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How Fleetio Generated 200+ leads Through YouTube In One Month w/Lori Sullivan
43 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, Dan Sanchez talks to Lori Sullivan who is the VP of Marketing at Fleetio.
- Fleetio's approach to YouTube
- Their content production process
- The results they've seen from the channel so far
- Fleetio's approach to YouTube
- Their content production process
- The results they've seen from the channel so far
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Attention Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back to the Attention Podcast, where you learn how to gain and retain the attention of your buyers to build an audience.
Interview with Lori Sullivan on YouTube Strategy
00:00:11
Speaker
I'm Dan Sanchez with Sweetfish, and today I interviewed Lori Sullivan, who is the VP of marketing at Fledio, about their rapid growth on YouTube. In the interview, we cover Fledio's approach to YouTube, which is very search-based, more than a content play, their content production process, and the results they're seeing so far from the channel. I think you'll be impressed. Be sure to stick around till the end to hear what got my attention and what I plan to implement for the show.
00:00:43
Speaker
Lori, welcome to the show.
Impact of YouTube on B2B Marketing
00:00:45
Speaker
Thanks for having me, Dan. I've been looking forward to this conversation because YouTube is a channel that is near and dear to my heart as a millennial. I feel like I've spent the last seven years, my career has been drastically impacted by things on YouTube. Even now, I have my favorite YouTubers I follow. I just know in my heart that while it's not, it feels like it doesn't make a big, very large impact on B2B. Most people are talking about LinkedIn and podcast and other channels.
00:01:11
Speaker
I'm like, for sure it's going to be a big thing because it's such a big channel. It's such an influential channel. So I'm really curious to dive into the kind of work you're currently doing with YouTube. So can we kick it off with what you currently have going on?
Fledio's YouTube Strategy for Lead Generation
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I agree. I consume YouTube a lot, just as a consumer. But on the Fleedio side, we really leverage YouTube as a huge piece of our content marketing effort.
00:01:40
Speaker
You know, we've built a really strong foundation of lead generation through content and SEO over the years, but really in the last year or so, we've started to focus on YouTube in terms of creating net new content or repurposing a lot of the content assets that we've already created through blog posts, case studies, free tools and templates. We'll have a video representing those on YouTube as well.
00:02:09
Speaker
So every piece of content we create, our content team does an awesome job of asking the question, can this become a quality video for YouTube? And oftentimes the answer is yes. So within the last year, especially the last six months, we've really started to invest in our YouTube strategy. We optimize our YouTube videos with target keywords, just like we do blog posts. So we're focused on
00:02:37
Speaker
including keywords that people in our market are searching and you know the video titles descriptions and our content team has really doubled down on youtube as a channel and just from an output perspective this is grown over time but now we see about two hundred to three hundred net new leads from youtube every single month.
00:03:00
Speaker
That's a lot. Those are inbound leads that are opting in for like a sales meeting of some kind. So these are net new leads that some are starting a trial or requesting a demo. So they're going straight into a marketing and sales funnel. And then some are downloading white papers, other types of content, or giving us information to get access to a free tool or template that we're offering. So, you know, it's a mix.
00:03:29
Speaker
of content related things and more, you know, high intent lead sources as well. But yeah, that 200 to 300 net new, you know, new people were bringing into the funnel kind of at different temperatures of buying intent.
00:03:46
Speaker
That's awesome. What kind of content are you putting out?
Popular Content Types on Fledio's Channel
00:03:50
Speaker
Is it talking head videos? Is it people demonstrating certain things? Are you educating them on what they're interested in even if it's not what you're known for? What does the content mix look like? Yeah, so it's a handful of different types of things.
00:04:03
Speaker
We find that the most viewed and the most engaged with videos are related to best practices and we also develop a lot of free tools and templates so we help our customers manage and take better control of their fleet operations and so we have
00:04:22
Speaker
tools like a fleet maintenance management spreadsheet, a parts and inventory template, a fuel log template, where we'll create these templates for download on our website. We'll also have a YouTube video that walks people through how to use them.
00:04:39
Speaker
So those have been really successful. So, you know, best practices, kind of tips and tricks, free tools and templates. I would say that is our most viewed category of videos. And then we also have a lot of customer stories and testimonials where we're featuring real customers, you know, telling their story of using Fleedio and their experience and the results that they've gotten along the way.
00:05:04
Speaker
We also have a podcast that we produce and usually get episodes out monthly. We also add YouTube videos of the audio from our podcast as well. And then I would say
00:05:19
Speaker
You know you would think for a b2b sass company that videos about the product would be our main focus but i would actually put that at the bottom of the totem pole in a product value videos or feature demo related videos.
00:05:34
Speaker
We certainly have those on our youtube channel and our product demo videos get pretty good views but in terms of what people are engaging with and what's getting people to subscribe to our channel it's really these best practice videos which many of them come from blog content that we've created or these free tools.
