Understanding the Video Marketing Sweet Spot

In order for your online video strategy to be effective and get the desired results for your personal brand growth you need to be operating in the ‘Video Marketing Sweet Spot’. Discovering your sweet spot can be broken down into 3 simple stages:

1. Designing your Video Strategy (Strategy Design)
2. Producing Your Video Content (Content Production)
3. Managing the Distribution and Publication of your Content (Strategy Management)

Yes. All three of the above are critical to the success of your video content strategy. Having one part sorted whilst the other two are neglected is like having only one leg on a three-legged stool (your video content will fall flat and quickly fail). The fact is that getting to the sweet spot starts well before pressing that record button on your camera, so why is that where so many personal brand entrepreneurs often start?

Part 1: Strategy Design

This is where your video marketing campaign really starts. Not with a decision about which camera to buy, how to set up your lighting or looking for other YouTubers to collaborate with.

During your Strategy Design phase you’ll need to be pulling things right back to first develop an understanding of who your intended audience is, then from that define the goals for your video content marketing before mapping out what you actually want to say or do in your videos.

To get started, you’ll want to consider these three initial decisions:

1. Audience – Who are you trying in engage with and what action do you want them to take from your content? You need to understand them and the journey you intend for them to go on in order to buy from you.
2. Goals – What are you trying to affect in your business? Do you need more awareness with your target market? Better engagement on your social media channels? More conversions from your email list? Identify the goals first then allow that to inform the next decision.
3. Content – What topics, thoughts, or ideas will you share in your videos? What is the messaging to move your audience to take the right action? How do you intend that message to be delivered through your video?

With a documented strategy design in place, you’ll begin with clarity on how your videos will actually get results and the next steps become much clearer as you move on to Content Production.

Part 2: Content Production

For so many online entrepreneurs this is the step that either excites them or scares the heck out of them. The idea of actually producing video content can be overwhelming and ingrained with a lot of fear for many in personal brand businesses. Taking the time to map out your Strategy Design first makes the Content Production phase so much easier.

In this phase, you’ll make decisions about how the videos are produced. Live broadcast and then repurposed? Batch recording short explainer videos? Longer, scripted sales videos? Or perhaps integrating storytelling into a high concept professionally produced Brand Story video?

When it comes to the decision of whether to DIY, outsource or work with a professional video producer for your Content Production you’ll need to consider various factors such as:

• Budget: how much will you allocate to your video strategy?
• Time: how much can you dedicate consistently and what’s your time worth?
• Equipment: what do you already have and what would you need to source in order to produce your planned videos
• Brand Perception: how do you want your brand to be perceived in your market? This indicates the relevant level of production quality to aim for.

As mentioned earlier, this is the exciting part of video content marketing for many. However, producing the most incredible video content backed up by an awesome strategy isn’t enough to ensure your content is actually going to be successful and provide a return on your investment. That’s where the next part, Strategy Management, moves into line.

Part 3: Strategy Management

I believe it was someone wise who once said, “It’s not the quality of your video that counts, but what you do with it!’. And this is the backbone of the critical Strategy Management phase of your effective video content marketing efforts. The reality is that with so many potential distribution and publication channels for your videos, how you approach the management of your video strategy here can make or break your efforts.

When it comes to video on current digital platforms it’s important to understand that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to video publication. That is, the way that you manage your content to win on YouTube is different from how you should approach video on Facebook, Instagram Stories or IGTV.

When considering your approach to Strategy Management for your business you’ll want to make decisions about:

• Your primary distribution channel: which video platform will be your main channel for this video?
• Your secondary distribution channels: will you repurpose your video for secondary platforms and if so how will you do this?
• Frequency: how often will you release new videos and how will you ensure consistent frequency?
• Duration: how long should each video be?
• Optimization: what platform specific actions do you need to consider in order to ensure the right exposure, reach and engagement for your videos?
• Metrics: what data will you pay attention to in order to effectively track the results of your video against your desired goal?

Quite simply, by considering what actions you’ll need to take in order to effectively manage your video strategy online you’ll develop a workflow around each video to better align your videos for success.

The Video Marketing Sweet Spot

It is in the place where these three parts overlap that we find the sweet spot. When the strategy is designed well, the content is produced correctly, and the strategy is managed properly you’ll be kicking goals with your video content marketing to grow your personal brand.

Importantly, you don’t necessarily have to handle all three of these elements yourself. By understanding the sweet spot you’ll not only know what needs to be done to implement effective video content marketing but you’ll also see where parts of this process can be outsourced or automated.

Perhaps you’ll work with a video strategy consultant, coach or mastermind to design your video strategy once a year, or once a quarter then handle the content production yourself, possibly outsourcing the editing to a VA. Finally, your strategy management plan could be mapped out in a Trello board with various tasks assigned to your team or Marketing VA to implement.

Whatever the process that works best for your brand ecosystem you’ll want to ensure that your video marketing strategy is hitting the sweet spot and the only way to do that is to be clear that all three parts are being taken care of somewhere along the line.

Chris Ducker

Chris founded Youpreneur® in 2015. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling books “Virtual Freedom” and “Rise of the Youpreneur”. He hosts our podcast, live events and coaches our clients inside the Youpreneur Incubator. Chris is based in Cambridge, UK.