YouTube recently said that there are 1.8 billion monthly logged-in users on its channel. Another interesting statistics in that announcement is that on TV screens (yes, on the big one, not on your phone screen) people watch 150 million hours of YouTube videos per day!
Now, you could interpret this in two ways. You could say, ‘”Wow! thats sounds like a lot of videos to compete with, and my video would totally get lost in the crowd” or you could say, “Wow! that sounds like a big opportunity. There are so many people on one platform and if I could produce good quality videos I could get a share of those viewers” (ever heard of the half-full half-empty glass mindsets?)
However, from a strategic marketing perspective, both situations need to be considered. You need to be aware of the crowd and noise, but you also need to look at the opportunity that presents itself in such a crowded space.
One content strategy that seems to have worked well for many successful influencers and brands on social media is: Consistently create good quality content, for the right audience, and promote it well enough to make sure they see it.
Usually the first part is the where things go wrong. Even though all the rest are equally important, it all starts with the ‘quality’ of the content. Specially when it comes to videos.
We see too many live videos and smartphone videos with no purpose, no message to convey and no value addition to the audience. I am not talking about the light and sound, I am talking about the content. Because, in this day and age, people are forgiving about bad light and a bit of background noise, if you have really great value in your message.
That is why knowing what type of content to create and having clarity on your video content idea is crucial.
I have listed below 10 proven ideas for video content. You could use these ideas as a starting point of your video planning sessions.
But as you create more videos, you will get better at it and come up with more content ideas that are relevant to your business.
Remember, there are no good or bad ideas for video content. Any video that could potentially help your online audience is a good idea.
10 Video Content Ideas
1. Videos with Educational Content
Educate your audience. People like to learn as much as possible about you before they make an interaction decision or transactional decision (like donation or purchase).
When you educate them without bias and in a ‘non-salesy’ approach, the likelihood of them staying in touch with you increases. In their mind, you become a ‘trusted’ source of information. You occupy good mind space as a brand that genuinely helps them by giving good and useful information.
Some educational video content ideas:
- Educate your audience about how to make an informed transactional decision (keep it unbiased).
- Educate your audience about your area of work, industry, market situation, players, etc.
- Educate your audience about the tools and technology.
- Educate your audience about the ethics, logic or science behind your work.
2. Videos about your organisation
Video footage of backstage scenes are always popular. That is the reason we love that extra footage at the end of movies and sitcoms.
Create some backstage footage of your work and showcase it to your audience. Let people learn about your culture – what you believe in, how you operate, your values, your ethics, your processes, etc.
Being transparent and authentic to your audience increases your brand equity and trust factor. This might also help you recruit the right talent and get the right partners.
3. Videos about what you offer
Create videos about the top features of your work (if you are a nonprofit) or service or product. Keep one video for each feature. This way you can create a series of short videos which can increase anticipation and keep your audience coming back for more. This also helps you focus on one feature and dive deeper into the details.
Keep it simple, don’t get too technical. Video reaches a wider audience, so make sure you understand the comprehensive capacity of your audience before getting too technical.
Highlight the features that solve the problems of your audience. The script should focus on ‘why this features solves your problem’ rather than ‘how cool this feature is’.
For a promotional marketing campaign to be successful, it should always be about the audience and not about you.
4. Videos with News
You could do a weekly or fortnightly recap of key events, important updates and new developments in your area of work. Do not talk about your organisation here. Just focus on the industry and think about what news will make sense to your audience and what will be useful for them. This will help you gain more traffic, and position you as a ‘thought leader’ in the industry.
5. Videos with other Influencers
One of the best and easiest ways of creating good video content is by partnering. When you have more than one person, you have more than one thing to say.
Interviews are a great way to add value to your audience, if you are able to find the right kind of influencers.
Have a prior discussion with your interviewee and come up with a list of questions which your audience will potentially have in mind and ask those questions. Make sure you add your own thoughts and inputs to each discussion.
