How to grow on YouTube in 2024 | Chatting with John Masters

In this video, Jasper from Yellow Glove Productions interviews YouTube marketer John Masters about how to grow on YouTube in 2024. They discuss several tips for success, including making sure your target audience is on the platform, conducting research on competitors and popular videos, using keyword research tools like Tube Buddy and Vid iq, optimizing titles and descriptions, focusing on high-quality content and audience engagement, and being consistent with uploads. They also emphasise the importance of delivering on promises and adapting over time.

Jasper (00:00):

Hi there. I'm Jasper from Yellow Glove Productions and I'm here with YouTube marketer, John Masters, and today we're going to talk about how you can grow on YouTube in 2024. So listen in if you're a business just starting out on your YouTube journey or you're an individual sole trader and just want to make a personal brand for yourself. So John, let's go straight into it. You are a man who's got a channel that's amassed, a couple of million views, so you know what you're talking about. Do you want to start off the list? What's the number one tip for growth on YouTube?

John (00:34):

Yeah, I think the really first important tip I would give initially would be to actually make sure your audience is actually on the platform. I do see if you like some content creators out there who have posted content, but because their audience isn't actually on the platform, they're not getting many views. So that's something I'd say is one of the main points before you even start. Make sure that your audience is on the platform.

Jasper (00:56):

Yeah, there's no point in even bothering to pick up a camera and make any YouTube content if all your audience reads the newspaper. There's no logic to it. Your efforts will be wasted, won't they? So that's right. That's a great tip. It sounds obvious though, doesn't it? But I think a lot of people don't realize.

John (01:16):

Yeah, I think it does sound obvious, but I think a lot of people overlook that and certainly when I'm talking to businesses, that's one of the first things that I look at. Actually, they want to do video on YouTube, but is it the right platform? And to be fair with you, if the audience is on there, I'd suggest no and maybe to look at other options on there which are more relevant to their, if you like, where their target audience hangs out

Jasper (01:40):

And going on from, say, if they are on YouTube, how would someone then figure out what videos to make? Is there a way of finding out for people who are completely new to YouTube, is there a way to find out what's going to be best to make some search terms?

John (01:58):

Yeah, I think the research is a really important part as well. If you're going down the YouTube route, research what's on there, look at your competitors, look at what content they're producing and I'm not advocating copying them, anything like that, but that's normally a good indicator that your target audience is already on the platform and you can look at competitors, look at videos like they're making, which can help generate some ideas for your own videos. So that's a really sort of a good starting point. And also there are some keyword research tools out there which can also use, you probably know one just but yourself.

Jasper (02:30):

Yeah, tube Buddy is one we use and I think there are different levels of it. I think you can get perversion, which will give you some really good insights to YouTube tags and there's definitely an art to that as well, and how much time you can go down the rabbit hole with YouTube tags is pretty

John (02:49):

Immense. With regard to that, you've also got another platform called Vid iq. I've used both of them. It's just down to personal preference. They're both highly regarded, but like you say, down to the optimization side, I mean when I first started, I spent hours doing it, but it is a really important part because it's,

Jasper (03:08):

And if you're starting out and can put that into your upload routine, if you want to call it from day one, then you are immediately going to be ahead of your competition on YouTube because you're putting in that extra 1% of work or even more than that with YouTube tags. It can be the difference between that video, again, a hundred views and just one view.

John (03:32):

Yeah, I mean title and description are the main sort of if you like, the really important parts on your video in terms of on the page itself. And then like you say, tags, I don't think they matter quite as much as what they used to, but they're still an indicator to YouTube because it helps YouTube understand what your content is actually about.

Jasper (03:50):

I know clients who have used YouTube as just a hosting tool rather than thinking, okay, my potential audience members could find out more about what we do here, and they've just uploaded the video and be like, event highlights, version three. And it's like, no, what are you doing? Just rename it, retag it. And sometimes we offer a service as well where we're happy to upload the video, get all the tags done as well, and it helps us when a video does well and it's always good to see the results come to life as well. So yeah, that's a big thing. Name and description, don't put it as video one. It is got to be how to do this

John (04:38):

Or there's certain ways certainly to optimize that. And that alone, if you've done your research and you've looked at what resonates with your audience, certainly that getting the title and description right gives you a lot of fighting chance of getting your videos promoted by YouTube out there.

Jasper (04:53):

Oh, definitely. But even then, I've seen videos with a hundred thousand odd views, hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, buddy. It says like the SEO and everything that is just in the red, but there'll be more of the videos that random songs or a bootleg acoustic recording of some Bob Dylan concert, and there's so many different ways that a video can succeed.

John (05:22):

There are, yeah, I mean there's multiple ways from, if you like, the very initial thought of the idea about what it's about through to, if you like, the creation of the video today through to what the content is, the uploading the whole process. It's not just about literally making a video and uploading it, hoping for the best, because generally that doesn't work. In my experience, it's about producing high quality content that actually resonates with the audience. So looking at if like you're lighting use, natural lighting or sort of a lit room, but also audience is really important. I'd maybe say it's probably more than the lighting because if people can't hear you, they're just going to switch off. But again, it's all part of this, which the algorithm, which YouTube helps it promote or not promote your content.

