0:01 If your content is underperforming, the
0:04 main reason why that's happening is the
0:06 packaging. This is the number one area
0:08 all my smartest creator friends obsess
0:09 over. And if you don't know what
0:11 packaging is or have a strategy for it,
0:14 you're at a massive disadvantage. Cuz
0:15 here's the truth. If you have bad
0:17 packaging, you don't even really have a
0:18 chance of making content that's going to
0:20 perform well. So, if you want to grow
0:22 faster and make sure the time you spend
0:24 making content is worth it, packaging is
0:27 the area you need to level up. Now, in
0:28 this video, I'm going to break down 10
0:30 tactical tips and frameworks to help you
0:33 improve your packaging immediately. And
0:34 once you hear these and incorporate them
0:36 into your process, I guarantee your
0:38 videos will start crushing. By the way,
0:39 I'm Callaway. I have a million
0:40 followers. I've done billions of views.
0:43 And content is all I do all day long.
0:44 All right. Now, the first tactical tip
0:47 to understand is what content packaging
0:49 actually means and why it's so
0:51 important. Packaging for YouTube is the
0:53 title, the thumbnail, and the intro of
0:55 the video. The first 30 to 60 seconds.
0:56 Packaging for social media is the first
0:58 line of the caption, the thumbnail, and
1:01 the hook. The first 3 to 5 seconds. Now,
1:02 here's why packaging is the most
1:04 important aspect of the content
1:06 workflow, and why the smartest creators
1:08 I know spend most of their time focused
1:10 on it. Imagine in front of you was a
1:12 table full of gifts. Now, on the table,
1:14 they're all different shapes and sizes.
1:16 Some laced with bows, some in bags, some
1:18 with colorful wrapping paper. You get
1:20 the picture. Now, if I only gave you one
1:22 second to look at the table and pick a
1:24 gift, which is the first one that
1:26 catches your eye? For most people, it's
1:27 going to be that gold one on the right
1:29 hand side. Now, why is this? For one,
1:31 the packaging of the gold one is
1:32 generally different and more
1:34 eye-catching than all the others. It
1:36 pops out more. And just like a deer in
1:38 the woods, people notice things that are
1:40 atypical from the conventional pattern
1:42 because the human brain is trained to
1:44 spot differences. Now, if I told you to
1:46 walk up to the table and pick one of the
1:47 gifts to unwrap, and you weren't trying
1:49 to be cheeky, you would probably go and
1:51 pick the gold one. And the reason for
1:53 that is because the gold one looks most
1:55 valuable to you, and you're curious to
1:58 figure out what value is inside. This
1:59 one-two punch of initial awareness and
2:02 then rapid valuebased curiosity is the
2:04 cheat code to winning packaging. And in
2:05 this video, we're going to get into a
2:07 bunch of tactical psychology tips and
2:10 tactics that you can use to improve your
2:12 packaging so more people click and
2:13 watch. But just to finish the metaphor,
2:15 here's really why content packaging is
2:17 so important. For all the gifts on the
2:19 table you don't pick up, they might as
2:21 well have been empty boxes on the
2:23 inside. Because the truth is, it doesn't
2:25 matter what's inside if no one ever
2:27 looks. Think about it. If each of those
2:29 gifts represented a piece of content you
2:31 spent hours making, but nobody ever
2:33 picks them up and unwraps them, well
2:34 then what's inside might as well have
2:36 been 15 minutes of black screen. Mr.
2:38 Beast is famous for saying, "If they
2:40 don't click, they don't watch."
2:42 Packaging is the art of getting the
2:44 viewer to click and start watching in
2:46 the first place. And if you can't do
2:48 that, literally nothing else matters in
2:50 the content workflow downstream. Now,
2:51 before I go on to the next point and
2:53 give you all the tactics and tricks that
2:55 I personally use, one more point of
2:56 clarification on this whole metaphor.
