042 Prioritizing Strategy Over Format
Learn how to build a marketing strategy that prioritizes understanding your audience over getting lost in the latest content format trends.
*Please note that this podcast was previously called THE "Video Confidence Coachcast" and the "Do Video Podcast" previous to 2025. THANK-YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AS I TRANSITION THE BRAND TO BE MORE CONSISTANT FOR YOUR LISTENING AND WATCHING PLEASURE.Quick Quiz Time 🥳
What is the primary focus when creating a marketing strategy, according to my podcast episode?
A: Choosing the most popular content format.
B: Understanding your audience's needs and preferences.
C: Posting frequently on every available platform.
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Correct Answer: B: Understanding your audience's needs and preferences.
What Was Discussed This Episode + Timecodes:
00:00 - Discussing why Instagram Reels might not work for every audience and the importance of understanding customer behavior.
02:21 - Balancing content strategy with formats that work for you and your audience.
05:14 - Using message silos to streamline your marketing content and tailoring platforms like Pinterest to specific audience needs.
07:16 - The risks of relying solely on social media platforms and tips for repurposing content across channels.
10:00 - Finding the sweet spot between what you enjoy creating and what your audience engages with, using tools like carousels.
13:09 - Evaluating your audience’s preferences to refine your approach and ensure consistent brand visibility.
15:00 - Leveraging FAQ videos and tutorials to provide value while simplifying your efforts.
17:00 - Delegating disliked tasks and embracing formats that suit your strengths to keep marketing sustainable.
18:27 - Exploring alternative content formats, like live streams, to maximize reach and minimize stress.
20:03 - Closing thoughts on making audience-focused marketing an evolving, enjoyable process.
Explore why focusing on your audience's needs and preferences is the cornerstone of an effective marketing strategy. This episode delves into aligning your content creation efforts with what your audience truly values, ensuring that your messaging resonates and yields results.
Understanding your audience's behaviour and preferences is more crucial than following format trends. A clear focus on who your audience is and what they want ensures your content strategy serves its purpose effectively. For instance, instead of jumping on Instagram Reels, consider whether your target demographic is even present on the platform. Aligning your marketing channels with audience preferences can save time and drive better results.
Marketing doesn't have to feel like a chore, even for small business owners. Identifying what you enjoy doing (or at least don't hate) can turn content creation into a sustainable, enjoyable part of your strategy. Whether it's creating visual carousels or experimenting with voiceovers, finding overlap between your skills and your audience's needs fosters consistency and impact.
Remember, marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Repurposing content and exploring low-effort options like live streams can keep your strategy fresh without overwhelming you. By staying visible and responsive to your audience's needs, you're setting yourself up for long-term success. Ready to refine your strategy? Let’s work together to make your marketing journey a smoother and more enjoyable process.
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0:00
At with this lovely lady who was essentially coming to me saying, hey, my reels aren't working. What is going on? And I my immediate question to her was, what are your customers saying? Like, what? What are your customers need to hear?
0:18
And she was immediately stumped back, and she's like, What do you mean? And I said, well, well, then who are your customers? And she gave me a bit of a rundown of who our customers were, specifically the demographics of women in, you know, 45 to 55 and I had to kind of stop her there and go, like, no, no. But like, when it comes to your reels not working, it's clear, like you're trying different messages. You're seeing what's resonating. And you know, we've had chats like this in the past, but I wanted to emphasize with her about the people who are that she's aiming for. Do they actually watch the reels on Instagram? Or are they more like someone who wants to engage with the story element of the of Instagram? Or are they someone who likes to just scroll on their feed?
1:03
You need to strategize yourself and the content that you produce to be where they are looking, where your customers, the type of people that are wanting to engage with your services, who have the funds at the end of the day to be able to engage in your services and also have the time to engage in your services. A lot of the people that I work with currently are
1:25
service producers. I do have a couple of product producers there. What I mean by that is that most of the work that they do requires time on both sides of the equation to be able to achieve the result that the client needs. Now, of course, there's obviously a little bit more work and expertise coming from the person providing the service compared to the person actually engaging the service. But I digress. When it comes to being able to be seen by these people, to have a clear idea of who you're actually talking to and why you're reaching out to them is more important than hey you're doing Instagram reels because you find them Fun Awesome. You find a method of marketing that is fun for you, that you can do consistently, that you engage with awesome that's great. Let's try and line it up, however, with the people that you want to get on board. And that's where the content strategy, over a content format, comes in.
