Hero, Hub, Help – The three H’s of your content marketing strategy

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For a brand that isn’t already using a multi-tiered content strategy, it can be an uneasy gamble to try something new. But we’re going to show you how to stop worrying about creating the next big viral hit in favour of building long-term loyalty from your target group.

Today, content strategy is less about isolated campaigns and more about creating ongoing content so your audience comes to rely on you.

The Hero, Hub, Help strategy was developed by YouTube strategists as part of their brand playbook for video creators. It emerged from analysis on viewership, engagement data and what people search for and watch.

This approach can work way beyond YouTube videos and should be extended to your whole strategy. Hero, Hub, Help puts all of your online and offline content and marketing into three channels – each with its own different style and purpose.

Be the Hero

Hero content makes an emotional or inspirational connection with the audience through storytelling. Often highly creative, these are wide-ranging drivers of awareness in the form of viral videos, Super Bowl commercials and TV campaigns.

Its purpose is to drive further interaction and build ongoing engagement.

Become the Hub

Hub content is the regular content you deliver via targeted email, paid social campaigns and all the other direct channels. It works best if you can deliver ongoing connected content that keeps people coming back to you.

Create messaging focused on different target audiences. Becoming the recognised thought leader is a great way to get your brand well-known.

Be Helpful

Help content is how you support your audience. It can include things like tutorials, how-to guides and product-specific information.

This content goes into the detail and supplies answers to consumers’ questions about your products or services. It can even be more experiential like a customer event or social live stream – it just depends on the audience’s needs.

Why use Hero, Hub, Help content

Linear strategies have had their day. Your audience is now less likely to follow a set journey. They could come across your how-to guides before they see your Hero content.

Before launching your Hero, Hub, Help strategy, do as much research as possible and be clear on what fits where. That includes your target audiences, distribution channels, calls to action, the metrics of success and the desired return on investment.

If you’re interested in making your content strategy multi-tiered and multidirectional, we can help (and hero and hub!). Get in touch to start the conversation.

Give your L&D team the digital edge with video and animation

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Engagement with training and internal communications is tough to measure within large and complex businesses especially when they have workforces that are remote or work non-standard hours.

Using video and animation is a cost-effective strategy. It improves employee satisfaction, reduces employee churn, and communicates important leadership and brand messaging measurably. It creates a dialogue between executives and employees that wouldn’t otherwise communicate directly. Whether it’s a live video keynote address or regular recording announcements on a company intranet video portal, it’s achievable as part of an executive’s daily schedule.

And the beauty of the format is that this connection is more than just the (potentially) dry corporate exchange. Video conveys passion and perspective, especially when delivered live.

Face-to-face communication breeds business success

There’s something about talking face-to-face that keeps business and its employees moving. Where leaders would once communicate their message in emails (due to the size and availability of their workforce), they now can reach out face-to-face through video, no matter how or where their workforce operates.

When employees feel like they are involved in the business, they work for, and that senior managers take the time to connect with them, engagement and productivity improves. Video communicates the essential elements of how we present ourselves to others: body language, authenticity and passion. Learning and development executives grabbing these opportunities have a unique chance to create a personal, meaningful dialogue with their workforce.

Employees can get involved in producing content

As a learning tool, the potential of video is almost limitless. Many businesses collect their learning materials from a variety of sources, using how-to videos, images or links to online content as part of their usual processes. These can be made available both on-site and via mobile devices so everyone can access it.

It also brings vast employee engagement opportunities. Some companies find success in having staff themselves produce this type of content, which has a double benefit for smart people managers. Employees that feel important and connected to a business will give a more significant contribution. And using in-house skills in this way can also be a smart way to manage your budget.

Video use in the corporate sphere will continue to grow

Wherever you sit along the pathway to video-based learning and business communication, there is always more your company can do to contribute to the success of all of its employees.

We have a thorough understanding and a wealth of experience in delivering internal comms. Our experienced and talented team will work with you to develop your learning and development video content to maximise your messages.

Video as a business tool is on the rise. Are you ready to get on board?

An agency that delivers, on time, every time

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A safe pair of hands

When you’re planning your next big event or developing your new app, you want the reassurance that a consistent approach brings. We always work with you to deliver what you need when we promise it, so you know you’re in reliable hands.

The confidence to relax

If you’re thinking of collaborating with an agency to produce an explainer video or conduct an email marketing campaign, you need people you can trust. We believe that your experience with the delivery of your project is crucial. This plays a massive part in the commitment we make to each company or person we work with.

When you’re entrusting your brand and hard-earned money to a creative agency, you need one that is reliable, delivers on time, is easy to work with and always available. We have built these values into our company ethos so we can deliver on time, every time.

Get in contact today

If you are looking for a creative marcom agency that will deliver on time, 100 per cent of the time, get in touch today!

As well as being ultra-reliable and professional, our in-house team are all super creative too.

We like to work with you, rather than just for you, to ensure you receive the best possible innovative solution to your communication needs. Our focus is to leave you amazed.

