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Tips for Creating Video Content for Social Media

Considering how tight the competition is in the business world, businesses need to find creative ways to establish a deeper, more satisfying relationship with their audience. Creating video content will help you achieve your business goals.

The use of videos in content marketing is on the rise, with over 86% of businesses using them to reach their target audience. Videos encourage social shares and capture a wider audience. It makes it easier for people to consume the content, which is why people love it.

If you are planning to create video content, then we urge you to read this blog post. Here are some tips for creating amazing videos that people will want to watch and share.

Focus on the first few seconds

As the use of technology increases, it seems that people’s attention span is getting shorter. In fact, studies suggest that the average attention span of humans has reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. Now, what does this have to do with your videos?

You see, there is so much information available on the internet, especially on social media. If you can’t capture people’s attention within the first few seconds, they’ll leave and scroll to other content. That’s why it’s important that you captivate them right off the bat.

The first few seconds of your video should get people curious and encourage them to watch the entire video. You can start with strong hooks, thought-provoking thoughts, or inspiring quotes.

Tell a story

We understand that many of you are creating video content to promote your products, services, or your blogs. But if you want your videos to stand out and capture the attention of your target audience, we recommend that you do away with the sales speech. Remember, this video will be shown on online platforms, particularly on social media channels.

Unlike on television, people have the option to watch the video or to continue scrolling through their feed.  Make sure that the video is centered on the story, not the sale. Stories can help you build a deeper relationship with your audience and make your brand more relatable. Plus, people are more likely to remember things when it is wrapped around a story.

Provide excellent content

It is important to keep your audience in mind when creating a video. Your video needs to warrant the time of your audience. Focus on topics that are of interest to them. Find out what they care about. Offer tips, information, and advice. You want to educate your audience, but make sure that you do so by providing them with exciting and inspiring videos.

Keep it short

We understand that there are a lot of things you want to tell people about your business, but you wouldn’t want to bore your audience by creating a super long video. Your video should be no longer than 2 minutes. If it’s longer than that, people may not pay attention. The less you say, the more people are going to remember.

When making video content, focus on one subject at a time. If you want to discuss a few things, then we suggest that you create a separate video for each topic.

Always include subtitles

Your videos are likely to reach people from across the globe. And there’s a good chance that some aren’t fluent in English. Subtitles can help non-native English speakers and people with hearing disabilities to easily consume your content.

Also, Google indexes subtitles on videos, so it helps you improve your SEO rankings. So if you want to make it easier for your audience to find your video content, subtitles are the way to go.

Final thoughts

Video content is quickly becoming an essential asset for growing a brand. While there is no secret formula to creating videos that get lots of engagements, there are certain things you need to consider to achieve success. Feel free to use the tips I mentioned above to start producing effective video content.

If you need help creating a more detailed social media campaign strategy that is aimed that driving engagement and brand growth, we’re here to help. Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with us and we’ll help you get started.

Tips for Creating Video Content for Social Media

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How to Create a Strong Video Marketing Strategy

I’m sure you have heard the craze around video marketing, right?

It’s 2021 people! At this point in the digital marketing game, you HAVE to implement video marketing! And I am not talking about the cheesy videos, or you hiding behind a presentation and just having your voice being heard. I am talking about getting your face in front of the camera and really connecting with your audience.

One of the biggest trends in the social media marketing world is building an authentic brand, allowing your patients to see behind the scenes, and really know, like, and trust you.

Video marketing allows you to build patient loyalty and keeps you top of mind, by using video your fans can share your videos and are more likely to refer you to family and friends because they have a deeper connection with you and your office.

Why is Video Marketing SO Important?

I totally get the fear of video marketing, we have been in business for over 10 years, and it wasn’t until March of 2018 that we started implementing videos into our own plan.

It was something we ALWAYS recommended our clients did, but not something we DID for our own business! Funny how that works, huh?

You don’t need to have a studio, expensive equipment, or celebrities, you would be amazed at what you can do with the technology you probably already have, like iPhone, or smartphones, a digital HD camera, etc.

This rock can hold people up and get in their heads, it then becomes an excuse, I don’t have a fancy studio, backdrops, big lights, huge camera, etc. therefore I can’t produce a good video.

We will discuss this process below.

Before we jump into the 5 steps for a video marketing strategy, I wanted to give you a few stats from our friends over at HubSpot.

In their words – “Video has absolutely dominated social. According to a recent HubSpot Research report, four of the top six channels on which global consumers watch video are social channels. In addition, a Facebook executive recently predicted that the platform will be all video in less than five years.”

