3 Steps to Becoming a Successful Video Marketer
There's no debate whether video marketing is an effective tool that remarkably helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Hands-down, video marketing is the most effective medium that every entrepreneur should be using.
According to recent studies, videos are the most powerful form of marketing.
- 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% from 2020.
- 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television.
- Mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year.
- Users view more than 1 billion hours of video each day on YouTube.
- 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by video.
- 74% of marketers say video has a better ROI than static imagery.
Despite the staggering advantages video marketing has, many are not using it.
What’s going on here?
Statistics from 2021 for businesses who want to use videos, but don’t:
- 66% don’t make videos because they think it’s too time-consuming.
- 80% would create more videos if they knew there was an easier way.
- 37% don’t make videos because they think it’s too expensive.
- 41% don’t make videos because they think it’s too complicated.
It boils down to TIME, EFFORT, and COST.
In this blog, we’ll look at time and effort, and I’ll show you how you can overcome these two obstacles and take advantage of the most powerful marketing trend today. Check out my other blog, ‘Demystifying the Cost of Social Media Marketing’ to learn about overcoming the obstacle of cost and how you can avoid expensive social media marketing companies, or inexpensive and frustrating freelancers.
Let’s get started! First, let’s talk about what strategic video marketing is and isn’t.
What is Strategic Video Marketing?
Strategic video marketing is a robust approach to video content creation designed to attract, retain, and convert a targeted audience. ~ Ed Squire.
What Strategic Video Marketing is NOT.
Strategic video marketing is not coming up with a good idea for a video and simply posting it on your favorite platform (or all your platforms).
Many well-intentioned people are doing the best they can with this approach, yet it’s not producing the results they’re hoping for. Ironically, it ends up costing them time, effort, and money anyway.
In addition, video marketing isn’t patting yourself on the back because you overcame your fear of ‘putting yourself out there’ or having the guts to ‘go live’ for 30 days hoping that sales will radically increase because of your bravery.
Also, successful video marketing isn’t starting a YouTube channel and uploading a video or multiple videos every week, hoping that quite often, based on what YouTube gurus tell you, will eventually grow your subscriber-base, and voila! You’re overwhelmed with how much your product or service is selling.
There’s much more involved with the fundamentals of video marketing that I won’t be addressing here. However, check out my blog, ‘What is Video Marketing?’ where I dive into the framework of what a video marketing strategy looks like, and how you can create one for your business.
THE BIG SECRET KEEPING YOU FROM BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL VIDEO MARKETER.
I’m convinced that the over-arching problem with why time, effort, and cost keep entrepreneurs from using video marketing as effectively as social media agencies, video gurus, and freelancers are doing, is knowledge. And in order to gain that knowledge to save time, effort, and money, you have to pay them big bucks to do it for you. Like I mentioned earlier, check out my blog, ‘Demystifying the Cost of Video Marketing’ to learn more.
Like many things in life, the solution can be as simple as a lack of knowledge.
"Do not fear lack of knowledge, talent, or skill. Seek motivation and the others will come."
~ Randall Dale Adams
THE FACTS ABOUT TIME AND EFFORT
If you make your own videos, you know it can be time-consuming and can take a lot of work. I’ve discovered that few people use scripting, outlining, storyboarding, and other pre-production activities, and just go straight to shooting the video with a simple idea or message in mind. Even if you don’t edit your videos, it’s still time consuming and it still takes a lot of work! And sadly, without planning or having a strategy, you’ll probably wind up becoming frustrated and disappointed with your videos.
Have you ever found yourself shooting, deleting, shooting again, deleting again, and so on? For many, just this simple step is the most time consuming and counter-productive!
Eventually, many find it so tedious, they give up on using video at all.
However, creating effective and targeted videos that have predictable results can take just minutes and not hours.
HOW CAN THIS BE?
There’s many techniques and tools that can expedite your time and help you create powerful videos. Here’s a few examples:
1. USE AN ONLINE VIDEO SERVICE PROVIDER.
I’m not talking about a social media company or hiring a freelancer. I’m referring companies that provide built-in video libraries with pre-designed templates. For example, www.biteable.com and www.invideo.io. Obviously, this involves incurring an expense, but you might be surprised to find out there are companies that offer reasonably priced subscriptions or pay-as-you-go options.
In addition to pre-designed templates, they also come with other features like:
a. Stock videos and images from sources like Shutterstock and iStock.
b. Royalty-free music.
c. Ability to record a voiceover.
d. Ability to add transitions, titling, text, and sound-effects.
e. Huge libraries of categories to choose from.
f. Even YouTube has royalty-free music and sound-effects.
2. LEARN THE BASICS OF A STRATEGY.
Using a strategy will save you time by:
a. Understanding the value of telling stories instead of selling or promoting.
b. Learning how to use a video formula. For example:
- Knowing the 8-second rule
- Know to create powerful CTAs (calls to action)
- Know how to create a compelling hook
c. Batching videos by scheduling time to create a bunch of videos in one day.
d. Knowing how to target your videos for your audience.
e. Learning basic video analytics.
