Speaker 1: For months now, you guys have been asking me to share my short form video marketing strategy. Well, I heard you and I got you. Today, I'm sharing my super simple strategy and script formula that has helped us generate nearly 10 million views on Instagram alone. So let's get into it. Hey posse, what's up? It's Alex and you might notice a little something different behind me. You are inside my new posse studio. I really felt like I needed to edge up my backdrop a little. I mean, after all, my mission is to deducify the internet. So I needed to like really punk rock out my backdrop. And I am really excited about what's going on behind me. I'll be fixing a few things, adding a few things here and there. It really is like a whole thing, building a YouTube backdrop. But I am really excited about it and I'd love to hear your thoughts. So comment below and let me know. You know I always love to hear from you. But today, I am talking about something really exciting, something you guys have been asking me for. I am talking about how to level up your content marketing so you can grow your audience, you can get more leads, and you can keep those leads around long enough to buy from you again and again and again. So if that is something you want to learn how to do, then you know what to do. If you're not already part of the crew here on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe to my channel below. And don't forget to ring that bell to be notified when my next video goes live. Now, I always find it really funny when people ask me about my social media strategy. Because despite having hundreds of thousands of followers across my many social platforms, I don't really consider myself a social media expert. And it's not something that I typically teach on. If you've been around here for a while, then you already know that what I primarily share here on my channel are copywriting, marketing, and branding strategies to help you start and grow your online business. With that being said, I have used social media as an amazing tool to build my own business from scratch to multiple seven figures almost completely organically. And I have an incredible team. I do not do this on my own. And I am proud to say that we have really dialed in our social media processes and strategies over the last five years. So although I don't consider myself a social media coach, I am a big fan of social media for obvious reasons. Hi guys. I have racked up millions and millions of views across my social platforms, both short-form videos and long-form videos like this one. And I only record content for about five hours a month. So I am here to tell you this does not have to be super time-consuming. And you can start like deadly simple even without a big team or a big budget. I started all on my own one-woman show. So today I'm going to show you how starting with my three-step short-form video strategy that has worked so well for us over the years. And honestly, it keeps working so why change it? Now you have heard it before and it is true, people come to social media to be educated, entertained, or inspired. But how do you turn those views into actual clicks and then of course customers? I mean as much as I love social media, I don't just create content for the sake of it. I have got a social media strategy whether you realize it or not. I mean I kind of blame the day job but I can't help but think of my social media strategy like any other marketing funnel or strategy where there is top of the funnel content, middle of the funnel content, and bottom of the funnel content. And if you're like, what in the hell is Alex talking about? Don't worry, I'm going to go through each one right now. And each level of content has a very specific purpose. So let's just start at the top, shall we? Okay so our top of the funnel content are videos that I call quips. Now these are quick videos where I share quips, exactly what it sounds like, right? These are quick opinions, quotes, anecdotes, or stats. Really just any sort of quick idea that I want to share. But the thing that's really important to remember is that these are ideas that typically appeal to a broader audience, right? So this is content that draws in the most amount of people, usually because it's controversial, maybe a little quirky, or enlightening, or it challenges a common belief. Now the goal with this type of content is to get people to follow us or to share the video to get more views or reach, right? These are really those growth videos. So we are casting a wide net with broad topics that appeal to a wider audience so that we can get as many people as possible into the top of our funnel and watching our content. Now I want to make sure that I am really, really crystal clear about something. Yes, you want to cast a wide net at the top of the funnel, but that doesn't mean that we just want followers for the sake of having as many followers as possible, right? Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, actually posted this recently on Threads. He said, follower counts matter less than view and like counts. I understand why people focus so much on follower counts. They are prominent and they're easy to find, but if you actually want to get a sense for how relevant an account is, look at how many likes they get per post and how many views per reel instead. So yes, getting followers is awesome, but not at the expense of your engagement. So don't fall for those hacks of going viral if they feel really off-brand for you because you'll attract the wrong kinds of people. And trust me, going viral in the wrong audience is not what you want. You want to make sure that your top of funnel content is aligned with your ideal audience, the people who ultimately will buy from you. All right, so now you are getting people into your social funnel, right? But that is only one piece of the puzzle. You need different types of content to further move people down your funnel or get them to further engage with you and your brand or else you'll end up with a really broad and unengaged audience who never really takes that next step with you. So in addition to your top of funnel content, you want some middle of the funnel content or what I call tips. Now these are the videos for the people in your audience who are ready to go deeper with you. They already know who you are and what you do and they want to learn more from you and see what kind of value you have to offer them or how you can help them solve a problem, right? So this type of content should really be focused on giving more specific advice. I'm talking tools, strategies, tips, frameworks, really any content that showcases how you can help your audience reach their goals, solve their problems, get over a hurdle, get to the next step. You get where I'm going with this, right? So this is where you want to inspire them to take that next step with you and make it official and really sign up for your email list. So the goal here is to turn your followers into email subscribers because you and I both know that without an email address, your marketing will not have the impact it could. And if you want to see proof, go watch my latest video on the difference between social and email marketing and I will link to that at the end of this video. All right, so now we're getting closer to the bottom of the social funnel where you'll want to post what I call clips. So these videos are for the people who already really know who you are and what you do. They've seen the value you provide. Maybe they've already become a customer, but you don't just want to ignore them because they have converted, right? These are your best people. These are your customers. They are the best people in your audience. So you want to continue to show them love and create a sense of connection with you so that they feel loyal to you and keep coming back to your brand again and again and again. So we do this by sharing more personal stories, behind-the-scenes content, like maybe I'll share a clip from one of my live trainings or I'll share