2:58 You might be thinking, "All right, the
2:59 gifts on the table thing makes sense for
3:00 YouTube because we're looking at a home
3:02 feed of thumbnails and choosing what to
3:04 pick." But on social media, I don't get
3:06 to choose. The feed just serves up
3:08 videos. So, how does that make sense in
3:09 this whole thing? on social media. With
3:11 short form video, instead of having a
3:13 table full of gifts that you choose,
3:15 you're getting served gifts one at a
3:17 time on the feed by the algorithm. And
3:19 with short form video, it's the
3:20 packaging's job to get you to stop
3:23 scrolling and choose to unwrap the gift.
3:24 So, it's a bit of a different mechanism,
3:26 but it's the exact same game. Whether
3:28 it's YouTube or social media, the
3:30 packaging must get the viewer to opt in
3:32 and watch or nothing else matters. Now,
3:34 if you believe what I'm saying about the
3:35 packaging, and you should, you're
3:36 probably thinking, "All right, just tell
3:38 me what to change with my packaging so
3:40 it's better and more people watch." And
3:41 so, let's do that. First, I'm going to
3:43 go through a rapidfire list of
3:45 frameworks and tactics that apply to
3:46 YouTube packaging for long- form
3:48 content. And then, I'm going to do the
3:50 same thing, different tips and tactics
3:52 for short form social media packaging.
3:54 If you care about content, I recommend
3:56 watching the entire thing because the
3:58 pieces are different, but the psychology
4:00 applies to both. And spoiler alert,
4:01 there are about eight gems in here that
4:03 I have never heard anybody talk about.
4:04 So, let's dive in. All right, packaging
4:06 tip number one for YouTube is about
4:08 contrast and color science. Here's how
4:10 YouTube actually works. After just a few
4:12 hours of watching on YouTube, a viewer's
4:13 homepage is going to start having more
4:16 and more videos from the same niche or
4:18 category. If you like watching marketing
4:19 videos, you're going to start seeing
4:21 more and more marketing videos show up
4:23 on the feed. Now, typically the design
4:25 meta for thumbnails in a given niche
4:28 tends to converge on the same aesthetic
4:30 and colors. And that's because most
4:31 people are lazy. And so, if one person
4:33 in the category rips, everyone just
4:35 copies what they see and does the exact
4:37 same thing. What ends up happening is
4:38 that when a viewer looks at a grid of
4:40 thumbnails in a given niche, nothing
4:42 pops out because all of the design and
4:45 colors look the same. And in this case,
4:46 the one they end up clicking on is
4:48 anything with a recognizable face, like
4:50 a big personal brand or a famous person,
4:52 because the colors never grab their
4:54 attention. However, the easiest way to
4:56 get your packaging to pop, especially if
4:58 you're smaller or not as wellknown, is
5:01 by inversing the color meta of the
5:03 category. So, for example, if the
5:04 thumbnail design pattern in your niche
5:06 is typically dark and busy, then go
5:08 light and minimal. If your category is
5:10 typically colorful and bright, then go
5:12 monochromatic. And there's actually
5:14 proven neuroscience behind this. The
5:16 brain processes colors and brightness
5:18 much faster than it can interpret
5:21 objects and text. So if you just inverse
5:23 the colors, brightness, and orientation
5:25 of the design in your category, you'll
5:27 get a lot more people to stop and pay
5:28 attention to your thumbnail initially.
5:30 Now, the best way to figure out what the
5:32 design meta is of your niche or category
5:34 is to use a tool like Click Pilot, add a
5:36 bunch of the top channels, zoom out,
5:38 look at the grid, and try to assess what
5:40 the color pattern or design pattern
5:42 looks like. When you slot your thumbnail
5:45 into this grid, does it pop out or not?
5:47 If not, and your face is relatively
5:48 unknown, then you've got a packaging
5:50 problem cuz your thumbnails will not be
5:52 clickable relative to the field. So, the
5:54 takeaway for this first point is this.
