How to win on YouTube with a small channel
Is it still possible to start on YouTube–in 2024–and build an audience, a content strategy, and find success?
YouTube has been the start (or turning point) of lots of creator lore for influencers who are now household names, like:
- Entrepreneurs like Pat Flynn, Marie Forleo, Noah Kagan, Ramit Sethi, and Brendon Burchard
- Gamers like PewDiePie
- Multi-passionate creators and authors like John and Hank Green
- Brand creators like Jeffree Star and Mr. Beast
- Comedians like Lilly Singh, Rhett and Link
- Chefs like Andrew Rea (Babish), and fitness instructors like Cassey Ho (Blogilates)
- And the list goes on…
But it’s easy for small creators to feel lost and overwhelmed by the vast amount of content on the platform.
Enter Sean Cannell, a YouTube strategist whose passion for video helped him transform from broke and jobless to a founder of a thriving 7-figure business. About a decade ago, Sean went from a steady job and a solid client roster of video work, to being let go and having all his clients cancel their contracts–within the span of a month. He had 6 months of savings… and then he’d have exactly $0 left in his bank account.
The pressure was on.
So, Sean decided to go all in on building ThinkMedia TV, which now has 3+ million subscribers and is a Forbes “20 Must Watch YouTube Channels That Will Change Your Business.” He also runs a podcast, authored a book called YouTube Secrets, and teaches his strategies in both a free class and a paid education community.
How did he do it? By mastering the art and science of studying what works and what doesn’t, and differentiating himself in a very specific niche based on the 7R Framework.
“A lot of creators struggle because they need a business and marketing mindset, and a lot of business and marketers struggle because they need the creator mindset” - Sean Cannell
In this playbook, we explore the YouTube content strategy that Sean has built over 10+ years of experiments and hard-earned expertise–so you can win with YouTube, even as a small, new channel.
The goal
Getting started in a new channel can be intimidating.
It’s like the first day of school: you don’t know who the popular or mean kids are, where to sit, and what the norms are.
You have to come up with a new strategy, brainstorm for a new format, and create more without necessarily having more resources.
The caveat?
“You’re going to have to punch fear in the face, press record, and commit at least a few hours a week to your YouTube channel,” says Sean.
The good news? You’re not the first one that’s decided to take a bite of the YouTube pie later in the game. And a library doesn’t become less powerful the bigger it gets–which means that adding your content only makes it stronger.
That means you can access YouTube’s:
- 2.7 billion monthly active users (aka. about a third of the world’s entire population)
- Incredibly powerful search engine algorithm (it’s the second most popular and powerful search engine on the planet, after Google)
All so you can find your first 100, 1,000, or 100,000 subscribers using this simple, scalable system–and get your first wins.
The playbook
Sean's 7R system is a comprehensive approach to setting up and growing your YouTube channel in an “anti-fragile, recession-proof” way.
He currently has a 14-year-old video that still gets views today because it continues to provide people value.
1. Reverse engineer
It helps to think about where you want to end up before you get going.
If you didn’t think about where you wanted to go on a road trip, you might have a spontaneously joyful road trip, or you might just stop at a bunch of janky gas stations and eat hardened 7-11 sandwiches.
As many wise philosophers and business people have quoted: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
That’s why you have to ask two crucial questions before you start your YouTube channel:
- Who is your YouTube channel actually for? (Your target audience)
- What problem does your channel solve? (Your offer or expertise)
This helps you focus on the 70% of viewers on YouTube who use it to solve a problem. Without this focus, you won’t be able to do research, brainstorm ideas, and assess how effective your channel is because it’ll most likely be all over the place.
Try this:
2. Research
Optimizing all the aspects of your video (including the title!) towards search intent helps hugely for YouTube. Remember, it’s the second most powerful search engine in the world. 🌏
Not only is researching helpful to come up with topics, but it’s helpful to see how others are doing things (and what’s working) – and then think which aspects you want to apply to your own videos.
So how do you research topics and problems your audience is dealing with?
- Keyword research & search volumes: What terms is your audience searching for? How many people are dealing with this same issue (search volume)? You can use tools like VidIQ or something similar to do this research.
- Study competitors: How long are their videos? What content are they covering? What do the thumbnails look like? What can I learn from them?
- YouTube search bar: Using your knowledge of your audience, you can just type in ideas based on your best guess, and see what is populated. For example, “Best fishing….” and you’ll see “boats”, “lures”, “poles”, etc.
A good way to approach your research is Sean’s ASQ Method, which stands for Answer Specific Questions. You don’t want to answer broad or general questions–you want to get into the nitty gritty.
Sean teaches the specifics of this strategy in his course about getting your first 1,000 subscribers.