“According to a report from HubSpot Research, more than 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands … more than any other type of content.”

Video is useful for more than entertainment, too. Video on landing pages is capable of increasing conversion rates by 80%, and the mere mention of the word “video” in your email subject line increases open rates by 19%. 90% of customers also say videos help them make buying decisions.

So, let’s dive into the top 5 steps to have a clear video marketing strategy.

Step 1Find your Target Audience

A great place to start with this task is your current patient list, who are you currently serving?

A few questions to ask yourself:

  • Who is my ideal patient?
  • What are they visiting my office for?
  • What problem or pain points do I help them with?
  • Where are they located?
  • What is their lifestyle like?
  • What can you offer them for free to help with a pain point?

Having a clear understanding of WHO your target market is and WHY you want to work with them is key!

Look at your current patient list and think of all your favorite patients, why are they your favorite, what do you like most about them, and what is their living situation like?

You want to attract the right patients into your clinic, right?

Patients who:

  • Value your services and team
  • Pay you on time or have good health insurance to cover the bill
  • Respect your time
  • Loyalty – Patients that are going to stick with you and brag about you to everyone they know!

Step 2Have a plan

Imagine that! In order to have your video marketing working FOR YOU, you need to write out a clear plan. Now that you understand who your target market is, it’s important to create the videos that are going to connect with them.

There are many different types of videos you can produce:

  • Brand videos
  • Events
  • Interviews with patients or colleagues
  • How To’s
  • Animation videos
  • Case Studies
  • Testimonials
  • Facebook or Instagram LIVE
  • Personalized messages
  • Promotional or exclusive offers
  • Product launch
  • Behind the scenes
  • Tips & Tricks
  • National Observance Days 

The best way to organize your video marketing strategy is to implement it into the content calendar we have shared before LINK HERE I would create a new tab for your video marketing, then on the main calendar tab 1, you want to be sure you know when you are sharing those videos and to what platforms.

Step 3 – Figuring out the tactics and techy stuff

Once you lay out your video marketing topics, then you want to figure out what videos should go on what social media platforms.

As I said in the beginning, you don’t need fancy equipment or a fancy studio in order to produce a good video. These videos are more about building long-lasting relationships with your patients. Building brand loyalty.

We are not talking about a commercial we are talking about 1-3 minute videos. Some of your videos if you are showing a “How To” or interview, those may be longer. Just keep in mind your goal for each video.

What is that videos purpose?

A few things to think of before you hit record are:

  • Do you need to write out a script or have bullet points? I like to write down the bullet points for each video and what the length should be. When I put a script in front of me I get really nervous, I like to wing it in a way! But. you have to find the best process for you.
  • Picking the right place – setting the stage. You don’t need to have a fancy studio, but if you pick a spot in your home or office that has good natural light, good sound, that will make a difference. Thinking of doing videos during the day with the natural light, rather than in the evening when it can be darker inside.
  • Recording Process – How are you going to record the video? Here are a few options
    • Mac – Quicktime player
    • Zoom – Screen share option
    • iPhone or smartphone
    • Computer Camera (Make sure quality is good)
    • HD camera
    • Microphone – you can use your headset or external mic if needed
  • Editing
  • Publishing

It may seem like a lot, but see where your team/staff can come in handy and where you may need to outsource a few things.

Be sure to time block for the recording process and the wrap-up (Editing, publishing, thumbnail, etc.)

Step 4: Uploading Your Video

Now, that you have the video recorded and ready to show the world, there are a few steps you will need to take to upload your video correctly.

When you are creating a video it may have a certain purpose, most videos should go onto YouTube regardless, but you may make one specifically for Facebook or Instagram. If that is the case you can upload them directly to those platforms.

YouTube is owned by Google and the 2nd highest trafficked website, they have over a billion users and people are recorded to watch more than 500 million hours of video daily! This number is growing each and every day. So, yeah your videos should always be uploaded to YouTube in addition to social media platforms!

To upload to YouTube:

  • You will want to make sure you have a YouTube channel set up.
  • Then you can click upload video
  • Find the video on your computer
  • Have a good SEO friendly title
  • Write a description with call-to-action and link to your website
  • Create a playlist to keep videos organized
  • Add tags – keep them SEO friendly
  • Then upload a Thumbnail image (Create in Canva)
  • Once a video is uploaded to YouTube it gives you a link where you can share to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest, it also gives you an HTML code that is how you can put that video onto your website or into a blog.

