Video Marketing - Is It Worth It For Small Businesses?

Hey, what's going on? My name's Shannon, and you're listening to the KLT Authority Podcast. Welcome to the KLT Authority Podcast, where we help you grow your business by leveraging the power of the internet and the technology that it offers. Here are your hosts, Big Shannon and Little Shannon. Yeah, that's right. The power couple with the same name. What's going on? My name's Shannon, not Little Shannon today. I don't know if she'll be returning to the podcast, but for now, we have that intro. So that's what it is. Today, we're going to be talking about should my business be using video? And I'll give you the short answer so you can skip this if you want to, but the answer is yes.

However, I'm going to explain to you why you should be using video for your business, and I'm going to explain what type of equipment you need to make those videos and what kind of videos you need to make with that equipment. So it's going to be a great podcast and packed with a lot of information. But before we start, we're going to get into why and how you should make the videos. However, this is a series of multiple podcasts, multiple videos and articles that's going to show you exactly how you can leverage video to grow your small business.

Now, if you're new to this podcast, we talk specifically about how local businesses can leverage the internet and how individuals can leverage the internet to grow their businesses and their careers and things of that nature. So we're not going to be talking about how to become an Instagram guru or YouTube guru or anything like that. We're going to be talking about business and how you can use video for business. So with that said, let's get into the show. So this is a question that I get almost daily, and it is some form of this. Should my business use video? Because I talk about it a lot. I've been talking about it for years.

Ten years ago, I was preaching that video is going to be the future. Learn how to use video now because video is the future. However, that future is now. It is here, and video is here to stay, and video needs to be used by your business. But the biggest thing people want to know is, well, okay, I get it. I should use video, but why should I use video? Number one, it creates authority. And that's the biggest thing, especially when it comes to local businesses, is you want to be an authority figure, especially in the eyes of Google, so that you get the vast majority of traffic for people that search on the internet. And we'll talk about that a little later.

But more importantly, you want to not only be found online, but I tell everyone that I work with is my goal is not to get you found online. Getting found online, I don't want to say it's easy, but it's relatively easy. Getting found online and then converting those people who find you online into actual paying customers, that's the difficult part. So we want to help you go from being found to those people coming in and wanting to do business with you before they even meet you. So they're walking into the business, not asking you how much does it cost, but asking you how do I become a customer because I know that you are the authority figure.

You are the one that knows the most about this subject in my area. Therefore, you are the one that I want to be doing the work. So that's the goal with video is to demonstrate your authority. And then number two, why should you do it? Well, that's even simpler, and that's simply because Google loves video. So if Google loves video, why not give Google what they want? Right now, and one of the very first podcasts I recorded was that Google My Business accounts are the most valuable asset that a local business has. And if you don't know what a Google My Business account is, it's when you search online for a local pizzeria.

You say pizza near me, and those results pop up at the top of your mobile with the phone number and directions. That's your Google My Business listing. Now those listings are optimized on Google. Google wants people to stay on their site. Therefore, they're giving results that allow people to stay on their site, and they want to give good results because you are not Google's end customer. The end customer for Google is the searcher. So they want the searcher to have the best experiences possible. So they want to give the most authoritative places to show up at the top of the search results. How do we make that happen? One way we make that happen is to demonstrate that you're an authority.

One way to demonstrate you're an authority is to create videos on the topics that show that you're actually an authority. So not only does Google love video, but guess what? So does all the social media platforms and everything else. Right now, the number one social media platform, the largest growing platform, the spot where people are spending the most amount of time, is TikTok. TikTok is short-form content. That's video, and it's short. So that's the great thing about this, and one of the things that's going to make it to where you can actually do this is you don't need to create long, overproduced videos.

All you need to create is quick, short, unproduced videos, and we're going to get into that a little bit later. But TikTok, Reels, Stories, things of this nature, has driven this short-form video content. And right now, believe it or not, unproduced, unedited videos are performing better than highly produced, edited videos in terms of conversions and converting people from actual lookers into customers. And why is that? It's because most of them are authentic. They're real. You can see that it's not edited, and it's not polished. So what you hear and what you see is what you get. Now, the head of Instagram also just recently announced that they are no longer an image-sharing site.

They are a video site. Their focus is no longer on images. Their focus is on video. And why is that? Well, it's because people prefer video over any other type of content most of the time. And because video prefer video content over other types of content most of the time, all of these platforms are pushing video because video is what keeps them on the platform. Video is what addicts them to the platform. So we want to leverage that so that we can build those personal connections. And that's the third point that I want to make is that video allows you to build personal connections without ever actually meeting the person in real life.

