A Curated Video Newsletter is a regular wrap-up of the most important news from your industry or niche, summarized into a short video.
Here’s why curated video newsletters are SO effective at generating traffic:
1. The first reason is that people like to feel informed about the news and events taking place in their industry, so they welcome and consume the content at astonishingly high rates.
2. Second is that people don’t have a lot of time to scour the internet for pressing news, so having it vetted by someone they can trust adds tremendous value to their lives.
3. And third, because you don’t have to create the content yourself, you can produce them regularly and quickly.
In a world filled with distractions and message overload, a regular newsletter that outlines the news that matters most to your audience is a huge asset.
And the good news is that more communications directly translates to more business and more revenue for you.
So go ahead, follow the simple steps below to start cranking out irresistible traffic-pumping curated video newsletters for your business today…
The Anatomy of a Curated Video Newsletter
PART ONE: The Hook
PART TWO: Branded Clip
PART THREE: The Tagline
PART FOUR: The Content (Summarized News Items)
PART FIVE: The Close
PART SIX: Call To Action
PART ONE: The Hook
The first 5 seconds are the most important of your whole video, so it’s important to get it right. This is where people are deciding whether or not they want to watch your video.
Get this wrong and all your time and effort will be wasted. It’s vitally important that you tease each piece of news that you’re going to be talking about later in the video here.
The good news is, if you’ve done a reasonable job of picking interesting news items to talk about, then the content will sell itself.
Virtually all you need to do is list the news headlines in a conversational tone one after the other.
It’s also a good idea to mention the date to reinforce the timeliness of the news, and to mention the name of the video newsletter they’re watching. For example it could go something like this:
It’s Friday the 23rd of June and this is Digital Marketing Weekly. In today’s news [Google is Launching it’s Free Website Builder], [Instagram is Adding Video Replays to Live Broadcasts], and [Apple is taking On Netflix head on]
Those stories are coming up right after this…
PART TWO: Branded Clip
Your intro clip is all about branding, repetition and building trust. Your intro clip is a short animated video that shows your logo or custom newsletter branding.
Ideally it should be very short, no longer than 5 seconds.
A branded intro has two purposes:
The first is for the new people. Remember that every single video you create is potentially the first of your videos a viewer has seen, so it’s important to take advantage of that opportunity to set the tone, show some professionalism, and introduce your content so they know what to expect.
The second is for return subscribers. For those who tune into your newsletter regularly your intro clip helps reinforce your brand and remind them that they’ve seen you before.
This creates familiarity which is one of the first steps to establishing trust with your viewers.
PART THREE: The Tagline
The next step is to state the issue number and your tagline. While this section may seem simple, there’s important psychology going on. Stating the issue number builds authority over time.
In the beginning this number will obviously be low, but it grows quickly and the higher the number gets the more your credibility as an industry insider grows.
This authority will become an invaluable asset to your business.
And lastly a short description of the type of content your newsletter covers.
This is to set the expectations so they know within a few seconds what you’re about and what they’ll be getting from you.
Example: This is Issue 34 of DMW where we summarize the most important news in the fast moving worlds of Video Marketing, SEO, and Social Media!
Alright, let’s get started…
PART FOUR: The Content (Summarized News Items)
The articles make up the bulk of your content, and the beauty of the whole system is that you don’t have to come up with original material.
Your job is to distill the articles you’ve chosen into a summary that covers the key points.
It’s also a good idea to highlight any action items they should take as a result of this news to either take advantage of it or avoid any undesired consequences.
This second step isn’t critical, but it does go a long way in adding value to your subscriber’s lives, which after all is why they’re watching.
We’ve found the sweet spot for this section for us is 3-4 topics, which total around 600 words.
You could try more, however remember that consistency and regularity are more important than thud factor.
Keep them short and sweet so you can produce your video newsletters easily and regularly…
Here’s what the content from one of our newsletters looks like.
News Item #1:
Google Launches Free Website Builder
In exciting SEO news this week, Google have launched a brand new Website Builder. The best part is it’s 100% FREE!
Web Developers charge thousands of dollars for even the simplest of websites. Google’s free Website Builder is game changing for small businesses that are eager to get online.
The tool is available to anyone who has a Google My Business account.
Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google.
Website Builder uses your Google listing to build the site, taking care of the design and making sure your website appears in Search and Maps.
Google says you can even create your free website right from your phone in less than 10 minutes! The Website Builder will even create a call-to-action on your site.
Some examples are; calling your business, booking an appointment, or signing up for your mailing list.
If you want to claim your free website, log into your Google My Business profile at www.google.com/business and follow the links to the Website Builder.
News Item #2:
Instagram Adds Live Video Replays
This week Instagram announced they are adding the option to share live Story replays for up to 24 hours.
After you finish your live broadcast, you can now choose to share a replay of the live stream for up to 24 hours.
People watching the replay will be able to rewind and fast forward the video. They’ll also see any likes and comments that appeared during the live broadcast.
This new feature coincides with the news that Instagram Stories now have a daily audience of over 250 million people. That is a 25% increase since April this year!
Instagram is hoping that Story replays will boost views and help them compete with the likes of YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat.
The new replay feature is available to all users, so make sure you try it out!
PRO TIP:
After a few editions you can start to embed your own “native advertising” stories. These can be links to content that you create, webinar recordings, offers and sales you may be having.
Obviously you don’t want to sell too hard, but it’s a great way to channel the attention towards your offerings, and make the content pay for itself.
We’ve found that making the last story in the list a native ad works well.
If you don’t feel comfortable adding your story, then you can just some subtle branding with “SPONSORED” around the story to identify it as an ad.
PART FIVE: The Close
This part is very simple and self explanatory. Here you want wrap up the content you’ve just talked about in a nice little bow with a short closing sentence.
Generally the close and the call-to-action (the next section) remain the same, but can obviously be tweaked slightly when it makes sense.
EXAMPLE: Ok, so that’s what’s been happening this week in the world of Video Marketing, SEO and Social Media…
PART SIX: Call To Action
If you’ve done a good job of the first 5 parts and people are still watching, this is where the traffic and subscribers will start to flow.
All you have to do is tell your viewers what you want them to do next.
You could ask them to like, comment, or subscribe to your Youtube channel or Facebook page or wherever your posting your videos.
However, we also suggest that you ask them to join your mailing list so you can email notifications of your next issue.
It’s also a good idea to encourage them to watch your previous videos at the very end.
This helps to improve your engagement metrics on each platform, helping to boost your videos in the rankings and expand your audience reach.
EXAMPLE: If you haven’t subscribed yet, make sure you click the link in the description and subscribe to DMW right now, so that next week you’ll get the inside scoop on the latest developments to keep you and your business on the leading edge of digital marketing.
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