. But if you create courses that people pay money for, what the heck are you supposed to post on your YouTube channel for free? We're going to talk about it here on episode four of the video brand infusion podcast. My name is Meredith Marsh. And this is your resource to infuse the best video marketing strategies into your business for consistent sales of your course or program without ads, or constant selling, or spending like 17 days perfecting your webinars slide deck. Have you ever done that? I've definitely maybe not 17 days, but 17 hours probably I'm sure I've I've done that. So I saw this question pop up the other day from a person who said, I've started working on my content for a website in the link niche, we'll keep it anonymous here. And I've already written two books plus I have an entire course mapped out, lined up ready to film. So I'm torn between creating a course that I can charge money for, versus putting my content on YouTube where it's free, where people can consume the material without having to pay for it. And this person said they see the value in having YouTube help them build an audience and attract people to their paid content. But they're not sure what to put where and how much to put on their YouTube channel for free and how much to put inside of their course. So I totally get this dilemma. And you put a lot of time and energy into a paid course or program, you create the videos, you create the whole outline, you create any resources, PDFs, guides, workbooks that go along with it. And it's all organized. And so you might think, well, I can't give away any of my content for free. I can't give away my information and my expertise for free because I put this in my course and put a price tag on it, people pay for it. So it wouldn't be fair to my clients or students who paid for my program if I just started putting content on YouTube for free. Right? I did have somebody a couple of years ago, I had a paid student who commented on one of my videos and asked why I created this certain video on that specific topic when I talked about that topic inside of my paid course. So at first I was like, Oh crap, Did I did I like publish something for free that I charge people money for? And the more I thought about it, and I looked at the actual content in the program, I think what the topic was at the time, this is how this is how old this is how many years ago this was. This was way back when IG TV was a thing on Instagram. This was pre reels pre tick tock tick tock was probably still musically back then pre YouTube shorts. IG TV was long form vertical videos. And so some people were taking their long form YouTube content and turning it into long form vertical content for IG TV. IG TV doesn't exist anymore. But I had a lesson in one of my courses that walk step by step through how in the program that the course was teaching in the like editing software that walk through how to take your YouTube video and turn it into an IG TV video step by step. And I created a YouTube video a free YouTube video on doing the exact same thing. But not every single step. In the YouTube video, it was just like, here's five ways to turn your YouTube videos into IG TV or something like that. And it was like you could use this program. You could use that program you can use this app. It wasn't like okay, here's how to do it. Open up the software, import your footage, add it to the timeline, adjust the frame, like here's the export said it wasn't like every single step. And so I explained that to the person and they were like oh, yeah, okay, that makes total sense. So yeah, there's definitely a difference between the content that you would put in a course that people pay for and content that you would put on your YouTube channel. Obviously, there's a difference, but the content that's inside of your course, does 100% dictate what you should put on your YouTube channel. And you probably don't want your paid students to feel like they were ripped off because you published free content on YouTube that they paid for their course and you probably definitely I almost can guarantee. You probably don't want them to call you out on it in the comments either. Like what happened to me, but here's what I noticed. I've been on YouTube for I think nine years. yours at this point. And I've had different courses here and there for almost almost the same amount of time, probably like eight and a half years or something like that. And what I have figured out is that it's not a matter of what goes in your course versus what goes on your YouTube channel, it's more a matter of using YouTube to build your audience and build your email list with a library of videos that people can watch and find via SEO and YouTube's algorithms. We all love YouTube's algorithms, right? And that that content not only has value on its own on your YouTube channel has value on its own. But it also makes the case for why your full step by step program might be right for that viewer. Because if you only ever made your best content, your best teaching content, your best tutorials, your best resources available inside your paid program, then you wouldn't have any content to like grow your audience and attract people to your paid program, right. And on the flip side, if you only ever just said, Well, I can't give away too much value for free. So I'm only going to create like surface level content, I'm only going to give away just enough information to like get the click Get the view, then you're not going to build the know like and trust factor, right? People aren't going to see you as a valuable resource, a thought leader in your niche. If all you ever do is scratch the