Marketing needs to be something people want to see or watch.

No-one ‘wants’ to see a bottle of coke on a billboard. Nor are you able to report on how many people have seen that billboard and how many sales you’ve made from it.

That’s where video content comes in. Businesses know they need to make video content but they don’t know what to make or how to make it. Using our basic ‘TV Network’ strategy, any business can put together their video content strategy that gets buy-in from their audience and internally. It’s also reportable as well as engaging (if you make it engaging that is).

Whenever I explain our process of creating a video content strategy, I always feel like I am teaching people to suck eggs because it is such a simple way of looking at it.

Creating your video strategy

Basically, its all done to Network, Channel, Season and Episode. We all know the BBC. Within the BBC, you have BBC1, BBC2 and BBC News. Each of these channels has its own demographic/ objective. They segment their content into seasons and then into episodes. The audience knows exactly what they are going to watch and will engage with it if they want to watch it.

Same goes with video content for businesses. You all have objectives (sell more product, raise brand awareness, become a thought leader in your industry, etc) so your content should slot into these. You should also name the ‘channels’ so your audience (and your key stakeholders) can buy into what you’re creating.

There are 3 main channels every business should have at a minimum:

• Thought Leadership (TL)
• Behind The Scenes (BTS)
• Community Involvement (CI)

No-one wants to be sold to. Your TL channel should be highlighting the fact that you know your industry outside of your own product. It’s a thinly veiled sales pitch without actually selling. Prospective clients will research your company so if you can re-actively show that you know more than just your product and build confidence in the viewer then you are halfway down the sales cycle already.

People don’t buy from logos. People buy from people. If you went to go work for your competitor, your clients would probably follow you as you have built a relationship. Using the BTS channel of content, you can create episodes of what goes on behind the logo. Maybe create a ‘DIY’ week in a life video or do an Instagram take over using your staff members. People want to see who is behind your product and showing the raw footage of you and your people will go a long way to creating an emotional connection.

The ‘M’ Word

Lastly, I want to mention the M word. Millennials. These guys are the new buying group and want to spend their disposable income (because they mostly don’t drink or do drugs) on a moral company. If you can highlight in your CI channel that your staff and your organisation have a corporate responsibility then the Millennials will connect with you. If you sponsor a football team or your staff are doing a 5k run for charity, make a short video on it. In fact, make a season of videos and post them out every week on the same day/time. Episodical content for the win.

The results?

So, in conclusion, every business needs to view themselves as a media company/TV network. Create advertising that people actually want to watch. Show them behind the curtain on what goes on and ensure you tell people about your moral efforts in your community.
Bonus Now this is something I have not told anyone as of yet so you lucky people who read these things get a special little nugget from myself.

For sales prospecting, we usually get a 1 in 20 response rate from cold emails. Its time intensive and a very low ROI.
We changed the way we prospect now and have seen a HUGE uptake. Before we email businesses, we record a short, personalised video talking about our intention and what we have to offer for them specifically. We mention their name and their business in the video. This video is then embedded in the email using a hyperlinked image that looks like a video.

The response rate in our cold emails is now 1 in 2. That’s right. 1 in every 2 emails we send cold now get a response. HUGE.

Keep it to yourself though (wink).

Gary Gumbleton is the founder of Capital Content, a content-led digital agency. Capital Content create video content for small businesses and corporate organisations to share via their website and social media. They help come up with the ideas and concepts for your video content, they build the strategy to deliver on your objectives and then produce the content. Simple!