3. Record
The planning you’ve done so far will help you pick a strong topic, and record a video that both holds the person’s attention and is pleasing to watch. While there are lots of recording tips out there, the TLDR is:
You want to be
🏃 brief,
☀️ bright,
🥳 fun, and then
🙅 done.
Use the insights from your research to produce your video with a clear strategy, so that you build on what you’ve learned and can optimize moving forward.
4. Release
Now, you also want to use all that search research to optimize your video by ensuring compelling titles, thumbnails, and descriptions. Don't cut corners in making your video discoverable–because that’ll be its superpower:
You want to make sure you’ve incorporated your keyword and intent research in your:
All before you hit publish!
Sean cautions that a lot of people get lazy here. Don’t do that. Finish the last three steps before you restart the cycle on another keyword or topic.
5. Rocket and rank
Your video is now public: now, you need to trigger the YouTube algorithm to actually get it viewed. If you’ve correctly optimized it from the start, this part of the process becomes much easier.
When you share the video off-platform, YouTube recognizes and appreciates that you’re distributing beyond just their “borders”–so do that as much as possible.
How you can share your video:
- Overviews, links, and snippets to your email list
- Teasers on other social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok
- Create video ads for your channel
- Post native snippets on LinkedIn if your content is business-oriented
- Collaborate with other creators to cross-promote
- Repurpose into blog posts, podcast episodes, and static social content (quotes, stats)
- Offer exclusive unedited episodes to subscribers or community members
- In your Circle community (duh!)
6. Review your analytics
Reviewing your analytics helps you learn what works and what doesn't for your channel–not just for certain videos.
Luckily, YouTube has some of the best channel analytics around (thanks Big Daddy Google!)
The best thing to do is humbly accept that your first videos will be your worst (especially if you haven’t been on a video-first platform before)–but full of valuable learnings.
What you want to review every month or quarter is:
- What did we learn from it?
- How did the video perform compared to your last 10 videos? (YouTube will measure this for you!)
Other metrics you may want to track on YouTube:
- Total number of views, impressions and click-through rate (CTR)
- Average view duration, watch time for subscribers
- Traffic sources
- Returning viewers, unique viewers, and subscribers
- Audience demographics, and other content your audience watches
- Likes, dislikes, and comments
- Key moments for audience growth and retention
Remember: reviewing these analytics isn’t about being hard on yourself. It’s a strategic routine that builds on itself over time so you can get better and better.
7. Rinse and repeat
“Success leaves clues, make part two’s” - Sean Cannell
There’s nothing (absolutely nothing) wrong with seeing what’s going well for you and building off of that.
- Just look at the Fast and Furious franchise.
- Or Chris Donnelly’s “Most Toxic Companies” series (whose audience spans YouTube shorts, IG, and LinkedIn.)
- Or Kat Stickler, who rose to popularity on TikTok but expanded her “Latin mom” series to YouTube.
The point is to take the things you’ve learned from the review process and not just apply them to future content but to build on them. So when you identify successful videos, you can explore related topics or sequels and keep the momentum going.
8. (Bonus) Repurpose
Any content creator will tell you that you can’t just create content once and never touch the topic or the article again.
You have to extend the value of your content by creating clips or shorter segments for other platforms.
For example, maybe you have a video podcast that’s anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour long. You can take that and turn it into:
- Two 3-5 minute clips for shorts
- Five vertical soundbite clips for social
- Three “segments” that could serve as their own videos
This strategy enhances exposure and maximizes your content creation efforts, because not everyone is going to watch an hour-long podcast in its entirety. But they may watch 2-3 relevant and related clips during a lunch-break (especially after they get sucked in!)
The results
From almost being penniless to having the #1 YouTube content strategy course in the world, 3 million subscribers, and a 7-figure online education company (which consists of 21 separate income streams and 30+ full-time employees)...
Sean himself is a YouTube success story.
He’s turned his life into an example that shows you that winning on YouTube as a small channel isn't about luck or going viral overnight.
It's about having a strategic approach, understanding your audience, and consistently creating valuable content. By following his 7R system and focusing on answering specific questions, you can build a YouTube channel that not only grows but also becomes a valuable asset for your business or personal brand.
Remember, every big YouTuber started as a brand-new channel with zero subscribers.
Key takeaways
- Help your audience by ASQing: Focus on Answering Specific Questions your audience is asking. This targeted approach can help you gain traction faster.
- Videos are evergreen assets: Unlike social media posts that quickly disappear in the feed, YouTube videos can continue to gain views and generate income for years.
- Slow and steady wins the race: Building a successful YouTube channel takes time, but consistency pays off. Remember, you're never too late to start.
And if you’re looking for an all-in-one community platform that’s built for creators?
You’re in the right place.
Circle brings together your members, discussions, events, courses, and content—all in one place, under your own brand. Plus, you get access to our customer community full of handy resources and over 10,000 community builders on the same journey as you.
