Newsletter Blueprint
For this one we're going to be breaking down Cozy Snap and his YouTube channel dedicated to Marvel SNAP - which is a fast paced mobile card game based around Marvel Comics characters.
I'm featuring Cozy Snap for a few reasons, other than the fact that he's awesome and a great case study.
- We recently saw Deep Pocket Monster and you guys loved the growth within a passion niche, so I wanted to replicate that with this one.
- There's a current obsession with hitting $10,000 a month, and Cozy was able to do that not only in a passion niche (not in the Big Three [Health, Wealth or Relationships]), but also within a year of focusing on a singular platform.
- Cozy Snap was able to hit 100K+ subscribers without chasing virality and instead just consistently showing up with awesome signature series.
For full disclosure, though, I do want to make mention to the fact that Marvel SNAP came out on October 18th, 2022 - which means Cozy did have a couple months head start on 2023, and why I'm saying he hit 100K+ instead of specifically 125K within a year.
Cozy Snap Breakdown
We're not hyper-focusing on Cozy Snap's income, and instead we'll be focusing on the consistent growth and how he leveraged his signature series to achieve it.
For his income levels I used Views4You which guesstimate around $10,000 per month in ad revenue, and another $1,250 per sponsored video. And since we know he is affiliated with Samsung, AT&T and a couple other sponsors, we can assume he's bringing in some money on top of the ad revenue.
Let's get into some stats:
- YouTube Subscribers: 125,000
- Twitch Followers: 40,000
- Twitter (X) Followers: 26,500
- Discord Members: 8,500
Similar to Deep Pocket Monster, Cozy has a couple other platforms he has grown on top of the YouTube channel, but the YouTube is the main focus and the other layers came on over time.
His Twitch channel says he hasn't streamed in 2 months and I don't remember seeing him on that much when I was playing - so it may be similar to how Deep Pocket Monster tried out layers like TikTok and decided it wasn't worth the trade-off and decided to put more of that work back into the channel.
Cozy Snap's Signature Series
Cozy Snap has a handful of Signature Series that he has used to grow his channel, which is another one of the reasons I love this feature.
Cozy has a couple main signature series, a playlist of pillar content (for beginners, which I'll share), and a layer of videos he continuously
What Is Cozy Snap's Signature Series?
Cozy Snaps main three Signature Series are:
- Meta Deck Report
- New Deck Breakdowns
- The SnapChat Podcast
- New Balance Patch Notes
Each one of these signature series follow a specific format that Cozy can re-use while changing a small variable of the content.
As you guys know by now, I like to refer to our signature series as having "anchors"; or something that makes them capable of moving on a small change as I'm referring to.
Signature Series Deep Dive
While I would normally do a deep dive of a specific video type to discuss how the creator uses Curiosity Gap or storytelling to keep the viewer engaged, for this one I'm actually going to be going through each of the signature series and discuss the anchors so you have an idea of how Cozy slowly grew his series layers.
If you're not a Marvel SNAP player and I start going through the specifics of a video you're likely to have no idea what I'm talking about.
Plus, I'll be going into a bit more depth into some of his videos in the next section.
The New Deck Breakdowns follow an identical structure every single time with the only small variable change coming from the deck Cozy features and teaches each time.
The New Balance Patch Notes come out weekly when the game puts out the buffs and nerfs on three cards each - which Cozy breaks down and discusses the same way each time - just with the new specific update.
The Meta Deck Reports come out whenever there is a specific change to the meta, meaning there are new decks dominating the game. This happens relative to balance patches, larger patches, and new cards being released into the game.
The SnapChat Podcast comes out weekly and discusses what is going on within the meta, which is similar to what you're seeing from the rest of these signature series, but Cozy does it in a different and fun way - while giving different depth to specific topics.
We know a lot of creators tell us to "say the same thing 1000 different ways", and Cozy has been able to take that and actually turn it into different signature series that allow him to expand on the same topics in different ways he can put out on repeat.
Cozy Snap's Repurposing, Pillar Content, Lack Of Virality and Collaborations
In this next section I'll be discussing how Cozy Snap repurposes content, uses pillar content (videos that aren't within his signature series), and leverages collaborations.
