They say money is the root of all evil, but we say it’s the root of 2/3 of our newsletter topics today LOL. Let’s chat video content, paywalls, and subscription services, all in less than 5 minutes.

Because let’s be real, do you even have much more time than that? Q4 really came out guns a-blazing. Hold on tight!

Table of Contents

• Helping Hand: Trending Now

• Data Deep Dive: Just gimme my money 🤌🏽

• Fun & Flirty: For the low price of $19.99 a month…

Helping Hand: Trending Now

We’re here to help you as a professional. This segment is dedicated to enhancing your professional workflow through innovative solutions and best practices.

Now that summer is over (pause for tears and shouts of despair), we’re all back to the grind. Everything is ramping back up, and that should include your content game. Here are some fun trends (and examples!) that you can customize to bring some pizzazz to your team’s socials.

• 🎤 Street content: We know all of those street interviews are staged anyway, so why not join in? Whether you’re setting yourself up for an office tour, some life advice, or a shameless plug, the organic nature of street content generates a lot of interest from younger audiences.

• ✏️ Sign a photo: This one works better if you have a partner in crime, but it’s a fun one any way you slice it. Find something silly that’ll make your team laugh - an old photo of themselves, an inside joke about your niche or market, or something unique to you - and print it out. Approach them pretending you need a signature on a form, and film their reaction!

• 🎀 GRWM: We know that there have been exactly one gazillion get-ready-with-me videos filmed and posted online. It’s simply because they’re gold - they’re personalized, they’re intimate, and they’re so customizable. Let a charismatic employee take the reins for the day and create long-form content talking about what your audience cares about.

• 📊 Tests and ranks: You can’t lie to us - you’ve definitely watched someone try this week’s Crumbl cookies in the passenger seat of their car. When there’s a list, you want to know what’s number one. That’s just human nature. Whether you’re ranking your products, something relevant to your niche, or even using one of those TikTok filters as you fill space with important dialogue, there’s something for everyone in this format.

PS - these are great for our sports marketers, but they also work for creative EGC! Mic up the accounting department - it’s their turn to shine ;)

Data Deep Dive: Just gimme my money 🤌🏽

We’re here to help you as an employee. This segment is built to inspire you with the transformative power of data in marketing growth and problem-solving, based on industry success stories.

If you’re reading this, you understand the concept of email newsletters. We research, we write, we send, you read, you gain. It’s a pretty simple service formula.

Odds are, if you work in marketing, you follow some iteration of this formula regularly, for your newsletter or otherwise. You provide resources, entertainment, information, community, or access to your audience. You grind out the early stages of researching, creating, and sharing with the goal of not just reaching your target audience, but bringing them value, too.

At some point in the content creation journey, everyone always arrives at the same question. Should people be paying for this content? This is the age-old dilemma that creators have to grapple with. Today, let’s dive into some of the reasons your industry counterparts have identified for opting to put their content behind a paywall… or not.

We connected with some professionals in our network to chat with them about their paid/unpaid content balance and strategies. Here were our three key takeaways:

1️⃣ How is your content positioned in the market? Not to get all academic on ya, but considering a loose VRIO framework will incite some helpful answers for your strategy. If you truly believe that the content you are creating (1) provides value, (2) is rare in the market, (3) would be difficult for others to replicate, and (4) is organized in a sustainable way for you to keep up with, it likely has the potential to be monetized. The first box we mentioned is the most important, and not just for conversations about paywalls - if your content isn’t providing value, forget monetizing it: you should be considering whether it’s worth producing at all.

2️⃣ How lucrative is your audience? Consider the income structure of who you’re reaching. Are you reaching them at their place of work, which may be willing to foot the bill? Are you trying to access working class families? If we had to take an educated guess, we’d say your content is likely a ‘nice to have’ and not a ‘need to have’. Research your target audience’s spending behavior to formulate educated theories about how likely they would be to purchase content and for how much.

3️⃣ How exhausted are your clients? When we spoke with our marketing pals in sports, they all raised a similar point. The ultimate goal with their audience is for them to spend money on tickets, merchandise, and events. If you keep asking them for more money, at a certain point, they’re just going to get annoyed. Be strategic about when and where you encourage them to open their wallets. Do you know how many cute hats you can buy from a sports team for $20 a month? A lot. Keep that in mind.

There is most certainly a time and a place for monetized content. You deserve to be compensated for your work, but product-market fit supersedes all, and we’d hate to see you put all of your time and effort into work behind a paywall just for no one to see it.

Fun & Flirty: For the low price of $19.99 a month…

We’re here to help you as a person. This segment offers a lighthearted exploration of life beyond the workplace, focusing on cultural and lifestyle topics.

TV comedies are the best when it comes to background noise, media to wind down to, and honestly, just pure enjoyment. That said, it’s legit devastating when they remove sitcoms from your fav streaming platforms and you have to go back on the hunt for a new comfort show.

Never fear - we’ve included a list of our favorite television comedies here and where they’re currently streaming in the US and Canada. If this is out of date in five minutes, well, don’t blame us.

You can refer to this for where to find your favs, and maybe to discover some new ones.

• 30 Rock

  • 🇨🇦: Crave

  • 🇺🇸: Peacock, Hulu, Disney+

• Arrested Development

  • 🇨🇦: Netflix

  • 🇺🇸: Netflix

• The Big Bang Theory

  • 🇨🇦: Crave

  • 🇺🇸: MAX (formerly HBO)

• Brooklyn Nine Nine

  • 🇨🇦: Netflix

  • 🇺🇸: Netflix, Peacock

• Community

  • 🇨🇦: Apple TV+

  • 🇺🇸: Peacock

• Frasier

  • 🇨🇦: Crave

  • 🇺🇸: Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, Paramount+

• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

  • 🇨🇦: Apple TV+

  • 🇺🇸: Hulu, Disney+, MAX (formerly HBO)

• Friends

  • 🇨🇦: Crave

  • 🇺🇸: MAX (formerly HBO)

• How I Met Your Mother

  • 🇨🇦: Disney+

  • 🇺🇸: Netflix, Hulu, Disney+

• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

  • 🇨🇦: Disney+

  • 🇺🇸: Hulu, Disney+

• Letterkenny

  • 🇨🇦: Crave

  • 🇺🇸: Hulu, Disney+

• New Girl

  • 🇨🇦: Disney+

  • 🇺🇸: Peacock, Hulu, Disney+

• Modern Family

  • 🇨🇦: Disney+

  • 🇺🇸: Peacock, Hulu

• The Office

  • 🇨🇦: Netflix

  • 🇺🇸: Peacock (includes extended cuts!)

• Parks and Recreation

  • 🇨🇦: Crave

  • 🇺🇸: Peacock

• Schitt’s Creek

  • 🇨🇦: CBC Gem

  • 🇺🇸: Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video

• Superstore

  • 🇨🇦: Netflix

  • 🇺🇸: Peacock, Hulu, Disney+

If you enjoyed this read, we would blush and kick our feet if you recommended it to a friend.

Thanks for sticking around and for being you. Make it a great day!