What Podcasters Need to Know About Leveraging Youtube with Trena Little
Have you thought about incorporating Youtube into your content strategy? Maybe you’ve been posting your podcast on Youtube but not getting any traction?
Youtube is an amazing platform, but it definitely has its own way of doing things and to be honest, podcasters aren’t leveraging it in the best way!
In today’s episode, I’m interviewing Trena Little, a Youtube strategist who helps online course creators develop a YouTube strategy that allows them to scale their business, by driving more traffic to their offers with the right videos!
We cover what you should be posting on Youtube instead of Audiograms, how the Youtube search and analytics work, plus why it’s such a powerful platform. If you’ve been considering starting a Youtube channel for your podcast, this is a can’t miss episode!
What’s in this episode…
[04:02] The value of Youtube as Evergreen Content
[07:46] Why you shouldn’t just post your podcast on Youtube
[12:14] How to use SEO on Youtube
[15:02] Tips for starting a Youtube channel for your podcast
[18:34] Why you should film your podcast episodes
About TRENA LITTLE:
As a Youtube strategist, Trena, who has a Master’s Degree in Business, helps online course creators develop a YouTube strategy that allows them to scale their business, by driving more traffic to their offers with the right videos! She creates YouTube videos that work for her 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so she doesn’t have to!
Connect with TRENA:
Watch Trena’s Videos on Youtube
Connect with Trena on Instagram
LINKS:
The Transcript for Share, Strategize, & Shine:
[00:00:00] Hello. And welcome back to the show. I am so excited for today's topic, because this is something that I have been thinking about talking about behind the scenes. Uh, trying to educate myself more around, and that is [00:01:00] YouTube. As I dive deeper into sharing more content in other places and thinking about all the things that I'm sharing and how it builds my brand one place I've been really interested in. Getting involved in is YouTube.
[00:01:14] But the problem is, is that as a podcast or coming from a podcast viewpoint to YouTube, Does not work. And so I knew that we were going to need some help. I am so excited to introduce you today to Trina little Trina is a YouTube strategist who helps online course creators develop a YouTube strategy that allows them to scale their business by driving more traffic. To their offers. With the right videos. And if you haven't watched any of trainer's videos, I highly recommend you go check them out.
[00:01:44] But for now, Enjoy this interview with Trina.
[00:01:48] Caroline: Hi Trina. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
[00:01:52] Trena: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:54] Caroline: Yeah, I'm super excited to talk to you about YouTube. This is something I've been wanting to talk on [00:02:00] the podcast about, uh, for a while, and I just needed to find the right person.
[00:02:05] And I took one of your workshops, it was fantastic. 10 out of 10 recommend, and I was like, oh my gosh. This is, this is who I need to talk to, which is actually really funny because I think I've been following you. For a very, very long time. Like I'm talking years,
[00:02:20] um, because I've known who you are for a long time and, uh, one of my friends in my mastermind was mentioning, uh, your video recently, and I was like, oh yeah, Trina, she's amazing.
[00:02:30] So I'm so excited to connect with you again and since I've started my little YouTube journey, um, as well, I'm excited to get your perspective,
[00:02:39] but. Before we dive in, I would just love if you would just introduce yourself,
[00:02:44] tell a little bit about who you are, what you do, and how you help people.
[00:02:48] Trena: Yeah, so my name is Trina. I am a YouTube strategist. I think that's my, the best title that I have.
[00:02:55] But I help online course creators and coaches build [00:03:00] a YouTube strategy that attracts the right audience, meaning the people that are actually going to buy and work with you. And then I also go a step further with my clients and ensure that the funnel that they've built. Is optimized because the last thing that I want to happen is we get you leads and we get you views on YouTube, and then we send them over to your offer or your lead magnet and nothing happens. And so I kind of help the whole circle when it comes to growing your audience and then actually converting them, but using YouTube as the, I don't wanna say mothership, but as the, the main hub of content.
[00:03:36] Caroline: Yeah, I love that. And I think that we have a lot of similarities 'cause I do the same thing for people who have podcasts. But I think where, what I'm finding out is I'm diving into YouTube more and more, and we're talking about it more in the podcast industry is it really does function quite differently than podcast episodes.
