The Russell Brunson Show - 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

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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 less than 1,000 views, edited a couple things, and boosted it to over 100,000 views with no ad spend. These are the kind of things he'll be talking about on today's episode. I'm going to cue up the theme song. When we come back, you'll have a chance to meet my friend, Joe Marfolio. The big question is this. How are entrepreneurs like us who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, we're 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. Hey, man. This is the first time we've done a live interview on the show before, which is really exciting. Very 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 week, you guys, at Funnel Hacking Live. He got one, which is pretty cool. All right. So obviously we don't have a ton of time, 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 get them to know you and understand some more about YouTube. So why is YouTube, do you think, different than all the other platforms 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, 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 that's searching how to do something but you know so 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, is kind of repurpose your content. Like, say you have content you put on Facebook and then Instagram or podcasts 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. Like when you watch YouTube yourself, like if you guys are out there and you're watching YouTube, you know, why do you subscribe to a certain channel? You're going to subscribe, right? Maybe, you know, they're showing you how to make money online or how to grow your Instagram. Um, right. 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 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 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 seller, but as a creator. Not that you're going to sell anything, but that you're going to build your audience and your following. Yeah. One of my favorite things about YouTube, too, is, and I talk about this in the book a little bit,

every social platform, like let's say we do a Facebook Live like we're doing right now, it's happening, and then 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 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 search. And that's why 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 creating stuff it gives me more incentive to create stuff that's nice because it lasts beyond the moment

where's facebook live it's there for a moment then it's gone whereas youtube it can last for you know for forever i mean like we talked about earlier like the overcompensography 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 the product was there. 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, 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, I got to make the most perfect video in the world. And you look at companies like Dollar Shave Club, for example, where they made this video

and it goes crazy viral and then builds this 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 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.

I'm not like, I'm going to make the perfect video. Instead, it's looking at it a little bit differently. We talk 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 in, the first thing you want to do is really go deep

in your niche, whatever you're doing. Like, 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 flat, 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 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 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 like so you want to do is go through amazon say okay make videos, make videos on Amazon, on Amazon FBA, on Amazon dropshipping, on Amazon affiliate, and then go through and hit 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 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 want it to – if you're just starting, like you want to create like 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. So it's fun. After you told me that story, I went to and looked in there and you see all the, like there's stuff that I'd never would have dreamt people are looking to shave. All right, there you go. There's a video for that now too, which is awesome. It's very cool. Okay. My next question for you is when someone creates, like they're creating videos and they're posting on YouTube and they're not getting any traction, not getting a lot of views, like what would be the best way for someone to look at that and be like, okay,

here's how I tweak it or optimize it to get people to actually start watching my videos. All right. That's a great question. Cause I see this all the time. Like I see people posting their, 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. Like say you have a store, a brick and mortar store, thinking of your YouTube channel as that, 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? raising their hand 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 change up the way you're making your videos there's something wrong with the way you're making

your videos um don't batch out don't batch out your videos and just just throw them out there you have to 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 gonna look somewhere else. There's 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 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. A couple of things that I learned from you that were crazy is like the thumbnail one, like you said, 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, Prince EA talked about that. He said that when you do a shoot, most people like they do the video and then they try to find a steal to make the thing. He's like, no, like 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 in 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, um, and we did a hundred 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, and then like people at the end that make it through that stay on. And then you went from like, take a 30 second intro, make it like a one and a half second intro. I was like, but it's, it's so like on, 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 gotta be focused and like get to the point quick and, 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 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. Do my first live interview. I'm not, I'm not the best interviewer, but you're a great guest and share 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 like 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 always optimizing stuff and figuring things out. But half of this whole game is like looking at what's working and then be like, why is that working? Right? That's what I'm doing. That's what you're doing. Like we're always doing that in our all aspects of why is that working? What, what was the reason? And then trying and testing and making little tweaks and changes. Um, I would love to share 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 whenever 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 that is available to give you all the analytics, all the detail on, on the video. We'll 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 vidIQ is the one that I told you about, which is, is I love it because 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 like what videos are trending for them, you know? So,

so that's a great video. Another one I think is TubeBuddy, which is, you know, it's okay. But like if my preference is definitely vidIQ just because it has all that data, especially if you're, you're constantly testing and looking at stuff. It's crazy to show you, they show you like your competitors videos, like this video got added X amount of people to their subscribe their channel because this video, and then this, how many views they got, how many is getting per day. And like all that, you're just like, how are they telling me all this stuff is amazing. It shows you all the stuff that and then you can reverse engineer from there like as a funnel hacker that's what we're looking how to reverse engineer things and this gives you like it's

basically like here's what's happening on the video and then from there you can reverse engineer like cool now i know what i need to do what 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. Awesome, man. Well, thanks, Joe. I appreciate you coming and being on the show. Everyone, if you had a good time with Joe, comment down below. Say, thank you, Joe. We love you.

He's been such a huge support for me for the last almost 10 years. Hasn't it since we first met? Yeah, I think so. 2012, I think. That's crazy. So a 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 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 to help you understand the strategy, help you understand the tactics, help you understand all the things you need to be successful with your funnel. So 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.