Better YouTube strategy in three simple letters
5 minute read
Video. Video. Video. It’s important and you want to be making more of it, but you know how expensive it can be – which leaves you, a business owner, in a tricky position. If video hasn’t worked for you yet, do you really want to throw more money at it?
Is video really that important for your business?
Chances are you’ve asked yourself this question before – probably after dropping a few grand on a sexy company promo and letting it sit on your barren YouTube channel with the only views coming from your company’s own IP address.
You took the time to plan it, you spent good money on it, and you dutifully shared it on all your social media channels – maybe a bit too often – so why hasn’t it resulted in more business?
You might be questioning the importance of video, and whether to continue factoring it into your company’s marketing strategy.
But hold on a minute… let’s not make any rash decisions. Take a look at some stats instead, everyone loves data, right?
Simply put, if you’re not making an ongoing effort with your video content – 62% of your competitors are.
90% is a lot. Video is ridiculously effective when it comes to grabbing the attention of potential customers.
So how do you do video marketing right? You need a plan. A proven strategy to reach, engage, and grow your audience.
Why not pinch Google’s?
Introducing Hero, Hub, Help
The old school approach of relying on periodic advertising campaigns doesn’t cut it in 2020. Sure, you can still go all-out with a show-stopping annual campaign, but going from splurge to silence won’t drive sustainable growth.
Periodic campaigns have their place, they do usually lead to a spike in sales, but this will be short lived – resulting in a disappointing long-term ROI.
Successful brands don’t merely advertise. They take the time to build communities of loyal customers by creating consistent, regular content that audiences love, using a variety of formats and platforms.
Hero, Hub, Help (HHH, also known as Hero, Hub, Hygiene) is a content marketing model developed by Google to help brands grow their YouTube audience.
It provides a simple framework you can follow when planning your content calendar. HHH encourages you to segment your content, ensuring every piece is planned, created, and distributed with the right objectives in mind.
Due to fierce competition online, businesses now have to do more than simply provide an end product. Customers demand regular, valuable, engaging content that they can easily access through your website, and social media. If you’re not giving it to them, your competitors are.
You can give them a reason to keep coming back and forge a connection by providing content that covers the three big bases of HHH.
Hero content
Hero content typically centers around major events like product launches, campaigns or trade shows. This content usually takes longer to produce, with a higher production value. Examples include TV commercials, product videos, corporate films, and recruiting content.
You’ll want to push this content out through newsletters, social media, or even paid media. It’s the star of the show, the top billing, the main event.
This is content that sits at the top of the marketing funnel in the ‘awareness’ stage of the consumer journey. Because you’re playing that numbers game, trying to attract as much attention as possible, it deserves budget and time to polish.
Writing a killer call to action is critical in driving folk towards other online assets; your website and social media.
Hero content is high risk, high reward as it relies on storytelling and emotionally driven marketing that creates strong responses. These are not only memorable but, if done right, will help reinforce positive brand identity.
Due to its scale and the focus it requires, Hero content should be put out maybe two or three times per year to maximise impact and leave the audience wanting more. Because marketing is showbiz.
To truly nail Hero content:
Focus on what makes you stand out
If you can’t afford stunning visuals, craft compelling and creative storytelling that’s hilarious… or shocking
Know what your customers want to see and do that
Invest time in making your videos as visible as possible. Take advantage of high-profile events both online and offline, as well as social media
Hub content
This is what most people think of when they think of content; stuff that’s created on a regular basis and released at set times. Fortnightly podcasts and social media vlogs fit the bill here, stuff that keeps customers engaged and coming back for more.
Hub content appeals to existing customers or prime prospects, those beyond the awareness stage of the marketing funnel who want to know more about your brand. You’re not self-promoting here, the aim is providing value and building a community.
Hub content is push content; its distribution relies on building networks of followers and subscribers who’ll do your sharing for you. It’s therefore reliant on Hero content doing its job of bringing in curious new viewers to raise follower numbers.
Done right, Hub content promotes trust in your expertise and engagement with your subject matter. That confidence will drive viewers to the next stage of your sales funnel, ever closer to that tantalising sale.
Your Hub content will succeed if you:
Address what your audience needs to see in order to fully trust your business
Tell inspiring stories that will stay with viewers
Be interesting and informative. Discuss trends or technologies to help customers improve their experience in your related field
Publish at predictable intervals, make videos cohesive and in the tone of your brand. Don’t forget the importance of building a strong identity
Help content
This is evergreen content that customers are seeking out, pull content which brings them to you naturally. As the name suggests, it’s there to help customers, stuff like how-to videos, tutorials, tips, testimonials and product demos.
By producing this helpful content, you’re showing customers that their experience matters and you have the expertise to keep them coming back for future business. This is content that you set and forget.
A good example is Gillette's how to shave videos. There’s always going to be new shavers seeking out that information, so the videos won’t date.
Unlike hero and hub content, help content should avoid branded self-promotion in favour of informing potential prospects and existing customers. Help content is about finding opportunities to share knowledge that others aren’t currently sharing, then optimising the videos for SEO. The bigger your follower base, the easier this becomes.
This takes a deep understanding of your audience, what they’re interested in and the kind of help they’d appreciate. You should produce as much of this content as you need to cover all the main keywords in your industry. You can find these using free keyword search engine tools like Ubersuggest.
Great Health content covers the following:
Focus on high-traffic search phrases
Put one main keyword (two at the most) in the video title
Make content actionable; reveal tactics that solve specific issues people are having
Encourage comments and discussion under the video and interact with them by replying and answering questions
A/B test all aspects of Help videos (titles, thumbnails, content, design, layout) to develop the formula that works best for you
Making it work in practice
Look at your existing video content and identify which of the three categories each piece falls under.
If it’s on a YouTube channel, organize it into playlists to make specific videos easier to find, remember to think about the SEO value of these titles.
If it lives on your website, make sure content is in the right spot for the user journey you’ve created. Then consider if there’s any way you can better use that existing content.
Find an older piece of content that’s still relevant and link or embed the new video, or share it in a newsletter or social media post. It’s a good excuse to dig out all types of content and put it in front of your audience again.
Once you’ve done your audit, figure out where you’re lacking and start planning new videos. Not everything has to be high production Hero content—nor should it.
Typically, Hero content comes with the highest production costs, but not always. Your strategic goals might call for a high-budget Help video, and you can find lower-budget ways to satisfy other needs.
If you’re specifically trying to grow a YouTube channel, know that part of their search algorithm is looking at the frequency and regularity that you’re posting. If you’re getting a good number of views on individual videos but only post once, you might be missing out on search rankings because you’re not posting enough.
Effective video marketing: Hero, Hub, Help
Companies must recognise that to be effective content creators they must know when to think like an advertiser and when to think like a YouTuber. To quote from Google’s own literature; “for every brand or advertiser doing something on YouTube, there's a YouTuber doing it bigger and better.”
This means creating content that doesn’t just draw attention to your brand but can attract loyal followers by offering genuine value and insight, without pushing a marketing message down anyone’s throat.
Covering all bases isn’t easy, but the HHH model is a powerful framework that will put you on the right track.