The BIGGEST reason your channel is failing.

Imagine you’re the director of a highly anticipated movie. From the moment your potential audience sees your movie poster, they are excited and anticipating the day the movie releases.

The day arrives. You’re excited! You’ve put so much work into the movie! You can’t wait to hear what people think. A few minutes in, your audience slowly starts to get up and leave! What happened?!

People rarely leave bad movies in a cinema because they’ve made an investment and physically have to walk away. But that is not the case with YouTube or even Netflix. It’s simply a click away and on to other content.

Regardless though, why do people leave before the end of videos?

The movie poster, or the thumbnail in our case, is what people see first. It’s colorful, exciting, and showcases the essence of your video. Just as a movie poster teases the plot and genre, your thumbnail should give viewers a hint of what’s to come, making them curious and excited to watch.

A movie’s title often hints at its storyline or theme. It’s a promise of what the movie will deliver. Similarly, your video’s title should entice viewers to click and watch by clearly stating what they can expect.

The opening scene of a movie sets the tone and introduces viewers to the storyline that is to come. Your video’s intro is like that opening scene. It should dive right into the heart of the matter, addressing the topic promised in the thumbnail and title.

Their Expectations Are Not Met

Just as a movie would be disappointing if the trailer didn’t match the actual content, your video will disappoint viewers if the thumbnail, title, and intro don’t align. Imagine if a movie’s trailer promised an action-packed adventure but the movie turned out to be a romantic comedy!? In the same way, if your thumbnail, title, and intro don’t match, viewers will feel misled and may click away.

Consistency between the parts ensures that viewers get what they came for, leading to positive reactions, engagement, and sharing. However, if the video’s intro doesn’t deliver on these expectations fast, the viewer’s expectations will not be met, and they will most likely feel disgruntled and unlikely to return.

This is also one of the reasons I recommend having a base level of quality to your content before publishing your videos. Once a viewer decides your channel is not worth their time, it’s unlikely they will return, and your pool of potential viewers becomes smaller and smaller.

How to plan your Thumbnail / Title / Intro

I call the thumbnail, title and intro “The Package”, and they should never be made in isolation of each other. Ensuring they all tie together should involve some planning. I recommend doing this in advance of filming by storyboarding, but it can also be done in the scripting phase when you are reviewing your footage. The goal is to be strategic about mapping out your content to ensure you accurately represent what your video offers and engage your target audience. Here is how I recommend going about this.

Brainstorm 5-10 CONCEPTS

I use the word “concept” intentionally because a lot of new YouTubers will create one thumbnail, for example, and then create 3-5 different versions of that thumbnail – some brighter, more zoomed in, etc. But those details are way less important that creating a concept that is altogether different. Here is an example of two different concepts for one of my vlogs:

P.S. You can watch a 7-minute retention analysis of that video here.

The concepts you come up with should include ALL THREE ELEMENTS: Thumbnail, title AND intro.

For example, I am about to go camping in Gisborne, New Zealand, and I need to decide what angle I am going to take when filming the episode. After heading over the ChatGPT for some brainstorming, I decided to focus on the fact that Gisborne is rarely visited by travelers, its actually quite magical in the winter, and there is a personal story interweaved of me becoming more okay with embracing discomfort.

Just a note that you can do all this brainstorming alone, but ChatGPT significantly speeds up the process.

For a while, every video on my channel started out as a diary entry, so here are three different concepts ChatGPT generated that follow that theme:

1. Title: “Embrace the Rain: A Journey of Rediscovery in Gisborne’s Winter”

Thumbnail: Use the “Before and After” image with Daniella’s transformation from comfort to adventure.

Intro: “Dear Daniella, Today we are headed to the often-ignored part of New Zealand. We’re going to Gisborne on the East Cape of the North Island. And, we are going to do it in the middle of the winter in the rain! It’s been a while since you’ve been uncomfortable. Are you ready for it?”

2. Title: “Off the Radar: Discovering New Zealand’s Best-Kept Secrets”

Thumbnail: Daniella captivated by a secluded New Zealand coastline.

Intro: “Dear Daniella, Today, we’re embarking on an expedition beyond the tourist map. Join us as we unveil the hidden treasures of New Zealand that few have ever witnessed. From secluded coastlines to secret enclaves, get ready to discover the best-kept secrets that lie off the radar.”

3. Title: “Winter Camping in Gisborne: Rainy Thrills & Triumphs”

Thumbnail: Daniella camping in the winter. Show rain or snow & Daniella’s excited face.

Intro: “Dear Daniella, Welcome to Gisborne, where winter camping takes on a whole new level of thrill. You’re going to want to brace yourself for rain, challenges, and triumphant moments as we are about to go camping in the middle of Gisborne’s winter rain. There will surely be some joys and triumphs as we venture into the heart of the wet and wild. But the rain-soaked adventure is just the beginning of your journey.”