*** BONUS – Download TubeBuddy TubeBuddy is a browser extension which adds a layer of amazing functionality right on top of YouTube’s website. They help with finding the right tag words and making your video as searchable as possible!

The other thing to think of if you are planning on doing a lot of videos . . . which you will be is where do you want to store your videos? They end up taking up a lot of space on your computer. Look into Vimeo, Dropbox, Zoom, iCloud, etc.

Step 5: Track your results and analyze

One thing I love about doing videos is being able to monitor the results, the views, the comments, the shares, etc. It makes me feel like people are really interested in what I have to say HA!

Just because you do one video doesn’t mean you will get a million views, some of the videos we have done haven’t gotten any views.

It’s important to track these results and find out why, was it a poor title or description, are people not really searching for that?

Remember each video should be addressing your target market and sometimes your messaging needs to be fine-tuned. This is why the planning piece is so crucial because you want to hit the pain points your audience is searching for.

Ways to monitor ROI from video marketing:

  • Google Analytics
  • Your YouTube channel stats – check views on each video, comments, likes, etc.
  • Total views
  • Clickthrough rate, this would be for email sign-up or on social media
  • A conversation started through landing pages or on website
  • Social Media
    • Likes
    • Comments
    • Shares and retweets

I would look at your video marketing each month, at the end of each month analyze each video and collect your data. Make notes of what videos got the most ROI and see how you can create more videos around that topic, then the videos that didn’t do as well, look at the title and description, can it be edited or does the video need to be redone?

What happens if you have high views but little or no engagement? Maybe you do not have a clear call-to-action in the video, ask a question at the end to start the conversations.

Pay attention to the numbers and the platforms you are getting the most engagement.

In conclusion, as you can see it is important to have a plan and logic behind your videos, to make sure each video you make is serving a purpose. I wanted to end this blog with some free tools that can further assist with your video marketing strategy, a few of them I have already mentioned in the blog.

Free Tools to Use for youTube:

  1. BuzzSumo – Analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor. Find the key influencers to promote your content.
  2. Canva – Allows you to create the correct size Thumbnails for your videos
  3. TubeBuddy – Free browser extension that integrates directly into YouTube to help you run your channel with ease.
  4. Scheduling Tools like CoSchedule, Buffer, or Hootsuite 

I would love to hear your success stories with how video marketing has been a successful marketing tool to grow your business.

 

How to Create a Strong Video Marketing Strategy

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Why Video Marketing is Such an Important Piece of Your Online Strategy

Video marketing is such an important piece of your digital marketing strategy. In today’s marketing world people want to be able to connect with their healthcare providers and know who they are.

Videos are such an easy way to be able to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Gone are the days of making extravagant videos, going WAY over budget, having a studio, etc. Let’s get back to the basics, being authentic in the videos, recording on smartphones or newer computers with good quality.

Should I be doing video?

Should I be doing video? Clients ask us this question all the time.  And the answer is yes, it’s very simple, yes.

Video marketing is such an important piece of your online digital marketing strategy. Because digital marketing has grown so much, people really wanna be able to see who you are, to feel like they know you, and get a sense of how the office runs, especially in the healthcare industry. You have to think of that patient journey, what they are struggling with, what they’re going through, why they may be reaching out to you for your services, whether it’s chiropractic, acupuncture, ob/GYN, medical issues, life­threatening diseases, cancer, all these different things, you have to think of what they’re going through.

And even though there’s a ton of content online to read, and they can call the office, if  they can see videos, and they can see the doctors, and they can see the front desk and the staff at the front desk, and they can see the nurses.

Videos help build trust

Videos help build that gap when they are reaching out for a  healthcare provider. And they feel like they know, like, and trust you, which are the three main factors in marketing. Remember, people need to know, like, and trust you in order to do business with you.

Studies suggest that 80% of online visitors will watch a video, while only 20% will completely read a piece of written content. So if getting your audience engaged and fully immersed in your healthcare­related information is important to you, then so should video. As stats show, your audience is more likely to consume your content to its full capacity when there’s a  video involved. This is also something, you have to think of the healthcare industry when you are explaining, maybe it’s symptoms, or a process, a procedure.

When they can hear it straight from the doctor’s mouth, that builds that trust. They’re able to really know what the doctor and the staff, that they know what they’re talking about.

