Is video marketing really that hard?

“Video is everywhere. Small businesses who ignore it 'do so at their peril” wrote the Guardian on 30th July 2015.

That was over two years ago. And yet, most of us still haven’t caught on. Why? Well, video is difficult and expensive to produce, isn’t it? No.

Most of the major social media websites are gently pushing us towards making videos. Snapchat and Instagram are big proponents of this. They’re both ‘mobile-only’ platforms that provide us with numerous tools to make our end results fully cinematic rather than just b-movie. 

And:  

• Facebook will show an organic video (one that is uploaded to their website) to far more people than any other type of post
• Twitter now allows videos to be 140 seconds long (two-minutes and 20 seconds), to stay in line with their 140-character limit
• Even LinkedIn is now allowing us to upload videos direct to their platform 

Why? Because human beings, generally speaking, are more willing to watch a short video than read a lengthy article on a website. Four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

Easily consumable content

Watching videos is often the quickest way for a consumer to digest relevant content. Our eyes are naturally drawn towards moving images and the perception of watching a video rather than reading a 900-word blog (like this), makes it feel more achievable. 

Newspapers are written in columns because our brains tell us that it’s easier to read, rather than seeing text which travels the width of a page. Video is the reinvention of that theory for the modern world. 

If you ask Google a question and it returns several thousand search results, if one of those results answers your question with a 30” video, aren’t you more likely to watch that, than read a 300-word article? I know I am. 

How do you easily create quality video content for your social media channels?

A huge majority of us are now using smartphones. The power of a smartphone is incredible. They contain cameras that are far superior to any 35mm camera. Most will have inbuilt editing software too and all of this contained within something we use dozens of times a day.

But I’m not a ‘film-maker’

The next, and possibly the most important part of this process, is having the belief that you can create a video yourself. At this point, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to be a Martin Scorsese or a Steven Spielberg to do this. We’re not creating feature films, we’re creating short films to inform, entertain and educate our audience. 

I’ll be the first to admit that I was cautious about posting my first video on Facebook; all sorts of questions went running through my head. Will it be any good?  What will my customers think?  What will my friends think?

Well, I needn’t have worried. It came out OK, because the tools I used made it look good. I didn’t scare any customers away, in fact several of them asked me to help them create videos too. Naturally, my friends gave me a little bit of stick but have now started to emulate me and are creating videos themselves. 

How do I film on my phone?

Filming on a mobile phone comes with numerous pitfalls and is easy to get wrong. But at the same time, getting it right only takes a small amount of effort and all of the tools you need to achieve excellent results are already on that smartphone.

Here’s how to do it 

• Plan the content
• Find a suitable spot to film
• Get the lighting right
• Make sure you can be heard
• Be yourself, people by from people
• Hit record and go
• Don’t worry about mistakes, that’s what editing is for
• If you make a mistake, pause… and start that sentence again
• Edit
• Publish 

The result

You can repeat the above process as often as you want. I do this daily, and have done so for almost an entire year now. The results have been phenomenal. The profile of my business has gone through the roof. Enquiries in to my business have increased dramatically. I am definitely getting more business because I put my smartphone to use on a daily basis. 

As I said before, a huge majority of us have this amazing tool in our pocket, but are probably a little afraid to use it. That may be because we lack a little confidence in our own abilities. It may be because we lack a little bit of knowledge of exactly how to do it. But let me assure you of this: you’ll kick yourself if your competitor starts to do it and produces results which you know, deep down, you could do yourself much better. 

Creating videos isn’t difficult

Once you master the very basic techniques, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t started before.