10 Steps to Make Content People Actually Love (with Samples)
With everyone on lockdown right now, there's been a huge upsurge in the amount of video being streamed. So much so actually that there's concerns that it will increase carbon emissions. Is your content strategy adjusting to take this into account?
Did you know that during normal times video is 50 times more likely to drive organic traffic than plain text? Not to mention, YouTube can expand your reach to a potential audience of more than 2 billion. Furthermore, if you are targeting 18- to 49-year-olds, then YouTube is the place to be: in an average month, 8 out of 10 people in this demographic watch YouTube.
YouTube is the second most popular social media platform, with more than 1 billion hours of video watched every day. More than 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. And therein lies your challenge. How do you connect with your audience using YouTube, when the number of videos posted is so colossal?
In this article, we discuss 10 key strategies to help you connect with your audience and get your YouTube videos seen and shared.
1. Forget Viral, Focus on Audience
Viral videos are great, aren’t they? Except that they don’t help to build your brand. They’re just great videos. So, here’s the first tip I can give you: create videos for your audience and not with the intention of them going viral. If they are good videos, they’ll get shared. And, over time, this will help to build the right audience.
2. Educate Your Audience
Your audience wants to learn about subjects they care about. Your YouTube videos should satisfy this desire. Never go off-topic.
The first rule, therefore, is to create videos that educate and inspire. If they entertain, too, then that’s a big bonus.
When creating a video, always consider what your audience will get out of it. The Survey of U.S. Adults in May/June 2018 found that more than half of YouTube users think the site is very important when it comes to ‘figuring out how to do things they haven’t done before’. YouTube is becoming the go-to resource for education. Use this knowledge to your advantage – teach and inform.
3. Create Videos Around a Targeted Keyword
Just as you do when composing blog content, you should model each video topic on targeted keywords. Do some keyword research to understand what your audience is searching for, and to ensure that Google considers your video to be relevant to that audience.
Select you keyword before you create your video. This will help you keep your video on topic, and to include your keyword naturally throughout. Remember to optimize your video’s title and description to your keywords.
4. Repurpose Existing Content
You already have great content, why not repurpose it? Take your most engaging blog posts and develop them as YouTube videos. You are likely to gain a whole new audience – potential customers who prefer watching to reading.
It doesn’t have to be only your blogs that you repurpose. If you have produced worksheets, whitepapers, guides and eBooks, they are all potential video material. Even think about ways to supplement what you already have. For example, if you sell products, unboxing videos can be a great way to increase traction and help set buying criteria early in the customer journey.
5. Make it Interesting
While your main goal should be to inform and educate, your videos should also be interesting. You need to pace them correctly and make them different to the run-of-the-mill videos that all your competitors are producing.
We did exactly this for one of our clients with exceptional results. Animated video is not a typical go-to market strategy to reach corporate / conservative clients. But the results have been exceptional.
For example this video has reached more than 138,000 views and opening the door to new business.
This video is another example of one that hit over 130,000 views:
Why did animated video work well? Corporate training can be dull, and a lot of times trainers incorporate video into their content. This has generated new business to license content, created more brand recognition, and created a new top of funnel entry point for their business.
Animations work well because they:
- Bring complex concepts to life
- Invoke memories of childhood and watching our favorite cartoons
- Make mundane topics fun
- Can be used for anything – product releases, service upgrades, explanations, etc.
- Are relatively cheap to produce
- Engage learners – 65% of people are visual learners
6. Be Consistent
It’s important that your videos are consistent, both in terms of voice and also frequency. Your videos should have your brand’s personality, but don't be afraid to allow video to expand it. Make sure your videos are hyper relevant to your audience, and also related to your product or service. The key to building an engaged audience is creating anticipation.
One of the biggest movie brands in the world is the James Bond franchise. Audiences love the movies and return for more because they never disappoint people’s expectations. This should be your aim with your YouTube videos.
7. Be Engaging on YouTube
Don’t post a video and leave. Encourage interaction by engaging with comments that have been made on the video. This will encourage others to post comments and share your video – and this is all good for your video’s search ranking on Google.
Ensure your audience that you care about them, and they will care about you – and will be more likely to follow links to your website and sign up as followers.
8. Promote Your Videos on Social Media
You cannot leave a video to decide its own destiny. They must be promoted, and the ideal strategy to promote your work is social media marketing. Cross-marketing on social media is a powerful tactic. Oh, and don’t forget to promote your videos on your blog.
9. Don’t Neglect the Thumbnail
You video will be advertised in the YouTube sidebar – with a thumbnail image. When you search for video on Google, the results include thumbnails. You can advertise your video on your website – using a thumbnail image.
You cannot leave the thumbnail to chance. It’s got to stand out from the crowd and tempt people to click on it. A great title and attractive thumbnail will tempt the 65% of visual learners and 35% of non-visual learners to click on your video. You’ve produced a wonderfully informative and interesting animated video – don’t spoil it by neglecting the thumbnail.
10. Encourage Subscriptions
At the end of the video, don’t leave your audience hanging. Make it easy for them to get more. Give them a subscribe instruction and tell them the benefits of subscribing to your YouTube channel.
People who are asked to subscribe are more likely to – and this will help build your audience faster.
Don’t Stop!
Now that you have got people hooked on your videos, you cannot stop. Keep their interest by posting regularly. Make sure your videos are:
- Informative
- Educational
- Interesting
- On brand
- Consistent
You don’t need to chase page views. Give your audience more of what it wants – make your videos addictive and supply your audience with their video fix on the same day and time every week.
Do you need help to create your content marketing strategy? To find out more and discover how we help businesses grow with our animated video creation, contact BlabberJax today.
In the meantime, tell us what you have found to be your biggest content creation challenges in the comments below. We’ll be happy to get in touch and help you find the solution.