00:05:55
Speaker
Man, so when you're recording these videos, what does production look like?
Scalable Video Production Process
00:05:59
Speaker
Is it people doing like screen shares of their screen while they're talking? Are you like, did you invest in like a media studio? Do you just have a guy with the DSLR going around and recording content? What do these videos look like? So first of all, I have a really talented content marketing team, and one of the people on
00:06:16
Speaker
That team is a multimedia manager. He does all of our video work and he's phenomenal. Has a wonderful creative eye, but it's really great at developing a streamlined and scalable way to create videos because many of the videos that we create that come from blog post content,
00:06:34
Speaker
Those are typically animated style videos that deliver information and have the visuals to go along with it. Whereas on the tool and template side, recently we started to develop walkthrough videos where our lead content marketing manager greets you when you click the video and he's walking you through how to use that tool and template.
00:06:59
Speaker
It's very, and you'll appreciate this Dan, it's very like traditional YouTube. Click the link in the description to get the template. So it's a mix for sure. And then for customer stories and testimonials, we go on site and shoot awesome case studies with our customers.
00:07:16
Speaker
So YouTube is normally a fairly expensive channel to activate, right? It's one thing to write a blog post, even podcasting while there's some production there. Like running a podcast is a lot simpler because you're not dealing with the same level of video. Even though we're sitting here recording video, right? Usually it's a much more intensive medium. What was kind of like the lead up to you guys deciding that YouTube was the right mix in order to invest?
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think we started to see a lot of YouTube traffic to our site and we started to understand and see within our metrics that it was a really good lead generator. And so our question was, how do we build on this, but in a scalable way? So many of the videos that we create that perform the best, you know, these tool and template videos are videos that come from blog post content.
00:08:09
Speaker
We create them in a streamlined and scalable way. So there's more or less kind of a formula for the backbone of the video, and our content team puts together script and direction, and then our multimedia manager executes on that. And so
00:08:29
Speaker
through our scalable way of working, we're able to crank out a lot of video content. I think we published around 35 videos in 2021 alone, as we were reviewing last year. So we're cranking out a lot of content, but we want to be sure the quality is there. So just establishing a streamlined way to do it is helpful. Also, for things like walkthrough videos, there are external tools that can be helpful.
00:08:56
Speaker
Our content manager has used Tango for video, like step-by-step guides and kind of transcribing your walkthrough. You can create videos really quickly with tools like Tango. So some external tools as well can help throughout the process, but it's all about creating a scalable way to work for content marketing, to work with
00:09:21
Speaker
video production and get something quality out, but, you know, produce it at scale. YouTube is such a strong search engine. And it sounds like most of the videos you're coming up with are very search, search heavy. Is that right?
Keyword Optimization for YouTube Success
00:09:35
Speaker
Yes, definitely. You know, when we look at traffic sources to our YouTube channel, of course, we do run a little bit of YouTube advertising as well. But we really, as a channel, focus more on on the organic research aspect of YouTube.
00:09:50
Speaker
So our YouTube traffic sources really is YouTube search. We get a lot of views from YouTube search. Our click through on YouTube search is 8.8%.
00:10:02
Speaker
I think the average there is usually like 4.5 or 5%. So we do really well in terms of click through on, you know, those really well optimized videos when people are actually searching within YouTube. And then our largest external traffic source to YouTube is Google search, you know, and YouTube and Google obviously so tightly integrated. Now you go to Google, you search for something and then you filter down to just video content.
00:10:29
Speaker
And it's really easy to hop over to YouTube and watch a video and then kind of continue down that rabbit hole. So those are really the top ways that people are getting to our YouTube videos. And both of those are completely powered by that keyword optimization and really having an SEO focus for YouTube as a channel.
00:10:53
Speaker
So funny because I feel like YouTube, the research results in YouTube that are being displayed in Google are usually better than the other results, which is why they're getting higher up on the page. Partly because people have figured out how to game the system on Google and big sites like Forbes and Inc., at least if I'm searching business or marketing articles, like they have so much SEO cloud that it's kind of like, well,
00:11:15
Speaker
Even if you write a better article than there is, and it's much more in-depth research linked, it's still going to be beat out by one of the big sites versus on YouTube. One site, one video can earn its merit, you know, a little bit better, not always, but a little bit better than
00:11:31
Speaker
I guess the channel has a little less clout and has more of a subscriber base that's going to drive the video versus a link base, which is different. And I actually find produces and floats better quality content to the top when you're searching. So it's exciting that you're kind of gaining two different search engines in one with this thing. Yeah, you're pulling them together, like you're using them together, but they're both powered by keyword optimized content.
00:11:59
Speaker
And this on YouTube just so happens to be a video, but within that title, within that description, you have the ability to take that keyword optimized mindset and it pays off from a YouTube perspective or YouTube search perspective and a Google search perspective.