2:21
Because when you're working with
2:24
like maybe you're doing your marketing yourself in your free time. That doesn't exist for small business owners, but go with the analogy here, in your free time, your your hobby is essentially marketing your business. And that's where a lot of personal branding and a lot of small business owners find that they their hobby that they're doing outside of their business is marketing their business, and they have fun exploring that opportunity that they have. Now, of course, you can delegate this to maybe other members of your team, interns, if you have any, or be able to delegate it to another company entirely. Now, of course, you need to have funds, and you need to have the time and investment that they would take to have them do your marketing for you,
3:10
but I digress,
3:13
but understanding why your audience wants to consume like the information from you, but also have an idea of like, where they actually are looking for your information is more important than how you're wanting to approach it. So for example, being able to define the idea first and selecting appropriate format is then the next point of call. A lot of people that I speak with, and especially the one that I spoke to last week, very much had the format in mind first, rather than the actual message that was being touted. Now, of course, as most of us do, we have multiple different messages, multiple different things we want to say, and multiple different things that we want to bring people on board with. Well, that is fine. It is perfectly understandable. Not every single piece of content that you put out there is going to have the same message that is okay for your own sanity. I'm going to ask to be able to put those type of messages and information into at least three buckets, maybe four to five, if you're lucky, to be able to make the process of figuring out what type of message you want to deliver your audience easier. Again, not necessarily the message yourself, but the type of message into these they're called silos, but silos has a very bad connotation, especially in the marketing industry, because they're cut off from everything else. What I like to think of is put them into piles. They are free standing piles of ideas and messages and information that are right next to each other. So they do feed into each other, and they can feed into each other, but you're able to streamline your thinking. So for example, a good example of this, especially for the client that I was working with.
5:00
Uh, sorry, not client I was working with. I digress, the person I was speaking with last week was being able to think of Okay, so what is the message that we want to speak to? We want to speak to about how
5:14
spending time on your mental health is important, and actively investing time on other modalities, not just, Hey, I just want to get a taro reading, for example. Because a lot of people, for example, they reach out to her for taro readings, find themselves needing more than just the taro reading to not exactly feel better, but just to have any sort of sense of direction, because that's the starting point. So from that information that we've been able to digress, okay, we were able to break this down into a message of taking this journey is going to be a journey. How do we break this down for them? All right? So that's the message. That's a bit of a bit of a wide message, but this was the message I was using with this lady at the time, and what we've been able to again. We talked it out, we had discussions, and we were able to figure out, well, maybe a Facebook, you know, or maybe an Instagram reel maybe wasn't the best way of being able to communicate that message. Okay, so where would they go about finding more information about this? Okay, they are probably more likely to stumble upon it on Pinterest, not necessarily that they're going to engage with you from that, but that is, and again, an idea
6:28
we discussed about, maybe still using the real method of like using a vertical video that showed both the journey, but also her, her face and the words that she uses. She has a very calming.
6:43
She has a very calming voice, which, of course, brings more people on to that journey of actually focusing on themselves. So she found that useful to be able to think about okay, now maybe it's you're actually doing something useful for yourself, like, for example, creating a reel every week. That is useful. Maybe it's not resonating with your audience. Maybe just because they're not there, maybe they're on Facebook. Okay, when it comes to posting stuff on social media, as those who have maybe listened to my podcast before, I usually put it down
7:16
fairly low on the priority list, because social media is rented land. It is not your property. The Facebook metas and linkedins, YouTubes of the world, will change their algorithms in an instant, and you can be left high and dry.
7:33
So when it comes to that amount of work, especially if you're putting a lot of work into one piece of content, sharing that on all platforms is okay,
7:44
yes, for example, it may not exactly fit, say, the LinkedIn esthetic, but you're still showing up. You're still there, and it is good start before you carry on with the rest of your marketing journey. And especially if something that you have worked hard on, that really resonates with people and has a really good message. Do not be afraid to post that video again in 60 days, maybe even a little shorter, depending on the focus of the actual message. Do not be afraid to reuse that content again. Maybe even move some of the visuals around. Maybe have the same voiceover, but have some of the visuals move around, because, again, the content itself is just in that awareness. Part of the work that you are doing, you're still bringing people in to your sphere of influence. You haven't got them to a lead yet, and not necessarily the work that you do on social media is going to generate a lead straight away.