Jasper (06:08):

I think today especially there's no excuses for bad quality because you can just get your phone out, but that can produce great quality video, but just get to grips with your knowledge about using natural light. Get to grips with knowledge about how to get the best audio. Don't stand in an echoey room, find a quiet place to go get the composition. And it is just things like that and little things like that where if you can teach yourself these basic, I guess call it filmmaking skills, then you're immediately again going to be ahead of people with their YouTube game because you've gone in straight away and put high quality content out there.

John (06:53):

I think so. Yeah, definitely. And I think it all counts towards maximizing, if you like your viewer's time on the channel. Again, the more time your viewer, if you spends on the channel, sorry, your video or a video, the more likely YouTube is to push that out across its platform because ultimately audience retention and watch time are two really important factors on the platform. So the more you can leverage that, the better. Some of my earlier videos were the retention, some of them was like 15% and it wasn't particularly good, so it didn't push my content out, but I have some videos where I've achieved 70% and you can see the big difference because it's an indicator that people like your video potentially. Then YouTube actually pushes that further across the platform.

Jasper (07:37):

Once YouTube sees that people like something, they're sharing it, they're watching it again, then they'll start pushing it onto the algorithm and they're out into the ether as it were, and just showing everyone, and that's when you start getting that success if you will. But at the same time, it's not always about the views, it's about the interaction.

John (08:00):

Yeah, it is. And engagement is really important and I would sort of, yes, we all like to see how many views we've got, but it just depends on the niche you're working in. A million views to somebody might not be that many views to somebody else, and it's all proportional, and I think that's something you have to look at. People say, I want so many views, which I understand, but at the end of the day, I guess if you're a very niche business, then it's going to be the quality of their views that count, and certainly having a clear call to action on there as well. That's really important. The amount of videos I see out there that don't have a call to action, you're almost wasting your time putting the video up there.

Jasper (08:38):

I always debate this, you can have a good call to action, but if your video isn't educating someone or providing some sort of value, and that's the term that gets thrown around so much like you've got to provide value, but what's that mean? And I'd just say you can either go down the route of educating your viewers, so if you're an accountant, tell them something beneficial they can do for their tax or how do you make it entertaining? Is it then a day in the life of an accountant and you see what someone gets up to day to day and then that's the audience is aspiring accountants rather than business owners who might want your services.

John (09:24):

Right, and I find it's very much dependent on the type of business and what you want to achieve. I mean, on my own channel, that's their how-to informational videos to help people with problems that they have. But it may be, like you say, it could be an educational piece, which isn't necessarily a how-to video, but help somebody in some way. It may be something you want to, as part of the mix of videos, you want to almost give viewers an insight into your business behind the scenes. You might want to sort of help look at building trust as the primary principle or you might want to be, if you launching a new product or become a thought leader. It is really endless as to what you want, if you like what you can put out there. But I guess it's just about having this strategy in place at the start that really help with that.

Jasper (10:09):

I think that comes to the final point strategy and it all comes down to being consistent, making sure that you are doing batch filming, batch editing, scheduling things out, and you don't always have to schedule things out. Just play around and see what time is best to upload, see what response your video gets each different kind of video gets, but just be consistent. Do it every week or every two weeks. Don't upload a video one month and then four months later I'll upload two more. That's what you've got to do, I think for real growth, isn't it?

John (10:47):

Yeah. I think you have to be consistent to actually get the channel growing, because in my experience, the more videos you put on there and the more consistent you can be, then yeah, it helps if you like, as part of this whole, if you like, package of helping you grow on YouTube and also I think engage your audience as well because again, engagement on YouTube is really important, so as well as watch time and audience retention, things like likes, comments, all those types of things really help ask questions. Maybe again, Google sees that as another sort of positive, if you like algorithm for itself. Yeah,

Jasper (11:21):

Just try and please Google. That's the name of the game, isn't it?

John (11:24):

That's right, and I think to sum up it also, just make sure that you deliver on your promise. I think when I look at some videos, sometimes if you look at the thumbnail and what's actually provided, then the video, the information, whatever the content that is, there's sometimes inconsistencies and that will cause your problem. Again, if it's inconsistent, because if somebody clicks on a thumbnail and then watches a video, but it doesn't actually deliver what they're expecting, again, that's a red flag for YouTube. So really, if you like out of anything, make sure that you promise and deliver what you said you would and also make sure that you adapt and change over time, which is also necessary I guess with business in general. That's a really important part.

Jasper (12:04):

Brilliant. Yeah, lots of information there and obviously coming from experience as well, having grown a successful YouTube channel, so thank you, John. You're welcome. If you learn anything from that, which hopefully you did, and you're going to start immediately going out and filming and uploading and scheduling and all those exciting things, do comment below if you enjoyed the video. Yeah, thanks for watching and we'll speak to you soon. Bye for now.