It’s funny to me that YouTube is 20 years old now, and so many B2B types STILL think of it as prank videos and Minecraft let’s plays.
In reality, it's easily the best place to build a thought leadership brand at massive scale. Do it right, and you could have 100s of thousands of people watching you every month (and with an average watch time of 5+ minutes).
One of my favorite examples is Renaissance Periodization, a fitness channel hosted by Dr Mike Israetel (a bodybuilder with a PhD in exercise science): the channel is one big content marketing funnel driving to their RP Hypertrophy app, which helps you plan and track workouts.
Oh, and it gets ~75 million views a month, which I’d guess works out to $3-5 million a year in ad revenue!
And in case you found your way here from search and you don't know who I am, I grew my own YouTube channels to 750k subs and our company's to 125k, so I do know a thing or two about YouTube.
This approach can work in just about any niche, so take notes:
The goal of TOFU content is to grow your channel by getting plugged into the home page recommendations, since that’s where most people find new videos (NOT search).
RP does that with this series where he gently roasts celebrity workout videos, and their (usually terrible) trainers.
It strikes the perfect TOFU balance of:
→ Accessible: Anyone can enjoy it, even if you don’t care about fitness
→ Informative: If you DO care about fitness, he drops a lot of genuinely great knowledge
→ Not mean: They’re lighthearted jokes and mild criticism; he’s not here to dunk on anyone
And because of the big name celebs (The Rock, Kim Kardashian, Conor McGregor, etc), the potential audience is massive.
So it brings in tons of new people, and the ones who are into fitness think “Damn— I just came to laugh at The Rock, but this guy knows his shit so I’m gonna stick around.”
→ The goal of MOFU content is to build authority and relationships with your existing audience— basically, to keep the people you attracted with TOFU content
In this case that means intense, college-level presentations about academic research in exercise science and nutrition.
But if you’ve watched his videos, you know he still sprinkles in a lot of humor to keep it entertaining (usually 🍆 jokes, which works for his audience of nerdy dudes who like to lift weights and look at other men’s physiques)
These are pretty hardcore and information-dense, so they obviously get less views than the celeb workout videos, but that's OK-- they aren't intended as growth vehicles.
After you watch a few of these, you’re a Dr Mike superfan because you realize that his knowledge on this stuff is DEEP and you’re bought into his methods.
Which primes you for the next stage of the funnel:
→ The goal of BOFU content is to connect with your diehard superfans and get them to take some action (join your newsletter, sign up for a product demo, buy your course, etc)
For Renaissance Periodization, that’s long, extremely detailed videos where they design complex, multi-week workout programs that are build around the ideas from his other videos.
And of course, they use their own app to do the planning— because why wouldn’t they?
Although it’s important to note that they never say you HAVE to use their app. They always tell you that you COULD do it with a spreadsheet or even paper, it’s just easier to use their app.
This is a subtle but important detail: if your audience ever feels like you’re shilling for your product, you’ll do huge damage to your credibility.
→ So when you talk about your product, it needs to be a soft sell. Show what it does, and let it speak for itself.
In this case, when you watch them use their app to plan and track their workouts, you can’t help but think “Damn… that DOES look like it would save a lot of time, maybe I’ll try it.”
Which leads you to the final step:
The app creates personalized workouts based on the principles from his videos. And you’re already bought in, because you’ve seen how he uses it, and the results he gets with it.
I’m not sure how many users they have, but I know he has a huge house with the nicest gym I've ever seen, so I'm guessing it does very well.
The point is that YouTube is a consumer entertainment app, and the more you lean into that, the more successful you'll be. The hardest part is to find a TOFU format that sticks.
Once you do that the rest falls into place pretty quickly, so I suggest putting 80% of your energy into cracking that code.
PS - I'm on Greg's side of his beef with Dr. Mike, but I'm still a fan of RP
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