Tools for creating videos

And there are so many different tools out there that make video marketing so easy. There’s a reason or a process to everything and having a professional videographer come in for a commercial shoot, maybe a video on the website, that’s really important. I am not discrediting that at all; that is something that’s really important to have. And it’s really easy to do your videos in­house for your daily tips, your blogs, even your YouTube videos. So it’s not a  huge cost item anymore either.

So I wanted to share with you some tools that we use for screen sharing.  So this is really good if a doctor puts together maybe a PowerPoint, or has images they wanna share, diagrams. If you wanna walk through a process, you can have it just on your computer, and you can share your screen, and you can go through that presentation

Zoom

So the tool that we use a lot is called Zoom, Z­O­O­M. And this allows you to do video recording such as this, and it gives us the video file and the audio file, which serves two purposes. Obviously, the video is great for the website, for YouTube, and your social media marketing.

The audio file is great for podcasts, and that’s exactly what we do. There’s no point in recreating that wheel when you can use one piece of information for multiple purposes.

Loom

The other one is Loom, and that works the same way as Zoom does.

I know, Zoom and Loom, it can get a little bit more confusing. But those are two great tools that you can if you wan to share your screen while recording a video.

Animoto and Ripl

And the other two that we like to use are Animoto and Riple. These are more for those cute, fun videos to throw into social media if you have a new staff member coming on. This is where you take pictures of them, maybe it’s them in the office, a couple of pictures of their personal life. And you can make a cute video, I use Animoto and Ripl.

There are free versions and paid versions. I would do the paid version, just so you don’t have their logo on it, and you can actually add your logo, and add text to it. They’re not expensive at all. So those are two videos that have fun little templates, holiday theme if you wanna have a little office video that says Happy Holidays. You can do little snippets of videos and images together and then they put it together into a video format.

So those are what we call more of the fluff posts for social media, but they’re videos that people like to see. You can do fun facts, so you can do facts around a certain topic in an Animoto video and share it, you can ask questions.

Tips for recording videos

So videos don’t need to be complicated. If you have a  Mac, you can just use QuickTime Player and record yourself. Again, if you’re gonna do that, I  would highly recommend using Zoom because you do get that audio file and the video file. And if you use your phone, you can use your iPhone or Android as well.

If I’m recording a video for social media and I also want it to go onto YouTube, I will have my Zoom screen up, and then I also would have my phone vertical recording as well, so I can use that for Instagram Stories and  Facebook. I know it sounds complicated, and a lot of times it’s just getting used to being in front of the camera.

Having those bullet points of what you wanna talk about. I have my bullet points right here with some stats written down that I will go into. I have another screen pulled up so I know what those bullet points are that I wanna cover. And so it’s really figuring out that system for you.  Some people write full-on strips and tape them up. So you have to find that system that works for you, you don’t have a choice anymore in digital marketing, you have to be doing videos. And the more videos you do, the better.

Getting started with video marketing

So if you’re thinking, “where I would start with this video marketing strategy?.” Start by asking yourself the following questions:

  • What are your clients or your patients asking you?
  • What questions are they coming to you with, and how can you address those?
  • What are those hot topics in your industry? Is it around vaping, opioids, vitamins? Is it working out, is it diet?
  • Are they asking you what they can do to improve the quality of their life? And so start paying attention to what are they asking you, and then start doing videos around that.

Start with small things, maybe it’s just one question. Keep it short,  simple, and to the point. So less than three minutes is great.

If you’re doing a presentation, you’re explaining diagrams, or you’re teaching them something, then I will go up to 10 minutes. Keep in mind that if you’re posting it onto Instagram, it can’t be more than 10 minutes for Instagram  TV. And you also have to think of, what are you talking about that you wanna be able to keep their attention. So their attention span is gonna be shorter, too, so you wanna make sure that that video is giving them a lot of details, a lot of valuable information that they wanna keep watching it.

Importance of video marketing

83% of marketers believe that video is growing in importance. Duh. It is so important.  We have to be doing it. 53% of customers engage with a brand or a business after watching a video

Your audience is cyber­stalking you, which sounds horrible, but they are doing their research. They are looking at multiple different healthcare practices, from who they are, where they’re at, what their expertise is, what are they talking about on social media, are being consistent with social media, do they have the videos? Is their website user­friendly? And we talked about that user experience, that digital experience for your patients, for your audience, is that an easy process?