clips of interviews that I've done with experts inside my mastermind. The goal here is to create conversations, right? Either person-to-person or in the comment section. And we do this by asking people to comment or DM us or asking them to weigh in on a topic. Now while this bottom of the funnel content will get fewer views than your middle and top of the funnel content, it's still so so important because it really gets your best people to stick around longer and it's why you should focus on creating all three types. So here's an actual sneak peek at the spreadsheet my team and I use to plan all of our short form videos. You can see that first we come up with a big list of general topics and ideas, making sure that we are systematically targeting people at every single stage of the funnel with quips, tips, and clips. And typically we do about 50, 30, and then 20 percent. And I would really suggest weighing, you know, the top of the funnel content heavier if you are in that growth mode and really looking to reach more people. So once we get that big list of topics, I'll then review and approve the ones that I personally want to proceed with and I'll leave any additional notes or thoughts I have on how maybe we can improve it or make the hook a bit stronger. Then we move on to the writing phase. And if you're wondering how we prepare our short form scripts, I got you there too. Here is my short form video formula. And I warn you, it is so simple that really anybody can follow this and you can start right now. Step one is of course the hook, right? So the very first thing you need to do is figure out the hook. This is the fun part where you really get to put your copywriting and marketing skills into action because without a strong hook, nobody will watch your video, like period. So you need to take your general topic idea and turn it into a short and punchy hook that attracts eyeballs and makes them want to pay attention. Now this will become the text on the cover of your video, like the little still thumbnail, right? So this becomes this. Writing the hook is arguably the hardest part of this entire process. And yes, it should involve some research. Don't just guess and be like, well I think people might like this. Get online and see what kinds of hooks and headlines are getting high engagement. You can check out sites like Buzzfeed, Cosmo Magazine, and even just scrolling online for news headlines or anything like that will really help kind of trigger those ideas. Brainstorm ways that you can piggyback on those concepts with your content. And if you need help getting started, I actually have a swipe file with 99 fill-in-the-blank hooks waiting for you at the end of this video. So stick with me to the end. All right, moving on to step number two, the juicy idea. So this is, you know, as script writing as it gets, but this is really important because when you map out your short form videos, you want to make sure they are short. They're short form for a reason. We try to keep all of our videos under 60 seconds and ideally under 30 seconds. And out of those 30 to 60 seconds, the first three seconds are absolutely critical to get people to stay watching. In fact, according to data released by Facebook on video content, 65% of people who make it past the first three seconds tend to make it to the 10 second mark. And then 45% of those will watch for 30 seconds. So to increase the odds of people actually watching your entire video, you need to practice the art of retention, which is a lot harder than you think. You want to say what you need to say in as little words as possible, and then get straight to the point. Here's my simple process for writing short form video scripts. Number one, figure out your hook first. Without a strong hook, no one will watch it. Number two, keep the first three seconds juicy. Cut straight to the chase. No fluff, no intro. Deliver on what you promised. Time is money. And number three, map out talking points, but omit a formal script. Remember, you want your videos to feel flowy and conversational, not forced and scripted. And that's it. See, that was only about 25 seconds long, which is pretty good for me because I really like to talk. But in contrast, the video that you're watching right now, this long form video, is actually on the same topic, but it's a lot longer. And of course, it's because I'm adding in a ton more value and steps and ways that you can really implement this strategy. Whereas in the short form video you just watched, I'm only really doing the high level framework. By the way, did you guess that that was a tips style video? If so, good work. Learning how to remove unnecessary elements to make your point or to deliver value as quickly as possible, it really takes practice. So here are a few things that we do to keep our short form scripts as short as possible. First, we have a column where we actually track the total word count. Now, this is a really good way to gauge how long or short your video will be, especially when you're comparing them to other videos. So we have figured out that we need to keep our scripts around 75 words if we want to keep it under 30 seconds. And we really try not to go higher than 150 words, which puts our video around 60 seconds. Now, of course, this number will totally vary depending on how fast or slow you talk. I tend to be a fast talker, but I just recommend you do a couple of videos and then see how long it takes. If you write your script and it's over your typical word count, you can go back as you read each word and then ask yourself, is this absolutely necessary or am I just repeating the same thing in a different way? And the answer really should be no for a lot of those things. And if so, just delete, delete, delete. Now, if you write your script and there's absolutely nothing you can cut out without losing value and it's super long, and hey, I have been there a lot, then you don't have to do just one video, but you can also do videos in multiple parts. So just think about how you can split up a longer script into separate videos with a part one, part two, and a part three. That'll get people coming back too, right? And this will be better than trying to cram it all into like a two to three minute video that people really just won't watch. All right, now the final step, and this one is really important, is of course the CTA. Now, each video, as I mentioned earlier, has a specific goal, right? With quips, we want people to follow or share to really expand that reach. With tips, we want people to take the next step and get on our email list. And with clips, we want to start a conversation. So you can add that call to action in the script itself, and then you can verbalize it in your video, or you can simply just have it visually show up on the screen, or you can put it in the caption, ideally somewhere near the top. Either way it works, just make sure you're always telling people what you want them to do next. And that is that. I hope you guys found this video helpful and that it answered some of your questions around how we create short form video content. Don't forget to grab your free swipe file of 99 fill-in-the-blank hooks that you can use in your social content. You will find a link to that in the description box below. And while you're at it, give me a thumbs up if you found this video helpful, or if you like my new background. And if you have any suggestions for future videos, you know I love to hear from you. Drop them in the comments below, and I will see you next week with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now. All right guys, if you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here, and you can click right here to get a free gift. Social media or email marketing, which strategy is better for promotions and profit? As someone who uses both social media and email marketing in my business every single day, I'm going to give you an honest side-by-side breakdown of how these marketing channels and strategies compare with real stats from my own business. Keep watching.