Everyone, no matter what business they are in, knows that they need content (I’m going to use the word “content” interchangeably with “video” a lot.) It’s like this nagging feeling that sits in the pit of their stomach and makes their chest tight every time they see a competitor(s) post their shiny new video to Instagram. If you’re reading this, I’m sure you can relate. There’s also approximately 47 billion articles like this one that all laud the effectiveness of video marketing.
I’m sure you’re familiar, but here are some highlights:
The need for content isn’t necessarily a new concept, though. The “Content is King” motif isn’t exactly fresh from the printers. People have been saying that since the guy who inspired Don Draper was sipping bourbon and convincing Lucky Strike that “It’s Toasted.” (Mad Men reference to show off my marketing chops.) The difference between now and then, though, is that the Internet has ensured that content isn’t just king – content is life.
Ever since I started my career in the content creation space my role has been this: Someone, usually the marketing person for X company, calls me with a need that they believe requires a video and asks me if I can fill that need. Then, we spend a lot of time and money producing that video (or videos) for them. For a long time, this was what I believed to be the best business model; both for me and my clients. Over time, though I began to see a glaring issue: my clients had no idea what to do with the video content I was giving them.
Personal anecdote time. A couple of years ago, I directed a series of documentary-style videos for a nonprofit that did an enormous amount of aid work in a very remote region in Central America. Everything that was needed for a good story (read compelling content) was there: overwhelming need, extremely coordinated response to that need, and objectively improved living situations as a result of that response. From a filmmaker’s standpoint, it was a slam dunk. I, and the rest of my team, shot some of the most incredible footage we’d ever captured. We put together what is still one of my proudest pieces I’ve ever made. The problem was (especially to the client) that nobody watched it. And so, what I considered the greatest achievement of my career had to be considered a failure.
That failure, though, taught me two important lessons:
I have spent years and untold amounts of money creating video content, handing off the finished product to the client, and then watching them post the content online and hope for the best. Even though content marketing wasn’t in my job description, and you could argue that it wasn’t my responsibility, it still hurts to watch something I put lots of time and effort into being largely ineffective. You also don’t exactly have to be Warren Buffet to forsee the perceptive value of paying for content that nobody is going to see start to drastically fall. It was in the middle of all this that I got connected with Skip, and through a series of coffee meetings spent lamenting our woes with our respective industries, we realized that if we combined our skill sets we could offer our clients something truly unique and extremely valuable:
Specialized video (and other content) creation combined with consistent data analysis.
Here’s how it works:
We come in, get to know your company, the industry you work in, and analyze the state of your current online presence. Next we use already existing data to see what does and doesn’t work for companies that are similar. Then we use all that knowledge to put together a content creation and marketing plan that will get you to the next level. We execute that plan for 3-6 months, use data to analyze what worked and didn’t work during that time frame, refine the process, and do it all over again. It’s so simple a monkey could do it. Well, not really, they could never figure out how to work a tripod and they’re crap with pivot tables.
This is why I decided to start Juxt with Skip. To take the guesswork out of content creation, to put an end to the era of post and hope for the best marketing, and to finally be able to provide my client with a quality product from creation to consumption – all under one roof.
