How I PLAN and ORGANIZE a MONTH of YouTube content! (Creating a Content Calendar For YouTube )

The worst thing that you can do here on YouTube, whether you're just getting started or you're really trying to grow your channel, is not planning and mapping out the content you're going to be creating. Skipping this planning phase here on YouTube could not only hurt the potential of the video that you're creating, but the overall success of your YouTube channel as a whole. And it could also really limit your productivity when it comes to creating content. So many people reach out to me and say consistency is the hardest thing to keep up with here on YouTube. And so we need to make sure you are planning and organizing your content so you can stay productive. Videos are successful, and that leads to a successful channel as well. So the first step that I take in making sure all my content is planned and organized is by keeping it all in a list inside a program management software called Asana. I will screenshot any Instagram questions that I get, any questions that you asked me in my YouTube comments, and I will also grab questions I'm getting inside of my group coaching program as well. For my video ideas, I will screenshot them and I will save them individually inside of Asana. Let's take this over to the computer so I can show you how you could start getting a system set up like this. But before I do, real quick, if this is your first time on my channel, hi, I'm trina. I'm a YouTube strategist with a master's degree in business. And on this channel, I help you grow your business organically with online video. So if that really sounds like your cup of tea, make sure you click that subscribe button because you're not going to want to miss my content. Let's jump over to Asana. So this is what my YouTube board looks like inside of Asana. And you can see that I'm currently recording this video right here. And you can see the list of all the other videos quite a bit over here. So how this is set up is I have a template created where has every single step that I do to get a video live. So whenever I have a video idea or I see one, what I will do because this has all the steps for my entire process as I will come up here to these three dots, I will duplicate task and I will put an idea in here. So how to be confident on camera, I will then create a new task. What I can then do is come in here and pull this task up and if I saw, you know, a question from a client or Instagram post, I can then attach that right Here I can get the attachment, I can go to my computer and grab any screenshot that I had to remember that's what people were asking and maybe even potentially show that screenshot in my video. So that's the one thing that I do here. Then you can also start to categorize what types of videos. So I might start introducing some more business videos, but I need to make sure I categorize them so I'm not making too many of them because so many of you are here to learn about online video. So what you do is you can come to your video and come up to the three little dots again and you can add tags. From here you can really start to color code these or label them. You know what kind of content bucket they fall under. You can see we actually have tags for the type of social media posts that we have. But in August I did four different series of videos. You can see week one, week two, let's say this was a YouTube tech series that I was doing. I just click that, I make it green and now it's color coded green so I can see, okay, do I have a lot of green this month or do I have more YouTube content that's maybe red? And that's how you can really start to make sure you are changing up your YouTube strategy with different types of videos you want to be creating. It literally just makes things so organized because then if you come to the calendar, you can start to see those videos and when they're going live. And if we give this one a green tag again, if we came in here, we did a tag and we made it a text series video. What you can then do is see it's going to be green. So your calendar will start to say like red, red, green. Maybe you throw in a vlog and that's a blue video and you just get a good idea of how to plan and organize your videos. What's great is you can also take this and maybe you want to. Let's move it to this one and let' move this here. I'd rather do it that way you can just easily see exactly what you need to get done. When. Now that I have my list of potential video ideas saved in a safe place because let's be real. As a mom to a three and a five year old, no notebook is really safe in this house. It's time to take those ideas and start researching how to pitch or position these videos. Now you really need to understand why this piece is so important. Creating video does take a lot of Time. I know I'm going to be truthful about that. But it can be one of the most powerful pieces of your marketing plan that you have. So if you're going to take the time to put into video, I want to make sure that that time pays off. I want to make sure there's roi, return on investment. So doing this research piece is really going to ensure you're creating the videos that A, will be seen on YouTube and B, is the videos your potential clients or customers are looking for on YouTube. You also need to do research because you can't just decide on some type of topic and just