Content Marketing: Four Errors To Avoid

Feel like you’ve created an airtight live video content strategy? Think again …

For any business that owns, produces or utilizes live video as part of a wider content marketing offering, it’s vital to have a strategy for that very important cog in the big machine.

This format is different from many of the others that populate a content marketing plan. While blogs, research, and social media activity are all essential inclusions, nothing offers quite the same reflection of reality as a piece of video.

It’s a specialist channel that requires a unique way of thinking to determine the best way of generating an audience and being able to drive a specific goal once you’ve got their attention.

Given our experience within the field of video, we’ve seen countless slip-ups that could have been prevented with a degree of foresight. Human error is part and parcel of any creative role, but as many of the mistakes tend to revolve around the same themes, we would strongly recommend any content marketing professionals to research where things usually go wrong.

With a focus on utilizing footage from live events – a tough area to master – here are four mishaps that could seriously derail your video content marketing plan if you’re not careful.

1. Focusing on one channel

Restricting your focus to just one method of distributing your live video content is an easy way to reduce the number of people that will consume it. It’s a decision that’s made even more puzzling when you think about the breadth of free online channels that can enhance your potential audience.

Let’s use the example of a broadcaster that holds the rights to a number of live events. The action will often begin with the traditional TV airing before things start to expand. They could go on to clip highlights of these same events for publishing across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, all of which attract millions of users every day.

Some of the leading broadcasters have even taken to creating their own content hubs to facilitate instant and remote access to the best bits from their schedules. Nowadays, experiencing the magic of a live event doesn’t rest on the viewer having access to a TV; they can tune in via a laptop or mobile device whenever, and wherever, they like.

Don’t worry if you haven’t got the means of publishing your content on multiple online channels just yet. The market is now filled with intelligent solutions that integrate directly with an original source of content – like a live broadcast – and allow for the instant uploading of footage.

Facebook reports that eight billion clips are watched on its platform each day. Video is one of the most engaging formats on Twitter among its 800 million monthly visitors. According to Snapchat, its users watch 10 billion videos a day. With that, online platforms make a compelling case for being the future of video content hosting.

2. Not using existing assets

When we’re considering which pieces of video content are suited to online platforms, there is the temptation to think about something that’s disparate or separated from the experience we gain from a TV. Admittedly, online viewing is different – it takes place in an environment that is full of distractions and studies have shown that shorter clips generally gain a better audience.

The truth is, most video content professionals are already sitting on a goldmine of footage that can be used to drive their strategy forward. All it takes is for them to repurpose some of their previous broadcasts; changing the length or hosting platform for a completely different angle.

Revert back to our example of broadcasters that were tied to publishing their live events on a single screen. It’s now possible to use small pieces of key footage from these productions on a different platform, made available in quasi-real-time or in the days after the initial airing.

3. Failing to consider monetization

You can have links to all the popular online channels and a consistent flow of content to fill them up. Your business could be generating a monthly audience in the millions, all from the footage you’re posting online. However, without considering a way of monetizing your content strategy, you could be missing out on a new and highly lucrative stream of revenue.

Monetization is sometimes viewed as a bit of an afterthought in the content production cycle – the idea being that if something is popular, it will generate awareness for the original publisher. While this is true to some extent, there are business models that simply cannot afford to gain returns purely in “awareness”.

For example, if a company has purchased the rights to broadcast a high-profile event (perhaps a sport or an entertainment award ceremony), they will think twice before sharing footage from that spectacle, for free, with the online world.

There are different ways of integrating monetization within a video content strategy, two of the most common being:

• The purpose-built channel: The technology is there for any content owner to create their own video hub and restrict its access to certain people. For instance, if someone is already subscribing to a sports channel, they should have log-in details that enable them to catch up on all the action online. It’s an easy way of reaching out to a new audience but with the security protocols of cable TV.
• Video ads: Many video content marketing platforms enable their users to place ads in the form of graphics before, during and after their content. It’s a surefire way of satisfying sponsors or generating ad revenue from a fresh source.

Consider monetization in the early stages of your video content marketing plan and you’ll ensure a more natural way of fitting it in.

4. Building a field of dreams

In the 1989 fantasy-sports film ‘Field of Dreams’, Iowa corn farmer John Kinsella is urged to construct a baseball stadium following advice from a mysterious voice, uttering “if you build it, he will come”. That same phrase has served as inspiration to entrepreneurs the world over, as well as being a sign of caution to others.

It’s easy to see your content marketing plan as a field of dreams; if you build it, the audience will be there waiting for you. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

The competition for eyeballs is at an all-time high, with each business uploading 18 new videos to their platforms every month. Any newcomers should understand the environment they’re entering and apply measures that will allow them to cut through the noise.

If you’re looking to pass more of your content through social networks, don’t forget to put time into building your followers on these platforms. Sponsoring key posts and using an appropriate set of hashtags, will increase your exposure and allow people to find your videos.

If you want to create a new content hub for summarizing the action from live events, try advertising it on your existing platforms and giving it a prominent place on your website. For an app-based equivalent, make sure that any subscribers are rating your title to push it up the charts. We’re talking about small yet significant measures which help things get off to a good start.

Want to get it right first time?

To prevent your video strategy from constant revisions, be sure to find a technology that offers a roadmap toward a successful result.

Get on board with a solution that can walk you through posting on multiple platforms, applying overlays for monetization purposes and giving your live broadcasts an even bigger audience. For any content owner that feels like they’re failing to capitalize on the latest trends, Wildmoka has the technology to power digital transformation on the biggest scale.