00:12:14
Speaker
I mean, it's not just enough to crank it up or fill it with keywords. You actually have to go and find out what are they searching for with this keyword and how do we create the best content to match that search. Exactly. I think starting with the keywords is always a good idea with SEO. It's probably YouTube as well for YouTube SEO, but it's not just keywords.
00:12:33
Speaker
a lot because I've seen a lot of people just go and like create some really bad videos and slap the keywords on it. But it's like you got to be creating good videos. Like you actually have to answer their searches and give them the goods, which if you're getting a lot of traffic and getting that many leads coming into your website, you guys are going to be creating some pretty good videos or at least better than what everybody else is producing for those queries. Yeah. So as an example, we launched a new tool recently. It's called our fleet maintenance management spreadsheet tool.
00:13:01
Speaker
And we were focused on the keyword fleet maintenance spreadsheet. It surprisingly has a ton of volume. People are trying to solve the problem of chaotic fleet processes, but they may not be ready for a software solution yet. And so we want to kind of swoop in and be that problem aware company that can say, hey, we understand that maybe you're not ready for a software solution yet.
00:13:30
Speaker
Here's a template that's set up really well. It's easy to use. You can have it for free if you give us a little bit of information. Then within that template, we have calls to action where we say ditch the spreadsheets because many of our customers are in the SMB space and prior to using Fleedio, they used spreadsheets or paper to manage all of the chaotic pieces of fleet operations.
00:13:56
Speaker
So we really created that to be kind of a middle ground solution between nothing and software. But what we found is we optimized our tool download landing page and that corresponding YouTube video for fleet maintenance spreadsheet.
00:14:15
Speaker
we quickly shot to the top of search results. So if you search fleet maintenance spreadsheet, the top two results are our landing page and our YouTube video. That's so good. I mean, one, just capturing that search volume, and it's so closely linked to what you do, yeah, it's just one step removed.
00:14:35
Speaker
So being able to serve them that way is good. And I know we've all looked for little tools and found things that worked for a while and then have upgraded to the thing that cost more but saved us a lot more time later on.
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's a stepping stone. I mean, you know, there's a problem that you're looking to solve. And you know, there are options out there to help you solve it. And you're, you're just exploring those. So you may become a buyer, you know, later. And that's okay. We understand that there's going to be, you know, sometimes a longer buying life cycle. And if that's the first step and we can help you take it, we definitely want to.
00:15:12
Speaker
So do you manage or look at the subscriber base of the YouTube channel much and optimize to get people to subscribe?
Building a Subscriber Base with Quality Content
00:15:19
Speaker
What has that been looking like to try to gain a following there? Yeah, so that has actually been something we haven't focused on quite as much. So there's definitely a high ceiling for growth there. We have a pretty small subscriber base, around 1,000 subscribers right now.
00:15:38
Speaker
but lots of views. So we have a very small percentage of our views that actually are subscribers. Within that, I think it's like 12% of subscribers that actually have notifications turned on. So there's definitely a high ceiling for us to engage the large viewership that we have to kind of rope them in and get them to subscribe.
00:16:04
Speaker
Since we have been posting a lot of videos related to our free tools and templates and some more like best practice videos, we've seen, I was looking at some stats earlier today in preparation for this conversation. In the last 90 days, our subscribers went up over 100%.
00:16:23
Speaker
So it's all around consistent content, helpful content. So for us, subscriber growth was pretty stagnant until we really started focusing on YouTube, which should be no surprise. But I think it's all around consistency and quality content that truly helps people solve the problems that they're facing. Absolutely. I know some channels demand consistency more than others, right? Sure. So also, you can take a break.
00:16:51
Speaker
for a while, but with YouTube, as usually with podcasting, it's kind of a once a week, usually, rhythm that the algorithm prefers if you're going to get in front of more people. I mean, there's not an algorithm of podcasting, but expectations, you know? If anything, it's a thing. So tell me, what are some of the results, Ben? You told me you're generating a lot of leads, maybe like what does it look like on as far as a revenue impact look like?
00:17:16
Speaker
Yeah, so we, like I said, are generating around 200 to 300 net new leads per month. And of course, many of those are, you know, have less buying intent than some. And so we're nurturing those, you know, through to the point of buying intent. So that's been, you know, really successful and really
00:17:37
Speaker
stepped up in the last probably three to six months in terms of lead generation. And for us as a team, we're focused on generating leads, we're focused on generating pipeline. And YouTube not only is helpful from a top of funnel lead generation perspective, but it can be really helpful to re-engage people, people who have fallen out of the funnel at some point, to re-engage them, get them back into a sales conversation.