roll with that. You need to make sure that topic you have the to compete. There's a lot of YouTube channels out there, 100% true. But there's still opportunity for you to create a nice little wormhole or a nice little niche for your content to make sure people are seeing you. The worst thing that you can do is not plan, put your video out and wait for people to watch it, because if you're not positioning it right, nobody's ever going to be able to find it. And you also want to make sure you're capitalizing on what's trending on YouTube right now, whether that's what's doing well on your channel right now or what's doing well on other channels. You want to take that opportunity to really piggyback on that wave of traffic those types of videos are getting now. The best place that I go to really streamline this entire process me, because it can be kind of lengthy and it can take a while, but TubeBuddy has really streamlined my process and pretty much cut my research time in half. I'm still spending a couple hours researching my content, but TubeBuddy gives me all the tools to make this go so much quicker and make sure that my videos are set up for success, that they will compete, that my target audience will find them. So let me show you how I'm using TubeBuddy and what my research routine looks like. So I'll take my idea and I'll start to hone in on it using TubeBuddy. Like I said, I go into the keyword explorer and let's say I'm doing a video on camera confidence. So I'm going to camera confidence. I'm going to click on this and TubeBuddy is going to show me what the score is. So this is going to tell me, can I compete with this topic? So TubeBuddy's saying, okay, this keyword has some competition, but it's not searched enough to make it worth targeting. So how can I start pitching this in a different way? But it is searched a lot. So what TubeBuddy does really great is it gives me all these video searches, ideas or go over here to video topics. So I might say, okay, how's a different way to pitch this? Instead of camera confidence, like five tips for camera confidence is not going to do well. So maybe it's how to increase camera confidence. And again, I'm going to let TubeBuddy give me the results to say, is this going to be worth my time? Okay, so this one may be worth my time. You can see the keyword isn't too competitive and it has enough search volume to make it worth targeting. So what I then do is I go ahead and copy this keyword and I take it over to this video that we created. I'm going to type in here keyword and pop that in there because that's the direction I'm taking this video right there. So then I'm going to come over here to the results tab on TubeBuddy and what I'm looking for is how are the people in the results creating thumbnails for these videos or creating titles, you know, what's really standing out. So I can see this one. How to be confident on camera. Tips for talking to a camera. How to be more confident. How to be more confident on video for YouTube. And I'm also looking at those thumbnails. Like you can see every single thumbnail has a person in it. The majority of them, them have a camera. So what I might do is, okay, this is a good inspiration for my thumbnail. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take a screenshot right here so that I have this to come back to. Then I'm going to go into my card in Asana and we are going to add that. So we're going to go to my computer, we're going to grab that screenshot and I'm starting to keep all of my notes and compiling all of my notes here in my card for this particular video. I'm keeping it all organized in one page specific spot. Now the next thing I do here on TubeBuddy as well is I'm going to go over here to these common video tags. And what's awesome about this is I can just select all of the tags that I know my video is going to be about. I'll go through here and click, you know, only the tags that are going to be what my video is about right. You don't want to lie about what your video is about. Once you have them, you can go over here to Action Copy to Clipboard. You can then come back here to Asana and add tags and comment that on your card. And again, you're keeping this all organized to make your life easier, but also figuring out the best way to pitch this video. Now, if you want to get started with TubeBuddy and start playing around with it, I do have a discount code for 20% off. So I will leave the link down in the description box and you'll want to use the code trinasbuddy to get 20% off. Once I've dug into that research on TubeBuddy, I'm going to start watching YouTube. I'm going to be looking at videos that are showing up in search for the topic that I want to create a video about. I want to look at how they're pitching that video, how they're opening that video. I'm also looking at the comments of their videos to see are they missing something that people wanted to see more of? Are they really, really loving this type of content? What's kind of the conversation going on in this video? So I can really make sure again, the time I put into my video is going to pay off, that people want to actually watch it. Then I'm going to think about what is my unique approach to this? How can I talk about this in a different way? How can I teach this in a different way? How can I share a different angle of this topic? So I'm not just copying those videos that