Transcription
The best strategy for posting consistently without having to reinvent the wheel, re-engaging your current audience while also reaching new followers and subscribers, and increasing conversions like email list growth and sales, is a signature video series.
A video series is exactly as it sounds. It's three or more episodes that have a common theme or topic that ties them together. So essentially, the structure for each episode stays mostly the same, but the content itself changes. Think of it like creating your own Netflix show with seasons where there are different episodes that are building on top of each other.
The great thing about a series is it really can work for not only any niche or industry, really for any goal that you have for your video content, but also any platform. This can be short-form on a platform like Reels or TikTok, but this also can be done for long-form content on a platform like YouTube or even a podcast. For my agency, Shine Studio, we do a series for every single one of our monthly clients. And this is why I think it should be a non-negotiable part of your video strategy.
You're able to take your big ideas and not overstuff your content. So instead of doing a video on 10 ways to do something, you're essentially able to create that into a series. So each episode just shares one thing. And micro-content performs way better than overwhelming people with macro-content and stuffing everything you can think about in one video.
This also means you're able to stretch your ideas really easily. And what's great about a series is it's such great content to actually repurpose into future content. It is one of the easiest pieces of content to film and edit because you're roughly following a similar structure, a similar flow, so everything is cohesive.
It also really helps you see results because when you're consistently talking about a certain topic, it really helps the algorithms recommend your content. It's also a really great way to introduce you to someone that's totally new to your community. Whether they find just one episode or they binge all of them, they're typically ready to not just become a view for that series, but actually turn into a follower or a subscriber.
But it's also really great for nurturing your current audience. So, if you found that people just aren't seeing your content, that you're trying to get consistent again, they don't know what your offers are about, or even what your content is about at all, a series is a great way to put out a lot of really great, high-value content.
And one of my favorite things is it's really easy to make a series really strategic. So whether it's sharing a free opt-in to grow your email list, or it's actually related to an offer that you have, whether you're a creator and you're wanting to show it's possible for brands partnering with you, or to share affiliate links, or to share digital products, or if you have a service that you want to share, or any other types of offers. It's really easy for you to go deep in that series and really get a piping warm lead that's ready to convert afterwards.
I actually just did a full case study breakdown of my most recent video series that I did on my YouTube channel, Simple Video Systems. And just from that four-part series, I was able to grow my list, grow my YouTube channel, make money with AdSense, and double my typical views and engagement on the content that I created. And this is not exclusive just to me. We have had clients have viral videos from series, sell their offers from series, and these are such an effective strategy.
So, if you're wanting to create your own signature video series, I have an entire workshop that will walk you through how to decide what your video series should be about, how to structure it, what format it should be in, and how to make sure you actually drive results with it. I include a 30-day action plan in addition to flowest templates that actually helped me get almost a thousand new subscribers to my email list just from one series. And you can grab your ticket for this workshop for $10 off using the link in my description.
So, if you've gotten this far in this video, you're probably sold on creating a video series, but you probably have a lot of questions. You've maybe seen series or you've tried it yourself, but you're wondering if this can work for you. I'm going to rapid-fire everything you need to know about a signature video series.
The first common question is like, "Do I need to name a series?" You can, but you definitely don't need to. There should be something that makes your series signature. So whether it's the intro or the hook you start every video in, maybe it's the structure of it, or it is a name that you say that you put with text overlay or you put in the caption. There should be something that shows its signature, but you definitely don't need to overthink an overcomplicated name for it to be a great series.
And on top of this, you don't always need to literally say it's a series or reintroduce the series for it to be a series. And this can be effective. Like when people are like, "Welcome to part three of this series." Like, that works, but doesn't mean that's how every type of series needs to be.
Is the only format you can do a series in talking head? Absolutely not. Um, you can do a series with storytelling style videos. So, maybe it's a weekly vlog, maybe it's a behind-the-scenes style thing, maybe you even have like a green screen style series, which is like kind of a different take on a talking head one. Or you can even do this with very simple like text overlay or B-roll style videos. Off the top of my head, I feel like a lot of like fashion creators do this where maybe they're sharing like a week of outfits or breaking down a spring capsule or things like that, and they don't necessarily need to talk about it to actually create videos for that series. So, no, it does not need to be talking head. And yes, this can be short-form, but as you see, it can also be long-form on a platform like YouTube. So, really, the world is your oyster.
