Thomas Frank talking with Nathan Barry on the Nathan Barry Show:
There’s the top of the funnel where you get the visibility. So, when you’re on YouTube, like, your impressions are the top of your funnel. The views are actually middle of the funnel.
But they’re not the end because you have like:
- who gave you a view and watched for 3 seconds,
- who got far enough into the video (next level) to actually hear your message — maybe take action on something that you said (perhaps: Hey, go sign up for my email newsletter where I have, you know, I’ll let you know everything that I’m doing and I’ll give you these free things).
So, email is like, a little bit further down the funnel, but what it is, is an audience relationship deepener, and it’s also a way where you do have — I think on at least a per person basis — you have a greater chance of reaching them with each message you put out.
I’m under no illusions that like — you know, maybe 1 of every 10 videos I put up on TF Explains is going to be viewed by any individual subscriber.
And a lot of those subscribers are gonna get bored. You know, I betcha 10,000, 20,000 of my subscribers have decided, ‘Oh, I don’t like Notion. I’m gonna move on to something else.’
But they’re still suscribed, because unsubscribing takes effort.
So, our CEO at Standard, Dave, often talks about the fact that your subscriber count is almost as useless as like a number of saying all the money you’ve ever had, collectively — like, not your bank account balance now, because how much have you ever earned? It’s not very useful.
Like, on my main channel, probably a million of those subscribers have just moved on with their lives. They’re not students anymore. They’re not watching productivity videos.
But they’re on there. And I guess it lends me the ability to tell media outlets, ‘Oh, I’ve got 3 million subscribers.’ But I’m not connecting with those people.
So with email, I do feel like I have a greater chance of reaching every individual person with everything I put out. And then, of course, it’s up to them to decide if they want to actually read it, or click links in it, or whatever.
Such an honest, generous observation and share. Regardless of subscriber count, there’s really no bigger business priority for a serious YouTuber today than email.
A growing email list of your most loyal viewers is among the first critical steps toward platform ownership, founded safely on your own URL.
Without active, personally owned platforms, most creators (large and small) will continue to race against fading viewer relationships, along with fading incomes.
— Tang
Thomas Frank’s owned platforms include: ThomasJFrank.com and College Info Geek.
Nathan Barry’s owned platforms are: ConvertKit and NathanBarry.com.