5:57 If your niche on YouTube converges on a
5:59 particular color science design pattern,
6:02 inverse it so yours can pop and contrast
6:04 more. All right, lesson number two for
6:06 YouTube packaging goes along the same
6:07 lines. And if you've been making YouTube
6:09 videos for a while and they haven't been
6:10 working, I guarantee this one's going to
6:12 piss you off. Here's a fact that I
6:14 learned way too late that really matters
6:16 for packaging. More than 80% of YouTube
6:19 viewers are scrolling on YouTube in dark
6:21 mode. That means the dark gray or
6:23 blackish background on your phone or
6:25 desktop. So, if you've designed your
6:27 thumbnails to pop on the traditionally
6:29 white screen and you've used some
6:31 darkish grayish background, well, when
6:33 you flip to dark mode, if they don't pop
6:35 out, you're cooked. So, this tip is
6:37 critical. When you do all the color
6:38 science and contrast work that I just
6:40 mentioned in the first point, make sure
6:42 you're doing it on dark mode. You have
6:45 to pop against the field and against the
6:47 background of your phone and desktop in
6:49 dark mode. This is a super easy fix, but
6:50 a huge design mistake that a lot of
6:52 people are making. All right, packaging
6:53 tip number three for YouTube is
6:55 understanding packaging psychology.
6:58 Here's how the psychology actually works
6:59 when someone is scrolling through
7:01 YouTube and trying to decide which
7:03 thumbnail title combo to press. It goes
7:06 like this. They see thumbnail, title,
7:09 thumbnail, click. That is the flow. Let
7:10 me explain this. I mentioned this a
7:11 little bit before about how the brain
7:12 process, but let me explain this here.
7:15 When the brain is rapidly processing for
7:16 information, it goes through two stages.
7:18 The first is called bottoms up
7:20 processing. And this is where the visual
7:23 cortex can assess things like colors,
7:25 motion, brightness, and broad
7:27 orientation, but it's not crystal clear.
7:30 It assesses those things rapidly. Think
7:31 of it like a blind person that can
7:34 barely see. They can't really make out
7:36 exactly the letters and objects, but
7:38 they could see colors blurred. They
7:40 could see motion happening. That's how
7:41 your brain works rapidly in real time.
7:43 It happens in like 200 milliseconds. So
7:44 the very first step in packaging
7:47 psychology and what happens in real time
7:49 all the time on YouTube is that as
7:51 someone's scrolling their brain sees a
7:54 different color, different brightness,
7:56 some motion popping out of the corner of
7:58 their eye, and that's what initially
8:00 locks them on to seeing if something's
8:02 interesting. So that's step one, the
8:03 initial thumbnail. They haven't actually
8:05 looked at it and comprehended what it
8:06 is, but they've just aimed their
8:08 attention towards it. That's step one.
8:10 Now, step two is once they aim their
8:12 attention, typically a viewer will
8:14 glance down at the title. They won't try
8:16 to diagnose the thumbnail first. They'll
8:18 go title first. And this is because
8:19 thumbnails have a lot going on. Even
8:21 though there's more contextual
8:23 information to process, the load and
8:25 processing power required to understand
8:27 a full thumbnail verse read a couple
8:29 words is high to low. So, the brain
8:31 seeks the easier path, which is to read
8:34 the title and try to understand what it
8:35 means. Now, on the first go of reading
8:37 the title, most viewers don't fully
8:39 comprehend the sentence unless it's
8:41 perfectly worded. However, their eyes
8:43 catch a few keywords and they start to
8:45 build a comprehension map about what
8:47 that sentence actually means. Obviously,
8:49 the more they comprehend of the title on
8:50 that first look, the better. This is why
8:52 shorter titles on YouTube typically win.
8:54 People absorb a higher percentage and
8:56 they get the meaning quicker. So, at
8:57 this stage on the title comprehension,
8:59 they're really asking themselves, is
9:02 this a go or no go? No go, they skip and
9:04 go to the next one. go. They need more
9:06 information before clicking. Rarely will
9:08 they click on the video just by reading
9:11 the title. They then look back up to the
9:12 thumbnail. And this is step three. So
9:14 again, I'm going through the psychology.
9:15 It's initial thumbnail, title
9:18 comprehension, go no-go decision, back
9:19 to the thumbnail. That's where we're at.
9:21 But this time, when they see the
9:23 thumbnail, their brain has shifted into
9:24 a different processing mode. It's called
9:26 top down here. They're actually
9:28 ingesting the objects, the graphics, the
9:30 text, and they're trying to make sense
9:32 of what it means. The first thumbnail
9:34 exposure was just colors and brightness.
