What this skill does
Ask ChatGPT for content ideas and you get "5 Tips for Small Business Owners." Generic, because you gave it nothing real to work with. Garbage in, garbage out.
This skill runs on three real inputs instead: your own channel's performance data, what's actually working for creators in your niche right now, and your own positioning, what you sell, what you're known for, what to avoid. Every recommendation it makes has to point back to a real row in your data, or it doesn't make the list.
Everything in this guide is from a real channel audit. Not a theoretical exercise.
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01Own performance analysis — rank your videos by views and by click-through rate separately, and find the pattern behind what's actually converting viewers into subscribers.
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02Competitor pattern research — identify the hook structures and formats repeating across multiple channels in your niche, not one-off flukes.
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03The positioning filter — the file that stops the agent recommending trendy-but-irrelevant topics just because they're popular in your niche.
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04The skill file itself — the exact Claude instructions that turn those three inputs into a ranked, evidence-cited content calendar.
Export Your Own Performance Data
Most people skip this and go straight to "what's trending." That's backwards. The most valuable data in this whole system is the data you already have, because it's unique to your audience.
Go to YouTube Studio → Analytics → Advanced Mode → Content tab, set your date range, and export Views, Watch Time, Impressions, and Impressions Click-Through Rate as a CSV. CTR matters most: it tells you what people clicked when they actually saw it, not just what the algorithm decided to push.
Research What's Working in Your Niche
Pick 3 to 5 channels in your niche, a mix of sizes. You're not looking for topics to copy, you're looking for formats and hook structures that repeat across multiple different creators. Repetition is the signal. A single channel doing something well could be a fluke. Three channels doing the same thing is a pattern.
For each one, note the channel, the title, an approximate view count, the format type, and the hook, the first line or on-screen text that earns the click.
Define Your Positioning
This is the file most people skip, and it's the highest-leverage one in the entire system. A short markdown doc, maybe 10 lines, that tells the agent your content pillars, your active offers, and what to explicitly avoid.
Without this file, the agent might see that a topic is trending in your niche and recommend it anyway, even if your own data already proved it doesn't work for you.
The Skill Itself
This is the file that ties all three inputs together. It's a plain text instruction set, no code, that tells Claude exactly how to analyse your data, find the patterns, filter them against your positioning, and output a ranked table where every row cites real evidence.
--- name: content-strategist description: > Research-grounded content calendar agent. Cross-references your own channel's top and bottom performers, competitor patterns in your niche, and your content pillars to produce a ranked content calendar. --- # Content Strategist Agent You are a content strategist for [YOUR NAME]'s YouTube channel. Your job is to turn three input files into a ranked, filmable content calendar — grounded in real data, not generic advice. ## Inputs (load these from /data before running) 1. own_performance.csv — your video history: title, views, CTR... 2. competitor_research.csv — top videos from 3-5 niche channels... 3. positioning.md — your pillars, offers, and what to AVOID... [Full 5-step instruction sequence continues below — unlock to see it]
Get the full skill file, the three input templates, and the setup guide below.
Get the complete system,
ready to drop into Claude
The full SKILL.md file, the three input templates, and the step-by-step setup guide.
SKILL.md — Complete Version
Save this as SKILL.md inside a folder named content-strategist in your Claude / Cowork skills directory.
--- name: content-strategist description: > Research-grounded content calendar agent. Cross-references your own channel's top and bottom performers, competitor patterns in your niche, and your content pillars to produce a ranked content calendar. --- # Content Strategist Agent You are a content strategist for [YOUR NAME]'s YouTube channel. Your job is to turn three input files into a ranked, filmable content calendar — grounded in real data, not generic advice. ## Inputs (load these from /data before running) 1. own_performance.csv — Your own video history: title, publish date, views, watch time or retention %, likes, comments, CTR if available. 2. competitor_research.csv — Top-performing videos from 3-5 channels in your niche: channel, title, views, format, hook text, publish date. 3. positioning.md — Your content pillars, current offers, and what topics you should explicitly AVOID. If any input file is missing or empty, say so explicitly before proceeding. Do NOT invent data to fill the gap. ## Step 1 — Analyse own performance - Rank videos by views AND by retention separately. - Find top 3 and bottom 3 by each metric. - Extract patterns: topic type, format, hook style, length. - Output: "What's working for [you]" — 3-5 bullets, each citing specific videos that support it. ## Step 2 — Analyse competitor patterns - Group competitor videos by format and topic. - Identify what repeats across MULTIPLE competitors — not one-off flukes. - Note hook structures that recur. - Output: "What's working in the niche right now" — 3-5 bullets with examples. ## Step 3 — Cross-reference against positioning For each pattern found in Steps 1 and 2, check: - Does it connect to one of my content pillars or active offers? - Do I have unique proof or lived experience to make this video? - Discard or flag low-priority anything that's purely trending but has no connection to what I sell or what I've actually done. ## Step 4 — Generate the ranked calendar Output a table: | Priority | Topic | Hook | Format | Pillar | Why this ranks here | Rank by: (a) overlap between what's working for you and what's working in the niche, (b) strength of your unique proof on the topic, (c) connection to a current offer. Aim for 8-12 ideas. The "Why this ranks here" column MUST cite specific evidence from Steps 1-2 — no generic justifications. ## Step 5 — Flag honestly End with a short "Reality check": - Any gaps in the data that reduce confidence - Any idea that's experimental — mark as a test, not a sure bet - If own-performance data is too thin (fewer than 10 videos), say so ## Tone Direct, evidence-based, no filler. Every recommendation must be traceable to a specific row in the input data.
Running It in Claude / Cowork
1. Find your skills folder (in Cowork: Settings → Skills). 2. Create a folder named content-strategist and save SKILL.md inside it. 3. Create a data subfolder and drop in your three completed input files. 4. Open a new chat and type:
Run the content-strategist skill
Claude reads all three files and returns a ranked content calendar, every row cites the evidence behind it.
What Came Out of a Live Audit
The number one recommendation from a real run of this skill wasn't a new video idea. It was a retitle of a video that already existed.
Zero filming required. That's the kind of result this system is built to surface, money already sitting on the channel, hidden by the wrong title.
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We build this exact workflow for coaches and agency owners who want a real content engine, not a list of ideas. Own-data analysis, competitor research, positioning, and the automation to run it monthly. If you want this implemented without doing it yourself, let's talk.
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