Share the experience – Using video in leisure marketing

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As HubSpot have identified:

  • 43 per cent of people want to see more video content from marketers
  • 9 per cent of marketing professionals globally have identified video as being the content with the best return on investment
  • 85 per cent of businesses have internal resources and staff to produce videos
  • The top 5 per cent of videos published in the last year retained an average of 77 per cent of viewers for the whole duration of the film

That’s a whole lot of attention from an active audience ready to watch. It’s no wonder so many businesses are employing video as part of their strategy. It enables them to send out high-quality, engaging messages to their customers or would-be customers, in a way that is friendly and approachable.

Leisure marketing

It is thought that the human brain can process a video roughly 60,000 times faster than with words. Therefore, video helps people make decisions quicker and more easily – ideal for creating a more pleasant experience and improving customer retention.

When it comes to leisure, video can:

  • Inspire someone to take a trip
  • Help them choose a destination
  • Enable them to decide on the right accommodation
  • Inform them what activities they can do at their destination
  • Boost positive visitor reviews by eliminating unrealistic expectations

So, whether you’re promoting a restaurant or social hangout, travel company or accommodation, a chain of shops or a small boutique, one brand or many, you can utilise video in various ways to share your messages.

For hotels and other types of leisure venues, video allows you to showcase what a place looks like before anyone arrives. 360-degree video can work wonders for hotels and other boutique locations, helping to increase visibility and interest.

Many tourism companies are investing heavily in video to show how beautiful their destinations are. Often, they send a videographer to a stunning hotel to film around the location, which is then shared on social media to create a viral video. This is the best type of marketing as it starts to gain a life and momentum of its own.

Where to share

Along with uploading your video content to YouTube and your website, you can also be creative with how you share video.

From posting it on Facebook and Instagram to including audience interaction as part of your strategy, digital innovation is keeping brands alive and interesting. On Instagram, you have a much more limited time to capture your audience’s attention – you must be snappy and intriguing.

Build excitement

Keeping in regular contact with your audience will help build excitement about their visit. Between booking and their arrival, sharing links to video content will keep visitors engaged for longer.

How Outlook can help

As Google found in 2014, 35 per cent of leisure travellers and 56 per cent of business travellers were engaging with travel-related videos. This number has no doubt risen dramatically thanks to improved internet usage, social platforms and video-led devices.

We travel all over the world to film for our clients, delivering high-quality, engaging content.

Check out our leisure content showreel:

Get in touch to find out how we can put your leisure destination on the map.

Empowering creative people

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Shakespeare had a way with words, for sure. But he also had a grammar school education and a few wealthy benefactors who were willing to bankroll his ideas. He was given a platform to show off his talents and money for his labour. He was empowered.

Without somebody helping him along, we wouldn’t have his era-defining 38 plays, 154 sonnets and beautiful words like ‘besmirch’, ‘lacklustre’ or ‘dwindle’.

It’s not surprising that women and people of colour have always had imaginations. They have always been creative, but they have not always been empowered.

Think about how many creative women didn’t get their shot in Shakespeare’s time because of their gender. Providing young girls with education and opportunity empowered writers such as Jane Austen, who now takes pride of place on our £10 note.

Imagine life without hearing Nina Simone belting out Feeling Good, or being stunned into silence by Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise.

Imagination suffers in isolation

That’s why we believe in collaboration, creativity, commitment and motivation.

These values are important to us because they are at the core of every good project.

Coming up with a good idea is the hardest part of any creative process. That’s why we have people who come up with fantastic ideas every day. And we don’t stop there. We help to see your plan through and make sure you are delighted with the direction your project is heading in.

Our vast experience can help you. We offer dynamic, creative solutions for problems, whether they are big or small. Each member of our Outlook family has a talent that is guaranteed to dazzle you and help you achieve your goals.

Whether you need help launching a product, designing a magazine or developing an app, The Outlook Creative Group has somebody that can help turn your imaginative musing into a reality. Why don’t you drop us a line to find out more?

 

Babcock’s LFB tender bid – A winning solution

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Channeling their passion and talent, we designed and produced a tender overview programme to capture the essence of Babcock’s bid and communicate it in a creative and high-impact format.

Our solution

To demonstrate Babcock’s capability, our production team spent two days on-site in Bristol shooting at their Education & Training Centre.

The footage showed the great facilities, the scope of training resources available and the personnel that they could provide if they were awarded the contract. It included relevant 3D/CGI animations of the proposed new buildings, which were interwoven into the narrative along with bold captions and a compelling voiceover to ensure the audience would easily engage with and understand the benefits of Babcock’s bid.

We planned, storyboarded, scripted, designed and produced the bidding programme on time and on budget, which included:

  • Two-day on-site video shoot
  • Creation of 3D fly rounds of site and buildings
  • Scripting, sourcing and recording voiceover
  • Edit of the programme with an audio track, motion graphics, and captions
  • Authoring of the programme to DVD and distribution

 

The result

The bid was successful! We were subsequently commissioned to produce the follow-on staff induction video for the London Fire Brigade project delivery.

The Outlook Creative Group delivered a very professional solution in short timescales with the added pressure of the film being required as the focal point of a very important tender pack for Babcock Education & Training.

Needless to say having helped win the tender we were delighted to work with Outlook again to produce our induction DVD and they didn’t let us down on an equally challenging brief.
–Director of Emergency Services Education & Training

How Outlook can help

 

Do you have any contracts you really want to win?

Do you want to stand out against your competition?

Get in touch to see how we can work with you to create stunning tender programmes.