So even if you do an intro video on your website, like welcome to our website, here’s where you need to go to book your appointment, here’s where our expertise is, it’s really important to make sure that you have these videos and you make that experience as simple as possible for your audience. So you just gotta get in there, you gotta get in front of the camera.  You’re gonna have 10 takes before it’s perfect, and that’s okay, and keep going.

Editing your videos

So then my next question I get is, “Well, what about editing? Do you edit your videos? And if so, what software do you use to edit your videos”?

I’m usually the type of person that I wanna get it done in one take. I don’t wanna have to stop and splice it together. I like to have my points, get it done in one take, and that may take me three or four times, but I’m not editing a lot. So in your  first couple of videos, you may have it at the beginning where there’s a pause and then you say, “Hi!”  Or in the end, you pause and then you talk again.

So some simple editing, beginning and ending. If you have a Mac, you can use iMovie, if you have a PC you can use the Movie Maker, which does a  good job. You can use Adobe Premiere Clip. And also YouTube does have some video editing tools in there, and they work great, so you can edit a beginning. So again, if there’s that pause at the beginning or a pause at the end, you can use that.

Sometimes you wanna add an intro. You can do that in Movie Maker or iMovie. There’s a ton of different video editing software out there. And again, we like to keep it as simple as possible, so find the one that works best for you. As I said, YouTube, iMovie, or  Movie Maker for those beginning, pieces is a great idea just to get used to it and then if you wanna add more effects or different things to it, you can start doing some more research and looking at  Adobe Premiere Clip and other video editing software.

Maximizing your video content

So start by, again, listening to your patients, what are they asking, what are those hot topics that people are talking about in your industry? Do some research on your competitors: Are they doing videos? What are they talking about? Looking at other videos, just YouTubing videos on those topics, those keywords that you’re thinking about, seeing how many views they have.

Once you take your video and you upload it to YouTube, think that SEO, think those keywords, what would they be typing in to find this video? In your description, make sure that you have a link back to your website, so if you’re talking about a treatment or a condition that… Or even a blog post, tie it back to a link on your website, so there’s that call to action.

So it’s really important, you’ve gotta think about this as another process in your marketing. So you find your bullet points for your video, you record your video, you upload it to  YouTube, and you share it with social media. Once the video’s on YouTube, you can take that video and insert it into your blog posts as well.

Videos are a great addition to add to your blog posts. And so we usually will write a blog post and then do a video, so we’re touching both parts. People can watch a video and then they can read the blog. And so the blog is great for SEO, the video is great for our audience. So finding that balance, and start doing some videos, and just get it in the habit,  whether you’re doing one per week to start, and then start moving it up to maybe two per week.

What is the point of that video? Again, is it an FAQ, is it a treatment condition,  is it a blog post? And then what’s a call to action for each video? And our call to action for our podcasts is to be sure to go to Podbean or iTunes and subscribe to our podcast so you can listen to all these amazing tips that we’re sharing with you. And also if you are struggling with that video strategy, head on over to socialspeaknetwork.com and request a free 30­minute consultation, and we can walk through this video strategy with you.

So I look forward to seeing your videos. Please drop a link below to your YouTube channel, we would love to take a look at them, and get a recording. Have a great day.

Why Video Marketing is Such an Important Piece of Your Online Strategy

Why Video Marketing is Important for Your Nutrition PracticeWhy Video Marketing is Important for Your Yoga Practice

Why Video Marketing is Important for Your Acupuncture Practice

How important is video marketing_ We ask the experts

In our most recent podcast, we interview G. the Creative Director at B.Co Agency.

With over 11+ years in design and creative visuals, I have been able to study and learn the creative industry and the impact of having proper marketing tools. With my role as the Producer and Creative Director at B.Co Agency, it is my mission to continue to study, learn and produce for companies big and small to help their clients take action! My goal is to produce visual tools that can exponentially grow the company’s byways of video marketing.

 

Well, we have, as you all know, we talk about videos a lot and how important they are to your digital marketing strategy, especially after our wonderful year of 2020. I think people really realized how important they are and you have to have them. So we brought G on, we have some questions we’re gonna ask him today.

Tell us a little bit about you and your business – 

 My name is G, it’s short for Gagan. I have been in the creative industry for over… I wanna say 11 plus years now, and my background has been graphics and web design. But seeing how marketing was going and where my team was building, we started a video production company. And I’ve been in that industry for going on six years now. We just had our fifth year anniversary last month. So yeah, my company’s name is B.Co Creative Agency. And yeah, we do story-based advertising, we do a lot of commercial work, we do YouTube, Vimeo. We do videos for tech companies, we do videos for sports companies. We do… A huge range of our clients, but primarily focused on the tech world, on healthcare and startups and things of that nature. So yeah, that’s us.

