Steal This Content Format - It Works and You're Not Doing It

Whether you're a marketer or a sales rep, this content format is simple to create, super engaging, and perfect for your social channel. And I'm pretty sure you haven't tried it yet.

I call it the "Hot Takes" video, and here's a perfect example of what it is:

The idea of the Hot Takes video is simple. Ask a diverse group of people for their personal take on a specific topic, then mash their answers up into a single video.

Make some tight cuts and edits to keep it flowing, drop in a touch of music to keep it upbeat, and maybe even cut in some reaction shots to layer in some personality. That's it. But wow, does it work.

What Makes it Work?

The diversity of opinions is what makes this so magical. As marketers and sellers, we've conditioned ourselves to try to tell people "the best way" to do something. But in reality, there typically is no one best way. There are many ways to tackle a problem and what works for one person may not work for another. And of course, what works today, may not work tomorrow.

By offering your community a diverse set of perspectives on a great way to approach a problem, you're genuinely trying to help them, you're not trying to convince them. And people genuinely appreciate that.

How Do You Scale This?

Easily. In the video above, 8 different experts and practitioners were featured answering the same question: what is your favorite cold call opener? But guess what?!? That was one of only 10 questions that Will asked each of those experts during the Zoom recordings. Which means he has enough captured content for 9 more videos just like this.

In fact, here's the second video he made from question #2:

Why Did We Choose to Feature 8 Perspectives?

Choosing 8 perspectives allowed Will to create the 'Brady Bunch' style intro (8 guests + the host makes a nice grid of 9 faces). That's as much scientific thought as we put into it. ??

Wait, I'm Not a Producer, I Can't Do This!!

Oh just stop it with the "I can't..." bit. You can do this. Here's the plan:

1. Spend a couple hours this weekend learning a free video editing tool if you're not yet comfortable editing videos. (alt: partner up with someone on your team with video editing skillz)
2. Plan out a list of questions that you think would work well in this format. What are some hot topics for your target audience, particularly those that don't have just one simple answer and are hotly debated?
3. Schedule 30-minute Zoom recordings with people you think your audience would like to hear from. It could be experts, people from your own company, or even some of your favorite customers. You got this.
4. Get the footage from each intereview, drop it into the video editor, and have some fun! Use the videos above for inspiration. Also, there's no shame in recording canned reaction shots after the fact. YouTubers do it all the time. Oh, and adding a dash of music can go a long way, this article includes a great list of places to find royalty-free music you can use legally:

One Last Pro Tip to Maximize Reach...

When you share these videos on your social feed, be sure to tag all the wonderful people that were a part of it! Message them directly and ask them to like and comment on the post. Unless it really sucks, they're bound to say yes and to help you amplify the reach.

But don't stop at just using this on social. Send it out directly to your prospects via email/etc. to add value to their day. Create a blog post from the best tips providing in the content, and embed the video in the post. And so on...

Is this the best content format going? Maybe not the best, but it's a pretty darn good one. Now I just need 8 more people to chime in on their favorite content format and I could make a nice little Hot Takes video myself!