Similar to how we have a lot of creators tell us to "say the same thing 1000 different ways", we also have a lot of creators teach implementing systems that allow us to repurpose content.
My favorite way we've seen is literally being able to repost the same short form video content to other platforms considering there a 3-4 different platforms currently pushing the exact type of content and fighting for our audiences attention.
We've seen that from my brother's business The Restaurant Launch, Slater Kodish, and even the most recent Creator Case Study of Salary Transparent Street - but Cozy actually finds a different way to repurpose his content.
Repurposing Content
In order to be good enough to teach all of his deck breakdowns Cozy obviously has to play the game...a lot.
Which is where his streaming and repurposing comes in.
Cozy Snap streams on both Twitch (as I discussed earlier) and YouTube Live and then records him playing the games with the decks he is planning on featuring in a full video.
So he is not only killing two birds with one stone by streaming to his community while testing out the decks, but he's killing three birds with one stone because he is then taking that content and repurposing it into his videos.
During his deck breakdowns he tells us all about the cards, why it's so great, and a brief intro, and then he essentially works his way into live footage of the games he played with the deck, which makes up more than 75% of the content.
Thankfully he is also extremely knowledgeable and entertaining so he can get away with this, so you'll have to keep that in mind if you plan on repurposing like this.
Pillar Content
I always talk about the difference between Pillar Content and Signature Series, and Cozy Snaps knows that difference.
Cozy's most popular video is "20 Essential Tips I Wish I Knew Sooner In Under 10 Minutes!" which is made specifically for beginners.
He also has a playlist of 11 other videos for beginners which are not only Pillar Content, but they're also evergreen.
They teach the basics of the game, or show of beginner decks that are more or less unaffected by the meta changes.
Lack Of Virality
In the breakdown of Deep Pocket Monster we saw Pat Flynn grow his channel to 100K subscribers in one year and we also saw how he is testing his signature series, similar to how we see Cozy Snap add layers and tests.
The difference is Deep Pocket Monster had a ton of virality to tell him when to go "all in" on content, but Cozy has grown to over 100K subscribers with consistency.
I bring this point up because a lot of people chase virality, but in reality, consistency is the key to your success.
You obviously always need to be testing and optimizing, but you don't need millions and millions of views on a video to make the decision to be consistent with your signature series.
Cozy's most popular video only has 343,000 views (for reference, the Superhero Jacked YouTube channel has videos that have upwards of 1.1 million, but only 30,000 subscribers), but he CONSISTENTLY averages 50-100K+ views on his videos.
Leveraging Collaborations
The last big lever I'm going to discuss from Cozy is the smart move that he made by collaborating on his SnapChat Podcast.
YouTube had a big push into podcasts, so it was a smart move to start one regardless, but Cozy took that to another level when he decided to host the podcast with another large creator in the space: Alex Coccia, who has a channel of 82,000 subscribers and also posts the podcast on his own channel.
Each creators posts it as their own video but they're essentially sharing their audience with each other while growing their own channel.
Collaborations is something we've seen from a few creators so far, and becomes increasingly more powerful at a time when reach is down on most platforms.
How To Replicate Cozy Snap's Success
Cozy Snap makes over six figures playing a mobile card game build around Marvel Comics.
Now, I don't say it that way to make fun of him - quite the opposite, actually...I'm envious - I say that to show you the power of passion niches.
When you use the right marketing levers, build on a media type and platform you love, and in a niche you love creating in, you can crush your goals with delayed gratification and slow and steady optimization.
That said, here are some clear takeaways from Cozy Snap's Creator Case Study:
- Collaborate with Others
- Repurpose for Different Layers
- Chase Consistency, Not Virality
- Don't Be Afraid of Passion Niches
- Leverage Multiple Signature Series
Signature series and psychology-based marketing levers have allowed Cozy Snap to grow over 100,000 subscribers, get awesome sponsors, make great connections and earn over six figures on YouTube.
And guess what: he loves it.
So remember: Build a business you wake up excited about, to live the life you dream about.
