When you start considering the power of great video, you want to be sure to think both short and long term. You want to think strategically. It does little good to create a “viral” video. If you look at the most popular viral videos, they are backed up by a significant amount of pre-content and a solid base of content to keep you coming back. It’s like a rock band. They don’t just play one gig and ride off into the sunset, everyone loving their music for forever. No, they have to play garages, bars, and small venues before the big arenas. Then they still have to keep making music. You should consider your video strategy in a similar way by following these tips:
Don’t think home runs are the only way to score.
A home run and a grand slam are certainly exciting moments in baseball, but they are hardly the entire game. Most of the scores in baseball are strategic movements. It would be amazing if your first video was seen by billions of people and changed the world. The reality is, is that even if it does, it won’t necessarily result in growth for you unless you have additional content for your audience to explore. Maybe the first step is one video, but you should go into the first video already thinking and planning for your second, third, and so on. By being strategic about where the videos and messaging are placed, you allow your audience to discover, engage, and respond in unique ways that still contribute to your overall success.
Train your audience to expect consistency.
If you’ve never created a video for your business before, your audience may not know what hit them. That can result in some great feedback, some wonderful data results, and maybe some “likes” or shares. That’s great! But you want to train your audience to expect that video is part of your branding. This requires consistency- both in disciplined releases as well as quality. If you’re first video looks like a Hollywood blockbuster, then your second one is a shaky, abstract, untuned and out of focus vlog, you’re going to have more audience confusion than clarity. By creating consistent, predictable video stories you’ll train your audience to anticipate and expect your branding messages.
Create multiple types of content.
That being said, it’s also important to create different types of content. If the only type of TV shows on TV were reality shows about finding true love in a staged paradise, well it would get pretty dull and predictable. And, if you didn’t absolutely love those tender heartfelt professions of love, well, you’d probably read a book or delve into shadow puppetry. Thankfully, there are more than enough options. When building a great video strategy, you want to consider the same for your audience. Maybe they don’t resonate deeply with the client testimonial, but they love your off the cuff behind the scenes stories. Maybe they really love seeing how your team works together, or maybe they can’t get enough of your FAQ’s or fun trivia. By creating access points in a variety of content, you’re allowing your prospective audience to engage on their terms. Once you see what type of content is getting the best traction or interaction, you can pivot your strategy to include more of that as opposed to all the pressure on one type of video to provide success.
As you can see, there are many ways to build a great video strategy. We’d love to talk to you about where you are and how we can help you grow to where you want to go.