Why No One’s Watching Your Church’s YouTube Videos?
Fifteen years ago, making even a simple marketing video was a somewhat complicated endeavor. Then, two things happened that changed everything:
First, YouTube was created. Suddenly, a platform existed that made it incredibly easy to share a video with the world.
Second, the smartphone was invented. Within the span of just a few short years, almost everyone was carrying around a relatively high-quality video camera in their pocket. Now, anyone can create and share a video in a matter of minutes.
The explosion of video represents a huge opportunity for churches. If you want to connect with more people, expand your reach into the community, and ultimately generate real growth, you should be using video marketing. Consider these YouTube statistics from a recent Hootsuite Blog Post:
74% of adults in the U.S. use YouTube.
That’s more than Facebook (which reaches 68% of American adults). And it’s almost twice as much as the next runner-up, Instagram (40%). According to Pew Research, YouTube is the most popular online platform in America.
94.5% of OTT watchers in the U.S. are watching YouTube.
OTT stands for “Over-the-top” and it refers to streaming services watched on a TV. Almost all Americans who watch streaming videos on their TVs are watching YouTube. YouTube is the most-used digital video platform in the United States. Netflix comes in second at 74.9%. In March, YouTube watch time on TVs increased 80% year-over-year.
People watch more than a billion hours of video on YouTube every day.
This statistic blows me away because anything in the billions is mind blowing.
Viewers aged 18 and over spend 41.9 minutes on YouTube daily, on average.
And almost 41% of that viewing time is consumed on a mobile device. But actually, the four quarters starting in Q4 2019 thru Q3 2020 saw mobile viewing decreasing and desktop/laptop viewing increasing. What does this mean? People were watching while they were working, probably quarantined at home!
But for many pastors and churches, the thought of doing video marketing and YouTube is intimidating. They don’t know where to start and what best practices to follow. And so, they never get started with video marketing. They don’t take advantage of the enormous opportunity that video presents them. Or, you are posting your worship services or sermon videos but no one is watching them?
If you are asking the question, “why is YouTube not working for my church?” Here is the answer: you are not working YouTube correctly!
YouTube is more than a social media platform, it’s a resource where millions of people spend billions of hours a day looking for answers to their questions. Here are three ideas to steer you in the right direction for better YouTube results…
Keep it Simple.
One of the biggest reasons people don’t get started with YouTube marketing is that they overthink the video creation piece. They think they need to have a fancy script, professional lighting, and an ultra-high-quality camera. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is that these days, people don’t expect videos to be incredibly polished or produced professionally. To get started creating YuTube videos, keep it really simple. Just use your smartphone or computer. The key is to just start sharing video.
If it helps, think of your YouTube videos more like having a conversation than giving a presentation or delivering a sermon. Sharing videos online is somewhat like having a conversation with a group of friends. It doesn’t have to be overly formal or nicely wrapped. Just talk to the camera like you would talk to another person.
Deliver Authentic Value to Your Audience.
Your goal is to give something valuable to the person who watches your videos. To help them achieve their goals and fulfill their desires. The reason anyone will watch your video is because they are searching for the answer to a question, and your video popped up as an option (we will talk in the next point about how this happens).
How do you create content for your video that delivers value you ask?
Try to answer commonly asked questions by your audience.
Address their pain points.
Teach your audience how to do something
Give expert advice or insight.
Provide “aha” moments.
To be truly relevant to your audience with your videos, ask yourself: What is my audience struggling with now? What do they need to know to ________? What important questions are they asking you or others? What problems are they trying to solve? What one thing would make a difference in their lives?
If you are struggling with what topics to cover, review your previous content to see what resonated well with your audience. Was there a social media post that created a lot of traffic or did you write a blog post that generated more comments than usual? If all else fails, simply ask your audience directly what are the issues they are struggling with and would like resources to help them!
Make Your Videos Searchable (Thumbnails, Titles, and Captions)
YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet only behind its parent company, Google. So in order for your videos to be found by the people you want to reach, you need to title and describe your videos appropriately and create an attractive thumbnail for the video.
The good news is that you pastors are creating new content every week in your sermon and many of you are capturing them on video. The bad news is that when you upload them to your YouTube channel, your video intern titles it “Mark’s Sermon on January 9, 2022.” Or you use the clever title of the sermon series you used for graphics on the bulletin and it’s a word or phrase that has multiple contexts and requires explanation.
The better way to title your video so it can be found is to find the felt need or lesson in the sermon content. For example, let’s say you are preaching on Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. A searchable title could be “How Jesus Deals with Grief?” Jesus and grief are two keywords that are searched regularly. Imagine the impact your sermon would have on a person that finds it on YouTube because they are dealing with a death or dire diagnosis! Also, each video has a description box and tag list, use keywords from your sermon to describe and tag your video.
More than likely when your video pops up for a search request, it will appear with several other video selections. What will entice the searcher to click your video? If you use attractive, captivating thumbnails, people are much more likely to click on your videos and watch them.
Thumbnails are the picture that people see before they click on your video and start watching it. A good thumbnail has an interesting picture that stands out with text overlaying the picture that will draw people in for a closer look. The online design software Canva makes it really simple to create quality thumbnails.
Finally, it’s a good idea to add captions to your videos. Why? Because many people watch videos without the sound turned on. YouTube uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically create captions for your video. However, the transcript isn’t perfect, and you need to manually go through it and make corrections.
Another option is to use a transcription service, such as Rev or Otter.ai, to create transcriptions of your videos and then upload them to the platform. The cost of using these services depends on the length of your video.
These tips will help you get started or restarted on the right foot with YouTube. But if you really don’t have time but would like to leverage the power of video marketing on YouTube, leave a comment or send me an email (mark@churchcmo.com) and I will be happy to help you explore some solutions for your church or organization.