The YouTube Growth Playbook: 4 Proven Strategies For Creators

I run lots of experiments in a “How does x thing work” style.

Sometimes I share these, and often I don’t. Mostly because I’m not sure people would care if it’s a non-L&D topic.

Anyway, I’ve inadvertently found myself growing my YouTube channel by 60% subs and 240% views in the last 8 months with 2 -3 hours of work a month.

In this, I’ve learnt a lot about how the platform works. So, I’ve crafted a sort of YouTube Growth Playbook. I have no plans to be a YouTuber but I’m fascinated by how it works.

After many conversations and lots of reflection.

I think there’s a lot to learn from the YouTube design process for L&D design.

From choosing the right idea to designing the user experience to packaging it for a viewer. I see so many similar traits with L&D.

That seems like something worthwhile for us to unpack.

The Experiment: Growing a YouTube Channel in 2-3 hours a month

As mentioned, I have no plans to be a YouTuber.

I just need somewhere to store the videos I share on LinkedIn and this newsletter. My solution is YouTube. I use it more like a storage locker rather than trying to attract people to it.

At the start of the year, I became curious to learn ‘what makes people click’ on a video.

This inevitably sent me down a black hole of learning. I like to think we can agree that is a good type of black hole to fall into. I discovered that crafting high-quality YouTube videos is pretty similar to good end-to-end learning design.

You can transfer a lot of frameworks and skills from writing and marketing into this space.

What happened?

I’ve been running a growth experiment with YouTube for 8 months.

→ It’s increased subscribers by 60%.

→ It’s increased watched hours by 240%.

I’m not out to become a YouTuber, but I do love to learn how things work.

Since our world works on a lot of digital platforms, and we each use them to promote work and business, I like to know how this game is played.

Here are my 4 biggest lessons from taking my channel from 300 subs to over 1,000 (as of this post) in 8 months, with 2-3 hours input a month:

• Writing is more important than you think: For scripts, descriptions with SEO, titles and hooks.
• Good design matters: From your thumbnails to how the video looks and flows.
• Experiment often: This is especially true with thumbnails, descriptions and titles. Some of the biggest players on this platform do this, and it’s something which has worked for me.
• Build evergreen content, not just for today: Play the long game. I have a set of 4 to 5 high-performing videos that bring in 80% of subs and views. Why? Because they’re evergreen content that transcends the years with relevance.

Note: I could have achieved way more if I was dedicating myself to this, but that’s not my plan.

4 proven YouTube growth strategies for creators, designers and educators

After 8 months of experimentation, I landed on 4 principles that enhance both growth on YouTube and serve as good learning design.

Let’s unpack these in more detail.

Writing is more important than you think

You’re forgiven for thinking that a successful video is all about, well…good video.

It actually starts with good writing.

Writing is one of the most important skills you need. Without good writing (and editing) you cannot:

• Get buy-in for your work
• Build a compelling message
• Explain complex problems
• Design quality user experiences

And much more.

Specifically for YouTube, writing comes in:

• Generating video ideas
• Scriptwriting
• Video titles
• SEO-rich video descriptions
• Transcripts and subtitles

We use almost all of this for good learning design.

Until you can clearly write down what you’re solving and how you’re solving it for the user, your product doesn’t have much hope.

One thing I like about the way YouTube Strategists (yes, they’re a real thing) think about design is with ‘packaging’. This term is used to describe how you put all the moving pieces together to craft an experience people will engage with.

What I can tell you, is this doesn’t stop when the video is filmed.

It’s about how you script your intro, the video title you choose, your video description and how you will distribute this to your audience. I’ve found the best people obsess over these things to a militaristic level, and that makes sense.

You cannot do well long-term without this approach.

This is no different in L&D. The work is not over when you finish building an experience (no matter if physical or digital). Think about how you will ‘package’ your product to drive value for users.

Good design matters

This transcends industries and products.

I’d go as far as to say it’s a ‘fact of life’.