[00:03:54] And so I would love if you would just share why is
[00:03:58] YouTube such a great place to be? [00:04:00] WHy do you think it's such an amazing platform?
[00:04:02] I.
[00:04:02] Trena: Yeah, I mean the best thing is evergreen content, and I, I like to use the, it's a graph of compounding interest, so how compounding interest works, but I have also used it in reflection of compounding views. So when you put your first YouTube video out, you're gonna get a few views. You put your next video out, that video is gonna get a few more views, but you're also going to generate excitement and interest in that last video.
[00:04:28] And then you put your third video out and that's gonna get a few more views. But again, they find that third video, they're gonna wanna go back and watch the second and first video. So what YouTube really does is it creates content that literally will live for years to come, and every time you put a video out, you're gonna get traffic to those older videos. And then on top of that, obviously Google owns YouTube and
[00:04:50] Google will push video content. Because it values video. I've been saying since I think 2016, video is king. Finally. Finally, [00:05:00] so many people are have, have accepted that now, and Google always puts YouTube videos at the top of search, and so that's why I do YouTube. I like the ability to create just one YouTube video a week and having that live forever instead of one point in time. I try to do TikTok, which was
[00:05:17] like two tiktoks a day for like 30 days and nothing. I, I don't have the time for that. I've
[00:05:23] also tried to do daily reels and I don't have the time for that either, so I like my one YouTube video we just mentioned.
[00:05:29] I wrapped shooting all of my content for one month here today, and I'm good to go.
[00:05:34] Caroline: That's amazing. I think what was so eyeopening for me taking your workshop is, and I mean I've, I've. I have a YouTube channel. I haven't really optimized it or used it, so like I've been on the back end of it. But when I took your workshop and I was like, holy moly, why does this not exist for podcasting?
[00:05:55] Like, the metrics are so great. The SEO is so great, and that was [00:06:00] really a big light bulb moment for me was, you know, I love podcasting for all of these reasons, great long form content. Blah, blah, blah. We can go on that for days. But what I found to be so valuable with YouTube is just that what you mentioned, the fact that Google owns it and it is searchable in a way that podcasts aren't.
[00:06:20] And so that was just like, I was also extremely jealous. I was just so jealous of the, the YouTube metrics because we just don't
[00:06:27] have metrics like that for podcasting.
[00:06:30] Trena: YouTube wants you to succeed because if more people watch your content, they can put more ads on your content and therefore they can make more money from the brands and the companies that are paying to put ads. So YouTube literally gives you all the information that you need in your analytics for totally free, because
[00:06:47] if you succeed, they make more money.
[00:06:50] Caroline: I mean, and the analytics are, are really, really intense. Like you can really dive into a
[00:06:55] lot there. So that's really neat. So let's talk about YouTube and [00:07:00] podcasting, because there's been a lot of conversation in the podcasting world. YouTube has decided to kind of dip their toe into the podcasting, realm by offering like RSS feed, connection and things like that.
[00:07:15] But I. You and I had actually talked before the episode a little bit, and one of the things that we talked about was just posting. Your podcast to YouTube wasn't necessarily a good strategy. And I would love to just hear your take a little bit on that because I think it's so interesting when we were talking about this before, because what we're being told on the podcast world is to just post our podcasts on YouTube and we'll get magical views at all these things.
[00:07:42] So I would love to hear
[00:07:44] your take on this.
[00:07:46] Trena: Yeah. I mean, so YouTube is a different beast like we talked about, and YouTube works differently. And so if people don't understand what works on YouTube, I think the. Disillusionment that people have is [00:08:00] that, I'm not sure if that's the word, but is they see these people with large podcasts just start doing a video podcast and it magically gets views, but we don't remember.
[00:08:10] These people have a large audience already,
[00:08:12] and so they're telling their people to go follow their YouTube channel. They're telling their email lists, go watch their podcast on YouTube. And that's how they grow. That's how they grow fast. So, I mean, I think we are all swifties over here. So we watch, new Heights podcast and to see them.
[00:08:28] We actually enjoyed that podcast prior to the Taylor Swift of it all.
[00:08:32] But we watched that podcast go from like a few thousand subscribers to over a million overnight. And they're not doing a specific strategy, it's just because they happen to get popular. And so. We see, oh, they're doing a video podcast.
