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Independence Day is tomorrow, but donât antagonize any Brits you see around town. They know whatâs up.
Anyway, Iâm about to take you through the best case study for user experience ever â how YouTube eviscerates every other video platform, and itâs all about smooth UX. Still, there are other angles YouTube uses for mass appeal. Weâll look at those so you can decide which angles you can use to improve / promote your products and services.
Also up today:
- The Knowledge Base (new studies)Â
SelfHelp (getting Biblical)- Facts & Stats (updated email benchmarks)
- Get Hacking (scrub bad reviews)
Letâs hop into the Feature Story.
YouTubeâs Kicking Butt
Somehow, Google has managed not to screw up YouTube, unlike everything the Googsters touch lately.
đ«YouTube has led in time watched among streaming platforms for 15 months running (CNBC).
đ«Over half of YouTube viewing is done on TVs (meaning, not on phone, tablet, laptop).
đ«2nd in total TV use (cable, streaming, etc.) behind only Disney Corpâs 6-headed munster (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, ABC, FX, National Geographics).
đ«1 billion hours watched on TVs daily.
đ«$31.5 billion in global ad revenue (2023) > than Paramount Corporation’s entire revenueâfrom all sources ($29 billion)!
Despite you already knowing YouTube has monstrous mass appeal, those facts are staggering, huh? To me too, and Iâm usually stagger-proof.
And get thisâŠ
Traditional TV is Now a Death Sentence
âGetting a deal with Paramount+ [for example] would be a death sentence for most [YouTube] creators.â
That quote from the CNBC video says more than the billions of dollars in ads and gazillion hours watched weekly.
But how does knowing this help you with marketing or improving your goods and services? Iâll hand you a list of 5 ways below, but my main thought with YouTube is always user experience. Netflixâs UX is pretty great but still lags behind YouTube.Â
Max (HBO) has the best original series but one of the worst user experiences (buffering, not easy to skip ahead or go back). Hulu has similar playback issues and their commercials are painful to watch. Same with Paramount â itâs on the viewer to sit still and not touch the app until the show youâre watching ends or risk losing your place.
YouTube, fast-forwards and rewinds flawlessly. You can skip to certain chapters if the uploader added them. Your history is easy to find. Saving and creating playlists is easy as pie, and the watch-later playlist is a staple that hopefully never goes away.
Wait thereâs more:
- No paywall for the vast majority of YouTube
- You can find whatever you want (more on this below – personalization is a buzzword but is real on YT)
- Can watch endless content in the background (even commercials get played 18 million times like this Nissan ad)
- Shorts are available to watch even when you only have 30 seconds to spare (on subway, waiting room, during a Netflix commercial while holding a second screen)
- Cast to your TV from phone or computer or via TV apps or watch on phone
- Many users mainly listen to YouTube (music, meditation stuff, talk shows, interviews, documentaries, sound weirdness like this)
The user gets the friendliest, most flexible, and easiest-to-use video service imaginable.Â
However, you can decide if thatâs as valuable as the following.
5 More YouTube Insights & Angles You Can Use
#1 Insight: If youâve read over 50 marketing articles this year, then youâve seen the buzzword âpersonalizationâ in 127 of them (that mathâs correct).
Personalization is mostly a buzzword, because personalization is hard to pull off. But YouTube truly can personalize because it has something for everyone on this planet.
Just spend an hour on YT searching for outlandish topics. Theyâll lead you to even more outlandish topics you canât think of on your own. Plus, youâll find YouTubers you never heard of with two or three million subscribers.
YouTube caters to everyone. And does so without lifting a finger. Next angleâŠ
#2 Insight: YouTubeâs the Uber of TV (except profitable)
The company doesnât own any video cameras or sign actors to ridiculous contracts but gets free andâŠ
Insane Amounts of User-Generated Content
Despite how hard it is to make a living creating YouTube content, there will forever be an endless supply of people willing to try. The lure of fame and fortune is too great to stop the firehose of free user-generated content.
