Transcript:
Hey, Misbah here, and I wanted to share something that’s been extremely important that. I’ve done just intuitively, I think ever since 2016, but more definitively I’ve started to organize it since 2020. And that is the category of lead sources, figuring out where leads are coming from and where customers are coming from, right?
But really understanding that, and I think I didn’t pay attention to it for the longest time that much, because I didn’t have that much data. Like you didn’t have that much traffic or people coming through, but. I think especially now looking back, there’s definitely a way to extract data, especially when you have not a lot of users on whatever platform that you’re creating, but it, the better you analyze in those early stages that’s how you save time because I found that my expectations of what platforms were really converting and driving traffic to the places that I wanted.
Was totally like a misconception compared to what was actually happening when you looked at the data and the referral traffic and where those people are actually coming from. So a quick example of this is I basically created this video that was a time tracking notion template video, and it was based off of this request from another video that I made doing this review for time productivity journal or whatever, and I decided to basically share what I was doing.
I made my exact template that I had been using for a year at that point. It was a notion template. I made it available so that other people could get it, and I decided, hey, this is gonna be a great freebie if people decide to sign up for it. Like I’ll know that they’re signing up through YouTube cuz that is where I am making the content.
I know, cuz that is where I had posted the links at that point, like for a long time. I didn’t post it really anywhere else except just those two videos and. Then I started getting like three to five subscribers a day from just that video. Then basically, I added the link to my website and I kept it a part of all of my links and the descriptions, like in everything that a podcast, YouTube videos, everything.
It was in the description for those. Some maybe it’s coming from there. Maybe Link Tree, Instagram. I’ve been more active on Instagram. Right. But then I would go into ConvertKit. Because that’s what I use. And then I would look at the reports in the landing pages cuz it had a six, like 75% conversion rate for a very long time.
And then a, it’s holding at 65% has not dropped below 65% and it’s been, I guess three months now or something like that, maybe that it’s been out. Whenever each subscriber would come through in this notion template, I would go. To figure out where they came from. And I always thought, okay, maybe it’s from the website, maybe it’s from Instagram.
But then when I go into ConvertKit, I look at the actual data in the report. So basically the number one referral source was YouTube, which what kind of blew my mind because I didn’t expect like that video. I think still to this day has like only 1500, like right now as I’m speaking, maybe 1700 views. And then that other video, that first video where I posted that, the link to my landing page, like in the comments that I think has 4,000 or something like that, right?
So it’s not like tens of thousands of views on these things, right? But the people are actually clicking through and downloading, and of the people that click through here is what blew my mind. YouTube was the only referral source for traffic that was converting at 78%. And that hasn’t changed from day one to like, now it’s maybe gone up to 70, gone down 75, whatever, but 78% is where it’s at most of the time.
Where it’s literally like of, that means every time 10 people that click through from YouTube, like eight of those people are hands down actually. Subscribing, which is a big deal, or seven of those people, at least now when you look at people that are coming through from my website, like they came through from my website or whatever, that’s still like people visit the page and then they bounce or on whatever, like Link Tree and Instagram I thought would be a big popular source.
And it’s not really, people do see it like my friends family, like Inner Circle people that you’re networking with, but in terms of people leaving the platform and clicks happening, conversions happening not very high from Instagram. LinkedIn actually gave me more traffic and higher rate of conversion than Instagram.
So basically looking at that data gave me a completely new look at, oh my gosh, I should be doubling down on YouTube in every way. And then not just doubling down on YouTube, the platform and creating there, because that’s, but it’s like, what else can I extract from this data? The thing that I extracted that I’m still actually like learning and putting myself through, to be honest.
There’s something about this time tracking thing, like it was so easy for me to make cause it’s actually genuinely what I’m using and doing and I still haven’t missed a day using that thing. I like use it religiously and it was so cool that other people actually resonated with it and I didn’t expect that cuz like we’re at a couple hundred subscribers from just email subscribers.
From just those two videos primarily. And so it gave me a. Affirmation that, okay. It gave me a little nudge, I would say, towards looking at making more content that helped. Like maybe I can make more things that help people use this time tracking template, right? Maybe I can make more things that, cuz there are so many things inside of this time tracking template.