[00:08:45] They got lots of views and subscribers. There's more at work there. And so when we think about using YouTube, we have to use it in the way the platform is meant to be used. Because it's like Pinterest. If we were to put reels or tiktoks on [00:09:00] Pinterest, that's not what Pinterest is really used for.
[00:09:02] I mean, there are some different things going on there, so what actually you want to see on YouTube is, first of all, I know, I'm not sure if we talked about this, it has to be video of you just taking an audio, slapping it on a. Image or like a slide and making it a video podcast that way is not going to see the results that you're expecting because now you put a video podcast on YouTube, but it's literally just a slide and audio. So you still have to play by the YouTube game if you want to see results because it still comes down to. If your podcast isn't getting people to watch, and if that podcast isn't getting people to watch more, YouTube is not gonna make it available. Meaning they're not gonna show it on homepage, they're not gonna show it in search, they're not gonna suggest it.
[00:09:55] So you still have to follow the YouTube rules. It's not just some magic button where you [00:10:00] throw a podcast up and yay, YouTube pushes it to people.
[00:10:03] Caroline: Yeah. And I, I love that you brought up the, the what we call audiogram, podcast because that has been pushed so much in the podcasting industry, and I have tried it. Multiple times over multiple years just posting the, like you said, it's still with like a waveform on YouTube and it does absolutely nothing and I never recommend it to my clients.
[00:10:28] Like they'll say, well, should I just post this on YouTube? And I'm like, I don't know that that's worth your time and effort. You know, I would much rather you video yourself,
[00:10:36] And post that instead. But I'm so glad you brought that up because there are literally tools that have been created to do that automatically for your podcast episodes.
[00:10:44] And I'm like, what? It doesn't, it doesn't do anything because YouTube is video. People go there to
[00:10:51] watch, so I've never really understood that.
[00:10:55] Trena: I think it's because people are just assuming search-based content. But even [00:11:00] that, just putting it on there, first of all, you're just wasting your time uploading it, but you're also not creating a title and a thumbnail. And if you aren't creating a title and a thumbnail for YouTube. No one's gonna click on it.
[00:11:13] It doesn't matter if it's video or not. They're not even going to know if it's video or not, because if you aren't creating titles and thumbnails for your podcast on YouTube, no one's going to click on it because that's how you're getting people to watch or listen to your content is does your title and thumbnail stop them from scrolling and actually click on your content?
[00:11:32] It's basically your marketing material. And so again, I think people with podcasts, they just think, I'm gonna put this up here. I'm gonna put like some random stock brand photo of myself, put the same text that the title of the podcast is as the title of the YouTube video as the thumbnail text, and it's gonna magically happen.
[00:11:50] That's not what works on YouTube.
[00:11:52] Caroline: Yeah. Okay. So this is, this is such a great point, because when we were talking about the differences in the backend [00:12:00] of podcasting, YouTube, this is one of the big things that, that I learned is, you know about the SEO and the search, and that's where this title is coming in that you're talking about.
[00:12:10] Right. And why the title needs to be different. Am I correct?
[00:12:14] Trena: So with titles, there is a SEO aspect to it, but we want to create titles that our audience is gonna click on it. And I just did
[00:12:24] a video this morning about the top trends of YouTube in 2024. If you are keyword stuffing or your just trying to get keywords in your title, is your audience gonna be intrigued to click on that video?
[00:12:35] Or if you said, three ways to get people to watch more podcasts, something like that. Instead of just how to watch more podcasts in 2024. That's super boring.
[00:12:44] While that may be SEO optimize, when that goes up alongside of all the other options that they have to pick from, what about that title is gonna make them say, oh, I have fomo if I don't watch this, like, I need to watch this.
[00:12:56] I'm curious. And so. You still have to create like [00:13:00] these headline titles for
[00:13:01] YouTube if you want people to click on it, not just throwing SEO words in it. Because when you upload your YouTube video, YouTube already scans it and knows what you're saying, so you could have no keywords in your title, and YouTube will still know where to put it.
[00:13:16] You need to think about your title as a headline. How are we gonna get my audience to click on this versus all the other options that they have.
[00:13:25] Caroline: Okay. I love that so much.
