How to Make YouTube Work for You with Jamar Diggs

Drea [00:00:00]:
One of my favorite ways to create content is through video. Y' all know I got my start on YouTube and it's one of my biggest regrets in my business is not focusing on YouTube earlier in my business. That's why I'm really excited to have Jamar Diggs on the show today to Talk all about YouTube, but really low lift marketing strategies. The kind of marketing where you said it and you can forget it. I love that journey for us. We're going to get into it, but first a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show. I use it to edit not only the audio in the video, it is like Chef's kiss.

Drea [00:00:35]:
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Drea [00:01:03]:
I pick the best one and away I go. Saves me so much time. If you want to get on the Riverside train, check it out today, the links in the show notes and make sure to use my code DREA D R E A at checkout to get 15% off your membership. Jamar, welcome to the show. Welcome back to the show.

Jamar Diggs [00:01:22]:
Hello. Is so, so great to be back. I feel like I'm at home already.

Drea [00:01:27]:
I love it, honestly. I just love talking to you. So I know this is going to be a fun episode, but for people listening, I want to talk about, like, just jump right into YouTube because it is having a moment. It feels like people are circling back to it. Whereas, you know, short form really had its heyday. Now a lot of people want the long form, they want the YouTube videos, they want to do the deep dives. What's your take on all that?

Jamar Diggs [00:01:51]:
Oh, I love it. I think that we're starting to realize that short form should not be the only type of content that we focus all of our energy into. Because there's something in long form video that still drives connection. Like you just need one long form piece of video to make up for 30 short form videos to get the same impact for someone to kind of like make an action. I feel sometimes, and I think that there's a, a shift of us to realize we need both. They shouldn't just be, you know, just all in on Like a short form platform like TikTok and then that's it, right?

Drea [00:02:30]:
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean, especially with something like YouTube shorts, where it's like, it's clear that short form has a role here, but the long form is where it's at. One of the things that I love about what you do and I follow you on threads mostly. Okay. And your Instagram, but you talk a lot about low lift marketing. So if someone's new to, like, this concept, can you explain it to them.

Jamar Diggs [00:02:52]:
Out of all honesty? It's how you should feel when you are, like, marketing at their highest level. Like at the CEO level of your business. Really. The basic explanation is when you have a really good, sustainable system, to you, marketing does feel very easy because you are not working as hard as what you normally do. Now, does that mean that getting there is easy? No, it takes work. Right. But after you do that work, oh my gosh, marketing becomes easy. Visibility becomes so much easier to you to where you feel like marketing is this lower lift so that you can focus on doing things that you actually really like or just spending time with your family, you know, taking time off because people are finding you.

Jamar Diggs [00:03:44]:
They are asking you to be speaking inside their group program. They're asking you to do things. You don't have to always be the person that is kind of pushing for something. You don't always have the pitch yourself. Sometimes you get to have things come to you as just like one of the examples when it comes to lowliff marketing.

Drea [00:04:04]:
Yeah. You know, I realized this about myself lately with all of my friends too. Like, in my personal life, I'm the type of person who, like, I like to be friended. I don't usually, like, seek out other people. And I've noticed this about almost everything else that I do when I have to ask for it. Sometimes I just, I don't know, it just doesn't feel good. So that's what I like about YouTube and even like the way the social media algorithms are changing today. It helps people find me.

Drea [00:04:31]:
So it makes me feel less like I'm, you know, like desperate energy and more like, you know, I'm here if you need me. Thank you for finding this video. If you found it helpful, great. You know what I mean? So I love that. So talk to me a little bit about how do we do that technically? Like, how do we set ourselves up for success on YouTube so that people can find us?

Jamar Diggs [00:04:53]:
Well, it really just comes back down to you understanding who your ideal clients are. Right. So when it Comes down to having YouTube be more low lift. It's low lift because it's getting you recognized by the right people without you even having to try. And so the right people needs to be identified first. And I know that sounds so basic. And everyone's probably rolling their eyes like, yeah, we, we're going to do a whole nother chart about what, what soda flavor my idol client likes, what. No, I'm not saying that soda because you know, you know what I'm talking about.

