By Hi there, I’m now making YouTube videos full of marketing information. Check out the channel and let me know what you think: Joe Youngblood on YouTube
Below is a list of YouTube videos every marketer should watch. Each video has a description and why watching the video would be valuable to you as a marketer to watch it. This list will continue growing as I find more quality videos to add. If you have any suggestions please send them to me via the Contact page or social media or leave your suggestion in the comments below.
Educational Videos
1. Dr. Cialdini’s “Science Of Persuasion”:
Description: Dr. Cialdini discusses 6 different “shortcuts” to persuasion. This video is based on his book “Influence”.
Why you should watch: Not only does Dr. Cialdini do a great job discussing the various ways to persuade people to say yes and offer examples of how they are used, but it also shows how a video can get millions of views using white board style without showing the person, as long as the content is worth it.
2. Google’s “How to Hire an SEO”:
Description: Google’s Maile Ohye created this video just weeks before she left the search giant after working there as a search engineer for years. In this video she plainly explains many of the pain points customers have when hiring and SEO and the danger signs to be on the lookout for.
Why you should watch: If you’re not an SEO this video does a great job of helping you understand the process of finding and hiring a good SEO. I agree with most of it except where she says an SEO can’t make a claim without a validated message from Google. If you are an SEO, this video should help you prepare for questions from your prospective employers or clients.
3. Matt Cutt’s “How to Get Better Visibility on Google”:
Description: USA Today interviewed Google Engineer Matt Cutts in 2008
Why you should watch: Matt walks viewers through SEO 101. This will help anyone start to understand SEO quickly. Also notice the MS paint edits of 2008 making an appearance.
NOTE: The original version of this video private I embedded was made private for some reason. That version was found at this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GK0aQrCDEo
4. Nerdwriter’s “How Dark Patterns Trick You Online”
Description: A video about UX designs that are built to make some online features more difficult or impossible for users.
Why you should watch: Users on the internet deserve a good, high-quality, experience. Dark Patterns are used by marketers to stop activity deemed as negative to the company using them. In the video Nerdwriter showcases the process of trying to delete an Amazon account as one example. Dark Patterns can lead to user outrage and backlash, legal problems as in the case of LinkedIn, and a very guilty conscious for being so deceptive. Marketers should be aware of these.
5. WatchMojo’s “Top 10 Marketing Fails Coke, Ford, Netflix”:
Description: This video shows what it claims are the top 10 Brands that failed, among them are the failure of Blockbuster to compete against Netflix which pivoted from mailing out DVD’s to online streaming.
Why you should watch: Failure is a part of marketing, but these failures are typically due to other factors. It’s good to understand why campaigns in the past failed to try and avoid those yourself in the future. Also, some of them are pretty interesting.
6. Pat Flynn’s “How to Make an Awesome Slide Deck”:
Description: Pat Flynn discusses why making a bullet point only slide deck is bad for your presentation. He also discusses how to make a visual appealing deck.
Why you should watch: Whether you’re a new marketer or a seasons pro, we can all admit to making an ugly deck at some point and the number of ugly decks seems to grow.
7. Be Amazed’s “10 Ways You’re Secretly Tricked By Companies”:
Description: This video claims to display 10 different “Shady Ways Companies Are Ripping You Off”. It includes food photography and using a camera rig with CGI instead of a real car in auto commercials.
Why you should watch: You might just learn a new shady trick or two [winky face], but it’s also an interesting view to see how the public perceives some of our craft.
8. BrainCraft’s “The Psychology of Colour, Emotion and Online Shopping”:
Description: This video discusses how colors make humans feel and think and the history of how the science of color psychology has grown since the 1800’s.
Why you should watch: Color is incredibly important in today’s world for persuasion and creating welcome environments. Before making design recommendations, a marketer should at least understand these basics.
9. Life Noggin’s: “History of the Internet”:
Description: This video starts at the very beginings of the internet when sending signals between computers would make them crash and explains how we got to where we are today.
Why you should watch: Every marketer should have a basic understanding of the history of the internet.
10. Kurzgesagt’s “How Facebook is Stealing Billions of Views”:
Description: Kurzgesagt discusses the 2015 trend of “Freebooting” and Facebook’s system attacking YouTube.
