A Formula that Will Work in 2024

Piper Creative has used videos to grow businesses since 2018.

We’ve cycled through multiple video formats in search of higher efficacy. We’ve switched our focus between Linkedin, TikTok, and YouTube in pursuit of viewers. But the beautiful thing is, our learnings from each stage have compounded on one another.

Today, we can get more views in 2 days than we used to get in 6 months.

We’ve also realized that our YouTube views are correlated with inbound leads that we generate for our client services business.

This year was the start of our most successful shift in content strategy since we started Piper back in 2018.

At the beginning of the year, we reduced the volume of content we were putting out and increased our efforts towards writing and packaging.

Here’s why this change is necessary to thrive in the modern media environment.

Quality vs Quantity

In the late 2010s, Casey Neistat and Gary Vaynerchuk were dominant YouTubers experiencing exponential growth.

Casey’s signature daily vlog triggered an entire generation of copycats, interpretations, and moviemaking on YouTube.

Gary iterated on his consistent upload schedule by outsourcing the shooting, editing, and publishing to people on his team, so that he could continue to build his agency, Vaynermedia.

Gary’s vlog served as the model for every modern business guru.

Pummel every platform with as much content as possible. Be everywhere, all the time.

We attempted this, to limited success.

The truth is, even if you’re running a moderately successful SMB, most people don’t care about your day to day activities. Especially in a world with an exploding supply of content.

We were a part of that trend and vlogged some deeply asinine moments.

In 2018, we’d hustle to publish 15-minute videos that struggled to get 100 views.

It’s hard to fathom a less efficient use of our time.

But, there was a silver lining. Our race to 10,000 hours of video production experience happened quickly.

Instead of sitting around waiting for the next job from a client, we made videos. We refined our technique, from lighting to storytelling to pacing.

With that effort came the realization that there was MUCH more to the brilliance of Casey Neistat. He emerged when the platform rewarded consistent publishing while simultaneously devoid of creators with moviemaking chops.

Over a decade of film work had preceded his YouTube dominance.

Similarly, Gary had preceded his vlog with 15 years of entrepreneurial hustle, then hired talented video talent to package his abilities effectively.

The late 2010s was also an era of social media when the follower model was dominant for determining what earned attention. The feed of content shown to Instagram, Linkedin, and Facebook users was optimized around showing you the best of people you knew (even if it was a one-way parasocial relationship a ‘la the Kardashians).

Everything changed with the TikTokification of digital media.

Full screen short form vertical video was the perfect format for large machine learning algorithms to understand your preferences and show you more of what you like. Now people follow ‘Cottage-core TikTok’ or “Parenting Reels on Instagram”.

The majority of creators have been effectively sublimated to the algorithm’s ability to sort and recommend. Established ‘influencers’ and media outlets find themselves in pitched competition every single time they publish. The audience has also evolved in discerning which videos are worth their time based on depth and value.

This change necessitates evolution and a pivot towards greater quality.

Here’s how you can adapt.

Video Essays

At the beginning of the year, we realized we needed to dive deeply into the pre-production process and validate ideas for videos before putting the time in to produce them.

Instead of racing to turn a published video around less than 48 hours after shooting, we should methodically engineer the b-roll, music, and graphics to retain viewers longer into the video.

And this content strategy is not a vlog. It’s not a series of short form vertical videos. It’s not a collection of explainer videos.

It’s a thoughtfully executed series of video essays.

Even before completing the script, our team brainstorms titles and thumbnails that warrant a click. That click should be warranted for both returning and new viewers. We pre-validate demand for the content that we’re creating. You have to know if your content is search-dependent or browse-dependent. Knowing these would greatly help in putting the right words in the title and the right elements in the thumbnail that maximizes the potential of a click.

The video essay needs a tight script that is written (and rewritten) for weeks before shooting begins. It’s well-researched and leverages other footage to highlight key points. A special emphasis is put on the first 5 and 30 second stretches of the video.

The intro must immediately confirm that the click was warranted and open loops of curiosity that can be addressed later on in the video.

Ideally, 70% of folks stick around for the first 30 seconds and over 50% are still around after 90 seconds.

During the editing process, we will spend 5x as much time on that first minute and a half as we will on the entire 2nd half of the video.

Mathematically, that might not even be enough. The leverage on the intro is SO MUCH greater than the middle. Once a viewer has decided to give a video a chance, they are Way Less Likely to click away.

This extra work produces videos that can stand against the entropy of time.

How often do the short form vertical video platforms recommend videos that are 12 months old? Or even 6 months? 3 months?

It’s increasingly rare as they are flooded with hundreds of thousands of hours of new content every single day. There just isn’t enough user attention to allocate to the back catalog.

Certainly not to mediocre, or worse videos.

It’s a Never Ending Now.

Well-researched, tightly edited video essays might be the only way out.

This October, we are starting a small mastermind group to personally teach 10 people our strategies for Elite Video Marketing. If you are Doing It Yourself, but want to Shortcut Your Learning Curve, the Piper Video Guild is the perfect place to hone your craft.

To grab one of the 6 remaining spots (Aaron already sold four), reply “Guild” directly to this email.

The ten founding members of the Guild will get the lowest rate we will ever charge locked in forever.