Have you ever wanted to collaborate with another YouTuber, but you just didn't know how? Well in
today's video, I'm going to teach you exactly what you need to do to start collaborating with
other YouTubers on YouTube. Hi, my name is Morgan Stradling and in today's video, I'm not only gonna
teach you why collaborations are important and why you should be doing them. But I'm also going
to give you these step-by-step guide on what you need to do to do your first YouTube collaboration.
So collaborations are everywhere, not only just on YouTube, but on podcasts, on websites,
on Instagram profiles. And the reason is, is because collaboration's work. The number one
benefit of a collaboration is that exposes you or your product to a brand new audience. Exposure
to a new audience will not only get you more chances to get more views, but more subscribers.
And that's because people's time is limited. They don't have the chance to check out every single
YouTuber out there. So by having your face appear in front of somebody else's audience,
it allows them to see you perhaps for the first time and say, "Hey,
I really like this person. I want to subscribe." We see this all the time in the beauty world
where a famous beauty guru will team up with a very popular makeup brand and they will do
a product together as a collaboration. The beauty guru or YouTuber has a very
loyal and dedicated audience, and they will follow wherever the YouTuber or the guru
tells them to go. So as a result, many times, these collaborations are incredibly successful
because people want to purchase that product from their favorite YouTuber.
And it just happens to be by this brand. Likewise, with YouTube people have a very loyal audience.
And so when they are introduced to something new, a percentage of people are going to follow simply
because they are loyal and they want to support you. So in the case of YouTube collaborations,
this can be very beneficial because if you both have very loyal audiences,
they will follow you to the other person's channel to check out that other content. Another benefit
of collaborations is that it allows you to spice up your content. If you're just kind of doing
the same stuff over and over and over again, yes, it may be great content. It may be very helpful,
but by having a collaboration every once in a while, it really mixes things up. It allows
for a fresh face to appear on your channel or for you to appear on someone else's channel.
And it's really just a lot of fun to do. Another benefit is that it builds community.
You're not only building community with someone else's subscribers, but you're building community
within your own industry and with other YouTubers. So instead of you just being in your bubble,
making videos, it allows you to reach out and make friends with other people,
just like you. The last benefit of collaborations is it allows your audiences to see some of their
favorites together. So people actually may be subscribers to both of your channels,
but they love you both so much that they want to see you together in a video. And this really
excites subscribers and they love it. You see this all the time with really, really big YouTubers and
people just go nuts over collaborations, because like I said, people love seeing their two favorite
things together in one spot. All right. So now let's jump into how to do a collaboration on
YouTube, because if you've never done this before, it can probably be very daunting.
You may not have friends in your space, or you may not know exactly what you need to do
to do a collaboration. So my first tip for YouTube collaborations is to realize that you are never
too small to start. I know a lot of people think of collaborations and they think of the big
YouTubers with millions and millions of subscribers or hundreds of thousands of
subscribers, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case. You can start very, very small,
actually did a video on how to get your first 1000 subscribers. A I collaborated with Trena Little.
And in that video, I talked talk about collaborations and how that
can be something you can use to get your first 1000 subscribers. So you can have
less than a thousand subscribers and still use collaborations to your advantage to help you grow.
So you don't necessarily have to have a hundred subscribers, 500 subscribers, 1000 subscribers.
But I will say that in order to do your first collaboration, you need to have consistent content
on YouTube. So having one video out there and then reaching out to a bunch of people to collab,
probably isn't going to work out because you haven't proven that you're consistent
on the platform. You haven't proven that you have a consistent audience that is showing up
and watching your videos. So just pay attention to that and making sure that you have a decent
amount of videos already out there, and you have at least a good amount of subscribers
that are coming back for each video, because a big part of collaborations
is that it is benefiting both parties. So if you don't have an audience and someone does,
there really isn't much in it for them, unless they're your friend and they like you.
All right. My next tip for YouTube collaborations is to collaborate with those in similar niches or
industries as you, especially if you're just starting out and you are smaller. If you are
bigger than, yes, it may make sense to collaborate with random brands or random YouTubers.
And that could work. If you're a financial planner, people are probably already coming
to your channel because they're interested in financial planning. They like all the
different tips that you give and suggestions, and you're really helping to improve their lives by
giving them the tools to plan for their future financially. So if you find someone else who is
in that space, your current audience is really going to resonate with that. And they will like
the content coming from this other person, because it is also in the financial planning space.
If it's totally random like race car driving, that they're probably not going to watch it
because they came to you for financial planning. Right? So just make sure that
whatever you were doing when you were first starting out, that you find someone who is in
a similar industry as you, because that way the collaboration will be more successful.
All right. My next tip goes right along with this. And it's finding someone who's a similar
size as you. So if you're just starting out and you have 500 subscribers,
you most likely, aren't going to hear back from someone who has a million subscribers.
Obviously it would benefit you greatly to have your channel appear in front of their
audience of 1 million subscribers, but there's nothing in it for them. Why would they do that?
