Why more brands should dive in to episodic content marketing
When social media is so full of great content, how can we create content that really stands out? It’s probably a question you’ve asked yourself.
Well forward-thinking marketers and influencers are increasingly using episodic content as a fresh, interesting way to tell stories and connect with their audiences in a more invested and sustained way.
Episodic content is a unified campaign of video content that has been broken down into short episodes. It can deliver a single story with a plot that develops over the course of a series, or individual, standalone content productions that centre around a tentpole theme, in an anthology-style fashion. Think of it as essentially creating your brand’s ‘original series’.
It’s Tried and tested
Sound familiar? That’s because episodic content isn’t new. You’re probably binge watching a series on Netflix right now, have formed attachments to characters you’ve watched develop in your favourite soap for over a decade, or have a favourite YouTuber whose videos you watch every week.
Episodic content is a tried and tested format. It works because you can create intrigue, expectation, anticipation, and emotional connections in short, regular bursts that keep your audiences interested, and leverage the ‘Leave them wanting more’ factor.
An example of really great and very traditional episodic content is My Dad Wrote a Porno. This extremely successful podcast was essentially just somebody reading a chapter of a book per episode, but with some very funny commentary. The genius of the podcast was in the authors questionable choice of language, but the hook to the audience was that they only got one chapter per episode. They had to tune in to the next podcast to see how story developed - which didn’t disappoint!
Focus on the story, and hook your audience
This is great from a content planning perspective, because it allows you to create almost endless pieces of micro content by planning a single ongoing narrative on just one of your pillars. Instead of constantly worrying about what video to create next, or what your next social post will be, savvy marketers are creating linked episodic content series that self-perpetuate ideas.
The goal with this style of content marketing is to hook your audience with a storyline or theme that is compelling enough to want to follow/subscribe for more, and that - most importantly - doesn’t feel like an advert. It should be all about the story, the journey, and what those deliver to the audience and how they make them feel.
One of my personal favourite examples of episodic content is Humans of New York. Brandon Stanton started Humans of New York as a photography project to tell the stories of 10,000 New Yorkers. It is a wonderful insight into the lives of real people and it was so successful that he had millions of followers on several platforms within 12 months.
Create anticipation, and they’ll keep coming back
Successful episodic content will have a good mix of storyline, relatable, developing characters, conflict, suspense and anticipation, and relatable, satisfying resolutions. It doesn’t matter whether you’re telling a literal, fictional story, or exploring IRL experiences around a product or brand-related theme. These are the core elements that will get audiences absorbed in your ongoing narrative, and help to build a truly emotional connection and level of engagement with your brand.
Once you have built engagement, and the loyalty and affinity that goes with it, you can start to move these audiences into your customer journey.
A more recent success that I’ve been really enjoying on TikTok is Consuming Couple. These New-York-based foodie travel bloggers had some success on the platform when sharing their foodie adventures, but when they started their themed ‘Eating around the world without leaving New York’ series, they almost instantly took off. Their following has grown to over 200k, and their episodes now regularly hit over 500k views each.