[00:13:26]
[00:13:26] Caroline: [00:14:00] Okay, before we just get into the weeds, 'cause I know that I can get lost in them, what are some tips you have? Okay, so let's say. I'm a podcaster. I've had a podcast for a while that supports my business and, and I have a whole strategy around that, but I really wanna get into YouTube and have YouTube as well.
[00:14:47] What are some tips you have, so I know we just kind of talked about like not just posting the podcast episode, but do you recommend like also creating separate content
[00:14:58] for YouTube in addition to [00:15:00] the podcast episodes?
[00:15:02] Trena: I think if you wanna have a podcast channel, have a podcast channel.
[00:15:07] I think, again, think. Through the expectation of your audience. If they are going to find you through a podcast on YouTube and they realize your channel has podcast content and that's what they're into, they're gonna subscribe and that's what they're going to expect. If you have a regular YouTube channel, like a long form form, video content, and long form, I mean like five minutes or more, and they subscribe for that, that's what they're going to expect. It's when you start mixing the type of content. Your audience needs to feel they know what they're getting outta your channel. And with me, I thought about a podcast on YouTube. I even, I put one on my channel years ago, like 2021,
[00:15:49] and it's a different audience, so it didn't
[00:15:52] work well on my channel. But if I want to start a video podcast, I would start a separate channel specific for my podcast so that my audience knows, [00:16:00] oh, this is a podcast channel.
[00:16:02] Caroline: Oh, interesting. That also brings up a really good point of like knowing your audiences on the different platforms. You know, as you were talking about titles and everything, I was also kind of thinking in my brain about how that relates to Pinterest. You know, when we're posting pins about our podcast episode, we don't use the same title.
[00:16:21] As the podcast episode, like there's a whole different
[00:16:24] strategy for that and so I can see how like, this is the same thing. I think when we try to take audiences and replicate them on different platforms and expect them to behave the same is where we run into frustration and you know, you need to make that connection.
[00:16:40] People listen to podcasts because they like to listen to podcasts.
[00:16:43] People watch YouTube videos because they want to see something.
[00:16:46] And so I think there's a real difference in audience behavior there. And I hadn't really like made that correlation until this moment when we were talking.
[00:16:55] Trena: Yeah, and I think going back to the whole. I think you said audiogram or [00:17:00] when
[00:17:00] people put a slide up in a video, we need to remember when people are listening to your podcast, they are not hold hostage, but they're usually doing something right. You have a captive audience. They're cleaning the house, they're commuting.
[00:17:13] They're
[00:17:13] not distracted by other podcasts, but when you put a podcast on YouTube, there is a list of videos that YouTube is gonna recommend because they don't want you to get bored and leave the platform. So they're
[00:17:25] gonna put other options for them right beside your video. So the second they get bored with your podcast because it's a still image, and they're like, this is boring, they're gonna
[00:17:34] go to another video. And so that's again why we have to think about creating the content for the platform. We're putting it on.
[00:17:41] Caroline: Yeah. That's such a good tip. That was also something I learned in your workshop was about the recommended videos. I don't know why it never occurred to me that that's, you know, exactly why they're there is to
[00:17:52] keep you there. It's so different from podcast. I think Apple is going to start introducing something similar.
[00:17:58] Or they're gonna start [00:18:00] recommending episodes, but that's never really been done on podcast apps before.
[00:18:04] And so, as I've been starting to post videos, uh, 'cause you inspired me, um, as I've been starting to post videos, I'm like thinking about that and how it relates to what pops up on the side and all of those things.
[00:18:17] So that's, that's
[00:18:18] a really good point you brought up. Okay. So let's say we've listened to this episode. We're like, okay, I hear all the things you're saying. I still want to be on YouTube. What are some tips you have for just getting started and weaving that into your content strategy?
[00:18:34] Trena: Yeah, I mean. I love a podcast as much as the next person, but we need to be planning our content for YouTube, right? Like we said, podcast is audio. You have a captive audience, but when you take that content over to YouTube, we've now gotta make it visually pleasing and engaging, even if you, so again, if you think about. , new Heights podcast that we watch,
[00:18:58] they've got both [00:19:00] guys on the screen or they've got one guy, or they've got the other, they're switching angles. If they're talking about something, they're showing the clip that they're talking about. So they're making it visually pleasing and I mean, they aren't, they have people doing
[00:19:12] it, but you need to think about how can I make this visually pleasing because there's all those other options that they could click over to, whereas they wouldn't have if they were being held captive. As an audio podcast. So I would just think through, you know, how would my content be different on YouTube to keep people watching? And I don't think, you know, you need to wait till you figure that out. You can put content on YouTube and you can look at your metrics. You can look at your analytics and see, one of the biggest metrics I look at is audience retention.
