No pictures please...

When starting a new position in just about any company, I can almost guarantee at bare minimum you will find 1.) some type of training video and 2.) an infographic to assist you in learning key points of your job. No matter your industry these two items can make or break training and development, marketing and sales or worse; client/employee transactions. This blog will almost specifically focus on the importance of video marketing in the world today. Keeping the attention of your client is an absolute must. Therefore, following the times of today, video messaging is key. Some strategies such as creating intriguing video marketing content, using social media marketing well, and even the little guy on the corner flipping the Little Cesar’s Pizza sign are all excellent ways to achieve brand awareness through top of mind marketing.   

January 2017 I was sitting in a large conference room surrounded by hundreds of Real Estate Agents, Insurance Agents, and many other product vendors participating in a Real Estate continuing education seminar.  There were many speakers and companies who all got up and spoke about securing “listings” and setting up processes for following-up with customers. One of the Agents got up and did an almost 30-minute presentation on the importance of video messaging the Real Estate world.  I was fascinated by what she had to say and thoroughly intrigued by the “tips and tricks” she went over while speaking. Many of the other agents moved to and from the snack bar and kept up small side conversations while she spoke. I can remember one person specifically saying under his breath “when will I ever need this”. As I continued to listen to the presenter I distinctly remember thinking “how can I use this to my advantage”.  Yet, in the coming months I got extremely distracted with the day to day operations of life and never followed up.

In my previous blog “Reeeed Robin…Yum!” I focused on the importance of creating a memorable personal brand. I used examples like advertisement jingles that get stuck in your head and gave a few facts as to the costs some companies pay to create, maintain and advertise their own brands.  Looking at the numbers there is no way anyone can tell me that major companies don’t specifically invest in their video marketing department.  With this being said, the importance of having some type of video marketing for your brand and products is absolutely necessary from this point forward. While researching the topic for this blog, some of the staggering facts I found are:

1. By 2019, internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic.
2. Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
3. More than 500 Million hours of videos are watch on YouTube Daily.
4. 87% of online marketers use video content.
5. 92% of mobile video viewers share videos with others.

Now I know what you’re thinking.  “Jas, I completely agree with you on the need for video marketing in any industry, and more specifically mine…BUT HOW”.  Well ladies and gents please draw your attention to “Online Video Creation Tools for Small Businesses”.  Personally, I don’t like being in front of a camera, I tend to shy away and say NO PICTURES PLEASE. Yet, in today’s world I can’t even go out to eat without “accidentally” photo-bombing someone else’s pictures.  In learning how to grow with the times, I find I am more comfortable speaking on a subject, on camera or off, that I am familiar with.  Technology today has catered to the Video world with updated phone camera’s, excellent Vlogging sites, and free editing and design tools available online. 

In conclusion, I wish I had maximized the information I learned from the Real Estate seminar sooner.  My personal failure to understand exactly how important video marketing is has me starting from scratch and a little behind the starting line.  Some of the tools I use to learn and succeed are; The University of YouTube (or so I like to call it), Piktochart (for infographics), and (although I haven’t tried it yet – but it was recommended to me) Splice for editing. I encourage you this week to take some time and research some additional methods for video marketing.  Look at different styles and find other tools to record.  Send a random video to friends and family to get used to being behind a camera and as always, I encourage your feedback.  What did I miss? Drop a comment with some of your favorite video recording/editing software. Have a wonderful week! I’ll hear from you soon.