Create a following

When you post your videos on YouTube, in an ideal world you want subscribers who will then get flagged when you post more content.  In today’s world where attention span is short this can be a real challenge.

For a view of your content to count the viewer has to watch the video right to the end and so many people click onto videos, but then get distracted or lose interest and don’t make it to the end.

Likes help – but information is coming at people so fast and in such quantities that it’s all too easy to forget to click the like button.

Comments build validity, but to get people to actually stop and write a comment means that the video has to have a powerful punch that generates a need to engage from the viewer.

How can you get the traction you really want with your videos?

There are several elements and you need to get familiar with them.

1: Plan your video

You know that saying ‘Fail to plan; plan to fail’?  It’s not just a saying, it’s true!  

My advice is to create a plan that includes:

• The style of your videos e.g. talking head, film of activities, how to, etc.
• An optimum length to aim for or parameters to work within – if you’re producing talk head videos short and sweet are best 1-2 minutes only.  For other types of video the content will dictate length in most situations.
• A list of subjects to cover and the core message for each – invest time in researching the hot topics and what people search for online
• How the video will be created and who will do it.

This doesn’t mean you can’t simply capture yourself talking to camera on your smartphone, but it needs focus, purpose and be of importance to your target audience.

2: Practise

Learn the skills you need to produce a reasonably fluent delivery.  This is especially true if you are talking to the camera. 

Rough and ready video has a place, but when you’re using it to represent your business it’s wise to err on the side of professionalism.

Learn how to top and tail your video, clipping and adding the frontscreen and endscreen to introduce and leave the viewer with a strong message (and contact info).

3: Optimise

Ensure that your MP4 file has all the right keyword tags before you upload it and that these are replicated in the description and keywords you add during the uploading process.  Ideally, your keywords/phrases should also be in the title of the video to double down on the impact in searches.

Hot tips

Invest time in creating strong messages that will engage your ideal audience.  You don’t have to be everything to everyone – it’s far better to have a small dedicated audience that are fully engaged than hundreds of likes from random people who are unlikely to ever become customers.

Research keywords to target your videos on what people are actually searching for.

Aim for passion rather than perfection.  Yes, it’s important to do the best you can, but it’s your message that will make the difference.

Actively encourage people to subscribe to your channel by flagging up the kind of content your channel will feature.

Use social media, your newsletter and your networking activities to let people know your video is there to watch.

Let me tell you a story …

I belong to a choir and every member of the choir is really dedicated to not only the choir as a whole, but to supporting each other in the same way as a family would.  If anyone needs anything they only have to ask and someone will jump in and offer help.  

Members have given away tickets to gigs, furniture, baby equipment and loaned wheelchairs, kitchen appliances and offered lifts, time and love in the three and a bit years since the choir was formed.

There are more than 80 people in our choir and we’re just one of 16 choirs run by our choir leader, Andy. who is also owner of the choir brand.  Why is our community so strong, especially when we hear from members who have migrated to us from other choirs that this is not the norm?  It’s down to the choir values.

When Andy set up the first four choirs in January 2020, his aim was to raise £1 million for charity.  Not just one charity, but to help many charities.  As COVID hit in March 2020, he was in the unenviable position of having a new business, a wife, two little boys and another on the way – and his income had just been put on a knife edge.

As a professional musician, other gigs were no longer available.  Instead of crumbling he immediately moved over to delivering our weekly 90 minute choir sessions virtually.  Obviously, there were limitations as he couldn’t hear us and we couldn’t hear each other, but he continued to teach us and, instead of stopping for Easter he kept the weekly sessions going for months.  In fact, even when his third son made an appearance in May 2020 he only paused for two weeks – and even arranged for a temporary choir leader to take over.

Andy knew that many of us were isolated and struggling with lockdown and felt that the weekly choir practice, held using Facebook live stream, was a lifeline.  It was an opportunity for the community to continue and we used the chat to communicate with each other during choir practice.

How effective was teaching people who couldn’t hear each other – Andy was innovative and asked us to sing our parts into our mobile phones for one of the songs we learned and upload them to him via WhatsApp.  Judge for yourself how good a teacher he is.  This was our first virtual gig and raised over £30,000 for the NHS Appeal.

It went viral – and international – appearing on BBC1, local radio and also on Spanish and US broadcast media.

Since then we’ve done virtual gigs for the Poppy Appeal, Comic Relief (three years in a row), and live gigs supporting The Samaritans, Alzheimers, Brain Tumour charity and many other local charities.  Currently the total raised for charity has just tipped over that first £100,000.

We’ve sung in fields, our local cathedral and the high street in local towns where each choir is based.  We’ve made a single and most recently 600 of us gathered in a theatre and learned a song in an evening to raise funds for the Brain Tumour Charity.

What has this to do with business?

It’s all about values.  Andy had a vision and his values of helping others runs through everything his business does, whether it’s supporting charities, supporting members or supporting local communities.  Those values permeate the choir – and the other choir leaders who have joined, with currently 16 choirs running weekly.

Does Andy earn a living from it?  Yes, of course, what kind of businessman would he be if he didn’t.  However, the enormous success of the choir is due to what he delivers and the values that underpin it.  His customers (the choir members) get massive value from being a part of it and its reputation is 5 star.

It’s inspiring – and gives every member a huge dose of dopamine (the happy hormone) at every choir practice.  What could your business take from this?

If you’d like to support us you can donate here.  And if you’d like to join our singing community you can join Buskerteers Choir here.

Do you have a reputation gap?

You may have seen on social media that, along with my co-author Peter Roper, I published a new book The Reputation Gap in mid-May.  The question I keep being asked is ‘What is a reputation gap?’

It’s the difference between 4 stars and 5 stars.

It’s about customer relationships.

It’s what makes your customer remember you and want more of what you offer.

It’s when customers don’t just like you – they become advocates.

It’s not so much about bridging the gap, it’s more about growing to fill the gap.

So what adds that extra polish to your reputation?

Authenticity: Your business has clear values that everyone who represents it shares.  It doesn’t matter how big your business grows, it represents the founder’s values and that needs to be front and centre.

Congruency: Everything you do is in line with your values.  As soon as you compromise those, customers get an uncomfortable feeling and that’s the point at which they jump ship.

Attention to detail: From the colours of your logo to the way you (and your team) answer the phone, there is a plan with a clear process and systems in place to make consistent delivery simple, reliable and consistent.  

Communication: Great reputations are almost always based on excellent communication.  The customer knows what to expect, how it will be delivered (whether it’s a product or a service), how to get help if they need it and your systems include follow up to ensure the customer is happy.  I don’t mean an email asking for a 5 star rating, but a phone call or face-to-face meeting where you can have a conversation and hear any hesitation or doubt in their voice. 

And that’s where the gap is – between a transaction and a relationship.

More profitable business

If you close the gap and make business personal, you’ll find you get better customers who stay longer, spend more and talk about you to others a lot.

Even larger organisations can create this kind of personal relationship with their customers with the right customer service teams in place.  It’s even more important when you’re a small business or independent consultant.

As it’s been said many times “It’s easier to keep an existing customer than to recruit a new one,” so nurturing your customers is important.

What one thing could you do that would add that extra star to your reputation?