006: What To Video

Video Matters

The podcast dedicated to giving you a no-bullshit look at what it takes to build relationships through video. This is for the scared, the overwhelmed, the awkward as fuck, and all those who believe diy doesn't have to mean amateur but don't know where to start ...

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TheHost

Tors Grantham

Tors is a television professional, who studied all aspects of television production before launching her career spanning almost a decade. She's worked with a BAFTA nominated production team, has her own entry on imdb.com, and has even walked the red carpet several (terrifying) times.

She's had chips thrown at her by David Tennant (it was an accident, he's got terrible aim), she's interviewed some amazing actresses, and she attended the cast and crew screening of Empire Strikes Back at the grand old age of four.

Now she lives in south Wales with a large dog and a small cat, where she uses the knowledge she gained in her television years and beyond, to help online biz owners step in front of the camera and connect with their audience.

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In this episode

This week I want to chat about what to video, because … well, in the interests of transparency, because I’ve been struggling to figure this out myself and I thought I’d work my way through a process and, why not, at the same time help you!

Knowing what to video is something I get asked a lot, but before I dive in I want to make it very clear that I am not a strategist. That is not my expertise, I have no interest in learning about algorithms and SEO and getting into the why and the wherefores and the whither thous, that’s not my idea of fun. Fun is in the delivery of the content, and how it’s edited together for me. Fun is in the experimentation.

But you can’t do any of that if you don’t have a topic to start from, which is why you’re getting a podcast episode on what to video.

• Show Notes
• Transcript

Tors said

"It’s easy to build an audience with tutorials and how-tos, but if you’re not selling products that help people DIY then that’s not content you want to create, that's an who’ll never buy from you." - Tors Grantham on #videomatterspodcast

"Don’t just make a video for videos sake - reading a blog post is just as interesting as a talking head video, which is to say not really at all unless you zhush it up a bit with personality and cool editing." - Tors Grantham on #videomatterspodcast

"Ranty posts are great because they tell you where the most amount of education needs to be done to get your audience onto your wavelength. And, let’s be real, they’re cathartic and fun - what to video." - Tors Grantham on #videomatterspodcast

Resources Mentioned

Lacy Boggs - The Content Direction Agency
Tara Gentile
Profit, Power, Pursuit with Christina Scalera (ep 191)
The Contract Shop
Jenna Kutcher

Let’s start with the basics of content marketing, because that’s essentially what you’re doing. Now, like I said, I’m no expert, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t experts that I go to to learn from. One of those people is Lacy Boggs of the Content Direction Agency, she has some amazing free resources on content marketing that apply to video as much as written content. I’ll put a link to her website below so you can go check her stuff out, and I really recommend you do.

One of the things I’ve learned from Lacy is that content should educate people on a journey towards a thing that you sell. Its purpose is to help your business, and that means make you money, so you really need to identify what that educational journey looks like.

I like to think of it as conversations, and I start with the conversations I see people having around my niche or topic. They might not be totally relevant conversations, but they're in my sphere. This is where I like to start with people, they know they have a problem within the area that I work, but they may not know the way to fix it.

For example, one of the loudest conversations people in my niche are talking about is equipment. That’s not really a topic I want to dive into because I don’t believe equipment really has much impact on how successful a video is in building relationships, but it’s the conversation out there.

So I’m going to create a video about equipment, give them the answer to that question and then educate them on what I think about it and why. This is meeting them where they’re at, in need of advice around kit, but educating them on why that doesn’t actually matter. If how I teach, my content, my personality, and my delivery of the content resonates with them, hopefully they’ll go looking for more content. I need to figure out all the steps between equipment and what I sell, and then make content that educates people on those steps. Hopefully that makes sense.

I’ve found the best place to look for conversations people are having around my expertise is in Facebook groups. Ideally, you’ll already be in Facebook groups filled with your target market, and then you can just do quick keyword searches once a week within the group and see what pops up. Again, this may not be content that you want to talk about, but it will be content that they want. You can use it as a jumping off point to get them to the content you do want to talk about.

What you want your video to do for you and your audience can also help inform topics, as can the platform you’re going to put it on. Having goals, which feeds back into that journey you’re taking people on, can really help you decide what to cover. Do you want your videos to be educational, inspirational, or entertaining? Those are the three categories content fall into. Do you want your videos to position you as an expert? Do you want them to help you create brand recognition?

And who your audience is will also help you figure out content, because it’s really easy to build an audience of DIYers with tutorials and how-tos, but if you’re not selling products that help people DIY then that’s not a direction you want to go in. No one wants an entire audience of people who’ll never buy from you.

Other places you can get inspo from are your own analytics. What are your top ten most popular blog posts, and can you add a video to any of them?

Don’t just make a video for videos sake, that’s not giving people the best experience and the content may not even be suited to video. You want to be making videos for visual content, reading a blog post is just as interesting as a talking head video, which is to say not really at all unless you zhush it up a bit with personality and cool editing.

So look at what your choices are within your analytics and then narrow it down by what ones can you make into visually interesting videos, and that may just be a tutorial with screenshares, it doesn’t have to be BAFTA winning worthy.

Ditto for your social media posts, has anything hit a nerve with your audience? Can you make that into a video?

If, like me, you don’t have a heap of written content to go back over, try looking at other peoples. I don’t mean copy it or anything like that, but you can use it to spark topic ideas that you can give your spin to. Comments are an awesome way to do this because you’ll find the holes other people have left that you can then fill. Which reminds me, I need to go stalk the Amazon book list on making videos and see what questions people are asking there, maybe there’s something I can use.

Alternatively, you can go check out blog comments on posts to do with your niche, that’s another rich resource to mine. And, if I’m honest, I do read the books and the blog posts, not because I want to copy, but because it often helps me get my head around my own methods and opinions on the topic. Not to mention, it exposes me to new things and gets my brain sparking with new ideas to explore and new directions to go in. Don’t ever be afraid of using other people in your niche as inspo, just don’t steal outright, that's a dick move.

And finally, my favourite. What makes you mad? I got this from Tara Gentile, who is a genius and you should all go listen to her podcast, Power Profit Pursuit.

Ranty posts are great because they’re passion-filled. They also tell you where the most amount of education needs to be done to get your audience onto your wavelength. And, let’s be real, they’re cathartic and fun.

Speaking of Tara’s podcast, any of these topics can then be broken down into three versions: your core audience and two ancillary audiences, people in the step before your core audience, and people a step after. I learned this from a recent episode with Christina Scalera of The Contract Shop, and she learned it from Jenna Kutcher. I’ll put a link below to the ep so you can go listen, but essentially you’re creating content for people at different stages, around the same topic. Let’s go back to my example of equipment. My target audience, my core audience, want to know what camera to use, so I create content around that (which for the record is your phone). People not there yet may want to grow their audience but not know how, so I’d create content on why video’s great for growing your audience. And people a step past my core audience may be wanting to upgrade from their phone because they’ve learned how to video and now want to get a bit more whizzy.

So really each topic can provide three different pieces of content, if you wanted it to. Not all of them may be video, but it’s an easy way to figure out what to create and together they can help you educate people on their journey to your paid products or services.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some Amazon stalking to go do.

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