8:40
Of course, it's going to maybe over time, but you need to be consistent with that messaging first, and that's why, again, we're going back to having the content strategy over actually, how you perform the message being more important,
8:56
and
9:00
questions that I like to ask my potential clients when I work with them regarding this type of mentality, is, what do you like doing and what do they want to see? What can you the Venn diagram in your head? What do you like to do when it comes to marketing your business, maybe recording a video, and what do they want to see what can those areas overlap? And that's where the content strategy comes in, in regards to your focus. For example, if there's something that there's a client that I work with who loves carousels. So carousels are a line of images that are pretty much on all platforms now that distill information across multiple slides, maximum 10. And some of these have text, some of these have just images, some of these have a combination of both. And she loves creating them, because she had, I think, worked with someone and created like 15 different templates. And she just finds it so easy to.
10:00
Be able to break down her messages and her thoughts into these like individual slides, and she gets a lot of reach from them, cool, awesome. Again, we're in the middle of that Venn diagram where what she likes to do and what people want to see are in the same sphere, and that's where she puts her energy. And she continually gets, you know, things going viral because she actually spends her time on things that she enjoys doing. Now, of course, that is a win win. That is not always going to happen, especially with the target market that you're working with. The target market that you're working with may be very different to you, and that is okay. You are there to help them grow your head there to help them succeed. You are not necessarily going to be the exact same, exact same person, nor should you be. But I digress. I'm saying that all today, so my apologies if that is grating on you a little bit.
10:53
Another question that I have is, is there something that you don't hate doing when
10:59
it comes to marketing and the activities that you do, is there something that you don't hate doing? Can you work with your customers and with your clients to be able to do something like that if you don't hate doing it? So say, for example, I have couple of clients at the moment who do not like getting on video,
11:17
and that makes it might seem rather strange from Zo, the video confidence coach. You don't need to necessarily get on video if you are uncomfortable with it,
11:27
but what they don't hate doing is film them, filming their hands as they make their art. They don't hate doing that.
11:36
So maybe you'd be able to utilize that with a voiceover or maybe reading some poetry or again, what type of atmosphere Do you want to bring people into again that resonates with your target audience? Again, we're thinking of the strategy more than the actual output of what we actually do again, strategy or format.
11:58
And as I mentioned before, earlier in this podcast, if there is something that you hate doing, that you cannot stand doing,
12:06
can you delegate it?
12:09
Can you delegate it to one of your staff? If you have any, can you hire someone for maybe one to two days a week to do that type of work for you, if that's how much effort it takes, or maybe, for example, I work even with a couple of clients who have me do their social media because they dislike it so much. And honestly, with the amount of work that we've done over the years, I just, you know, put it all together for them relatively easily, and they're happy, and
12:35
their clients are happy.
12:38
And if your audience cares about the litmus test that I like to use, especially for my clients, is, if your audience cares about it, it should be important to you.
12:49
Do your audience care that you are on LinkedIn,
12:54
if your business is not
12:57
aimed at people who are in corporate, who are in those type of spheres,
13:03
maybe they don't really care, maybe. And then that shouldn't really be important to you.
13:09
Do they care about, for example, how they look when they post stuff on Instagram? Well, then you should care about that too. What does your audience care about? Then you need to care about it and
13:22
the importance of understanding your audience is something that takes time, and something that takes actively thinking about
13:31
how they want to receive their information and how you want to go about giving them that information, because, Because,
13:40
because the information that they seek may not be the information that they want to hear, especially if you are being the solution to a problem that they have,
13:50
but they still want to find a solution. Regardless, you may not be the right fit for them in that moment,
13:56
but if you constantly are in the feeds, if you are appearing in front of them on a regular basis again, those multiple touch points. When it comes to marketing, you want people to be able to recognize your brand and see your brand and see you out and about, not just digitally, but face to face. If that is an option for you and your business,
14:15
because you have to remind people that you exist. And for a lot of people, especially in this current cost of living crisis,
14:23
to be able to have a problem rise above all the other problems to the point where they need to fix it and they need to find your solution.
