Last updated on June 14th, 2024
Today Dusty Porter talks about how “how-to” videos can be helpful long-tail marketing assets.
GUEST: Dusty Porter, of the Dusty Porter YouTube channel which focuses on how-to tech videos, and the TubeBuddy Express Podcast and YouTube Creators Hub Podcast.
HOST: The VidAction Podcast is hosted by Dane Golden of VidAction | LinkedIn | | YouTube
SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by our affiliate partners, including: TubeBuddy, VidIQ, MorningFame, Rev.com, and other products and services we recommend.
CO-PRODUCER: Jason Perrier of Phizzy Studios
TRANSCRIPT
Dane Golden:
It’s time for HEY.com! This is the podcast where we help you grow your customer community with helpful How-to videos. My name is Dane Golden and today we have Dusty Porter! Welcome Dusty.
Dusty Porter:
What’s going on Dane? I love the intro. You are one of a kind my friend. That is a way to open a show. It’s got me pumped up. It’s got me ready to go.
Dane Golden:
Yeah, one of a kind. It’s one of those great compliments you don’t know if its good or bad, but we’ll keep moving. I want to make sure we list some of your great things you do. The YouTube Creators Hub Podcast, the TubeBuddy Express Podcast, and the Dusty Porter YouTube channel where you do technology tutorials. Dusty what are you all about?
Dusty Porter:
So, I pride myself on being able to help people whether it be on something related to technology, whether they just got a new smartphone or smart device and they want to know how to do something. The videos that I create on my YouTube channel will live on forever and we’ll talk about that later on in the show. But it is in hopes of bringing them out of where they are to where they don’t know anything about the device, or they don’t know how to do a specific thing on the device, and I help them do that. And then with my podcast being on YouTube for eight or nine years now I have just taken the experience and the conversations that I’ve had with other successful creators and I’ve put that in podcast form and I interview creators just like myself, just like yourself and I talk with them about YouTube; their strategies, their techniques. And so basically I want to help other people get their messages heard and then I also want to help people understand technology just a little bit better.
Dane Golden:
And you have such a special combination of talents and experiences, which is why I wanted to have you on. So, what we do on this podcast is we focus on helpful How-to videos that can help businesses grow their customer community, and you have this combination of experiences and particularly I wanted to start by asking you how long have you been doing your own channel where you help people with essentially tech tutorials. How long you’ve been doing this?
Dusty Porter:
Well, if you look at my channel you’re going to see that it’s around nine years old, but that’s not really the truth of the matter. I created a tutorial video when I was much younger than I am now and I just basically just created it for just one person, and YouTube was the platform to do that on and I sent them the link. Well little did I know, about a year or so later YouTube contacted me and said, “ Hey, listen this video is performing really well do you want to monetize and make money from this video?”. And of course I was like, “ Well, duh that just makes sense.”. And so I applied for the partner program, I began to hone my skills in screen casting. I was already intrigued and interested in Redio. I was into acting, as you know growing up in high school, and so presentation was something that kind of came naturally to me and I just really kind of jumped into it. So, as far as doing full-time now for about three years, but I’ve been doing the How-to videos on and off for about seven years now total.
Dane Golden:
And I love that word screen casting. I use it a lot but not everyone knows what it is. Could you explain that?
Dusty Porter:
Yes, so screen casting is the process of recording your screen and the way you and I use it a lot is we will record our screen as we are doing a task, as we are showcasing software, as we are showcasing a demo of how to do a certain task. Recently I just uploaded a video today to my YouTube channel and it was a How-to video of how to get a starters guide for Adobe Audition CC, which is an audio editor. And I did that. It was about a fifteen minute long screen cast where I captured my screen, I recorded a voice over on top of that and I showed people how to use the software.
Dane Golden:
And this is the type of thing that you would never see on television. Very common on YouTube, but no one on TV would take fifteen minutes and just show a screen moving around. Right? And that’s just one of the ways that YouTube is so different than TV video. Right?
Dusty Porter:
Yeah, and that’s kind of how I built my channel. It’s very hard for me when I am running with people or talking with other creators. The majorities of the people I speak with on YouTube are either vloggers or they are people doing entertainment in YouTube. I speak to very few people who are doing How-to and instructional content. Now I will recommend that regardless of the niche or the type of videos that you create if you sprinkle in a little tutorial, a little How-to video every now and then you will see a big jump in numbers. You will see a big jump in subscribers and retention and things like that because everyone is always looking to how to do something, but your right you’re not going to turn on ABC or NBC and see someone showing you how to do or how to put together a crib or how to [inaudible 00:05:13] the shop. Something that I had to do very recently by the way.
Dane Golden:
But what we have seen is a lot of software companies, at least with their own software, they’ve been using tutorials, helpful videos, and uploading those to YouTube because there’s a lot of people searching. You’re doing it for Adobe. They do it also for themselves. Often the influencer videos like yours will get more views or find a niche of something that the brand isn’t covering. But it is a very effective way of businesses sharing what they know, whether it’s their own brand or some tool that works with their brand or their product. Correct?