How many episodes should you have? How often should it be? Is there a specific cadence? There's no right or wrong way to do this, but you want to pick something that supports how many episodes you anticipate having. Keeping in mind, a series can be never-ending, continual, and never really have an end. It could be like a core part of your content strategy. It should be reoccurring and something people can expect. So, you don't want to go months or even extended weeks between episodes, cuz then people kind of lose the excitement for the next one. And really, what makes a series is it having multiple episodes. So, I found series to be the most effective when they're over three parts in the series. While you can post episodes to a series back to back, I found that weekly at the same time every week is honestly the perfect cadence for a series. So yes, other content that you're creating can go in between episodes, or it can be back-to-back if you're doing like a weekly series on YouTube.
And one of the biggest things I hear with people that have already done a series is that they've tried it and it just hasn't worked. And this could be a few reasons why your video series has flopped in the past. The first thing is that you are overstuffing your episodes. The whole point of a great series is to not overwhelm people, but to give them one really great, intentional piece of content. Go deep. Talk about one main point or one story or one thing really well versus feeling like you have to talk about everything in each part of your series. When in doubt, stretch it out. You can have more episodes versus really chunky, overwhelming episodes.
A really big one is you are creating the series you want to create and not the series your ideal client or follower wants to actually see. I like to think about what questions do they have? What problems do they need help solving? What content that I'm already creating are they eating up and how are they actually talking about that or referencing that? That should guide how you create a series that's signature, like how you name it, how you deliver it. But it also should guide each episode of your series.
And this kind of leads to another mistake that I see people making is people make a video series, but they don't make it a signature video series. When I come across your series, I should automatically know it's your brand. Whether it's the text, whether it's how you're showing it visually, whether it's that you film it in a certain spot. The people that are seeing the best success with a series is they go that little bit of extra effort. So it feels so signature, so specific to their brand versus creating a series on something that people have seen a million and ten times, especially as this has become a more popular strategy.
Another really big mistake is actually not doing series often enough. Just like anything with video content, the more reps you get in, the more often you do it, the better you'll get at it. So, if you've only done one series and said that it's flopped and written it off completely, you aren't able to actually get better at it. So, go to your past series and see like, why didn't this work? What did maybe work from it? And how can I actually make this better? Maybe by attending my workshop all about creating your signature video series.
And I actually think series are one of those great core pieces to have in your strategy. While you can have continuous series going on in your content calendar, I like to have them every once in a while so they feel special, they feel exclusive, but it's something that I'm actually able to improve on and actually get better at. And you can even take one series concept and do it again. Like get used to being repetitive in your content, and that will actually make your series better.
And the last mistake I see people making is essentially trying to make your series totally groundbreaking in something you've like never covered before. While you absolutely can use it to dive into a new topic or share it in a new way, you do not need to start from scratch. When we're actually creating series for our clients, we look at what frequently asked questions are they getting? What core topics or content pillars are a part of their overarching video strategy? What offers do they have, paid or free? Or what content have they created in the past that's done really well where we can do a deeper dive? By already having proof of concept for your series, you are giving yourself more of a chance that it will like actually do really, really well.
I hope you feel inspired to create your own signature video series. And if you need help putting it together, I highly recommend joining my workshop, DIY Your Signature Video Series. I will take you through the entire bingeworthy series framework on not only how to decide what your series should be about, how to make it signature, how to format it, how to apply it to any platform, and how to make sure you're actually getting results from it. Plus, I'll share a lot of case studies from myself, but also my clients, so you can get inspired for your own industry. Plus, I'm sharing things like my own email marketing workflow for creating an opt-in for your series. So, it'll make implementing this so easy. In the description, I have a link so you can get your workshop ticket. And this gets you $10 off. So, I can't wait to see you there.
And if you haven't already, I highly recommend watching my case study where I share the results that I got from my most recent series. And trust me, it will surprise you. [Music]