Free Guide Writing Project

Yeah, we know what you’re thinking. This is just another one of those clickbait titled, so-called ‘guides’ that offer no real value and tell you what you already knew about the world of marketing and video. 

Well, sorry to disappoint, but this guide will in fact show you the blueprint as to how we helped our latest client gain 18 million views and 28k followers on YouTube in just 30 days. 

Want the proof? Take a look for yourself: 

There's a new kid on the block and its name is Vertical Video. 

For a number of years now, brands have utilised video in a variety of aspects of their marketing and for good reason - Did you know that: 

So no wonder right? It's a no-brainer to have video as part of your growth strategy, but we see all too often that brands invest in one or two videos about their company and leave them to fade away on a dormant YouTube channel. 

Sure, everybody needs a company overview video, a customer testimonial video and an office tour behind-the-scenes video, but this alone is not leveraging the true power of the medium. 

Video is most effective in marketing when used to Build Relevant Audiences. 

Here lies the foundation to a successful video content marketing strategy. It's where you first attract people who may use your service or buy your product at a later date. 

Now this is certainly not a revelation in the marketing world. In fact, you will already know it as TOFU or the ‘Awareness’ stage. 

The difference is in how we go about building the audience and consequently, awareness.  

Enter the Edutainment video.

Most content marketers will say the awareness stage is about ‘educating’ cold audiences about your product or service, but for us, this misses one of the key elements of content as a whole: Entertainment value. 

Long-form

Optimised for desktop 

Keyword-driven 

Campaign-based 

Slow-pace

Serious tone

Feels like video lecture

Product-focused

Educational

Makes a sales pitch before making a connection 

Short-form

Vertical (optimised for mobile)

Story-driven

Always-on

Dynamic-pace

Embraces novelty

Takes viewers on a journey

Customer-focused

Edutainment

Makes a connection before making a conversion 

But why should you switch to vertical video content to build an audience? Well there are three reasons: 

Vertical video has the best organic reach.

Vertical video can be leveraged on a multi-platform strategy.

Vertical video that builds an organic audience and is the perfect testing ground for paid ad creatives.

This makes the vertical format the most cost-effective video strategy by a long shot. 

*A quick note about running ads - It's worth knowing that these days, the most popular TOFU ads often mimic content. This means that by repurposing the videos that have the best organic performances with clear call-to-action, you can get the most bang for your buck in your ad-spend! 

But first things first, how do we do our best to ensure that these videos perform well organically in the first place? 

Let's talk about outcomes here - What is it that we want for these videos? We want views right? The more views the better as this leads to more subscribers - And how do we get views without ad spend? We need to trigger the platform algorithm to share it far and wide. But, what triggers this elusive algorithm? 

Think of it as a flow chart:

To increase the chance of the Watch-Time check being passed, we leverage the short form, vertical video content as described above. We recommend using the two following video techniques for maximum effectiveness: 

Talking Head: The presentation style of the content should be using a real person to present the information in an entertaining way. A charismatic and consistent presenter is worth more than their weight in gold on social media. 

Motion Graphics: High quality motion graphics to support the presenters script hold attention and highlight key points, as well as giving the opportunity to integrate ‘meme’ culture into the piece of content. 

 

To increase the chance of the Click-Rate check being passed - we leverage the following techniques: 

The content must have some consistent industrial relevance in order to target the niches we want to eventually convert. As with business, content needs to be niche to increase chances of success. 

The top-of-funnel content must have some link to popular culture, or segments of the internet that are “on-trend” at the time of posting. 

Brand CloakingThe content should bear no reference to your brand or what product/service you are selling at this stage. Social media users have become ad-savvy, so we need to attract them with quality, entertaining content. They will be more likely to use your brand down the line with this approach. 

Brand Jacking:  Naming high profile brands as the basis of your video content will increase clickability. Think of the titans of your respective industry, and how their names can be leveraged for increased online traction. 

Now, naturally - even following this process, there will only be a percentage of these videos that will trigger the algorithm and successfully generate engagement. We are simply increasing the probability of this happening, and the more information we collect about the audience, the easier it is to tailor the content for more consistent success. 

So, what did this look like for us? Well out of 17 videos posted in total, 5 got above 1 million views and one video got 12 million views alone! This converted into a whopping 29.1k followers in the first 30 days from posting. Views: 12 Million

Likes: 1 Million Comments: 3800

Views: 1.8 Million

Likes: 177,000 Comments: 861

Views: 1.7 Million

Likes: 128,000 Comments: 1.9k

What we have now built is as an engaged, relevant audience for our business as well as finding the content which is to be converted to ad-creatives for our paid media team. Not too bad eh? 

So to sum up the guide in a few key points: 

Vertical video is the best performing Top-of-Funnel content. 

Niche, culturally relevant Edutainment is the new video format to maximise the organic reach of content 

While audience building is number one priority, this strategy also adds value to your Paid Media efforts.

For top-of-funnel ads, the line between organic content and ads is quickly evaporating.

While there are many different ways to utilise video in a business marketing strategy, the top of the sales funnel is arguably the most important stage. 

Many businesses waste hundreds and even thousands of pounds on standard video ads, with no real understanding of the platforms, or social media users. By investing in regular, high quality edutainment content, you can start to build your audience organically and get more bang for your marketing buck. 

If you use the weight of your content ideas or production process, the Social Camel team is only a click away.