Dusty Porter:
Correct, and what I’ve found is that I will have companies reach out to me. I’ve companies like Musical.ly, I even had Facebook and Instagram reach out to me. I’ve had companies like stream labs, which is a very big company in the twitch, in the streaming world right now. They find my videos on YouTube and they ask me; they say, “Hey, will you be willing to accept a specific amount of money or would you take an affiliate referral fee or what would you take from us in order for us to be able to use the video that you’ve already created”, because basically it makes it easier for them.
Dusty Porter:
And I’ve also had the other side of things where companies are approaching me and they are saying ” Hey, Dusty we’ve seen your YouTube channel. We think you do great work. Would you be willing to make us a set of or a suite of How-to videos?” And a lot of those I don’t even get credit for. They say, “Listen, we don’t want this to be affiliated with your YouTube channel at all. We just want you to be the voice and the driver here on these videos.” and I’ve done it that way as well.
Dane Golden:
Okay, so here is the challenge with a lot of How-to videos is that they’re long tail and when business look at a video or they think of video a lot of times they think of it more like a commercial or a campaign. We’re going to make this video, its going to come out on YouTube, business will happen, it will conclude, but that’s not always how it works is it?
Dusty Porter:
No. That’s not the kind of content I create. I create what’s called evergreen content. And just for example to keep on the same kind of stream line to what I’ve been talking about. The video that I released today on Adobe Audition it very well in the first forty-eight hours it may have three, four hundred views but by June of next year it may be up to around fifty or sixty thousand. I did a video, yeah go ahead–
Dane Golden:
–What about. Let me interrupt you and I want to ask on your channel currently, how old are some of your top videos?
Dusty Porter:
Oh it’s amazing some of the videos that perform the best for me. I have video tutorial showing people how to use the Google Forms system. About a twenty minute video. That video gets me about three to four thousand views a day.
Dane Golden:
When did it come out?
Dusty Porter:
It came out about four years ago.
Dane Golden:
So, I think we see this a lot particularly with tech How-to videos is that they can keep performing for years and years, but how do you think that that long tail effect, particularly for a SAS Platform or software company or tech company. How do you think that that might change how they think? This long tail effect about campaigns in general?
Dusty Porter:
You have to think of the video as a business card. As a type of something that is going to live and breath for a long and extended amount of time, and in order to do that as a creator you’ve got to have data. And I have data, because of YouTube and different things that I’ve done on spreadsheets that allow me to show companies hey, listen. This is what YouTube videos can do and How-to and tutorial videos do. But as a company you’ve got to understand that you are in this for the long game and when someone creates a video tutorial years down the road it may still be driving clients and business to your company, to your software. And understanding that is a little difficult to wrap your head around, but your right. It is important and crucial and I am trying to do a better job of kind of evangelizing that point myself.
Dane Golden:
So, I often equate this to what we think is content marketing. Which is mostly blogs and podcasts, but with blogs they’re so searchable and we find them year after year. In fact, a lot of the companies they remove the dates from their blog content marketing because those are good for years and years. Now how do we think of that when it comes to videos? Is is sort of similar to that on YouTube?
Dusty Porter:
Oh, its a hundred percent similar in that I’m getting a lot of the majority of my traffic, a lot of days is coming from Google. When people are searching and you’re right removing the dates is critical because if you put oh 2018 or 2019 some people will shy away from clicking on that which is why I have in my more recent years have refrained from putting dates in my thumbnails and dates in my titles and descriptions because I want people to not be hesitant to click on my video just because they see a time stamp on there. Because a lot of these videos will live on.
Dusty Porter:
I have Photoshop tutorials that people are still watching seven, eight years down the line. And so with that being said, you can understand a video can perform down the like a blog it can perform like podcast if you are thinking of it that way when you are scripting your video, when you are producing the video. And people think, ” Oh, you just record your screen. You edit and you upload. It’s like an hour and your done.” No. For a fifteen minute How-to video I can spend upwards of eight, ten, twelve hours just on the editing because I want to make sure that everything is just right.
Dane Golden:
Now, what would you say to a marketer who would say, “Listen, nobody is going to want to watch us move a mouse around a screen. That’s not marketing. That’s something else and it doesn’t help our business goals.” What would you say to that?
Dusty Porter:
I’d say they’re in the wrong industry. I don’t know that to me is just baffling and there people who feel that way, but here’s the thing. And this is the thing that is going to blow peoples minds when they really think about this. People always have questions. That’s one thing that people will always have. They will always have questions on how to do something.
Dusty Porter:
If you make the onboarding process of your software easier by creating a couple of three or four minute videos to help onboard your users. Your going to have a much better experience as a user of that software of whatever you’re trying out. Than you would be if they said here is the download key. Go and use it. We have a couple of Q and A’s and this is what I hear about software companies all the time. I had a very big web company say they tried the whole Q and A, they’ve tried the whole customer support, but when I made them four three or five minute videos and they embedded those on their basically about the How-to section of their website. They said it reduced the amount of calls, the amount of customer request for that specific piece of software by sixty percent.