Create a Compelling Title:

When I prompt ChatGPT to make a title, I give it a few rules to follow.

• Keep it short (less than 55 characters)
• Specify my target audience demographics
• Generate the response multiple times focusing on the different elements of the story (Gisborne, winter camping, hidden gems, adventure)
• Make it highly searchable & include keywords

I then choose my favorite concepts and put them back into ChatGPT and ask it to “add more curiosity”. I do not include the episode number in the title, as my research does not recommend this if you are trying to attract new viewers. I do put the episode number in the first line of the description, though, so it is easily viewable to regular viewers.

Design an Eye-Catching Thumbnail:

Once I have a few concepts for titles I like, I ask ChatGPT. to provide me thumbnail concepts that would go with each title. A few well-researched rules I stand by for my thumbnails:

• Should be bright with a little bit of added contrast, saturation, and clarity. I add all of this using Microsoft photos or Canva.
• If I’m not in a rush, I’ll put the various concepts into Thumbsup.TV to see which option best stands out.
• No more than 3-4 words on a thumbnail, if at all. NEVER include words on the thumbnail that are already in the title.
• Fonts should not include serifs, should be bold, and very big.
• Ensure the thumbnail reflects the tone and mood of your video.
• Make sure you view your thumbnail in multiple sizes to ensure the image is clear.
• The thumbnail and title should work together to convey the main message or value proposition of your video.
• Make sure you are staying on-brand​.​

Craft a Relevant Intro:

This is where most people fail, and so I am going to recommend a very structured approach for when you are starting out. It is crucial that you are explicit and clear that your intro delivers on the promise of your thumbnail and title within the first 15-20 seconds. You can do this visually or verbally, or both.

Here is the structure recommended by one of YouTube’s leading script writers, George Blackman:

1. 0-4s: the EXACT concept the title promises the viewer (in 90% of cases literally restate the title someway in the first sentence).
2. 4-15s: the video’s essential question or point of tension + the stakes for the audience.
3. 15-20s: how this video is going to offer unique value to the viewer by resolving the point of tension.

In order to visually confirm the title and thumbnail, you want to think about the promise you have made. For example, for the concept below, it is important the first visual images in the intro show something camping related, elements of winter and rain, and the emotional expression of either being thrilled or triumphant.

Title: “Winter Camping in Gisborne: Rainy Thrills & Triumphs”

Thumbnail: Daniella camping in the winter. Show rain or snow & Daniella’s excited face.

Essential Question, Tension, Stakes & Unique Value

In George Blackman’s intro outline above, he mentions an Essential Question, Tension, Stakes & Unique Value.

An Essential Question is what the “grand payoff” of your story will be. The climax. The challenge that you will overcome.

The Obstacles are all the things that will get in the way or make it difficult for the hero of the story to answer the essential question or grant payoff.

The Stakes are why overcoming the obstacles matter in the first place.

And finally, the Unique Value is how this story or video benefits your audience.

ChatGPT struggles with this level of detail, so after having the suggested intro, I would manually edit in these elements as follows:

“Dear Daniella, Welcome to Gisborne, where winter camping takes on a whole new level of thrill. [Obstacle 1] You’ve never been winter camping before, and [Obstacle 2] you are about to go to a whole new area [Obstacle 3 + Unique Value] that few travelers ever visit You’re going to want to brace yourself for rain, challenges, and triumphant moments as we are about to go camping in the middle of Gisborne’s winter rain [Obstacle 4]. This is the one of the craziest things you have every done and you are going to be very uncomfortable[Obstacle 4]. , There will surely be some joys and triumphs as we venture into the heart of the wet and wild. B [Stakes/Essential Question] but what sort of life is a life that is comfortable!? But don’t worry, [Unique Value] I will provide you with some tips to make sure you’re not miserable. You are going to love what this unique part of New Zealand has to offer!

Test and Iterate:

After you have published your video, it’s important that you monitor the performance of your videos using YouTube analytics to track the Click Through Rate (CTR), audience retention, and average view per viewer (Instructions on viewing the last metric here). Read this newsletter to learn more about which analytics really matter.

If you are consistent, actively think about how your content brings your audience value, and you market and deliver on your promises every single video, you should see your CTR, audience retention, and average view per viewer improve over time.

Action

Here is an exercise for you to get a hang of tying your title, thumbnail and intro together:

1. Go back to your last few videos. Analyse the thumbnail and title and decide what you think the video is about.
2. Then, watch the first 30 seconds of the video and see if the video confirms the promise of the thumbnail and title.
3. Do this exercise again, but on your favorite creator.
4. If they did confirm the promise of the thumbnail and title, what did they say, do or show? Was it explicit? How long did it take for them to confirm the promise?

Bonus tips:

• Look at the subscriber to views ratio on your favorite creator to see if they are effectively bringing their audience back.
• Find a video that is doing really well as compared to the videos around it.