are doing well, but my video supplements those videos. Because if your video supplements other videos that are doing well, you potentially show up and suggest it and your viewer goes and watches that video, see yours on the side, and then they watch yours and Suggested traffic. If you don't know traffic sources on YouTube, suggested traffic is the most powerful traffic to get. So that's why you really want to look at these trending videos or videos that are doing well so that you can piggyback off of the traffic they're already getting. But I need to reiterate again that this research phase is critical. If you are just creating videos that you want to create without doing research and just putting out what you think your audience wants, you are going to be wasting your time. It's going to be like throwing throwing spaghetti at a wall. By going through this process, this research phase, not only is it going to ensure that the time you put into your video will pay off by people watching it. But you're going to see that return on investment because you're going to ensure you're getting in front of the right people that want to subscribe to your channel, that want to buy your online courses, that want to work with you, that want to hire you as a coach. That's why doing this research is so important for your YouTube strategy. The next step in planning and organizing my YouTube content is deciding on my title and my thumbnail. Before I even come up with the act content, I have a general idea what my content is going to be, but I need to really hone in on my title and my thumbnail before I start fleshing out the content. Why? You might ask. Great question, because here's the answer. One of the most important parts of your video is your hook. That first five to 10 seconds of your video. And you need to ensure that your hook does really well tie in with your title and your thumbnail. So if you know what your title and your thumbnail is going to be, you can get into the mind of that potential viewer that sees your video, your title and your thumbnail, and you want to continue the story or the value you promise in your title in your thumbnail in that first five to 10 seconds. So you keep people watching. They buy into your video. They're going to stay longer if you have a solid hook. So that's why I want to know what my title and thumbnail is going to look like so I can ensure my first five to ten seconds does a solid job of keeping people watching. Plus, as I start fleshing out my content and what I'm going to say, I need to really make sure I'm delivering in my video what I'm pitching in my title of my thumbnail. I don't just want to throw some type of title and thumbnail over there. That I think is what going to do well. Because if I don't deliver on what I promised in the title and the thumbnail, my audience retention is going to be horrible. Nobody's going to watch it. YouTube's not going to recommend it. So that's why it is so important for me to determine that title and thumbnail before I write the content. So next I'm going to do is come back into tubebuddy and I'm going to go to the SEO studio to help me title this. So I know my keyword. That's what I'm targeting. Then I'm going to hit start. And what this is telling me is my SEO score and it's giving me some check marks to help improve my search engine optimization score. So I need to include my target keyword naturally in the title. So let's do five top tips on how to increase camera confidence for YouTube videos. All right. And you can see how immediately this makes your SE score even better. So then what you can also do is start to incorporate your tags that you had. So if you come back here and you grab your tags and you add them here. So you would fill out your description box here like you normally would, you can go to next you can start to add your tags right in here. Again, your search engine optimization score will go up as you go through there. And then what Tubebuddy does is makes this super simple on YouTube is you can then save this draft when you upload it to YouTube. All of this is already saved for you. So that's one great way when you are researching to get a lot done on the front end. Now it's time to actually plan out your videos. And some may call this scripting. And I've actually changed my position on how I name this. I actually call it creating your video game plan. Now I'm going to show with you how I create my video game plan and what my template looks like. But the reason why I switched from scripting to video game plan is because I personally need to back away from scripting word for word what I want to say. Otherwise I get too nervous about exactly saying what I script. And I've seen so many of my clients and students fall into that trap as well. So instead I'm positioning this part of the process as your video game plan. Now in this video game plan, I'm going to show you how you plan out what you're going to say, what assets you're going to use to your video, what B roll, which I'll show you here in the video game plan as well. But that's why it's not not just the script, it's about the entire experience of the video. So let me show you what that looks like. So this is what my video game plan looks like. What I really need to understand is what is this one call to action in my video? What's the primary goal of my video? Is it to get subscribers? Is it to get people on