Friday, March 11, 2016

Marketing Through Education: How Thought Leadership Will Build You a Better Brand Online

by Trevor W. Denton, Director of Media and Chief Animator, The Grandview Group

As a director of media production working heavily in educational publishing, I noticed, predictably, our publishing clients’ requests for digital media growing in frequency and scope. As publishers started moving more and more into the online space, as have marketers, musicians, engineers, and—okay, every industry—the old model of publishing content has been reimagined.

Beyond just publishing, businesses across every industry are taking control of their representation in that digital space by publishing content themselves; they’ve become their own online publishers. Even if the company’s business isn’t directly conducted via the internet, they are still filling that digital space with their own free content. How-to videos. Explainer videos. Infographics. Blog posts. E-books. Podcast interviews. Online courses. Marketing has becoming much more than just delivering sales pitches; it has blurred the lines between education and promotion.

Give Them Stuff to Find


The statistics surrounding the future of online video (click to see full infographic) in relation to both consumers and students can be summed up pretty easily: it’s already big, and it’s going to get even bigger.




Standing out as a thought leader in an industry is important in the digital climate. Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn have all become important avenues for thought leaders to expose their ideas to specialized audiences. And when people have questions about an industry, they look to Google searches and social media outlets to find answers. How much would it be worth for you to be the one with the answers?


I have a friend whose company makes specialty computer replacement parts. He voiced his hesitation about a new project to build market visibility involving a digital media content push. As part of that plan, his co-workers thought that having a series of short instructional videos containing tips about installing or replacing common computer hardware might help boost their name recognition in their industry. He was a little reluctant, knowing that their target customers (mostly repair shops and specialty stores) were already computer experts and wouldn’t be likely to be searching the internet for how to install a drive.

Before coming to me, his co-workers explained to him that social media outlets like YouTube and Twitter serve as platforms for experts to become thought leaders in their fields. The platforms give those experts access to hundreds of thousands of people who hunger to hear from industry leaders. And positioning oneself as a thought leader is as simple as taking the reins, creating content using industry expertise, and finding effective ways to share that knowledge for free.

But with an ever-growing sea of online video content, standing out is much easier said than done. As it should be. There is a lot of really dumb stuff on the internet. Which is why the substance of the content matters.

Telling Versus Selling


Traditional marketing is something I just never had the knack for. I held a couple of sales-based jobs in my early 20s; it didn’t take long to discover it wasn’t my thing. I’ve always had a mind for entrepreneurial applications to things, but it didn’t translate into the ability to persuade others of those applications.

Lucky for me and people like me, the invention of the internet and online media blew the doors open on a new side of marketing: associating a brand with great, free content. Here’s just one of hundreds of examples:

Video Series: “Becoming a Coffee Connoisseur”


Transcend Coffee operates a group of Canadian coffee shops and roasters. But they wanted business from beyond brick-and-mortar shops, so they chiseled out their own web presence simply by hosting free, quality content that their target audience might be interested in. Their YouTube channel features a series of How-To videos about cleaning grinders, roasting beans, brewing with a French press, etc., titled “Becoming a Coffee Connoisseur.” They also have videos promoting areas in which they can claim thought leadership, such as “Sustainability in Coffee.”

Beyond their three cafes, Transcend describes themselves as “a specialty coffee roaster, online coffee store, and coffee education company.” They have the online content to back it up, which translates into some real online credibility. With such a range of industry-relevant web videos, internet users with questions about coffee will likely stumble across their content in their search. With no sales pitch given, Transcend Coffee tells instead of sells. They build industry leadership by offering up their own expert knowledge as a free resource.

I’m not claiming that direct ads and sales pitches are obsolete or antiquated. Certain markets continue to thrive on that type of promotion. But in other markets, especially in B2B, being the company that is always there with the answers, leading the conversation in your industry—that’s what builds positive relationships with your target audience. That’s where lies the value in publishing your own media online.

Escaping the Viral Video Trap


I’ve sat around many a conference table where the decision-makers declare that they would like to produce a viral video. If you’re like me, you cringe when people say things like that. Viral videos can’t be produced. I’ve explained to bosses that they’d have better luck predicting an earthquake with a broomstick. Videos are made, then some of them go viral. It’s a memetic phenomenon that no amount of The Selfish Gene readings will ever allow us to pinpoint.

It’s natural for a business-minded person to see the massive audiences viral videos can reach and want that level of exposure for their brand. Logic might suggest that if a video made without intent of going viral can attract so many views, a video made with the intent of going viral would perform proportionally better. However, it’s false logic; intention appears to be irrelevant. Therefore, a media content budget is much better spent on rich, quality, educational videos or stories because they offer more meaningful ROI. An educational video series may not get you the sheer numbers that Grumpy Cat has amassed, but it will do a hell of a lot better job of letting your actual target audience know who you are and what your company is about.


We produced a web video series for a pilot e-textbook for Intro to Psychology, which debuted in 2013. We produced 26 educational animated web videos, the scripts for which were written by subject matter experts who curated material from peer-reviewed content. Each video my team produced was uploaded to YouTube, embedded into the e-textbook and, because our resources were limited, no other promotional efforts were made to exhibit them. They just sat on YouTube, and the keywords were there to be searched for.

From October 1 to October 31, 2013, the channel as a whole received 2,781 views with an average of 1 min. 40 sec. per view, coming to a 71% average view duration. We were pleased with if not floored by those results.

Fast forward: one year passes by.

During the month of October in 2014, the channel received 22,414 views—a more than 700% increase, and way above the number of students who would have been using the e-textbook.

One more year later: over 400,000 lifetime views. And the average view duration also went up. YouTube analytics reports that the vast majority of these views were a result of YouTube searches, suggested video links, Google searches, and sharing through both social media and school LMSs. The YouTube channel, from its inception, gained over 2,000 subscribers, 405,000 likes, 143 comments, and 1200 social media shares.

Most mid-sized businesses would be thrilled about that type of online engagement surrounding their brand.

How to make it happen? Become your own publisher and keep putting content out there. Use video to grow your presence, because video performs better by leaps and bounds than any other medium online. Use it to educate your audience, to tell your company’s story. People are likely to listen because investing in stories is free. It will bring your viewers a step closer to becoming customers and your new customers a step closer to becoming loyal advocates of your brand. Being your own content publisher is one of the first keys to driving thought leadership around your brand.




Trevor Denton is Director of Media at The Grandview Group, where he manages a team of creative professionals. His areas of specialty are motion graphics, visual storytelling, and audio design. He brings instructional design and storytelling methods to life through video and podcasting, building sensory connections between businesses and their online audiences. Outside of work he has recorded several albums as a studio musician, and enjoys writing fiction and blogging.

No comments:

Post a Comment