Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Special Guest Reveals Top 5 YouTube Traffic Secrets

Episode Date: March 18, 2020

On this special episode with Russell's first ever guest interview, we hear from Joe Marfoglio about the best things to do to grow your YouTube channel. Here are some of the informative things you'll hear in this episode: Find out why thumbnails are so important to how many people watch your videos. Hear why Russell's long intro on Funnel Hacker TV cost him views. And find out what tool you can use to not only track your own videos, but also the videos of your competitors. So listen here to find out Joe Marfoglio's best tips to grow viewership on your YouTube channel. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/294-special-guest-reveals-top-5-youtube-traffic-secrets Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up everybody, this is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to Marketing Secrets Show. I hope you guys are excited for today. We have a special guest, and I've rarely, if ever, brought on a special guest to the show. But as we are getting closer and closer to the Traffic Secrets launch, I thought it'd be fun to bring on Joe Marfolio,

who is the guy on our team who does all of our YouTube stuff. And so we're calling these Tales of a Funnel Hacker, and Joe's episode is gonna be walking us through some of the stuff that we're doing to grow our YouTube channel and are following some things that didn't make sense to me like cutting out our amazingly designed intros and making thumbnails that look goofy

because they increase viewership and a whole bunch of other stuff. He literally took one of our videos that had like less than a thousand views, edited a couple things and boosted it to over a hundred thousand views with no ad spend. And so these are the kind of things he'll be talking about on today's episode.

So I'm gonna cue up a theme song, and when we come back, you guys will have a chance to meet my friend, Joe Marfolio. So the big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us, who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are spending money from our own pockets,

how do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world, and yet still remain profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. Joe Marfolio. Joe, how are you doing, man? What's happening, man? Hey, glad to be here. Thank you for that awesome intro. This is the first time we've done a live interview on the show before, which is really exciting. And I love you got your Funnel Hacker shirt on

and all your Two Comma Club awards in the back. That's it, man. I'm just waiting for the Two Comma Club X to come in the mail to kind of even out the set. So that's going to be awesome. Yep. Joe just won one last, uh, last week. You guys have fun. I can live. He got one, which is pretty cool. So, um, all right. So obviously we don't have a ton of time, uh, but I got a lot of questions for you. So inside of, uh, the traffic secrets book is the whole chapter on YouTube traffic. And most of it I pulled from you because

you are the guy who on our team is doing all of our YouTube, doing all this stuff. And, uh, and, uh, you've done such an amazing job. And so most of the things are, are, are there from you. And so, um, this is kind of to tease people a little about what's happening inside the book, but also just to get them to know you and understand some more about YouTube. So why is YouTube, do you think, um, different than all the other platforms that are, that are out there? You know, we've got Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, all this stuff. Like, why is YouTube, like, why are you so passionate about youtube you know so like yeah you have facebook instagram and i see a lot of people like it's very it's sometimes easier for them to build a big following on facebook or instagram they kind of go to youtube and they

struggle a little bit and it's because youtube isn't just a social media platform. It is a social media platform, but it's also a search engine where people are searching for certain, you know, certain topics, maybe searching how to do something. But, you know, so what you have to do with YouTube is not only put up content that's engaging that people want to watch that has value but you also have to add kind of a story element to it and the one thing that you don't want to do and i see people do this is kind of repurpose your content like say you have content you put on facebook and then instagram or podcast and you like you know and then you distribute to all these different channels if you put it on youtube a lot of times you're going to find that it's not going to get that much traction.

And think about YouTube like this. When you watch YouTube yourself, if you guys are out there and you're watching YouTube, why do you subscribe to a certain channel? You're going to subscribe. Maybe they're showing you how to make money online or how to grow your Instagram, but there's a ton of videos on there that talk about like how to grow your Instagram channel. But it's like what makes you subscribe and want to watch somebody? It's going to be their personality. It's going to be the way they engage with you.