[00:19:47] YouTube will tell you
[00:19:48] how long people are actually watching your video, and if you realize. Yikes. 80% of people leave my video within the first minute. I've gotta figure out a better way of doing this. I can't just record myself [00:20:00] talking to screen and slapping it up because I'm losing 80% of people.
[00:20:04] Um, you also need to think about your content again and package it for YouTube. And I think what a lot of people do wrong is they create their content, then they try to. F reverse engineer it for YouTube. So you're
[00:20:20] basically putting like a square peg in a round hole. Whereas when I teach YouTube, before you even create any content, I tell my clients to come up with a title and a thumbnail first, because again, if they're not clicking on the title and thumbnail, they're not ever gonna see your content. So if you can't come up with a good title and a good thumbnail concept, we need to reevaluate the content we are talking about to come up with a title and thumbnail that we know our audience will click on. Otherwise, again, doesn't matter how great our content is. Doesn't matter how professionally edited our content is, if
[00:20:52] that title and thumbnail doesn't get people to click, it's just gonna disappear.
[00:20:56] Caroline: Yeah. Do you recommend, like when [00:21:00] you're posting a video on YouTube, like, can I talk about my podcast and. Get people to listen to my podcast that way or, 'cause I know, like I know we're gonna tell people to do something after they listen to the video.
[00:21:14] Right. Or after they watch the video. Do you think that's a good way to get more listeners for your podcast?
[00:21:19] Or do you
[00:21:19] feel like it's better served for other funnels?
[00:21:22] Trena: I think you absolutely can, but you also have to balance what YouTube wants from you and your business. So in the tactics that I teach, I teach about creating a series of four to five videos, and the idea is you get them. Into a series, and the goal of the first four videos is to get them to watch that next video and then by the time they get to the fifth video, giving them a call to action off of the platform.
[00:21:47] Whether that's to apply to work with you, get your lead magnet, go watch your podcast. I think that is how you're gonna best balance YouTube wanting to push your content, because YouTube will promote your content for totally free. YouTube [00:22:00] will recommend your content, but you have to make them happy. And if at the end of every single video you're telling people to go listen to your podcast and you're ending watch time, every single video again. Doesn't matter if people click on it, people watch it to the end, but YouTube says, oh, every time they watch this channels videos, they leave YouTube. They're gonna still bury it. Because the goal of YouTube is to keep people on the YouTube platform. So you do have to be strategic when you are placing that call to action. I do organically in my videos if. I'm talking about like this morning, I did a video about the top trends for YouTube in 2024, and I talked about, making a plan and I say. I am walking through why you need a plan, and I say, if you're not sure how you're gonna build a plan, I actually walk through that process in my paid workshop.
[00:22:49] If you're interested in grabbing a seat in the next live one, you can hear, but it's just like a really micro call to action where it organically fits in that I
[00:22:57] mention it. And then the next call [00:23:00] to action at the end of the video is like, if you don't think you have the time to incorporate YouTube into your business, click this video next where I'm gonna show you how you can start finding the time. To use YouTube in your business, and so they go to the next video.
[00:23:14] Caroline: Okay. I love that strategy so much that you teach, uh, about doing series that I had never even thought about that. And then when I started thinking about it and thinking about your videos and how I've gone through your videos on YouTube, I was like, oh, that really works. Because
[00:23:29] I was like, oh, next video.
[00:23:30] Oh, next
[00:23:31] video. So that's really smart.
[00:23:33] Trena: And you're feeding the algorithm what at once. But you are warming every time somebody watches a video of yours, you're making them warmer and warmer and warmer, and so they're gonna be more likely to convert. I, I tell this story a lot. One time my family and I had the flu one weekend and somebody reached out on me on Instagram.
[00:23:50] I was like, I just binge watched like 20 of your videos. How do I work with you? Like, she had never seen anything of mine before. She didn't even wanna get on a call. She's just like, I wanna book it. [00:24:00] How do I do it? And.
