(bright music)
- Anyone producing online content
wants people to care about their content.
They want people to watch it,
they want people to engage with it.
There's a real problem with this, though.
A lot of times it becomes a very me-centric conversation.
It's about what you can extract from people
instead of the value that you provide.
And at the end of the day,
when you're asking people for their time,
which is what you're asking for,
when you ask them to watch a video,
you're asking them to spend five minutes on that
instead of working on their business,
instead of spending time with their significant other,
instead of investing in any other activity,
you're asking them to make a commitment
and investment in you,
and it needs to be worth their while.
They need to know upfront what the ROI
of spending that time with you is,
and a lot of people are failing to communicate that.
A lot more people are failing to actually deliver on that.
I think one of the most important things you can do,
if you're going to produce a video
is make it very clear
what the direct benefit to your audience actually is.
If you want someone to watch a video,
if you want somebody to watch your content on YouTube
or Facebook, or Instagram, or LinkedIn, or Twitter,
or wherever you're asking them to participate,
they need to know what's in it for them,
and that needs to be very clear.
When I ask people, "Why should someone watch your content?"
usually, one of the first things
that come out of their mouth
is, "Well, I've worked really hard on this,"
or, "I think it's a good video."
And nobody cares.
I hate to break it to you, nobody cares.
That's not an appropriate answer.
You have to make it clear
what the direct benefit to them is.
You have to take yourself out of the equation,
and you really have to think about your audience,
you have to put them first
because otherwise you're just making content for yourself.
And if that's the case, that's fine,
if you specifically are doing that.
But if you're doing this in the context of your business
or to solve a specific problem in the market,
then you absolutely have to take yourself
out of the equation.
And when you're talking to your audience,
you also have to make it clear what you want them to do.
Is there a clear call to action?
Is that a subscribe on YouTube?
Is it leaving from the platform to buy your product?
Is it commenting on this
and adding their voice to the conversation?
What is it you actually want someone to do?
And have you earned the right to ask for that?
Have you facilitated that?
Have you provided enough upfront value
to make it okay to ask for that,
and expect that people will actually make that commitment?
That's something that I think
a lot of people take for granted.
Again, you have to not make it a me-centric conversation,
and you have to make it something that is enticing.
And that means that has to be something
that's of interest to the other person,
it has to be relevant to them, and it has to be relatable.
Now, there are ways you can accomplish this
with the forming of a format for your video content,
by scripting out a format.
And it doesn't have to be something
extraordinarily granular detail.
Obviously, you need a beginning, middle, and end.
That goes without saying.
But you also have to think about at what point
in the beginning, middle, and end
are you going to do certain things?
At what point are you going to clearly qualify
certain aspects of this for your audience?
A primary example being what is it that you provide?
Who are you, why do you matter to me?
You need to make that very clear,
probably in the first 15 seconds of your video.
That's what we refer to as a hook.
What is going to draw people
and what is going to entice them?
Then you have to think about the pacing of your format,
keeping people engaged and keeping them watching,
keeping them listening, keeping them leaning into this.
And then, of course, you have to have a strong close,
and you have to reinforce your call to action.
So I wouldn't wait necessarily to the end of the video
to ask someone to do something,
because there's a point
where they might drop off in the video.
You have to accommodate that.
I would say halfway through the video,
it's okay to either tease your call to action,
or to make a declaration outright.
And then, at the end of the video,
after you've absolutely delivered value,
you can reinforce that ask.
So that's something to really keep in mind.
Does the format fit your audience?
Does the format also serve the goals and priorities
that both you and the audience have?
Is this a win-win?
And are those goals and values really in alignment?
Is what you want at the expense of your audience?
Or is serving your audience coming
at the expense of your business goal?
I don't think it needs to be an either or.
I think there's an opportunity for both parties
to get exactly what they want,
and I think that a strong content strategy
keeps this in mind.
I think that if you're very clear
and upfront about what the benefit is to your audience,
but you're also transparent about what you'd like to happen,
then I think that everybody walks away feeling very good
about the time that they've spent making this video
and watching this video.
(lighthearted music)