You tin can't deny that video is a vital part of whatever concern's marketing strategy in 2019.

In fact, video traffic will exist a whopping 82% of all global IP traffic by 2022 -- upwardly from 75% percent in 2017.

It'southward articulate that web visitors are shifting to video -- Facebook Watch, IGTV, and of course, YouTube have all picked upward steam in recent years. The only question is, are you going to take reward of that trend?

I saw an opportunity to engage and grow an audience for my visitor, Niche Site Project'southward YouTube channel, and decided to double down.

Literally. I decided to publish ii videos per twenty-four hours for a month.

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That might sound like a lofty goal -- particularly equally a team of one -- simply I developed a workflow to do it without stressing out, using the assist of ii office-time Virtual Assistants (VAs).

The results exceeded my expectations for YouTube metrics. Compared to the previous month (when we were publishing once a twenty-four hour period):

  • Watchtime increased by 60%.
  • Views increased by lxxx%.
  • YouTube Subscribers increased by 37%.

There was likewise a articulate ROI, which I'll explicate afterward.

In this post, I'll discuss:

  • How to use projection management for small teams.
  • Why I decided to publish so many videos.
  • How to define the project and procedure flow.
  • How to exercise the piece of work and adjust when needed.
  • What worked and what didn't.

But commencement, a quick background on who I am: I'm a Projection Management Professional (PMP) and worked equally a corporate management consultant and project manager for x years. When I got laid off, I decided to turn my side hustle of Amazon Affiliate marketing and SEO into a full-time gig, and that'southward what I practise at Niche Site Project.

Why Do It?

Get-go things first, you have to empathise why you lot're doing a projection. I noticed that traffic from my YouTube channel converted to email subscribers at iv times the charge per unit of whatsoever other source.

Traffic from all sources convert at an average of iv.19%.

YouTube traffic, on the other mitt, converted at almost 16%.

My concern is dependent on e-mail listing growth, then it was a no brainer to put more fourth dimension into YouTube.

Pro Tip: If you're trying to get your boss to let you work on a project idea, data makes information technology easier for her to say yep. If you don't accept convincing data notwithstanding, develop assumptions that you can examination on a small-scale scale first.

You'll want to outline your goals so you know how you're doing during the project, and if y'all accomplished what you lot intended once you terminate.

My ultimate goal was to grow the email list, simply I knew a few metrics that would exist able to guide me along the fashion. YouTube analytics are very good for creators, so they'd be perfect as Fundamental Operation Indicators (KPIs) forth the way.

I wanted to improve the following KPIs on YouTube:

  • Watchtime
  • Views
  • YouTube Subscriber Count
  • Quality (This is subjective but of import for other metrics.)

Y'all'll detect I didn't specifically annotation "abound my email list". Based on the information from the previous 24 months, I already knew that YouTube traffic was converting well for my email list (4X more other traffic).

Past focusing on growth on YouTube, I knew information technology would assistance grow the Niche Site Projection audience base. And then, over time, YouTube growth would exist beneficial.

All simply the last goal are quantifiable data points. The video quality is a perception and thus subjective, simply if the quality is good, the other 3 metrics will go up. Plus, if you work on something a lot in a dedicated manner with the intent to improve, at that place's a skillful risk y'all'll practice just that.

A Project Management Approach

This was my arroyo:

  1. Ascertain the projection and outline the process
  2. Create the squad
  3. Execute the piece of work and refine the process
  4. Review the lessons learned

This procedure is non a pure project management implementation that you'd come across at the corporate level. It is, still, a model that works well for an individual or small-scale squad.

1. Define the Project

I've dabbled with YouTube for a few years. In 2017, I started publishing more than videos on a regular basis. At the same fourth dimension, I was watching a lot more YouTube, since my gym had great wifi.

I noticed the YouTubers I watched would typically do a calendar month of daily publishing, and then review the growth. In the few examples that I studied, I saw they grew their channels a lot.

I thought about doing the same affair... and figured, well, why not double it?

2. Review with Peers

I normally work alone, so I similar to review my ideas with other people before starting a projection.

I talked to a few people who were more experienced about doing a content dart on YouTube. I asked for advice and if they saw whatever pitfalls that I may be missing.

I phrased my question in a specific fashion:

"I'1000 planning on publishing 2 videos a day for a month. I've researched and accept seen a few channels that accept done it with great results. I have X, Y, & Z planned for the process. Do you have any experience doing a publishing sprint? Practice y'all run into any mistakes or flaws in my logic?"

There were no major bug with the general plan. Peachy!

Pro Tip: When you ask people about your thought, be careful. Some people imagine whether they could personally practise something. If they don't dream big, they might discourage you from even trying.

iii. Outline and Develop the Process

Since I had been publishing YouTube content already, I knew the general procedure. I as well knew what I liked and disliked.

I sketched out this process in about v minutes.

Pro Tip: Practice it past hand and save time. You could utilise a tool or app to design your workflow, but simple is better.

