Dark Matter

19/11/2024

A common roadblock I see with B2B video content? A big focus on vitamins instead of painkillers. Let me explain.

Vitamins are nice to have videos, such as those covering trends, industry news, or thought leadership pieces. They’re valuable, evergreen content, but they don’t solve an urgent problem.

And if your audience isn’t aware they have a problem, they won’t connect with your solution. That said, vitamin content is incredible for building thought leadership, so don’t ignore it. Think of vitamins as your conversion content.

Painkillers, on the other hand, address immediate, pressing problems that your audience is ready and willing to solve (and likely pay you to get it sorted).

Painkiller content could include videos like:
"If you’re seeing these three metrics fall, it’s time to change your strategy, here’s how."
"Three mistakes tech companies make when it comes to content.”

Painkiller content identifies a specific problem your audience can relate to and positions your solution as the remedy.

If your video content isn’t driving results, you may be creating too much vitamin content. Instead, start with painkillers and see if that helps. Here’s how:

Step 1: Start with Painkillers

Create videos that address your audience’s most urgent problems, such as:

"Three mistakes we see tech companies make with video content."
"Three ways to get video ideas directly from your future customers."
"The key to delivering value every time you step in front of the camera."

Step 2: Transition to Vitamins

Once you’ve built trust by addressing their pain points, introduce content focused on long-term value, such as strategies, trends, or how-to videos.

Over time, your monthly video content will strike a balance between painkillers and vitamins.

For best results, focus on real problems your audience faces. Want to know how to uncover these insights? DM me, and I’ll send you tools to get started.

So vitamins vs painkillers? You need both but at the right times and the right places.

13/10/2024

Stoked to be a part of this years High Performance Leadership Event!

The High Performance Leadership Event is this Thursday.

I’m so excited to see all of you who’ll be attending.

I wanted to take a moment to thank our Platinum Sponsors for this year’s event - .simple and .

If you want to find out more about what both sponsors do, please go follow them on socials. They’re both Christchurch-based companies doing some really cool things.

19/09/2024

We’re stoked to be part of this years Canterbury Tech Summit. We’ll have an exhibition there so if you want to experience how easy videos are, come give it a go!

19/09/2024

We're stoked to be part of this years Canterbury Tech Summit. We'll have an exhibition there so if you want to experience how easy videos are, come give it a go!

16/08/2024

Getting real in the studio today.

07/08/2024

What makes a good video strategy? Actually, it’s everything that Julia has so eloquently mentioned in her testimonial about the work Dark Matter has done with Medenterprises over the years.

Working with Medenterprises has led us to create some truly captivating content. From stories about working as a doctor in Antarctica to some seriously inspiring founder stories.

There’s so much gravitas in content done well and for the right reasons. Medenterprises has achieved this exceptionally, and we’re just pleased to have been a small part of that. Thanks, Julia!

So, what makes a good video strategy? If I flip the script, a good video strategy must be:

Ridiculously consistent.
Insanely valuable.
Exceed expectations.
Effortless to create and consume.

24/07/2024

We make 30,000 decisions every single day. From what to eat to what to wear, our minds are constantly at work.

But here's a thought: when someone needs your skills, are you their first choice? Being consistently heard and seen makes you memorable, ensuring you're the go-to when one of those 30,000 decisions needs to be made.

However, decision fatigue and mental exhaustion can cause poor choices. This means your next potential client might choose someone else simply because they noticed them first. How can you make sure you're top of mind?

Clearly identify your target customers and speak directly to them.

Focus on your expertise and avoid mixing content. Be known for one thing and excel at it.

Simplify your language to be easily understood by those unfamiliar with your industry.

Stay consistent with your content. One video isn't enough; provide valuable content regularly.

By knowing your audience, mastering your topics, and communicating clearly, you'll be the one people remember.

07/07/2024

Last week, we said goodbye to our St Asaph Street studio. After three years, it was time for a change. We had begun to outgrow the studio, and the iconic grey cyclorama wall had become all too recognisable in our videos.

We needed a space that could be flexible, adaptable to multiple sets, and versatile enough for photos, videos, and podcasts.

So, we decided to build an all-new studio with a fresh setup at our new space at 231 High Street.

Our new, larger studio features two zones that can be transformed into whatever you need them to be.

It's only a two-minute walk down the road from St Asaph, so come say hello if you're around town.

