For 2017, one video simply isn't good enough...

Making one video for your homepage is no longer good enough. Creating a channel is the norm, but how can you justify the expense?

Step Back

As a freelancer and working within an agency full time, too often have I been involved with and witnessed decisions being made that demonstrate both producers/ accounts team and client don’t understand the importance of distinguishing between different types of video.  Each video project requires varying amounts of effort, in production, preproduction and edit time which will determine the end products quality.

As many brands and businesses publish more and more video they need to compartmentalise their content, and understand what investment each video requires. A simple way to do this is to view your brand like a 'TV channel'. It can help shift a kneejerk, reactive approach of ‘we need a video on this event tomorrow’ to a more considered one. Spend more time over your ‘programming’, ‘what will be coming up next’? Just like your content plan for social, map out what you will be covering over the year, even join your video creation with your existing plan.

Structure your videos into a Channel

YouTube encourage creators when building their video channel to structure it using three well used terms; Hero, Hub, Hygiene. Understanding these categories help position each video you make.

Most businesses market themselves using campaigns, so how many campaigns are coming up this year? Would you like to create an Hero video for each one? This is typically where you need to spend more of your money, on a creative idea, on good production value, and on a polished edit - it's your promo or ad. What regular content are you putting out there that once someone has seen your Hero video they can learn more about you and what you do? This Hub material needs to have your look and feel to it, audience might stumble upon one of these videos and need to know who you are. And what are you making to demonstrate you’re industry leaders, your Help/ Hygiene content? When are you at industry events? What are your thoughts on current news or product releases? Are you having a cool party or have great news of your own? This last section is the simplest of all, it really doesn’t need to be of high quality, it could be filmed on an iphone and be one take, similar to a Tweet, this has a short shelf life. Simply map out all the videos you can make and put them into the three above categories; Hero, Hub, Hygiene. Each will require different investment to determine the quality and positioning of each video.

If you need some inspiration, what are your competitors doing, what are the brands that you appreciate doing? Take a look at their YouTube Channel and get a feel for their Playlists, see if you can distinguish between Hero and Hygiene, what is the regular Hub content? What could you do in a similar way?

Think strategy before thinking of ideas

I have experienced far too many times a CEO or a Marketing Manager vocalising an idea for a video that they want to look like ‘Arrival’… Only it happens to be a testimonial and they only have ￡800. Instead why not ask people in your business if anyone has experience making videos and ask them to film it on their iPhone, or consumer camera and edit it using iMovie or similar. In the same way, don’t expect to make a TV commercial by using your husbands cousin ‘coz he does weddings’.

Whether you use YouTube or not - it's structure is a helpful way to map out your video projects

YouTube uses channels as a place for each account owner to keep their videos – but we should view YouTube channels in a more deliberate way than simply a CMS. Which of your videos are ‘timeless’, which acts as setting the bar for your business? Which videos keep people coming back for more, what’s entertaining or educative? How are you engaging with your community? How are your Playlists put together? What do you have planned each month that can form a really coherent and compelling channel of videos? Once you have your channel sewn together you’re able to utilise marketing tools to really spin your investment in video, reaching more people, and creating leads with an audience who are rooting for you.