9:35 Now they're actually going for
9:37 comprehension. When they deduce
9:39 comprehension from the thumbnail, if
9:41 that matches the keywords or meaning
9:43 that they derive from the title and
9:44 they're interested, they're going to
9:46 click. Now, like I said, this is super
9:48 nerdy, but knowing this flow, how
9:50 someone actually progresses through the
9:52 thumbnail, title, thumbnail, click flow
9:54 is very important because at each stage,
9:56 something could go wrong and then you
9:58 can know how to fix it. Here's the gut
9:59 check you should be running. First, like
10:01 I said, go into Click Pilot, put your
10:03 thumbnail in a sea of others. If you're
10:05 not even noticing it initially in the C,
10:07 well, then you have a problem at that
10:09 first step. That's a color, brightness,
10:11 motion issue. If you are noticing it,
10:13 but then once you read the title, you're
10:14 just not curious enough to go back to
10:16 the thumbnail. Well, then you have a
10:18 problem with title clarity and
10:20 comprehension. Going through this 1 123
10:21 step process will help you understand
10:23 where your packaging is failing so you
10:25 can improve it more quickly. All right.
10:26 All right. Now, if you like the lessons
10:27 that I've gone through so far, I've
10:29 spent the last couple months in secret
10:32 working on the god tier YouTube growth
10:34 playbook. Literally everything I know
10:36 about YouTube, all the nerdy stuff, all
10:38 the psychology systems, AI workflows,
10:40 templates, everything you need to win on
10:43 YouTube, all in one. There is nothing
10:44 even close on the internet to this thing
10:45 that I'm putting together. Now, I've got
10:47 a weight list link in the description
10:49 for this. I might only drop it one time
10:50 for one day and then it's closed
10:52 forever. I'm not yet sure how we're
10:54 going to do it, but I promise you if you
10:56 think you might want to hear my full
10:58 comprehensive advance mode and give you
11:01 my system for growth on YouTube, I'd be
11:02 on that wait list. That's all I'm going
11:03 to say for now. All right, tip number
11:05 four for YouTube packaging is going to
11:07 sound obvious, but I guarantee a lot of
11:09 you are making this mistake. I call it
11:11 trust quality. Here's what's really
11:12 happening in a viewer's brain when
11:14 they're deciding to click. And this is
11:15 different psychologically from what we
11:17 just went over. What a viewer is really
11:20 doing is voting with their trust that if
11:22 they watch a video and spend their time
11:24 that it will solve a problem or give
11:26 them value back. They're trying to
11:29 assess a score of how well they trust
11:30 the video will be able to do that. And
11:32 this dance of assessing that trust is
11:34 going on real time every single time
11:36 they look at a title thumbnail
11:37 combination. And so here's an easy
11:39 framework to think about this. This
11:40 really helped for me. Imagine a viewer
11:43 has a trust score of 1 to 100 with every
11:45 single title thumbnail combination that
11:47 they see. And so as they look at the
11:49 title, the thumbnail, the creator's
11:50 name, the amount of views already on the
11:52 video, and all the other attributes that
11:54 they can see, they're trying to assess
11:56 that score from 1 to 100 on if this
11:58 video will actually deliver the promise
12:00 made. Now, if a viewer really has a
12:02 problem that they need solved, they
12:04 might be willing to drop that trust
12:07 score down, let's say, to 20% or 20 out
12:10 of 100. So, anything that's over a 20,
12:11 they're willing to give it a chance
12:12 because they really want that problem
12:14 solved. If a viewer doesn't really want
12:16 a problem solved, the trust score
12:18 required to get them to click might be
12:20 80 or above or 90 or above. And so, the
12:21 packaging combination would have to be
12:23 above that to get them to click. Think
12:25 of it kind of like based on what a
12:27 viewer needs, they set a line, and then
12:29 any packaging above that line, they're
12:30 likely to click on it. Now, there are
12:32 all sorts of attributes and factors that
12:34 go into this big pot to help the viewer
12:37 decide what their trust score is for a
12:38 given package. The biggest two, of
12:40 course, are the comprehension they get
12:42 from the title, what they think it
12:43 means, and the comprehension they get
12:44 from the thumbnail, what they think it
12:47 means. But another huge one to fix that
12:49 really helps boost your trust score in
12:52 the viewer's eyes is the design quality
12:54 of the thumbnail itself. Is the photo or
12:56 graphic you're using sharp or is it
12:59 blurry? Is the headshot well lit or does
13:01 it look DIY? Is the font big enough to
13:03 read and clean and laid out clearly?
