5 Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business on YouTube in 2026

If I were starting YouTube from scratch today…

Or if I simply wanted to take a massive advantage of YouTube over the next year as a business owner, there are five proven strategies I would focus on immediately.

This is especially relevant if you’re a solo online business owner without a big team to help you build a massive content ecosystem.

YouTube remains the most powerful platform for growing your audience online.

Your content lives there long-term, it continues working for you long after you publish it, and it rewards clarity, consistency, and usefulness in a way no other platform does.

In this post, I want to walk you through exactly how I would use YouTube to grow a business in 2026, not just to get views, but to attract the right people, grow an email list, and build a sustainable growth loop that supports your offers.

Discover the strategies that work even if you don’t have a big team.

Let’s make your business binge-worthy!

VIDEO: 5 Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business on YouTube in 2026 | Ep. 76

Some product links in this post are affiliate links, and I will be compensated when you purchase by clicking our links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Why YouTube Is Still the Most Powerful Platform for Business Growth

For the time, energy, and effort it takes to show up online and create content, YouTube gives you the biggest return. It has more users than any other video platform, and your videos don’t disappear after 24 hours or get buried in a fast-moving feed.

YouTube allows you to create long-form, problem-solving content that can be discovered through YouTube search, Google search, and even AI tools. When done well, it positions you as the expert people turn to when they’re actively looking for solutions.

Here’s exactly how I would take advantage of YouTube moving into 2026.

Strategy #1: Solve Problems Your Ideal Clients Are Already Searching For

I’ve talked about this before, but I cannot stress this enough. Create content that solves the problems that your ideal paid clients and customers are already searching for. The problems that your ideal clients and customers are going to Google or Gemini, ChatGPT, or YouTube and actually typing in: “How do I [blank]?”

What are the problems that people are actively seeking to solve right now? Not what you think your ideal audience is searching for, and not what you know or what you think that people should be searching for.

Go Beyond Keyword Tools

I am not even necessarily talking about what the keyword research tools are telling you people are searching for. If you have an established business, and you have worked with clients, and you have a course or program, and you have had clients and students in there, you already know the problems that people are searching for solutions to.

Regardless of what the keyword research tools like VidIQ and TubeBuddy tell you, you know your client or customer more than those tools do – I guarantee it.

Get Specific With Your Topics

I’m not talking necessarily about big topics like “how to get started with yoga” or something like that. I’m talking about really specific topics like “what yoga poses are best for [blank]” or “does yoga work for [blank]?”

People want answers that are tailored to them. They want to solve these problems that they have for themselves. They’re searching for themselves. And it’s really easy to speak their language because all you have to do is look at the frequently asked questions that your clients, students, or prospective clients and students are asking you.

Those are the problems that all of the other prospective clients and students for you are going to and actually typing in somewhere to get the answers to.

Why This Matters for AI and Search Algorithms

Because of YouTube’s algorithms and because of even just Google’s algorithms and AI, when you create long-form content that actually offers up solutions that people are searching for in plain, everyday, easy-to-consume language, you are going to be ranked in the search algorithms and referenced in the AI algorithms.

You are going to be the leading expert that the AI tools are looking to for the information and content that people are searching for. So it’s not enough to simply create content that people in your niche are searching for. You have to think about what the problems people are searching to solve.

Because people who are searching for solving problems are searching for solutions. And if you have a course or a program, or if working with you in some way is a solution to the problem, you want to be the one who shows up as the thought leader, as the expert, as the person with the solutions.

Using AI Tools to Help

You can totally use ChatGPT or Gemini to help you kind of figure out what those problems are. But inside Video Brand Academy, I have a brainstorming breakthrough tool that does exactly that, but it’s trained by me. It’s trained by the curriculum within Video Brand Academy. It’s not ChatGPT just kind of making wildly confident yet wildly wrong guesses that ChatGPT tends to do sometimes.

You Already Know the Answers

If you’ve worked with clients, coached students, or run a program, you already know what people are struggling with. You’ve answered these questions in emails, DMs, live calls, and support tickets.

