Hi, this is Teena Hughes. Today's question about content and video marketing is a good
one. Matt wrote, "Teena, my client is hard to pin down to get content. He wants to promote
his business with video but isn't giving me anything to work with. Got any suggestions?"
Matt, this is a terrific question and yes, I do have some suggestions so let's see what
I can come up with for you. I totally understand this situation because I've seen it myself
and I do have suggestions on how to handle it.
There are two parts to this and the first one is the client can't come up with or think
of any content, so he's probably pretty stressed, and number two, the client really doesn't
have time to do this and is probably already feeling overwhelmed by his business and the
need to increase his revenue so he's feeling pressured.
Perhaps I can best explain how to proceed by telling you how I helped a client with
the same type of situation. I removed the client's pressure by doing two simple things.
Number one, I came up with a list of potential topics for his videos.
Number two, I made sure he didn't have to write a word, send an email, or do anything
which felt time consuming to him.
Let's talk about coming up with a list of potential topics for the videos. If you're
the one making the videos for your client, or if you're the business owner who knows
they need content, I'd like you to take a step back and think about these points. Whether
you're the video maker or the client, if you understand what content means, it can feel
overwhelming just thinking about it. Content can be anything from a blog post to Pinterest,
to Facebook, to Twitter, to Instagram, all of those things.
It's a ton of social media, so that's content, so that bits and pieces about you out there
on the internet.
Next point is if you have to write down the ideas for content, finding the time to do
so may create even more pressure.
So what did I do? I asked to meet with my client for just an hour. I explained we were
going to chat about his business and I'd ask him some questions and record his answers
by using my smartphone's video. I also explained that this was just to show him one way we
could proceed to take the pressure off him.
I also told my client that by recording the questions and answers as videos, it helped
me to get a better understanding of his business, so we may not ever use the recordings, but
it would be a win-win for both of us. He was pretty happy with that and said, yes, he could
schedule, a one hour appointment. So straight away he's done the most important thing required.
He made the time to talk about his business with someone who can help him.
Right. The one hour meeting proceeded as follows. When we met, I got my iPhone out and briefly
explained how I can make little videos and record us talking. I asked him a few questions
about his business, things which were of interest to me, and I recorded my voice with the camera
aimed at the client.
I told him I would press record, but there was no pressure on him to look beautiful;
he liked that -- or to be photogenic. He liked that even better. I told him I would just
take one ten second video to make sure the light and sound were good enough to proceed
and he said that was fine. We both looked at the short video replay and agreed it looked
and sounded pretty good. Now it was my turn to start the friendly chatting.
He started to answer my questions and I'd record him on video and then I would ask a
question based on his response. I'd then stopped the video and ask him if he had any more info
about that question. If he did, I'd start recording again and ask another question.
We did this for just under an hour and at the end of it I had recorded enough short
question and answer video clips to turn into at least 10 little videos.
The key with this is to take short videos so the client doesn't feel like they're not
allowed to make mistakes or stumble over words. Here's a tip for you. Tell him or her if they
make a mistake, just make a noise three times with their mouth. They could even whistle
or clap their hands three times. Then repeat the phrase correctly this time and keep going.
This helps me find the booboo and edit it out later in the video file.
Now, the easy bit of this is that the questions evolved based on his answers and my interest,
so he needed to explain to me as though I knew nothing about his business, which worked
out well. When the hour was almost up. I thanked him for his time and asked him whether he
trusted me to make a few demo videos from our meeting and see what he thought of them.
He agreed and then said the magic words! "Is that all I have to do? No writing, no social
media?" And I confirmed he didn't need to do anything else. His grin said at all and
so the secret is I have found through trial and error that it's easy to get business owners
to talk about their business if they're passionate about it. Recording them on video in a casual
setting over coffee, et cetera, makes it more relaxed.
No recording studio, no guy holding a boom, no bright lights, just two people chatting,
one asking questions and one answering honestly and with passion. The result is that when
I got back to my office, I made two videos. I added an intro and outro to each of them,
had some text appear strategically on the video, had his name and business name as a
lower third and uploaded them where they could only be accessed by a password. I rang my
client and asked if he could check his emails, click the link I'd sent him.