Because they are not really going to benefit much by doing that collaboration. So I would definitely
suggest finding someone in a similar size as you. So if you have less than 1000 subscribers, finding
someone else with less than 1000 subscribers would probably be a good match for your first
collaboration. But now this doesn't necessarily have to always be the case just because you have
5,000 subscribers doesn't mean you have to find someone exactly with 5,000 subscribers.
When I did my collaboration with Trena, she actually had 30,000 subscribers and I was
just under 10,000 subscribers. So even though there was a little bit of discrepancy there,
it wasn't really a big deal because we were more or less in the same ballpark,
right? We weren't in the major leagues with having millions of subscribers.
We're probably in the AA. You know? With your AAA, when you get to a hundred thousand plus.
And so, you know, we're still kind of in the same league. And so that's why that
collaboration was so successful. So again, don't let the numbers really mess with you,
but just make sure that you're in the same league as the person that you are reaching out to. So
that brings me into my next tip, which is to reach out for collaborations. Now, once you've
identified someone that you want to collaborate with, you will want to reach out to them.
And depending on your preexisting relationship with that person, it might be easier or harder
to get their attention. So for example, if you already are friends with this person and you talk
on a daily basis, it's probably going to be very easy to bring up the subject of a collaboration,
right? But if this is someone that you have never talked to before, they may not be interested in
you and be open to it because it's kind of like a cold call and we know how effective cold call
selling is. It's not very effective. So one of the things that I suggest, if you don't have a
preexisting relationship with this person is to start getting involved in their community, follow
them on Instagram, subscribe to their channel, comment on their videos and on their posts, make
an introduction via DM way in advance before you bring up the subject of a collaboration. This just
makes it seem a lot more natural and that you're actually doing it because you care about them.
Not because you simply just want to do a collaboration just because. And it will definitely
warm them up to the idea when you eventually bring up the topic of a collaboration. Now,
how you bring this up. There are multiple ways the most common and probably the most professional is
to send an email, many people and YouTube have an email listed on their YouTube page. So that
is a very easy way to contact them and to make the introduction and propose the collaboration.
So an example of a collaboration pitch gone totally wrong was about a year ago. I had
come across Cathrin Manning's channel. Now, if you don't know, Cathrin Manning is an amazing
YouTuber and she shares her YouTube journey and she had just barely started to blow up.
I think she had about 5,000 subscribers at the time and I had less than a thousand.
And so I reached out to her via DM on Instagram and mentioned how much I love her content and her
videos. And I thought maybe we should collaborate on the future. And looking back it's like there
was nothing in it for her. She had no idea who I was. I hadn't really engaged on her videos
or on her Instagram posts. It's just, I was just a random fan coming out of nowhere saying, "Hey,
let's collaborate." And obviously I didn't get a response, which I totally understand because
there was no relationship there whatsoever. And I wasn't presenting anything as to why this would
benefit her and why she would want to do this with some random nobody. Because you have to remember,
especially if you're cold calling people, you're basically a random nobody. And on the flip side
I have a podcast and we get emails all the time
of people saying, Hey, if you ever need a guest host, let me know.
And I'm kind of like, "Who are you?" I, I have no relationship with you. Why on
earth would I want to podcast with you? So it definitely I've seen it from both sides.
And I will just let you know that the random cold call is not the best. All right. My next tip, when
you are proposing this collaboration for YouTube is to let them know what is in it for them.
Are you an expert in a topic related to their niche, which they haven't covered before?
That would be really helpful because maybe they haven't covered it before,
because they're just not comfortable talking about that. And so you could provide something
to their audience, which would be very valuable. So that's just an example of a way that you
could propose it. So they understand how this benefits them. So this leads to my next tip.
When you are sending this email is to come with ideas, ready to go. If you just send an email and
say, "Hey, my name is whatever. And I want to do this collaboration. Here's how it benefits you.
What do you think?" That doesn't really tell them The next steps are what to expect. And it
actually puts a lot of work on them. People already have really busy lives. And so when
you're having to add something else onto their plates, it's kind of overwhelming. And they
probably will say no. So in your message to this person, you could come up with ideas.
You could have maybe three different ideas of video topics or whatnot. And this really does
a lot of the heavy lifting for the person because it shows that you've already done
your homework. You put a lot of thought into this and that you're taking this seriously.
This person is probably really busy and has a lot on their plate.
So if you come to them with three ideas of video topics or ways that you can do the collaboration,
it shows that you did your homework. It shows that you care about this and that you actually
put a lot of effort in to this collaboration proposal and they will appreciate it and maybe
consider it that much more because you came with all of your ducks in a row and you did all of the
work for them. Then if they decide they want to do the collaboration, it's easier for them
because they just have to say, "Yeah, I love that idea. Let's do it." Alright. So at this point
you have an agreement. You guys are doing a collaboration. Congratulations! Because
that's honestly, the hardest part is getting the yes. And just know that you're probably going to
have a lot of messages or interactions with people and emails. And it's okay.
If you don't get a response back, totally fine, totally normal. But if you do the steps that I
talked about before, especially building that relationship with the person ahead of time,
it's going to make this that much more successful. So going on my next tip, you are doing a
collaboration. The next thing that you need to do is establish the collaboration type. There are a
variety of ways to do collaborations. So you're going to set that first and foremost. So you guys
both know what to expect at what you guys need to do. Now, YouTube collaborations can be done
a variety of ways. I think one of the best ways is where you are both on camera together.