Why you should watch: YouTube started by stealing videos from video and flash sites that came before them, in 2015 nearly a decade later, Facebook’s video started to do the same. Today the same thing is happening between Facebook and LinkedIn with many “thought leaders” simply downloading made for Facebook videos and uploading them to LinkedIn. As digital technology improves, copyright situations like this will become more frequent.
11. PolarSaurusRex’s “How To Make Memes (Final)”:
Description: YouTuber PolarSaurusRex explains how to make a meme using the software program Photoscape.
Why you should watch: I get asked how to make memes a lot, this video does a pretty good job of explaining some basics and a few advanced options, even though it is still limited but if you’re trying to use free software instead of Photoshop it’s a good primer. Notice the style of the video is semi-mocking / satire as well.
Bonus: Here’s a guide on making memes in Powerpoint. It’s not a video, but it makes basic memes fairly simple.
12. Roberto Blake’s “100 Ways to Market Yourself and Your Business with No Money”:
Description: Roberto Blake discusses an article he wrote about 100+ free ways to market yourself.
Why you should watch: If you pay close attention you’ll take a lot away from this video. Firstly it’s a video with over 100,000 views, even though its title is a bit of a misnomer as Roberto doesn’t actually list 100 ways to market yourself in the video. You might also notice Roberto Blake’s t-shirt and coffee mug match, which is no accident. “Always be Creating” is sort of Roberto’s catch phrase and he also sells matching merchandise. Finally, you might notice his humble computer setup complete with a baby Groot figurine, what looks like a Luke Skywalker, a marketing book by a popular talking head, a microphone arm, and a nice background.
13. Dr. Rex Jung’s “Visualizing Creativity in the Brain”:
Description: Dr. Rex Jung of the Neurosurgery Institute at the University of New Mexico explains how the brain’s creative processes work and how creative people work.
Why you should watch: You’ll learn solid tips for optimizing your own creativity processes.
14. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s “Multilevel Marketing”:
Description: John Oliver rips open the secrets of the Multilevel Marketing (Direct Selling) industry and displays them in the open for all to see.
Why you should watch: The video does an excellent job of detailing how difficult it is for members of MLMs to be successful but also has other interesting nuggets of information for marketers if you look beyond what John is saying and more specifically at how the MLMs themselves operate. As a whole the MLM industry thrives off of creating a spectacle, inspiring and motivating people to try and be better versions of themselves, and creating die hard fans (and enemies) of their products. While MLMs are probably something you should avoid, there are great lessons to be had from how they are successful.
Inspirational / Motivational Videos
15. Matt Cutts’ “Try Something New for 30 Days”:
Description: Matt Cutts of Google explains how he was inspired by Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me and 30 Days fame, to try something new for 30 days.
Why you should watch: Matt spent years toiling at Google before he left to help startup the United States Digital Service. His work helped man SEOs and businesses make a living for over a decade. You’ll be inspired to try something new and probably will like Matt more than ever before.
16. Seth Godin’s “How to Get Your Ideas to Spread”:
Description: The video that made millions of marketers care about TED talks. Seth’s talk largely leans on his book Purple Cow (which is a great read) and feels oddly predictive of the “me, me, me” world of today that we live in, even though this talk was given in 2003.
Why you should watch: Seth makes himself vulnerable in this TED talk and discusses his own failure, a company called Sauce. This talk has also been quintessential viewing for marketers trying to make sense of the digital world where remarkability often trumps usefulness, trustworthiness, location, or other factors often relied on to increase ROI.
17. Steven Kotler’s “Slow Down Your Brain to Get More Done”:
Description: An inspirational introduction to the concept of Transient Hypofrontality this video might motivate you to want to learn more about how the brain’s creative processes work.
Why you should watch: Once you understand how the brain’s creative processes work you can optimize your workflow and your life to maximize your creativity.
Funny Videos
18. The Website is Down’s “Sales Guy vs. Web Dudes”:
Description: A hilarious classic piece of internet culture, this video depicts a battle of wits between a tech administrator (also known as a sysadmin) named Derrek and a not-so-tech savvy sales guy named Chip. The video also depicts the divide between the tech side of a business and the sales or marketing side.
Why you should watch: A marketer watching this video should take away how funny the internet was in 2008, but also notice that developers and it managers often see their marketing, sales, and operations counterparts like Chip. Don’t be a Chip.