In this episode, Amanda Ferguson teaches us the importance of video marketing in any business's overall strategy.
You'll learn:
...and so much more.
Want to see an epic video?
Check out this case study for the Georgia Cyber Center.
https://www.wierstewart.com/work/georgia-cyber-center
In this episode, Amanda Ferguson teaches us the importance of video marketing in any business's overall strategy.
You'll learn:
...and so much more.
Want to see an epic video?
Check out this case study for the Georgia Cyber Center.
https://www.wierstewart.com/work/georgia-cyber-center
[00:00:00.990] - Jackie
Hi and welcome to another episode of the Weird, Smart podcast. This is a show about how to tap into your brand's individuality to help your business distinguish itself from the competition. I'm your host, Jackie Rogers, and I'm the social media strategist here at Wier/Stewart.
[00:00:15.000] - Jackie
Our guest today is Amanda Ferguson, or Froof, as we like to call her. I've invited her here today to talk to us about how to incorporate video marketing into your overall brand strategy, which I'm very excited about today.
[00:00:28.950] - Jackie
Thanks for coming on today.
[00:00:29.940] - Froof
Thank you so much for having me, Jackie.
[00:00:31.410] - Jackie
You're welcome.
[00:00:32.250] - Froof
It's going to be great.
[00:00:33.210] - Jackie
It already is. It is. It's been a lot of fun. We're five minutes late today because we were just catching up. We don't get to hang out often.
[00:00:40.110] - Froof
We don't. And also our microphones try to attack us. We won't get into details. But it was dramatic.
[00:00:46.230] - Jackie
It was. But it's OK, though. We won. Women over technology.
[00:00:51.410] - Froof
We showed those microphones who's boss, didn't we?
[00:00:55.350] - Jackie
Yes! All right. Now, let's dive into the first question here. Yeah, very choppy transition.
[00:01:02.100] - Froof
Yeah, I like that. I mean, you might as well.
[00:01:04.800] - Jackie
Might as well.
[00:01:11.490] - Jackie
Froof.
[00:01:12.060] - Froof
Yes.
[00:01:12.900] - Jackie
Big question here.
[00:01:14.160] - Froof
OK.
[00:01:15.060] - Jackie
How important would you say video marketing is for any business?
[00:01:18.180] - Froof
Well, I would say it's super important. In fact, I would go as far to say that it is essential.
[00:01:25.190] - Jackie
Can you please elaborate?
[00:01:26.270] - Froof
Yeah, no problem. I think with the advent of social media, there's been a substantial impact on human behavior, but ultimately on psychology as well-- good or bad, depending on how you look at it. But that in and because of this, the marketing game has changed completely since, when did Instagram come out?
[00:01:45.410] - Jackie
Oh gosh, don't try to age me. I was there when it happened.
[00:01:48.650] - Froof
I was there when it happened. And yeah, I'm aging myself. We're cutting this out. We're going to cut this out.
[00:01:54.770] - Jackie
No one needs to know how old we are.
[00:01:56.360] - Froof
Well, anyways, well, anyways, so because of social media, marketing has been shifted completely to how it used to be back in the day. And I think because of that, video content is now literally everywhere and unavoidable.
[00:02:14.840] - Jackie
Yeah. And there's all kinds of different video content that you see out there. I mean, it's not even just social media. You know, there are still ads that go out on I guess YouTube is sort of a social media. There are still like advertisements that you see on streaming services that as much as you know, like when you and I were growing up, we had to deal with cable.
[00:02:34.730] - Froof
Remember that?
[00:02:35.360] - Jackie
I do remember that.
[00:02:36.290] - Froof
Oh, my God. MTV. It was forbidden, but I watched it anyways.
[00:02:42.640] - Jackie
We would stay up late to watch those.
[00:02:44.270] - Froof
There's these things called music videos, kids, and they were pretty cool.
[00:02:49.290] - Jackie
Used to have to wait at a certain time. You would have to check your TV guide.
[00:02:54.320] - Froof
Do you remember that?
[00:02:56.300] - Jackie
Pulling out the TV guide, seeing what time these shows would start and then plan out like what you were going to do on those commercial breaks?