In YouTube land, thumbnails, video titles and descriptions are gold. They’re what bring in the viewers, but without a well-designed video behind them, they’ll flop.

This is something I learned early on.

The dopamine video hit

I wrote a devilishly enticing title and designed a clickbaity thumbnail for a bare-bones video.

The goal was to see how much of an effect these variables have on a sub-par product. Long story short, the video did very well in the first 12-24hrs. It racked up a few thousand views, but the people spoke with downvotes.

Despite the high engagement in the first 24 hours, the video died.

Why? It was the most downvoted video I released, and YouTube takes note of that. You can have thousands of views and all the dopamine-spiking materials you want, but if many people start downvoting, YouTube stops recommending.

Lesson: You can’t hide rubbish with rainbow paint.

The big hits

I don’t have and don’t want any viral videos.

I detest the word ‘viral’ in this digital age. Instead, I focus on what I do best: ‘how-to’ educational videos. Probably most of the ones you’ve come to know me for.

The videos that have performed well for me, checked these boxes:

• They were well-planned with a clear structure for the viewer’s experience
• Each had a short intro which explained ‘what you’ll get’ from this
• They solved a problem that people in my niche face daily
• They provide a painkiller to the pain the viewer is experiencing
• Each had a clear and compelling title and description

Examples of two of my best-performing videos showing these strategies are below:

As you can see, nothing special in particular.

The main thing they do is solve a problem. Just like in L&D. So, solve the problem and you’ll do well.

Research-backed YouTube growth strategies

Instead of me, re-sharing everything I’ve ever learnt about this topic.

Here’s a few resources from people I’ve learnt from and their best advice:

Paddy Galloway: The (Original) YouTube Strategist

Until I came across Paddy, I’d never heard of the phrase ‘YouTube Strategist’.

That was 5 years ago.

Today, it’s pretty common for strategy teams to exist. What I enjoy about Paddy is his critical design mind. You can take how he thinks about YouTube and apply it to many industries. He’s one of those people who can see how it all works together.

The best video I’ve seen him share some of his work in is below.

Here’s 2 of my favourite strategies he shares:

1. The CCN (Core, Casual, New) Framework: It’s hard to capture everyone, and you probably shouldn’t try too. I love the old saying “If you design for everyone, you design for no-one”.
   
   What you can work on is how your target audience will experience content. Core people will watch anything, casuals drop in from time to time and new are those discovering the experience for the first time.
   
   If we’re being honest, L&D for most company’s is a numbers game, and this is something to keep in mind. Listen to Paddy’s explanation.
   
   
   
2. What makes good video ‘packaging: In the YT world, this refers to the thumbnail, description and title of the video, hence the word ‘package’.
   
   This is about discoverability.
   
   I wonder how many L&D teams think about this when their content or workshop sign-up is plastered on a LMS and company intranet.
   
   Will you risk your product being buried behind poor packaging? More on this from Paddy.

What makes good packaging w/ Aprilynne Alter

I stumbled on Aprilynne’s videos when seeking how to create worthy thumbnails and titles that support user discoverability.

I didn’t want my hard video work to go unnoticed because the packaging sucks. Lucky for me, Aprilynne had done a ton of research on what works in this space.

As I watched the video, I couldn’t help but think about the similarities when it comes to filtering content on a LMS and LXP.

With so much on these systems, you need to help your best (and most important) content standout.

The same design principles for this transcend YouTube.

Two videos I recommend you check out. The first focuses on what makes a good YouTube thumbnail (which you can use for your content system of choice), and the second, unpacks the thought process behind this with the creator.

These strategies have worked well in my experiments so far.

What L&D audiences experience

Take a look at the below.

Looks familiar, right? You know what it is in 5 seconds – a typical course catalog.

This is what your audience experiences when you push them to a content system. There is nothing inherently bad about this image. It’s just not very clear, compelling and ultimately helpful for them.

I’m sure these could be all worthwhile courses for your audience, but they kinda all blend into the background.