Also, a massive thanks to everyone that helped along the way:

Sylvester Kawengian - For designing and helping with the build.
Arran Rowley - For actually building it.
Jai Ghazi- For the outstanding plaster and paint (reach out to him if you need a really good plasterer/painter, he is next level good).
Mitch Shaw - Thanks for the tools, saved us so many extra days.

See you all at 231!

04/06/2024

On April 1st, Mekelle Mills and I launched Dark Matter in Melbourne. It’s been a busy but seriously cool journey so far with lots of excitement and learnings along the way.

This is a quick time-lapse from our most recent project with Workday at their Elevate event.

If you’re Melbourne based and in need of video content that builds your authority. Get in touch with either Mekelle Mills or myself. We’d love to chat.

Also. thanks Abhimanyu Shrikhande for all your time explaining tax laws and how to get things going. We’d be lost without your guidance ha!

14/02/2024

What does our content funnel look like? Here it is.

A few weeks ago, I did a video on the content roadmap. Today, I'm going to explain what our content roadmaps actually look like for Dark Matter.

Our top-of-funnel content is focused on social media content. This is designed to reach people interested in content, videos, or curious about what it can do.

Then we have our middle-of-funnel content, which includes blogs and resources on our website. We're putting a big focus on creating a resource library this year, and our website is a big part of that.

Thirdly, we have newsletters. This is our bottom-of-funnel content. The idea behind newsletters is to keep in touch with our audience with regular value-add content delivered straight to their inbox via email.

This is by no means exhaustive. We also have audiences that come through ads, lead generation campaigns, networking, and all of these have different sequences best suited for their goals. But for the most part, the funnel above is the foundation for all of our content this year.

Curious to know, what does your content funnel or content strategy look like for this year?

11/02/2024

Yesterday, Dark Matter turned five... and what a journey it's been. Starting just before the pandemic and navigating through the various lockdowns, I don't think we could've timed it better.

Here are five facts from the last five years:

When we started on 11 February 2019, we weren't Dark Matter. Originally, we were called Elixir Creative. We changed our name to Dark Matter in late 2019.

We began offering everything under the creative services umbrella but quickly refocused exclusively on video production. It was the one area I genuinely enjoyed and was good at. All our other services were scrapped when we rebranded to Dark Matter, and I haven't looked back since.

To date, over the past five years, we've created just over 2,000 videos for around 400 clients nationwide. That's an average of five videos per client.

In 2024, we've decided to focus solely on assisting clients on an ongoing basis. This is the first time I feel like we've truly found a product-market fit for our business and our target clients. It's a good feeling, but I wish I knew this five years ago. (Not really, the experience was fun.)

Lastly, there is another half to Dark Matter, my wife, Shaleen. She might not be involved in the day-to-day operations, but she's definitely been the driving force behind our growth. We wouldn't be where we are without her.

I vividly remember the day this journey began. I had just left a failed startup and wandered into Saltworks. Leon was kind enough to offer me a space.

From there, we produced nothing but free videos for three months to build our portfolio.

Since then, we've met some amazing people along the way and worked with some phenomenal businesses. I'm truly grateful for all the interactions and experiences over the last five years. So, a massive thanks to everyone who was part of the Dark Matter journey in any capacity over the last five years or even before.

The last five years have been all about finding our feet; the next 10 are all about focusing on our strengths and growing from a solid foundation of passion and a commitment to great service.

I can't wait to see what the future holds. If the last five were this fun, the next five will be extraordinary.

Later this year, we'll be hosting an event, and we welcome all of you to celebrate with us. More details to come.

08/02/2024

What happens when you dedicate half a year to creating impactful content from scratch? Lot's of big things happen!

Ethan tells us about his journey from starting to crafting highly impactful content and achieving all of this growth in a matter of six months. If you want to learn from Ethans success, give our Content Led Podcast a listen, link below.

Apple: https://apple.co/3ukpQaf
Spotify: https://podcast.sptfy.com/contentled
YouTube: https://youtu.be/zWuU8qOm0Xs?si=VzQxPU8rKKlFx-fm

Next week, we have absolute content gold from Scott Wilson! Keep an eye out on Friday 16th Feb for episode two!

07/02/2024

A few weeks ago, we launched a quiz. The goal was to understand the challenges that often hinder content creation. The feedback was loud and clear: "I don't know where to start" was the core reason that stopped content from taking off.

Fortunately, this is an area we know all too well. Today, we're looking at a roadmap you can use right now to launch your video content journey.