Those questions are not random. They’re the exact problems other people are searching for online.

Tools like VidIQ and TubeBuddy can be helpful, but they don’t know your audience the way you do. Your real-world experience will always beat keyword tools when it comes to relevance.

Specific Beats Broad Every Time

Instead of creating content around broad topics like “how to get started with yoga,” think in terms of very specific problems, like:

What yoga poses help with lower back pain?
Does yoga actually help with anxiety?
What yoga equipment do beginners really need?

People don’t search because they’re bored; they search because they want a solution. When your content speaks directly to their problem in clear, everyday language, it’s more likely to rank in search and be referenced by AI tools.

That’s how you become the expert those platforms trust.

Inside Video Brand Academy, I use a Brainstorm Breakthrough tool trained on my curriculum to help identify these problems, not generic AI guesses, but prompts rooted in real client experience.

Strategy #2: Become the Subject Matter Expert on One Product or Tool

This strategy is massively underutilized, and it’s one of the main reasons my channel grew early on.

When I started publishing consistently in 2015, I focused heavily on GoPro tutorials and editing videos. I wasn’t trying to cover everything. I simply became extremely helpful around one specific product that people were already searching for.

Why This Works (Even If You’re a Coach)

Coaches and course creators often hesitate here because they want their best teaching inside their paid programs. I get that.

But here’s the thing: being generous with your knowledge in public content builds trust faster than anything else. When you clearly understand the tools your audience uses every day, you position yourself as the go-to expert.

If you teach homeschooling, for example, become the expert on the curricula families are already researching. You don’t even have to recommend them, just explain how they work, what to watch out for, and how people actually use them in real life.

People are already researching these tools. When you show up with clarity and experience, you win.

Strategy #3: Pin Your Best Content to the Top of Your Channel

This is one of the simplest ways to use YouTube’s own features to your advantage.

Create a “Start Here” playlist and pin it to the very top of your channel.

What Goes in This Playlist

Your “Start Here” playlist should include videos that generate the strongest green flags, such as:

High retention or watch time
Strong engagement in the comments
High opt-in or conversion rates

This isn’t about showcasing your favorite videos. It’s about showcasing what works.

Fueling the Algorithm

It’s going to generate more goodwill in the algorithm, if you will. If you know that you are constantly kind of sending people to a video that has really good retention or really good engagement, those are already green flags for the algorithm. Pin that stuff to the top of your channel so that you can fuel those green flags even more.

And if you are growing your list with YouTube, which we’ll talk about in just a second, and you know there are certain videos that are driving more traffic to your lead magnets, your freebies, or even to something that you’re selling, pin that to the top of your channel.

Don’t Overthink This

The reason I say don’t overthink this is that your analytics will tell you what videos are getting the highest retention, the most engagement. And you should have a sense of: Are these attracting the exact ideal right type of person that I want to have on my channel? Are they my ideal customers?

Don’t just put what you think are your best videos at the top. It’s not there to show off the topics that you think people should watch or the things that you care about. Your analytics will tell you what’s performing best on your channel, and it doesn’t matter how many views these videos have, either.

What matters is on the backend: Are they generating more green flags, goodwill in the algorithm for you? Are they generating more leads for you? And are they attracting the ideal right client, customer, audience, viewer that you are trying to attract on your channel?

You put a lot of time and effort into the content you create, and this is a way that you can use one of YouTube’s own features to kind of game the system a little bit by putting your best-performing content right at the top of your channel.

Strategy #4: Turn Your Channel Into a Funnel

Your YouTube channel is already a funnel, whether you’ve intentionally built one or not.

The easiest way to turn it into a business asset is by consistently growing your email list.

Why Simple Lead Magnets Work Best

Cheat sheets and checklists work incredibly well on YouTube, especially when they support the tools or topics you teach.

If you’re a subject matter expert on a product or software, create a simple one-page resource that helps people use it better. That’s an easy yes for viewers.

