YouTube's Hero, Hub, Help Content Strategy Explained: What it is, why it works, & how to do it

Hi guys, thanks for tuning in. This video is gonna be all about how to develop a content strategy for your YouTube channel. YouTube has developed this Hero Hub Help content framework that I'm gonna dive into, and it's pretty straightforward, so here we go. We'll talk a little bit about the YouTube landscape and what you're up against. I'll explain what Hero Hub Help is, and then a little bit about why it works, and then essentially how to go about doing it. So first up, the landscape. So I think it's important to recognize the competition. Content is incredibly commoditized. Anybody out there is making videos now. YouTube alone, there's over 500 hours of content being uploaded every single minute. That's a lot of content you're competing against, not to mention you're up against the entire internet. So there's a lot of competition, but there's not a single consumer brand amongst the top 100 most subscribed channels, and that's because YouTube is really unique. You can't buy your way to the top in the same way that you can with with like, let's say, like a Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. You can't run a follower subscribe acquisition campaign. That said, while it's incredibly difficult, it does not need to be incredibly complicated. What the fuck is hero, hub, and help? You've got your hero content. These are your go big moments. Hub is your episodic content, and this really is the foundation for your community. This is the stuff that should be 80, 90% of your content. And then help is all about capturing consumers based on what they're out there searching for. Great uses of hero content would be a product launch, major brand announcement, or Super Bowl commercial. So the iPhone 11 launches, Apple spends a shit ton of money promoting a gorgeous ad and it's blasted all over the internet. That's a great example of hero content. Another one is obviously Red Bull's space jump. I mean, this thing was a momentous viral moment. Breaking it down a bit, it should be like maybe twice a year max where you've got like a big piece of hero content. It's generally around new campaigns and products or just some sort of a major initiative. This is what those of us in advertising have been doing since the Mad Men era. What requires a change in focus and a shift in thinking is really the hub content. And most brands really struggle with this. To form a community, you need to stand for something, and that requires a lot of focus. You want to create episodic content. You want to create a distinct niche and type of content and format, ideally on a set schedule. If you look at the top creators, this is what they really do. PewDiePie, one of the biggest creators of all time, he started out with "Play With Me" videos. People loved watching him freak out while he was playing scary games. Another great example, Dude Perfect. Trick shots. They didn't just do a generic sports channel or even a channel around a specific sport. They did a channel all about trick shots, nothing else, and they grew to over 50 million subscribers. That's insane. The Fine Brothers with the react videos. Very simple format, you know, we're going to give you different things to react to. They've got Teens React, Celebrities React, but it's focused. They didn't just do a react video and then they tried some other comedy videos. They refine these react videos. Brands are really struggling with this. There are a few that do an okay job. Probably the best one that I can point to, I think, is Lego. Lego is killing it, and they've invested a ton in their content. They've got over 8 million subscribers, and you can see when you take a look at it here, they've spent a lot of time and been very methodical about this. So they've got this series Explained with LEGO Bricks. So they explain different things in the world with LEGOs. They've got this content series Rebrickulous, same cast, same crew, LEGO designer set review videos. So they recreate sets from different movies. They've got the LEGO How To Academy. And within each of these playlists, you'll notice they've got a lot of content there. They didn't just do one and then they moved on to the other content series. They invested in these and they iterated upon them. Each of those hub content series, there's dozens and dozens and dozens of videos. So they really invested in it. And so as a result, if I'm a subscriber and I come in, I know exactly what to expect from the channel. It's not a bait and switch. Nintendo also does a really great job of this. They've got their Nintendo Minute format. Just two staff members from Nintendo sit down on a couch, a basic set. Occasionally they go to various events and stuff. They're just sitting there discussing Nintendo, new games, old games. Hub content should be the majority of your content. It should be something that's easy to replicate, that you can do on a set schedule in a clearly defined format. Lastly, we've got help content. This is really capitalizing on that intersection of of various trends as well as search and can be a great audience acquisition tool because YouTube is the second largest search engine. Just to kind of contextualize this, I go to YouTube when I need to tie a tie and clearly tens of millions of other people do as well. This is a great audience acquisition tool. Some brands have done a good job of this. I mean, obviously beauty is huge within the YouTube community and that's, some of the most popular creators right now. If you look at Jeffree Star, you know, he's built an empire off of cosmetics. Now, some brands have recognized that this is a behavior that exists, and as a result, they're creating content to really cater to it. So for example, Chanel, I mean, they're doing a makeup tutorial around their makeup collection. It's a no-brainer. Why wouldn't you do this? Consumers are constantly looking up just the names of your product. Do a demo. It doesn't need to be anything elaborate or overly produced. It's really all about delivering on the information. You know, what are the specs? How does this work? Try and think of the common questions that any consumer would potentially have and then just answer it. If you think about it, it's, you know, that intersection of, you know, the brand expertise and popular search terms. I like to think of it in this Venn diagram format. If, if people are searching for your brand and your products, why