Why is content creation important?
Let's talk about why content creation is so pivotal to all of your marketing efforts. Every business needs to capture content for their flyer's, their website, advertisements, newsletters, social media, the list goes on. On top of this, the content you publish to the world conveys the branding and "image" of your business, and the quality and style of your content could attract customers, or possibly turn them off.
Every single piece of content published will give the viewer a certain idea of what to expect from your club. Maybe you're trying to convey trust, or fun, or a friendly environment for your kid to play in. If you're trying to convey your club is where they will become an exceptional athlete, your club's content must reflect that.
Every time you put content out for viewers to see it will spark a certain reaction and idea of what your club stands for.
How do you acquire the content?
So now you understand the significance behind the type of content you create, and the influence it has on your potential customers, but what's the best method of acquiring the content? Let's first talk about the different types of content there are. Here are the 4 main types of content you'll need to get:
1. Video
2. Photo
3. Audio
4. Written Text
Video Content is KING!
Video be your best form of content! Video dominates the consumers attention over all other methods of content listed. Using video on your websites can increase your conversions by more than 80%. This isn't surprising since 75% of people prefer video over text when being first informed about a product or service. Not to mention 400 million hours of video are watched on social media platforms every single day. It's obvious people are giving their attention to video-content.
Using video for your advertisements, newsletters, social media, and website will get you better and more immediate results. Make sure to accommodate to mobile viewers, a larger majority of your viewers will be watching your content from a mobile device, mainly from their iPhone.
A few important factors come into play when planning to capture video content. You need to be cognizant of the video quality, and audio quality, you're going to have to become resourceful, unless you plan on dishing out a small investment in some camera equipment (Which I would suggest to any business!). However your best resource is the one in your pocket (your cell phone).
If you have an up-to-date iPhone or Android you are already in good hands. Your iPhone has photo & video capabilities of some digital cameras. The latest iphones can shoot in 4K, which means the video quality is very high, this will make it easier to capture great media for your club.
Not only is your phone going to be a perfect gadget in your content-creating tool box, every single person has one. This means you can give anyone the task of capturing certain content and they will have the necessary means to do so.
When capturing content on your phone, make sure you know what platform you are capturing the content for. Depending on what method your viewers will be watching it on will determine how to hold your phone. If you are recording a video for Youtube, Facebook, or Instagram, make sure to hold your phone in landscape mode, meaning the camera turned on it's side for a wider angle.
If you're filming for a story-post on Facebook or Instagram, you should use the portrait mode on your phone, which is right-side up. Different platforms (Email, Youtube, Facebook, Insta, Pinterest) require different dimension sizes for their images and videos.
Click below to Listen on Spotify!
Capturing Audio
Do not forget about Audio! Make sure the audio quality is up to par, if no one can hear what you're saying, then people will stop watching. Your audio must be clear, loud enough, with little to none background noise. I would recommend investing in a shotgun microphone, shotgun microphones have an extended range and narrow direction, they can sound wonderful from many feet away and far out of the shot.
You now understand how important video content will be for your club, however this doesn't mean there isn't a time and place for still images. Images are still very powerful when conveying your company's branding and persona. In order to take great photos, make sure you've got your basis covered, good lighting, focusing your camera, and vibrant colors. As long as you don't have a dull lit, unfocused, bland picture you'll be just fine.
You might be wondering why I included audio & text in the categories of content? Almost every type of content you produce will include some version of written text in it, like the caption & descriptions in your social media posts, the written text in your email campaigns, and most importantly, the titles of your videos.
Writing & Text (Ad Copy/Copy Writing)
In the marketing space, we call this "Ad Copy" or "Copy Writing". Ad copy is the connection between the visual-aid, and the audio-aid of your content. It helps explain more in depth and tie everything together. When humans consume content they are looking for as much information absorb. It is very important to convey as much value and information in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Avoid grammar mistakes, typos, and vocabulary errors.
There are many ways to write your text, first, second, and third person are ways of describing points of view. First person is the I/we perspective. Second person is the "you" perspective and third person is the he/she/it/they perspective.
Here are suggestions on what ad copy you should be focusing on:
• Gym’s tagline
• Gym’s motto or slogan
• Descriptions of programs and services
• Descriptions of special offers
• Subject lines for emails or social media posts
• Inspiring quotes or messages that pertains to gymnastics
• Content to assist with the message you are trying to get across
Documenting VS. Curating
So you might be thinking "How am I going to arrange someone to get this content, or even get the content myself?" which brings me to a concept every content creator must know; documenting the content outweighscurating the content. Most of the time great material already exists and is already happening inside your business that you can document, and use for different forms of content. It's better to simply capture the content that's already going on then to arrange a specific situation or moment to capture.
Try documenting the every-day occurrences inside your club, like a great recreational class, or a competitive gymnast doing a dismount. These things take no planning and will happen every day, you can simply show up, document it, and post it on all social media platforms. Only seek to create curated content for things you absolutely cannot document to save yourself time and energy.
Here is a list of content you should be seeking to document at your club:
• Quality wide photos of your gym
• Quality photos and videos of happy recreational gymnasts
• Quality photos and videos of serious competitive gymnasts
• Quality photos and videos of hardworking staff
• Quality photos and videos of happy staff
• Quality photos and videos of staff observing client satisfaction
• Quality photos and videos of all programs and services
Multi-Media & Design
Now that you have this raw content of photos, videos, and ad copy, you must spruce up the content by adding text, colors, graphics, etc. You do this by utilizing a graphic designer that can enhance the content by color correcting images, editing the videos, and adding your logo where needed.
The Multimedia & Design phase of your marketing should assure that whatever is being posted is up to date with today's graphic design standards of quality.
Here is a list of items that can and should be done in this phase…
· Enhanced images
· Edit Videos (with watermarks and text graphics)
· Altered video resolution sizes for various social media platforms
· Infographics for various uses
· Flyers for print
· Graphics for social media
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