This article was first featured in Financial Advisor Magazine on Mar 1st, 2022.
Video is always a hot topic in marketing. And no wonder: It offers 66% more qualified leads per year, much more than other media do. And when there are more than 244 million digital video viewers in the U.S. alone, it’s no challenge for you to reach your ideal audience. Better yet, video adds a sense of quality and personality to a site—it’s the next best thing to a one-on-one meeting.
So, if you’re going to take on a new marketing venture this year, why not make it this one?
You might be worried that it’s too challenging, and it can indeed be intimidating to start. But with the right steps, you can build a successful video marketing strategy for your business. To help you get started, I’ve outlined six practices that make the biggest difference.
Ditch The Myths
What’s the first thing you imagine when thinking about creating your own videos? For most advisors, it’s bright lights, a huge camera, a script—all the tools and planning that go with a large production.
But that’s not what makes a great video. What matters is the content and delivery. The lights and script are simply tools to help you with the substance. And that means it’s a myth that advisors, in particular, need a high-budget production.
Here are some other misconceptions:
- Video is complicated. Actually, it doesn’t have to be. Again, your main focus is your subject matter. What do your clients and prospects want to know about? Everything else takes a back seat to that.
- It is time-consuming. This one is understandable. Planning and recording can take a good amount of time. But that really depends on the type of video you’re creating. Most of them can be recorded in about 30 minutes.
- It is too expensive. Consider that most modern phones are equipped with relatively high-quality cameras. After that, all you need is some basic editing software (which is also likely available on your phone) and a well-lit, quiet place to record.
Once you get past these misapprehensions, you’ll overcome the mistakes you might make in your strategy—specifically, by spending too much time and money on something that could be much easier than you think.
Use The Right Platform
YouTube is the best place to host your videos. Though there are other good options, YouTube boasts advantages that put it at the top of our list.
First off, it is easy to use. It is easy for you to create an account, and you already have access to one if you have Gmail. YouTube also offers specific tutorials if you’re ever stuck.
Second, YouTube is part of Google Search. Have you ever searched for something on Google and received a YouTube video in your results? By uploading your videos to the platform, you increase the chance of receiving organic traffic.
For example, a quick search of FMG Suite’s subsidiary, Twenty Over Ten, yields an array of video content directed at financial advisors.
Ditch The Script
It sounds counterintuitive, but a script is only going to get in your way most of the time. You don’t need to add more time to the process since writing, editing, and memorizing the text just adds more to do.
Think of your video as a face-to-face conversation. You aren’t going to read from a script when you meet with a client. Your videos should show people the same authenticity.
Instead, do what you would do just before a meeting and jot down a few bullet points. That way, you have something to reference if you need it, but your attention can be directed toward your audience—the camera.
Lastly, be sure to provide enough content to fill a five to 10-minute video. Our highest-performing videos fall in that range, with an average watch time of just over three minutes. (The viewing time is shorter for most videos since viewership tends to drop as the videos continue.)
Create An Eye-Catching Thumbnail
A video thumbnail is a still image that appears on a video before you click to play it. Think of it as the cover for the video.
And like a good cover, the thumbnail’s first job is to attract attention. After all, visitors will need to be drawn to your videos before anything else.
If you want to create a thumbnail that attracts attention, include these items:
- The title. When you include the title in your thumbnail, it’s easier for viewers to get a quick idea of what your video is about. Make sure the title is relatively large, and consider highlighting some of the text to make key points stand out.
- An image of the speaker. Make sure the picture is emotive, but also make sure it fits the context. A facial reaction to one of the points in your topic is best.
- Finally, branding: Logos, a color palette, or even a recognizable background design can make your thumbnail more dynamic and recognizable in the long run.
Consider the thumbnails from Penny Phillips’s YouTube channel, “Practice Management with Penny.” The title is repeated in the image and made clear by the background, while the images of Penny set a tone of confidence in the videos. The logos, meanwhile, are placed prominently, while the background design draws attention to the key elements.
Make Your Video Entertaining
Now that your thumbnail is attracting viewers to your video, you’ll want to know how to keep them around. You’ll do that by making sure your content is valuable, and thus increasing the chances it is recommended to others.
There are a few things you need to do here:
- Hook your viewer in the first 15 seconds. These crucial moments are what keep a viewer interested. Anything less than 30 seconds isn’t even considered a view by YouTube. So you must make sure to get right to the value of your video, and you can do this by highlighting the big benefit right up front.
- Get viewers to stick around. Once the viewer is interested, you’ll want them to watch the whole video. You can do this by editing your video to contain additional visuals. For example, you could cut your video to an image of a graph or statistic to help prove a point before cutting back to yourself. Doing so adds visual variety to your video, which can help increase audience retention.
Promote Your Video To Get More Views
Once your video is live and getting views, it’s time to attract more traffic. There are two key ways to do this.
The first is through social media, which is a great way to promote content, especially video.
The second is by making sure that the video gets noticed in search engines. This might be a less obvious method than social media, but it can increase the chances you’ll attract viewers. One of the keys to getting your clip to appear in more searches is to create a blog post with both the video and a transcript.
The transcript is important because Google and other search engines aren’t optimized to crawl videos—they need other information for context. So, a transcript provides keywords for this purpose. The Headliner app is a good option for creating automatic transcripts.
Wrapping Things Up
Video is one of the most popular media right now, and getting started with it does not need to be challenging. Keep these tips in mind as you begin and always be on the lookout for new ways to improve your video strategy.