By sketching out the process, information technology made it piece of cake to identify the tasks that I did NOT desire to do. Some things are better for me to focus on, like:

  • Content
  • Management

And some things are not fun for me to practice, like YouTube admin work. That's stuff like:

  • Video descriptions
  • Video tags
  • Thumbnail images

I'thousand also a pretty ho-hum video editor. While I relish the process, it's non a expert way for me to spend my time.

Working on things that you're good at is more than enjoyable, of course, only it's usually more than productive, too. I didn't desire to be the bottleneck in the process, so I got out of the way.

4. Tracking and Managing the Project Condition

I like tools, apps, and new tech, and then I wanted to take a sophisticated project direction solution.

I wanted the process to be automated and optimized right from the start.

I'll come back to this in the lessons learned department after, but for now, know that:

  • I wasted a few days trying to automate the procedure.
  • The unproblematic solution is the all-time to start with, and sometimes simple is just better.
  • You tin can ever optimize later on.

5. Edifice the Squad

The process helps ascertain the squad. I'thousand a 1-person store, then occasionally, I hire VAs for ad hoc assignments. I was already working with 2 VAs for YouTube over the previous few months, and so information technology was piece of cake to fold them into this bigger project. Here was the team:

  • Project Manager: Doug
  • Content: Doug
  • Video Editor: VA #1
  • YouTube Assistant: VA #ii

It was a lean team, and I got rid of the tasks that I was bad at or simply didn't like.

Pro Tip: Before diving into such a large project, check with your Video Editor and YouTube Banana to make sure they're able to do some extra piece of work during the dart.

About Hiring Freelancers

When I first hired the Video Editor, it took a niggling time for me to find the right person for my team. I hired three editors for paid trial gigs to come across how nosotros worked together, and made sure they didn't miss deadlines.

I suggest hiring for paid jobs and real piece of work with deliverables that tin be used. It's hard to interview and actually determine if someone can practise the job -- completing real work is the only fashion to know.

Workflow and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

The team had been working together for a few months, slowly tweaking the process. So I was confident in the general procedure. Nonetheless, I knew pressure level testing the arrangement would reveal weaknesses that would need to exist refined.

Here'due south how it worked:

  1. I shot a video, so uploaded it to Google Drive.
  2. I told the Video Editor a new video was set up.
  3. The Video Editor uploaded the finished video to Google Drive.
  4. I uploaded the video to YouTube. (More than on this in the next section.)
  5. The YouTube Assistant did postal service-production work, like creating the thumbnail epitome or writing the YouTube description.
  6. I reviewed and finalized post-product work.

As you tin encounter, my process included two handoff points between three team members -- elementary and straightforward.

Pro Tip: If you lot're initially defining the procedure, so you should typhoon your best guess for the workflow and process. Then, run through the process a few times and adjust as needed. You lot will need to adapt, and that's okay.

Executing on the Process

This part is where y'all do the "real" work! With all my preparation complete, this role was relatively easy.

In fact, nigh of the month was far less stressful than normal. Information technology's funny to imagine, just I talked most it with my VAs and it was the same for them.

Our goal was very articulate during that calendar month: publish a lot of videos. So each day we all knew exactly what to work on.

The goal was to have fifty% of the videos washed before the 30 days of publishing even started. I made a go-nogo determination the day before we started publishing just in case we didn't have the 50% of the videos done.

It was a mad dash of piece of work for about two weeks, but having half the work washed early made the next thirty days much easier. If someone on the squad became ill or if something unexpected happened, we would still be able to come across our goal.

Pro Tip: Things rarely go exactly equally planned, and so add together a buffer to your timeline just in case.

In my corporate PM days, it was mutual to add time to the schedule to account for unplanned issues. If yous finished ahead of time, it was great! But, most of the fourth dimension, there was some external factor that caused a filibuster. The project schedule could handle it with the buffer fourth dimension.

Refining the Process

In project management jargon, this is the "Monitor" phase.

For individuals and entrepreneurs, monitoring is skipped often, yet it's the nearly of import part.

During this phase, you're looking for mistakes, problems, and opportunities to improve.

People don't normally like looking for mistakes and being self-critical -- even though it'south effective.

Hither'southward why you should do information technology even if it's uncomfortable:

  • You can arrange your process.
  • You tin amend your results.
  • You lot'll larn what to practice (or not do) side by side time.

Here's how nosotros monitored:

  • Each calendar week, my team met via video chat.
  • We talked virtually what was going well.
  • Nosotros talked about what wasn't going well or could be improved.

We didn't uncover annihilation that was causing major issues. Generally, things were going well, so the few things we changed were small-scale.

Pro Tip: Keep information technology elementary, and create an open dialogue with your team.

Lessons Learned

The other huge benefit of a sprint-style project is that y'all learn fast past doing something daily. My video production skills increased massively in merely 30 days.

What Didn't Piece of work

Here are some things that didn't piece of work then well.

1. Fancy Tools & Automation

I tried to utilise Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Trello, and Zapier in the beginning to have a sexy agenda view and spreadsheet that was integrated.

(Zapier is a cracking app that helps you integrate other apps -- super powerful, but can exist a chip disruptive.)

I burned about three days setting it up, which was actually fun, only non worth the effort.

