KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Give Claude a role, your audience, and an output format in every prompt. Those three inputs do most of the work.

• Feed it real data. Past video titles, view counts, and comment screenshots produce far better output than a topic alone.

• Use separate prompts for ideas, titles, hooks, scripts, and metadata instead of asking for everything in one go.

• Claude writes drafts, not final videos. Read every script out loud before you record it.

• The biggest time saving is repurposing. One long video can become a week of Shorts and a blog post from two prompts.

PROMPT 01

You are a YouTube content strategist for a [niche] channel with [subscriber count] subscribers. Our audience is [describe audience in one sentence].

Below are real comments and questions from our viewers:

[paste 15 to 30 comments]

Group these into the five underlying problems people keep circling back to. For each problem, give me three video topics that solve it directly. Skip anything that would need a budget over [amount] to film. Return it as a table with columns: problem, video topic, why this viewer clicks.

PROMPT 02

Act as a YouTube researcher. Here are the last 20 video titles from three channels in the [niche] space:

[paste titles, grouped by channel]

First, list the four or five themes these channels all cover. Second, list the questions a [target viewer] would still have after watching all of this. Third, give me eight video ideas that only sit in the second list. For each idea, write the angle in one sentence and flag whether it works better as a long form video or a Short.

PROMPT 03

Someone searches YouTube for "[exact search term]". Map what they are really after.

Give me: the job they are trying to get done, the three things they will judge the video on in the first 30 seconds, two objections they bring with them, and the one thing that would make them click a second video from the same channel.

Then tell me what most videos on this topic get wrong. Be blunt, do not hedge.

PROMPT 04

Write YouTube titles for a video about [topic]. The video covers [two or three sentence summary].

Give me three titles for each of these angles: curiosity gap, specific result with a number, contrarian take, question the viewer is already asking, and beginner framing.

Rules: under 60 characters, no colons, no clickbait we cannot deliver on in the video, and do not use the words ultimate, secret, or insane. Mark the two you would test first and say why in one line.

PROMPT 05

Write five different openings for a YouTube video titled "[title]". Each opening is 15 seconds spoken, roughly 40 words.

Use a different approach for each one: cold open with the result, a direct question, a mistake the viewer is probably making, a short story, and a promise with a time limit.

No welcome back to the channel. No like and subscribe. No throat clearing. The first sentence has to carry weight on its own. Write it the way someone talks, not the way someone writes.

PROMPT 06

For a YouTube video titled "[title]", give me six thumbnail concepts.

Each concept needs: the main visual in one sentence, the on image text in three words or fewer, the facial expression or subject state, and what emotion it is going for.

The text on the thumbnail must not repeat the title. It should add the second half of the idea. Also flag any concept that would be hard to read at phone size.

PROMPT 07

You are writing a YouTube script for a [length] minute video titled "[title]". The channel is [niche] and the audience is [describe audience].

Here is my outline:

[paste your bullet outline]

Write the full script in spoken language. Short sentences. Second person. Contractions are fine. No em dashes.

Format it with a timestamp marker every time the topic shifts, and put stage directions in square brackets on their own line. Do not add a section that was not in my outline. If a point in the outline is too thin to fill its time, tell me at the end instead of padding it.

PROMPT 08

Here is a YouTube script:

[paste script]

Act as a retention editor. Mark every point where a viewer is likely to click away and say why in one line. Then suggest a fix for each one: a question, a visual change, a story, an open loop, or a cut.

Separately, tell me which 90 seconds of this script could be deleted entirely without the video losing anything. Be honest even if it is a section I clearly worked hard on.

PROMPT 09

Rewrite this section of a YouTube script so it sounds like a person explaining something to a friend, not a presentation:

[paste section]

Keep every fact and every number exactly as they are. Cut the word count by at least 25 percent. Replace abstract claims with concrete examples. Remove any sentence that could appear in a video on any other topic.

Show me the rewrite first, then a short list of what you cut and why.

PROMPT 10

Here is my YouTube script:

[paste script]

Build a shot list. For every 15 to 20 seconds of script, tell me what should be on screen. Split it into three columns: timestamp range, primary shot, b-roll or graphic option.

Assume I am filming alone with one camera, a phone, and screen recording. Do not suggest anything that needs a second operator or a location I would have to book. Flag any moment that needs a graphic I would have to make in advance so I can build those first.