Your Scriptwriting Partner

Sometimes, a well-written script can be wrecked by the editing.

Not by fancy effects, fast cuts or other creative choices.

But by overusing (or misusing) the simple visuals I'm about to reveal.

Here are the 7 easy-to-miss visual mistakes that I've repeatedly seen wrecking retention (so you can tell your editor to avoid them).

1/ Text appears out of sync with your voice.

Let's say you're using text to reinforce a payoff you're delivering at the end of a segment.

The audio (you speaking) and the visuals (text appearing) must be synchronised.

Yet I've often seen text appearing faster than the YouTuber is speaking.

But why is this a problem?

The reality is, your viewers can scan text faster than you can speak.

So if the text has fully appeared before you’ve finished speaking, the viewer will get bored waiting for you to finish saying what they already read.

Ideally, text should appear exactly in sync with your voice.

BUT, if it has to skew one way, it’s better for the text to appear slightly slower than your voice.

2/ Relying on stock B-roll that hides your face.

Truly... TRULY... static A-Roll is preferable to impersonal, boring, ten-a-penny B-Roll.

An online inspiration of mine, Kieren Drew, recently started on YouTube, and his videos are packed with incredible information.

But, as a YouTube newbie, he's falling for the "B-Roll is better" trap.

In the first 5 seconds of this video, he's disappeared from the screen entirely, and we're left watching a rotating cycle of generic B-Roll.

The fact that stock footage makes the visuals "varied" doesn’t “hack” my attention… it just makes me lose my connection to you.

3/ Text almost matches the audio (but doesn't).

I’ll often see a YouTuber begin a segment saying something like this:

• “Next, let's talk about the very worst thing to do right after your first ayahuasca session.”

Meanwhile, the text used to reinforce this says:

• “Just done ayahuasca? Avoid this for 24 hours!”

The problem is, if your viewer notices a discrepancy between what they see and what they hear, they're likely to ascribe meaning to it, assuming it's something you've done deliberately.

This is a psychological phenomenon called "illusory pattern perception", where meaning is derived by the observer, even if there is no meaning.

And even the 0.5s it takes them to verify that what they saw and what they heard were saying the same thing, but in slightly different ways is enough to cause "comprehension lag".

In that time, they've missed the next thing you said, and they now have to try and catch up.

So make sure on-screen text headings like this contain highly similar vocabulary to your spoken word (e.g. "The Worst Thing to Do After Ayahuasca")

4/ Confusing visual “language”.

Recently, I saw a video that used a small “checklist” style graphic in the hook to represent the key points he would reveal during the video.

So far, so good - this helps illustrate the video’s structure.

But then, he used the same graphic later to create an entirely different “list” related to a different topic.

Avoid this at all costs.

If you’ve used a graphic during the hook to help create a sense of the video’s structure, do not use that same graphic for another list within the same video.

5/ Lots of text with no visual guide indicating what to focus on.

For example, if your video contains a screen-recording of an article, or a large wall of text in any other context.

You must guide your viewer's eye to the relevant text, even if you're reading it out.

Otherwise, our eyes will wander and we'll lose track of what you're saying.

6/ Including a second camera angle to make it look like... you're being interviewed for a Netflix show?

Ok... I have no retention-based evidence that this is bad.

And I know it's helpful to cut between angles so you can hide any mistakes.

But it looks kludgy af and you should stop it 😆

7/ Text is thrown on-screen for the sake of it.

Whenever we put text on-screen, this ascribes it a degree of importance.

So overusing text will reduce its effectiveness in moments that truly do matter.

Ergo, be picky with when you use text - on my channel, I’m pushing towards only using it in 3 instances.

1. Hook checklist.
2. Chapter opener.
3. Lower-third takeaway.

Remember: if a visual isn't actively increasing the viewer's clarity, it's either doing nothing - or it's reducing their clarity.

That's all for this week.

Any questions? You can to reply to this email and I'll get back to you.

Speak soon,
George 👋

There will come a moment in your YouTube career where you face a difficult decision like this one.

So stick with me for this quick story, because you never know when it might come in handy.

This week, I had a conversation with a scriptwriting student of mine.

He was trying to figure out what type of content to make in the next 6 months, but had run into a problem that you might recognise.

Here's a (paraphrased) version of our conversation:

Student: “I want to grow my channel faster.”

George: “Ok. Why?”

Student: "To funnel more clients into my program.”

George: “Great, what’s your program about?”

Student: “It’s about [A]”

George: “Perfect. So make videos about [A]”

Student: “Oh but here’s the thing, you delightful idiot-” [he didn’t say that part] “-my best performing video is about [X], so if I want to grow my channel faster and make more sales, shouldn’t I just make more of that?”

George: “Would that video appeal to the audience you’re trying to build?”

Student: “No.”

George: “Or the clients you’re trying to reach?”

Student: “No.”

George: “Do you want to make that video?”

Student: “Oh, definitely not - it’s actually annoying that people associate me with [X] when I’m trying to sell [A].”

Now, the solution to this problem does look pretty simple when summarised like this, doesn’t it?

“Stop making videos about [X]; make videos about [A].”

But, when it comes to YouTube, we are constantly told to follow the signals.

And this... can be confusing in moments like this.

Of course, we DO want our decisions to be guided by data. But data can be distracting.

I know this because I’m going through something similar to my student right now.

I’ve just launched my own channel, and… YouTube doesn’t know who the hell I am yet.