13:05 Does it look tasteful or does it look
13:07 slapped together? In other words, is the
13:08 thumbnail well-designed? I'm not talking
13:11 about the comprehension ability of it,
13:13 although they go hand in hand. Just from
13:15 a design aesthetic, when they see it,
13:17 does it look professional and above the
13:19 line they would expect to see on YouTube
13:21 or below? The quality of the design is
13:23 actually a sneaky important factor in
13:26 moving that trust score line up or down.
13:28 And if the design is crap, if it doesn't
13:30 look good, it really hurts the trust
13:32 score. And so if you have a really
13:33 poorly designed thumbnail, the only
13:35 people that are going to click on it are
13:36 people that really, really, really have
13:38 the problem you're talking about. And so
13:40 their trust line is all the way down to
13:42 like five. If you don't have design
13:44 skills, pay someone who does. Thumbnails
13:46 are the most important thing and the
13:48 cheapest thing to solve for. I've got a
13:49 link in the description below to the
13:51 thumbnail guys that I like. If you guys
13:53 want an intro, totally fine. If not,
13:55 find somebody that can solve this
13:56 problem for you if you're not good with
13:58 design. All right, packaging lesson
14:00 number five for YouTube is the intro of
14:02 the video. Now, I haven't talked very
14:03 much about the intro so far in this
14:05 video, and to be honest, I could make a
14:07 whole other video on intros alone, but
14:09 here's the best tactical tip I could
14:10 share about the intro so you can improve
14:12 your packaging. The title thumbnail's
14:14 job is to get the click initially and
14:17 pass that viewer off to the intro. The
14:19 intro's job is to transition between
14:22 that positive emotional expectation from
14:24 the click and the first hit of value
14:26 they get in the body of the video. The
14:28 intro is the middleman bringing the
14:29 viewer from one to the other. If the
14:31 intro can bridge the viewer from click
14:33 to value, it has done its job. Now, if
14:34 you study YouTube and you know what
14:35 packaging is, you've probably heard the
14:38 phrase confirm the click a million times
14:40 before. Now, to make sure it does this,
14:42 ask yourself this. based on the title
14:45 thumbnail, what should the viewer expect
14:47 to get out of this video and then say
14:49 that thing in the intro as soon as
14:51 possible. So, for example, the title of
14:52 this video you're watching right now was
14:54 this. Why the smartest creators I know
14:56 focus on packaging, not content. And
14:58 then in my intro for this video earlier,
15:00 I literally said this. In this video,
15:02 we're talking about content packaging.
15:04 If your content is underperforming, the
15:06 main reason that's happening is the
15:08 packaging. This is the number one area
15:10 my smartest creator friends obsess over.
15:12 So, the first, second, and third lines
15:14 of the intro were literally repeating
15:16 the title verbatim because I wanted to
15:17 confirm the click. That click
15:19 confirmation took me 4 seconds. And
15:22 that's an example of what good intros do
15:25 to feed the viewers expectation and
15:26 confirm it. All right, now I'm going to
15:28 transition to the short form social
15:29 media side of the house and packaging
15:31 tips for that. By the way, I have a lot
15:33 more of these YouTube packaging tips in
15:35 the holster. So, if you want me to make
15:36 another video just about YouTube
15:38 packaging, comment something like more
15:40 YouTube chef and then I'll know in the
15:41 comments what that means. And also, if
15:43 you like the way I'm laying these out
15:45 and you're an entrepreneur, I built a
15:47 free community with 65 trainings just
15:49 like this for you. It's a bunch of
15:50 business owners trying to get better at
15:52 content. We have 33,000 people in there
15:53 and like I said, it's completely free.
