Crehana is a Peruvian edtech startup with presence across Latin America, especially Mexico and Colombia. When I joined, the YouTube channel was treated mainly as a promo hub: almost all videos were traditional course trailers.
My mandate was to turn YouTube and social media into a true content and community channel—a place where people could experience the value of learning online with Crehana before ever paying for a course.
Over time, we:
Increased traffic from social to the platform by 26% without ad spend, focusing on conversion and retention rather than vanity metrics.
Grew Crehana’s digital community to 610,000+ followers across social channels through an organic content strategy aligned with the brand’s educational purpose.
Designed and executed the YouTube content strategy, surpassing 100,000 subscribers and generating multiple videos with 100,000+ views.
Context & Challenge
Before the change:
- YouTube was almost entirely course trailers and promos, with low watch time and little reason to subscribe.
- The channel wasn’t positioned as a learning destination—only as an advertising space.
- Social content during the early growth stage was not yet structured around consistent series or themes.
- The pandemic dramatically accelerated interest in online learning, but we needed a better content system to capture and retain that attention.
We had a strong product and brand, but our content ecosystem didn’t fully reflect the depth of value Crehana offered.
Objectives
Strategic
- Reposition Crehana’s YouTube channel from a promo feed to a value-first learning and community channel.
- Use content to help people understand the benefits of learning online and build trust in the brand.
- Turn YouTube and social into a top-of-funnel engine that supports acquisition and brand awareness across LATAM.
Operational
- Launch live formats and recurring series that people could follow week after week.
- Increase engagement, watch time and subscriptions on YouTube.
- Build a structured social media calendar to support both brand and performance needs during the pandemic.
My Role
As Social Media Coordinator:
- I led the content strategy and programming for Crehana’s YouTube channel.
- I proposed and launched new formats: live streams, series, industry and educational content, and sneak-peek classes.
- I coordinated with teachers, production and design to bring each format to life.
- During the pandemic, I was responsible for all social media communication, from editorial planning to real-time content and community management.
- I worked closely with performance and data teams to align organic content with acquisition campaigns and promotions.
Approach
1. From Trailers to Value-First Content
The first step was to reset what YouTube meant for Crehana:
- Reduced the share of pure course trailers and repositioned them as support content, not the core of the channel.
- Designed a content mix where every video answered one of three questions:
- What can I learn? (education)
- What is happening in my industry? (context)
- What does learning with Crehana feel like? (experience / sneak peek)
This shifted the channel from “ads for courses” to “a free taste of learning with Crehana”.
2. Live Streams & Series
To build habit and community, I created and programmed recurring formats:
- Live Streams with a host on topics like design, illustration, marketing, and photography.
- Thematic series around industry topics (creative careers, freelancing, trends, tools), giving users a reason to come back every week.
- Sessions designed with interactive elements—chat questions, challenges —to increase retention and comments.
3. Educational & Industry Content
Beyond lives, we produced evergreen value content:
- Short educational videos breaking down concepts from popular courses.
- Industry-focused pieces explaining trends, tools and best practices in the creative and digital world.
- Content that responded to common questions from the community (“How do I start a podcast?”, “What should be in my portfolio?”, etc.).
This content served both current students (extra value) and prospects (a safe way to test learning with Crehana).
4. Sneak Peeks & First-Class-Free
To connect YouTube directly with the course experience:
- We created “sneak peek” videos that featured the first class of a course, not just a generic trailer.
- These videos showed real lessons, the teacher’s style and the platform experience.
- CTAs invited viewers to continue the course on Crehana, bridging content and conversion.
This helped potential students move from “maybe I’ll try this” to “I know exactly what I’m getting”.
5. Pandemic Communication & Social Media Leadership
During the pandemic, interest in online learning spiked—and so did the need for clear, empathetic communication.
I led:
- A social media content plan that mixed:
- Educational value (tutorials, tips, free resources).
- Clear information about promos, free classes and special initiatives.
- Fast-turnaround content reacting to what the community was living: working from home, uncertainty, career changes.
- Coordination with other teams to ensure that promotions, new courses and product updates were reflected consistently across social channels.
The result was a social presence that felt useful, human and relevant during a critical moment.
Results
Even without sharing exact numbers publicly, the impact of this shift was clear:
- Crehana’s YouTube channel grew into a large, engaged community (crossing the 100K-subscriber mark) and became one of the brand’s key top-of-funnel assets.
- Average watch time and engagement improved as we moved from trailers to real educational content and live formats.
- Social media became a core channel for brand awareness and acquisition across Mexico, Colombia and the rest of LATAM, especially during the pandemic.
- The new content system provided reusable assets for performance campaigns, email and CRM, amplifying the impact of each video and post.