And it's going to be the way the content comes across. So what I would say for YouTube, the difference is, is treat YouTube like it's its own thing. Make videos just for YouTube and try to approach it not as a marketer, but as a creator. Not that you're going to sell anything, but that you're going to like build your audience and your following. Yeah. One of my favorite things about YouTube too is, and I talked about this in the book a little bit, like, every social platform, like, let's say we do a Facebook Live like we're doing right now. It's happening, and then, like, it'll drop. It'll be here for the next couple days, and it'll drop down the news feed, and then eventually it just disappears, and nobody will ever see it again.

Whereas YouTube is, like, the only platform where you create something, and then it grows over time because it's not just social. Like I said, it's social, and it's not just social. Like I said, it's social and it's search. And that's why it's so different. Like it's different because you create something and if you create it the right way, then it sits there and it grows throughout time as opposed to everything else which seems to diminish over time. And so it gives, at least someone for me who's creating stuff,

it gives me more incentive to create stuff that's nice because it lasts beyond the moment. Whereas Facebook Live, it's there for a moment and then it's gone. Whereas YouTube, it can last for forever. I mean, like we talked about earlier, like the Overcome Pornography videos, Overcoming Pornography Addiction, for forever. I mean, like we talked about earlier, like the overcompensatory videos, um, overcoming pornography addiction, like they still get hundreds and hundreds of views every single

month, even though we don't even sell the product anymore. Um, which is probably sad because you're an affiliate making money when. Well, no, like, yeah, that video, I think I sent you a screenshot when you were doing the book, it has hundreds of clicks on there. And what it does is the content builds on each other. So like, like you put the video you put a video out three years ago, and if you keep putting content out, it's like you're going to keep getting leads. You're going to keep getting people subscribing and watching your stuff. Like you said, yeah, it just doesn't disappear.

It just builds on top of each other. Okay, I want to ask another question. This is off the questions that you sent me as pre-questions. I'm excited about this one. I hope that's okay. I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit, but I think a lot of times people think YouTube strategy is like, okay, I got to make the most perfect video in the world. And you look at companies like a dollar shave club, right? For example, where

they made this video and it goes crazy viral and then builds a huge company up. And then he sells to whoever he sold for, for like a billion dollars. Right. And so we're like, okay, I've got to make the perfect YouTube video. And like people stress about it. And because of that, they never actually make something at all. Versus like you told me in the book, we shared the example, we talked about the strategy like Gillette or other things like that. We talk about that because I feel like that's a strategy that more people like me can actually do of not like, I'm going to make the perfect video. Instead, it's looking at it a little bit differently. We talked about how Gillette did their strategy and how we can use that as well. Yeah. So here's the thing. When you guys are starting your YouTube channel,

think of it like, the first thing you want to do is really go deep in your niche, whatever you're doing. So for example, Gillette, what they did was they didn't go out there and say, well, they did. They tried to make a viral video like Dollar Shave Club in a flop, right? So what they did was they said, listen, we want to dominate for the keyword how to shave because the people that watch how to shave videos buy our product, right? So they did how to shave your head, how to shave your back, how to shave your legs, right? We did all these videos that got hundreds of thousands and millions of views, and they were very targeted to their subscribers. So the thing I would tell people is figure out what your niche is, figure out what you're, you're going to go after and go deep in that niche. Kind of like the way you explained the whole blue ocean strategy and expert secrets.

Because, you know, and the one thing you don't want to do is go and look at someone who has a million subscribers and then follow what they do. Right. So like, say you're doing, because you know, they've already been established. They already have a huge audience. So say you're doing Amazon. So what you want to do is go through Amazon and say, okay, make videos on Amazon, on Amazon FBA, on Amazon dropshipping, on Amazon affiliate, and then go through and hit every, every time, anything that someone's searching for Amazon, you want to make a video on, and it doesn't have to be a perfect video. Like you said, it just has to be engaging enough, you know, to get, to get retention, but it doesn't have to be this high production video. But what you don't want to do is you don't

want to make a video on Amazon, then make a video on how to make money online, then make a video on procrastination and then make a video on the coronavirus, right? You, you want, you want it to, if you're just just starting like you want to create like this this this traffic lane that youtube knows okay when joe puts a video out it's going to be on amazon and then the then they'll start showing your video for more to more and more people that search like say amazon stuff and then you can expand out from there very cool um yeah you should go look at gillette's it was fun After you told me that story, I went and looked in there, and you see all the, like, there's stuff that I never would have dreamt people were looking to shave. All right, there you go.