15:55 It's called Wavy World. I got a link in
15:56 the description for you if you want to
15:57 join. All right. Now, as promised, I
15:58 want to go through a few tactical
16:00 packaging tips that apply to short form
16:02 video and social media. Now, as a
16:04 reminder for short form videos, what
16:05 does packaging mean? It's the first line
16:07 of the caption, the text that shows at
16:09 the bottom above the fold. It's the
16:10 thumbnail, and we're going to get to
16:12 that later, and most importantly, it's
16:15 the hook, the first 3 to 5 seconds, all
16:17 three parts: visual, spoken, and text.
16:19 Now, as I said before, because short
16:20 form videos get automatically served up
16:23 in the feed, the packaging has one less
16:25 job. It doesn't have to get you to click
16:27 and watch, but it does have to get you
16:29 to stop and watch. And I call this
16:30 opting in. You have to get a viewer to
16:33 stop scrolling and opt in to wanting to
16:35 watch. Now, the only thing that matters
16:37 for that opt-in is the hook. And that's
16:38 why this first tip that I'm going to go
16:40 through for short form packaging is all
16:43 about the clarity in the spoken hook.
16:45 The hook matters so much more on short
16:46 form than YouTube. And here's why that's
16:48 true from a psychology perspective. On
16:50 YouTube, you get to use the static title
16:53 and thumbnail to build some expectation
16:55 of what the topic will be about. So, as
16:56 long as the intro confirms that
16:58 expectation, you're golden and they're
17:00 going to watch. But on social media, the
17:02 viewer is seeing your video coming in
17:04 completely cold. They have no previous
17:05 context on the idea. They weren't
17:07 expecting it to come, and they have no
17:08 idea what you're talking about when they
17:09 start watching. So, you need that
17:12 initial hook to both focus them on you
17:14 and build that expectation loop about
17:16 what they're going to expect in like 3
17:18 seconds. This means that the clarity of
17:20 the messaging in the hook has to be so
17:22 dialed that it both informs the viewer
17:24 what the video is going to be about and
17:26 inspires them to want to stay because
17:28 they trust that that value will be
17:30 transferred. Now, I've made tons of
17:31 videos about short form hooks. I've also
17:32 made a lot of videos about hook script
17:34 writing specifically and I will link
17:35 those in the description below. But
17:38 here's the 8020 tip when it comes to
17:40 clarity in spoken hooks. If you cannot
17:42 read your script back, just the hook
17:44 part, first line or first two lines, and
17:45 both immediately know what the video is
17:46 going to be about and have enough
17:49 curiosity to want to keep reading, the
17:50 hook's not good enough. So, it's
17:52 absolutely critical that you compress
17:54 the hook down so the clarity is
17:57 maximized and the curiosity is
17:58 maximized. That's tip number one. All
18:00 right. Now, tip number two for short
18:01 form or number seven overall is about
18:03 the visual hook. Now, the visual hook is
18:06 made up of the actual visuals that show
18:08 in the hook when you run it. And I want
18:09 you to think back to that section for
18:10 the YouTube part where I talked about
18:13 how the brain perceives color, motion,
18:15 and brightness differently bottoms up
18:17 than it does top down. If you want your
18:18 hook to jump out and separate from
18:20 everything on the feed, all you have to
18:22 do is ratchet up the color, the motion,
18:24 and the brightness. Now, you can't do it
18:26 too much where you turn it up to the
18:27 point where it overwhelms, like a
18:28 flashbang or a strobe light. And you
18:30 also can't do it to the point where the
18:32 visuals disconnect from what's being
18:34 said and the clarity goes down. So,
18:36 those are two potholes to avoid. But if
18:38 you can just turn up the color and the
18:39 motion and the brightness a little bit,
18:41 you'll win. You literally stun the
18:43 subconscious brain into focusing on the
18:45 video. And this works because people
18:47 cannot outrun their own neural
18:49 processing. They cannot intentionally
18:51 try to not care about those things. It's
18:53 programmed in the DNA. So more unique
18:54 colors, more motion, more brightness,
18:55 that's all you need. Now, that might not
18:56 hold them. That's all about the
18:57 storytelling and the script writing.