If you think about it, think about your favorite movie star or now your favorite YouTuber, and you feel like you have this personal connection with them. You know things about them. You know their voice. You know the way they act, their mannerisms. You know this person. But that person doesn't know you from Adam. If you walked up to them, they would not know you. You would be a stranger. However, you know them so well that you think, hey, we're like friends. They just don't know it yet. You want to walk up and give them a hug, but you know you can't because you'll probably get punched in the face because, again, they don't know you.

But you built that connection through video, and that's what we want to do with your potential customers and clients is build that connection so they're not walking in going, should I do business with you? They're walking in going, I am going to do business with you, and the reason I'm going to do business with you is because you have demonstrated that you are the authority, and I want the authority in this subject matter performing the work that I need done. And then number four, video is proven to convert lookers into buyers. A study done by HubSpot revealed that landing pages with a video on the landing page can increase conversions up to 80%. Up to 80% it can increase the conversion.

So why? And that's because people are seeing it. They can build that connection. That's why it works. On top of that, 54% of the users polled preferred video over emails, social images, articles, and social video. So their preferred method of consuming content was video. And it's obvious to see. Look at in your personal life. We sit down and we binge watch Netflix. We watch hours upon hours of YouTube. If you give a kid a screen, the kid will look at the screen for hours upon hours upon hours watching YouTube Kids and things of that nature. The reason is because video allows you to connect with people in a way that's not possible through text.

Another good example of why video is so good is you take the written word, send it in a text, people can interpret the way you said those words however they want to interpret it. That's why if you send an emotionally charged text over... Well, an emotionally charged text, it can be interpreted in an entirely different way than you actually meant it. You could have meant it be very good and positive, but the way it's read could be very negative and hurtful. But with video, you can hear their voice. You can see their facial expressions. You can see their body language. Therefore, you can give the message in a way that is interpreted in the correct way. All right, so let's move on.

I think I've demonstrated that you probably should use video. There's very compelling reasons to use video. But the next question I always get, well, then what kind of video can I make? I mean, I'm not going to sit down and make this overly produced video. I don't have time for that. And what's my return on investment really going to be? I don't know. You're saying it's a long game. I don't have time for the long game. What should I do? My answer is simple, and it's the exact same right now to everyone. Number one, you don't need to make long videos. Number two, you don't need to make overly produced videos. Number three, you don't need really any equipment other than what you already have.

However, I will say you need to invest in one piece of equipment. Most of us already have a cell phone that records video and records video pretty well. It's a great reason to upgrade your phone right now. Get one with a better camera. But one thing you should invest in is a microphone. We'll talk about that in a minute. But what kind of video are we making? We're making short form content. TikToks, stories, reels, these have popularized short form content. If you asked me two years ago, should I be on TikTok, I would tell you no. It's probably not for most businesses right now. However, the pandemic made it to where TikTok is very popular.

And everyone's demographic right now is on some type of social media platform, whether it be Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, wherever. Someone is there. You can no longer use that as an excuse. But the great news is short form content works and it works really, really well. And you can get a lot of views on stories. You can get a lot of views on TikToks and you can get a lot of views on reels right now. Why? Because the algorithms are working in your favor. So as of the time of recording, that's one of the great ways you can create content. Short to the point videos. And people are like, I'm not dancing, Shannon. I get it. I don't think you should dance either.

If you are in that type of business that allows that, then yeah, dance away. For instance, I have an orthodontist whose personality fits perfect with TikTok type of videos. And they create TikTok type of videos and they kill it. It does great, but you don't need to create viral content. You just need to create content. And when I say content, I mean authoritative content. So how do you create short form authoritative content? You just answer questions. You get asked questions every single day. Every single day. And those same questions over and over and over again. When somebody asks that question, you know it by heart because you answered it a hundred billion times already.

Just spit it out. So what do you do? You just answer that question really quick in a short form video. Now listen, one of the bad things about stories is they go away. So use TikTok. Make TikToks of these answers that you're asked all the time. Then direct people to those TikToks. Number two, what kind of content should I create? And that is horizontal short form content. And this is YouTube style content. And you're going to take those questions and you're going to answer them again. You're going to keep them under two or three minutes and you're going to expound a little bit on your answers. It's not going to be 15-30 seconds. It's going to be three minutes long.

It doesn't need to be a 10 minute long video. If it needs to be a 10 minute long video of you explaining the answer, then 100% it can be. But here's the difference. We're not trying to please a Google algorithm. We're not trying to go viral. We are not trying to be YouTubers. We are not trying to be TikTokers. What we're trying to do is answer the questions that our customers ask us the most and do it in a way that allows us to appear as the authority figure in the area. Then we drive traffic to those videos by pointing people to them. When people ask on Facebook, hey, what about this? You send them that video. When someone's in the office, you say, hey, check out our website.