my email list? Is it to get them to watch another video? Because you can't have too many calls action. Otherwise nobody does any action. So I always like to determine what is going to be my call to action for this video. Then there are things I always like to include in my video to make a bigger connection with you. So things I always like to include is that I'm a Mom, I'm a YouTube strategist and MBA. Those are the types of things that I want to make a deeper connection with you. So I want to make sure I'm including that in my video. From there you will see this is the content outline and there are two columns. This is the A roll and this is the B roll. A roll would be if my editor blows my face up right now this is me talking and this is a roll. Now if she takes my face away and just shows you my screen share that is B roll. That is supplemental content to your video. B roll may also show you working at your desk while you're talking about how role may also show like a field of flowers. If you're talking about how to de stress. But you want to think about different things you can do to keep your video engaging. So I will always determine what my hook is here and then I will make my intro which is the same for every intro and then my content points I will use bullets. I don't write word for word. I will just use bullet points. And then you can see these are some of the text call outs that I need. I want my name caught out here. I need title screen here that says step one I want a notebook gif here this is so you are planning out your video so people will watch it longer. Because the the longer people watch your videos the more YouTube's gonna put it in front of more people. So this is basically what my video game plan looks like for every single one of my videos and all of my clients videos. Moving right along. We know what our video title is. We know what our thumbnail is. We know what our video game plan is going to be. So now let's get it scheduled. You need to figure out when this video is going to go live, when you want it to go live and then reverse engineer when you need to film it, how long you have to edit it so you can ensure you stick to that date that it needs to go live. Because here's the secret it you're never going to put content up on YouTube. You're never going to create video content. You're never going to launch a YouTube channel if you don't put time in your schedule to actually do it. Me for example, this is the last Wednesday of October and I will shoot all of my November content. I also put it on my calendar so I know no, the kids cannot Be here. Yes, I need to get a babysitter for that day. No, I'm not taking any calls that day. And yes, I have my phone and all my notifications turn off so I can focus on solely on getting this content filmed. Now we did have a potential situation where my mother in law couldn't have the kids today. So luckily my mom came through, I sent them over there and I have the day now to just focus on creating this video content. So I'm done for the entire month. I only look like this one day a month technically. I mean I do lives and stuff, but to film my content, I don't want to look like this every single week. Ain't nobody got time for that, right? I am making sure I put in my schedule a day and a time space that I can do my hair and makeup, I can have a quiet house, I can get all the lighting equipment up and film my content. That is the only way I am able to stay consistent. Now if you want to hear about how I batch my content, like what that system looks like, let me know down in the comments. Say batching video please and I will see if I can fit that into my content schedule for you. Because that is the other secret weapon to my content strategy. Not only do I plan and organize this entire process, but I, I batch an entire month's worth of content. This is why it's so important to set dates on all of your videos because this will really help you build out your marketing plan. So you can see specifically for us, this was the month that I did videos every single day. And we have Pink is our Instagram stories. Red is the YouTube video. Yellow is the Instagram carousel. Blue is the LinkedIn post. That's another YouTube video. Another YouTube video. This is an Instagram story post. There's another Instagram carousel. So once you start getting these in a song and you start giving them specific days, you can start to see what you need to post on Instagram, what you need to post on LinkedIn, what you need to post on Facebook to really make your marketing plan using online video. Give you everything that you need with results and really help you work smarter, not harder. Now two more quick things for you. I want to make sure you have your entire YouTube channel set up correctly and set up for success and that you aren't missing any of these pieces you might not even know about that could be holding your YouTube channel back. So make sure you grab this YouTube roadmap that is on your screen right now. It's 15 pages of exactly how to ensure all the back end of your YouTube channel is set up properly and so your channel can be the most successful channel possible. Once you then get that roadmap, make sure you watch the video that's on your screen right now, where I'm going to show you some of the best ways to get your first or next 1000 subscribers. So click on that video and I will see you over there.