18:58 That's a different video. But if you
19:00 just want to stop the scroll, that will
19:01 help a ton. All right, lesson number
19:03 eight is about the text hook. And if you
19:04 haven't watched any of my other videos
19:06 on hooks, now you know there are three
19:08 core components that make up a short
19:10 form video hook. You have the visual
19:12 hook, which is the visuals being shown,
19:13 how they're laid out, and what the
19:15 visuals are. You have the spoken hook,
19:16 what is being said. And then you have
19:18 the text hook, any words that are being
19:20 shown on top of the visuals. Now, the
19:22 text hook is typically not the captions,
19:24 the word for word you're saying, but
19:26 usually it's a title text or title hook
19:28 that is extra words that pop up at the
19:30 beginning that help give the viewer more
19:32 context on what the video is going to be
19:34 about. Now, if you don't use text hooks,
19:35 you don't use title hooks. Point blank,
19:36 you should be. And most of the best
19:38 short form videos you see, they are
19:40 using text and title hooks because of
19:42 the processing speed. Yes, people see
19:43 visuals before text, but they can
19:46 process reading words before they can
19:48 hear them. So, if the visuals act like a
19:50 stun gun, which holds them on, the text
19:53 hook will act like initial context so
19:54 they know what the video is going to be
19:56 about. Cuz your choices for context are
19:58 text or speech. And like I said, text is
20:00 faster to process than speech. The speed
20:01 of light is faster than the speed of
20:03 sound. people see and contextually
20:04 understand faster than they can hear,
20:06 think, and process. So, if you want
20:08 another advantage in improving your
20:10 packaging for short form videos, start
20:12 using title text hooks. They can be any
20:14 font, any size, any color treatment, as
20:15 long as they pop out on the visual and
20:17 your eyes go to it. And by the way, if
20:19 you struggle with hooks the most for
20:20 short form video, I actually have a
20:22 couple things that'll make it 100 times
20:24 easier for you. In Sandcastle.ai, which
20:25 is my content super tool that I've been
20:27 building, we just released our latest
20:29 hero feature, which is the hook vault.
20:32 This allows you to save any hook from
20:34 your videos or other videos into a
20:36 reusable component. So, for example,
20:38 let's say you see a video that crushed
20:39 and you really like the hook and you
20:41 want to save that hook as a template
20:42 that you can then use to generate your
20:44 own hooks for different topics. In
20:46 Sandcastles, you can literally just
20:48 press save to vault. We will transcribe
20:50 that hook, convert it into a Mad Lib
20:52 format that works for any topic, and
20:53 then when you're using our script
20:55 writer, you just one-click press, and we
20:57 will write new hooks in that style. It's
20:59 sick. This is the easiest way to solve
21:00 hookw writing. And once you build up
21:02 this vault of winning hooks, you'll
21:03 never have to think about hooks again.
21:04 If you want to try it for free,
21:06 sankcastle.ai. All right, here's another
21:07 social media packaging tip that most
21:09 people will not talk about. I think
21:11 short form video thumbnails actually
21:14 matter a lot more than people think. And
21:15 when I say thumbnail, I'm talking about
21:18 the static image that you see that shows
21:20 when you're scrolling someone's feed.
