The digital world is ever-changing, and one of the biggest and more recent shifts has been to video content. You have SECONDS to capture your audience’s attention, and video allows you to convey your story in a quick, entertaining, memorable way. It has a way of making your audience feel like they’re right there beside you, watching you whip up a recipe or head out on vacation.
Video content is a great way to engage your existing audience, build trust, and showcase your products and services. AND it’s also an incredible way to build discoverability to reach new audiences!
Interested in learning more? Let’s dive into how you can use video to educate, entertain and engage!
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF VIDEO?
- Entertain and engage your existing audience
- Increase discoverability with brand new audiences
- Increase conversions
- Organic brand awareness
- Influence buying decisions
- Reach your target audience
- Increase engagement
- Build credibility and trust
- A memorable way to deliver information, teach or inspire
- Create a deeper understanding of products and/or services
- Showcase your personality and/or evoke emotion
VIDEO CONTENT STRATEGY
Keep it SIMPLE and have the user experience top of mind! PLANNING your content in advance with your business goal in mind will help you stay on brand and mix in different types of video to keep your audience engaged. It’s also helpful to stay on top of trends to increase your chances of being discovered by new audiences (especially topics + audio) and pick the ones that are a great fit for your brand and audience. Looking for a list of video content thought starters? Check out our free resource at the end of this blog!
A few key questions to help you educate, entertain and engage your viewers:
- How will you solve the pain points of your customer’s experience?
- What value does your business bring to their life?
- What will allow your personality and authenticity to shine through?
If you’re not quite comfortable being in front of the camera, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! Plus there are lots of different ways to create videos where you don’t need to be front and center!
3 STEPS TO BUILDING VIDEO CONTENT
1. PLAN AHEAD
STEP ONE: BRAINSTORM!
Research current trends, what topics your audience is interested in, the competitive landscape, and/or video content that captures your attention!
STEP TWO: ORGANIZE!
Building out a document will help provide you with a single spot to capture all of those thoughts you had while brainstorming! It can include links to inspiration, trending audio you love, content ideas, copy you will include (either within your video or your caption), and key messaging. Then you can take those notes, plan out your content calendar day by day, and start planning the content you will need to capture in your shoot days! Going this extra mile beforehand will ensure you are efficient with your time AND have the capacity to SHOW UP in your content.
2. TIME BLOCK YOUR CREATIVE TIME
Creative time is just as important as anything else in your calendar. Small businesses, you ARE creators … Creators, you ARE small businesses! This content is part of your overall marketing strategy and lives on your social channels, websites, and blogs. You need to give yourself the time and space (hint: notifications *off*!) to dedicate your time and energy creatively. With the clear plan you’ve laid out for yourself ahead of time, you’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish within your creative block!
And the ONLY way that you will keep improving your video skills is to keep creating them! Every time you create you learn a bit more, and while the first couple may not turn out exactly how you envisioned they would—just know it’s all part of the process. Give yourself grace and keep creating! I PROMISE, you’ll get the hang of it!
3. EXECUTION
You’ve made the plan, you built out your schedule, and curated the content … now what?
- Post AND THEN engage! I can’t stress this enough: it’s so important to stick around and engage with your community!
- Cross-promote on different platforms
- Check-in on your analytics every so often. Is there a better time to post during the week or throughout the day? What type of content resonated? How can you create or integrate more of that type of content in the future?
Including video into your content strategy doesn’t have to be a scary thing! Remember to practice to gain your confidence and take the time to learn each platform that you want to show up on. This is all part of the process of investing in yourself!
Creating video content is one of the MOST popular topics that our alumni are chatting about in our private Facebook group. Interested in digging deeper? Check out The Jilly Academy Course Two: The Content Creator to help take your content to the next level!
Xo
Jilly