And then you both are featured in two different videos where you're both on camera.
A lot of really big YouTubers. I think of James Charles does a lot of collaborations this way,
and they are very, very successful because you're getting the best of both worlds.
Now I understand that may be difficult because you're not living in the same area,
or you may not be traveling and be at a convention or somewhere where you could be
in the same place at the same time. So definitely you can still do collaborations where you are both
featured in each other's video in certain ways. So as far as different collaboration types,
I already talked about the first one where you are both in each other's videos. So video one
features both of you and it's on topic. A and then you head over to the other person's channel
for video two. And it features both of you very, very, very effective. Now the next type
of YouTube collaboration is the takeover where basically you do a video entirely on one person's
channel and they do one on your channel. There is no featuring of the other person.
It's just, "Boom. I created a video. I put it on your channel." And they created a video and they
put it on your channel for a first collaboration. I would not recommend this because again,
people are coming for you, especially if you have a loyal subscribers. So if they don't
see your face at all, or there you're not there, they may just tune out, immediately think like,
Whoa, I'm on the wrong channel. What is this? So definitely that works for some people,
but not my favorite. Now my next type of YouTube collaboration is the hybrid model where you
both appear in each other's videos for different periods of time. So I've seen it where one person
does the introduction and then they go into, let's say 10 tips. And then the fourth tip is this new
person. And they're giving their perspective. So it's just a little snippet of this new person.
And then off you go, the majority of the content is you. Or you can do it where you kick off the
video, you introduced the topic, you introduce the collaborator and you basically share why you
trust this person. So then your audience will trust them and they'll want to stick around.
And then you kick it right off to that person's portion of the video. And then at the end of that,
that person will introduce and say, "Hey, if you want to see the next part of this collaboration or
the other tips, go over to my channel to check out Morgan. And so there's more incentive for them to
watch your entire video, but then they're excited to go check out this other video and other channel
because it's more of you. And this is actually what I just did with Trena Little on my most
recent video is we had a video about how to get your first 1000 subscribers.
This is something that people commonly searched for on YouTube. New YouTube offers are just
wanting to get their first 1000 subscribers. It's really, really important. And it's a
really big milestone. And so we came together and we created a list of our top 10 tips,
and then she took five and I did five. And so if you wanted to get all 10 of the tips, you'd have
to watch both videos. But the video that appeared on my channel, it was just a little intro by me.
And the majority of the content was Trena and vice versa. All right? So once you have established the
type of collaboration that you're going to do and how it's going to be structured, you need to set
a schedule, a release date and a time. All right, once you have established the collaboration type
and you know how it's going to be structured, you need to discuss topics for each of the videos.
This is pretty straightforward, but you don't want them to necessarily be carbon copies of
each other, but you want them to pair with each other very nicely. So it would make sense for
someone to want to watch the other video. So my example, we did five tips and the other five tips
were on the other channel, or you could do part A of something and part B, but they could be watched
in interchangeable order. So you definitely want these videos to pair together where they are great
on their own, but together they are just even more powerful and they provide the full picture and an
even better learning or viewing experience. The next step in your YouTube collaboration is you
need to set a release date and sort of a schedule for deliverables. Since you'll be working together
with someone else, you'll definitely want to plan ahead of time for this collaboration.
You don't want to give yourself just a week to get it done, although that may totally work,
but you want to make sure you both have time to film your videos, send each other,
your portions of your videos. So both people can view it can approve. It can make changes,
and then you'll have time to schedule the videos. So having a schedule set is really important. For
Trena and I, we both made sure that our videos were done and edited two weeks before our launch
date. That way we could both view them. We could have time to give critiques or make little changes
if needed to, and then had plenty of time to upload it to our channels and to get everything
ready. In order to maximize the exposure of these videos, you will want these videos to
be released at the exact same time, because if you release one and the other one's not available, yet
people are going to drop off and they're not going to wait around for that other video to appear.
So you want them to drop at the very exact second. So that way, as soon as someone finishes,
the one video, they can hop on over and check out the other video. All right. The final step for a
YouTube collaboration is to release the video and to promote it. So once the video is live,
you want to promote this. So people know about it. So talk about it in your email newsletter or on
your social media channels. You put a lot of work into this collaboration. So just sending it off on
its way to the YouTube universe is great, but you want to make it worth it for that person. So do
your part to really promote this so that they see, wow, this was a great collaboration. Maybe I want
to do that again in the future, whether you are a big or a small YouTuber collaborations are perfect
for anyone because it's a chance to increase your subscribers and your views, but also to increase
your network and your community of other people who do what you do. Let me know in the comments
below what your thoughts are on collaborations. Have you done collaborations before? Or what
collaborations have you seen other YouTubers do that you really thought effective? Be sure to
subscribe, to join the tribe and while you're at it, be sure to check out my collaboration
that I did with Trina right here. That's all I have for today. And I'll see you next time.
So video one features both of use and it's not well, but also to increase your net WIC.