Episode 122: AI-Generated Social Media Scripts with Austin Armstrong at Syllaby

Jun 26

Austin Armstrong, Co-Founder and CEO at Syllaby, has been working in social media marketing for 18 years. Considering that he’s only in his early 30s, he’s been in social media marketing for more than half his life.

Austin believes in practicing what he preaches and has nearly three million followers across major social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. This strong social media presence eventually led him to start Syllaby, an AI-powered SaaS marketing platform that streamlines social media video marketing strategy and execution for service-based businesses.

Scripts and support

The primary function of the Syllaby platform is to write video scripts. By taking search engine data related to a user’s business, Syllaby identifies the most searched keywords, questions and issues that potential customers are looking for.

This solves a common problem that small and medium-sized business owners and marketers have when it comes to social media marketing with video, which is choosing a topic. The next problem users face is deciding what to say. That’s where Syllaby’s scriptwriting feature comes in.

After identifying the topic to address, Syllaby uses AI tools to write a 30-second, 60-second or long-form script for the user to make a video. If the user isn’t comfortable being on camera, Syllaby now offers an AI video creation feature with a human-realistic avatar to make the video automatically.

Other features of the service include a content calendar management system and consistency tracker to schedule video releases on a regular basis.

The platform is most useful for service businesses like doctors, law firms, real estate agencies and therapists. The business doesn’t have to be established or currently have a strong social media presence to take advantage of the tools because the platform is generating topics that are currently being searched for in a user’s business.

The power of video

Austin says that videos give consumers an added level of trust and authority in the expertise of the person in the clip. This is especially important when using videos for marketing a service-based business. If a business owner or marketer answers questions or solves a current problem through an online video, that consumer is more likely to trust that business in the future.

He also feels that video is the most impactful medium for learning, especially with visual learners. If a consumer is watching a person in addition to hearing their voice, the person on the video will resonate with the consumer on a personal level.

With TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, the short-form video medium has exploded on the scene recently, a trend that doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. It can take a lot of time to prepare and record a long-form YouTube video. The Syllaby platform makes it easy to get started to take advantage of the short-form trend right away.

The Syllaby SaaS subscription model

Austin and his team went with a typical SaaS subscription model for a few reasons, the most important being predictability. With a pay-per-use model, the revenue could vary wildly from month to month, and he wanted the stability of having a steady stream of monthly recurring revenue.

In addition, the subscription model is established with other companies that offer similar services, so the consumer is used to the model. Syllaby offer a free trial that rolls over into a paid subscription at the end of the trial.

They require a credit card to start the free trial and they have seen a little pushback on that, but overall the adoption rate is good. They started the company in January of 2023, and after five months they had more than 1,400 users. The churn rate is an impressively low 8%, and their growth has been a steady 50% increase month to month.

The company is completely bootstrapped, which was another factor in going with the revenue stability of the subscription model. They’ve built the business entirely from organic marketing, including paying creators commissions on affiliate deals.

They rely on interviews with their users to find out how active subscribers are using the tool and ways they can improve the product. They manage to secure five to 10 interviews a week, and it helps Austin and his team to plan out moves for the future.

The social media marketing agency

While Syllaby is relatively new, it isn’t Austin’s only business. He opened a social media video marketing agency over four years ago, which is more of a traditional agency setup. That business is much more labor intensive, with typical agency activities like client calls and other communications, strategy sessions and presentations on analytics.

It’s a far cry from the automatic revenue generation of the subscription model, and Austin’s plan is for the Syllaby platform to automate much, if not all, of the agency’s work. As he says, why should he wait for AI to take over his agency’s work? Why not be on the leading edge and lead that change himself?

Building a proprietary platform

To get a minimal viable product up and running as quickly as possible, Austin and his team relied on incorporating APIs from other companies into their platform. They are now investing heavily in creating their own proprietary software that will free them from the restrictions of using third-party APIs.

Relying on outside APIs can be a recipe for disaster in the long term. Third-party companies can impose restrictions or limit usage at any time. They might pull their software from the market altogether. They could decide that you’ve violated their terms of service and cancel your license.

Austin doesn’t want the rug to be pulled out from under his company in the future, and that’s why he’s investing in personnel to build their platform from the ground up. With a proprietary platform, they don’t have to worry about a company going out of business that then puts Syllaby out of business.

They’re also able to build new features into their proprietary platform, and that work has already begun. They’re working on allowing users to create an avatar that looks and sounds like themselves, so they can be the face of the company without having to spend the time recording the videos themselves.

This will allow them to make social videos featuring themselves completely using AI. The future appears to be here.

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