[00:03:03.050] - Froof
Yeah, just feel like that's when I go pop popcorn or that's when I do a pee break. But you weren't going to go check your phone there was that didn't exist or you call your friend. I remember calling a friend of mine. Her name was Amber. Between commercial breaks, we would be like, OK, I'll call you the next one to talk about what we just watched. It was our version of live tweeting.
[00:03:22.940] - Jackie
Yeah, but now it's just like those advertisements are so much faster. And I think you're right. It's because of social media that we have to like. It has to be. And it's so different, too. It's not always like the hard sell, you know what I mean? It's like it's like a storyline that happens.
[00:03:37.490] - Froof
Correct. You've got to have a storyline. We can talk about that a little bit. But with that being said, I do think also, like any business in any market ever in the world or universe needs to have any marketing.
[00:03:48.500] - Jackie
That's very exciting. Yeah. To some extent. And again, we'll we'll get into this more. But I like where this is going because like with video marketing, it's not just like one piece of content that you end up creating. It's many.
[00:04:00.080] - Froof
Correct.
[00:04:00.680] - Jackie
And it's now it's to the point where it's like consumers not only. Are used to video content, but it is also expected now it's true, it's absolutely changed, I would say, even in the last five years, how consumers prefer getting information.
[00:04:18.800] - Froof
Yeah, well, I think also since OK, back to the social media thing again, brands are no longer really in charge of their brand like it is now. It is up to the masses who consume that brand on how that brand is branded exactly as a brand. One more time.
[00:04:36.200] - Jackie
That's totally fine. No, but that's a really good point. You know, your brand like the brand voice, the brand story and what your brand means, it really is defined and shared by your users. And that's why user generated content is so valuable.
[00:04:50.180] - Froof
It's incredibly valuable. They come up with great ideas to your life. They are clever, we're all smart, we're all smart people. And there's some really smart people out there to think that.
[00:04:59.150] - Jackie
Yeah, exactly. And it makes it more fun. It's more fun.
[00:05:02.780] - Froof
That is, I think what is more fun better. Can we hashtag a hashtag now if you go, I do have another question for you.
[00:05:12.560] - Jackie
Yeah. So video marketing, I feel like most businesses are a little scared of it because they think it's too expensive. Do you think video marketing is terribly expensive? What are what are some of those cost factors in video production?
[00:05:27.160] - Froof
Not guarantee it doesn't have to be that expensive. It can be whatever you need it to to be.
[00:05:33.650] - Froof
And I hate to keep hearkening on this as an older millennial, but because of social media now, it can cost nothing really. It can cost a lot. You can put a phone on the moon, and that will cost you a lot of money, or you can bust out your iPhone right here and now and do a story, and then next thing you know, that's like some video content and it's over.
[00:05:55.020] - Froof
It really just depends on the budget you set aside what you're comfortable with spending and where, you know, at the agency, we're having to make those recommendations, but it is kind of like throwing spaghetti noodles in a wall and seeing what's going to stick.
[00:06:08.540] - Froof
And that's kind of how the creative mind works, too. We just need some rules and sometimes those parameters can come in form a budget. Hey, we really only have this to spend. We're comfortable with this, it's perfect. We'll come up with an idea that's appropriate. We're good shepherds of our clients money. It's hard earned and frankly, we don't like wasting our own money.
[00:06:31.290] - Froof
Why would we waste somebody else's money? That ain't right. So it could just depend on what the idea is and what the budget really needs to be, which is why it's important to have that dollar amount set aside and you figure it out from there. We just work together and say, "OK, you've got X amount of money, cool, let's try something different."
[00:06:49.820] - Jackie
There's always different things that you can try to whether it's like one video, or ten videos, or something that you want to be evergreen, or something that you just want for a promotion. I like what you said about being able to just use your phone versus an entire video production team. It makes a big difference.
[00:07:06.710] - Froof
And even now you can just grab a GoPro for a couple hundred bucks and just make magic happen. It's you know, there are there are plenty of hard costs associated with a typical production, obviously, like talent, equipment, things like that. But there are also things that I consider and I guess are called soft costs. Or maybe I just made that up. Someone tell me. But that's your time so you can spend forever on a shoot.
[00:07:32.600] - Froof
You've been forever editing a shoot. A hundred different versions of one thing if you wanted to. But the point is, you need to know what your time is valued. Not just you as like me as a producer on a set or use a social media person or anybody that's on set. You just got to think about the clients time, too, and when something needs to deploy and what the value is in that. If you do a super quick, great, fantastic, you can go about your life and move on to the next thing.
