Programming best practicesLearn the tips and tricks necessary to build a sustainable, entertaining and effective release schedule.

Objectives

Identify the 'why' behind your content and develop a release schedule

01

Research your competition and review your existing content

Learn how to 'programme with purpose'

02

03

Follow through on your new programming 04

Please note that these best practices are tips to guide you that we have gathered from what has worked on the platform, but they are not a guarantee for success.

YouTubeonFirst steps

01

Find your 'why'Think about your mission on YouTube and ask yourself:

■ What do you want to say?

■ What can you share with others?

■ Who are your favourite YouTube creators?

■ How can you have an impact?

■ For inspiration, take a look at this channel trailer, which breaks down the 'why' in 60 seconds

Prep your release schedule

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Release schedules are critical when building and fulfilling audience expectations. Before programming, ask yourself:

■ How many videos can you release per week?

■ What days of the week you will release on?

■ Will you rotate content type?

■ Will you link content to specific days of the week?

YouTubeonResearch and development

02

Review your existing contentBefore building a new programming slate, it's important to analyse your existing content:

■ Look for patterns

■ Identify outliers

■ Review your formats

■ Look at subscriber vs. non-subscriber watch time

A format is a repeatable video concept, often linked to a specific vertical. It's important to learn the formats that exist in your vertical and utilise them to provide:

■ Familiarity

■ Room for experimentation

■ Expanded audiences

■ Repeatability

Learn the formats

Stay up to date on trendsStay on top of trends as they appear on the platform and remember to:

■ Be timely: It's important to only engage with trends while they're still fresh

■ Be true: When leaning into a trend, make sure that you create something authentic to the original meaning

■ Be creative: Don't be afraid to put your own spin on things

Look at suggested traffic…Use the suggested traffic data available in analytics to identify:

■ What types of content are driving viewers to your channel

■ What creators your audience has an affinity for

■ The reach and scope of your content

…and search as well!The search data available in Google Trends and YouTube Analytics can give you crucial insights when planning content:

■ YouTube Search traffic will allow you to see what searches directed viewers to your content

■ Google Trends allows you to track the popularity of various search terms over a period of time

Tentpole events are major cultural moments; think holidays, premieres, sports championships, music festivals or conventions. When building content for these:

■ Start early: Searches for a topic like 'Easter' start weeks before the actual holiday

■ Stay timeless: Avoid calling out specific dates or years when possible

■ Repeat performances: Consider creating a series around your yearly visit to events

■ Keep metadata up to date: Don't forget to review and update your titles and thumbnails as the event rolls around each year!

Consider tentpole events

YouTubeonProgramming with purpose

03

Hero

Help

Hub

Hero contentHero content serves as a tentpole moment and drives viewers to your channel who are unfamiliar with you or your brand

■ Rare, usually built around a major event, release or big idea

■ Deals with mass-appeal topics that lean into the video's concept as opposed to your star power

■ Provide a moment of massive promotion, converting a large amount of casual viewers into loyal subscribers

Help contentHelp content is evergreen and serves as a source of continuous viewership and subscriber growth, e.g. 'How to tie a tie'

■ Targeted topics: Appeals direct to specific interests by fulfilling a need, addressing a niche or answering a question

■ Infrequent, but not rare: Help content is more common than hero content, but likely won't be the bulk of your releases

■ Converts casuals: Help content is meant to expose your content to non-subscribers, bringing them into the fold and converting them to subscribers

Hub contentHub content appeals to your core audience, keeping them coming back via steady, consistent content that appeals to their expectations and desires.

■ Common: This content will likely be the majority of your releases and speak directly to your channel goals/mission

■ Familiar: Hub content should feel familiar to long-time viewers. Lean into your formats and don't be afraid to get personal!

■ Repeatable: Hub content should be easy to produce on a consistent basis. Save the big picture stuff for hero ideas!

YouTubeonFollowing through

04

Always try to maximise your production time. Get as many videos out of a location and/or shoot day as possible.

■ Block shoot: Shooting multiple videos back to back will

■ Repackage: Compilations, reactions and 'top ten's are all great ways to revive old content for your viewers

■ Get extras: Where possible, try grabbing extras like BTS, bloopers or random funny moments and build those into their own pieces of content

Make the most of your content

Stay consistentOnce you've set expectations for your audience, it's crucial that you follow through on them. Stick to your release schedule and remember the following:

■ Consistency doesn't equal volume: Being consistent doesn't necessarily mean posting every day

■ Keep your content manageable: High-production-value videos are great, but are very difficult to sustain

■ Start traditions: Catch phrases and nicknames for your audience are a great way to build consistency into your content!

Lean into lightweightWorried that you won't have time to produce one of your standard uploads? Lean into YouTube's lightweight creation features!

■ Create with YouTube Stories

■ Post on the Community tab

■ Go live

CommunicateAlways keep the conversation flowing between you and your audience:

■ Fill the silence: The conversation shouldn't begin and end with your videos!

■ Get feedback and suggestions, whether it's about individual videos or the overall channel strategy

■ Keep 'em in the loop: Always communicate breaks, changes or events to your audience in advance

Short-term considerations:

● Develop a voice and mission for your channel

● Optimise your release schedule

● Review your existing content and the competition

● Research formats, trends, search and suggested

01

Long-term considerations:

● Programming with purpose via help, hub and hero content

● Stay consistent and communicate any breaks or content gaps

● Lean into lightweight YouTube tools and always make the most of your content

02

Recap

Short-term considerations:

● Find your 'why'

● Optimise your release schedule

● Review your existing content and the competition

● Research formats, trends, search and suggested

01

Long-term considerations:

● Programming with purpose via help, hub and hero content

● Stay consistent and communicate any breaks or content gaps

● Lean into lightweight YouTube tools and always make the most of your content

02

Action plan

Questions?

Thank you!