It's a pretty common practice for YouTube creators
to feature an end card on their videos that
highlights other content people could watch.
There's various calls to action.
Well, let's talk about the best strategy
to use for your end card so that you actually get the results
from it that you want.
That's coming up.
Hey guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer and it's Thursday,
which means it's time to do some YouTube Q&A with you guys
like we do every Thursday here at Video Creators.
Vgfiasco wrote and asked this.
Hey +TimSchmoyer, I have a question about outro splash
screens.
I use one on all my videos, but I
don't think it's having very much, if any,
effect on directing my viewer to additional content
based on what I've seen in my annotations analytics.
My Channel is very small right now,
so that may have something to do with it.
Good question.
This is often what most creators think of as the main strategy
for their end card, which is, like you mentioned,
it's to get people to watch more of your videos.
And the main way that would happen
is you have the little spotlight annotations wrapped
around different video thumbnails
that you have in your end card.
And you just kind of hope people click on them
to go to the next video and keep watching,
but as you pointed out, that rarely happens.
So here's what I actually do with my end
card, my insulating step.
My strategy is not to get people to watch
additional videos of mine, although that can happen.
My main strategy for my end card is
to get people to subscribe and then watch
more videos as I publish them.
So let me explain to you how this works.
So you guys have been around here for a while, maybe
you've noticed this, that in my end card,
I always separate saying, you know,
I give my first call to action, which
is to subscribers to comment about something that's
relevant to the video, and hopefully
a question that if people actually answer it,
the comments section below the video
could become more valuable than the actual content itself.
Like this video acts like the discussion
starter and the comments is like were the main value is at.
So that's my first call action, but then,
you notice when I start giving my next thing, my second call
to action, that-- from everything
at that point of the video there on out,
is me talking to non subscribed viewers.
And so my end card is designed specifically
for non subscribed viewers.
And so I start by saying, I hook them,
I catch their attention by calling them out.
I address them specifically, and I say, hey
if this is your first time here, and then I
give my call to action, I would love to having you subscribe.
And then, I just go into a pitch about why.
I kind of give my posting schedule,
I share the value proposition like what
do I believe, why am I doing this, about changing lives,
about spreading your message, growing YouTube channels,
all that kind of stuff.
But all that in-- and while I'm giving
that call to action at the end, and while I'm
making that pitch, everything that's happening on screen
is designed to give those non subscribed viewers something
to look at that will make them become
more likely to subscribe as a result of watching that video.
So I have four other videos up the right side,
maybe you've noticed, and they kind of
don't really change very often.
I change them every few months or so.
And the reason for that is because those videos are there
not to get people to click to watch them necessarily,
but it serves as a sampling of the other types of content
that if this person I'm talking to were to subscribe,
this is a type of content you can expect.
You know?
So I'm showing them other examples of videos
that I've done in the past that I've
found are actually the most enticing
to the target audience I'm trying to reach here
on YouTube.
So they're listening to me give my pitch.
Here's what our channel's about, here's why it's valuable,
and here's why you should care, blah,blah,blah.
I'm answering all those questions-- you
know, kind of-- for the viewer.
And while they're listening to me,
they're seeing OK like here's that video, that
looks like a good title.
Oh that looks like a video too.
Oh that third one, wow, maybe this guy
is posting like good stuff.
Like, I'm not going to click and watch his videos right now,
but it looks like there some good stuff going on
in this channel.
I'll subscribe and get the next one that
come from you in the future.
That's exactly what I want to happen.
Now I also have in my end card this little thing I show.
It's called-- my free eBook.
It's called "The Secret to Building Your YouTube Channel".
And I never even talk about it.
I just show it visually there, and the title and the graphic
itself just kind of work on its own.
I don't need to talk about it.
It's there.
People can click it if they want or they get the link
in the description of the video or in a card.
Sometimes, I put it in an interactive card.
And people can click if they're curious to learn more.
They kind of know what to do with that,
and they can click it and go sign up
for my email list to get exclusive content
and also get that eBook for free.
And that's been working very well for me.
Even though I never talk about it, I never point it out.
It works well.
Just so you guys know, we have some numbers.
It seems to be about one in every five YouTube subscribers
also then goes ahead and converts
into an email subscriber, which is very valuable for me
because now, I can get right into people's inboxes.
I can build a deeper relationship with that person
through email.
I can send them more valuable content in different types
of formats than I can here on YouTube, which is really
valuable for me, and hopefully also, is equally
valuable for the person who signs up to get those emails.
Plus, they get the added benefit of downloading that eBook
for free.
So hopefully, it's a win all the way around.
Now with all that said, I do also
want to say that I'm going to be reworking my end card strategy
a little bit now that interactive cards are becoming
more of a thing on YouTube.
People know how to use them, they're more interactive.
The annotation thing, there are less and less--
people are using less.
On mobile devices, they don't even work.
So I am going to be developing an end card strategy that
takes advantage of interactive cards more than I am currently.
But for right now, like the overall general principle
will still be the same.
And if your end card is designed to convert non subscribed
viewers into subscribers, not necessarily just to get
them to click to watch more of my videos.
There's related videos that show down the right hand
side of the page on desktop.
And mobile, there other related videos that show.
There's other ways for them to do that.
So I'll would love to hear for you though in the comments
below.
What do you think?
What is your end card strategy?
How do you design that?
For what goals?
For what purpose?
And what kind of metrics are you looking
for that indicate to you that your end
card is being successful?
And the rest of you who are working
through that question yourself, definitely
read the comments people are leaving down there below.
I know you will learn a lot from them like I do every week here
at Video Creators.
You guys are awesome.
Thank you so much for being a part of the Video Creators
community.
And just like I said, if this is your first time here
at Video Creators, I would love to have you subscribe because I
really believe that a lot of you guys
have messages that need to spread,
the world needs to hear.
And so here at this channel, I just
focus on helping you guys build your YouTube channels
and your audiences, so that your message spreads and reaches
people, and their lives are changed as a result.
So we do a couple things here.
Every Tuesday, we do news updates,
talk about the implications it has
for us as creators as the YouTube space
is developing and changing so rapidly.
Keep you guys on top of all that.
On Wednesdays, we give you guys some YouTube tips and ideas.
And then every Thursday, we do Q&A just
this to help you guys out.
So I hope all that's valuable for you.
I usually don't make my pitch quite that long,
but since I'm talking about end cards,
I figured I would on this video.
You just try and make it a little bit shorter.
But anyway, subscribe if this is your first time here.
Get more of that awesome stuff and I will see you guys again
next week.
Bye.