The kind of lure Hollywood used to have. Before movie stars went extinct.
#3 YouTube Insight: Hollywood used to have substance that wouldâve beaten back YouTubeâs takeover.
No more. The substance faded after Netflix came for traditional studios, did well, then began producing and funding awesome original content â until it got watered down.
It was too much of a good thing.
Amazon and Hulu piled on with original content – more water, less substance. The outlier was Paramount+ hitting the jackpot with Taylor Sheridan and overcoming Kevin Costnerâs inability to act âunwoodenâ (Horizon is decent though).
#4 YouTube Insight: No barrier to entry for people to create content, and it costs YouTube nothing upfront.
Get a free government-issued phone, do something stupid, cool, or informative, then hit upload. Out of billions of uploads, a few talented stars emerge and will keep emerging.
Still, the most basic thing that makes YouTube unstoppable might be the one angle you can mimic in some way if you slap your thinking cap on.
#5 Insight: YouTubeâs service fits into users’ routines.
- YouTube app comes native on nearly every phone
- Preinstalled on most smart TVs (perhaps all)
- TV is the biggest disruptor in human history
Bowling Alone is a great book about humans becoming more isolated well before the web and social media. Lots of factors, but the author basically concludes that TV is the biggest reason humans began socializing less and less.
YouTube, while a genius product/service, is simply a different (& better) form of TV.
Humans like being at rest when they can. TV gives us joy while at rest. YouTube fits into that routine with an improved way to watch TV.
Now, for the decline of celeb promos and other Knowledge links.
The Knowledge Base
đThese stats prove influencers > celebs at moving products
Location targeting hamstrung on Meta Ads
đ·ïžNative ad costs by industry (chart)
Side-hustle advice that isnât sucker bait
đStuck for July email campaign ideas? (15 sparks)
Run a fitness biz? Blue hairs getting swole
đïžSocial media, the new mall (fresh study)
Got a home services biz? Endless contentâhighlight scams like this
đŒMeta leads way copycats TikTok with new creator avatars
Speed sells (paid tool improves Shopify store load time)
đïžPen & paper save sales when cyber attacks happen
Email open rates sagging?
Clicks and conversions getting few and far between? Worried about Spam Traps?
End those problems. See which of your subscribers are most active in their inbox (with all their emails) so you can email that hot segment. This increases open rates, click volume, and conversions. Youâll also spot potential Spam Traps a mile away by avoiding inactive email addresses.
Activity Checker is powered by Inbox Mailers, a finalist for Email Marketing Company of the Year (AFFY Awards). Upload your list for free to improve email engagement and revenue.
Book a demo if you have questions.đ
Self Help
Pride comes before the fall.
Truer words never spoken.
Without some pride, though, how does a person rise at all?
Facts and Stats
- Consumers wanting bundled media packages say #1 piece is Netflix {Disney+ last place} (Media Post)
- Latest MailChimp data shows 2.62% average click rate & 35.63% open rate
- 92% of customers want ads to feel more like a story (Go-Globe)
Bonus: Which blockbuster film holds the record for biggest opening day on Independence Day? Answer is 2007âs Transformers ($29.1M July 4 opening)
Get Hacking
No doubt, there are processes for getting bad reviews scrubbed from Google, Yelp, G2, etc.
Iâm gonna cover tactics like that in a future edition of Inbox Hacking. But you can also ask a reviewer to reconsider. If theyâre not a bot or heathen, theyâll at least hear you out, and likely upgrade the review.
Or, if you have lots of bad reviews, lean into that like this restaurant owner did back in the day (only works if reviews are unfair and the product/service is actually good).
If you know another Megatron-level marketer, share Inbox Hacking with them. Thanks for spreading the word – my K9s appreciate it – more subscribers mean brand name Scooby snacks.
Shane McLendon, Copy Kingpin – Inbox Hacking
P.S. Wanna test how much someone truly cares about climate stuff? Stick âem in an eco-friendly room with no AC.