14:32
You need to be there.
14:35
And if that means working on your website, if that means providing some context to what you do. So when people have questions, you're not there on the phone, you know, juggling trying to answer people's questions, when you can put that effort and time into a FAQ list on your website to maybe do a series of videos, maybe even just really basic videos on your YouTube channel.
15:00
Which then can stay on that can then, you know, stay on your website to help answer people's questions, but then you can use that content in blogs. You can, again, there is so much that you can do with such little bit of effort, but to be able to have the thinking or the wherewithal to think about, Okay, what does my audience need? What are the answers that they're seeking,
15:22
and what is the way that I can do that that is easiest for me?
15:26
And say, for example, if something isn't easy for you, but
15:31
you're interested to learn, there will always be tutorials for pretty much everything.
15:38
And if you don't contact the professionals who do know that space,
15:44
like, I'm currently in discussions with someone right now who hates talking, but we're gonna, but they want to start a podcast, because their clientele love podcasts, like, rave about them.
15:57
So we're trying to work a little bit on that little bit of the Venn diagram. That bit in the middle of, okay, you don't like talking, might make podcasting hard. Let's see. Let's delve into that a little bit. Of course, I'm not a psychologist, but to be able to delve into that a little bit and make sure that the reason that you're doing it, and as I mentioned specifically to this potential client is, if you hate something, you are not going to do it, and even if it's for your business, even if it is going to light up the faces of the people that you work for, and you know, if it's going to make you a so much moment, so much money, if you hate doing it, you are not going to be consistent with it. You are not going to do it, and you are not going to continue to do it, and you're not going to make it a habit in your business, which is why marketing always falls by the wayside for a lot of business owners, because of course, there is so much that you need to think about, especially when running your business,
16:54
but Also,
17:00
if you can make something fun for yourself, and if something is not fun,
17:06
then can you do something that you don't hate? And if there's something that you don't hate,
17:12
so it's not fun and you don't and you absolutely hate it to the point where you can't even do it just for 10 minutes a week, then hire someone else to do it. It's not always going to be your full thought, and it's not always going to be your like best thing maybe, like I said, the content strategy may not always fit the content format that you have in mind,
17:34
and that's okay, because you are learning, you are growing, and you're able to use that knowledge in other aspects of your business,
17:42
you can always use a piece of content more than once. You can always use a content strategy more than once. You can always use a message more than once.
17:52
Because when marketing yourself and your
17:55
brand, be it your personal brand or your small business, it's
18:00
going to take time,
18:03
but I believe in you, and as you learn and you find out more about your clientele, but also about yourself, you're able to make these decisions. You're able to see, for example, an idea of, hey, I can see that this, maybe competitor, is doing this series of podcasts, but they're not getting a lot of numbers.
18:23
Could you do it better?
18:25
Maybe,
18:27
or maybe the format doesn't exactly work with you and your sensibilities, but doing a weekly live stream on those topics will
18:35
because you can just stream it, you can just get it done, get it out there, and then hand over your you know the follow up and the trends the
18:47
word is
18:48
being able to transcribe it and turn it into a blog and all those other following activities. You can hand it over to someone else that works. You're able to appear for your customer. You're able to give them the information that they need in a format that works for you, because you don't hate it, and you may even like it to the point where then they can use that they being other people that you work for, or maybe you, 24 hours later, are able to use that content to be more efficient for your overall strategy of your marketing. Hopefully, I haven't prattled on too long for you, and I apologize if I have maybe gone a little bit too deep on this particular topic. This is something that has been cooking around in my head for the past week, um, that I had multiple people speaking to. And do not worry if the way that you think or the way that you initially react to something is, oh, I should do, you know, I should do a post about this. And you initially have a specific thing in mind that is okay, that is your experience. But be able to think about okay, what, how is this going to work for my customer? What exactly are they thinking and how are they going to see this?
20:00
As they're looking for it.
20:03
Hope you have a wonderful day. Enjoy the rest of your week, and I look forward to seeing you on the next podcast.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
Who is your host?
Zoë Wood, your Video Confidence Coach connects the dots between personal branding and video marketing. Helping women and non-binary folk in small business, find their way in the world of marketing their passion without the energy drain.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
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