Who doesn’t love a good 30-day challenge?
Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you know short-form video is one of the primary forms of content consumption in 2023. As of July 2022, videos that are under 60 seconds made up 57% of YouTube views, compared to just 11% two years ago. That will only grow in 2024 (I know that data point is a little old but it is the last published data).
Is this a good thing? Well, that’s another post altogether. Decreasing attention spans and mindless scrolling are here to stay for the short term so let’s see how we can adapt our marketing as a result.
I have multiple YouTube channels. One for guHRoo, one for Underdog, and even a random one for coaching youth athletes. I enjoy communicating via video as it is a “one to many” format and allows me to not have to share the same information 100 times. I can send people a link.
Our primary Youtube channel has always been kinda meh. I will make a video one month, nothing for two months, make three videos, nothing for six months, and on and on. Now that marketing is part of my FT role at guHRoo, I am reviewing our strategy and making updates.
It would be hard to ignore short-form videos as part of the strategy.
We already have a clearly defined ICP, we already create a ton of content for other platforms, so the question is; how could I make it easy to create YT videos regularly? It can be a pain to make ten-minute videos (even though we are starting to do more). So I wanted to capitalize on Shorts and repurpose content we already had.
That’s when I heard this statistic about a professor who had his students do one Short every day for 30 days. The students who completed the assignment all had tens of thousands of views at the end of the 30 days. I thought, bingo! I can do a 30-day challenge. We already have the content, the page, etc. Here is how I am creating the content, step-by-step.
How to grow your YouTube channel with a Content Grid
I started by creating a plan for the content. I wanted to make this as easy as possible so I went into Shield and filtered my content over the last three years by posts with the most views. I clicked on the links that were relevant to this audience and saved those posts as the “scripts” for about 20 of the videos. See the Sheet I created below.
I also had about five videos that were filmed during a session a couple of months back we could use. I added the Vimeo files to the schedule.
Now I wanted to make sure we occasionally dropped in something about our solutions. I wanted to follow the jab, jab, jab hook method as much as possible (value, value, value, ask). I sprinkled in a few videos that were directly related to the problems we solve for our clients and asked them to check out our site for help with those problems.
Scripting the videos.
The social posts were a good starting point for the “scripts” but I wanted to make sure they were tighter. I took the post and added this prompt to ChatGPT:]
I am filming a YouTube short and need some help creating an outline for the script. I would like the script to follow the PAS method of copywriting and be written in a way that captivates the watcher and encourages them to stay until the end of the video. Please take the below text and premise and turn it into a script for a video that is less than one minute long. This video will just be me speaking into a phone camera in my office.
Here is an example of a post and the script it created:
LinkedIn Post
Remote work exposes the issues your company has.
Bad culture, unproductive people, poor leadership, outdated processes, lack of communication, bad systems, poorly documented workflows…
These issues were not created by remote work.
These issues were exposed by remote work.
What good habits were exposed when your team went remote?
ChatGPT response:
[INTRO - Problem] (Camera: Focused on you. You look directly into the lens.) You: "You know what's fascinating about remote work? It's not creating problems at your company…" (Your tone becomes more serious) You: "Bad culture, unproductive people, poor leadership, outdated processes… sounds familiar?" [Agitation] (Camera: You start moving around your office to create a dynamic video.) You: "These issues have always been there, hidden in the shadows. Now, in a remote setting, they've been exposed. Communication gaps, inefficient systems - it's all laid bare." (You pause for a moment) You: "But did remote work create these problems? Or did it simply expose what's been there all along?" [Solution] (Camera: You move back to your desk, with a more hopeful tone and expression) You: "So, let's flip the script. What about the good habits that were exposed when your team went remote? The resilience, the adaptability, the innovation?" (You smile, looking optimistic) You: "Every challenge is an opportunity. It's time to face these issues head-on and create a better, more productive workspace, whether remote or not." (Camera: You lean into the camera, closing off with a motivating endnote) You: "Because remember, remote work isn't the problem, it's the revealer. It's up to us to take it from here. Stay tuned for my next video to discover how!" (Camera: You gesture a 'like' and 'subscribe' motion) You: "If you found this video helpful, don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more insights!" Remember, the key to keeping viewers engaged is your energy, tone, and pacing. Ensure you vary your tone and maintain a good energy level throughout. The goal is to keep it under a minute, so you might have to practice to get the pacing right.
I can put this script into my language and record the video right from my phone. I bought an app called Subcap that puts subtitles on the videos and after the initial planning, it doesn’t take me longer than 10 minutes a day.
This is just one way I come up with content. I also have a running document of the things currently happening and any time someone says “I saw your post about X or I loved your video about Y”, I make note of it. If someone is willing to go out of their way to say something, there are probably a lot of people who saw it and got value that won’t say anything.
Results
I started this blog back in 2023. I completed the 30-day challenge for guHRoo’s channel. I only ended up doing about 20 videos we got more than 200 followers in 30 days. Not too shabby. Now I am going to replicate it for the Underdog channel and see how far we can take it.
Want to do it yourself? Comment “30for30” below and I will send you the link to my planning sheet so you can follow along and grow your channel.
Here’s to growth in 2024!
