My guest this week is online video strategist and storyteller, Ben Amos.
We talk about fitting video production into your marketing strategy and how to produce videos which engage your customers and bring in business.
Welcome to episode 159 of the Marketing and Finance Podcast.
What you’ll hear about in this episode
- Why strategy is a vital first step for video marketing
- The seven elements for a successful strategy
- How to deal with fear of video
- Why production isn’t the most important part of video
- Why storytelling is important
- How businesses can communicate in a memorable way
Who is Ben Amos?
Ben has always been passionate in video in any form, and his grandfather and father were both enthusiastic home video makers. He studied film where he could, and became a film and television teacher in high school, before setting up a video production company, working with a range of businesses.
As online content got bigger, clients started uploading the videos they’d had made to the web, but without seeing a good return on investment. Ben realised that they were missing a strategy, so he now helps his clients put together a plan to get more from their videos.
Ben’s also the host of the “Engage with Story” Podcast.
Summary of our chat
Strategy is like a recipe. You’re combining a range of ingredients which taste ok on their own, but if you bring them together in the right way, they’ll be amazing. Bringing Instagram stories, vlogs and sales videos together with a great strategy gets people interested and wanting more. The key is to know your end goal.
There are seven elements that make a successful video strategy: audience, goals, content, distribution, optimisation, metrics and production. When you know your audience, you align them to your goals, produce the right content and distribute appropriately. Think about the platform, and position (optimise) accordingly, and measure success. These then influence your production decisions.
People always struggle with being in front of the camera and how they’ll look, because it’s not natural. Ben’s response is: “Do you worry about that when you’re at a client meeting or networking event?” Like anything, the biggest barrier is getting started, because it gets easier the more you do it.
There’s a perception that everything requires high-quality production, and people tend to focus on that before they consider the content. You need to take into account the other elements too. Where will you be sharing your video? Platforms such as LinkedIn need professional but natural-looking videos, with quality content.
People want to buy from brands they engage with, which is why story is so important. It’s an emotional form of communication, one we grow up with. If we can tell a good story to connect with someone, they’ll pay attention and buy in to your brand.
People don’t remember facts and figures, so if you need to communicate those, wrap them in a story and make them memorable. Storytelling is a powerful way of communicating tangible ideas, so businesses should help people make a connection, remember the message and be moved to take action.
The one thing he’d like listeners to take away
Using video to market your business, particularly online, can be overwhelming and scary. Although there are a lot of possibilities, you can beat that overwhelm by starting with a strategy. Identify your audience, goals, content, distribution platform and your metrics, and then consider production.
A marketing campaign or product Ben loves
Ben talked about a specific approach for using video marketing: when brands pay attention to how they’re using native video on social media, and consider the screen ratio and video size.
A paint company in Australia did this really well. They created a video of a couple discussing home improvements, but looked like half of it was missing. The male character then reached down and pushed the lounge room setting into the video frame, which encouraged the viewer to stop and watch.
Recommended business book
Ask, by Ryan Levesque. He’s the go-to guy for customer surveys. Knowing your audience is the best way to start off planning your strategy, and the book goes into some ninja approaches to using audience surveys to help you nail your customer and get your strategy right.
Special offer for MAF Podcast listeners from Ben
Ben’s kindly set up a page for listeners of the MAF Podcast so they can find links and downloads about online video strategy – visit www.engagevideomarketing.com/maf for more details.
Links and contact details
If you enjoyed – Ben Amos on storytelling, strategy and production for video – please leave a comment or a review on iTunes.
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