The Hustle has an audience of over 2.5M<\/a> and above-industry-average engagement rates. It\u2019s the kind of audience most marketers would trade a body part to get in front of. (And I mean a useful body part. Not just a pinky toe.)<\/p>\nAnd in the vast majority of cases, they\u2019d be right. The Hustle is an absolute catapult for content, often driving thousands and thousands of views to blogs, short-form videos, and content offers. So why didn\u2019t that work here?<\/p>\n\n
Carl lays it out:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe newsletter goes out at, what, 5:30 in the morning? People open it in bed.\u201d They click on a video, \u201cwatch a few minutes, and then leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or they save it for later and then forget about it in a sea of tabs. (Guiltyyyyy!)<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you were in their shoes, are you going to watch that whole video? For me, the answer is probably not,\u201d Carl laughs. \u201cMaybe sometimes if I\u2019m laying on my couch. But if the average newsletter reader is not in a position to watch a long-form video, then that is a lot of bad retention metrics.\u201d<\/p>\n
For this otherwise highly engaged audience, that was about a 20-30% retention rate.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s do some quick math. What does it equal when 90% of your audience has a 20% retention rate? An unhappy algorithm.<\/p>\n
As Carl puts it: \u201cYouTube won\u2019t promote your content if your own viewers aren\u2019t watching it.\u201d<\/p>\n
We needed surgery, stat.<\/p>\n
Making the Cut<\/h2>\n
\u201cWe decided as an experiment to pause all direct external distribution,\u201d Carl says.<\/p>\n
But why all<\/em> distribution, and not just the mismatched audience?<\/p>\n\u201cWe wanted to first see if we had a core audience on YouTube. We wanted to serve the videos only to our subscriber base and see if they liked them.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it worked. Better even than Carl predicted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was warning everyone that we were going to perform worse before we performed better. A few thousand guaranteed views were going away,\u201d Carl recalls. \u201cBut it was pretty immediate. The first video after the shift got 27,000 views. A couple of videos later we had one hit 300,000. Then after that 450,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 90 days after pausing distribution, the channel\u2019s average views and average watch time both rose by 420%, and our subscriber count jumped 257%.<\/p>\n
This goes against everything I\u2019ve learned about content marketing, where more distribution equals more views. What gives, Carl?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s compounding success. If something performs great, YouTube is more likely to promote the following video.\u201d<\/p>\n
An audience built on YouTube is ready to watch a YouTube video. And if the majority of your viewers are watching the majority of your content, it sends positive signals to the YT algorithm. YouTube then serves your videos to a wider audience, and a virtuous cycle is born.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot all distribution is good distribution,\u201d Carl says. \u201cThat\u2019s a universal takeaway for all channels and all content. Make sure you\u2019re targeting the right audience at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Ask your doctor if pausing distribution is right for you.<\/h2>\n
Here\u2019s where I hit the pause button, because I can sense that some of you are getting antsy to DIY.<\/p>\n
I asked Carl what he would say to readers who are now thinking about axing their own distribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake sure your channel is in the same circumstances as our channel. It had a heavy reliance on external distribution and low watch times. If you have that combination, then likely those unengaged external views are impacting your performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, to be clear: If you don\u2019t <\/strong>have low engagement, your distribution is likely doing its job, and axing it will not help you grow further.<\/p>\nSimilarly, if the majority of your views aren\u2019t coming from external distribution, then it\u2019s probably not the cause of any low metrics.<\/p>\n
But Carl\u2019s not letting the rest of you walk away empty-handed. Here are some takeaways for everyone:<\/p>\n
1. Consider behavior patterns when sharing with a potential audience.<\/h3>\n
This is sound advice for any kind of marketing, not just video marketing.<\/p>\n
Before you distribute your content through any channel, consider the consumption habits of that audience.<\/p>\n
Are they in the right place to share a social media post? Download a PDF? Listen to a podcast?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is value in external distribution, but you have to make sure that it\u2019s to the right people at the right time, and at the right stage in the content\u2019s lifespan.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Seek on-platform distribution.<\/h3>\n
\u201cOn YouTube, I would always prioritize on-platform partnerships, video swaps, or call-outs. Targeting people on YouTube is the best place to get people to watch your video on YouTube.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that generally holds true for most kinds of content. Consider, for example, that you\u2019re most likely to find TikTok viewers on TikTok. Or that newsletter readers are often willing to be blog readers. (And, like magic, here you are.)<\/p>\n\n
3. Optimize for the platform, not the distribution channel.<\/h3>\n
\u201cLet YouTube do its thing for a little while,\u201d Carl advises. \u201cIf that\u2019s not working, change thumbnails, change titles. Do everything you can to optimize for YouTube.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not to be a broken record but, again, that applies to any kind of content or platform. Optimize first for search, social, or wherever your audience primarily finds your content.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if that\u2019s not working, then it might be worth taking the risk of putting it somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Set clear expectations.<\/h3>\n
If your audience clicks a link without knowing it leads to a video, a lot more people are going to abandon ship. Same for long-form written content.<\/p>\n
To avoid this, you need to set the expectations for what they\u2019re about to encounter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do share \u2014 because there is value in sharing videos with the newsletter audience \u2014 we make it very clear that it is a video,\u201d then he switches to a mock-stern voice. \u201cAll caps. WATCH VIDEO. You are leaving. ARE YOU PREPARED?\u201d<\/p>\n
Now you are.<\/p>\n
How to See YouTube Reports in HubSpot<\/h2>\n
Marketing Hub Enterprise users can actually pull their YouTube performance data straight into HubSpot so you can see all of your glorious success in one place.<\/p>\n
You can check out custom reports on watch time, views, shares, subscriber counts, engagement, etc. \u2014 allowing you to be the Carl Mueller of your company.<\/p>\n
First, you\u2019ll need to connect your YT account to HubSpot<\/a>.<\/p>\n In HubSpot, click on the settings icon <\/strong>in the top navigation bar.
\n Choose Marketing <\/strong>then Social.<\/strong><\/p>\n Click on Connect account <\/strong>in the top right.
\n Select YouTube Reports<\/strong> in the box that pops up.
\n Select the YouTube account to connect.
\n Review permissions and click Allow.<\/strong><\/p>\nNow that you\u2019re all connected, here\u2019s how to access your reports:<\/p>\n
Navigate back to Marketing <\/strong>and then Social. <\/strong>(Unless you\u2019re already there from the first part. Then skip this part.)
\n Click the tab that says Analyze.<\/strong><\/p>\n Click the dropdown menu that says All accounts <\/strong>and make sure YouTube is selected.
\n Apply filters for date range, campaign, etc. to your heart\u2019s content. <\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I first heard how HubSpot\u2019s YouTube team bumped one channel\u2019s views up by over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internship.infoskaters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}