You’re probably not focused as much as you should be on this crucial component to success when it comes to content: packaging.

Title, thumbnail, caption, format, delivery mechanism, etc.

Successful packaging on a platform requires a deep understanding of that specific platform’s culture and audience.

In today’s letter, we’ll take a look at packaging for YouTube vs. Instagram.

YouTube packaging

On YouTube, your packaging largely consists of the title + thumbnail, which may be just as important as the video itself. YouTube is a game of click + watch. But you have to nail the click before the watch comes into play.

Yet most creators (including myself) spend a disproportionate amount of time on the video – days, weeks, months even – while spending just a few minutes on a thumbnail and title.

But the top creators on YouTube won’t even make the video until they crack the combination of idea + thumbnail + title. Before starting on the video, they ask themselves an important question: can we package this?

Mr. Beast has a team of 7 creating his thumbnails and he spends around $5K-10K per thumbnail. It is that important to his content strategy.

According to Paddy Galloway, one of the world’s top YouTube strategists, a YouTube thumbnail should match the below criteria.

1. 90% psychology and 10% design.

2. color theory

3. clean

4. obvious

5. pass “glance test”

Paddy gives the example of the below thumbnail by Mark Rober. It nails the psychological aspect of a great thumbnail – ‘what happens next?’

Instagram packaging

Packaging on Instagram is entirely different from YouTube. Short-form video does not rely as heavily on a thumbnail as most of it is consumed in-feed.

And there is no emphasis on a title.

Instead - the hook is 90% of the game. But the hook isn’t just what is said or written. It’s also how it’s delivered and communicated.

There are also different formats to explore on Instagram. Reel, carousel and single post combined with different aspect ratios and built-in distribution mechanisms.

In general, I think Instagram reels are the most powerful way to reach new audiences – but carousels are being weighed heavily in the explore page algorithm as well.

When someone discovers your page from a Reel, the default landing spot for that user is now your Reels tab. So Reel covers are an important equation to your packaging since when someone visits your Reels tab, they are generally looking for more interesting content to consume.

I’ve actually published 20 cinematic reel covers I designed, if you want some good looking templates to design your Reel covers off of.

Now, sometimes, more effective packaging of a video is the carousel. If a video is very interesting, but doesn’t have an effective hook – use an image to introduce it instead.

For example, in the Metav3rse post below, the image added an extra element of curiosity and intrigue that I deemed would be more effective than posting the video itself as a reel.

The video by itself underperformed on TikTok, but dramatically over-performed on Instagram as a carousel. To me, this had everything to do with the packaging of the content.

Time spent on a post is an important metric for the Instagram algorithm. Which is why this format, and carousels in general are an effective packaging technique.

Here’s another great example by Gary Vee, who has been leaning into carousel packaging heavily. He could have shared the video as a reel – but his social team decided that it would be more effective packaging the video in a carousel with a unique cover design:

Hope that was helpful.

Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways I can help you.

1. Unsigned - There is a free creator chat that Digital Jeff and I are active in daily. If you have any questions whatsoever when it comes to your content entrepreneurship journey, myself and the community are there to help you.

2. Private Consulting – If you’d like to speak privately, I just opened up 1 on 1 consulting / strategy hours. This is limited to only 2 slots a week.

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