October 2022 - Content with Teeth

Use a Swipe File to Help Generate Creative Videos
Types of Videos
The Videos of the Present and the Future
What are Creative Videos?
How to Have Creative Video Ideas?
The Ultimate Checklist for Video Glory
Suggestions for Developing Creative Videos
Have Winning Creative Videos!

What is a creative video?

That is in the eye of the beholder.

For us, the low-fi “high cheese” look of these early ’80s VHS logos gets our wheels spinning:

Greek VHS Logos / 1980s
-sound on- pic.twitter.com/egC0ZfwyHF

— psychotronica (@psychotronica_) July 8, 2022

What if these graphics were combined with the Max Headroom, another ’80s pop culture sensation?

But what if you don’t have the budget to compete with AMC Networks which is rebooting the first artificial intelligence TV personality and witty glitchbot?

Then you create your own Cat Headroom & Friend inspired by a cute kid and her new feline friend, as seen above.

We know; it’s a picture. We’ll get it moving if you become a client 🙂

To the point at hand, we’ll leave what is an innovative video up to you and the murky vicissitudes of subjectivity. We can help with keeping things fresh, though.

Why You Should Care…

In this post, we aim to give video newbies and experienced creators who are tackling brand video ideas on how to keep things from getting stale.

We’ll cover how to generate killer video ideas without spending a fortune.

Use a Swipe File to Help Generate Creative Videos

When you don’t know what to write and have nothing but a soul-crushing white screen staring at you bleakly, that’s when you need a tool to generate ideas. So, it would be best to have a tool like a swipe file.

A swipe file is a collection of unique content to get new ideas — you can save images and/or text sections from emails, social media posts, online ads, videos, blogs, and any media you can screenshot and store as a resource in a spreadsheet format.

The primary purpose of a swipe file is to scan the collection of images and text and, by osmosis, have new associations and ideas gurgle to the surface like bubbling water from an underground hot spring.

For example, you could scan a shot from a Max Headroom YouTube video and then the image from a Tweet of cheesy 1980s VHS graphics and get the inspiration to synthesize the two.

Types of Videos

Before getting into our top video ideas, you must understand the different video formats you can create.

Thankfully, many examples content creators and companies have produced will enlighten and motivate you.

Let’s review some of the most popular video formats trending today!

Tutorials/ How-To Vids

This popular video style demonstrates how your product or service works. It’s considered a powerful selling tool to help your audience experience the usability of your product or service. It walks your viewers through a process and answers relevant questions.

Explainer Video

Businesses often use these to help viewers solve problems or illustrate a particular topic. They articulate what your company does to people unfamiliar with your business.

It’s typically built to tackle three things: the problem your company is trying to solve, who you are trying to help, and the experience they’ll earn when choosing your products or services.

Testimonials

Testimonials focus on the customer experience. It showcases the positive experience a company or individual had with your business. In summary, a client explains how and why your company was the best choice in the market.

Case Studies

Case studies illustrate your company’s value by answering every customer’s question before purchasing: “Will this offer deliver what it promises?”

If done right, you’ll be able to explain your products and services in detail.

This style is a great selling tool because they build trust and offer a clear road map to solve a particular problem. Case studies are BoFu ( “bottom-of-funnel”) content where a prospect has researched you and needs a compelling reason to become a buyer.

Video Sales Letter

This type of video persuades a target audience to buy your particular product or service.

Social Media

Videos are at the cusp of social media content.

Social media is hungry for video content thanks to the rise of the short-video content displayed in TikTok and Instagram Reels.

They’re a great way to reach audiences of all ages and get your message across social media faster and cheaper.

You might say you need a whole Hollywood production team to produce this content, but you’ll be surprised.

Most content creators use their phones, essential lighting, and a solid microphone to deliver their message. It’s about making your content more human and accessible to your audience.

Promotional

These are the most sales-oriented videos on this list; they promote a specific marketing initiative, sale, or event.

It builds awareness and grabs your audience’s attention by getting to the point quickly and aiming to have a positive impact.

The Videos of the Present and the Future

Livestream Videos

People look for an intimate connection with others and brands on digital channels. So, when you go live and have a dialogue with your followers, it gives a sense of having an in-person conversation.

You allow others to ask questions, complement your work, raise awareness and help them with their challenges in a more human approach.

Livestreams have around 8.2 billion hours of content watched during the third quarter of 2021 and growing, according to Statista.

Video Blogs

Yes! Video blogs or “vlogs” are also becoming popular worldwide. They’re a great way to present educational and awareness content without a written blog.

These videos are typical on YouTube, where people share their knowledge on various topics. It’s a great way to keep that human element while using visual resources to help to get your message across.

360° videos

Last but not least is the 360° videos. The main difference is that these are recorded in all directions, allowing you to control the viewing directions.

You’ve probably seen this technology with real estate companies that showcase listed homes to home buyers and sellers.

