As we sip suds on this week's episode of Beers with Max, we're discussing a more enlightened approach to video for marketing and sales. Keep reading to see what we learned, and as always please email max@maxtraylor.com directly with your feedback.
Today's Question (0:30)
The burning question driving our discussion this week: How can we cost effectively use video to improve marketing and sales results? Our special guest today is Jim Burns, founder of Avitage (enterprise content operations), who shares knowledge acquired from over a decade of helping companies create scalable video strategies.
Max Beer Open Fail (0:51)
I demonstrate how not to open your beer while participating in Beers with Max. You're welcome.
The Challenge (1:15)
Why aren't more marketers using video? I believe there's three main reasons:
- Video costs a lot to produce
- Video takes a long time to produce
- Video is scary - people don't like being on camera!
These perceived obstacles have lead to a current market scenario that I call "random acts of video" - companies are choosing topics willy-nilly and going through an entire production process for just one or two video assets. This is inefficient and expensive - fortunately, there is a better way:
"Publishers build content for re-use" (2:21)
Using this insightful quote from Jim as a springboard, I explain the three steps for thinking like a publisher to get more out of your video strategy:
- Identify all the messaging up front - to create videos that really resonate with your target audience, you have to understand their challenges and goals and connect them to your messaging.
- Build a database of 5-10 second video "chunks" - break your core messaging down into 5-10 second videos. Don't try to cover your entire message in one long video: use the "assembly line" approach by creating shorter clips and putting them into a database.
- Assemble the video chunks to meet your use case requirements - now that you have your database of video "parts," you can choose the ones that support specific use cases and put them on blog posts, landing pages, etc.
This approach results in:
- More videos
- More use cases
- A minimal cost per video
- A minimal investment of time per video
Max's Action Item (5:38)
Name your number one source of online leads. Check your marketing metrics in HubSpot, Google Analytics, etc. and look at your best source of leads. Then Google "stats for video [your number one lead source]." The statistics about performance improvement with video will speak for themselves.
If you want to get started building your video messaging, check out my Video Marketing Questionnaire.
Roundtable Discussion (7:50)
During this part of the session we open up the floor for discussion among the group. Jim goes more in-depth about the biggest challenges of video marketing today, Max talks about why you don't need a videographer to start creating videos, and we discuss how a writer can re-purpose a piece of video or audio content.
If you'd like to hang out with us during the next Beers with Max session, sign up by using this link. Until then, grab a cold one and raise a glass to video marketing success. Cheers!
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[Beers with Max Episode 1] Digital, Scalable, Residual revenue for B2B companies.