00:18:04
Speaker
Our sales team uses our YouTube videos a lot at the middle of the funnel when they are kind of shepherding someone through the process and just really trying to stay top of mind and move them efficiently to a close. I don't have any revenue information. I unfortunately didn't pull that before our conversation and just have the lead numbers.
00:18:28
Speaker
We track our attribution through to revenue, so that's something that we're able to pull. I didn't pull that one for you though.
00:18:36
Speaker
I'm sure it's pretty strong. I mean, YouTube is one of the more intimate channels.
Integrating YouTube into Content Marketing Strategy
00:18:40
Speaker
And when people come inbound from a channel like YouTube, kind of like with podcasting, but I'd say YouTube stronger, it usually has got a pretty good conversion rate. Anything else you want to leave for people who want to get started in YouTube, maybe they're seeing some traffic from just the random videos they're posting on YouTube is more of like a storage for videos that
00:18:58
Speaker
then embed on their website which is how most people treat it they're seeing a little bit of traction there and they want to get started what steps would you recommend for people to take. I think most people especially in the b2b world think of youtube as kind of a repository like you said you know you upload all the videos you create.
00:19:16
Speaker
And many times when early stage SaaS companies are investing in video creation, they're investing in product-oriented video creation to communicate and show product value, feature walkthroughs, things like that. And I think videos like that are certainly important and utilized heavily for us. But if you have a concept of content marketing within your organization, YouTube should be a part of that.
00:19:44
Speaker
So when you're creating a new piece of content, whether that's a blog post, a white paper, if you have a podcast, a podcast episode, the question should always be, is there a video component for YouTube we could create from this? And my content team does an amazing job at not only creating content, but thinking about the distribution of that content. And YouTube is another
00:20:09
Speaker
extremely strong distribution engine since it is the second largest search engine out there. Laurie, thank you so much for joining me on the Attention podcast.
Overview of Fledio's Fleet Maintenance Software
00:20:18
Speaker
Where can people go to learn more about you and learn about what FLEADIO is all about online?
00:20:23
Speaker
Sure. Yeah, Fleedio, again, is a fleet maintenance software, and we're helping fleets around the world track, analyze, and improve their fleet operations. You can see us at Fleedio.com. And then you can find me on LinkedIn. It's just Lori Sullivan. Fantastic. Again, thanks for joining me on the show today. Thanks for having me, Dan.
Reflections on YouTube as a Content Channel
00:20:44
Speaker
So let's talk about what caught my attention in this interview.
00:20:47
Speaker
YouTube is certainly a channel that's had my attention, if you couldn't tell from our conversation. And I know it's a growing channel. Fleedio's success is not surprising to me, considering YouTube is one of the largest search engines after Google, which Google controls and feeds into their actual search engines. To take a search engine approach,
00:21:07
Speaker
to this channel is just a fantastic way to jumpstart a new YouTube channel. The downside of YouTube is that videos are relatively hard to put together and produce. In Fleedio, they put together a process to do it, which you kind of have to because to sustain that kind of production cycle is difficult. Even now with 35 videos, that's a video every other week, which for a normal YouTube cadence at a video a week is not even quite there, yet they're still seeing massive success, even with the 35 videos they put out.
00:21:36
Speaker
And that's a big deal now for this channel is hard to find some takeaways from me because I've wrestled a lot with YouTube and whether I wanted to go there with this kind of a podcast. It wouldn't be too hard to take this video and then go ahead and slice it and dice it just a little bit to make a YouTube video. Yet it is. And I'm already doing so much production process to get out this video podcast to make sure it turns into a LinkedIn post and some graphics and different things like that.
00:22:01
Speaker
Right now, while I have an audio editor, the rest of the show is being handled best by me, myself, Dan Sanchez here. I'm not using all the rest of the resources in Sweetfish in order to produce the show. So this is the one that I'm putting a pin in and I, gosh, I want to go after YouTube. But I'm like, sometimes you got to choose to focus. And by focusing on other channels, which for me is the podcast and LinkedIn.
00:22:25
Speaker
I know I'll probably see better growth with this show. Again, the two channel rule reigns supreme for me. And those two channels are LinkedIn and podcasting. But I know there's a place for YouTube. So for those of you who are looking at YouTube as your long form content channel, it is fantastic.
00:22:42
Speaker
not only do you get found in youtube search you get plugged into google search there's ways to get found in google's related or recommended videos and and unlike google search where you send traffic to a blog post maybe youtube has a built-in function for people to be able to subscribe
00:22:59
Speaker
and then be rewarded by seeing your videos more often afterwards, right? It's kind of got the combo of search and social mixed together, which just makes it such an attractive program. And while a lot of people are saying, oh, TikTok's the new thing in coming, which it is, and it's good, YouTube's still here to stay. I spend a lot of time on YouTube. My peers spend a lot of time on YouTube. And the younger generation, they treat it like it's TV. So YouTube's a thing. It's going to continue being a thing. It's not going anywhere.