However, there are many other ways that other companies can take advantage of this tool.

It’s been resonating with most audiences, and they have the potential to become the dominating video type of the future.

If you would like help developing creative video ideas, get Content with Teeth’s swipe file.

What are Creative Videos?

Ok, we’ve discussed video types and the primary purpose of your content strategy, but what does it mean, and how does it help your business? How can you craft the perfect idea?

Simple.

Creativity is everywhere; it’s just a matter of utilizing your resources and creating something new, ambitious, and interesting that WOWs your audience; it’s more than using the latest visual effects or fancy filters.

It’s about using all your talent and resources to deliver a clear message and have top creative video ideas.

Take TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms to date. It’s competing with Instagram Reels and has fantastic tools that help content creators craft eye-popping videos.

However, innovative video exists outside these apps, and you have what it takes to create something visually appealing, intelligent, and memorable.

How to Have Creative Video Ideas?

Relax. You don’t need to learn to dance or dress like an overweight panda.

When it comes to filming or recording something, there are some essential elements you need to consider:

Sound
Lighting
Setting
Cinematography
Narrative
Performance
Editing

Filming is a whole new language, and it’s hard work. Don’t worry. We’ll give you the essential elements to craft an awesome video.

Many people didn’t go to film school and are creating unique content for social media; it’s a matter of trusting yourself.

The Ultimate Checklist for Video Glory!

#1 Brainstorm. Narrow down the topic of your video, who’s your target audience, and what message you want to communicate. Use a digital tool like a swipe file to generate ideas.

#2 Write a script. Again, keep your ideas in order and ensure a consistent narrative with a simple text.

#3 Create a storyboard. You can use pictures or half-made drawings to understand what shots you need to film clearly.

#4 Use lighting. Use different colors, create shadows in the background and play with different styles to give your video personality. Learn three-point lighting and buy all your equipment at Home Depot for almost no money.

#5 Use sound and music if needed. Get a good microphone and decide if background music or sound FX makes sense. Search for royalty-free or copyright-free music on YouTube for quality but inexpensive music to use for your video.

#6 Edit. You can spin your video in all directions with good editing. If you are financially strapped, get free or low-cost video editing software. Trim long sequences and mistakes. “Kill your babies” by removing unnecessary scenes.

Suggestions for Developing Creative Videos

Beyond cinematic language, more options exist to create a fantastic video that WOWs your audience. Here are seven suggestions to spice up those creative ideas!

Use animation – especially on an explainer video or story-based content.
Make a parody – sometimes funny is better. Don’t be afraid to add some humor to your content.
Send a message to your audience, ask questions or ask for feedback
Go behind the scenes – show what is happening while working on your projects; your audience will appreciate it!
Get still photos from the production. They can be used for social media and YouTube thumbnails.
Record a time-lapse or a before-and-after video – a great way to show a project’s progress or final product.
Create a thank you video – giving back and being grateful to your followers for their support is always good.
Do a team member interview – show off your team and let them explain their day-to-day basis and what they love doing the most.

Have Winning Creative Videos!

Sometimes, a boring video can become a fantastic piece with great editing or the right music.

The key to achieving a successful video is always to have your audience in mind and trust your skills.

Have this fact in mind; you’ll never be able to please everybody. So, trust your guts and start creating videos today without remorse.

Creative videos starts with inspiration. Inspiration can bubble from a swipe file, a spreadsheet where you can scan inspirational images and text and develop new ideas. Get Content with Teeth’s swipe file for free below!

What Is Content Marketing?
Hypothetical Content Marketing Efforts
The Benefits of Content Marketing
What Do Content Marketers Do?
Content Formats and How It All Works
Yabba Dabba Content!

Is content marketing so easy a caveman could do it?

Content marketing assumption vs how it really works. pic.twitter.com/9xaxmHqPdG

— Mehmed Aezhad 🇲🇾 (@MehmedAezhad) May 13, 2020

Does Fred Flintstone, the most genial of cavemen, throw up a blog or video on bedrock.io, have prospects click, and the dough starts rolling in?

We’ll explain in this post how it’s a little more complicated than that.

Why You Should Care?

If you’re a business owner or marketing professional looking to expand your skills, you’ve heard of content but have questions. Learn precisely what content marketing is, how it works and why it is a steadily performing tool in any marketing strategy.

What is Content Marketing?

2 x 280 characters should do it:

You've been hearing a lot about Content Marketing, you are going to hear it again now. It's unavoidable if what you want is massive growth for your brand/business.

If you've outgrown growth already, you don't need this. Hop off.

Simply put, Content Marketing is the act of

— Jay Jay. ✍️ (@Johnsonn_Love) September 30, 2022

of creating content that'll educate, attract, and engage your prospects to ultimately make sales.

Breaking that down;

When you educate & engage your prospects about your products or brand, what you are doing is called content marketing.