[00:24:01] Caroline: Yeah.
[00:24:01] Trena: Like we were sick, literally sick, and because I have automation set up, I was able to send her to the contract and because of her binge watching those 20 videos, she became a client for over 18 months and generated
[00:24:13] probably over $40,000 revenue in my business just watching my YouTube videos.
[00:24:19] Caroline: Yeah. And that really is the power of long form content. You mentioned that you've tried TikTok, you didn't love it. You tried. I feel the same way. Like I've tried TikTok, tried Instagram. Where I get the most value is in my podcast. And that's why like I even started thinking about YouTube because I'm like, I can see how that would be incredibly valuable for people to see and, and for warming them.
[00:24:42] And I think that's something that, you know, we both have talked about as well is like knowing at which stage your audience is and, and you know, that's important with podcast strategy and so. I imagine that that's also really important with YouTube is, you don't wanna just be posting videos, at the beginning [00:25:00] of the journey or the end.
[00:25:01] Like you wanna catch those people right, right in the middle there. And
[00:25:04] so I think that was something too that you had mentioned either on your Instagram, I can't even remember where you
[00:25:09] said that, but
[00:25:11] Trena: Yeah. So the idea is if you're creating like very beginner content, that's who you're going to attract. And what
[00:25:17] tends to happen, and this happened on my channel in the beginning too, is you attract people who come for an answer and then leave. Like they don't care who you are, they just want an answer.
[00:25:28] They even scrub the video to the point where you answer and then they leave. Also beginner content is the most saturated content on YouTube because beginner content is the easiest to make, whereas you're talking about more advanced problems that your audience is having. So for me it's like how to read your analytics, uh, how to
[00:25:47] edit your YouTube videos, like people who are actually doing it, not just how to set up a
[00:25:52] YouTube channel.
[00:25:53] My. Yeah, my audience is already pass it. Or like they can go Google it. They understand, they can go Google it.
[00:25:59] And [00:26:00] so when you do create just beginner content, you build a, what I've heard called a utility channel. People come for
[00:26:06] what they want and leave. And so the majority of your views come from non-subscribers and you're not gonna build a community with non-subscribers.
[00:26:15] Caroline: Yeah. That is so, so smart. Oh my gosh. I feel like we could talk about this for a whole hour, but I know that you have some amazing resources and so I would love for you to just share
[00:26:25] how everyone can connect with you. And again, like I took your workshop, I highly recommend, everything that you're, you're teaching.
[00:26:32] It aligns so much with how I talk about podcasts.
[00:26:37] But in a way that is unique to YouTube because YouTube is so different. And so I just really wanna encourage anyone who's listening, if you're a podcaster and you wanna start a YouTube channel or you have one, definitely go dive into what Trina talks about because they are very different beasts.
[00:26:52] And that's something that I don't think I fully understood, just because of the way that podcasters were talking about YouTube. So I'm just really [00:27:00] glad that, I connected with you. And so, yeah, so share
[00:27:02] how people can connect and.
[00:27:04] Definitely go watch her videos.
[00:27:06] Trena: Yeah, so the workshop, is profit purview, trina little.com/ppv. It's about a two hour workshop, and as of recording this, they are live, so it is live with me. We hosted about every other week-ish, and I do a live q and a at the end as well, so that I can answer. Real time questions specific to you and your niche and your problem. And then of course, my YouTube channel full of, I don't even know how many hundreds of videos, but, trina little.com/youtube was where all my content is.
[00:27:38] Caroline: Awesome. We'll link to all of that in the show notes, and thank you so much again.
[00:27:42] Trena: Yes, absolutely. Thank you.
[00:27:44] I hope that this episode really helped you understand a little bit more about how YouTube works and how we should, and shouldn't use it for our podcast. I know for me coming up with a strategy that works specifically for me, my business and my [00:28:00] podcast is really, really important. And this is something I'm going to be diving into this year. And I will share more about it as I work on it. Of course, I highly recommend you take Trina's workshop.
[00:28:11] And if you need more support with your podcasts. I really encourage you to come join the strategize and shine membership. This is where you can get all kinds of tutorials templates. And support that you need to work on your podcast, but also work on your business. Have a great week and I'll be back with another episode soon.