surface and tell people go buy my program. Right? So where's the balance here? Well, the answer is actually kind of hiding in plain sight because your course or program exists to lead your client or customer through a process to some kind of a desired result, right? Sometimes you might hear this as like a transformation. Sometimes I'll be honest with you, the word transformation throws me way off, because it sounds like more serious than it is like if I'm just helping you create a video in my course. Like, it doesn't feel that transformative. But it actually is because if someone's going from not knowing how to do something, to now knowing and being confident and how to do something, that's a transformation. It just feels like it feels like a word that has more meaning than than just like marketing speak. You know what I mean? And so if you think about your exact ideal, perfect, right customer, your ICA, your ideal customer avatar, what are the steps and resources that you have inside of your program that they're probably trying to figure out on their own right now, right? Because they haven't, they haven't found you yet. But they don't know what they don't know. They don't know that you have answers inside of of your program. They don't know that you even exist yet. They're just on YouTube trying to like find solutions to every little problem. It's like they're just trying to like put out all the fires, right? So here's one way to think about this. And then I'll give you some real life examples. Okay, so one of the things that I teach inside of my YouTube funnel clinic is to look at your course content. And think about your ideal customer and ask yourself, what are the mistakes that people are making as they're trying to get to the desired result? So the same desired result that your course helps people get to think about the people who aren't in the course, yet? What are the mistakes that they are making as they're trying to get to that desired result? And they might be searching for answers on YouTube and Google, what are some of the obstacles that they're running into when they're trying to do the things that the mistakes maybe even are causing them to run into? What are the problems that people are searching for, for solutions? What questions are they typing into the search bar? That they're looking for answers to when it comes to getting to that desired result that your course teaches? And what kinds of things might they be doing? Or what kinds of tools or software or tactics or strategies might they be using, that are not right for getting to the desired result that actually

Meredith  9:40  
might be causing them to stay stuck in whatever their problems are because they don't have your program yet? I refer to this as MOPA I don't know if you picked up on the acronym as I was explaining that MOPA M O P A mistakes, objections, problems and alternatives. is a little side note here, YouTube is perfect for addressing problems that people are searching for. So if you make a nice long list of all of the mistakes, obstacles or objections, problems and alternatives that people who don't have your program yet are running into, before they even know that you exist, and you show up with the answers on YouTube, you're here with the solutions, the ideas, the thoughts, the resources, you just became the go to source for getting to that desired result in your niche. And so not only is your free content, a valuable resource for your ICA your ideal customers, but you also have an opportunity to share your paid program with them and let them know that it's available so much quicker and easier than just hoping that they stumble upon it on your website or something. The trick to this and I think the biggest rut that you could possibly fall into here, if you focus on MOPA content, is that you have to know what are the things that people know to search for because you probably teach a lot of stuff inside of your program. And you probably have a lot of stuff inside of your head that your ideal customers may not even know to search for those things. Right? And it's like you're trying to solve problems that people don't even know that they have yet. And so that kind of content may not work super well. Because what are people searching for? Your content isn't lined up to that, right? So what are the frequently asked questions that you often run into when you're like scrolling Facebook, or something like that? Well scroll Facebook, when we're like, at the end of the day, right? I always scroll Facebook and see what people are talking about in the groups that I'm in because they're like in topics that I'm interested in. And sometimes I keep seeing the same recurring questions over and over and over again. And that is a cue for me like, this is probably something people are searching for. Because if somebody if one person is taking the time to go type this into a Facebook group, which takes like, a couple of steps, right, you have to open the app, you have to go to the cert, you have to go to a group, then you have to search for the thing, ask the question, whatever. And then you have to wait for responses. If people are willing to do that, then you know for sure there's probably like 10 times 100 times 1000 times more people that just open up Google and search, you know, just Google it. Just Google it, bro. So frequently asked questions is a really easy way to come up with topics for your channel that also are aligned with the course that you're selling that desired result that your course is helping get people to. So what are those topics that just like keep showing up. So here's a real life example for you. I have a course