3. K.I.S.S. We’ve all heard this one. Keep It Simple Stupid.
If the thought of using an online service provide and learning strategy is too much, at a minimum, you can use some these tips especially if you’re just getting started.
a. Plan your videos using a simple script. It only takes a few minutes.
b. Stop filming and retaking and filming and retaking by using that script.
c. Make sure you film your video in a native format for the platform. For example,
o YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and your website should be horizontal.
o Stories should be vertical, like Instagram and Facebook.
o Tik-Tok should always be filmed vertically.
o On Facebook, feel free to use both vertical and horizontal.
CONCLUSION
You may be wondering how these tips will save time and effort when it’ll obviously takes time and effort to learn them in the first place? However, if you take just few hours to teach yourself the principles and techniques of video marketing in this blog, you’ll save huge amounts of time and effort and gain tangible results by:
- Streamlining your video making process,
- Reducing the amount of time producing videos,
- Learning how to effectively repurpose your video content, and
- Putting a halt to making videos that fail to produce measurable results.
There’s enough information in this blog to help you to start leveraging video content to grow your business and brand. I addressed the two biggest obstacles preventing you from achieving success using videos as part of an overall marketing strategy and given you practical solutions that allow you to start creating valuable and effective videos right away.
So, Ed, what should I do now?
Today I’m running into more and more business owners who are making their videos. However, they’re frustrated with the lack of results they’re getting when they know how powerful this medium can be.
What if I told you that YOU can make successful videos?
What if I told you that YOU can craft a powerful marketing strategy?
Over the past few years, countless friends, colleagues, and referrals have asked me to make videos for them. Since I’m not a high-cost social media marketing agency or a low-cost freelancer, I’ve been happy to make good quality videos for a reasonable price.
However, I began to wonder, “How can I help people make videos and marketing strategies without feeling like they need to become a professional videographer and social media strategist?”
So, I created a program where I teach online entrepreneurs how to make videos that dominate their market and convert high-value leads into cash and loyal communities.
If you want to learn more and you’re serious about your business, you’re welcome to schedule a FREE 50-minute strategy session with me.
I would love to talk with you.
REFERENCES:
- Video marketing statistics: The state of video marketing in 2021. https://biteable.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics/
- 135 Video Marketing Statistics You Can’t Ignore In 2021. https://invideo.io/blog/video-marketing-statistics/
According to recent studies, videos are the most powerful form of marketing.
- 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% from 2020.
- 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television.
- Mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year.
- Users view more than 1 billion hours of video each day on YouTube.
- 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by video.
- 74% of marketers say video has a better ROI than static imagery.
Despite the staggering advantages video marketing has, many are not using it.
What’s going on here?
Statistics from 2021 for businesses who want to use videos, but don’t:
- 66% don’t make videos because they think it’s too time-consuming.
- 80% would create more videos if they knew there was an easier way.
- 37% don’t make videos because they think it’s too expensive.
- 41% don’t make videos because they think it’s too complicated.
It boils down to TIME, EFFORT, and COST.
In this blog, we’ll look at time and effort, and I’ll show you how you can overcome these two obstacles and take advantage of the most powerful marketing trend today. Check out my other blog, ‘Demystifying the Cost of Social Media Marketing’ to learn about overcoming the obstacle of cost and how you can avoid expensive social media marketing companies, or inexpensive and frustrating freelancers.
Let’s get started! First, let’s talk about what strategic video marketing is and isn’t.
What is Strategic Video Marketing?
Strategic video marketing is a robust approach to video content creation designed to attract, retain, and convert a targeted audience. ~ Ed Squire.
What Strategic Video Marketing is NOT.
Strategic video marketing is not coming up with a good idea for a video and simply posting it on your favorite platform (or all your platforms).
Many well-intentioned people are doing the best they can with this approach, yet it’s not producing the results they’re hoping for. Ironically, it ends up costing them time, effort, and money anyway.
In addition, video marketing isn’t patting yourself on the back because you overcame your fear of ‘putting yourself out there’ or having the guts to ‘go live’ for 30 days hoping that sales will radically increase because of your bravery.
Also, successful video marketing isn’t starting a YouTube channel and uploading a video or multiple videos every week, hoping that quite often, based on what YouTube gurus tell you, will eventually grow your subscriber-base, and voila! You’re overwhelmed with how much your product or service is selling.
There’s much more involved with the fundamentals of video marketing that I won’t be addressing here. However, check out my blog, ‘What is Video Marketing?’ where I dive into the framework of what a video marketing strategy looks like, and how you can create one for your business.
THE BIG SECRET KEEPING YOU FROM BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL VIDEO MARKETER.