Jamar Diggs [00:05:30]:
But the. But what I mean is what are you selling right now? And are you keeping that at the forefront of your mind when you are creating content? So you almost have to reverse engineer almost of like, what is the end goal of when someone watches a YouTube video? Does it resonate? Does it make sense? Is it connected to what you do? Right? Or is it like a degree of separation to where it will make sense? Like it kind of fits inside the ecosystem that you're building. And so really coming back from knowing what your offer is and then what is like that conversion point or like that lead magnet, what is the thing that you are going to have that is going to get them off of YouTube and into your marketing ecosystem, into your sales funnels and then from there, what complements that lead magnet? So you see how we're kind of working backwards a little bit more to make it a little bit more low lift and to where we can get in front of the right people, the right people who can be easily qualified, that they are kind of like a good fit for at least your expertise and like what you do because everything is structured around the end in mind.

Drea [00:06:53]:
Yeah, yeah, I like that starting with the end in mind. And you know, I, I also hate those questions for like, think about your, you know, what's hide episode of flavor. But I think what one of the things that I've been talking to one of my friends about is really focusing in on what people need right now instead of hypothesizing what they need in like three years. And I think we get stuck. It's like the cursive and the expert, right? Like, we know too much. And so when we're going to create content, create videos, we end up creating the thing that we think they need instead of the thing that they think they need. And I feel like that's really where the YouTube strategy comes into play because we got to get into the brains of like, what. What are they searching for? Not do we.

Drea [00:07:39]:
Not what do we think they need?

Jamar Diggs [00:07:41]:
I'm going to tell you this Quick thing, because you are so right at this. There are times where like when people are like first entering into my, my YouTube membership to where they think that there's topics that they just are just so passionate about, right? They're like, they're like, I want to do this video. And I'm like, cool. And it's like not as relevant as what, as what they think it is. And sometimes they go out and do the video, right? But, and then shocker, it does not do what it's supposed to do. And then when it's time for me to review the channel or like the strategy, I'm like, oh, all these videos that you're so passionate about are literally you accidentally mentoring people who are less experienced than you. You just literally just, you're just teaching them what you know. Because the only people that are interested in that kind of content are people that are just like you, you or are two steps behind you.

Jamar Diggs [00:08:44]:
And so you have to be very careful about what kind of content you are creating because you could be just nerding out with other people. Like you and your clients don't really care about that. They want to know how can you help them, right? Like if you are a website designer, a client does not give up about fonts. They do not give a damn about fonts. I don't give a damn. What is your favorite font, what font family you hate People using. That is not the vibe that they are trying to go for. I'm saying they don't care about that.

Jamar Diggs [00:09:22]:
And so you don't want to, you don't want to confuse things that you're passionate about as thought leadership when it's really just you mentoring by accident.

Drea [00:09:32]:
Oh yes. Okay, so using the web designer example, then what would you tell a web designer to create content wise, skip the fonts, but do this well.

Jamar Diggs [00:09:43]:
So when we think about what is the reason why someone would contact a web designer for like website design is one they probably want to understand. How should I be thinking about sales page and making them high converting? I should be thinking about like what are some ways for me, like what are some of these things that I am missing out on by not leveraging my website? What is my like what needs to go up onto my about page? What are the key things that I need to have up on my website that are money making components, things that are necessary in order to drive the needle to get someone, you know, off of Google, whatever and into your wallet. Well into their wallet. I mean, right? So it could look like just like a Few videos around how to create a high converting sales page mistakes that people make whenever they are launching their new course. Right. Because it ties back to like what is like the web strategy. Right. And so you find yourself less in the how to do this 1, 2, 3 and more into the thought leader.

Jamar Diggs [00:10:54]:
The person that is the expert in something and can be the partner for you. It's just a tweak in how you talk about things. But sometimes experts are too close to the material that they need an outside person to help them identify those things.

Drea [00:11:12]:
Yeah, I love this and I think that that's why we need to work with experts like you because it really helps people understand. You know, here's how you can take all the knowledge that you have and actually use it to build your business. So I'm curious since you are your own case study, what are you doing? Like what, what are the hacks, the tricks, the tips that you're doing for your YouTube channel?

Jamar Diggs [00:11:36]:
I am doing live streams.

Drea [00:11:39]:
Ooh, tell me more.