called 30 Days to a thriving YouTube channel, right? It's kind of like getting started. If you're starting from scratch, setting up your channel, making videos choosing topics that you're, you know, your channel is actually going to grow from those topics. It's like the basics of keyword research, shooting some editing, like simple, simple stuff for beginners. And so that's what's inside of the paid course. But when I am like browsing Facebook groups or threads or something, I might come across questions that I could answer in a free video on my YouTube channel, even though I talking about it or teaching about it in the course, for example, if there's a new camera, or if there's a new keyword research tool, or even if there are just common questions about those things that I keep seeing pop up frequently asked questions, I like to think about how the purpose of the course is to build a thriving YouTube channel without spending forever creating videos. It's not an in depth course in like keyword research, for example, that's just one part of the whole process inside of the course, right? That's only one part of getting you to the desired result of a thriving YouTube channel. So if there's a new tool out there, or if there's a new feature in a tool, and my ideal customers are asking about it and searching for answers on it. Oh yeah, you bet I would create a free YouTube video about it in a heartbeat. That doesn't mean I'm giving away exactly what I'm teaching in the course because the course is a whole process in a whole strategy. I gonna tell you how to use to buddy or vid IQ to find keywords for your channel without teaching you how that fits into the bigger strategy inside of the course. Right? Same topic. But one thing is inside of the free YouTube channel, and one thing is inside of the paid course. And this might be a little bit niche dependent, but in my niche, creating YouTube videos, YouTube channel growth, editing videos, you know, all that stuff. There's always new things to talk about, there's always new gear, there's always new trends, there's always new stuff to talk about. And all of that stuff fits into the strategy and the process inside of the course I can talk about it without giving the whole course away. Now, if I created a YouTube video, and I called it, here's how to grow your thriving channel in the next 30 days, and I gave you all 30 days worth of steps for free in a YouTube video with a workbook. Like That wouldn't be right, that wouldn't be fair, even if I gave you the steps in a free YouTube video and then didn't even tell you what was inside of those steps that still wouldn't be completely 100% fair to the people who paid for the strategy and the process inside of the program. So that just wouldn't make sense. Now, if you're thinking, okay, but Meredith, I don't have a course yet. But I'm building my channel. So now what do I do because I want to build a channel. But I also want to have a course at some point in the future. So how is that going to work? So if you don't already have a course, then you might have something mapped out, you might have an idea in your head. And that's great, like, keep that, keep that in your head. But if you don't already have content in there, then it might be kind of tricky to figure out. What are the mistakes, obstacles, problems and alternatives at this point. So here's here's my favorite thing to do at this stage. This is a really great, I think it's a really, really good easy logical ideation strategy for a new channel or a small channel, when you don't yet have a course. But you know, you want to in the future, I call this a Save Me series. It's a series of videos like three videos, five videos, it could be longer it can be can turn into your whole channel if you wanted it to. But I just like to think of a handful of videos that show up as a search result when somebody your ideal customer is searching for a solution to a problem. And so here you are with the answers. And not only do you have the answer to a question in one video, but you have answers to other questions, you have answers the questions they maybe hadn't even thought to even ask yet. And it's in one nice cohesive, simple, save me series. It's a Save Me series because somebody, your ideal customer searched for something because they had a problem. And you showed up with a solution. And now you're like, their go to person. And you can create a Save Me series without giving away all of the information that you would, in the future put into a course. If you just kind of think about this is how I like to think of it. If if I was trying to be like, do something in your niche, just think about your niche and think, Okay, I'm gonna have coffee with Meredith. She's trying to get started in this thing that I teach in my niche. We've got 45 minutes, and I just need to get her started. I just need to get her like, on the right path of getting started at this thing that you teach, whatever it is, what are the things that you're going to tell me to do? We don't have a lot of time. It's not like we have days and days of binge watching your YouTube channel yet because you're just starting it. So where would you have somebody start? That is a good place for you to start with your Save Me series. Does that mean when you do create your course. Nobody's gonna buy it because you already gave away the information for free? No, because it's not a matter of do I give this information away for free, or put it in a paid program. Remember, it's a matter of building your audience with a library of videos that people can find in the algorithms that not only provides value, but also makes the case for your program.

