How to Create Irresistible Thumbnails (and blow up your content)

Kallaway May 21, 2025
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About

I help builders grow their businesses faster. I've spent the last few years obsessing over content strategy, distribution & growth. I currently generate 30M views/month on my personal channels (1B+ views total) and have worked with brands like Meta, Google, Adobe, Nvidia, Salesforce, and countless tech startups. On this channel, I breakdown marketing playbooks & content strategies for growing businesses from $1 to $100M in revenue. I like to go broad (psychology) and deep (tactics). If you're looking for ways to grow your business faster, you'll like this channel. If you want to build a YouTube channel like mine: https://kallaway.co/youtubeacademy I'm also building a software tool to help all creators make better content, faster: https://sandcastles.ai If you want to improve your content, I put together a free 5 day email course breaking down my content virality formula I used to drive billions of views: https://viralityblueprint.com

Video Description

Get my free guide on how to make viral videos (1M+ followers, 1B+ views): https://viralityblueprint.com Work with me (to grow on YouTube): https://kallaway.co/youtubeacademy Grow 10x faster on social media with Sandcastles (research + ideas + hooks + scriptwriting): https://sandcastles.ai In this video, I break down the ultimate guide for making winning thumbnails and a 5 step foolproof packaging checklist to use for every video RESOURCES MENTIONED: • Hire My Thumbnail Designer - https://forms.gle/GJp2XmUmVM9dxZzYA • WavyWorld (Free invite: https://skool.com/wavyworld) - a free community for creators & entrepreneurs to get better at content together. Currently at 20,800 members • 1 of 10 (50% off code: Kallaway) - https://1of10.com • Magnific - https://magnific.ai • ClickPilot - https://bit.ly/kallawayclickpilot • Thumbnail Test - https://thumbnailtest.com/?via=kane • Hire my YouTube Ideas/Packaging Team - https://forms.gle/5SRPsikwE3RR21Ep8 • Hire my Video Editors - https://forms.gle/TAYRJkV116Q5xois9 Btw, this is another Thumbnail video that is absolutely goated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TolBiTrUg4 Video Time Stamps: 0:00 Intro 0:44 My $100,000 thumbnail 1:21 Thumbnail Psychology 101 14:30 5 Step Playbook for Making Thumbnails 14:38 Step 1: Approach 15:44 Step 2: Curiosity Gap, Desire Loops, Painpoints, Solutions 17:17 Step 3: Visual Elements & Composition 19:22 Step 4: Design 22:39 Step 5: Testing 24:01 9 Non-obvious tactical learnings to improve your thumbnails ------------------------- BEST FREE CONTENT RESOURCES: • WavyWorld (Free invite: https://skool.com/wavyworld) - I built a free community for entrepreneurs & business owners to improve at content. Currently at 31,000+ members, 60+ free trainings • Content Department (https://content.game) - If you want to get an edge & learn about content trends/formulas before everyone else, I share everything here for free SHORT-FORM VIDEO TOOLS & PROGRAMS (IG, TIKTOK, LINKEDIN, YOUTUBE): • Use My Short-Form Content Platform (research + ideas + hooks + scripts + formats) - https://sandcastles.ai • Take my Short-Form Hooks Masterclass (2 hours long, comes with 37 pages of notes and 400+ hook database) - https://lu.ma/sfa-hooks • Hire My Short-Form Video Editors - https://forms.gle/TAYRJkV116Q5xois9 • Join Kallaway's Short-Form Academy (designed to help business owners build a short-form content machine that generates free attention and turns it into leads & sales) - https://shortform.academy LONG-FORM VIDEO TOOLS & PROGRAMS (YOUTUBE) • Hire My Ideas & Packaging Team - https://forms.gle/5SRPsikwE3RR21Ep8 • Hire My Thumbnail Designer - https://forms.gle/GJp2XmUmVM9dxZzYA • Hire My YouTube Video Editors - https://forms.gle/TAYRJkV116Q5xois9 • Use My YouTube AI Scriptwriter Tool (Waitlist) - https://forms.gle/ZYE6zf2RDyJahyDC8 • Join Kallaway's YouTube Academy (Waitlist) (go from zero to crushing on YouTube as a business owner) - https://forms.gle/y4mifxtYas3hL4vj9 ---------- Follow me (1M+: followers) For Content/Marketing Strategy: • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kallawaymarketing • Tiktok: https://tiktok.com/@kallawaymarketing • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kallawaymarketing • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kallawaymarketing • X: https://www.x.com/kanekallaway • Threads: https://www.threads.net/kallaway For Tech & AI: • Instagram: https://instagram.com/kallaway, https://instagram.com/kallawaytech • YouTube: https://youtube.com/@kallaway • Tiktok: https://tiktok.com/@kanekallaway • LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kanekallaway