Video is a great way to capture attention and engage with your audience. The problem, however, is knowing what content to actually record and distribute.
In this blog we want to give you a simple way to create your own video content that will allow you to act efficiently and to build up your video content quickly!
Now could be a good time to look at old blogs, infographics and presentations that you have sitting around, which could be easily refreshed and repurposed into videos. By starting here, with existing content, you’ll be able to produce videos quickly and efficiently. This gives you a huge leg up on your competition.
We know that frequency, consistency and familiarity are all huge influencing factors. So producing a stream of content that is helpful for your audience and is produced and distributed regularly is going to have a huge positive impact on your brand awareness.
So let’s get started.
First, you are going to have to source your content. Try to pick content that is both helpful and informative but also timeless, and plays into your area of expertise. An example would be a marketing agency talking about buying personas, or a back specialist talking about posture. These core themes will serve as great content for you to repurpose into video.
Once you have your source content, it’s easy to structure a video that is fresh, informative and engaging. You can follow this simple structure for video blogs:
1) State the problem that you’re solving
2) Present the information/ the solution
3) Drop in a USP or key selling point related to your business
4) Provide a soft call-to-action
Reframe the problem
When it comes to choosing the most important problem to reframe, we take inspiration from the formula presented in Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Shwartz:
Intensity x Frequency x Scale = Importance of problem
Intensity; how severe is the problem you’re solving? On a scale of 1 – 10:
1 – slightly annoying
10 – extremely painful
Frequency; how often does this problem arise? On a scale of 1 – 10:
1 – rarely happens
5 – happens some of the time
10 – constantly happening
Scale; what percentage of your clients actually have this problem? On a scale of 1 – 10:
1 – 10%
5 – 50%
10 – 100%
Go through your old content, look at the problems you’re solving and then rank the problems in order of importance by using this simple method.
Present the solution
Now that you’ve defined the problem, it’s time to provide the solution and information that will help your client. This part should be easy for you, as you’ll be able to take inspiration from your existing content. But when it comes to video, you certainly don’t want to just read a blog.
You need to look at the existing blog, break it down into 3 key ‘take homes’ and then bullet point them. This will now form the base of your video blog.
By breaking the points into bullet points, you will make it a lot easier for yourself to remember the content and to deliver it without reading the blog. This removes that ‘wooden presentation’ look that so many people fall victim to.
And if 3 messages is too much, pick 1! Seriously, it’s better to deliver 1 point clearly than 3 points through a ramble.
When you’re delivering this content, you need to be cognisant of a few key aspects of your delivery:
Keep it simple – steer clear from jargon, technical terms and long winded examples.
Speak with passion – if the subject bores you, then you’re going to bore your audience! Speak with passion and you’ll communicate much more effectively. If you’re not passionate about the subject directly, think of an application of the information that makes it more personal to you, and you should find your passion.
As an example, an accountant might not be directly passionate about the intricacies of tax planning, but they could talk through a story of the steps they took with a client, which resulted in less tax and ultimately helped their client buy a new premises and expand their business.
If you’re not passionate about your job, you’re probably doing the wrong thing. If you are passionate about what you do and how you help people, then let it shine through!
Hit ’em with the USP or key selling point
Ok, so you’ve presented the problem and shown empathy, you’ve provided the solution and shown expertise, knowledge and authority. Now is the time, in just one or two sentences, to remind the viewer who you are!
The trick is to keep it short. Limit this section to one or two sentences, but use the momentum of your solution to reinforce how you operate as a business. Here’s an example – if you’re a back pain specialist you might do the following;
Problem – “When working from home, it’s important to not neglect proper posture and back support. Back pain in office workers is suffered by X amount of people, and now that most of us are working from home, we could see that number increase as people forget about good back health. Back pain accounts for X amount of days of leave a year in the UK, and around X amount of the population suffer with some form of back pain every day.”
Solution – “Here’s 3 exercises that you can do in 90 seconds to keep your back and core strong! (Present the exercises)”
USP – “Here at Back Pain Fixers, we have a dedicated helpline for those experiencing back pain. This means that within minutes you could be speaking to a specialist who will be able to help you with the pain, and suggest the appropriate steps to take next. “
As you can see, the USP is clear; there is a helpline available. The value of the helpline is clear, they are specialist and can help within a matter of minutes, but it’s not a long and drawn-out sales pitch. It’s two simple but impactful sentences that nudge the audience in the right direction.
The soft CTA
Finally, you can wrap the video up with a soft call-to-action.
The reason I say soft is because with a video blog, it’s unlikely the viewer will buy immediately. So instead of asking them to book in a call, set up a meeting, or call today, why not point them in the direction of another piece of content? Or you could ask them to like and follow you on social, or to share the video so it could help someone else. These softer CTAs will be much more effective in video blogs when to compared to the usual hard sell CTAs, and help to build trust in the value of your content without it being purely an advert.
The soft CTA also means that you are directing the viewer to the next stage of the sales funnel. If you don’t include one, the video will just end, and your viewer will be unlikely to continue their journey with you.
Provide a soft CTA, ensure it’s aligned with your sales funnel and ensure it’s clear and easy to follow.
In summary
By using this technique to repurpose old video content, you’ll be able to scale your video content more quickly than ever. In a world where everyone is now online because of lockdown, this high-frequency approach is going to be invaluable!
Ensure that you craft your messages with the target audience in mind, and you’ll see great results.
