🤩 How to Get More Returning Viewers on YouTube
How to YouTube #19
Hey YouTubers,
Before we get into how to make people fall in love with your channel, I’d be incredibly grateful if you could take 2 minutes to tell me more about who you are and what YouTube help you need right now. I want to make this newsletter as useful as possible for you. The survey is here, thanks a million ❤️
Returning viewers are the dreamland of YouTube.
Knowing that a group of people will watch your latest upload is a special place to be.
Especially within those first 24 hours. Seeing 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 real people turn up in the first day after you upload is a truly amazing place to be as a YouTuber.
If that’s not the meaning of life then I don’t know what is.
But how do you get there? What makes people come back to your channel?
Well, we have to build returnability. And to do that, we’ll be looking at my beautifully named VBSR Framework.
These are not all required to build a returning audience, but if you have all of them, then you can supercharge your returnability.
💥 Value
Meaning: The viewer is sufficiently educated or entertained.
This is the most important factor for building returnability.
Every viewer on YouTube is looking to get some kind of education or entertainment from a given video. If they don’t get what they came for then they leave. It’s extremely hard to build returnability if your videos aren’t valuable to the viewer in the first place.
This is table stakes, and I assume most of you are ticking or trying to tick this box.
You have to give the viewer what they came for in every video you upload.
This is the foundation that Ali’s channel is built on. You know that in every video you’re going to get at least one piece of useful advice.
But if you only give a viewer information, then you won’t build a returning audience. We still need a few more ingredients.
🕺Brand
Meaning: The viewer builds an expectation of the channel which is consistently met or exceeded.
As soon as a random viewer interacts with your channel for the first time, they are building some kind of image of it in their mind.
What does the channel banner say? What do the thumbnails look like? Do I enjoy watching these videos? What are the other videos like? How often does this channel upload? Do I vibe with the personality of this channel?
There are so many elements to branding, I won’t go into all of them here. But it’s all to do with the expectation that a viewer has of your channel, and how that expectation makes them feel.
The best channels set an expectation of what the videos will be and consistently meet or exceed that expectation. This leaves the viewer feeling great when that expectation is met.
And this is where it pays to be different.
Elizabeth Filips is great at this. I have this image in my head of her videos having an intense intro, being well scripted, packed with value and personal. I am pretty sure if I went and clicked on her latest upload it would tick those boxes. They’re the same every time, and unlike anyone else’s.
Creating an expectation doesn’t mean that you can’t ever change your videos, it’s just that you must be aware that you are building one in the first place.
Expectation is at the very core of branding.
(p.s. a great book to read about this is Primal Branding by Patrick Hanlon)
Ok, so now we’re making useful videos and we’re setting an expectation of what’s to come, but what really gets someone to fall in love with your channel?
📖 Story
Meaning: The viewer is invested in some kind of narrative, journey or mission.
Now hang in there. I don’t mean you have to turn your videos into storytelling masterpieces like Casey Neistat.
In fact, that’s not the reason people come back to Casey’s videos anyway. We come back to see him and his life.
If you really want people to come back, there has to be some kind of greater story or purpose weaving all your videos together.
Otherwise, you’re just an information bank.
The easiest way to do this is to share more of yourself. Share your personality, who you are and why you’re making these videos.
People love people, and if your viewers feel attached to what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, they’re much more likely to build a relationship with you and your channel (and keep coming back).
Austin Williams is a channel I love at the moment. He consistently makes 2 videos a week about personal finance, and has a great returning audience. He’s managed to build such a strong relationship over time with his viewers that when he made this life update video he got over 50k views with around 80k subscribers.
You don’t have to make life update videos though, that’s not the point. You have to weave more of yourself and your mission into your videos so that there’s something greater than a title and thumbnail that brings viewers to click when they see your video pop up.
🌗 Relatability
Meaning: The viewer sees themself in the content.
The final ingredient to returnability is about connecting with the viewer on a personal level. This isn’t about
If the viewer sees themself in your content, and in you, then that relationship with the channel will grow even stronger.
Matt D’Avella is great at this. He shares those small jokes and silly moments that make him seem human and just the same as you.
I also want to highlight a very different and new channel, Easy Actually, that helps demonstrate this point of relatability.
They are whiteboard style videos, and yes they are valuable, but it’s the way that they are made and produced that feels so relatable.
You can’t help but feel heard and relate to the narrator, even though you can’t even see them.
🥡 The Takeaway
Those are four things that can help you build returnability.
I share them knowing there’s a risk some of you might be left feeling overwhelmed. But remember, none of this is easy. And it’s not supposed to be.
This is stuff that Hollywood producers with $100m struggle to do.
But for us talking head YouTubers, we don’t need more money, we just have to be willing to be vulnerable enough to let our viewers in a bit more while we teach. To share more of ourselves.
That’s what viewers really get attached to.
Have an epic week making videos!
Tintin 🧑💻
The YouTube Tin
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To be read with love, care and retention.