Jamar Diggs [00:11:41]:
I did a YouTube live challenge inside of the lowlife club but then I went out in surgery so I was out and so I didn't do the live stream challenge but everyone else did. And so when I came back I did it and, and it's been really, really fun because it's been a great way to, to re engage your built in audiences. And so a lot of people think that, a lot of people think that YouTube is a long game and that's the only way. And yes, YouTube can be a long game if you make it that way. But there are certain things that you can do to expedite that. And one of the easiest ways is to go live like and the goal with live sometimes is like yes, you want that live to like last forever, but also you want to activate your built in audiences. What amazing opportunity is it to attract your built in icons from your feds account, Instagram, email list, whatever. Right.

Jamar Diggs [00:12:44]:
People who probably aren't even subscribed to your YouTube channel yet, they know you do some kind of YouTube thing maybe or. But they haven't been forced there yet. Right. What a great forcing function it is to gather your built in audience for a, like this, this like live training of some sort for them to engage with you ask questions and you give that real time feedback. It really just kind of repositions you as the expert or just like that, that go to person in their mind now. Right. So I love lives because they kind of keep you top of mind. They kind of refresh like oh yeah, jamar Yes, I remember him.

Jamar Diggs [00:13:30]:
Right. You know, it just kind of helps you do that. And there's certain ways for you to monetize that a little bit more faster if you want. And there's just so much that you could do. Think about the Home Shopping Network. My God. You know what I'm saying? Live streams is not dead. Well, I don't know.

Jamar Diggs [00:13:47]:
I think one of those places shut down, but, like. But the live strategy is still. It still works, and I think there's something to it. So that's really what I'm doing. Capitalizing off on right now for YouTube.

Drea [00:14:01]:
Oh, interesting. You know, I have this whole idea for a live monthly live that I want to do that. You are inspiring. So you're hearing it now on the podcast. Y' all check out my YouTube channel. Okay, so you mentioned monetization, so I have to pick up that little nugget that you dropped. Tell me more about the ways that you can monetize. Because obviously, as a business owner, we're selling our stuff, but what else can we do?

Jamar Diggs [00:14:24]:
Yeah, so I am strictly monetized without YouTube, like YouTube monetization without. In the YouTube Partner Program. But there's so many different ways for you to. A lot of people think that they just have to talk about their offer over and over, over, and just kind of hit people upside the head with it. But there's different angles that you could do. Like, there's probably different ways that you could get people to your offer. And what I do is I have a leap magnet, right? And that leap magnet has a tripwire on it. So when people come over from YouTube, they get exposed to me, they buy from me.

Jamar Diggs [00:15:04]:
They become. Even if it's $27, they become a more engaged user that. That. That becomes easy to sell to. For my program now, which has happened many times, when I go live, I'm selling. When I go live, honey, I don't just be up there teaching and talking. You know what I'm saying? I didn't make money. And so it's just like, you have to really just think about the opportunities that you have and rock with it.

Jamar Diggs [00:15:37]:
And one of the easiest ways is through lives, obviously, do your videos, but also not just mentioning your offer, but using the tools, using the things that you are activating your people with. Give them a reason to get that tripwire. Give them a reason. Like, don't just give them the lead magnet. Have it. Go to a thank you page that has something else of value that they could. Could get from you. Because this is the thing that people mess up on and then they start thinking, oh, my God, no one's.

Jamar Diggs [00:16:11]:
No one's buying anything. YouTube's not working for me. And it's like, no, you ain't working YouTube, honey. That is the problem here. You ain't working hard enough for YouTube. So. Because. Because you could make a hundred views shake, okay? I have made 100 views.

Jamar Diggs [00:16:27]:
I've had. I made some shake with, with. With 100 views, honey. Okay? And I just. I just think that the way that we perceive things needs to be a little bit different. Because when you are using YouTube, you are just thinking about the video. The video is just the medium. That's not the end all, be all.

Jamar Diggs [00:16:50]:
That's where people forget they put. They just keep thinking about the damn video. Yes, the video is important, but it's. It's how you get found. But what you do, what you say in the video and what you direct them to is just as important. And that's where the. The action starts. A lot of people just start there, and then they.

Jamar Diggs [00:17:10]:
They don't talk about their call to action until the last 20 seconds of the video. And then they. And then they. People opt into their email list, they send them a bunch of emails and. And they don't talk about nothing about their offer. So it's a lot of human error, mistakes that happen along the way. YouTube is serving people to you every single day. You're just not putting out your net.