Dane Golden:
Wow.
Dusty Porter:
That is a huge number. I’m not going to mention their name because I don’t want to throw anybody out there doesn’t want to be on out there. But what I will say is this.
Dane Golden:
Won’t say it but it rhymes with Bicrosoft, but just.
Dusty Porter:
I wish right? But the thing is that company has since come to me and I’ve been allowed to share their story with other companies that have approached me and every time I create these suite of videos, whether I’m the voice person who is voicing the videos or I’m making the video all together. They’ve always come back to me and said that it does two thins: It reduces the amount of inquires that they have from customers, which is amazing. It allows you to do more business. It allows you to create more new things. And number two. Every review that happens for that software ends up mentioning, ” Oh, whenever I downloaded the software the onboarding process was so much easier, and these videos made it so much helpful.” And that’s all I ever hear from companies after they’ve understood that. And also until that software changes Dane, those videos are good to go and you never have to touch them.
Dane Golden:
But even so as you said with some of your Photoshop. It changes, but some of the basic principles. The tabs may rearrange, but some of the basic principles remain the same.
Dusty Porter:
Always. They remain the same. You’re exactly right.
Dane Golden:
And you’re a real pro at this, but what are a couple of tips people might think about when they are creating their own helpful How-to videos for YouTube about their software that they might think about?
Dusty Porter:
We got three things. Number one: audio first. If people can’t hear you. If they can’t understand what you’re saying there is no point in you getting on the screen and showing what to do, because one of the worst things you can do is put up a video where the audio is where you can’t understand what they’re saying. So, always remember that you want to have good audio on top of your screen cast for your How-to videos. Number two: the shorter the better. Now I’ve made forty minute How-to videos and they’ve done really well for me, but that video I’ve seen people make two hours. And so, the more concise you can make a How-to video. The quicker you can get the person to the answer they’re trying to reach.
Dusty Porter:
I do something every year. I always get the new iPhone, and what I do is when I unbox the iPhone. As opposed to looking at all the new bells and whistles, something that I do is, I get on there, I go to Google, I see what questions, what concerns people are having for that device. I go and I make two or three videos every year when I get my iPhone, and every year hundreds of thousands of views come in on those videos because I’m helping people, very quickly, get an answer to a question they’re asking on a new device that they just unboxed.
Dane Golden:
And that iPhone is a hundred percent deductible.
Dusty Porter:
You got that right.
Dane Golden:
Okay. Now, I know you do off screen. You’re never on screen, I don’t think, in any of your tutorials. Is it better to be off screen or on screen if you’re say a tech company talking about your products or services.
Dusty Porter:
So, this is a good question. As a YouTuber. As a creator wanting to grow a YouTube channel I think I’ve probably done a poor job of putting myself out there. I just recently rebranded to have my channel resemble my first and last name. It was something that was completely irrelevant to that before, which has really helped me out. But if you are a company. Let’s say that you’re company A and you want to create some How-to videos and you hire someone like myself to produce these videos for you. You don’t want that person’s face to be related to your software. They’re not a developer. All they are is just a creator creating the videos. And so I found that when you’re doing How-to videos like that, yeah it makes it more personal, but if you are a SAS company or software company you may just want to leave that person just to be the voice of that video as opposed to showing their face.
Dusty Porter:
Now if you’re on YouTube, you can do what Steve Dotto does, who is another fantastic creator who does How-to content. And he puts his face in all of his videos and I think he has seen some success from that. So, I think you really got to analyze and understand your user base and the people who are coming to use your software and kind of judge it that way.
Dane Golden:
Fantastic. These are very helpful tips Dusty. Now, how can people find out more about you, what you’re doing, all your podcast, all your other stuff?
Dusty Porter:
So, I would encourage you guys if you’re going to possibly grow or start a YouTube channel. Go to and listen to my podcast called YouTube Creators Hub. And I also have another actionable six to eight minute kind of bite size podcast called TubeBuddy Express. And then if you want to check out what I’m doing you can just go to dustyporter.com. You’ll see all my work there and Dusty Porter on YouTube and Google and all of that good stuff. So, I really appreciate you having me on. This has been a blast.
Dane Golden:
It’s been great for me. And I listen to that TubeBuddy Express podcast every Friday or Saturday. Sometimes when I’m at the gym or whatever on Saturday. So, thank you for doing that.
Dusty Porter:
Well, I appreciate that. Absolutely.
Dane Golden:
Absolutely. So, thank you Dusty Porter. My name is Dane Golden. I want to thank you the listener for joining us today. HEY.com is about helping you grow your customer community through helpful How-to videos. How do you do this? By sharing your expertise. Because when you share your expertise in a way that helps your customers live their lives better or do their jobs better you’ll earn their loyalty, and their trust and their business. Thanks to our special guest Dusty Porter. Please subscribe to us one your favorite podcast app and on YouTube and where ever you watch social video. And please follow me at LinkedIn. Until next week. Here is to helping you help your customers do video.