I’m convinced that the over-arching problem with why time, effort, and cost keep entrepreneurs from using video marketing as effectively as social media agencies, video gurus, and freelancers are doing, is knowledge. And in order to gain that knowledge to save time, effort, and money, you have to pay them big bucks to do it for you. Like I mentioned earlier, check out my blog, ‘Demystifying the Cost of Video Marketing’ to learn more.
Like many things in life, the solution can be as simple as a lack of knowledge.
"Do not fear lack of knowledge, talent, or skill. Seek motivation and the others will come."
~ Randall Dale Adams
THE FACTS ABOUT TIME AND EFFORT
If you make your own videos, you know it can be time-consuming and can take a lot of work. I’ve discovered that few people use scripting, outlining, storyboarding, and other pre-production activities, and just go straight to shooting the video with a simple idea or message in mind. Even if you don’t edit your videos, it’s still time consuming and it still takes a lot of work! And sadly, without planning or having a strategy, you’ll probably wind up becoming frustrated and disappointed with your videos.
Have you ever found yourself shooting, deleting, shooting again, deleting again, and so on? For many, just this simple step is the most time consuming and counter-productive!
Eventually, many find it so tedious, they give up on using video at all.
However, creating effective and targeted videos that have predictable results can take just minutes and not hours.
HOW CAN THIS BE?
There’s many techniques and tools that can expedite your time and help you create powerful videos. Here’s a few examples:
1. USE AN ONLINE VIDEO SERVICE PROVIDER.
I’m not talking about a social media company or hiring a freelancer. I’m referring companies that provide built-in video libraries with pre-designed templates. For example, www.biteable.com and www.invideo.io. Obviously, this involves incurring an expense, but you might be surprised to find out there are companies that offer reasonably priced subscriptions or pay-as-you-go options.
In addition to pre-designed templates, they also come with other features like:
a. Stock videos and images from sources like Shutterstock and iStock.
b. Royalty-free music.
c. Ability to record a voiceover.
d. Ability to add transitions, titling, text, and sound-effects.
e. Huge libraries of categories to choose from.
f. Even YouTube has royalty-free music and sound-effects.
2. LEARN THE BASICS OF A STRATEGY.
Using a strategy will save you time by:
a. Understanding the value of telling stories instead of selling or promoting.
b. Learning how to use a video formula. For example:
- Knowing the 8-second rule
- Know to create powerful CTAs (calls to action)
- Know how to create a compelling hook
c. Batching videos by scheduling time to create a bunch of videos in one day.
d. Knowing how to target your videos for your audience.
e. Learning basic video analytics.
3. K.I.S.S. We’ve all heard this one. Keep It Simple Stupid.
If the thought of using an online service provide and learning strategy is too much, at a minimum, you can use some these tips especially if you’re just getting started.
a. Plan your videos using a simple script. It only takes a few minutes.
b. Stop filming and retaking and filming and retaking by using that script.
c. Make sure you film your video in a native format for the platform. For example,
o YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and your website should be horizontal.
o Stories should be vertical, like Instagram and Facebook.
o Tik-Tok should always be filmed vertically.
o On Facebook, feel free to use both vertical and horizontal.
CONCLUSION
You may be wondering how these tips will save time and effort when it’ll obviously takes time and effort to learn them in the first place? However, if you take just few hours to teach yourself the principles and techniques of video marketing in this blog, you’ll save huge amounts of time and effort and gain tangible results by:
- Streamlining your video making process,
- Reducing the amount of time producing videos,
- Learning how to effectively repurpose your video content, and
- Putting a halt to making videos that fail to produce measurable results.
There’s enough information in this blog to help you to start leveraging video content to grow your business and brand. I addressed the two biggest obstacles preventing you from achieving success using videos as part of an overall marketing strategy and given you practical solutions that allow you to start creating valuable and effective videos right away.
So, Ed, what should I do now?
Today I’m running into more and more business owners who are making their videos. However, they’re frustrated with the lack of results they’re getting when they know how powerful this medium can be.
What if I told you that YOU can make successful videos?
What if I told you that YOU can craft a powerful marketing strategy?
Over the past few years, countless friends, colleagues, and referrals have asked me to make videos for them. Since I’m not a high-cost social media marketing agency or a low-cost freelancer, I’ve been happy to make good quality videos for a reasonable price.
However, I began to wonder, “How can I help people make videos and marketing strategies without feeling like they need to become a professional videographer and social media strategist?”
So, I created a program where I teach online entrepreneurs how to make videos that dominate their market and convert high-value leads into cash and loyal communities.
If you want to learn more and you’re serious about your business, you’re welcome to schedule a FREE 50-minute strategy session with me.
I would love to talk with you.
REFERENCES:
- Video marketing statistics: The state of video marketing in 2021. https://biteable.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics/
- 135 Video Marketing Statistics You Can’t Ignore In 2021. https://invideo.io/blog/video-marketing-statistics/