Jamar Diggs [00:17:36]:
And I think that's the issue here. That's what starts sounding kind of deflating to people sometimes is like, I want them to make sure that they understand the goal is to get people to act upon your video, not just watch it, not just, like, click on it. The goal is to ask, well, what do you need to say in that video to make it so that they are empowered to take action? And the action is to download your lead magnet. Okay. And. And then from there, how are you getting your offer in front of people? And like, what are you selling? What are. What are the options? And do they make sense for this type of view of this type of viewer?

Drea [00:18:17]:
Yes. Oh, my gosh. My brain is spinning with ideas right now because I am one of those people who puts it at the end of my video. So now I'm like, well, how can I put it at the beginning or earlier in the video? And I feel like it's not that.

Jamar Diggs [00:18:33]:
Yes.

Drea [00:18:36]:
I don't know why I'm making it so hard. Why do we do. Like, why do you think we do this human era thing and put it at the end.

Jamar Diggs [00:18:42]:
It's what we're used to. It's what we're used to. It's what we see influencers do. And because. But. But here's the tea that people don't pick up on. They think the influencers wait till the end. They don't.

Jamar Diggs [00:18:59]:
They be talking about that same brand all throughout the damn video. Okay. You just don't realize it. You just don't realize what's happening. They done sold you two or three, five things without you even realizing it until that one thing popped out for you. So, I mean, that's kind of what I'm thinking. That's kind of what I think about whenever, whenever I say things like this or like whenever I see these human error things happen. It's because we also don't want.

Jamar Diggs [00:19:32]:
We don't want to be salesy. We think that people are going to just. It's the fear of people leaving the video. This fear that we don't even know will happen yet. It's the fear of if I'm talking too long and I'm not getting to the point, they're going to hop off. And that is a fear that content creators that are doing this for entertainment have. We don't really need to have that concern because our expertise is the star. And so if they're going to leave, they were going to already leave anyway.

Jamar Diggs [00:20:13]:
So what I do recommend is naturally no one's not a lot of people are going to watch all of the video. So you're doing yourself a disservice by waiting till the end. And so instead find natural ways to mention the lead magnet. It's free. It's a helpful tool for them. Position it like a helpful tool and not as a sales item. Like that's what, that's. That's the.

Jamar Diggs [00:20:41]:
I think that's the key here. We think that because it's a lead magnet or a freebie and the goal is to. Is to get people to get it so they can buy something. Eventually we start. We put this. So much pressure and this kind of perception of I'm about to sell them this thing that costs $500 and it's like, no, it's literally free.

Drea [00:21:04]:
Yeah.

Jamar Diggs [00:21:05]:
And it actually helps them. It compliments your video. You should tell them to get it because it's going to help them take action. Was going to help them like you more and it's going to help you work with them more.

Drea [00:21:19]:
Yep.

Jamar Diggs [00:21:19]:
And. And I think that we kind of forget that.

Drea [00:21:23]:
Yeah, yeah. You're Right. And I think it's like how we watch YouTube videos. Like I was watching over the shoulder of my niece and nephew, them watching YouTube videos. My nephew watches this guy's videos. He's like a hunter in like the deep south somewhere, hunting animals and fish and all sorts of stuff. And the amount of product placement in this video, I was like amazed. And he watches hours of this man doing whatever, catching catfish or whatever he's doing in the videos.

Drea [00:21:54]:
And so I think it's, it's almost like we have to have that audacity to be like, no, people are. They want to see this. Like they, they want this free lead magnet. They're waiting for us to say something. They're here on this video because they sought out this information. So it is actually our duty to, to give it to them. And I feel like that's the energy that I want to start bringing to my videos. Like, I'm just going to assume that you want this, so I'm going to.

Jamar Diggs [00:22:20]:
Give it to you. Yes, I, I think that is going to be so great. And just say it like I like to. The way that I, that I teach it in the club is say it right after you are going to tell them what they're going to get out of the video. So I have this kind of format called the hit intro to where you hook them, you induce yourself and you tell them what the transformation is. What are they going to get out of the video. And then after that go ahead and talk about your freebie. Go ahead and say, oh, and well, however way you want to say it, if it like aligns, you could say, if you want all of like these tips ahead of time, I have a free guide that walks through all the stuff that I'm going to talk about today, but in much, but in much more detail.