There's a video for that now, too, which is awesome. That's very cool. Okay, my next question for you is when someone creates, like, instead of creating videos and posting them on YouTube and they're not getting any traction, not getting a lot of views, like, what would be way for someone to look at that and say, okay, here's how I tweak it or optimize it to get people to actually start watching my videos? That's a great question because I see this all the time. I see people posting their videos up there and they're getting no views and they just keep posting the same videos. So here's the thing. Think of it like this. Think of your YouTube channel.

Say you have a store, a brick and mortar store. Think of your YouTube channel as that's your storefront, right? The videos that you create are your product and the people that view it and subscribe are your customers, right? They're raising their hand and say, I want that product. If you're putting videos out and nobody's watching them or subscribing or very little people are watching or subscribing, you'll change up the way you're making your videos. There's something wrong with the way you're making your videos. Don't batch out your videos and just throw them out there. You have to see what videos are engaging. So what I would say is the first thing I would start out is, like I said, find your set of keywords, right?

Your content bucket. Start putting those videos out. See which videos start getting some traction and then double down on those keywords. The other thing you want to do is constantly be testing your thumbnails. The two most important things about your video is going to be your thumbnail and your attention. You have the best video in the world, but if your thumbnail stinks and your title doesn't have a hook, people aren't going to click on it. So the thumbnail is, that's like the visual hook. That's going to stop people from scrolling and say, what's happening here? You know, so big faces, little bit of text.

Your title has your keyword in it, but also has your hook. And then the video, the first 30 seconds to the minute is the most important part of your video because that's where you want to hook people. And that's where you want to keep at least 80% retention and you want at least 50% retention all the way to the end. If you're not getting that, the best thing to do is after you shoot your video, put in call outs, put in some B-roll, kind of do some pattern interrupts to keep people visually engaged with your video. Because unlike like, say a podcast, when people are watching on YouTube, if you're not visually engaging them, they're going to look somewhere else. Like a hundred different options for them to click

on around the video, like a distraction. Right. Like a good example of this is on your channel. You had a video up on sales funnels and you know, you posted a few years ago, it got a couple of thousand views. We took that same video, just added call outs and B roll. I think that new video has 150,000 views. And the simple thing is, is even though it's amazing information, it doesn't matter who it is. Like if people aren't like visually stimulated, they're going to, they're going to go off. Yeah. Interesting yeah interesting a couple things that i learned from you that were crazy is like the thumbnail one like you said um we used to make these beautifully designed thumbnails and then they the click-through rate wasn't very high and then you made these no offense but like these ones i'm

like ah and then it's like five times more click-throughs i'm like oh crap it was interesting at funnel hacking live princey talked about that he said that when you do a show shoot most people like they do the video and then they try to find a steal to make the thing. He's like, no, you bring professional photographers. He's like, that's the most important part is the thumbnail. He says that they'll spend more time trying to get the right thumbnail image sometimes

than the entire video as a whole. And so I think that's one big thing. The second thing that I learned from you that was interesting, we did 100 plus episodes of our Funnel Hacker TV show and I loved it. They were so much fun, but we never got tons of views. I'm like, why are people not loving this? And when you started looking at our stats, you're like, well, the reason why is,

you know, people watch the first little bit and then you have like a 30 second cool intro that was like amazing. Like it was the most amazing intro of all time. Uh, like any creator be so proud of like this amazing intro. And then I got into the content. And you showed me like here they are hooked. And then the intro starts. And then like people at the end that make it through that stay on. And you went from like take a 30-second intro and make like a one-and-a-half-second intro. I was like, but it's so – like on a TV show they have a huge intro and it's amazing. And you're like they're not watching TV.

