Issue#6: Youtube for SaaS explained

Level Up Your SaaS Brand with YouTube: A 3-Part Guide (Part 2: Seed Your Success)

Hey, it's Jenn, your SaaS marketing ally!

 🔗 ^{Share the newsletter.}

In part 1 of this series, we talked about seeds and why they matter, in case you don’t remember what a seed audience is…

Step 1: Build our seed audience

If you don’t have a YouTube channel yet, that's great! We can start fresh by creating a new channel from scratch. This way, you can build your audience from the beginning.

Here's how SaaS brands can cultivate a high-quality seed audience:

→ Repurpose popular blog posts and turn them into videos, then add them to the blog as an embed.

→ Embed your YouTube videos into newsletters (if you have one).

→ Share a tutorial or how-to videos with customers through the customer success team.

→ Share across social media platforms.

→ Embed them on your Documentation pages.

→ Leverage ads, like search ads for YouTube tutorials featuring our product.

→ Optimize for YouTube SEO.

🤔 How is this helping you build a high-quality seed audience? 

You are moving people who already care about your industry from one platform to another. These people are more likely to watch your videos for longer, which is important for YouTube's algorithm.

The YouTube Growth Formula:

There are two factors that YouTube really cares about : topics + watch time.

• Topics: This means creating videos that your target audience actually wants to watch. Focus on interesting and relevant subjects that address their needs and challenges. The more engaging your content, the more clicks you'll rack up.

• Watch Time: The longer viewers are glued to your screen, the happier YouTube becomes. This translates to more promotion and wider reach for your channel.

📝 The not-so-secret Secret Score System:

Ever feel like someone from your team (most likely the founder 🙊) just wants to upload pure randomness at the company’s YouTube profile to see what sticks?

Yeah, that's a recipe for disaster (and zero views).

So, here's my not-so-secret cheat sheet to keep things focused: A Score System!

This isn't rocket science, but it'll help you prioritize videos that are:

• YouTube-friendly: The algorithm gods will reward you.

• Aligned with your business goals: Turning viewers into customers and turning YT into a Demand Gen platform.

• Relevant: Give value to the people, please and thank you.

It's your cheat sheet to avoid YouTube randomness and have a strategy in place.

Think of a simple scorecard from 0 to 3. This represents the "relevance" of your content to different audience segments.

👉🏼 Score 0-1: Awareness (Think broad appeal)

This content does not address a problem your product directly solves, but it attracts viewers interested in your industry or niche. Think explainer videos, trends, or collaborations with influencers.

Example: Let’s say you have an e-mail marketing automation tool. A score 0 topic would be: "E-mail Marketing Best Practices" (This is not focused in your specific software, but positions you as a marketing automation expert.)

👉🏼 Score 2: Industry Expert 

• Show off your industry knowledge with "how-to" content related to your field. Your product can be a helpful tool, but it's not the main focus. This expands your reach and positions you as an expert.

Example: "5 Proven Strategies to Boost E-mail Marketing Conversion" (Your product could be a helpful app mentioned, but not the main focus.)

👉🏼 Score 3: Problem Solver (Think ready-to-buy viewers) Target viewers with specific problems your product solves perfectly. Create very specific "how-to" content and case studies showcasing your product as the ultimate answer.

Example: "How to Streamline Your Customer Onboarding Process in 5 Easy Steps (Using [Your Onboarding Software Name])" (This directly addresses a problem with your product as the answer.)

📝 Here’s what you’ll do:

List all videos you can create that fit a score 3 and prioritize working on those, we need to drive purchase intent first.

Per each video you create, follow the steps that I mentioned on “how SaaS brands can cultivate a high-quality seed audience”.

Instead of scattered videos, create multi-episode series (1-5 episodes) that educate viewers and guide them through the entire buying journey.

Repurpose your existing guides or lead magnets into a free YouTube course.

Don’t worry about un-gating this content. The rewards will be bigger.

You don’t have to come up with new fresh content, go to your blog website and group content together in a way that you can build a series or repurpose one of your lead magnets or guides into a 5 part series.

When you create relevant content, you're not just generating demand; you're also boosting brand awareness and gaining fans.

I used this exact strategy while managing Jexo's YouTube channel, and both people and the algorithm l-o-v-e-d- it.

See for yourself:

Note: The strategy I’m presenting here is assuming you have an audience on other platforms like your website, blog, social media, or existing customers. It's smart to start by making level 3 videos. You can bring them to your YouTube channel, helping you build a strong seed audience there. But if you don't have anyone to send to YouTube yet, start with making level 1 and 2 videos.

Step 2: Acquisition

Now that your seed audience is thriving, it's time to attract even more viewers. Here's how to expand your reach:

Here we focus on creating middle and bottom of the funnel content and target viewers by interest and keywords.

• The Power of Snackable Videos: Keep things short and sweet with YouTube Shorts (45 sec - 1min)and bite-sized explainer videos (think 1-3 minutes). These are fantastic for grabbing attention and driving viewers to your longer-form content.

• Learn how to craft "how-to" videos that showcase your industry expertise while subtly positioning your product as something valuable to them. This expands your reach while still nurturing interest in your brand.

Note: Step 2 overlaps with step 1, so work on both simultaneously.

Step 3: Interest-Based Content (Expand your thinking)

Here, our approach extends beyond our immediate niche audience.

Here are some ideas:

• Create content that might fit into a 0 or 1 relevance score criteria. This could involve industry trends, thought leadership pieces, or collaborations with influencers in your space. The goal is to attract viewers who may not initially belong to our niche but share similar interests or passions.

At this step we are looking to maximize reach and expand the channel across different audience segments.

Note: All stages of the funnel, from awareness to conversion, can and should complement each other.

📝 Coming Up in Part 3:

• We'll dive deep into video optimization – titles, descriptions, thumbnails, and more! 🪄

• Learn how to research YouTube video topics and use keywords.

💥That wraps up today's content, I appreciate you reading this far.

👉🏼Things you should read:

• The TikTok Trends Digest: Your guide to creating on-trend content

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See you next Wednesday!