I gave him the password and asked him to watch the video while I was on the phone and to
give me his honest opinion. Well, he was blown away. Instead of focusing on what he looked
or sounded like, he was impressed by the simplicity of the video and the quality of the branding,
the text, et cetera, which appeared at the right moments.
Each video was only about 1.5 minutes long. After he'd watched both of them, I asked if
he'd be happy for this type of video to be shared online to answer the questions many
potential clients might have, and to represent his business in a friendly light, showing
him as real, approachable and friendly.
He was blown away by the videos and said, "Absolutely!". So the final step, I asked
him if he'd be happy for me to proceed making the other videos to a total of 10 which had
been agreed to in our video marketing contract, and he said, "Yes!".
My final question was this, "Would you be happy to spend an hour with me once a month
to do the same thing and then I can go away and make another five to 10 videos?"
His answer? "When can we start? How many months do you recommend?"
So that was pretty good and that's how to take the pressure off your client who feels
like they have to (1), come up with the ideas and (2) write or create something for which
they cannot find the time.
I have some other video marketing client content ideas for you. The first one is -- ask your
client if they've ever received a testimonial of any description. Whatever the answer, offer
to make a series of video testimonials. You can even contact the client of their choice
and set it all up and provide the end result. So if someone has verbally given them a testimonial,
you can actually then contact your client's client and get their testimonial from them.
Now, if they're not local, it could be a video testimonial that can be done by that person
and emailed to you, or you could connect with them over Skype really easily and record the
Skype call.
The next point is -- ask your client if they've ever had any questions about anything to do
with their business. They're bound to say yes, so this becomes the basis for the questions
you ask in the one hour session.
That's really, really easy. The next item is -- ask the client if they've ever had an
amazing success story or a great result from a client. Then get them to talk about that
on video and if possible, ask to contact the other person who had the result and get a
snippet of audio or video from them to add to the video too.
So this question today was, "My client is hard to pin down about video content". Other
people have asked me, "What types of questions work best?"
My simple answer is all questions work best! That's right. All questions. Here's some examples
for you.
If you're a coffee shop, questions can include: how to make 5 to 10 of their coffees. Take
videos of the barista or the business owner answering the questions. Where do they source
their beans, et cetera, what's their favorite coffee and why? So you can see that all of
these types of questions will be interesting on video when someone is searching for information
about coffee or that location.
What about a dog groomer? Questions for dog groomer could include -- the top 10 things
to be aware of when grooming your pet. How to find the best dog groomer, what to look
for in a dog groomer, how to tell if a dog groomer has bad reviews, etc.
Starting to get the picture with this one. It's all getting a little bit easier, I think.
What about if you're a jewelry maker? The questions could include the top seven questions
to ask before buying jewellery online. Five tips on cleaning jewelry so it looks new.
Seven ways to store and display your jewelry at home.
What about if you're a plumber? The questions could include -- the top seven reasons why
drains and pipes block. Five tips on how to make sure your drains are always free of debris.
15 questions to ask before hiring a plumber. What's the difference between a quote and
a final invoice and why they may be different?
And what about if you're a furniture removalist? Questions could include -- top 15 themes homeowners
should avoid when packing their apartment or house. Five tips on how to easily calculate
the amount of shipping space that will be required. The top 10 questions asked about
furniture left in storage for five years or more.
And what about if you're a web designer? Questions can include -- the top 20 questions to ask
before hiring a web designer. Understanding website's hosting domains and e-commerce,
25 ways to bring traffic to your website fast.
So you're starting to see all of these questions can turn into excellent little short videos.
So no matter what the business is, it's based on questions, so it's up to you to tap into
those and use them.
People love stories. If every video becomes a mini story, the viewers will keep watching.
Videos need only be 30 to 60 seconds long, and once the intro and outro are added, they
will be about 60 to 90 seconds long, which is perfect. When you have a series of question
and answer videos, make sure they're on YouTube and other video distributors and create playlists
of all types to showcase the videos in different categories.
I hope this has been helpful. Please do let me know what you think. This is Teena Hughes
saying. Cheerio for now. Bye bye.