If you fail to plan, plan to fail.
Tip one of seven
You have to know your audience, if you don’t know who your audience is, and you’re just going to create content or video for anybody then you’re going to miss the mark. on that because let’s look at it this way.
You’re going to talk to different generations differently. You’re going to talk to people that are in their fifties differently than you’re going to talk to the people that are in their twenties. They just have different values. They have different outlooks on life, different experiences.
They feel different things and they just see the world a little differently. So you have to approach how you create content and what you base your content on who’s watching it because if you are trying to reach people in their fifties, that same content is not going to work for people in their twenties. They just have different outlooks on life.
So you want to approach who your audience is before you start recording your content, because if you make content with the intention of trying to reach people in their twenties, but the material you are recording is really of interest for people in their sixties, then you’re going to have a mismatch at the end when you’re all done with your content.
No one will want to watch any more than what scrolls past as they thumb around for the next piece of content in their feed. Because if your message isn’t resonating with the right audience, you might as well be shouting into an empty room.
You want your message to be on the same lines and the same thought as, as your audience. You want to enter into that conversation that they’re already having in their mind. And you want to be a part of it, but you’ve got to meet them where they’re at. And the only way to do that is to really know who they are.
You have to understand everything you can about your demographic. If you already have sales or you already have somewhat of a following start looking at who they are, look at the people that have already purchased from you and see if there’s any patterns about who they are.
When you know your audience you can start looking at some of the other types of content that they like and finding ways you can parallel what you’re talking about with other things and other topics that they are already interested in.
That’s going to make them even more interested in listening to what you have to say.
Tip two of seven
When you create your content, every piece of content has to have a purpose in mind. Whether or not that purpose is just for somebody to watch all the way through or it’s for somebody to watch it and click a link. You want somebody to take some type of action. You want somebody to comment on it. All content needs a purpose.
Maybe it’s a specific emotion you want the audience to feel. You have to have a goal. You can just create something and just say, I’m just going to put it out there. Why, you know, why do people want to watch it? What’s the purpose?
What’s the number one thing you want someone to do after they watch your content? Naturally, this is going to be influenced by your overall strategy. But knowing what you’re asking of the audience on every piece of content is important. Are you asking them to watch the whole video, click a link, read the whole caption, leave a comment, whatever it is, just be clear before you start.
You have to understand what your goal is before you go into start creating.
Identify what your goal is with each piece of content you have. This is a crucial part of your overall strategy. If you just start throwing content out there with no end goal, then your audience is going to recognize that something feels disconnected.
You need some type of theme, a constant story, or, you know, a goal. That’s it.
When you understand what the goal is for each piece of content you’re creating then you’re able to piece that asset into the overall strategy. Then you can step back and see where that piece fits in. The when somebody watches that video or whatever it is when they’re done with that piece of content, where did they go next?
Tip number three of seven
Have you ever heard glass shatter on the floor at a restaurant? It got yours and everyone else’s attention, right? The hook is what is going to grab people’s attention. But getting people’s attention is relatively simple and easy. These days keeping the attention focused where you want it is the challenge.
In the restaurant scenario, I bet you went right back to your meal nearly instantly once you heard the sound. It grabbed your attention real quick but couldn’t keep it. Nothing more was happening.
You got to get them to open their eyes, their ears, and their mind. Start off with some type of attention getter, some type of pattern interrupt, or something that changes what they are used to seeing.
This goes back to the idea of understanding where this piece of content is going to live and what your end goal is and who the audience is. Because if you know that this particular video you’re creating is going to go on Instagram. You better understand what you’re competing against when people are scrolling through that feed or when they’re looking through different stories. There’s other things that are probably more interesting and you know, you need to be more interesting than that.
You have to captivate that audience enough to want to watch your video instead of clicking through and, you know, watching that chick that’s half naked doing a dance. I mean, that’s the reality of what social media is these days.
Like I said, getting the attention is easy. It’s keeping the attention that’s the most important thing. Using pattern interrupts or transitions or different angles, or different, you setups, different things. Make things a little bit more interesting so that people want to actually keep watching.
Keeps things interesting. And you’ll keep the attention span.
Tip number four of seven
Why should anybody care about your content?
Why should people care? That’s what you need to be asking yourself when you’re coming up with ideas for content.
At every step of the way, you have to keep asking yourself, so what? So what? You’re telling a story about glass shattering, so what? Why do I need to care? What’s the benefit you’re providing?