Plus, afterwards I tested it, there were issues with the integration. Information technology was a mess! I decided to just chip that thought. Simple is improve.

The simplest solution was a spreadsheet -- hither's a stripped downward sample in Google Sheets.

two. Batching Work

I batched a few tasks in the kickoff, like shooting several videos in a row. Except, it turned out, I wasn't batching often enough.

I needed to plan things out more than intentionally (e.yard. outline video ideas, shoot videos). The more than work I could batch, the more efficient the whole workflow would be.

With batching I could shoot a week's worth of videos in a few hours. It saved a ton of time with setup and breakdown of the camera gear and lighting.

3. Pre-Production Tasks

I dabbled in video for a little while but the content wasn't highly produced -- my videos were usually Live Streams of some kind. Producing video at a fast stride taught me a lot in a very short time frame. I never realized how much piece of work goes into a video ahead of fourth dimension. The more preparation you do, the better your video turns out.

Here are some of the pre-product tasks:

  • Outline the video.
  • Find references to back up the content.
  • Discover graphics that could help brand the point in the video.
  • Empathize what videos are going to be published in the future so a few videos can reference each other.

It seems obvious afterwards the fact, but I was used to doing things on the wing.

4. Uploading the Video to YouTube was Irksome

When the Video Editor finished editing a video, she uploaded the finished video to Google Drive for me to review.

If edits were needed, I asked for updates. If the video was final and no updates were needed, I downloaded the video and uploaded it. The video files are big, so that takes a few minutes each time.

I knew there was some way to movement files from Google Bulldoze to YouTube, just I was having trouble figuring information technology out. (More on this afterward.)

What Worked

Several things went well from the kickoff and a few things improved forth the way since we tried to constantly better the process.

1. Working Ahead

50% of the videos were shot before I started publishing them. They still needed to have the mail service-production work (e.g. thumbnail, YouTube clarification, YouTube tags), but the bulk of the work was washed.

This was a huge mental advantage, every bit the squad started publishing two videos a day. We knew we could do it if nosotros were able to do one-half of the work ahead of fourth dimension.

2. Using a Uncomplicated Content Calendar

I find it exciting to integrate apps and automate things -- but information technology's overkill most of the time.

I wasted a few days trying to integrate a few apps when Google Sheets would've worked just fine. A spreadsheet didn't take the fancy visual dashboard, simply that wasn't a requirement.

Pro Tip: You don't need to optimize every solution. Merely run into the requirements to solve the problem.

I managed several multimillion-dollar projects for a tier-ane telecom company using a spreadsheet. That was the official PM tool at the visitor because it was simple and everyone had access to a spreadsheet app.

For my content dart, Google Sheets suited my needs, and no integrations were needed. Always opt for simple over complex.

3. The Workflow

The heart of this system was the workflow. I delegated tasks I didn't desire to practice (or shouldn't do) to advance the procedure. The quality of the resulting work was higher, too.

Each of the steps in the workflow had get-go and endpoints. Each endpoint triggered the next action (due east.g. handoff to the next person).

We didn't need to adjust the main parts of the workflow, but there was one role that could be helped with the right tool.

4. Zapier for Transferring Files From Google Drive to YouTube

Google Drive has some interfacing capabilities with YouTube, just I was having problem getting files moved over quickly. Instead of a seamless transfer, I was downloading and uploading big video files each and every fourth dimension.

Information technology took about 30 minutes on average for each video. Aye, a lot of it was only upload/download time, which is largely idle, only still a waste of time.

I started investigating Zaps on Zapier for YouTube and found the right i.

When the video editor uploaded a video to a specific binder, Zapier would transfer the file over to YouTube. Boom! This was a huge upgrade to the process.

Now, in one case the video editor uploaded a video, the video transferred to YouTube seamlessly. And so, my YouTube Assistant could practise the post-production work. Finally, I did the last check before publishing.

Takeaways

This procedure is a great example of a sprint of work where I used relevant project management tools from the corporate world in a real-life application with a small squad.

I started with a set up of goals and some assumptions that I tested on a modest scale.

The idea of continuous comeback is applied throughout the process by encouraging open dialogue inside the team. We were able to ameliorate along the way which fabricated us more efficient.

Additionally, I noted what could be improved in the future. For instance, I knew that Trello could have been a great solution to aid in the project management of video production. I didn't use it for this project considering the rest of the squad hadn't used Trello before.

Afterwards the sprint was consummate, withal, I introduced Trello to the team. It has some benefits over Google Sheets without adding too much complexity.

Conventional wisdom suggests that I should keep publishing more than and more than videos to abound. But there are other factors to consider likewise just growing your watchtime and YouTube subscriber base of operations. And, most chiefly, information technology'due south unsustainable over a long period of time if yous take a lean team like I practise.

Still, the benefits are long lasting considering the videos can exist watched in the future if the topics are evergreen. So, the YouTube KPIs may not grow at the same rate later on the sprint is complete, but the Niche Site Project audience continues to grow from YouTube. Another benefit I hadn't considered is being seen equally a YouTube Influencer, so companies and other influencers desire to work with me.

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Originally published Jun 17, 2019 vii:00:00 AM, updated June 17 2019