Meredith
You probably already know that YouTube is the most powerful way to build your audience online, but did you also know that it's the most powerful way to build your email list? In this episode, I want to talk about how to effortlessly generate leads with YouTube so that as your audience grows, your revenue flows. And we're gonna dive into it here on episode number 20 of video brand infusion. My name is Meredith. I'm here to help you infuse the best video marketing strategies into your business so that you can generate consistent revenue with your business. And you already know I'm a YouTube girl, right? We've already established that. And if you have been listening to the video brand infusion podcast, you know YouTube is incredibly powerful for building an audience organically without the need for paid ads. And if you have an online offer, a program, a course, a digital product, even a service. You probably also already know the power of building your email list and generating leads. Lead Generation is, I think, sort of like an invisible component of online business, or really of any business, but in the online business space, you see people's YouTube channels, you see their videos, you see their talking heads, and you see they have, like, a website where they have a course or a program or some way to work with them. And you might, if you're paying attention, you might also see that they have a free cheat sheet or a free checklist or a free training, and you pop your email address into there, and they send it to you if you're not thinking like a marketer or like a salesperson, which I don't blame you. It's not like we're born knowing what we're doing online, right? But what you may not realize is giving that free cheat sheet away, or that free training is lead generation, because now they can email you and they can say, hey, I think you'd be a great fit for this course or this program. Or, hey, here's a new video that I just published, I think you'd like to watch it. Or, Hey, here's an old video that I published. I think you'd like to watch it. I was just on a call a couple of weeks ago with a client who said, wow. Meredith, I got like, four emails from you this week. And I was like,
Meredith
You did, are you sure? And he's like, yeah, and he went through and read off the subject lines for each of them. And I was like, Oh, that's interesting, because one of those is new, that's a new video that I published, and the other three are in an evergreen sequence that just automatically gets dripped out to my email list where I'm just giving information, I'm just sending you to some of my older videos. They're always relevant. They're always evergreen. They always make sense for whatever, you know, whatever is going on. And the beauty of that is, as my client pointed out, he got four emails from me, but I only sent one, so it's a great way to keep in touch with your audience who wants to have more of a direct line with the content that you create and what you have to say. Email is a great way to do that, plus it's like the link between your free content and your paid stuff, and it really pains me to see clients or students, or, you know, whoever, creating, like, lots of content and putting a lot of time and energy and value into the content they create, and not have that, at least have some kind of a way to generate leads from that to say, hey, here's a cheat sheet, here's a checklist, here's a way of getting on my list so that I can email you next time I publish a video for the people who want that kind of direct line. So I want to share with you a really simple way to generate leads effortlessly, meaning you publish the content once, and the content generates leads for you on autopilot, so that the time and energy you put into the videos you create will help you to actually grow your business, not just grow your YouTube channel. So one of my favorite things I ever did early on in my channel that helped to grow my email list and really establish me as a go to person at the time with how to use a GoPro camera, is I created a series. These that I called 30 days of GoPro. It took me six months to do 30 days of GoPro. I tried to do one video a day for 30 days and yeah. Anyways, it took me six months. But the brilliant thing that I did, if I do say so myself, is I created a GoPro settings cheat sheet, a one page download cheat sheet. And I talked about the cheat sheet in the very first part of the series. So I had this whole 30 day series of video topics. And in the very last episode, Episode 19 of video brand infusion, I talked about how to come up with an endless supply of video topics that actually grow your channel. So I had this list of videos. The very first video was on GoPro settings, which I knew was something that a lot of people were searching for and a lot of people were asking about. That was video number one, and that was also the free cheat sheet, the free download that all you had to do was pop your email address in and my email system would send it to you. Now, this was several years ago, and my channel was still pretty small, but growing quickly, and my email list was pretty small, but let me tell you that cheat sheet and that 30 days of GoPro series skyrocketed my email list, and I gained 500 just in that first month of having the series out with the cheat sheet available. And I'm actually going to tell you my genius hack for coming up with those content ideas too, because if you create any content where you're teaching how to do something or how to use something, like a tool, a software, anything like that, you're gonna love this, because if video number one is where you are talking about the freebie, and you're talking about the series, and it's like video number one of a series, then every other video you create in that series then directs people back to video number one. Everything is directing people back to video number one so they can watch the whole series and download that cheat sheet. And the reason why this worked so well algorithmically, the reason why YouTube became an effortless way to generate those leads. Is because all I did to come up with those 30 days of topics was open up the GoPro camera user manual and figure out of all of the stuff in that user manual, which was a physical manual. Back in the day, nowadays, it's a PDF. It's a whole lot easier to do this, but I went through and figured out all of these topics that are in the user manual, which are the ones that people are searching for the most. And I covered everything in the user manual, but the topics were centered around, what are people searching for? Because we all know, nobody opens the user manual. They go to YouTube, or maybe they do both, but people go to YouTube to figure out how to do stuff. So I like to call this concept of creating a series that's like anchored by some kind of a cheat sheet or a freebie. I like to call it a Save Me series, because when you create even just five videos, I'm definitely not suggesting that you go out and create 30 videos series. That was a lot. Obviously, that was too much, because it took me six months to do it. But when you have a series of, say, five videos anchored by one, first video in the series that has that cheat sheet or that freebie in it, then what you have is this resource that not only is the algorithm going to send viewers to because you're going to use some