How to find YouTube topics your buyers actually want
Most channels choose topics by guessing what their market might like. The channels that win check first, because a great video on a topic nobody is watching cannot succeed.
Step 1: Start with real buyer questions
List the questions prospects ask on sales calls and in emails, in their own words. These are your candidate topics.
Step 2: Prove people are watching that topic now
Search YouTube for each topic. Look for videos that beat their own channel's usual views by two and a half times or more — outliers. Check that the views look organic: comments in proportion to views and a natural view graph.
Step 3: Set a floor and a ceiling
The floor is what a solid, not perfect, video on this topic realistically gets on a channel your size. The ceiling is the best case. Then run a simple test:
floor views × share who are your buyers × viewer-to-enquiry rate × enquiry-to-client rate × client value
If the floor alone pays for the video, make it. If only the ceiling does, sharpen the packaging first. Otherwise, skip it.
Step 4: Find the packaging gap by comparison
Topic demand comes from your niche; how to present it often comes from neighbouring niches with the same viewers, or viewers with the same intent. A title or thumbnail style that keeps winning there, and that you can explain, may be the gap in yours.
The final check
You should feel nervous to waste the idea. If you do not, keep researching.
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Written by Ren Takemoto, founder of Yurenji Digital, a content marketing agency. We sell the service this article describes, so read it with that in mind. Figures from other sources are named; nothing here is a promise of results.