As an example, we can see x3 science related options for AI. Each contain a similar title and quite generic imagery. There’s not much to differentiate on that front.

However, the one clear difference are the higher education brand names, which will probably sway a prospective viewer.

Out of the 3, I’d expect 90% will choose Harvard because it’s well-known and is positioned as being prestigious.

That doesn’t mean the others are worse, and the viewer may never know. Perhaps, they’re better but they’ve not been able to communicate the specificity here on the screen where it matters.

This is where ‘packaging’ is key.

The importance of good packaging

The one tile that stands out to me is at the start of the bottom left.

Yes, the Google one, but why?

• The background image is minimal but a contrast to the same stock images used by the rest
• It has a very clean visual look so I’m not struggling to make sense of it
• The title is the most specific one on the screen. It tells me everything I need to make an informed decision in a few seconds. The others are a bit vague and require further investigation. This turns into a Russian roulette because I won’t spend time on them all. This is where brand familiarity helps.

A good test is to put this image into powerpoint and create a second slide that’s blank (complete white space).

Swipe between the two slides, one with the image and the other with white space. Now note where your eyes are naturally drawn to on the image.

This is the course you’re most likely to click.

Use this to reverse engineer the reasons behind the decision. What attracted you and why?

Assume you’re not Harvard

With many off-the-shelf content libraries, you’ll be competing against more well-known brands.

Your job is to stand out in that sea to ensure company content is front and centre. So you need to package things differently. Build clear, compelling and specific imagery, titles and descriptions.

In sum: The little things matter more than you think.

Experiment

Probably the thing we should do more.

Not just in design, but with ongoing packaging of content and courses.

One thing I noticed about bigger YouTube Creators is how they tweak the elements of their packaging if performance is not as expected.

Sometimes the thumbnail didn’t work or the title doesn’t land, maybe the description is not specific enough for the engine to rank it higher in searches.

So, they change it.

Perhaps days later, sometimes hours. They look at audience data to uncover what’s not clicking. You can do the same with courses and content.

If your work is not hitting the mark after a week, try:

• New visual design – mix up your imagery
• Change the title – we all know most of us just read headlines, so make yours compelling
• Description – most learning platforms search engines work the same as YouTube’s. They look for relevant keywords in both titles and descriptions against what a user has requested. Make sure you have these words in yours.

Often, it’s not about re-creating the product, it’s a matter of re-packaging it.

In sum: Don’t kill the product if it doesn’t work first time. Improve the packaging and distribution.

Create evergreen content

This phrase might be new to you, so allow me to explain.

Evergreen means something that is continually fresh and relevant. In a world littered with short-form content and experiences driven by instant gratification, you want to play the slow growth game.

Simply this means building products (I use this word here to describe content and courses) that last for the long-term.

You do this by updating them for relevance.

Sadly, I don’t see this happen often in many L&D teams. The default is to create another new thing rather than update what you have. I tried not to mention AI today, yet I find a good use case for it here in helping you to update old content.

Try sharing your current content with the AI tool of choice and ask it to:

• Check for relevance
• Search for new research on the topic
• Suggest improvements in style and structure
• Pose thoughtful questions for the audience

I’ve found this helpful with my website.

You’re not asking the tools to ‘create this for me’, you’re working with it as a design assistant.

In sum: Before you create something new, consider how you can refresh something old.

📝 Final thoughts

OK, friend, we got through a lot today.

• Don’t let good products get lost with poor packaging
• It’s the little things that matter: titles, descriptions and imagery
• Experiment with distribution and packaging: Don’t kill the product, improve the packaging
• Before building something new, refresh what’s old – this is (probably) the best option
• Your work needs good design, packaging and distribution to succeed

Bonus: 🤖 Tool for you

To help you apply the topics we’ve covered today, I’ve built a custom AI-assistant with all the videos, tips and knowledge sources in this edition.

It’s not going to make you a superstar YouTuber earning mega bucks, but it will help you put today’s thoughts into practice.

Try out the YouTube Strategist.

Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.