With growing video conferencing technology around the world, your guest need not be next to you, you can conduct interviews with anyone around the world using tools like Skype, Zoom, etc. and have the recorded version of that video posted on your website, blog and Youtube channel.
6. Videos that Answer Questions
You could create a video series on ‘Question & Answers’ related to your work, product or line of service. Answering questions will not only help your audience in a big way but will also increase your search engine visibility, because most searches in Google are questions that people have.
Creating a list of questions for your Q&A video series:
- Whenever you (or your team) have a conversation with your audience, make note of the questions they ask.
- Create a database or repository of all the questions you collect.
- Have a chat tool in your website where people can ask questions.
- Source questions from your audience in events, conference and trade shows.
- Whenever you create content, at the end of every video/blog ask your audience what else they would like to learn about.
7. Videos with People’s Stories
People love watching other people’s stories. They love watching the opinions of others who have undergone a similar experience or purchase process.
That is why product review videos by users play a key role in eCommerce. Google’s official blog reports that 1 in 4 shoppers say online videos are their go-to source for gift ideas and that 32% of shoppers say that they plan to use online video for purchase decisions during holiday season.
Having a customer testimonial video or a review video could help your audience make that decision to support you and transact with you.
There are couple of ways you could create videos with customer stories:
- User-generated videos: You could crowdsource your video content by asking your audience to send you videos of how they love what they do and why they think others should support and work with you. Of course, you need to incentivise them enough to make them take the effort of creating this valuable content for you. You could give a freebie or a discount or a gift for every video you get. Also, make sure you simplify the process for them, making it easy for them to create and send this video content to you. Give them some examples.
- Videos of you interviewing others: If you have a happy supporter who is so thrilled with your service that they do not mind sharing their experience, make sure your interview them and record it. Having your existing supporter become an advocate for your work can be more effective than any marketing technique you can come up with.
8. Videos with How-to Tutorials
Recorded webinars can be a good source of video content. Most webinar tools today will give you a recording of the webinar. You can package this video with some intro slides, quick edits, etc. and make it available for your audience or set it up as an evergreen webinar. Record your training programs and conference sessions. This will not only increases your influence, but also position you as an authority on the subject.
9. Live Videos
Live streaming is one of the fastest growing trends of digital marketing today. Twitter’s Periscope app, which helps you stream live from your mobile, reached 10 million users in just 4 months after launch. In fact, it had 1 million users in the first 10 days!
So, take out your mobile phone and start recording some live videos for your business audience.
Key points to remember when recording a live video:
- Make sure you are sharing something that it useful to your audience. If you have nothing to say, don’t say it.
- Do not worry about perfection, camera shakes or lighting. In Live video, it is ok to be imperfect, as long as you make sense and add value.
- Some of the live video situations that could work well are – breaking news, event or conference experience, press conferences, travel notes and launch.
- Behind-the-scenes: As we discussed earlier behind-the-scene videos can be exciting and captivating. You could do a live video of a walk-through of your premises, factory, production unit, work areas, etc. to give your audience a feel of your work. This can help you connect with them at a deeper level.
10. Videos that are Repackaged
Finally, this is one of my favourite ways of creating video content – repurposing existing content.
Take your existing content and convert them into videos. For example, you could take your blog post, explain it to your audience, record as you explain it and you have a good-looking, value-adding video for your marketing campaigns.
Since you have anyway spent time creating that good content, it is only smart to maximise the reach by packaging it into video format. You can convert most of your existing content into videos.
For example, you can convert your photos into a video by adding some transitions, you can convert your image designs into a video, you can convert your product pics and brochures into a video. Maximise every piece of content and think of ways in which you can convert them into video format.
Hope these video content ideas help you create effective marketing videos for your business.
If you have any thoughts, feedbacks or other video content ideas that have worked well for you, feel free to share it in the comments section. All the very best!
Stay connected. Stay blessed.
Author of The Connected Church. Social Media and Digital Marketing Consultant for Nonprofits, Faith-based Organisations, Churches and Ministries. You can subscribe to Natchi’s email newsletter by clicking here.
