Now let's get into some strategy!

HERE ARE MY TOP TIPS FOR GETTING STARTED...

1. Choose your format.
   There are two types of formats for long-form content. You can choose pre-recorded content, think YouTube, or live content. You can absolutely go back and forth between the two, but start focusing on one and get consistent there.
   
   Some things to keep in mind: Live video will require less work upfront. There is no editing involved; you simply need to promote that you’ll be live. Typically, live video will work better to start if you have an existing audience (no matter the size). The work with live video comes after the fact, when you’ll want to continue promoting it or repurposing it to other platforms. I used live video for about 5 years as my core content in business and turned it into blog posts (transcribed), email campaigns, and podcast episodes (still do this today)!
   
   Pre-recorded videos will take more time to set up. Due to the fact that you’ll be filming your content, editing your content, and sharing it on SEO (search engine optimized) platforms, you’ll need to put in the time BEFORE posting. However, with this content, typically shared on YouTube, you’ll reap the benefits of this work for months and years to come.
   
   

2. Plan out 90 days, yes, 3 months, of content.
   That’s just 12 pieces of content (1 video a week to start). This content plan should be focused on three core elements:
   
   1. Your upcoming promoted product or service
   2. Your Ideal Customer's Psychographics
   3. SEO research for your industry and platform (note SEO varies based on the platform you’re using).
   
   Inside the Authentic Brand Builders Academy, we teach Content Made Simple and make this easy peasy, and something you can rinse and repeat every 90 days.
   

3. Create a workflow that you can repeat weekly.
   This is the key to spending less than a few hours a week on content creation. With a simple workflow, you can begin to refine the system and optimize your time in the best way. Here’s a sample of mine:
   
   Here’s a sample of my YouTube workflow:
   1. Add my video ideas to ClickUp as ideas. ClickUp is a task-management tool, and I add these ideas under my ideas column until they have a finalized date.
   
   2. Every 90 days, I finalize that schedule in ClickUp. Productivity is so fun to optimize. Inside the Authentic Brand Builders Academy, I teach you my exact system for using this tool for your marketing.
   
   3. Put a few days on my calendar for recording a month’s worth of content. I prefer to bulk-record my video content so I can get it to my husband for editing. This also allows me to micro-focus on one task of creating a month’s worth of content. I’ve even done 90 days of video content in one week - CRAZY!
   *NOTE: For live video, there is no pre-recording involved
   
   4. Complete any missing SEO research pieces and organize the recording notes, title, and description in ClickUp.
   
   5. Record content. There are a million ways to do this, depending on your brand and ideal customer. I prefer training-like videos, so I set up a camera in one spot, with a microphone, and record my content. Inside Brandmerry Academy, I teach you more about the type of equipment I use and the process I follow while recording.
   
   6. Get content for the editor. My husband edits my content as the Multimedia Manager, but you can choose to outsource or edit your own. Just keep in mind the time you’re putting into this process so you can measure your ROI later.
   
   7. Upload content. All the heavy lifting is done. You’ve already determined your title, description, etc, so now it’s more of a game of copy and paste. Inside Brandmerry Academy, we break down the entire process for scheduling your content on YouTube, finding tags, SEO research, thumbnails, and more.
   
   8. Share your new video with your growing email list and social media if you choose.
   
   NOTE: For live video, you’ll most likely be using social media as a means to distribute your original video, but don’t stop there. It’s so easy to take this content and add it to your website as a blog or repurpose it into a podcast. This helps your content perform better as evergreen content!
   
   

4. BONUS POINTS: Create short-form video content. We have this idea that those shorter videos we see online are only for social media, but I challenge you to look at platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Pinterest Idea Pins as SEO platforms.
   
   With SEO platforms, your content is searchable and categorized by keywords and search terms. This means it’s not about the right posting time, or necessarily the right trend, but about the right keywords.
   
   Once you’ve got a rhythm in place to distribute your core content (long-form video), I suggest you experiment with turning that content into short-form videos or repurposing it in another aligned way.
   
   Inside the Authentic Brand Builders Academy, we teach you the step-by-step process for getting your video marketing strategy up and running. Our trainings on Podcasting, Blogging, SEO, and Short-Form Video Content would be perfect for you.