That means I'm receiving "signals" from YouTube that would usually convince me to change course. For example:

• My first 30s retention is terrible.
• I have 90% new viewers, almost no casual or returning.
• And, when I dig into the data a little, I can see one of my videos is being recommended by another called “Cool Uncle Mods: Jailbreaking the Kindle 4”.

These signals are confusing.

Or, they would be... if I weren't choosing to ignore them completely.

So, why am I ignoring the data? Well... it's actually quite simple.

I have my ideal audience in mind, and I accept that it’s going to take 2-3 months of relentlessly, consistently staying the course to find them.

That means:

• Uploading videos for the audience I want to build (and only them).
• Scripting my videos to speak to the customers I want to attract.
• Accepting that this will not happen overnight, and therefore remaining devoted to my guiding direction.

Once I find (or, rather, YouTube finds me) the audience I need, then I can listen to the signals.

I'll get bogged down in YouTube Studio figuring out how to fix my retention, my CTR, and my idea selection.

But for now, direction supersedes data.

Likewise, everything in my students’ data is telling him to make more videos about [X].

But that data is not valuable to him anymore, because he wants to build an audience who care about [A].

Again: Direction supersedes data.

All this to say, there will be moments where you have to choose to ignore your data.

And that’s really difficult.

But when the time comes, I know you’ll do it - if you have a bigger, more important directional goal for your channel in mind.

And, if you’re interested, here’s me staying the course in my latest video (dropped today!):

Watch it here ⚡️

That's all for this week.

Any questions? You can to reply to this email and I'll get back to you.

Speak soon,
George 👋

P.S. Newsletter cutting room floor here. I was trying to get this metaphor in somewhere, but I lost confidence that it actually made any sense. Anyway, see what you think:

“If I was sailing from Ireland to Canada, I wouldn’t dock in Greenland just because they had a nice shiny lighthouse.”

Put that on a T-shirt and smoke it!

YouTube is 31x more efficient at generating leads for my business than Instagram.

(And it's got a lot to do with how easy it is to write an effective CTA.)

Let me explain:

22 weeks ago, I started my business Instagram with the intention of replacing the traffic I used to get from Twitter.

(Miss u, Twitter xxxx)

The perceived "lower effort" of writing and filming a Reel (vs a YouTube video) drew me in.

But, after figuring out a more efficient system for writing YouTube scripts in less time (a combination of my YTSP scriptwriting system and the advice I give in this video)...

...I re-launched my YouTube channel as well.

So this week, I wanted to crunch the numbers.

Even at this early stage, I wanted to know:

1. Which platform had been more effective at generating leads.
2. How much time input was required per lead?

(I mean, between you and me, I knew YouTube was going to win... 👀)

...but the extent of the victory shocked me 😆

In the below stats, a "lead" is somebody who joined this newsletter via a lead magnet promoted by the piece of content.

Instagram (started 22 weeks ago)

• Videos: 11
• Views: 4500
• Leads: 4
• Average time to script + film one video: 70 minutes

Average time input per lead: 192.5 minutes

YouTube (started 3 weeks ago)

• Videos: 4
• Views: 2300
• Leads: 79
• Average time to script + film one video: 120 minutes

Average time input per lead: 6.1 minutes

Ok, so... let's address the elephant in the room.

"You only made 11 Reels and gave up."

True. But is it any surprise?

Instagram nerds will tell you that, to properly grow on Instagram, you need to post daily.

So, assuming you only have 3-4 hours per week to write and film content...

...Instagram is a non-starter.

YouTube, on the other hand? 😍

3-4 hours per week is plenty of time for most channels to write and film a video (again, combining my writing system + advice hyperlinked above).

And approx. 1 video per week has already had a non-trivial impact on newsletter sign ups and even sales.

And my channel is still tiny.

Some of you, reading this, will already know exactly how impactful YouTube can be at 100x these numbers.

But why is there such a disparity?

My business is just a single example, but I don't think it's atypical.

And I believe it comes down to two key factors across both platforms that grossly affect how many leads they generate:

1/ How easily can you convince the viewer to click?

• YouTube: Viewers build more trust from a single piece of content. When you're delivering 10 minutes of value, the viewer has more patience to listen to a 15 second plug.
• Instagram: Viewers have less time to build trust. Plus, while already trying to cram a tonne of information and nuance to a short video, you probably only have 3-5 seconds to include a plug.

Takeaway: Long-form YouTube content, as a medium, is just better set up to build trust and allow you space to script a convincing plug.

2/ How physically easy is it for the viewer to click?

• YouTube: QR codes on-screen allow TV viewers to "click", and links in your description + pinned comment make it way easier for PC and mobile viewer to click.
• Instagram: Viewer can navigate to your link in bio, or a third party tool like ManyChat can be used (but these require the viewer to comment to receive the lead magnet).

Takeaway: YouTube viewers can access your links with a single click. For Instagram users, there's more friction.

All that being said... I still have a presence on Instagram.

My partner, Julia, converts all my newsletters into carousels, and we double-post those on LinkedIn as well.

There's no harm in keeping a presence elsewhere, if it doesn't distract you from the highest leverage platform (YouTube).

So... if you want to see my highest-converting lead magnet so far, check out this video:

Watch the video here.

The cool part is... I never explicitly tell the viewer to click the link.

But, because of the natural trust-building format of long-form YouTube content, a simple link at the top of the description is sufficient.

That's all for this week.

Any questions? You can to reply to this email and I'll get back to you.

Speak soon,
George 👋