8 Reasons Why Creators Are More Successful on YouTube Than Brands

If you think about the biggest YouTube channels, how many of these are brands?Probably none. Most YouTube channels of big brands have less than 1000 subscribers, and the others heavily rely on paid advertising.Why are big brands less successful than creators? Here are the eight reasons.

Reason #1 Target group

In the best case, a YouTube channel should be focused on one target group.While YouTubers can focus on one topic in their videos, big brands usually have very broad or multiple audiences. Why is it wrong? Well, imagine you subscribed to a YouTube channel after seeing a cooking video. Then, after a couple of days, you see a bike video in your feed. Annoying, it’s it?Naturally, viewers would like to unsubscribe, and as a result, the YouTube algorithm just won’t show the videos to them anymore. A solution could be to have different channels for your various audiences. Red Bull, for example, has channels for bike fans, motorsports, winter sports, skateboarding, and dance and gaming.Of course, every channel will have fewer subscribers than one big channel. If you don’t want to have multiple channels, you should focus on your main target group for your one big channel.

Reason #2 Benefit for the viewer

No one watches ads for fun, but many brands still use their YouTube channel as a dumping ground for their ads and marketing materials. But why would anyone want to watch these videos?The viewer invests their time in the videos, so they want something in return. They want to be educated or entertained, or just to have an emotional response to the video is sometimes enough.The best YouTube videos achieve at least two of these goals. If not all three.So ask yourself what’s in it for the viewer, and stop using YouTube as a dumping ground for ads.

Reason #3 Personal branding

YouTube is always about personal branding. Youtube’s old tag line used to be broadcast yourself, and while this isn’t the tag line anymore, it still holds.We build connections to the YouTubers we watch. And, of course, these connections will be way more robust than to a faceless entity. This is why companies often struggle to build a relationship with their audience.So use people in your videos. But where could you get them from?Option number one – from within your company. These will be new faces that can stand for your brand, but most of them are probably not used to being in front of a camera.Therefore, option number two can be to use famous people. They are used to being in front of the camera, and they already have a following that can help you.

Reason #4 Experiments and fast decision making

You do not always know what will work best on YouTube, so it’s important to experiment. But as big brands usually have an image to keep, they are not too fond of experimentation.This is similar to how startups can outperform big brands and companies in new markets just by trying things out.If you cannot experiment with the main YouTube channel of your company, a solution could be to test in a specific country that you have a YouTube channel for, and if it works, you can adapt it for the main YouTube channel.

Reason #5 No different directions

YouTubers have a big advantage over brands – there is no pulling in different directions. If a YouTuber starts their channel, they can decide which videos to create, and in the best case, they focus on one strategy.Companies, on the other hand, and are like YouTubers with personalities orders.Each Department has a different view on what is best for the YouTube channel. If everyone has access and can upload videos to the channel, it will become a mess rather quickly.Don’t give anyone except the marketing team access to the YouTube channel.The problem with this solution is that it might discourage different teams from actually making YouTube videos. Therefore, the marketing team needs to work together with other departments.

Reason #6 Consistency

On YouTube, consistency is critical. Many companies have problems with this. This can come from pulling in different directions or from this multiple audiences problem.For regularly uploading on YouTube, you need to have enough resources.And while YouTuber’s main job is to create videos for that channel, in companies other daily businesses can come in the way.The solution is to decide on an upload frequency and dedicate enough resources to achieve this. It’s important to keep an editorial calendar and have a proper production process in place.

Reason #7 Focus on community

YouTubers understand that YouTube is social media, and social media is all about building a community. Companies often forget this aspect of their channel. They just push their videos out to the audience, but there’s no communication.They might have dedicated community management, but most times, this only means answering comments.And while this is a good starting point, the community is about much more than just comments; the viewer should interact with the videos! Engage your audience by encouraging a discussion in the comment section.

Reason #8 Thumbnails

Companies usually ignore thumbnails. How many company videos have I’ve seen that just use one of the three suggested thumbnails by YouTube. And even if they create their thumbnails, they are usually quite dull and descriptive.YouTubers understand that at least as much effort needs to go into the thumbnail and title of your video, then into the video itself.So plan your video with a title and thumbnail. It might be wise to do it before shooting. And if the video doesn’t perform as well as it should, think about how to change the thumbnail. Learn how to create great thumbnails here.

Summary

To sum everything up, here are the 8 reasons why creators are more successful on YouTube than brands:

Target group
Benefit for the viewer
Personal branding
Experiments and fast decision making
No different directions
Consistency
Focus on community
Better thumbnails

Are you a creator or a brand? Let me know in the comments down below. 👇🏼If you want to learn more about video marketing strategy, make sure to download our free YouTube marketing guide for business.