As an entrepreneur, understanding how to effectively make use of different social media platforms is key to your success. Building a strong YouTube presence is one way that you as an entrepreneur can leverage your online presence and position yourself as an authority within your industry.
By learning the best strategies for creating content that resonates with viewers, measuring audience engagement metrics, monetizing the platform and expanding beyond strictly video content, you can grow your YouTube channel into a profitable business tool!
In this article I am going to share with you the 5-step framework to turn your YouTube Channel into a Profitable Business tool.
The 5-part Framework consists of the following elements:
- Intentions
- Planning
- Learning
- Implementations
- Measurments
Part 1 - Intentions
Before you start doing anything, especially, anything new, you need to be crystal clear about your intentions. I would invite you to spend some time getting clear on the following things:
What do you want to accomplish by growing your YouTube channel?
You can start with a simple goal – just to be consistent with your video creation process. Your goal can be similar to mine to monetise your YouTube channel.
At the moment 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 views in the last 12 months are the minimum criteria to qualify for your channel monetisation.
You can monetise your channel without getting paid for ads displayed on your videos – you can sell your products or somebody else’s to get commission, or you can get collaboration deals from sponsors to promote their products. To achieve this goal you need as many views as possible.
If you are not fussed about monetisation then just focus on two things – consistency and video views.
It may seem that everyone should be after the monetisation purpose but as long as you are CLEAR on your purpose of being on YouTube it is the main thing.
The INTENTION stage is a crucial part of the 5-step framework as it determines your further strategy and implementation.
- How much time are you willing and able to devote to your channel?
- Who is your ideal audience?
- What topics do you plan to cover?
- How often do you want to publish your videos?
Growing any social media platform requires dedication, including YouTube.
That’s why having a document like The Social Media Success Scorecard can help you to stay on track.
Part 2 - Planning
After getting clear on what you want the next step is Planning.
During this stage you map out your action steps. At this step you also need to factor in time for learning. But first choose your learning preferences:
You can hire a YouTube specialist to work with you (the fastest way but it may require significant investments).
You can join a specific online course working in a group with other entrepreneurs or choose a self-study programme.
You can read a book or watch free YouTube videos.
These are tools and resources that can help you to get started.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to me at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. These are products I’ve personally used and stand behind. This site is not intended to provide financial advice and is for entertainment only. Please do your own research before making any online purchase.
You can start with the book “YouTube Secrets’ by Sean Cannell & Benji Travis.
They also have a YouTube channel.
TubeBuddy and VidIQ are both tools that help you grow your channel and they have plenty of learning material both videos and blog posts helping you grow your channel.
Another way to find free study material is to do the search inside YouTube but first identify what you are looking for and these questions will become your search terms.
For example:
- Do you need help with technical knowledge?
- Best equipment for video shooting and editing.
- Setting up your channel.
- Do you need help with strategy?
- To get your first 100 or 1000 subscribers
- To get over 4000 views
- SEO optimisation
Great tools for video editing:
Camtasia (paid option)
Capcut (free version)
CapCut recently introduced a desktop app but you would require some time to learn the ins and outs of the platform. But it is very straightforward and both tools have tutorials.
During the planning stage set up time when you are going to learn either about strategy or tools.
You can join the membership of the Magical Creators and get support and accountability turning your YouTube channel into a profitable business tool.
Part 3 - Learning
Make a list of things that seemingly stop you from posting your first or next video, or from growing your YouTube channel. Don’t allow it to stop it from publishing your videos – the more practical work you do the more you discover how you can improve the process.
Make sure that you stick to your time commitment. An hour a week is an optimum time. If you find yourself postponing your learning hour, switch to “time pockets” of 15 minutes every day to ensure consistency.
Learning can include watching tutorial videos, follow accounts that you aspire to become, or join membership or study groups that have regular online meetings.
Make sure that you schedule your “Study time” in your calendar and stick to it.
Tools that I personally use:
TubeBuddy
Get your first 1,000 subscribers
Part 4 - Implementation
You can divide implementation into five stages:
- Research
- Filming
- Editing
- Publishing
- Distribution
All these five stages are equally important.
1. Research
If you are an intuitive entrepreneur, very often ideas for your videos come to you unexpectedly and most likely you will follow your inspiration and film the video straight away.
Write down your ideas and before filming a video do a research on YouTube to whether similar topics are in demand on YouTube or not.
It can be the case that the search volume is high but there are not too many videos covering that topic, or even if the topic is very popular you may want to come up with your own twist.
Tubebuddy and VidIQ are great tools for the research.
2. Filming
You don’t need to have fancy and expensive equipment to film your videos. A smartphone camera gives perfect video quality.
You can use the Zoom app and HD laptop camera and record yourself.
If you film a how-to video or tutorial – you can use Canva. (the video below was created and recorded in Canva)
3. Editing
Some of the videos don’t require editing. Especially if you used Canva for creating your videos, it has enough animation.
I prefer to edit my videos using Camtasia – it allows to remove “ums” and “ams” and I add transitions to make the video more dynamic.
You can use CapCut as well for editing.
4. Publishing.
A lot of business owners make a mistake thinking that publishing a video is only about uploading a video and giving it a title.
Before you publish your video make sure that you have added a thumbnail that stands out. When you use Tubebuddy it allows you to create the thumbnail inside the platform, and preview how it looks among similar videos.
Another common mistake is not adding tags. TubeBuddy or VidIq are excellent tools that suggest which tags are good for your video and channel to increase its visibility.
Don’t forget to use a description box where you describe what your video is about, remind people to subscribe to your channel and add a list of videos that they can continue to watch on your channel.
Add end screens to guide people which video to watch next, so they stay longer on your channel.
Add additional information and call to action in the comments and make it a pinned comment.
5, Distribution
After you have published your video, you will be getting views providing you have followed the steps outlined above.
The first 24 hours are important as they determine whether algorithms will be recommending your videos to the public.
You can increase the number of views within the first 24 hours by sending out the link to your video in the newsletter. By sharing your video on other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest.
You can get additional views by creating a post on YouTube attaching the link to your video. Watch the video below to see how to do it.
Part 5 - Measurement
When you create a habit to measure your activities on any social media platform only then you can expect growth on that platform, including YouTube.
You need to refer to YouTube analytics on a regular basis and see whether you thumbnails and video titles were enticing enough for people to click. How long do they watch your videos, which topics are the most popular etc.
You can download my free Numbers Party Guide which shows you how to read your data not only on YouTube but on many other social media platforms.
In summary, the sequence for turning your YouTube Channel as a Profitable Business tool is simple but effective.
Start by defining your exact intention, then move on to planning out goals and strategies to make content that will get you noticed.
This can include researching what works on other successful channels and then taking the steps needed to become educated on building your channel.
After that, begin implementing these strategies into action and make connections with people who can help boost your views.
Lastly, measure your results to find out how well the strategies are working and don’t be afraid to change tactics if something isn’t yielding favourable returns.
Following the 5-step framework when launching or growing your YouTube channel for business purposes can help give you the best chance at success.
Now over to you – where are you on your journey to make your YouTube channel profitable? Come and share your latest video or post your questions about YouTube every Friday in my free Facebook group “Business Growth for Intuitive Entrepreneurs”
Thank you so much Inga, for this article. Many tips I will be following up on!