wouldn't you create content around it? Help content, it's really, you know, providing that expertise. It's great to, you know, be answering questions, tapping into trends, and more than anything, just really being informational. So kind of recapping it big picture here, it's hero, your go big kind of Super Bowl style moments, You wanna focus on hub content. What is the content that you can create again and again and again without it being such a huge drain on resources that's going to cultivate that community? And then lastly, uh, help content. You know, that intersection of, of search terms, what people are out there seeking, and, and brand relevance. So next up, we're gonna dive into a little bit about why all this stuff works, and I'll approach it from a few different angles. Why it works from the platform standpoint, the YouTube algorithm, and why it works for the viewers, as well as why it works for you, the creator, the brand, the advertiser. From the algorithm standpoint, the algorithm is prioritizing what's new, what you like based off of your search and watch history, and who you are from a demographic standpoint. And so you wanna kind of Think about it in terms of like teaching YouTube who likes your content, and that's where that consistency really comes in. So you don't do sports and then cooking later on. You don't change tactics. You don't want to veer away from that because YouTube is selling ads. They want to keep people on their site longer. You don't want to keep them guessing. Also, you don't want to pull a bait and switch, which is where it comes in from the viewer standpoint. There's 500 hours of content uploaded every single minute. There's a billion mobile views every day, 3.25 billion hours of video watched a month. People are just being bombarded with options. As a result, you need to be distinct and memorable. If you're trying to appeal to everyone, you're appealing to no one. And the best way to be memorable is to be simple. You think about it in terms of those creators that I talked about. Dude Perfect, trick shots. They just stuck with that, didn't deviate from that. From a brand standpoint, Same thing, you wanna define a format within your niche that's relevant to your audience and stick with it. Nintendo Minute, 10 minutes hanging out on the couch each week talking about games. Simple, but consistent. And then why does it work from a creative standpoint? If you're a content creator, a brand, an advertiser, you don't want to reinvent the wheel. And you don't wanna reinvent the wheel both from a resource and a production standpoint because it can be a drain. So resource-wise, it's great. It's also great because YouTube provides so much data around what viewers really enjoy watching. So you can go in on an individual video and see second by second the peaks and the troughs, like where are people dropping off, and you can use that data. So if you've got a set format, basically what you can do is see, oh hey, that intro didn't work. Next time let's try it this way, and you can adjust it. And that way you can actually test the variables. And over time, you know, the goal is to really draw out that watch time. And it takes time, but compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe. It's a tried and true way to improve. So to kind of recap this section, you know, you want to train YouTube, you want to make yourself really easy to remember, and you want to iterate over time, leverage that watch time data. So how to do all this? Hero content. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this topic. This is the area that brands spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on. That said, you want something to make an impact, tap into some visceral emotion. There have been a lot of studies done. If you can actually, through an ad, create a physical representation of emotion as something is so funny people laugh out loud. If something is so sad people cry, or if something sparks so much anger that they're yelling or jumping out of their seat, it's going to get shared like crazy. So if you want to create something that is a big hero moment for you as a brand, you want to think about it in terms of really driving home the emotional resonance. Hub content. You know, we talked about keeping it simple. You can keep it really simple. 40 of the top 100 channels, it's just like a single person talking to a camera. Somebody with a simple format, they've got a set schedule, and they're just making small adjustments within that format week by week or day by day. If you think about it in that context, it should make your job a lot easier. You can focus on making those small changes to get small gains over time, and you will get there. Help content. How do you come up with this stuff? The past obviously is the best indicator of the future, or at least future behavior, so just research what are the popular search terms relevant to you. You know, Google Trends is a great resource for this. You can also look up Twitter, see what people are talking about related to your brand, to your category. Odds are it translates. Also, look on your own social platforms. What are frequently asked questions? These are all great resources. Right at your fingertips that are free to inform, help content. And once you identify those, simply answer the question. You don't need to overcomplicate it. You don't need to overproduce it. People are there for that information. Deliver on it. Take as much time as you need to answer the question, but answer the question first and foremost. So it's that intersection of the search and the trends and providing the value in the form of answers. Takeaway: the Hero Hub Help format. Hero, go big. Hub, this should be your anchor content, should be episodic, something you can easily replicate. And then Help is all about capitalizing on YouTube as the second largest search engine. And it requires a lot of focus. You got to be comfortable with saying no and not allowing a bunch of content in your YouTube channel to be just a dumping ground. Just look at what works. You've got that watch time data. YouTube Tells you exactly what your existing viewers like. So look at that. What do they like? What do they not like? Do more of what they like, get rid of what they don't. Just make small changes over time. I've got a link down below to my website. Take a look at that. Like, subscribe, comment. Send over any questions you've got. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.