Gabby Wallace from Go Natural English gave a very informative presentation at Social Media Marketing World on how to use YouTube to grow your email list. She speaks from authority because she has over 300k subscribers on her YouTube channel and over 70k on her email list.

Gabby began her presentation by stressing that you should start with a mindset of how I can help. This was a common theme in most of the presentations I sat in on.

Why Use YouTube

Wallace pointed out that YouTube is huge. It is supported by Google and it is very effective on mobile devices. It is a place where you can share your values, story, and experience.

Email List

Email lists were another theme of the conference. Wallace highlighted four reasons for using an email list.

• Email is universal, everyone uses email.
• You own your own list. You do not rely on anyone else.
• Email is a direct and private way to communicate with followers.
• Email is a way to build relations.

She stressed to not market directly with YouTube.

Building Your YouTube Channel

In order to build your email list, you must first get people to follow you on YouTube. The best way to build your YouTube following is to be helpful and show you care. Here are ways to show you care:

• Give information freely
• Do Q&A sessions
• Share your stories
• Invite people to engage
• Literally, tell them you care
• Be energetic this is something I need to work harder on.
• Share information about your brand, mission, values.

Call to Action

As Wallace noted to get individuals to subscribe to your email list, you need to make a call to action. In other words, you need to ask them to join your list. Here are tips she shared:

• Talk only to one person and be sure to make eye contact.
• In your video, verbally ask them to join your email list.
• While you are making the verbal ask, point to your link.
• Make your invitation sound like you are inviting them to a party. Rather than asking them to join your “list”, ask them to join your “email group.”
• Explain why being in your email group would be beneficial.
• Include a call to action at least twice in your video. Include one in the beginning and one towards the end.
• Also, encourage viewers to like, subscribe, and comment on your videos.

Optimizing Your YouTube Channel

Here are recommendations that Wallace shared to optimize your YouTube channel:

• Ensure your videos have a thumbnail.
• Include cards for your videos.
• Send viewers to your opt-in page with links located on your channel homepage, all your video descriptions, your playlist descriptions, and video cards.

Final Tips

Gabby Wallace also shared some final tips to help increase YouTube viewership and subsequent subscriptions on your email list.

As everyone else shared, you must post consistently. What you post must be helpful to those who follow you. Your videos must be engaging, they need to serve a need. Each video you share is another opportunity for a subscription.

If you are interested in doing videos for your Rhode Island business, please contact me. As the research is showing, a video is huge for your business. Let’s do it right!