21:21 Now, of course, the thumbnail has
21:23 nothing to do with the video actually
21:25 being served up on the feed and getting
21:27 people to watch initially, but after
21:29 it's posted, it has a lot to do with
21:32 three core use cases. For one, and most
21:34 importantly, when your video gets shared
21:35 in a group DM, like on Instagram, it
21:38 gets shared via DM. The thing that shows
21:40 in the DM is the thumbnail. So, the
21:42 people in that DM aren't guaranteed to
21:43 click it, but if the thumbnail's good
21:45 and compelling, they might. The
21:46 difference between five people in a
21:48 group DM clicking and watching your
21:50 video versus two is massive when you're
21:52 talking about thousands or tens of
21:54 thousands of shares. So, a better and
21:56 clearer thumbnail will get clicked more
21:58 often. That's why I spend an extra 5 to
22:00 10 minutes on my videos custom designing
22:01 my own thumbnail. Now, the second reason
22:03 the thumbnail matters is because when
22:05 you're trying to convert a new fan into
22:06 a super fan, they're going to hit your
22:09 profile and try to binge 6 to 10 more of
22:11 your videos in one session. The easiest
22:13 way to get them to binge the right ones
22:15 is to make thumbnails where it's clear
22:16 what each video is about. The more they
22:18 see they actually like, the more they're
22:19 going to watch and the easier it'll be
22:20 to get them to become a super fan. If
22:21 someone goes to your profile and you
22:22 don't have the thumbnails optimized,
22:24 you're missing a huge opportunity. And
22:25 the third thing is having your
22:27 thumbnails dialed helps with the
22:28 aesthetic of your profile, which matters
22:30 a lot when someone hits it and tries to
22:32 convert to a new follower. So, while all
22:33 three of those use cases don't mean more
22:35 initial watch time on the feed, they
22:37 matter a ton downstream that will lead
22:39 to more fans and more followers. A few
22:40 people talk about this, but I think a
22:42 custom thumbnail can mean a massive
22:44 difference. So, be sure to either select
22:46 a frame from your video, one-click
22:47 select, when you upload that has
22:49 contextual information, or design a
22:51 custom one on Figma or Canva. All right,
22:53 the 10th and final packaging lesson for
22:55 short form video is to make sure the
22:57 first line of your caption is optimized.
22:59 This is called above the fold. When you
23:01 look down in the feed, you see a few
23:03 characters, usually one sentence before
23:04 the dot dot dot. Again, this is really
23:06 important because this is more surface
23:08 area to help provide more context if the
23:09 viewer is confused about the video.
23:11 Here's how it'll work for a viewer.
23:12 They're going to stop from the motion
23:13 and colors. They're going to watch the
23:15 first 3 to 5 seconds of the hook, maybe
23:17 read the title text. At some point, they
23:19 might consider bouncing, but they'll
23:21 look down and read the first line of
23:22 that caption. If it's written in a way
23:25 that induces curiosity or teases what's
23:26 coming, they might hold on and keep
23:28 watching. I would treat this first line
23:31 of the caption like a title and try to
23:33 build a curiosity loop in it. And again,
23:34 while this is a smaller thing, don't
23:36 sleep on it. It's extra surface area
23:37 that could help retain the viewer. All
23:39 right, guys. That is all I've got for
23:41 this video on packaging. As explained,
23:42 packaging is the number one most
23:44 important part in the content workflow.
23:46 It's the most slept on, the fewest
23:47 people know about it, but it's actually
23:49 sneaky the most important. And as a
23:50 recap, for YouTube, packaging means
23:52 title, thumbnail, and the first 30
23:54 seconds of the intro. For short form
23:56 videos on Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn,
23:57 YouTube, Facebook, and any other
23:59 platform you're posting short form, it's
24:00 the first line of the caption, the
24:02 thumbnail, and the hook. the first 3 to
24:04 5 seconds. In this video, we went over
24:06 10 tactical tips that you can implement
24:08 immediately to instantly improve your
24:10 packaging and help people click and
24:12 watch more. As always guys, I'm trying
24:13 my absolute best to cover the things
24:15 that most people don't. That's why I go
24:17 down these kind of nerdy psychology
24:18 rabbit holes. That's why I cover these
24:20 outside the box tips. So, if you like
24:22 that, please consider subscribing and
24:24 let me know in the comments what your
24:25 favorite piece was. And lastly, if you
24:26 like this video and you're a business
24:28 owner or an entrepreneur and you just
24:29 want an accountability group or other
24:30 people that are trying to get better
24:32 with content, you should definitely join
24:34 Wavy World. It's completely free. It has
24:35 all the curriculum, but also you can
24:37 find a community, a network of people at
24:39 your level as well. So, I got a link in
24:40 the description for that if you want to
24:41 join. And we will see you guys on the