Why is video so important to a client’s digital marketing strategy?

My personal philosophy and B.Co’s personal philosophy are always in four parts, in how I kind of break it down. And we’ve turned a lot of our clients away because they don’t have these four elements before they work with us. And those four elements are branding, website, content creation, and advertising. We kind of build that marketing house with our partners that we have, but those things are essential for the success of our clients. So branding, which… Branding and website are absolutely foundational, so if our clients do not have that, we actually partner with other marketing agencies such as yourself to handle that part of it. So without good branding and a good website, your content creation, which is where we play in the marketing world of video, that video cannot go as far without the proper foundational elements when it comes to marketing. So with that in mind, you’re doing yourself an injustice if you don’t have the proper content strategy. And the video is the most efficient and easiest to consume, the easiest to consume marketing tool out there to reach your clients.

Video is more important than having reading materials or photos, and it’s still the most effective way to market your audience to understand your messaging. And I believe it was Hootsuite who put out a stat from last year stating a survey that said about 70% of consumers would rather watch a video about your product. So to answer your question, if you’re trying to reach your audience in the most effective way then a video is absolutely, enormously important.

Yes, definitely. I liked how you start with the foundation because a lot of people jump in, they don’t have that strategy behind it, and they wanna create a video. With that one video, they want 50,000 views overnight, and it’s just not gonna happen. Unless you have a million dollars to spend on ads, and even then it may not happen.

How often should you update your videos on your website? 

This is actually a really hard question to answer. Probably the right answer is, it depends, but I know people probably don’t like hearing that. Because it’s so specific to your industry and whatever campaigns you have out, you know what time of year you’ve been posting things, right? It depends also on what type of videos are on your website and where exactly. For example, an intro video about your company might last longer than say your fall collection of your clothing line would. There’s a time limit on it. I would say, as a blanket statement, you should update your videos on your site as often as you can or need to. I personally do not believe in evergreen content, even though some… Again, some videos might last longer than others.

The questions to that question I would ask are, are your clients changing, are your client’s interests changing, are your audiences consuming the same video over and over again and not seeing… Or you are seeing a drop in a wash rate or conversion? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then the answer is probably it’s time to update your video and your marketing agency or your marketing experts that you trust should have access to your analytics and they should be able to tell you when time is due for a new video.

 Is it okay to record your own videos for social media use? Do you think there’s a difference between video quality on social media and website? 

Generally speaking… I actually get this question asked a lot. Generally speaking, I believe not only is it okay, but sometimes even needed. Having you record video from your perspective gives you and your company character and personality, but I also believe your customers need to know that you are legitimate and your product or service is worth it, and that’s why you are a professional. So there has to be a mix of the two. The heart of this question usually stems from, do I need a video production company in the first place? Can I do it myself? And my answer to that is usually, “Yeah, try it.” If you need it to be cost-effective, then do it. Equipment is more and more affordable nowadays, but I would also say the majority of businesses or professionals who have come to us usually have tried to film themselves or have worked with less experienced video production companies. And currently, that’s where I’ll leave it at for that question there.

At what point or what types of videos should they really think about hiring a professional company like yourselves? When do you know it’s that time?

When you sent me these questions over, hiring a professional videographer is how you worded it, and I kinda wanted to… Part of it, as I believe I have probably answered this question above as well, but I wanna preface my answer by defining the difference between a professional videographer and a video production company or agency. And a videographer, by definition, is one person, and a videographer is someone who usually operates a camera. But what about an editor? What about a scriptwriter? A lot of people do these things all in one. There are a lot of one-man bands out there that wear a lot of these hats, which is great, and no knock against anyone who is hustling and grinding in that way, but generally those relationships are not long-lasting and because they are usually looking for the next gig or cannot stretch their capacity to make the types of videos or content that you might want out. What’s gonna happen when you have to operate two cameras? What’s gonna happen when you need a faster turnaround and this person has multiple projects asking the same thing?

Think about this. When you see credits to the next show or movie that you watch, granted a lot of businesses are not creating Hollywood blockbusters, but think about how many tasking experts are out there that need to complete this show or movie. There’s a reason why a commercial or show or movie have teams and teams of people. If you’re expecting a videographer to handle 0.01% of those tasks, you are sacrificing something somewhere. 