of the same methods that I covered in The last episode for coming up with your content ideas that actually grow your channel. So algorithmically, people are able to find your videos. But also, you have a place to send people. When you get a DM or you see a question in a Facebook group, wherever you're allowed to post links to your YouTube videos or something, you have this resource to send people to, and it's not just, Hey, go download my freebie, or hey, go buy my course, it's like, Hey, here's a free series I created. And now they get to dive in. They get to go down a rabbit hole. They get to decide to download your freebie, and which they then become a lead, right? But they also get to algorithmically add all this juice to your videos, which then helps YouTube to find more people to watch your videos, which then feeds the lead generation. Most recently, I did this a few months ago, almost a year ago, actually. I created what I call the crush it on camera series on my channel, and I was actually going to make this a course, and then I decided that this would be better off as a lead generation and a viewer generation Series for my channel. So the crush it on camera series has one video with a download for my like YouTube setup guide, and then there's a video on how to set up your camera or what camera to use. There's a video on lighting, there's a video on audio, there's a video on all of the components of how to crush it on camera. And this is a great series, because, yes, some of the videos are generating search traffic from people that are searching for stuff, but the algorithm is also getting those videos out in front of people just based on viewer behavior, just based on how the algorithm works. And I'm sending people to the crush it on camera series, when somebody asks, because they always do, hey, what camera do you use? Hey, what microphone you use? Hey, what lights do you use? I have one place that I can send them the crush it on camera series, and so it's generating views. It's helping to grow the channel, but it's also generating leads, because I have that freebie that's like anchoring the series. So here are my thoughts on how to make this effortless. Because, of course, you have to create videos which is not effortless, obviously, but when I say effortless, what I mean is you put the effort in the one time you make the video, you make the freebie, and then the rest of the content you create, and the algorithm and whoever you run into in the DMS or in a Facebook group are working for you after you put in that effort. I also think one thing that works really well for this save me, series idea is to create content that is targeted towards a beginner in your niche. So I always like to think about if I was meeting somebody for coffee and they were trying to learn whatever your niche is. If it's I'll use gardening as an example, because I used that before. If someone's like, Hey, I just really want to start a raised bed garden in my yard. Meredith, like, what, where do I start? What do I do? And we only have a few minutes, 40 minutes or an hour to, like, sit down and have a coffee chat. What are the things that I'm going to tell them to do? Like, the basic steps. That's the Save Me series. What are those basic steps? Just cover them in three videos, four videos, five videos, anchored with a freebie lead generation lead magnet that grows your email list. Now it doesn't have to be for beginners. If you create content that's really not geared for beginners, or if your offer or the clients that you work with aren't beginners. You can come up with any kind of series, but the point is to let it be a place for people to start, for people to go down this rabbit hole with you. And if you don't have an email list or an email service provider, any of that stuff set up yet, I highly recommend ConvertKit, who recently increased their like free account, like everything you get in a free account, you can have up to 10,000
Meredith
email subscribers. You can have one automated sequence, plus you can send however many email broadcasts that you want. And that's really all you need to have in place. Everything inside of ConvertKit free account is everything you need to get started building your email list with your youtube content, and if you want more details, and I know that ConvertKit is going to be rebranding to kit at some point soon, if you want more in depth information, I guess, on how I have my Convert Kit set up, let me know down in the comments, I might make a video about that. Now, I already mentioned that, yes, you have to create videos. So obviously, it's not 100% effortless, but the idea is you create that effort one time, and it generates leads for you effortlessly. Because once your videos are published, and they are titled well, and they have a good hook, and they have a great thumbnail, and they keep people interested, and they keep people watching. You put those videos in front of the right audience, they're going to generate those leads for days, weeks, months, even years down the road. And once the series exists, you can then use your new YouTube videos to send traffic to that series. So like, for example, with the crush it on camera series, if I do a video talking about, I don't know cameras or something, or, you know, the newest Canon camera, which I don't have, I can use that video. To essentially promote the crush it on camera series, I can say, hey, here's all this stuff you need to know about this particular camera. But if you're wondering how to choose the best camera, how to set up your camera so that you look fantastic on camera, so that you look good, sound good, and feel good on camera, then go watch this crush it on camera series or download my YouTube setup guide, and that's really the start of just a really simple, easy, effortless, basic YouTube funnel. You create a way for people to join your list. You create the content to promote the thing, and then you create content to promote your content, like the algorithm does it for you. You do it for you, and it just keeps going on its own every day, like 24 hours a day, seven days a week, your content is working for you to build your list, and if you like now or at some point in the future, ever want to create a set it and forget it, YouTube funnel, like what I've been talking been talking about here on this podcast for months now, then you're going to have to have an email list to begin with. You're going to have to have people to market to beyond just YouTube. Because, as you know, if you've been here, you know, we're not just building a YouTube channel, we're building a business and bringing in effortless leads to a funnel, even a simple, basic funnel, to begin with, and then a set it and forget it. Funnel that generates revenue for you on autopilot is the way to build the business, and not just the YouTube channel. If you want to learn more about how my funnel works and how you can implement it on your channel. Episode One of the video brand infusion podcast is where I gave all of the details and broke down everything so that you can figure out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. I think I covered like basically five pieces of this puzzle. Because if your goal is to build your business with YouTube, then now is the time to start building the business, part of the business that you're building with YouTube, right?