I realized that I do like little things, but. It could be systemized or it could be shared and it would make it even more useful, like just ways I analyze data even of my, in my time tracking templates. So I never made a follow-up video really in that whole time related to those, that topic. I continued to make videos of the other video editing and podcasting stuff related stuff that I was doing, but that data was pointing me towards make more of this and test it and see, explore the different corners of it to see.
What else resonates because this could be, and imagine if I, and I will keep you posted when I record another couple videos or whatever on this, cuz I intend to soon and I’ll let you know what the results are on that. But that’s my process for when a lead comes through, or especially when I talk to somebody, right?
If somebody comes through my contact form or DM or something and they’re like, we get on a call, they become a client like one person. He basically, they, it was a show. That they already had about like building your own farm type thing. And it was like very popular. And then they stopped doing it and then they basically reached out to me to revamp it.
It was very detailed, the request. And I was like, wow, this is really cool. And in that the person who reached out said, I was watching, I watched one of your videos on YouTube. Really love your stuff. And that was enough to pique my interest. Cause I was like, okay, boom, this person came from YouTube, right?
So now I go, what’s the next step? How do I find out more data? Once I hop on the call with this person, I made sure to ask, or maybe it was even through email, I forget. But I think it was, they gave me more info on the call for sure, where once I hopped on, they’re basically like, Like I, I can’t remember if it was at the front end of the conversation or the back end of the conversation depending on who it’s with.
I will do it later on, like after I built rapport and delivered value. Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, where did you, do you remember the first video you watched? I remember you saying you found me on YouTube. What was the first video you watched? And basically he told me the story of how there was this video on Zoom that I recorded, like how to turn a Zoom recording into a podcast using Premiere Pro, maybe.
And then basically he queued up a bunch of other videos and then went down the rabbit hole of other people’s videos as well there, and then realized he’s, this is what he said. I don’t, I realized I don’t wanna click the buttons, I wanna just pay somebody to click the buttons. So it was an example of somebody learning, getting themselves familiarized with the stuff, and then being like, all right, I do wanna hand this off right then.
I go, okay. Do you remember how long ago that was? Like how long ago did you watch this video? I said, that was a year ago. And actually I remember in seeing in the description, you had this and done for you services link and I didn’t need it at the time or whatever, but I basically found that, or like he, I guess he went to my website and then.
Then the website did its job of guiding him to the contact form and then reaching out with the specific request. But it was fascinating to me because right after that, right after I go to, The, I was so freaking excited, right? Because I know in my heart I’m like, that Zoom video did not perform crazily well, like unless it did, and I just have no idea.
So I go back in my analytics, and at the time you are not gonna believe this, it had 89 views. Okay? This video had 89 views, and outta that 89 was this one person who spent five, I think 500 bucks a month. Is what we like settled at or whatever. This person came from a YouTube video. They got 89 views and came back one year later.
I literally could not. I was like, this is the exact example of building your own table, building a portfolio, and then trusting that it reaches the right people, didn’t reach even hundreds of people. It didn’t reach thousands of people. Like it’s so crazy and it just, Like it crossed now a hundred views at least, probably.
Right? But it’s in one year. That’s what it did. And it’s all about the domino effect, right? So it’s like that video led to other videos and then that led to discovering the link and then going further down the funnel. I always analyze both from a lead standpoint. When I get, and I have a text message system that I set up for myself, automation where I get a text when somebody new signs up for, and I have a notify.
It’s not just anybody signs up as a subscriber, but it’s more like, Hey, this person signed up for your notion template. Hey, this person signed up for your podcast launch checklist. Hey, this person signed up for your monetization map. All the different tools that have a specific. System set up for that and I get notified.
And so it’s very cool to get these text messages every day consistently at different times. And you’re like, wow, this people are actually digging this. The takeaway is to make sure that you go and find what’s making it work so that you can actually repeat that. Cause I think in the beginning, like we work so hard when we’re wor, like starting from scratch.
To get data, right? It’s like you don’t have any data in the first couple of months. There is nothing really happening, so you have to put your head down, just publish and work and get frequency and volume out there, right? But then as soon as you have a little bit of data, like you want to take advantage of that.
And try to double it. To double the data, right. Get more data points and do that with any leads that come through and sign up for your things. And then absolutely, you should be doing that for the customers. And then absolutely. I realize I should be doing this for the customers that I have, like the clients that come through.