Insight Mining: The first leap into videos begins with understanding your subjects. The best part? It's easy to find. Look at what your audience is saying across your website, social media, and emails.

Audience Mining: With your subjects in hand, you now need to find who to talk to. Take a deeper look at those who have engaged with you. Take note of job titles, industries, and any other information that will help you tailor your content to them.

Format Mining: Once you have steps one and two, now you need to know how they consume their content. Look at the type of content they're engaging with on LinkedIn and tailor your content to suit their preference. If they're engaging mostly with videos, make videos. If they engage with other mediums, meet them there.

Once you have these three steps, the next comes actually creating the videos. More on that later.

Free template to help you get started: https://www.darkmatter.nz/i-dont-know-where-to-start-heres-a-guide-to-get-going/

04/02/2024

This is our content plan for 2024, and it all came from a book I read called "They Ask, You Answer" by Marcus Sheridan.

It has since become our holy book for marketing and sales. The book talks about flipping the switch on inbound marketing by leveraging the power of educational content.

For us, this translates to sharing our knowledge and experience by addressing questions, concerns, and needs. Simple as that!

Here's a breakdown of our 2024 content strategy, including our goals and ex*****on plans. We're focusing on three channels: social media, blogs, and newsletters. Let’s start with social media:

Our primary platform is LinkedIn, secondary being YouTube. We'll also be sharing content on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Here's what our content schedule looks like:

* Mondays are for static posts, offering quick insights, actions, or summaries of our findings.
* Wednesdays are dedicated to videos, which include actionable ideas, research summaries, or behind-the-scenes glimpses.
* Fridays feature snippets from our Content Led Podcast.

We'll occasionally include sales videos and posts as needed, but not frequently.

Moving on to the blog:

This year, I'm dedicating time to create blog posts to build a resource library and boost our SEO. Videos, downloadable templates, and other resources will be linked here as well.

Lastly, our newsletter:

In addition to regular content, we're sending out monthly emails to our database. The goal is to condense our value-added content into a digestible format, including links to videos and templates.

Content Goals:

My aim is to spark conversations, this could be about our services, offering advice, insights that you can implement on your own or with others, or simply catching up. 2024 is about building long term connections through conversations generated by our content. So, any relationships we can build now is gold.

So, that sums up our entire content strategy for 2024 in one post. The keys to content success are simplicity, consistency, and intentionality. I'm excited to see how this impacts our business in 2024. We'll be keeping detailed records and will share an update in December of the results.

I’d love to know, what's your content strategy for this year?

02/02/2024

Most of you will recognise Ethan from his Tik Tok videos – the guy's a content wizard, he pre-built a content-led company from the ground up before leaving his day job and stepping out on his own.

So, what has Ethan created? Imagine this: almost 17,000 TikTok fans hanging on his every word (by design, you'll find out how Ethan crafts his videos in this episode), with a whopping 750,000 likes across his content.

In this episode, Ethan's spilling the beans on his journey so far, why he believes in content and his journey navigating the world of content creation as an employee.

And for those itching to make their mark through content, Ethan's advice is gold: Just start. It's a rocky ride, but man, does it pay off. His story's a living proof of how content can really have an impact on business.

Apple: https://apple.co/3ukpQaf
Spotify: https://podcast.sptfy.com/contentled
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWuU8qOm0Xs

28/01/2024

I don’t know where to start…

That was the single biggest challenge, identified in our Video Readiness Quiz.

So today, I’m going to discuss three quick things you can do to at least get an idea of where to start and the direction to take:

- Find your content (insight mining)
- Find out who wants to know (audience mining)
- Find out how they want to be told (format mining)

The best part about this is that all three things can be done simultaneously, So let’s explore these in detail.

Also, follow along using our template below:

https://www.darkmatter.nz/i-dont-know-where-to-start-heres-a-guide-to-get-going/

Step 1- Find your content (insight mining)

You already have a myriad of places where ideas for content exist, and what’s even better is that these ideas come straight from the people who want to do business with you, speaking the language of your customer/audience.

Take a look at your website inquiries: What are people asking about?

Scroll through your social media messages and comments: Are there questions, queries, or comments that you could address, which others may find useful?

Review your customer/client correspondence: What are your customers asking that you may not have answered?

Once you have this information, select a few topics that you can easily discuss.