They're sitting here with YouTube with a thousand things around them like distracting them. And you got to be focused and like get to the point quick and and engage them and keep them hooked so things like that that i think creators like me are like oh look at my intro it is so long it's like that is not the right the right move no no people yeah exactly like so the the best kind of format is like a 15 second hook four to five second like branded intro, 10, 15 seconds, who you are, your content, and the call to action at the end. So cool. Yeah. Oh man. Well, do I appreciate you coming on, man? This is fun to do my first live interview. I'm not, I'm not the best interviewer, but you're a great guest and

share some, some super actionable and important things. And I think what I would recommend, you know, we're funnel hackers here. So we're good at looking and modeling what people are doing. And so go look at our channel and look at the videos that get a lot of views and ones that don't get very many. And Joe's in there always optimizing stuff and figuring things out. But half of this whole game

is looking at what's working and then be like, why is that working? That's what I'm doing, that's what you're doing. We're always doing that in all aspects. Why is that working? What was the reason? And then trying and testing and making little tweaks and changes.

I would love if you shared one last thing just because I remember the first time there was a plugin in Chrome, I think it was Chrome, that you told me to download. And I downloaded this like, I don't know, three or four years ago. And now every time I go to YouTube,

I see all the stats. And it's like so much fun to see all that kind of stuff. And I think most people don't even know that there's stuff, like tools like this available that give you all the analytics and all the detail on the video. Want to talk about any of the tools like that that you use right tools that is available to give you all the analytics, all the detail on, on the video or talk about, uh, any of the tools like that, that you use

right now that people can use as well. Um, yeah. So one of the ones is vid IQ is the one that I told you about, which is, is I love it cause I do SEO. So like the data in there is amazing. And you know, everyone should get it. They have like the best part about it. Like you can put your competitors in there. You can see what they're doing. You can see what videos are trending for them. That's a great video. Another one I think is TubeBuddy, which is – it's okay, but my preference is definitely vidIQ just because it has all that data, especially if you're constantly testing and looking at stuff. It's crazy.

They show you your competitors' videos. This video got added X amount of people to their, subscribed to their channel because of this video. And then this is how many views they got. How many is getting per day? And, like, all that. It's like, how are they telling me all this stuff? This is amazing.

It shows you all this stuff. And then you can reverse engineer from there. Like, as a funnel hacker, that's what we're looking at. How do we reverse engineer things? And this gives you, like, it's basically, like, here's what's happening in the video. And then from there, you can reverse engineer. Like, cool.

Now I know what I need to do. i need to create like how do i make something better how do i how do i make something that's gonna it's gonna beat that one out so i get all those views coming to mind instead and and stuff like that yeah awesome man well thanks joe i appreciate you coming to be on the show uh everyone if you had a good time with joe comment down below say thank you joe we love you uh he's been such a huge uh huge uh you know support for for for me for the last like almost 10 it's been almost 10 huge, huge, you know, support for, for, for me for the last, like almost 10, it's been almost 10 years. Hasn't since we first met. Yeah, I think so. 2012, I think. That's crazy. So long time and a huge help for us here inside ClickFunnels

growing our YouTube channel and helping us get the message out to more people. So grateful for you, man. Thanks for being on the show and everyone, please comment down below and tell Joe, thank you for, for spending time with us today. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks, man. Thanks, Russell. We'll talk to you later.

All right. See you, man. Hey, everybody. This is Russell again. And really quick, I wanted to invite you to join arguably the best thing that we've ever put out inside the ClickFunnels community. And it is a challenge we call the One Funnel Away Challenge. You know, everyone in their business, in their life, they're one funnel away from something. Some of you guys are one funnel away from quitting your job. Some of you guys are one funnel away from getting more impact.

Some of you guys are a funnel away from growing your company to the next level. And so we created this challenge to help you to create and launch your first or your next funnel. No matter where you are in your business, this challenge is going to help you understand the strategy, help you understand the tactics, help you understand the tactics, help you understand all the things you need to be successful with your funnel. So what I recommend you do right now is stop everything, pause this audio, go online and go to onefunnelaway.com.

That's onefunnelaway.com and join the next challenge. There's a challenge starting in the next few days. So go get started right now. Onefunnelaway.com.