Getting started with video in the New Year
Happy New Year!
With 2018 in the books and 2019 underway it’s a great time to start looking at new ways to market and grow your business. Many people we talk to want to consistently use video in their marketing strategies to help grow their business, but what if you want to do it yourself? What if you already have some professional videos created and you want to supplement those with additional video content? What if you are creative and love the ideas of making your own videos? What if you are intimidated and don’t know where to start?
The key to great DIY videos is preparation. I could write multiple blogs just on shot composition and how to use a video camera (which I will make sure to keep subscribing to Flexology), but before you can pick up a camera and start shooting, you need a plan. Your videos will only be as good as your plan.
Where does your content come from? Do you have to write a script? Do you already have some ideas or content that you have created that can be turned into a video?
Here are three places to look to find content for your next video.
Trending Topics and Keywords
In the marketing world, relevance is key to creating content that people want to consume. Have you ever watched YouTube and noticed that some of the trending videos are all about the same topic? The reason for that is simple; the creators of those videos specially looked for what was trending and created content around that topic. You can do the same thing!
I recommend using Google Trends to see what keywords or searches are trending in the topics relevant to your business or industry. Google Trends is free. It even breaks down searches, allowing you to compare topics and see results by state, county and city. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but the more searching you do the more comfortable you will get with it.
Another option would be to use a paid service such as BuzzSumo or Scribble Live. For a list of other sources to research keywords and find out what’s trending, take a look at this article Brand Watch has put together called 11 Ways to Find Trending Topics on Social Media.
Industry Leaders and Trade Publications
Another great place to find content ideas is to look at what content other companies within your industry are creating. For example, trade publications are a great resource to discover what’s currently trending in your field. At Flex Media, we subscribe to numerous trade publications such as Videomaker, HD Video Pro and Target Marketing. We are always finding new topics in our inbox every morning, which allows us to come up with ideas for our blogs, videos and social media.
Also, don’t forget about podcasts. There are some tremendous resources and thought leaders creating podcasts all the time. We follow numerous podcasts such at Video Marketing Mastery, Social Media Marketing Podcast and Entrepreneur On Fire.
After you find a topic, make sure to note, reference and tag your sources. Always give credit where credit is due. Your source may even end up sharing your content, which could lead to a whole bunch of new followers and collaborators.
Repurpose Content:
This is my last, and probably simplest, tip. If you’ve already created blogs, infographics, social media posts, podcasts, etc. consider repurposing that content in a video. Remember, everyone prefers to consume content differently. One person may prefer to read a blog, while someone else may find the content easier to digest in a video.
This especially works well for evergreen content. So if you have a blog that your wrote within the last year, and the content isn’t outdated, consider talking about that topic in a video. You can add visuals over your video as well to help illustrate the point and reinforce what you are saying.
Here is a great article from HubSpot called 6 types of content you can easily repurpose with video to help get you started with repurposing your content. Once you start looking at past work this way, the ideas will just start flowing.
Have questions about Video Production you’d like us to address in our blog or our vlog Flex Talk? Please feel free to reach out to us at info@ckb.5ac.myftpupload.com. We’d love to help, and this helps give us new content ideas too! I guess that’s a fourth place to get content: just ask what your audience wants to know You can also subscribe to our newsletter for more marketing tips and tricks!