Strategies for Dominating Video Content

We built Chubbies from zero to a 9-figure exit and part of a 10-figure IPO. If there's one thing you can do to increase the new customer revenue you're getting through owned and organic channels (the most profitable kind of new customer revenue), create exceptional video content in-house. Here are the 4 keys that worked for us: 1. Find the right people. - These people are fundamentally funny, magnetic, creative, and scrappy. There's no way around this. - Often times they won't have any formal training in this arena. - Often times they will already be in your friend group. - These people are a joy to be around. - They love to make people laugh. - They are already doing it in some form. They might be moonlighting as a standup comic. They might be the person posting the funniest memes/content on your friend group text thread. They've had some of their own tweets go viral. There's a nugget of existing passion and results. 2. Find people who can do it all. They can go end-to-end - Generate the concept - Storyboard - Write - Film - Act - Adit - Package - Distribute - Analyze performance - Incorporate learnings - Repeat - No need to over-specialize. Sure, you can find separate people for all of these things, but that's the opposite of scrappy. 3. Go fast. Learn fast. - High volume + measurable objective definition of success = a process for maximizing the probability of finding winners - What do you have to embrace in order to do that? low production value. this will NOT look like a Nike or Apple ad. That's the point. - Success is NOT having your content look like a feature film. Success is moving the metrics you're trying to move as much as possible with as little investment (time, people, money) as possible. - You can't get this tight + fast feedback using external resources, nor can you get the compounding learning that becomes essential to continue to progress 4. Uncomfortable constraints + high standards - You can reshoot 1000000 times and then edit for 10000 hours. - Or, you can require your team to get 2 shots on goal out into the world 2x per week. - Creative endeavors without uncomfortable constraints are doomed. - Not advocating getting content out for the sake of getting it out. - When you have people in-house putting out content consistently, their personal reputation gets attached to that content, which is a great filter + incentive structure to ensure high content quality - The high standards DO NOT mean high production value. - The high standards DO mean a great piece of content people love + want to share, which is a combination of exceptional concept, execution and packaging - Southpark's "6 Days to Air" is a wonderful example of how this plays out ... THIS IS NOT EASY. Actually, it is very hard. Exhausting. Humbling. Exhilarating. The most rewarding thing you can do if you love making content people love. Great things are not easy. I'm eternally thankful for the amazing team who made this happen🙏

Video terrifies most marketers. Nothing is more devastating than pouring time, sweat, and money into a video no one watches. The world's best video creators ensure that never happens with this simple tactic: They create headlines and thumbnails before writing a script or picking up a camera. Why? Because headlines and thumbnails are the cheapest way to stress-test your video concept. If you can't come up with headlines and thumbnails that are undeniably clickable, don’t make the video. Want to create headlines and thumbnails with an amazing click-through rate? Steal these strategies: ✔️ Tell a mini-story. An ugly thumbnail that tells a story is exponentially better than a pixel-perfect thumbnail that doesn’t. ✔️ Don't play it safe. Watering down your headline and thumbnail is the quickest way to ensure your video loses right out of the gate. Being bold is a necessary ingredient for high CTR. ✔️ Set the stakes. State an ambitious goal in the headline. Use the thumbnail to show the dramatic obstacles you must overcome to achieve it. Show the audience the consequences that will happen if you fail. ✔️ Strip back everything unnecessary. Leave only the most essential, emotionally-compelling concept. ✔️ Keep it honest. Your headline and thumbnail are the elevator pitch to your audience. Don’t risk your credibility by making a promise you can’t deliver. ✔️ Create a curiosity gap. Intentionally leave questions unanswered so people feel the need to learn more. ✔️ Create a headline and a thumbnail with a single person in mind. The more specific you are with your target audience, the more likely you are to find them. ✔️ Emotional value first, SEO value second. Keywords alone don't make a good title. A boring title is a kiss of death for your video. Use emotional words to create interest around your primary keyword. Don’t treat headlines and thumbnails as an afterthought. Make them the first step in your process.

Here’s how I repurpose all of my video content 📱 And to be clear, by repurposing I mean this 👇 Taking (Raw) long form video content and creating endless amounts of other content from it STEP 1️⃣: Strategy/Planning Most people think repurposing starts once you have the long form video/recording “Hey we’ve got this long form video, how can we repurpose it?” That’s what amateurs do 👆 The pros know it starts prior to recording the video by asking yourself these questions: -What type of content do you want to get from this? -How are you embedding hooks throughout the long form content to trim later?  -How does this longer form video fit into our overall content strategy? STEP 2️⃣: Recording Now we’re ready to create the long from video which is usually one of the following: -Live/virtual event -Long form YouTube video  -Video Podcast Nowadays I go 100% smartphone setup: -Iphone 15 -RODE wireless pro mics -Lume cube ring light (For lower budget MOVO and Comica wireless mics are great too) For the secondary visual/audio I use 👇 -Webcam: Insta 360 (USB-C plug in) -Mic: RODE NT-USB (USB-C plug in) STEP 3️⃣: Post production Trello is our home base for all things post production I toss the content in a Gdrive folder, and then a Zapier automation automatically creates a card (With title) and file in Trello, and the process begins Our editor snatches up the files and begins editing A.I. is used to help edit videos faster and to write copy more efficiently (Posts, blogs, newsletters) 🤖 -Chat GPT -Runway -Descript (I still write all of my own posts too) STEP 4️⃣: Distribution I use 0 scheduling tools because the 4 major platforms allow you to schedule in app -LinkedIn -YouTube -Podcast (Spotify for Podcasters)  -TikTok STEP 5️⃣: Gather Insights and Repeat I'm constantly gathering insights from our audience, understanding what’s working, what’s not, and reviewing the quantitative and qualitative metrics to create better content as a result of it 😎 By the way....this is something I LIVE, week in and week out, and work with 7 & 8 figure B2B companies to help implement. If you wanna start creating content more way more effectively and efficiently, send me a DM and let's have a chat now ❤️ABS Alex B Sheridan #videomarketing #videoconentstrategy #repurposingvideo

Your video's purpose isn't to tell the best story. Your video's purpose is to change the audience's behavior. And you have to change several different behaviors along the way. Behavior change 1: You need to stop their scroll They're not looking for your content. It's interrupting their feed, in between the stuff they actually want to see. You need a compelling enough image that will make them stop. Pro tip: if your media buy is in a social feed, there's an 80% chance it's being viewed on mobile. Make sure your video is 4x5 or 9x16 so that it takes up as much real estate on the screen as possible. Behavior change 2: You need to keep their attention "Storytelling" rules will have you put the most compelling message in the climax of the video, usually around 2/3 of the way in. But you don't have a guarantee that your audience will stick around that long. Put the most compelling message in the first few seconds of the video. Behavior change 3: You need them to remember you Keep your messaging tight. The more you try to get the audience to know, the more fractured and less effective your messaging is. Behavior change 4: You need them to act Make sure your call to action is clear. Don't use multiple CTAs. If the audience doesn't know which action to take, they won't take any. And make sure the benefit the audience gets from taking that action is clear. Connect the action you want them to take to your most compelling message and benefits. When you focus less on story mechanics and more on the behaviors you're trying to change, the more likely you are to create an effective ad.