Jamar Diggs [00:23:10]:
Download that. Or it could just be something else. Right. It doesn't have the. We just think too, too hard about it. There's so many ways that you can position your lead magnet and there's. And whenever I'm talking to my members on like intensives, they'll be like, how do I do this? And I literally come out of nowhere with like a connection of how I can like connect it. And so you just gotta think about how does it work? How does this play a role in whatever you're teaching right now?

Drea [00:23:40]:
Yeah, I love that so much. Okay, so last question I have for you is one response that I get a lot when it comes to platforms like YouTube, which is that some people say YouTube is slow to convert. What do you say about that?

Jamar Diggs [00:23:55]:
I say not all the time. Not all the time. And like I said before, it all depends on how you're working it. If you're looking at just views and that's it, sure, YouTube could possibly be like a little bit slower, but if we're looking at it through like how many people that we could get onto our, our email list in our sales funnels, it, it doesn't have to be that slow at all. You could make a sale from your first YouTube video if it's, if it's positioned correctly. And that first sale may not be your high ticket program, but it may be the, the thing to be to start the process and that happens so much and then that becomes a catalyst. I've had times where people have found me on YouTube, watch these videos, downloaded the lead magnet, bought the tripwire, and then in 30 days became clients. And that's just because I have things set up, I have my sales funnel set up.

Jamar Diggs [00:25:05]:
And that's the thing here. If you're getting people coming, there's like a, there's like a few sections that you have to think about. Like you ever know, I don't know if you've ever talked to like a recruiter or anything, but they say like when you get the job, when you're looking for a job, there's like, there's goals, there's like different goals in mind. So when you are applying for a position, the goal of your resume is to get the call. Okay. When you get the call, your goal is to check all the boxes that are like the must haves. Like so, so you like, like you like mention all those things that you have to get to help them see that you fit inside this role. And so, but, and so you don't have to do everything in the first step.

Jamar Diggs [00:25:56]:
The first step is just make the resume good enough so that it goes through the box and make it look like you check all the boxes to get the call. And then, oh yeah, and then I missed the phone. There's like so many different things, but the goal here is your video needs to do the job of getting them to do, to go to the lead magnet. The lead magnet is supposed to give them that quick win to make them want to see you as authority. Get that quick win, build that trust. And then the emails and the other touch points that you have is supposed to help validate their internal decision that the next step to work with you is right now. So that's kind of how I look at it. It's like just, it's through steps.

Jamar Diggs [00:26:48]:
It's not like this one video is going to take off and make me all this money. It's like, no, it's just like one of the steps. Is YouTube giving you more email subscribers? Yes or no? If not, fix the content strategy, right? If YouTube is giving you more email subscribers but none of them are buying anything, honey, it's not YouTube. That's you. I'm saying, so what is happening in that customer journey that is the disconnect are you talking about? Are you saying the wrong things? Is the messaging off? Right. And so maybe you do have the tweak what you say up on YouTube so that it aligns with like your sales emails or vice versa. So I know that was a very long winded answer, but it really can be fast. You just have to be strategic about it and not just, just throw anything up up there.

Drea [00:27:46]:
Yes. No, I love it. I'm over here taking notes. I love it. I love it. And for everyone who's listening and they want like more Jamar's brain in their business, I know you have a bunch of lead magnets. Which one do you think we should share with our listeners today?

Jamar Diggs [00:28:00]:
Go ahead and get the 90 minute quickstart guide. That's going to give you everything to set up your channel the right way. Even if you have a channel already, you're going to, you're going to learn some things that help you kind of take it to the next level. That's going to be what I recommend, 110%.

Drea [00:28:21]:
Yes. Quick start guide. I'm putting this in the show notes right now, y'.

Jamar Diggs [00:28:24]:
All.

Drea [00:28:24]:
You can find it@onlinedrea.com 377 Jamar, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Jamar Diggs [00:28:32]:
Thank you for having me.

Drea [00:28:33]:
And thank you, dear listener, for tuning in to another episode of the podcast. Hey, coming up, I'm doing my Instagram Bootcamp October 13th through 17th and Y', all, it's going to be live streamed on YouTube this year, so join me there. You can also sign up@onlinedrea.com Bootcamp to get the links and all the reminders. I'll see you there. Bye for now.