How to craft an effective video content strategy

Creating video content is one of the best ways to continually engage your established audience, as well as attract new eyes to your brand. When done well, video content provides an enriching and entertaining experience for viewers and leaves them wanting more, or even going back and watching your content again. However, developing a strategy around video content can be difficult if you don’t know how to do it. In this article, we hope to provide the building blocks for your business to succeed and grow through online video content.

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First, as always, you must determine your audience. This can vary depending on platform. Creating longer-form content for older audiences may work on YouTube but will fall flat on its face on TikTok due to Gen Z audiences preferring short-form content. Separate your target audience into segments and determine which segments work best on which platforms and discern your content’s style from there.

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Once you’ve determined how your content is going to be presented, you must then figure out what content you’re going to make. Many businesses rely on testimonials, product demos, advertisements, and television commercials to fill up their content catalog on YouTube and TikTok. However, audiences on these platforms tend not to engage well with salesy or corporate-minded content. Creating authentic (and frankly, low budget) content that is entertaining and informative can help you separate your business from the competitors online.

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A prime example of this kind of strategy is YouTube’s LegalEagle. The channel primarily creates videos with insights into the practice of law, as well as coverage of high-profile court cases and convictions. The content is easy to consume and low budget, as it is simply just a “talking head” with B-roll footage filling in the gaps. The channel is scarcely trying to sell its service; the focus is heavily on entertaining and informing the audience. In fact, the only mention of their own business is delicately set in as a short fifteen second advertisement in their own video to not distract from the content. Despite their lenience on sales in their videos, their business has skyrocketed. That’s because they entertain and engage their audiences first. Take a moment to watch one of LegalEagle’s videos and see why this strategy is working so well.

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In creating lower-budget and more “authentic” content, money is saved for a better editor. This is most likely where the most production budget will be spent. We strongly recommend not to go cheap on an editor through Fiverr or other talent marketplaces and hire an established freelancer or an in-house expert. Even if the if the content is fantastic, if it is edited poorly, it will not be pushed through YouTube’s algorithm, and if audiences do click into the video they will not watch for long. Video editors are experts in making content easily accessible and consumable, and you get what you pay for.

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Optimize your content for platforms after creating it. What works best on YouTube does not work well on TikTok, starting with the inverted aspect ratios. If you are thinking about repurposing content that has been used on television, we strongly suggest having your editor make it more online friendly. Television commercials and advertisements without alterations generally do not translate well to social media and video platforms due to the ease of being able to quickly swipe away from the advertisement. Videos generally need branding and a hook within the first five seconds, and a call to action in at least fifteen seconds. Television commercials had the luxury of longer runtimes and less insistence to move on to more content during ad breaks. Social media does not. When you have edited your commercial to be social media friendly, feel free to move it to your platforms.

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After your content is posted, make sure to engage with audiences in the comments. You may not get a lot of views off the bat, but engaging with those who are early adopters of your organization on social media is paramount to growing a strong and engaged audience early. Those who feel validated by your brand engaging with them on social media are more likely to recommend your videos to a friend or colleague.

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There are other things we omitted to keep this article simple, such as video keyword SEO or figuring out where people “click off” of your video, but that can be covered another time. These tips are enough to get your organization’s video content strategy to lift off and begin bringing in new audiences. Creating a successful video content strategy requires planning, creativity, and adaptability. By understanding your audience and producing quality content, you can effectively use video content to achieve your business’ goals.