Whether that be speed, cost, quality, or output, those one-man bands that are producing at a high level are very rare. So the difference in working with a video production company is that you are working with the video team. We are a production company. We hire for specific duties before we ever roll the camera, and they range from director level to editors or animation teams. And we’ve already taken the time to connect with the assets or resources to produce at a high level, or get your message across and connect with your audience. So to answer your question, so when to hire, it is when you have tried it yourself when you have worked with the one-man band, and the message is not coming across as needed or when you need your product or service to be thrown out in a wider net when you are ready to spend advertising dollars. These are just some of the whens you should hire those professionals, but the real answer is as soon as possible. Because most likely your competitors are doing video, 50% of your audience is online daily and 70% of America is online weekly. And those numbers are specifically during the pandemic. Video is becoming more and more of a need rather than a nice to have, due to the ease of access of info, and you want to get your message out there again quickly and in the most effective way.

I think you bring up a great point as far as that team because if anyone has tried to edit their own videos, oh my gosh, it’s painful and that alone is a lot. It’s just as you’re hiring a digital marketing team, it’s not just me at Social Speak. We have a whole team of people that have that special niche in what they do. And so video production is no different, and I think that that sometimes can get people… They can be a little scared to jump into it because as soon as they hear the video, they think of dollar signs. But when you break it down to those videos that they are producing, if it’s able to bring them in patients or clients or customers in their door, then it pays for themselves. I think that’s something that people really need to think of. With video being as big as it is, and it’s not going anywhere, and I think the pandemic really showed that it’s even more important because that’s how people are connecting. If you’ve been putting it off, the time is now to do it.

How do you think that these videos help streamline a company’s brand? 

As you mentioned, we’ve talked about some of the elements already based on the stats that are out there. Again, 50% of your audience is online daily and 70% of America is online weekly. But to streamline, by definition, is to be the most effective and your consumers want an easy way to consume. Whichever company takes it easy or makes it easy, rather, or is more visually engaging or a company is effective in conveying their brand messaging is going to win. And to be quite honest, video can do all of that. To have videos in your strategy, I would say is streamlining your business [chuckle] and your brand itself. To have video is to streamline. To be more effective, to reach your audience, isn’t that what you want to do?

Yes. It really adds that, again, going back to that question, one of the foundations. You have your website, you have your social media. You start with your logo and your brand colors and all of that and then add the video into the mix, it really allows your brand to step outside the box and just live its fullest potential, adding in these different types of videos.

Right. Absolutely. Actually, this is one point I wanted to go back on. You mentioned dollar signs in the previous question.

My immediate thought process was also, what is the opportunity cost of not having video? Again, those competitors are out there doing it and going back to streamlining, those things go hand-in-hand. You wanna get, again, your message out and show the product or service that you have to the world. That is the most effective way and if you’re not doing that, then you’re missing out on something there.

How has the pandemic affected the filming process and is it something that businesses need to worry about? 

This definitely is a topical question, obviously. The film industry has taken a hit because filming is such an art form that it thrives off collaboration. The fact that you have to gather and film, the pandemic has made filming obviously very difficult. And we were stuck in that same wave early last year as well. And I was lucky enough to have partners who had specific insight early on the pandemic which led us to think about how to counter that. We have certain protocols now that help us gather and film, but what inspired us to make these protocols were actually Apple. They were continuing their famous keynotes but converted to videos instead of having live audiences attend. People who know me personally, I’m a huge fan of Apple, so, of course, I watched their pandemic presentation, their latest, greatest releases. But what intrigued me was their end credits which also specified how they filmed their pandemic keynotes.

I looked at those and thought of those precautions that they took. To be quite honest, they’re not hard or difficult to execute. So our protocols essentially became the same as Apple’s. We took those and the ordinances that were made by our county in Santa Clara and our industry, and merged those with those of Apple’s. And out came B.Co’s protocols. So I guess my final advice would be, when you are looking to hire a video professional or a production team, to be safe is, ask for their safety protocols. The last thing you want is your marketing efforts to kinda lead to health problems [chuckle] which that obviously is not what you want there. So there are plenty of other high-stress situations specifically that comes to marketing, but COVID should definitely not be one of them.

As people are recording and doing their own videos, I know the iPhones are of great quality, we use Zoom a lot for our interviews. What types of tools or tips can you give people that are recording on their own?

