June 13, 2016
How many times have you looked up a tutorial video on YouTube? Meanwhile, I’m sure there are books out there that basically contain the same information you’re looking for.
There’s a reason why modern schools use video as a learning media instead of books. It’s because we process information from a video 60,000x faster than whatever we get from text.
But have you, as a marketer, thought of using an educational video series as a way to generate leads?
The main reason why it’s worth investing so much time and money producing an educational video series is because it sets you apart as an expert in your field.
This kind of video is about improving people’s lives in a way that you can also benefit from it.
The benefit we’re talking about is how you educate people that your product can help ease the problems they’re having.
And you’ll be surprised by how much people actually like to learn, as long as it’s in their field of interest. When you create a series of videos that’s attached to your niche, your audience will see you as an expert. They’ll even crave more once you grab their attention.
It’s easier to say than to do, I know. But as an animated explainer video company, we’re more than happy to guide you through the process of creating a series of animated educational video.
Like this:
Let’s learn more about the step by step.
1. Find an expandable topic
Ideas are something that you can’t invite into or kick out of your brain easily. It takes inspiration to spark a bright idea, and inspirations like to come when least expected.
You can go easy on yourself by using whatever idea that you think would interest your audience, but you’re counting very much on luck if you do.
Or, you can do a bit of research here and there to generate an idea that has a greater chance of attracting a large number of viewers.
The first thing you can do is plan your videos based on keyword. Use Google’s Keyword Planner to see the size of the monthly search volume of a keyword (preferably in your niche), and consider the level of competition.
Note: Pick an expandable topic. This means you should pick a broad initial topic that can be narrowed down to different sub-topics.
You’re making a series, not a single video. You want to make sure there are enough subjects to talk about. That’s why I put an example of short-tail keyword, because they’re very broad and they have hundreds of sub-topics.
When you’ve done your keyword research, don’t stop there. Explore popular forums (think Quora, Reddit, etc) and scavenge those sites for what questions people want answered most in your niche.
The crux of being candy for your audience’s eyes and minds is highlighting what struggles most of them have, and promoting a solution that can solve them.
2. Develop unique traits for your videos along the way
In order to get the most out of your educational video series, you should make your video represent you as much as possible.
Your brand logo doesn’t have to be at the intro of the videos, and you don’t have to have a call to action to visit your website every time a video ends. You just need a couple of specific frames that make viewers think of you immediately.
It can be an iconic greeting, like world’s 1st YouTuber PewDiePie with his “How’s it going, bros? My name is PewDiePie” opening line in almost every single video he has on his channel.
Or the iconic closing line, “As always, thanks for watching” in vsauce3 videos.
3. Start producing your first video using a doable process
Your topics have been chosen, you’ve done your research and a whole bunch of information is at your hand. It’s time to jump on the production bandwagon.
Now to the part that makes you think, and sometimes keeps you awake at night (true story): script writing.
a. Script
The script is very important no matter what tone you want to use in your video. Even if you want to make a fairly casual vlog, you need a good script to start with or else you’ll encounter problems during production, like stuttering or repeating a point over and over again.
Sure, you can edit it out. But why bother when you can write a good script that kills it in the first shot?
We helped BusSongs.com produce a series of animated video for kids’ songs. They were all well-scripted beforehand. The results? Well, we say it’s very well done:
b. Style
It’s important that you stick with the same production house for the production of your videos in the same series.
It’s not a matter of loyalty. It’s because every production studio has a different style of arranging scenes in a video, just like how every artist has his or her own style. If you’re a YouTube junkie, you’ve probably heard of Kursgesagt – In a Nutshell.
They make awesome educational videos that have taught me a lot of stuff. Kudos. But what makes them different from other animated videos are their style and characters.
Take a look at one of their videos:
Now can you think of any cartoon video that has a similar style? I didn’t think so.
Every studio has a different style. So, if you’re planning to make an animated video series like Kurzgesagt’s, you must choose the best animation style for your videos.
This is why you should stick with the same production house, at least until your video series is finished. Also, make sure that you’re comfortable with the production process. Once you feel the process is doable, it’ll be easier for you to plan your future video(s) in the series.
You want recognition from your videos, and one of the ways to earn it is by doing something good or doing something constantly.
4. Invite your audience to jump on the hype train
Promotion: it’s the final decisive part of creating a successful video series. It’s not merely about posting a link to your video on social media. Don’t get me wrong, social media helps draw an audience, but not that much when it comes to educational videos.
If you’re going to share the video to Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc., be sure to read our social media video sharing tricks that you can do in a blink.
Generating thousands of views isn’t something that happens overnight unless you are already a YouTube star with thousands of subscribers. So bear in mind that you won’t get an easy 1,000 views for your first video series
I suggest you have a specific page on your website as a video showcase. Therefore, it’ll be more accessible and organized, which means pleasure for your visitors. Also, I recommend writing a description along with a transcription of the video, like what Moz does with their Whiteboard Friday series:
Among the reasons why you should include transcription is on-page SEO. The text elements will help search engine crawlers decipher what that page is about in addition to SEO-ing the video title and description itself.
P.S: if you’re uploading your series to YouTube, make sure they have their own playlist for the sake of binge-watching and a sick thumbnail to draw attention.
Don’t forget to utilize your e-mail database to make sure everyone in your contact list is aware that you’re doing a video series.
Once you’ve sent an email to your mailing list, it’s time to seek an additional pair of hands to boost the reach of your video marketing. This popularly known as outreach.
Reach out to people with large audiences and strong influence in your industry. This is not an easy task. Some people are very hard to get (or they just play hard to get), and some of them are very selective in deciding which companies he or she will root for.
Takeaways:
Hey there, skimmers and scroll-through readers. Here are the highlights of the paragraphs you just skipped:
- Choose a topic that has a bunch of other sub-topics to talk about in your videos. Build a good, less-boring topic out of data from your research.
- Add or make something that refers viewers to you whenever they see or hear it.
- Invite your audience and amplify your reach by promoting your videos to influencers.
Have you tried doing a video series before? If you have, how did it turn out?
Or are you still planning for a video series?
Either way, leave a quick comment.
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