Have you ever watched an online video? Don’t lie! Today, video is the preferred method of information delivery for the majority of consumers.By incorporating it into your website, you can reach new highs in lead generation. In this video, Eric Spellmann explains WHY video is such an important marketing tool and the rules you should follow BEFORE you start down this path. Ironically, this video proves the point!
Note from Eric: Below, you will find a word-for-word transcript of this video. I provide this as an aid for the hearing-impaired and for those who might just want to read it rather than watch the video. This conversational style is not reflective of how I write. Be nice!
Hey I’m Eric Spellmann with Spellmann & Associates. And today’s topic is something I love – Video Marketing. Specifically, tripling your leads with video marketing. I’ve definitely seen this in my own company and I’m here to share what I’ve learned with you.
But first, we’ve got to understand why video! What’s the big deal about video? Well, keep in mind 1 of the things I preach all the time. And if you watch any of my videos, you’ve probably heard me say this before. Everyone on the internet has ADD and they’re lazy.
In other words, when they go to the internet they don’t have a lot of time. They want to find what they want. They don’t read, they scan! They would rather watch something than read something. We’re seeing that all the time. If you have a website and there’s a whole bunch of text down the side, they would rather watch the video than read all of that text.
People do business with people, not businesses. Whenever you create a video, you’re actually talking to them. You’re actually speaking to them. It’s not back and forth, but they get a feeling for your personality. They get a feeling for who you are, they get a feeling of what kind of relationship you might have with your clients.
If they’re just reading, they have no idea what you’re like to work with. But when they hear you, when they see you, when they see your mannerisms, there’s more of a connection that’s made. Video is always better than text for these type of purposes.
So, what are my critical rules? What we must remember before we just start throwing videos out there?
Number 1, keep them short. Now I know I break my own rule on this sometimes. And on the internet where some of my videos go longer. But I usually say keep your video under 5 minutes. And if it’s an introductory video where it’s one of the first videos on your website, I would say keep it under 2 minutes!
Longer videos are for when people know who you are and know what you’re about and are more willing to sit there for that long. But keep in mind the longer video you create, the fewer people will make it all the way through!
Use YouTube. Do not upload videos directly to your website! The reason I say that is simple. Imagine this. You create a video and you upload it to your website. All of a sudden it goes viral and everyone s going to your website to watch it.
The problem is video is so high bandwidth, so much traffic that if a lot of people start watching it, it could take your entire website down! So what I do is I created a YouTube channel. It’s free! And I upload my videos to YouTube. And then YouTube gives me a little piece of code I can put on my website. That way when you look at a page on my website that has a video on it. And when I hit play on that video, it’s not playing from my website.
It’s actually embedded from YouTube! That way if a million people are watching that video, it doesn’t affect my website at all! Because YouTube can handle that kind of traffic. So, never ever ever upload your videos directly to your website. Or you could run into some serious serious problems.
The other reason I like YouTube is because if someone is using a mobile device to watch a video, YouTube automatically re-sizes to the device without you having to worry about all of that. So once again it makes it easy.
I get a lot of people upset about this one. I always tell them “If you’re gonna make a video don’t create a script.” No script. Yes! You see this has got to come across as natural. When someone walks in to your store and you are talking to them, you’re not speaking from a script. You are talking to them, you are speaking to them 1 on 1.
When you create videos, I want you to look at that camera and talk to that camera as if it was a person. I don’t want you to think there are millions of people out there because technically when someone is watching your video, it is 1 person. So, talk to the camera. Video marketing is only as good as your ability to reach through the camera and connect with someone.
And yeah you’re gonna make mistakes, but don’t feel you have to always edit them out. I mean heck you heard me make a mistake earlier, and I didn’t edit it out! That’s because when I am in a conversation with someone, if I make a mistake I don’t go “Oh let me start this conversation completely over again!.” No. I just keep going. It makes us look more human, it makes us look more authentic. I don’t have a script for my videos at all. The closest thing I have are these slides you see behind me.
So everything you hear me say is what I would say if you were sitting in my office. It comes across as natural, it comes across as genuine. Don’t use a script! Because trust me, if you do write a script word for word for what you gonna say, it’s gonna come across sounding like a script. And you’re just gonna be one of those plastic heads reading a script and there’s gonna be no connection. They’ve got to feel who you really are. And what it would like to be in font of you in real life. And if you’ve watched these videos, and if you’ve ever heard me speak, you know this is exactly how I am in real life.
Every video needs to have some sort of call to action. And what that means is you want them to do something. Based on what they saw in the video, you want them to take some sort of action. Now my videos are educational. And so the only action I’m looking for really, is that if they want to see more videos, go watch em. And so you’ll always hear that at the end of everyone of my videos.
Also, on the screen behind me you’ll see a call to action on the very last slide. It’s to get people to go to my website. So in your case you may want people to walk through the front door of your store, you may want them to click and download something, you may want them to purchase something. The point is think about what your call to action is. And make sure that your video has that in it. I also want to tell you to make sure that your video is stand alone.
Half the people who watch my videos, never go to my website. And that’s because they found them on YouTube. So they’re watching these videos on YouTube. And a lot of times I get phone calls strictly from that. And they never even went to my website. So make sure the video can stand on it’s own. And don’t do things like “Click down here on the button.” Now that button may be on my website, but if they’re watching it on YouTube they won’t see it. So try to make the video stand alone.
Publish often. This is the biggest one of all. If you’re gonna do this, DO this! And don’t just do 1 and wonder wheres all the traffic! I’ve done a lot of videos, and I mean a LOT of videos. And I’m gonna continue to do a lot of videos because they bring business to my company. And they can bring business to your company too but you got to keep doing them.
Remember people would rather do business with an expert than a salesman. And the more educational videos about your product or your service you create, the more likely people are to see you as an expert, and not just a salesman. Trust me, video marketing works! It’s benefited my business tremendously, and I’ve seen it benefit many of my customers’ businesses as well.
Well as always if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to stop by my website ericspellmann.com, or visit me on Facebook and shoot me a question. I’ll be happy to help. I’m Eric Spellmann; I will see you in cyberspace.