Why should your audience care at every step of the journey, you have to ask yourself, why should they really care? Because you’re creating the content for them. You’re not creating it for you. You’re creating for them. That’s a big misconception. A lot of people have is they think that, oh, I’m just going to create content that I like and others will like it too.
You have to make sure your audience cares. Ask yourself, what’s in it for them? Why should they care? The content you’re creating is for them. It’s not for you, remember that.
If whatever you’re talking about is overly complicated, if it’s boring, or irrelevant… then they’re just going to leave. They’re not going to keep watching the video. There’s plenty of other interesting content to watch.
So think about that.
Tip tip number five of seven
Understanding where the content goes when it’s done is important. If you’re just creating a piece of content and you’re going to throw it out on social media. Understand where you’re going to put it before you start shooting it, because that’s going to determine whether or not you’re going to shoot it vertical, or you’re going to shoot it horizontal.
As for length, you’re not going to create a 10 minute video and put it as an Instagram story. Hopefully this post ages well and IG never has a 10 minute story…
Understand who you’re trying to reach. And what messages you’re trying to reach them with. That can determine where you’re going to put your message. You have to look at the different channels.
Some industries heavily favor Twitter, some industries heavily favor Instagram, some industries, you know, kind of do a blend of them all. And depending on whatever your industry is or who the audience is, wherever they are, you’re going to want to identify those channels and the specific platforms. And then when you create your content, splinter it out and chunk up the pieces so that you can deliver them on multiple platforms, whatever is most relevant to your audience.
Think of it this way, you know, your audience goes to the grocery store. They go to the gas station, and they might go to the mall. They’re going to go to all three of those places with three different intentions. You’re not going to reach them with the same message in all three places.
So you would tailor your message accordingly based on wherever they are. If they’re going grocery shopping, they’re probably hungry. So you might want to tie your message into food or hunger, something along those lines. If they’re going to the gas station, you know they might be on the go. They’re in between. They’re not going to have time to watch something that’s 10 minutes long.
Now these are arbitrary scenarios, but I’m trying to get your mind thinking about this, because if they’re at the mall, they’re in shopping mode, they’re gonna want to see the product and understand what the benefits are.
They’re gonna want to see the things that they want to buy. So again, depending on the platform, depending on where they are, the messaging is going to be different.
Tip number six of seven
If you plan out your shots ahead of time and you plan out what it is you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it then you might save yourself a bit of time later on when you’re editing because then you’re not going to hate yourself as much.
If you did your planning, you already know what to expect because you planned it out. You identified what you were trying to say, how you were going to say it and what you were going to do. Right. You don’t have to get overly complicated with your shots or your script. We’re not directing cinematic feature length films here, that’s topic for another article.
What is the bulk of the information that you’re going to say? And in that conversation, what else am I going to put on the screen when I’m talking? Because you’re not gonna want to watch my face for 10 minutes. There’s nothing else going on. There’s no pattern interrupt. So there’s nothing to keep your attention.
The second you sit down, you turn that camera on, you see that blinking red light, you might freeze and you know, nothing sucks more than just wasting time in front of a camera, trying to record something.
So plan out your shots ahead of time. You don’t have to write a full script, but outlined bullet points give some key pointers. So this one, you can stay on point and you don’t go off on different tangents. When you know what you’re talking about, you always have an outline you can come back to and you can reel yourself in.
I made this blog article by recording my video and then editing the transcript. Here’s my outline right there. I eat my own dog food.
So having an outline is important because it not only keeps you on track, keeps you on schedule and just keeps you organized, keeping things flowing.
Tip number seven of seven
Practice. If you’re not a trained professional actor, winging it is not going to work for you.
What works for me most of the time writing out what I’m planning on saying by hand. Then I’ll type it and print it out on a piece of paper. And then I’ll just read it out loud a whole bunch of times and make corrections as needed. I read things out loud when I write them, because it helps me understand what it is I’m saying and how I’m going to articulate that when it comes time to actually recording the video. We speak very differently than we write.
And when you write, sometimes you try to be a little more proper than you should be. When you normally talk, you use different terminology and slang words and other ways of saying things. So you want to make things sound as natural as possible, but at the same time, you don’t want to be so rigid where you’re reading something off of a piece of paper and it’s just not entertaining.
You also don’t want to keep going off on a tangent either. Keep your focus, practice, practice, practice.
All right. That’s it. Thanks for watching.