Episodic Content Marketing: How Brands Can Captivate Their Customers

January 17, 2019

Are you addicted to shows like The Bachelor and Survivor?

Would you like to learn how these popular series are using a strategy called episodic content marketing to reel you in?

Our guest today, the multi-talented Michael Stelzner, dives into episodic content marketing as a storytelling strategy for your brand. His YouTube show The Journey is a prime example of how showing the struggle and the behind-the-scenes, helps you gain trust and retention within your audience.

Mike and I discuss everything from documentation to production to the promotion of your series, and how to use this medium in the most effective way for digital marketers.

About the show:

The Casual Fridays Podcast is a show for marketers and businesses looking to get on the social media fast track. The podcast is an interview format, where each week I get up close and personal with top brands and leading experts to talk about digital marketing, social media marketing, influencer marketing, and more. The Casual Fridays Podcast is sponsored by Tack – a tool that helps brands and businesses find and acquire digital rights to user-generated content (UGC).

About Michael Stelzner:

  • Founder/CEO of Social Media Examiner
  • Two-time author
  • Host of the Social Media Marketing Podcast
  • Founder of Social Media Marketing World

Key Quotes from Michael about Episodic Content Marketing:

  • “There’s a story behind what you do; it’s just a question of how you choose to tell it, and what part of it you choose to show.”
  • “Showing the unpolished part of the story – that’s the part that people find most fascinating.”
  • “For every critic you get, you’re going to get 100 – 1,000 more people who are going to love you, evangelize you and want to be part of it even more.”
  • “Us as marketers need to take a page from consumer stories. People love to see how people work their way through the struggle… That’s what gets people hooked.”
  • “Don’t be scared to show the struggle – because that’s what everyone really wants.”

Key Takeaways about Episodic Content Marketing:

  • 1:05 – The topic of episodic content marketing
  • 3:16 – Mike’s definition of “episodic marketing”
  • 4:25 – The story of Social Media Examiner’s episodic marketing series The Journey
  • 7:14 – How to get into episodic marketing
  • 8:11 – Why and how humanizing yourself to be relevant to your audience is important
  • 10:20 – How to handle criticism vs. people loving your content
  • 11:57 – If episodic marketing is something that pertains to every industry or business
  • 13:48 – What production entails for these episodes
  • 14:40 – The importance of “documenting” and what it entails
  • 16:06 – Why Social Media Examiner decided to shift promotion of their show to YouTube, versus every channel
  • 19:30 – How to use teaser videos as a promotional tool
  • 21:27 – The promotional process for an episode
  • 22:20 – What an ideal video and series length should be
  • 23:14 – The future of other Social Media Examiner video productions on Facebook
  • 24:24 – Distribution tactics of wildly popular platforms, Netflix and Amazon
  • 24:32 – What you have to lose for publishing on Facebook in reference to the algorithm
  • 26:11 – Resources and steps for those looking to get into episodic marketing

Items mentioned in the show:

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