How did they come through? This one was a referral. This one was actually somebody from YouTube. This one was somebody who listened to my podcast and they were a tough sell. This person like took a little while to convince them, but it turns out they stalked my podcast and then they told me that they did.
Okay. This person came like from Instagram, all right. That proves finally somebody can come from Instagram. I go, what’d you, what? What did you see on Instagram? What convinced you? And there was this client who saw the way that I like made this like testimonial video that I did with a client where I was teaching them how to like set up a microphone and while they were setting up the microphone, we were chatting and stuff.
And it was like, like a zoom recording that I made into just like a fan. Not fancy, but like white background, little logo, nice captions. Title at the top. And basically this person had asked, Hey, how do I, how do you do that? And I explained how to do it in a dm, in the comments or whatever. And then they ended up reaching out two and a half months later about basically revamping their podcast.
This is a separate client, and this person ended up spending like thousands of dollars with me, which was wild. And it just goes to show you like, You gotta invest. It just showed me exactly where to double down on. And even if you don’t take that data to heart right away, it’s something that you like. I don’t see any other way around it that is important.
Metrics to pay attention to. It also just encouraged me looking at a lot of this data, I would say encouraged me. In seeing that, look it is nice. It satisfies my ego to post on Instagram every single day and try to do that sometimes twice a day. Like I get in these phases where I wanna do that, but in reality, the conversion that’s happening from that, the traffic that’s coming from that to the websites, to the landing pages, to the cer, it’s not at all close to YouTube to podcasts and the referral sources there.
It justifies the decision to be like, it is more valuable to sit down and record this pod right now than maybe post an Instagram post, even though that feels better, maybe for my ego, right? Oh yeah. I’m showing what I’m doing in some way or whatever. So the answer is both for me, right? I do wanna still post on Instagram and get all that, but in terms of just objectively being like, look, this is not just a subjective feeling.
Oh man, I think it’s more valuable to post on YouTube here. This is actual data that’s indicating that, and it’s such a privilege, I think, to have data in the first place, right? Like to have put in the work. Enough times and failed at enough attempts to then now have a tiny bit of data. Okay. A hundred views.
Okay. 89 views. Okay. A thousand views, 3,500 views. Like having that is huge. So when I get a call with somebody that came from a podcast or. When I was coaching fitness clients, I would, I was hosting a very popular fitness podcast and a lot of times they would say in their inquiry form, they listened to that, they were a fan of the show.
And so when we talked like, oh, hey, do you remember what episode you first listened to? And like when did you listen to me? Like, when did you first find me? And it was wild. The pathway that people would reveal. There’s a listener from Poland that was like describing when he became a client of mine.
He only knew my voice because of the, he only knew my voice because of the podcast. He hadn’t even looked up my Instagram or any of that stuff. So that information is gold. It’s not something that you’re gonna see in your Google analytics or the referral sources. Like the part that pisses me off the most in referral traffic and sources is when you see unknown.
And you’re like, oh my gosh, this convert so well. Like why? Who is this? Where is this coming from? So the only way to find out a lot of this unknown and really make it known cuz if it’s amazing qualitative data, I think no matter if you’re a small business owner, solopreneur or freelance or whatever, analyzing the pathway of exactly where somebody came from, the piece of content, the timeline, the.
Time, like what was going on for them, like what made them actually do that? And then also what was the gap, right? So it took, a lot of times it goes to show you, it does take a year, it takes six months before some people act after, after staying in touch with your stuff. So it was very helpful to know what’d you do in the between time?
And that was valuable data that then I got to use in my. The rest of my content and future sales stuff, and it just gave me a better understanding of my dream client. I hope this was useful in terms of helping you figure out how you’re gonna do this maybe for yourself. I think it’s such a valuable skill, especially as you scale, and I see this with clients that have I’m working with now who have.
Hundreds of thousands of subscribers and some of them have millions of views and it can get really outta hand if you don’t have something to track this stuff. Making sure that you have some form of a C R M or notes file or something, a bare minimum to write down where people come from and keep a track record of that.
And then of course where it makes sense, double down, direct the energy where the data tells you to. Anyways, I hope this was useful. Thank you so much for spending the time hanging out. If you enjoy this, check out the links in the description below. Hopefully there’s some useful stuff there for you as well.
But I appreciate you and I will see you next time.
