Is YouTube Worth It for Your Business? Lessons from YouTube Ireland’s Rob Malone

1. There’s an audience for your niche. Honestly.

Rob’s favourite example is Jody’s channel, Irish Fishing Tales. It’s 30-minute episodes of a man on his commercial boat off Kinsale, hauling in lobster pots.

And people love it.

It reminded me of Robbie Linton, who lives near me. His YouTube channel is about cutting grass. Lawn mowing. With a proper East Antrim accent. The Americans cannot get enough of him.

Rob’s point is that YouTube has always rewarded the quirky, specialist niche. If you can talk about your topic with knowledge and a bit of passion, there’s an audience out there for it.

So if you’re thinking “sure who’d want to watch videos about what I do?”, you might be very surprised.

2. Build a portfolio, not a “corporate graveyard”

Rob sees a lot of businesses upload some polished brand videos because “we need a content strategy”. They get 10 views, and they give up.

He calls it a corporate graveyard of videos. And he’s right. Nobody on their commute is clicking to watch a generic brand video.

What they will watch is someone with real expertise and an opinion.

If you’re a business of one, you are the subject matter expert. Every video you make adds to a portfolio that shows exactly how you can help people. Someone who has never met you can land on your channel and know within minutes whether you’re the person they need.

That’s exactly how it works for me. People search for the answer to a LinkedIn question. My video pops up. They watch a few more, and then they get in touch saying, “You’re the person we need to work with.”

Be patient. It’s a slow build.

Some of my videos get 40 or 50 views in the first week. Then I look again 12 months later and they have 30,000.

Someone once told me YouTube growth is like a hockey stick. It goes along and along and along, then suddenly turns a corner. That was definitely true for me.

So please don’t judge it on week one.

3. Shorts or long-form? You won’t know till you try

I’ll be honest. Shorts don’t really work for me. I edit my own videos, and making a short that gets hundreds of thousands of views is a whole skill I don’t have time to learn.

Rob’s view is that short-form and long-form are different competencies. But Shorts can still earn their place:

• Post them everywhere. It’s a light lift to share the same vertical video across all your short-form platforms.
• Use them as a doorway. A short can lead people back to your longer videos. Rob gave the example of Morgan Biggs, whose football coaching channel Training One to One shows a technique in under three minutes, then goes deeper in a 10–12 minute video.
• Trust your data. If you’ve tested it and long-form works better for your business, put your effort there.

Rob’s two-minute challenge

I’ve been clipping bits out of my long videos and posting them as Shorts. Rob says don’t just chop down a long video to tick a box.

Instead, take the explainer you did in seven or ten minutes and tell that story properly in 90 seconds to two minutes.

It’s hard. Especially if, like me, you could talk for Ireland. But it forces you to be clear and succinct. I’m taking the challenge.

4. Your thumbnail and title have to earn the click

Around 20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every day. That’s the competition.

Unlike other social platforms, long-form YouTube is click-to-watch. Nothing autoplays as you scroll. So your thumbnail and title, which Rob calls your “packaging”, do two jobs:

1. Create enough intrigue that someone stops and clicks.
2. Say clearly what the video is about.

The biggest creators have whole teams testing up to 100 variations. You don’t need that. But it would be an awful shame to spend an hour recording a brilliant podcast, then use a screenshot as the thumbnail.

Then deliver on the promise, fast

Every second someone is on YouTube, they’re looking for a reason to stop watching your video.

So within the first second or two, the viewer needs confirmation that this is the video they clicked for. In the first five seconds, say exactly what they’re going to get.

It took me back to my old webinar days. “If you want to grow your LinkedIn profile, you’re in the right place.” Same idea.

That’s the difference between clickbait and a good thumbnail. The video actually matches it.

5. Be the face of your brand

I asked Rob about the biggest mistake he sees. His answer: no face.

Brands invest in a highly produced series of five videos, maybe with a celebrity, and then it’s one and done. There’s no longevity.

The brands that do it well have the same people showing up again and again. Rob mentioned Carwow in the UK, with a consistent presenter for years, and Teeling Whiskey, who do Shorts brilliantly with familiar faces. When you see them in your feed, you recognise them.

That’s great news if you’re a solo business owner. You already are the face.

“But I don’t want to be on camera”

I hear this a lot, especially from women around my age. Telling someone to “just get over yourself” isn’t helpful.

Rob’s advice was practical:

• Get some training first. Rob works with a speaking coach himself and says he’s not a naturally confident speaker. A formula and some feedback make it far less daunting.
• Think about your competitor. Imagine someone less good than you shows up on video and you don’t. Eighteen months later, they’re winning the work you should be winning. You’d be sick.
• Hit publish. Rob says hitting publish sets you free. Once it’s out there, it’s out there.

I saw someone on LinkedIn recently giving out about the publicity a competitor was getting. I hadn’t seen a single post from her in six months. Visibility doesn’t happen by accident.

6. The numbers that actually matter

I confess, I love checking YouTube Studio. Views, watch time, how much I’m earning per thousand views. But Rob told me to step back and start with one question: why are you doing this?

• Your business goals come first. Leads, sales, sign-ups. As Rob put it, 100 views and five leads beats 100,000 views and five leads every time.
• Subscribers are proof. They show the work you’ve put in over the years and give you credibility with clients, brands and event organisers.
• Views need context. A niche topic in a smaller country has a lower ceiling. Benchmark against people in your own industry, not MrBeast.
• Retention is what grows your channel. If your subscribers watch 70% of a video, YouTube shows it to more people like them. And on it goes.

Start with the drop-off

Rob wouldn’t give me a magic percentage to aim for. Instead, look at where people leave:

• Dropping off at five seconds? Your video may not match what the thumbnail promised.
• Dropping off at 20 seconds? Your intro is probably too long, or you haven’t said what the video is about.

Fix the opening first, then keep improving over time.

7. Let AI do the heavy lifting

Rob was speaking from the Google building in Dublin, so of course we had to talk about AI.

His best starting points for time-poor business owners:

• Titles and thumbnails. AI can generate concepts and title options in a fraction of the time. Rob admits he’s not naturally creative, and it helps him apply what he knows works.
• Scripting. Use Gemini, or whatever tool you prefer, to plan how to structure your video and keep people watching.
• Auto-dubbing. Translate your videos into Spanish or French and reach a whole new audience.

That scripting point was a lightbulb moment for me. I already use AI after recording to write my title, thumbnail concept and description from the transcript. But I’ve never used it before I hit record to help structure the video. I will now.

8. How often should you post?

This is the question everyone asks. People tell Rob they want to post twice a week. That’s a huge commitment. Ideas, recording, editing, and being happy with what goes out.

Rob’s answer: don’t put that pressure on yourself.

He describes YouTube as 50% creativity and 50% distribution. The trick is to pick an idea you can repeat.

Find a concept you could make 10 times. A 10-part series on one topic is something you can deliver, learn from and improve each time. A one-off video idea leaves you starting from scratch every single time.

And underneath all of it is enjoyment. If it’s 8pm on a Sunday and you’re dreading recording to hit your weekly schedule, you’ll stop. Then two years later you’ll look at your channel and wonder why.

Enjoy it. Be proud of what you publish, whatever the views. Though, as Rob said, a lot of views would be quite nice.