Step 2 - Find out who wants to know (audience mining)

This can be done concurrently with the first stage. As you’re finding your content ideas (or as I call it, insight mining), take note of who is asking those questions.

Take note of their surface demographics, such as job titles, industry, etc. This will help you later when it comes to crafting your content.

For example, most people who were asking about where to start were:

- Founders and business owners,
- At companies with usually 10+ FTEs,
- Mostly in the professional service, finance, and SaaS sectors.

Boom! Now I know who to talk to.

Step 3 - Find out how they want to be told (format mining)

Once you have a good idea of your content and your audience (steps one and two), you also need to understand how they prefer to consume content.

Thankfully, LinkedIn offers a feature called ‘Activity’ that allows you to review the preferences of people in your audience and see which medium they usually engage with.

Now, this is somewhat rudimentary because most people engage with whatever they find interesting, and the medium doesn’t necessarily dictate their interest.

However, by analysing a larger sample, if you find that most people engage with videos, then videos will likely be the preferred format.

This process also reveals whether they prefer detailed or concise content. If the majority of people in your audience engage with long posts and longer videos, they likely seek and appreciate detailed content. If they engage more with shorter posts or quick videos, they prefer digestible content.

Once you have these, you’re ready to start creating your content. From here, comes ex*****on.

25/01/2024

Okay, I'll admit it, this is a sales video... but I couldn't help it!

I'm super excited about launching this plan after who knows how many iterations since 2021.

It all started with "I wish someone could just do videos for me…" It then went down a rabbit hole of, "If I'm thinking this, others must be too."

And here we are, after many conversations, looking at our existing plans, refining, iterating, and seeing how we can make people's video life easier.

We came up with something that I'm genuinely excited about.

What if Dark Matter could take care of videos for you in less than 90 minutes of your time each month and at a fixed price?

Something that is 100% hands-on from us and completely hands-off from you. We just need you for the crucial bits.

Here’s how it works.

Step 1: Writing your scripts

15-minute catch-up with you to brainstorm video ideas and insights.
We then go away and write five scripts for you based on our chat.
We then send the scripts to you for your review and feedback.

This portion requires 30 minutes of your time; running total: 30 minutes.

Step 2: Recording

Your scripts are loaded into a teleprompter so no memorizing needed.
We send you a shoot plan so you’re always clear about what’s happening.
We record five videos in one batch; that’s a video a week for a month.

This portion requires 45 minutes of your time; running total: 75 minutes.

Step 3: Editing

We edit your videos and make sure everything aligns with your brand.
We create subtitles and thumbnails so you have everything you need.
We cut your five videos into a portrait format for use on different platforms.

This portion requires 15 minutes of your time; running total: 90 minutes.

Step 4: Scheduling

We receive and action any of your feedback points and finalize.
Our copywriter will write all your post copy in your tone of voice.
We then schedule your videos across all of your social channels.

This portion requires 0 minutes of your time; running total: 90 minutes.

What do you actually get?

Five scripts written for you.
Five landscape videos for your channels.
Five portrait videos for stories and reels.
Thumbnails for all landscape videos.
Subtitles for all your videos.
Copywriting for all your social channels.
Schedule all your videos.

The Process?

Our scriptwriter will interview you each month, dive into the topics you want to cover, and create your scripts.

You then review the scripts, making sure it fits with you and we then take your scripts and load them into the teleprompter.

We then record your videos either at your office or at our studio.

Once they’re edited, you get a chance to review them along with your thumbnails and social copy for each video.

Once you’re happy, we finalise everything and get it scheduled.

That’s it! Easy as that.

If you think this could be a game-changer for your business, message me; I’d love to tell you all about it.

24/01/2024

Collaboration creates connections. We all know that, but have you heard of collaborative content?

Collaborative content is when you team up with a market-adjacent company (a company that provides a complimentary service to yours) to create content.

The content could be podcasts, videos, or even guest-written blogs. But it does a few things for you.

It gives you access to new people. By collaborating with market-adjacent companies, you gain access to their audience and then yours. This opens both parties up to new connections.

It gives your audience insights into adjacent areas of your industry. In other words, it provides your audience with a better understanding of what’s happening in your industry by offering two perspectives.

It creates amazing conversations. This is the icing on the cake. Because both parties are passionate about similar things, the conversations can be very insightful.

Here are two collaborators, Cam Bailey and Sridhar Krishnamurti who joined forces to create a podcast.

What are your thoughts on collaborative content?