The Five Secrets Of MrBeast, And His Viral Video Success 🎥

Heard of MrBeast?

He's not that big of a deal. He's just one of the biggest YouTubers in the world, with over 127M+ subscribers. Not only that but he's an incredibly smart and business-headed influencer that is well on the way to becoming the first YouTube Billionaire, with his multiple other channels, businesses, and partnerships.

In this weeks newsletter, we're going to dive into how he's created an empire, just by making 'silly' internet videos, and how you can do the same.

We're going to dive into the five 'secrets' that MrBeast, otherwise known as Jimmy, lives by when he's creating his next viral video. His five secrets are:

• Pacing & Retention

• Perfectionism

• The First Five Seconds

• Investing

• Relevancy

Before we dive in, if you want a real deep dive into his background, check out this two-hour interview with Colin and Samir. You won't regret it.

Pacing & Retention.

It's no surprise that one of the biggest creators on the planet knows a thing or two about video retention, as it's the biggest metric to track when you're aiming to keep an audience engaged for a long period of time.

This is what a typical retention rate of a video would look like:

In his own words, Jimmy says: "Literally, just tell them why they should watch it. If you put one million orbees in a pool, don't start the video with you shopping for your mum's birthday". Whilst most videos start with an intro, a logo, and some information about who's on camera, Jimmy does it differently.

Jimmy will change the structure of the video every 30 seconds. One moment it'll be incredibly fast with lots of shots, and in another, it may only have one video clip to slow the video down. This creates a feeling of "I wonder what's going to happen next?" and keeps viewer retention high.

In the YouTube world, the more suitable the video, the higher the retention rate, the more ads you can display, and the more money you earn - simple 💰

Advice: Get straight to it. Stop wasting time explaining, and show rather than tell. That means no logos at the start, no introductions, and no detailed explanation of what a viewer is about to watch.

Perfectionism.

It's safe to say that Jimmy is a perfectionist.

Every video he and his team create has been meticulously planned, filmed, edited, and tweaked. Sometimes spending several weeks on a single video, sitting down with his editing team until the early hours of the morning to complete to a 'MrBeast Level'.

Check out this video by Dan Mace if you want to understand a bit more about how Jimmy structures his day:

Perfecting a video may be one of his best-kept secrets. Whilst the majority of businesses and creators will create content and follow the mantra "Done is better than perfect", Jimmy does the opposite and won't release a video until it's perfect. He's spent millions on videos he's never released because "it's not a good enough video".

In his podcast with Colin and Samir, he even said that the main reason their videos don't reach more people is that "it's not a good enough video, in my opinion".

Advice: Think about how each video you post represents you, or your company. If it's not right, don't post it. Instead, tweak, revise, and approach it in a different way until you're confident it's going to blow your audience away.

The First Five Seconds.

Arguably more important than the video itself. The introduction is the 'make or break' point for any and all incredible videos.

Start of your video too long? Viewers click off.

Explaining what's about to happen? Viewers click off.

Introduction unrelated to the title and thumbnail? You get the idea...

Jimmy obsesses over the first five seconds because they matter, whilst many other businesses and creators are trying to fix a 'fault' 10 minutes into a video that nobody would notice.

Watch his Squid Game video, and pay close attention to the first 30 seconds. You'll be blown away by how fast, informative, and engaging it is:

We counted 24 variations of shots within the first 30 seconds of the video. I bet that makes your single-shot, talking-head video look boring in comparison. And you wonder why it's not going viral?

Advice: Stop focusing on insignificant tweaks and start focusing on how to hook a viewer within the first five seconds of your video. That's how you'll go from a few hundred views with low retention to reaching thousands that can't stop watching.

Investing.

As the saying goes, you've got to spend money to make money.

A lot of businesses still don't understand this concept, especially when it comes to creating some seriously slick videos. Jimmy sets the reality here, investing over $14,196,000 into just equipment and locations alone. That's not labour costs, bills, and general company overheads. That's just the tech!

We admit that this is a little overkill - Especially for YouTube. Granted, if this was for a Hollywood film, or a big brand advert we'd understand the cost, but for YouTube videos? It's a little much.

Check out this video from Mrwhostheboss where he breaks down the exact cost of everything Jimmy and his team use to make viral videos time after time:

From our experience, and depending on what you're creating, a budget between £15,000 - £50K+ can get you something incredible. In fact, we've made millions of pounds from some of the videos we've made for our clients, so there are some serious results to be made if you work with the right people.

Get in touch here to find out more!

Saying that we've never created a video that's reached 339M+ people, like MrBeast.

Advice: Spend the money and invest in your content. Put a marketing budget together, and have a percentage purely for video. Invest in content production regularly, and create videos that are always seen online.

Relevancy.

Lastly, and perhaps one of the most important aspects of any great video - relevancy. This is where it pays off to have a creative team that is switched on, uses social media daily, and is up to date with the current trends online.

Essentially, work with the people you're trying to reach. Want to connect with a younger demographic? Hire a video team full of Gen-Zs.

Jimmy and his team do an excellent job at creating topically-relevant content all the time. From Squid Game, Hide and Seek, and Hydraulic Presses. Just a few topics dominating the internet right now, and Jimmy has used them to his advantage.

Check out one of his latest videos that plays on this viral trend:

With a total subscriber base (as of 19th October 2022) of 223.1M users, Netflix got destroyed in terms of views by Jimmy's Squid Game video. This reached over 339M+ views. Over 100M+ viewers more than the entire customer base of Netflix.

Why? Because it was relevant, and Jimmy has an incredibly loyal fanbase built of millions of brand advocates that look up to him. Put his following, and the perfect timing of this video together, and you've got one of the most-viewed YouTube videos of all time.

Advice: Be active online and understand the trends that are happening right now. If something is popping off online, and you can think of a creative idea instead of your corporate testimonial video, do it. The reach, awareness, and community growth around you will pay off.

Our Final Comments.

Seeing Jimmy go from 1,000 subscribers to one of the biggest YouTubers out there in a few years has been a journey in and of itself. We've learned a lot through his techniques, technology, and perspective on creating banger after banger.

Now, we're not saying to go and spend millions on a team, equipment, warehouses, Lamborghinis, and the rest. Although that would be great. We're just showing you how Jimmy does it, and how everything he does has contributed to his viral success.

Use our advice. Get to the point, be a perfectionist, focus on your introduction, invest more into your content, and be switched on with current trends. If you do all of this, you'll be well on your way to creating videos that dominate the feed.

Until next Friday 👋🏻

Don't Forget About ⤵

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