An example for your perusal…

— Jay Jay. ✍️ (@Johnsonn_Love) September 30, 2022

Content marketing fuels your efforts by keeping your brand in front of your audience and connecting with potential customers. It also gives you the chance to increase traffic to your website, establish trust, develop brand personality and support the conversion funnel where prospects become aware of your brand and progress downward to the point where they become actual customers.

A content marketing strategy is a non-intrusive way to reach your target audience and help them with their pain points and challenges through valuable information like industry news, case studies, guides, and more. Content marketing differs from traditional advertising because it focuses on customers rather than a business’s products and services.

Hypothetical Content Marketing Efforts

Let’s say you have a travel agency and want to create brand awareness while helping your customers achieve a trip they’ll never forget.

You understand that your buyer is having a rough time putting together a travel plan that will not make them choose between eating or traveling. So, you establish a documented content marketing strategy that will answer their questions, plus let them know you’re the ultimate guide to building the perfect travel plan.

You decide to use Instagram to create educational social media posts about the benefits of a complete travel plan, industry news, testimonials, case studies, and other content assets. Next, you offer them a free guide to help them see hotels, airfare, and the best dates to travel.

Once they have downloaded the guide and given you their contact information, it’s time to nurture them with an email campaign. You’ll soon determine which leads are interested in buying your services or are still considering purchasing in the future.

This example is a glance at how content works, but there are still a few details ahead. Check out our past blog post on creating content that converts!

The Benefits of Content Marketing

Before we see how the gears grind, let’s explore some of the benefits of content over traditional marketing:

Customer engagement: by crafting your content for your blog, social media platforms, landing page or website, you’re more than likely to reach your potential audience and the conduit — search engines like Google.

Brand awareness and thought leadership: by talking about your industry and educating your audience about what you do, you’re allowing them to find answers and learn more about or process. They’ll see you as a reliable source of information and a credible company.

Lead generation and nurturing: if you have a free eBook and offer it in exchange for your audience’s contact information, you’ll quickly gain potential leads to nurture them down your sales funnel. Likewise, an email campaign will let you connect with your prospects and provide insight to see which contacts are ready to become a customer based who opens and engages with your email content.

Sales enablement: content marketing isn’t just for the marketing department; your sales team can share the content your team creates to help your audience find the answers they need. If you create a video FAQ on your website, the sales team can copy the link and send it to prospects instead of wasting time regurgitating stock answers.

What Do Content Marketers Do?

Content marketers are responsible for creating content that resonates with their ideal buyer persona, follows their brand’s tone of voice, and uses easy-to-follow language.

These are some of the skills they need to have:

The ability to do deep research on a specific subject
They need to understand a brands voice like it’s their own
Understand basic search engine optimization (SEO) concepts like keyword optimization
Strategy and analysis capabilities to identify which assets work and which don’t
The ability to produce content in various formats and with key players like influencers, actors, designers, writers, videographers, etc.

Content Formats and How It All Works

Our top eight content formats will succeed in your marketing efforts!

Blog Posts
EBooks and Whitepapers
Infographics and Visual Design
Videos
Case Studios
Website Copy
Newsletters and Emails
Social Media

Blog Posts

These deserve your attention because they help your website become discoverable by powerful magnets like Google. In summary, you have two significant advantages: you’ll educate your audience about your industry and help the search engine rank your content better on a results page (SERP).

With a blog, you have an opportunity to bring people to your site and increase the chances of conversions. For example, let’s say you saw this post on one of our social media channels, clicked on it, landed on our site, read it, saw our eBook, downloaded it, and PRESTO! Now you’re in our monthly newsletter. It’s not too much more complicated than Fred Flintstones’ POST-CLICK-CUSTOMER model.

EBooks and Whitepapers A.K.A. Lead Magnets

If done right, your audience will find enough value in these types of content that they are willing to exchange their contact information for it. It’s not a sale but an indication that your visitors get the answers they need while engaging with your brand. Next, nurture them with an email campaign to get closer to the decision stage.

Newsletter and Emails

Emails are crucial in a content marketing campaign if done right. You have a chance to connect with your target audience even further and lead them down the marketing funnel. To have a successful marketing campaign, you must align your emails or newsletter to your buyer’s context. Let’s say somebody visited your website, downloaded your eBook, and gets an email notification thanking them and inviting them to read more about another topic of interest. It takes twelve touch points or more for people to purchase, so emails are a critical component to splash water in your prospect’s face and keep them engaged.

Infographics and Visual Design

This format suits an audience that might not like to read a whole blog post. On the other hand, maybe your buyers prefer quick information. So, infographics or visual design could be the best way to present your content. Remember that content marketing is consumer-centric, so you must choose the type of format according to what different segments of your audience like to interact with.

Videos

People are consuming at least six hours a day of video content. As a result, it’s increasingly common for brands to use video, especially with TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts on the rise. So how would you integrate video into your content marketing mix?