How did a wine buff, a tie tying expert and someone who can make you look gorgeous become online stars?
Everyone knows YouTube, but few realise its full potential to turn almost anyone with ambition and hustle into a media force with which to be reckoned. Using a cheap camera and a huge amount of hustle, it's possible for anyone to grow a fan base in the thousands, which can then be leveraged by the savvy entrepreneur to sell products such as memberships, books, software and more.
Here are three examples of entrepreneurs who started with nothing, put in the work and then leveraged their massive follow to drive millions of dollars in revenue.
Gary Vaynerchuk
When most business owners think of becoming a YouTube mogul, they think of becoming a person like Gary Vaynerchuk. He first got his start in 2006 with the video series Wine Library TV, which, in those early days of internet video, was not even hosted on YouTube.
But today, even though there are many video hosting sites available, always choose YouTube. By working within the dominant platform, you'll be able to engage with the largest audience.
Vaynerchuk started his YouTube channel in 2007 and immediately began building his brand. Although many of his videos were about his topic du jour - wine - he was actually using his YouTube channel to build something else: the brand of Gary Vee.
So although your business may change. Using your YouTube channel to promote your personal brand rather than your business allows you to retain subscribers and fans even if you start selling a different product.
After growing Wine Library TV and building a 100,000-plus viewer fan base, Gary Vaynerchuk switched gears and began developing a media consultancy, VaynerMedia, to help Fortune 500 companies build their own brands through micro content and other story telling actions.
Vaynerchuk continued to branch out, writing multiple New York Times bestselling books and developing VaynerRSE, a seed fund to help new technology companies.
How does Gary Vaynerchuk's YouTube channel fit into this? Gary Vee's channel promotes two things: expertise and conversation. As soon as you arrive on his YouTube channel page, you get the pitch: a minute-long autoplay video titled "Why You Really Need to Subscribe to My Channel." Here's the description in full:
"Guys, seriously, if you're not subscribed to my channel, it hurts me. It hurts my soul. If you subscribe right now, I promise you it will be worth it! Oh and when you do, be sure to email me: gary@vaynermedia.com to let me know that you did."
Gary Vaynerchuk lets viewers know that his videos will be casual and fun, and by asking new viewers to email him when they subscribe, he sets the expectation that subscribers will become part of a two-way conversation. Of course, collecting emails also enables Vaynerchuk to build his mailing list and send campaigns that promote targeted traffic back to his website.
Who are Gary Vee's YouTube videos targeted towards? People who want to do the same thing he did: build an enormous brand and use storytelling to sell ideas. They may end up participating in VaynerRSE. They may work for Fortune 500 companies and become VaynerMedia clients. Or, they may be entrepreneurs who buy Vaynerchuk's books in the hopes of achieving their dreams. Either way, Vaynerchuk's YouTube channel - and his brand - keeps them hooked.
Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss is a "name brand," much like Gary Vaynerchuk. However, Tim Ferriss’s YouTube channel channel is built around one specific aspect of his brand: how-tos. Although he puts out the occasional video on another topic, such as the recent promotional video for his new TV show The Tim Ferriss Experiment, the real meat of his YouTube channel - and the videos that get the most views - are videos like "How to Tie a Perfect Tie: Every Time."
This makes sense; how-tos are a popular topic as well as a popular search topic, and people who search YouTube for "how to tie a tie" are likely to watch Tim Ferriss's video because they are already familiar with his brand.
Becoming a trusted expert helps drive additional traffic to your videos, especially targeted search traffic. You can then use SEO to learn what people are searching for, and then create videos to help them solve that problem.
Tim Ferriss's most popular videos are five and six years old, but when you check the comment history, you see that people are still watching and learning from these videos. These videos include links back to Ferriss's website, where users can learn more about Ferriss's how-to books like The Four-Hour Body. They also include links to Ferriss's books directly on Amazon, which cuts a few steps out of the sales funnel.
It's important to link back to your website, but if your products are sold directly through a site like Amazon, provide those links as well.
When you visit Ferriss' YouTube page, you get a very different feeling than when you visit Gary Vee's. Vaynerchuk is all about conversation and community; Ferriss is about providing solutions to problems. Both techniques work, and both drive traffic back to these YouTube moguls' websites.
Jenna Marbles
YouTuber Jenna Marbles (aka Jenna Mourey) first hit fame in July 2010, when her video "How to trick people into thinking you're good looking" went viral. Unlike Gary Vaynerchuk or Tim Ferriss, Jenna Marbles didn't start posting videos to YouTube to promote a website or brand; instead, she became successful on YouTube first, and the brand -- and merchandising -- came afterwards.
This doesn't mean that business owners can't learn from Marbles' success. "How to trick people into thinking you're good looking" got a whopping 56 million views first because it was a how-to video, like Ferriss's popular videos, and second because it was hilarious and instantly shareable.
Always ask yourself "is there a reason for someone to share this video?" Shareable videos are often funny, and they usually contain a unique insight that people literally want to pass along to their friends.
A lot of Jenna Marbles' videos are how-tos, but others are simply her talking to the camera, vlog-style. To quote a 2013 New York Times profile of Jenna Marbles' success: "Unlike other YouTube personalities who invest in better cameras, lighting and production values, Ms. Mourey has stuck with her original lo-fi operation."
You don't need an expensive setup to become a YouTube mogul. As long as you put out great content, you can get the job done with a cheap camera, a microphone, and a laptop.
Jenna Marbles' videos also drive traffic back to her website, where she sells plush toys of her dogs as well as themed t-shirts. She includes links to her site in the description of every video, but unlike other popular vloggers, does not promote her store at the end of every video.
Promotion is a delicate balance. Too much, and you turn away viewers. However, it is important to include links to your website and store in the description of every video.
Gary, Tim and Jenna are some of the bigger names out there, but for every Gary there are 500 lesser-known entrepreneurs using Youtube to grow their businesses and build their personal brands. If you can invest the time, have sometime to teach and aren't afraid to be in front of the camera, it's easy to start building your audience and personal brand.
source: smh.com.au
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