According to Cisco's 2022 Report, 82% of global internet traffic will come from either video streaming or video downloads in 2022.
No wonder why most B2B companies are using video content as a form of leverage in marketing.
While that's a great marketing strategy, most video content is not compelling and provides no real value.
Whether you are creating an explainer video, testimonial video, social media content, or video email, the tips in this article will be helpful to you.
Firstly, What is Compelling and Helpful Video Content?
According to data curated by Statista, In 2020, there were over 3 billion internet users consuming video content.
And this number is projected to increase annually, ultimately reaching nearly 3.5 billion by 2023.
Your target audiences are waiting to consume your video content on different platforms but until your video content is compelling and helpful, they won't consume your content.
But, what is compelling video content?
Use my CUE formula– Compelling video content is video content that evokes curiosity, urgency, and emotions in seconds or minutes.
Helpful video content is video content that meets the needs of your audience and helps them solve a problem.
Here's a powerful list above by Erica Schneider, Head of Content at Grizzle.
If you noticed, she boldened the word – “helpful". This means Helpful content is high-quality content.
See how Chris Walker, Founder of Refine Labs gains lots of traction through LinkedIn video content:
He has gotten over 1.1k reactions on his recent video post, that's over a stunning million impressions.
Shifting your focus from his results widens your view to see how high the quality of his videos are and how impactful it is to his audience.
But the question is – Why is it needful? Here are the answers answer below.
Why You Need to Share Compelling and Helpful Video Content
There are immense benefits of creating video content that stands out from the crowd.
Whether you are embedding it in your email, sending a personalized video to a prospect, or sharing it on social media, there are lots of juicy benefits for you to access.
It boosts visibility and competitive advantage.
Ever seen a video you resonated so much with and you got triggered to share it with your friends?
That's the power of quality video content. If it's helpful and resonates with your audience, then it gets a lot of shares that results in visibility
It puts you ahead of your competitors in the market. It positions you as the go-to source for insights in your niche.
With the surge of dark social, there's no denying the fact that video content will serve as leverage for the growth of many businesses.
It scales your revenue.
Whether you are sharing these videos – product video, onboarding video, or explainer video – quality video content helps you scale conversions based on your revenue metrics.
87%! That's the percentage of marketers who think videos provide a positive return on investment (ROI). The choice is yours to make.
It increases your email conversion rate.
According to AB Tasty, In 2019, Emails including a video were found to have a 96% higher click-through rate than those without.
Fast forward to 2022, Almost 90% of online marketing professionals use video in their marketing campaigns
Adding quality video content — helpful and engaging— to your email campaigns will scale your email interactivity.
6 Ways to Create a Compelling and Helpful Video Content
As already stated, we are looking at two qualities — compelling and helpful — of video content.
So let's take a look at the 6 simple ways to create video content that checklists these two qualities respectively.
1. Use a powerful headline and hook.
The first step to creating compelling video content is by using an attention-grabbing headline and a hook.
An attention-grabbing headline helps you catch the attention of your audience and they can't resist tapping the play button.
While a hook triggers your audience to keep watching your video content because it either sparks their curiosity or intrigues them with uncommon knowledge.
For example, here's a screenshot of the headline of a video by the First 1000 users headed by Ugi Djuric of ContentHorse.
You can see how this headline will grab any SaaS founder's attention.
Why? It triggers curiosity and portrays authority. And of course, with Rand Fishkin talking, it's going to be a valuable video because he's a subject matter expert. More about that in the sixth step.
2. Be short and clear
If you want to share video content that gets a lot of attention and makes your audience take action, your script must be short and clear.
Keep it simple and short yet clear to comprehend. Whatever point you are trying to pass across should be easy to comprehend.
This keeps your audience watching to the end. Complexity steals the uniqueness of your video content.
For example– here's an image of the duration of videos on our LinkedIn page. Maximum of 30 seconds yet clear enough to pass a message to our audience.
Complexity steals the unique potential of your video content. It weighs down the value in it.
Here's a better formula:
- State one problem you want to solve with your video.
- Use one idea in your content.
- Share one solution and…
- Make your content consumer take action.
3. Use a powerful CTA (call-to-action).
Compelling video content doesn't address the problem of attention alone.
It helps in the retention of your audience's interests. There's always an action you want your audience to take after watching your video.
Your video's call to action can be added in the caption section or the last few seconds of your video.
So if you want results like – more sign-ups for your program or products, newsletter signups, shares, and likes – you can either add a clickable link on your video or an animated CTA outro.
There are two types of Video Content CTAs…
- Transactional CTA.
- Retention CTA
The former compels your audience to either buy a product or sign up for a program, while the latter seeks to retain the attention of your audience by making them – like your video, give feedback or share your video.
Now you've seen how to create compelling video content, let's take a look at 4 ways to make compelling video content helpful.
This means, your video content must help your customer and address the questions they have.
4. Unveil a pain point and solution
To make your video content helpful, you must point to the pains of your prospect and unveil a solution.
Don't point to the pain and ignore the solution. It makes your video content void of quality delivery.
This framework is largely applied when sending prospect videos or pitches to potential clients and sharing social media content on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Here are some steps to take:
- Understand your audience. What do they want to see in your videos? What solutions are they looking for?
- Find their pain points. Join their conversations, ask questions, and post surveys and research.
- Create a video marketing strategy and framework that helps you map out the value you want to give out in each video.
- Pick at most two subject matters to talk about and focus on them to get feedback.
5. Create a video structure or outline.
Recently, I watched a YouTube video by Tommy Walker, his famous cutting room series on YouTube. It featured Peep Laja, founder of CXL.
I noticed how he structured the video content in form of chapters to answer questions and objections. Helpful videos are always well outlined no matter the length.
Creating a laser-focused outline fit enough to answer the troubling questions of your audience is what matters most.
You may think it's only applied in YouTube videos. No! Every type of video content must be outlined.
It doesn't have to be stated in the captions, record your video in an orderly manner like a storyline.
But how does it work and what formulas can you use?
The popular AIDA model is very useful in creating an outline for every video content. Sounds surprising right? Because you think it's only useful for copywriting. No!
Let's break it down with questions-
- Attention – What are you saying in the first 60-120 seconds of your video?
- Interest – Is your content relevant to the interest of your prospects and audience (remember, we are looking at different types of videos)
- Desire – Does the body of your video convince them to watch more?
- Action – What results do you want to achieve from your video?
The Pain, Agitate then Solve framework is also vital in creating a video content outline.
6. Share more insights with proof (use screenshots and animated images)
It is not necessary to make your video long to add more insights. No matter how short or long, depth of value is very important.
To validate your points and claims, you must show proof of action taken or results achieved via images, screenshots, or GIFs.
This adds credibility to your video content. And shows your audience that you are an authority on the subject matter.
For example, if you want to share an onboarding or product explainer video, you must add actionable steps with descriptive images and animated GIFs for easy comprehension by your audience.
It gives a deep sense of personalization to your content.
Wrapping up
To inject quality and uniqueness into your video content, you must embrace your brand's authenticity, build a creative mindset and put these 6 ways into action.
This is how you create and share videos that your customers won't stop talking about.
Build a wall of valuable video content by doing what nobody wants to do and watch as you get your desired results.
