Copyright by Melissa Hull
FOUNDER, TV HOST, PRODUCER, SPEAKER, AUTHOR, CONSULTANT
It seemed crazy. Far-fetched. Absurd.
A whole TV networks?
But once you’ve run through all the logical, rational options — and still gotten nowhere — your wildest dreams don’t seem much crazier.
So, I got to work on what seemed like a Hail Mary and a pipe dream combined.
And you know what?
It worked.
A Case Study In Unconventional Internet Marketing Strategies
By launching a web-based entertainment network, I’d accidentally discovered a HUGE marketing secret.
When it comes to monetized content, the road less traveled is cheaper, faster, and way more powerful than traditional digital marketing strategies.
I’d discovered my way through the digital noise and clutter that buries our most important and transformative messages.
I’d finally broken through.
And none of it happened the way I thought it would — the way everyone said it would.
It was the lesser-known content approaches, untapped distribution resources, and DIY authority-building strategies that attracted my first million viewers.
Just like that, e360TV became a case study in unconventionally reaching millions.
And I became a rule-breaker.
How This Works
When you launch a business, you have to nail down what, how, and why of your business. Well, I did all three a little differently when I created e360TV.
Why? I didn’t care how everyone else was doing it. I just wanted it to work.
As I walk you through the foundation of my e-Network, notice how many unconventional choices ended up making a difference.
WHAT – Entertainment-first Content
As a web-based TV network, our “what” is our content. If our content didn’t compel people to watch, then the entire thing was just a waste of time — instead of a massively successful media empire. So we thought hard about what kind of content we wanted to deliver, as well as what we wanted it to do for our audience. Let’s dive in.
e360TV provides unique, alternative lifestyle programming that covers a wide range of interests: alternative medicine, healthy living, Avante Garde fashion, art, music, cannabis, and more. Dozens of categories encompass hundreds of programs — all in one, on-demand network that people can access anytime they want, for as long as they want.
So we’d already decided to tap into an untapped audience, but we wanted to take it one step further. We were going to break one of the biggest rules when it came to content creation: We were going to take an entertainment-first approach that put our audience at the center of our content.
Forget self-promotional marketing content. Throw out your marketing goals entirely.
All we cared about was: Is the audience entertained enough to stick around and come back?
We felt that, once we captured the audience, opportunities to monetize would present themselves organically. And those organic connections would be 1,000x more powerful than anything we could do with a marketing-based approach.
And that’s exactly what we did with e360TV.
We took notes from the entertainment network giants. We created compelling content that drove people to watch more and more. We followed our audience.
And it all led us to our first million viewers.
HOW – Unconventional Distribution & Advertising
The “how” is where we decided to shake things up. Once our content was produced, we needed to figure out a way to break through all that digital noise and clutter — without using the conventional TV networks.
Right off the bat, we decided we didn’t want to distribute our content through the big TV networks because it would take way too much time and money. Plus, it wasn’t a realistic option for everyone. And we wanted to pave the way for brands of all sizes.
It turns out there are two relatively “secret” tools in content distribution that provide massive marketing opportunities for brands. But most people just didn’t know these opportunities existed.
On-demand & OTT Distribution
You may have heard me talk about this one before … because it’s just so good!
Netflix, Hulu, and other web-based distributors changed the entertainment world when they began streaming movies and TV directly through the internet to a connected device in your home.
Why was that revolutionary? They figured out how to bypass the need for viewers to subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite package. Instead, they could reach viewers on their own — and monetize their content on their own, as well.
That’s exactly how Over-the-Top (OTT) distribution works: It delivers content online through streaming devices like Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, and more. The content captures viewers. And YOU get to decide how to monetize that audience.
t’s like having DIY access to a TV network … and all the marketing opportunities that come with it.
Interactive Video Advertising
Once we figured out how to distribute our content in a way that gave us control over monetization, we had to figure out how to monetize it.
So, we broke another rule.
Sure, there were some conventional ways of monetizing video content: video ads, sponsorships, and product placement.
But we wanted something spectacular. Something that would wow the audience and the advertisers.
We went cutting-edge and developed results-driven interactive video advertising opportunities.
Interactive video advertising is pretty much what it sounds like. It allows viewers to share and purchase from brands directly from the video content they love with clickable ads, campaigns, and product placement.
It can be used in many different ways, including sponsored content, in-stream video ads, linked product placement, direct sharing, direct purchasing, and more.
WHY – Guerilla Authority
When it came to the “why,” all I wanted was to help people with heart-led messages find the platform and audience they needed to change the world.
That’s what e360TV was designed to be: a global changemaker for people with passionate messages.
When I translated that to business, it just meant e360TV was designed to help people develop online authority on their own.
But how was I going to do that?
You guessed it … by breaking another rule.
Instead of going the traditional media route — pitching stations and spamming networks for a spot — I was going to create authority and media opportunities on my own.
That’s when I began harnessing the power of SEO marketing strategies.
We create a system of press releases, built-in backlinks, ads, websites, landing pages, blogs, articles, and many other types of digital assets — all coded with the right keywords to get your content trending.
SEO marketing also allows you to leverage mainstream media opportunities by maximizing the SEO power of “as seen on FOX” statements, etc.
Share With Us!
Melissa Hull is E360tv’s Creative Content Producer, an inspirational speaker, author, entrepreneur, business strategist consultant, and award-winning artist. She has shared the stage with Mitch Carson, Bill Walsh, James Dentley, Kevin Harrington, Joel Bauer, Forbes Riley and several other notable speakers. She is the author of “Lessons From Neverland” and is regularly sought out as a business consultant and mentor to several small businesses.
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