In my last post, I talked about my 5 step youtube marketing strategy that you can use to build a fanbase on youtube and turn those fans into paying customers.
In this post, I want to dive deeper into the first and the most important step of that strategy – creating a master plan.
Why do you need to create a plan?
Why don’t you just start recording and publishing videos on your Youtube channel?
The number one reason you need to create a plan is so that you achieve the ultimate goal of the strategy, which is to make enough money from your Youtube channel to do your music full-time.
As the old saying goes, failure to plan is planning to fail, and without proper planning, the odds of you achieving this goal are slim to none.
I see a plan as a GPS or Satnav. I don’t know about you but before I drive to an unknown destination, I first off enter the address on my GPS and it shows me the best route to get there.
Your master plan should do exactly the same for you on your Youtube journey.
So, how do you create a plan for your Youtube strategy?
The good news is that creating a plan for your youtube journey doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated.
You just need to get these 8 things right.
- Set your money goals
- Define your artist brand
- Define the problem you solve
- Define your ideal fan
- Design your Youtube channel
- Create a content plan
- Decide how you’re going to monetize your fanbase
- Decide how you’re going to promote your content
Let’s dive deeper into each of these, starting with the first
Step 1: Set your money goals
The whole point of this Youtube strategy is to be able to make enough money from your Youtube channel to do music full-time, but what exactly does that mean?
How much money would you need to make every month from your channel to quit your full-time job and focus on your music?
It’s a super important question and one that only you can answer.
I have asked this question to all the artists I feature on my podcast and the answer I get is quite similar.
Most of the guys I talk to would quit their full-time job if they were making a minimum of $3,000 (or the equivalent amount) every month from their music.
So I’d say that’s a good benchmark to set for yourself.
You also want to set a timeframe as well when you set your goals.
Realistically, I’d say making this amount within a three-year period is a very achievable goal.
Step 2: Define your artist brand
The second thing you want to do when you plan for your Youtube channel is to define your artist brand, and by this, I mean to write down certain things about who you are as an artist.
Like your artist name, where you’re from, how you got into music, stuff like that.
This is important to do because you want to share this information with your subscribers as it will help you build a lot of trust with them.
The thing is that people buy from people they trust and since you ultimately want to sell stuff to your subscribers, you should aim to build as much trust with them as possible, and sharing this bit of information will go a long way.
Step 3: Identify the problem you solve as an artist
The third thing you need to when you plan for your Youtube channel is also one of the most important and that is to identify the problem you solve as an artist.
Most independent artists don’t realize this, but the only reason people like your music is because it solves a problem they have.
It might make them feel better when they are down, help them work out in the gym, or simply just help them have a great time at the club.
The same thing applies to your Youtube channel.
If you want to build a loyal fanbase with it, you need to create content that solves the problems that those fans have.
And if you don’t know what that problem is, you’re going to end up creating the wrong kind of content and build the wrong kind of fanbase that won’t like your music or worse, struggle to build any momentum at all.
There are 7 key problems that musicians solve and I’m going to talk more about them in a future post, so make sure you subscribe to the mailing list to get notified when that post comes out.
Step 4: Identify your ideal fan
Identifying your ideal fan is the next thing you do when you plan your Youtube channel, and this is something that a lot of indies struggle with as there are all sorts of music lovers out there.
However, identifying your ideal fan is only difficult when you don’t know what problem you solve.
When you know this, your ideal fan simply becomes anybody that has that problem.
And once you who they are, things like finding them online, how to speak to them, what to say to them to get them to subscribe to your channel and buy from you, and so on, becomes pretty much straightforward
Step 5: Design your Youtube channel
This step of your Youtube plan is all about determining what your Youtube channel will look like when you launch it.
At this stage, you’re going to make important decisions like what type of content to create for your channel.
Are you going to make one type of content or mix thing up?
How many videos would you publish per week? What day would you be releasing your videos? What would be the structure of your videos? What type of call to action would you have at the end of each video?
Stuff like this.
This stage of your youtube plan is super important, and one that you want to put a lot of thought into when you get it done.
Step 6: Create a content plan
Once you’ve designed your channel, the next step of creating your Youtube plan is to create a content plan for your channel.
A content plan is simply a document that shows you all the videos you intend to create on your channel over a period of time.
I like to start with 13 weeks as it gives you a period of three months to test things out and figure out what works best for you.
Creating a content calendar is important because it helps you stay organized and publish consistently on your Youtube channel, which is key to achieving that all-important goal of turning your subscribers into customers.
Step 7: Choose a monetization method
The next step of the youtube planning process is all about deciding how you’re going to make money from your channel.
When it comes to monetization, there are several ways you can do this. It all comes down to your creativity at the end of the end.
However, there are some ways to monetize that work really well for indie artists and I’ve listed six of my favorite below.
- Sell merchandise
- Sell sponsorship packages
- Start a Patreon or membership site
- Sell affiliate products
- Get Ad revenue from your videos
- Get donations from fans
- Sell your services to other artists
- Sell your own products like concert tickets
You could decide to implement all of these on your channel or pick a couple of them and go with that.
Step 8: Decide how you’re going to promote your videos
Finally, the last thing you need to do when you plan your Youtube strategy is to come up with a way to promote every video you publish.
As important as it is to create great videos for your channel, there’s no point in doing so if very few people or no one at all watches it.
So you want to make sure that each video you publish gets as many views as possible.
And there are basically 2 ways to promote your videos – the free method and the paid method.
The free method is all about sharing your videos on your social media channels like your Instagram or Tik Tok, and a percentage of your audience will check them out.
It also involves sharing each video with your mailing list as well. Ideally, you want to remind them about new videos twice a week – once when the video goes live, and a couple of days afterward.
As for the paid method, it’s all about using Youtube’s fantastic advertising platform to promote your videos.
I’ll be talking a whole lot more about this method in future posts so again do make sure you’re subscribed to the mailing list to get notified when they come out.