We have all the questions and the answers right there for you. You can simply click on it, watch the video, and it explains everything to you. And when you do that, what it does, just like when you see someone on YouTube, when you see someone on TV, you automatically think that they're more of an authority than they actually are. And that's the way it works. It's psychology. Even though I'm not a psychologist and don't know, but that's what it does. So we're just going to answer those questions, and we're going to put them on TikTok, we're going to put them on Facebook, and we're going to put them on YouTube. That's it. And then number three, what kind of video is results videos.

If you don't want to be in the videos, do results videos. If you're a pressure washing company, show the driveway before, show the driveway after, and when you're showing the after, simply talk them through exactly what you did. Okay, for this concrete, we need to use this type of soap with this type of pressure and this type of rinse. I don't know anything about pressure washing, but this is what we did, and this is how we got the result that we got. On this driveway, we needed to use lower pressure because it's a brick, and we didn't want to wash away the mortar or the sand in between the brick pavers, whatever it may be.

It illustrates that you are an actual authority in your area of expertise. So results-style videos are great videos, and one of the good things about results-style videos is it takes away that excuse of, I don't want to be on video. All right, don't show the video, show the results, or don't show your face, show the results. It's easy as that. All right, and the number four is testimonial videos. This is the best type of videos. Number one, because you're not even in the video. You simply point the camera at someone else and have them talk about what you do and how well you do it.

Now, we're actually going to create an entire podcast, an entire video, an article about how to structure these testimonial videos. That's coming soon. But really, all you need to do is say, hey, listen, I don't want you to say anything that you don't believe. Just let me know, do you think we did a good job? Or what did we do? Did we do a good job, and would you recommend us? What did we do? Did we do a good job, and would you recommend us? And they say, hey, this is John. Joe came over and pressure washed my driveway. It was black and disgusting. It's now beautiful and clean. It's awesome. He did a great job. I would highly recommend him. Thanks. Simple as that.

So those are a couple ideas of videos that you can actually create. Now I say, well, I don't have the equipment that you have, Shannon. I don't have tens of thousands of dollars in video equipment. Well, the great thing is you don't need that. All you need is your phone. And there's like a dot, dot, dot, and a microphone. Because audio is the most important part of video. People can forgive bad video. People cannot forgive bad audio. So you need to make that investment. You can do it very cheaply, about $89. You can get a Rode microphone that plugs right into the Lightning connector or a Rode VideoMic Me.

That's what it's called, Rode VideoMic Me L, which is the Lightning version, or the Rode VideoMic Me U SBC, which is the USB-C version, connects right into the phones. It's a shotgun-style microphone that will give you better audio. And that's a good option. A better option would be the Rode Wireless Go or the Deity Wireless Filmmaker's Kit or the Mobile Wireless Filmmaker's Kit by Deity. And then the best option, in my opinion, is the Rode Wireless Go 2. And the reason I believe that's the best option is you can have two people talking into one receiver. So it comes with two wireless lavalier mics in one receiver.

But we'll go over that in a totally different video in detail on what you should use, how you should use it, and why it's good to use. But this can at least get you started in thinking about what you need to do. If you're going to go out and buy something, I would go out and buy either the Rode Wireless Go, the Deity Pocket Mobile Filmmaker Wireless Kit, or the Rode Wireless Go 2. If you have the budget, go with the Rode Wireless Go 2. All right, that's what we have for you guys today. Let's do a real quick recap. Number one, should I create video for my business? The answer is yes to everyone. I don't care what business you have, the answer is yes. Why? It creates authority.

Google loves it. So do other social channels. It allows you to build personal connections without actually knowing the person. And video has been proven over and over and over again to convert lookers into buyers. What kind of video I create, number one, short form content. Better if it doesn't expire, so like TikToks and Reels. However, stories and pinning those stories work just as fine. Number two, horizontal short form content in YouTube style videos. So what that means is horizontal instead of portrait. Number three, results videos. Show people what you do and the results you get. Number four, testimonial videos. And what kind of equipment should I use?

You should use your phone and an external microphone. Preferably a wireless microphone so you can get further away from the camera. And it's as simple as that. So if you'd like more, go to kltauthority.com. kltauthority.com. Can you do me a favor? Go rate and follow this podcast on whatever service that you use. Spotify, Google, Apple Podcast, wherever it is. Rate and subscribe. It will really help us out and it helps the algorithm so people can find us and we can get this information to more and more business owners. And on top of that, if you're in a networking group, share this podcast with the people in your networking group.

They will appreciate it because we're going to be giving them lots and lots of information that they can use to help grow their business. So number one, it helps us and number two, it helps you because you then get that, hey, thank you for showing us this podcast because it's really helped us. So that reciprocity comes back around to you in more ways than one. So we really appreciate it. Thank you. Have a fantastic day. And as always, hopefully we'll see you on the beaches of the world.