Meredith  19:39  
If you don't have a program yet, the best thing you can do to make the case for your program, so to speak, is to build trust, provide value and build your video brand. Let people know you're the go to person for getting to this desired desired result or you're the go to person in this niche. Now there's one more thing I want to mention about this. But first, I also want you to think about the fact that not everything on your channel belongs in a course. And not everything in your course has to be a topic of discussion on your channel. Sometimes there are topics that you can use to establish yourself, and your experience your expertise in your niche for free on YouTube, because it's something people are searching for and discussing and watching. And it's just as valuable and just as transformative to your ideal customer as your paid content. And you may find that your audience growth as a result of that free content is more valuable to you in the long run of your business than what it would have been if they had paid for that content inside of a core. So let me explain what I mean here. Here's an example I was thinking last year about creating a course for like, for first time video creators like setting up a camera, choosing a camera, setting up your lights, your microphone, all that kind of stuff, I was going to create like a video creation, one on one type, of course, and I might still at some point in the future. But ultimately, I decided to create it as a series on my channel. Now, I did somewhat kind of brand like the thumbnails are kind of branded in a way that is like cohesive, it's a cohesive series, you could think of it as like a mini course. But it's for free on my YouTube channel. And the videos are delivered in sequential order, just like they would be if it was an actual mini course that people paid for. But I decided ultimately that my audience would find those videos and find me for the first time and subscribe to my channel, subscribe to my email list. And those people would ultimately be because they're the audience that I want to have. That's more valuable to me, that audience is more valuable to me than whatever, you know, price tag, I would have put on that beginner content creation course. So I call that the crush it on camera series, in case you're wondering what like, what is she even talking about? So not only do I want people to be able to find those videos through searching, or, you know, through the algorithm, I also want to be able to tell people on other social media platforms when I see questions, when I see those frequently asked questions of, hey, what camera should I buy? How do I set it up? What lighting does everybody use? What microphone, should I get for XY and Z, I have a really great resource to send them for free. You don't even have to opt in for it. Just go to my channel, it's right here. It's called the crushin on camera series. It's like it's the perfect free content series for the audience I want to attract. And it's way more valuable than whatever price tag that I would have put on it. And because I use YouTube to grow my email list, which we talked about in the previous episode. I have a freebie that goes with a crush on camera series. So it's like I'm attracting the right audience that I want to have. They are my ideal customers. And now they have a freebie. So now they're joining my list. And now at some point down the road, they'll hear about my paid offers, right. And some of them already have an already purchased, it's not even really part of a funnel, it's just, it's just content that's there on my channel. So not everything on your channel has to be something from your course and not everything in your course has to be correlated to a topic on your YouTube channel. It's okay to create a corrupt ton of free value, free valuable content to grow your audience and build the connection, build the trust, establish the know like and trust factor and know that the content that you're creating is attracting your ideal customer, the ideal person that you want to actually work with in your paid course or your paid programs. The very last thing that I will say about this is that your YouTube videos don't have to be teaching something. So if you're struggling with all of the things that you're teaching inside of your course or program that people are paying for and you're like trying to reconcile with, like what could I possibly teach on my YouTube channel for free? Consider the possibility that the topics you discuss on your YouTube channel, aren't they don't have to be teaching. You don't have to actually teach something in order to create a valuable informational product content is what I'm trying to say. You could discuss News you could share case studies you could share results from your clients or students. You could offer commentary on current events or news within your niche or industry. You can provide hot takes in your opinion on current events and news in your industry. Obviously this depends on your niche or niche or industry. It depends on what's going on. It depends on the kind of content that you want to create. But not everything has to be a how to, or a tutorial type of a video. But at the end of the day, your free content should lead people should lead the right people to the conclusion that their next best step is your paid stuff by building a set it and forget it YouTube funnel and YouTube funnel. It's the simplest way to generate consistent sales of your online offer. And in episode number one of this podcast, I broke down exactly what my YouTube funnel system looks like how it works, how to create one for yourself in your business, so that your course sells itself with the simplicity of organic evergreen traffic from YouTube. So you can say goodbye to painstaking launches, and just focus on creating connection and community with your audience and your clients and your customers. So dive in to Episode One for all of the juicy details on the YouTube funnel setup and make sure you follow me here for the next episode of the video brand infusion podcast.