I am a big fan of testing and learning. I started my career in a credit card company in corporate comms and marketing, and they ‘invented’ the balance transfer (yeah, it was that long ago!). One of the many things I learned from the amazing people I worked with there and taken forward into my career from that is the ‘test and learn’ philosophy. This approach is probably why I love working with growing businesses and startups so much.
A blended channel mix and trying new things should be part of every great comms plan. So I will give you three content types to try on 2022 if you haven’t tried them already.
Let’s dive in!
Links mentioned in this episode:
Invideo.com ; https://invideo.io/blog/video-marketing-statistics/
YouTube stats Think With Google https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-ca/advertising-channels/video/self-directed-learning-youtube/
Video stats HubSpot: https://research.hubspot.com/content-trends-global-preferences
Content Marketing Institute content to try in 2022: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2021/11/fresh-content-types-marketer-consider/
What to do next:
Get my FREE 5 Lessons on how to use Audio as part of your B2B strategy https://bit.ly/B2BAudioLessons
OR grab my FREE 7 steps to success roadmap for strategic communication
Follow/DM me on LinkedIn : https://bit.ly/FollowMeLinkedIn
PS – Did you know? Communication Strategy That Works is in the top 90 UK Small Business Podcasts you must listen to in 2021, by Feedspot.
Full transcript (unedited)
I am a big fan of testing and learning. I started my career in a credit card company in corporate comms and marketing and they ‘invented’ the balance transfer (yeah it was that long ago!) but one of the many things I learned for the amazing people I worked with there and taken forward into my career from that is the ‘test and learn’ philosophy. This is probably why I love working with growing businesses and start ups so much.
Having a blended channel mix and trying new things should be part of every great comms plan. So I am going to give you 3 content types to try on 2022 if you haven’t tried them already.
Let’s dive in
The first one is video
Now I am the first to say that this can not be a natural space for many and is hard o get right, But the stats speak for themselves.
A few stats for you here:
In 2020, 96% of consumers increased their online video consumption, and 9 out of 10 viewers said that they wanted to see more videos from brands and businesses. In fact, as of 2022, an average person is predicted to spend 100 minutes per day watching online videos. Thats from the people over at invideo.com https://invideo.io/blog/video-marketing-statistics/
So what does that mean for B2B content? It means that we all need to at least try to use video as part of our content mix and test to see how it works for us.
70% of YouTube viewers watch videos for “help with a problem” they’re having in their hobby, studies, or job. (Think With Google)
Globally, YouTube is consumers’ leading source of video content, at 83% (Facebook is second, at 67%). (HubSpot)
I am not saying we all start a YouTube channels but given that in B2B the main drive for content is solving someone’s problems or giving them solutions to a problem they have – the ‘bleeding neck issue’ coupled with how YourTube routes on google and the search ability of video (there is a tab on google for example just to search videos) and the ease video brings to showing us a solution its no wonder this is something to at least try.
The bonus is for every video you create, you can transcribe it for social media content, so you are creating good and usable content regardless if it ever sees the light of day. It’s a no brainer right?
Simply try turning a selection of your written posts of linkedin into videos using yur phone and a transcriptions service like xxxxx
Or if you want to throw more at this, you allocate some time, around an hour a week, and you draw up a short series to promote a product of service and you record on your phone and edit on YouTube, nothing fancy. Create a channel on YouTube easy to do. Transcribe it, write 4-6 social posts to promote it and see how it goes. Do this more than once and try it for 6 months if you can.
Test and learn.
The second one is Carousel images
These are a great way to tell a story visually over 2-6 images. I have used these when I have maybe 6 steps to a process and i Create a graphic for each one.
According to the Content Marketing institute; On Instagram, they earn higher average engagement rates (1.92%) than single photos (1.74%) and videos (1.45%). Creators who used all 10 carousel slides available experienced average engagement rates as high as 2%.
A couple of quick and simple ideas – If you are using these on linkedin create PDF and upload it. As I said this is great for telling the steps of how you did something.
On Facebook you can either have these as an individual post or as a cover image and they look very engaging too as a content format on a news feed or story.
On Facebook in particular and Instagram they are a great way to feature different product types in one ad. Where you can ai a number of product types within one ad like a series.
My hack is that you can easily repurpose your existing infographics into carousel formats taking that long infographic format and making it into 2-6 horizontal images. It’s also a good precursor to starting to use video – see what works visually for people.
The third one is audio!
Yes I know I bang on about audio but it is by far the most accessible form of content because of how adaptable it is for repurposing as well. It may not have the reach or interest yet for B2B comms people but it is a growing medium and is here to stay.
So I am not suggesting you start a podcast show or get a mate and start a chat show style podcast. You can start to record your thoughts into your phone and see what they sound like? Or try taking a talk that you did and packaging it up as audio content and releasing it in 2022 with a new twist on the content. Or maybe a blog post you have created and repurposing it into audio content?
Once you have your audio files you can transcribe them to blogs and social media content so they are a good use of your time too. Create once and repurpose should be your mantra for 2022!
There are many ways to use audio and it’s easier to get started than you think. Check the show notes today for alink to my free ebook; 5 lessons from a podcast host, produce and editor of audio content.
I hope you have enjoyed this episode 2 /3 of the Festive Hacks series. If social media content is your thing you want to learn more about in 2022 – look out for a new Deep Dive early in 2022 with social media trainer and all round superstar Helen Reynolds from the Comms Creatives.