Hero, Hub, Hygiene - A framework for content creation
Ever heard about the concept of Hero, Hub, and Hygiene? If not, let me tell you about it. As mentioned in one of the prior posts, The Hero, Hub, and Hygiene framework is a template for content creation for video and how you should distribute different content forms. I’ll now tell you more about it.
The thing about YouTube is that they actually want you to create good content that people enjoy and watch. The longer people stay on the page and come back, the more Ads they can expose. So it is actually in YouTube’s interest that people create content that attracts and delights. I don't usually tell you about media frameworks because they usually have a thought behind them. However, in the case of Video material, it is a great way to make people stay on the page. The better people are at making videos, the more people stay. The more people stay, the content creators will see a better ROI and create more material. All in a good loop, everyone benefits from it. That is the reason why I now tell you about this.
What is Hero, Hub, and Hygiene?
In fact, it has been so successful at creating results; marketers Worldwide have adopted the framework to use in all forms of content marketing, although it was created for Video. Today's problems are that creating one great advertising video won’t cut it when trying to create a long-term result, with all different sorts of Marketing-channels that require your constant attention. They have changing algorithms, and your video will rarely stay popular over a longer period of time. In addition to this, consumers have constantly changing needs. Google found the optimal way to provide you with consistent knowledge, brand mentions, and growth to ensure people are coming back.
The truth is that you need a reason for people to come back and have to create fresh content consistently that gives people information in several different parts of the sales funnel to ensure that the content necessary in each step is public and available. That is why the three H’s works.
Hub
"Hub content" is regular, scheduled content that provides a reason to subscribe to a channel and return on a regular basis. Episodic and formatted series work best as hub content.
Hub-content helps people come back to your site, whether on Social Media, YouTube, or website. It improves User-experience and keeps your visitors engaged. This should be published weekly optimally, but at least eight times a year.
Hub-content allows you to give your brand a voice. You should try to give your brand a visual face through this content, and you should have a returning character your persona recognize and have a consistent visual language to connect with your brand. Communicate regularly and consistently to provide your viewership with consistency where they know they can visit your channels and find new content. Hub-content should be combined with a cross-channel promotion strategy with incentives for people to subscribe.
Types of Hub-content
Testimonial videos. Talk about how your product or service improved the situation of a user.
Vlogs. Explore specific topics that interest and engage your persona.
Interviews. Use interviews to show that you are a thought-leader in your industry.
Influencer Videos. Use a third party to build trust and awareness. Make sure your persona looks up to them.
Product demo videos. Show your audience how easy to use your product is.
Hygiene
Hygiene videos are perhaps the most important videos to make people trigger an interest in your brand. They are the ‘how to’ videos that provide people with high-intent searchers the information they need to answer you could credibly answer. Make videos that quickly and clearly answer the questions. This is your channel's basic’ content videos that are always on. Include tutorials that answer the most popular search queries within your content area. This is a form of SEO where you work to show up at the top of search queries.
When creating Hygiene videos, Establish why your brand should answer the query, but avoid showing a traditional sales pitch. These videos should be informative and clearly addresses a specific high-volume search. Query. Once you have answered the query, include an invitation to subscribe. They should be published monthly.
Hero
Hero-content is the ‘cool’ videos with high-quality content designed to raise your audience's brand awareness. This is where you use a bigger budget to ensure the quality and exposure of the video. This is the video meant to create buzz around your brand. Think about whether or not this is worthy of going viral? Worth sharing on social media? Could it make for a newspaper article? Can you imagine your audience would be willing to pay for this?
Many people consider Hero-video videos like the big fancy videos used in advertisements, like the one below. Still, it can also be a live-streamed event, a public round-table, a digital conference. So remember that you're not tied down to making a super-expensive video, but the content has to be of interest and high-quality. It can revolve around a large event that your persona cares about but shouldn’t be published more than twice a year. This is something you want people to look forward to.
So what next?
The next step is to communicate that it is connected to the same brand and channel, with a clear CTA. To sum it up:
Capture the intent of your persona through helpful Hygiene-content.
Create recurring content, or Hub-content, to get visitors to return to your channel
Identify big events your customers care about and create hero-content for it.
While Hero, Hub, and Hygiene's main focus is video, this should be implemented across all media channels where you create content. It can be a key to creating a community and good Customer Experience for new leads and existing customers.