Trying to build a personal brand using videos for marketing on YouTube or LinkedIn can sometimes feel overwhelming.
If you are worried about what to talk about on your videos or think you don't have enough to talk about, then here is a guide that can help you never run out of content ideas for your video marketing strategy.
1.Ask your clients. If you already have at least a small email list or group of clients, it might be a good idea to take the pulse of what their concerns are to draw inspiration for topics of discussion on videos. Even if your group of clients is small, you can come up with at least a few ideas just for asking them.
2.Use the google keyword planner. Alternatively, use ubersuggest. You can type topics around your niche on these tools. They will tell you how many people globally search for those topics. They will also give you a list of similar keywords and subjects that can potentially be a source of ideas for more videos that can be used for your video marketing strategy.
3.Read conversations on social media groups. You can join groups on Facebook, Reddit, and Linkedin. The questions that people ask are potential video topics that you can create. An important; aspect of this process is to listen or in order words. We get so involved in our own narratives that we forget that it's not about us but our clients.
4.Draw inspirations from books you read around your niche. There are thousands of books around your niche from thousands of authors with different points of view that you can discuss in your videos.
In the book "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon, Kleon makes the case to copy orders. Nobody is born with a stylish voice. We don't come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by copying.
Austin goes on to propose that we practice the craft just like an artist would. Not by plagiarism, which is trying to copy someone else's work and pass it as our own, but in a sense, what we really want to try to do is a reverse engineer and try to figure out what works over the long run until we find our own style.
One of my favorite directors is Quentin Tarantino who is always heavily influenced by other directors where you can tell, it really shows up on his movies, which works more as a homage to the original directors.
5.Tying directly into this concept is to teach what you learn as fast as possible. If you have a habit of reading and learning. Teach it indiscreetly. If you go to a conference. Talk about it. Listened to a good podcast, talk about it. Read an article. Talk about it. We consume content daily. If you find yourself devouring more content around your niche guess what, all that content that you consume is material for creating your own video content.
If you are asking yourself, but this has all be done before. You are right. The stoics already figured things out long before us, but people resonate with people they identify with. They want to hear your voice, your unique point of view. You can't start creating original content until you start mastering what was done in the past.
6.Seek moments of stillness. Taking moments away from distractions. Rowling locked herself in a hotel to write Harry Potter Books. Ryan Holiday, author of the book "Stillness is the Key," talks in detail on how Great figures from History left their best work by having moments of stillness. With stillness comes clarity and inspiration.
7.Be mindful of trending topics online. Go to the YouTube main page and see what is trending and ask yourself if there is a way to tie in your points of view and business with the topics at hand if it apply s to you.
8.Create content around the seasons of the year like Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's day, Summer, New Year, Tax season, etc. Make sure you make the videos at least 1 to 2 weeks before the actual Holiday.
An important; aspect besides generating ideas is to just do it. Start creating content. Leave perfectionism behind and start posting video content even if from your point of view is not to your ideal standards. Remember the mantra, "Done is better than perfect."
We hold ourselves back to much by comparing ourselves to the highlight reel of other YouTube creators who have already built their personal brands, Businesses, etc. One thing that helps if to search for the very first videos of your favorite influencers, you will find that their first videos rarely have high standards of production value.
If you watch the earlier videos of Gary Vaynerchuck, you will see that they were made mostly with a very cheap camera. His videos hardly had any views even to this day that he is more famous in the thought influencer world. So go on and have fun enjoying the process., Aka the journey.