This goes actually not even to people who are doing it themselves but even the camera operators or directors that are coming up, is focus less on the equipment that you have and focus more on the story that you’re trying to tell. Because, as you mentioned, literally every camera phone that’s out there has a great and amazing camera on it. So it’s hard to mess up on the camera, the lenses that you have at your disposal. The only thing, if it does come to equipment and it does come to what it looks like in front of the lens, is definitely focused more on the lighting aspect of it. If something is less lit, then it’s just harder and less appealing. You want something that is either dramatically lit or well lit. Generally, those, from what I have experienced, go further as far as likes go on your Instagram. I think there was another stat by Hootsuite that said people are more likely to like a clearer, more well-lit picture versus the opposite. So focus on the story and make sure you have good lighting and yeah, use your phone. Absolutely.

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How Important is Video Marketing

How Important is Video marketing for Your Mental Health PracticeHow Important is Video marketing for Your Health and Wellness Practice

How Important is Video marketing for Your Family Medicine Practice

Are your videos visually engaging? Utilize the power of video marketing by showing your audience what you are talking about. In other words, do not just tell them.  Play on the power of visuals. Video marketing can be incredibly powerful because it allows you to engage and persuade your audience directly. Make sure that your video illustrates the benefits of your product or service. Demonstrate how your product works and why your audience should care.

Does your video tell a story? Make sure your video has a beginning, middle, and an end.  In this sense, your video should be formatted like a good story. Good stories make us think and feel. But most importantly, they make us remember. The beginning of your video should establish who you are as a company and as a brand; this would be equivalent to establishing characters in a novel. The middle of your video should explain the product or service and give your audience a call to action; this is similar to the climax or problem in a novel. The end of your video must leave the audience with a reason to interact with your brand.

Is it clear who your video is targeting? Play to your audience. Think about where your video will be displayed. Your video should be targeted to the audience you want to communicate with and in turn, the audience that will be interested in watching video content. The tone of your video should align with the personality of your company. Give your audience a strong sense of who you are through your video.

Is your video interesting? Keep it simple and clear so that your audience views the entire video. You would not want to loose them half way through!

Video marketing is nothing new when it comes to effective internet marketing tools. The internet is always changing and if you want to stay ahead of the game, you need to know how to effectively use videos the right way. In other words, you cannot create a video, place it on your website and expect to get results. Video training is a must and I can tell you from personal experience that creating short videos and uploading them to the internet without effective strategies will not get you very far.

Your message needs to capture the attention of your audience. Let’s face it… the internet marketing game has definitely changed. Consider the fact that just several years ago, no one was talking about video to promote businesses. Nowadays, I think it is fair to say that most business owners realize just how important video is to their income.

Benefits That Video Brings To Your Business

•Videos equate to a great response (Everyone loves to watch videos)
•Excellent conversion rates
•The ability to create a captive audience
•Videos build trust!
•Builds relationships with potential customers
•Better online SEO (Google loves videos!)
•Videos are more personal giving you and your business that “personal touch”

Videos are fast becoming the way that people do business. Whether you are an online or an offline business, it does not matter. What matters most is that you get the business exposure and videos will give you the edge over your competition.

5 Tips When Marketing With Video

•Tell your personal story with an interesting video… the more compelling, the better
•Introduce YOU and your company with a testimonial from one of your customers because this will show your credibility
•Integrate video with social media by offering people something for free when they “like” you
•Creating videos will help you stay in touch and maintain relationships… following up is a must when marketing online
•Create videos as a way to automate your business using campaigns… doing so will allow your videos to work on autopilot!

The idea is not just to simply create business videos and then upload them on the internet. Instead, you need to do the following…

Separate Yourself From Your Competitors!

You can easily do this by creating videos to attract people to you and your business but again, knowing how to effectively do just that is essential to getting exceptional results. I believe that the majority of marketers understand how videos are playing a major role with marketing their business, especially over the last couple of years. My personal belief is that those who effectively use it with a compelling video will not only get noticed, but make a significant amount of money because of the power that this has on ones business results.

Just think about how many people are online marketing to others for just a moment. Think about when you go to a marketing event. Chances are you meet a lot of people but do you really remember everyone’s name, let alone what company they are with? Unless you have met the person before or have seen them in a video, it can be downright difficult to remember everyone. Videos can be a great tool to help build a relationship that truly lasts and they have the great potential of getting the results that equal more profit!

Sure, business cards, newsletters, brochures, flyers, postcards can be effective with your marketing efforts but I do believe that when given a choice, most people are more likely to watch a video which is why more and more online and offline business owners are taking massive action using videos to promote their business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josephine_Monty