Make sure your links are easy to find:

Put opt-ins in every video description
Use the top link in your channel’s About section strategically

Create Simple, Valuable Lead Magnets

Cheat sheets and checklists, if you follow what I said for number two, which is to become a subject matter expert on a product, like a physical product or a piece of software in your niche, make a cheat sheet or checklist for that.

Just a one-page thing. People opt in, and they download it. Now they’re on your list. It’s the easiest thing in the world for you to create, but it’s also just a no-brainer thing for people to opt into if they’re trying to learn a product or software. Why wouldn’t they download your cheat sheet or your checklist? It’s so easy.

Make Your Links Visible

You can put links in your descriptions. Links in YouTube descriptions are clickable. And you can put links to your cheat sheets, checklists, and opt-ins in every single one of your videos so that you don’t even have to think about it.

If you forget to mention it or if you mention it and then you forget to put a link in, just put it in all of your videos. Put your links to your stuff in all of your videos.

At the very top of your channel, you have a bio section or the about section. You can have multiple links in your bio, but the link at the top of your link list in your bio will be visible on the homepage of your channel. So make it a good one. Make it something that people want to opt in for.

That way, it’s easy for people to opt into your stuff, and it’s easy for you then to grow your list as you create more content and as the YouTube algorithm keeps bringing more people to your channel.

The easier you make it, the more your list grows passively as your content keeps getting discovered.

Strategy #5: Keep Your Email List Engaged With Your YouTube Content

Your email list is the bridge between YouTube and your paid programs.

For every YouTube video I publish, an email goes out to my list. That email can be reused later in evergreen sequences because most of my content stays relevant long-term.

This creates a powerful growth loop:

YouTube grows your list
Your list re-engages with your YouTube content
Your most engaged people hear about your offers

Inside Video Brand Academy, I also teach a mini course on email marketing specifically for YouTube creators to make this process simple and repeatable.

Bonus: Lean Into Your Humanness

Let me give you a quick recap on the five strategies to grow your business on YouTube in the next year:

Solve real problems people are searching for
Become the expert on one key tool or product
Pin your best content with a “Start Here” playlist
Always build your email list
Use your email list to support long-term growth
But here’s the reminder I want you to carry into 2026:

But here’s the reminder I want you to carry into 2026:

Lean into your humanness.

I love AI. I use AI. But it’s very easy to automate yourself out of connection. As platforms become more saturated with AI-generated content, being human becomes your competitive advantage.

People don’t just want information, they want connection. And that’s something no tool can replace.

Inside Video Brand Academy, I also teach a mini-course on email marketing specifically for YouTube creators to make this process simple and repeatable.

Conclusion

Growing your business on YouTube in 2026 isn’t about chasing trends or hacking the algorithm. It’s about being helpful, specific, consistent, and human.

When you treat YouTube as a long-term asset instead of a short-term content strategy, it becomes one of the most powerful growth tools in your business.

That’s one of the reasons why I have Video Brand Academy, because that’s where I get to connect with other solo online business owners who are growing their channels and growing their businesses. We have live Q&A calls all the time, essentially, where we deep dive into your analytics. I can answer your questions and help you out. You can get real-time coaching from me.

And it’s the most supportive group of people on the internet. I am biased, but I love the people that we have inside of Video Brand Academy. And if you want help or just a little bit of support, a little bit of handholding as you’re growing your channel over the next year, and as you’re using YouTube to grow your business over the next year, I put a link down below to Video Brand Academy.

It’s the easiest thing in the world to join and get started with right away. So I hope to see you on the inside!

Here’s to making 2026 your strongest year on YouTube yet.

If you have an online business with a course, program, or any other kind of offer, and you’re not currently generating consistent sales on autopilot, I’d like to introduce you to the hands-off YouTube funnel that has made me over $20k on a $147 course! That way, you too can make consistent sales of your offer, with the beauty and simplicity of organic, evergreen traffic from YouTube! Start here with my free “AIT Method” training.