[00:07:58.100] - Froof
Or if you take a little too long on it, you say, well, let me think about why that is and how we can fix it for the next round. That's just one of those things that I don't think a lot of people consider the value of time when it comes to production.
[00:08:09.830] - Jackie
Exactly.
[00:08:10.490] - Froof
And then you want to think about the value that the video is going to actually bring down, you know, and sometimes that can be really hard to conceptualize or really understand. And like, sometimes you do have to just test stories and see what resonates with the audience if you don't really understand what they want. Um, so there are different things that go into it, but it's that's why it's so helpful. It's just like have somebody to talk with and work through it to make it the best it can be the first go.
[00:08:37.480] - Froof
Yeah, partnerships. Obviously communication is key, but you have to be able to fail and you have to be able to say, well, so we have many audiences who's the one that's going to watch this? This idea will resonate with the most. The efficiency queen in me hates time waste. Let's make, it let's get it right.
[00:09:00.960] - Froof
It's a shot in the dark. Maybe, but let's shoot straight.
[00:09:04.290] - Jackie
Exactly. And maybe there's ways to repurpose it later, which we will talk about.
[00:09:08.100] - Froof
Definitely time. We're going to get richer.
[00:09:10.410] - Jackie
We are getting ahead of ourselves. I'm loving this idea. All right.
[00:09:15.480] - Jackie
For my next question for you,
[00:09:17.400] - Froof
I'm ready.
[00:09:18.450] - Jackie
What, in your professional opinion, are the types of content you should consider for video marketing or any business should consider for video marketing?
[00:09:26.820] - Froof
OK, well, here's the thing. There's -- I'm getting philosophical-- I think you need to go for quality content over quantity when it comes to content creation, particularly for video, just because I think there's been this sort of gamification of content marketing metrics that seem to sometimes reward constant content, not to say there isn't potential.
[00:09:55.400] - Froof
I'd like to gain momentum, but momentum can only get lost if you inundate your audience. I eventually get just like blitzkrieg with stuff I remember I looked at because it's just like so much my brain is absorbing at once.
[00:10:06.520] - Froof
I don't know anything about my brain, but that's how I feel.
[00:10:10.300] - Jackie
I'm going to pause you real quick, because I just thought of a really good example of this. Sorry if I threw you off. But, a real life example of this right now, are Instagram reels. So Instagram reels are preferred by the platform right now to get you a wider audience. But the insights are non-existent. The only metrics that you get right now are likes and comments and how many times your video has been seen.
[00:10:36.580] - Jackie
But there's no clear information about who your audience is. So the platform wants you to do, at least four reels per week, on top of your regular content. But, how do you know that that reel is bringing in somebody to your business? And as a social media strategist, I like to know these things and I test things. Yes, I make reels because they're really fun. They're really fun and they're cute.
[00:11:01.270] - Jackie
Every now and then I'll get some new followers or whatever. But if it's not something that is actually bringing in business or anything like that. I don't want to spend too much time on it. So sure. That's my that's my cynicism.
[00:11:14.440] - Froof
It's great. It makes sense, because it comes down to time. What time are you just like churning out reels because you think that's going to happen? You can absolutely do that. But the long game is more important.
[00:11:27.670] - Froof
And that's what video marketing is supposed to be great for is the long game. You've got to be pretty deliberate. You've got to be smart, of course, but from there you just plant a seed slowly over time. And I think to it's more it's more content that I'm drawn to is ones with story behind them. Exactly. Which is what we touched on earlier without a guest. I really like it. Just everything feels a little arbitrary.
[00:11:49.630] - Froof
You don't really stand out and it's it's seemingly meaningless. I feel like human beings are drawn to stories because like back in our cave days, you had to communicate and tell a story for survival. I mean, that's just how things went down. So we are prone to listen to a story more so than look at a static image and then move on with our day. Stories are tribal in us, and that's just how you get people to pay more attention.
[00:12:16.710] - Froof
It's because they already are. They want to. You just gotta hook 'em, girl. Who wants a good story? Me.
[00:12:31.210] - Jackie
I wish this was recorded so we can see that video.
[00:12:34.540] - Froof
Yes. She raise your hand guys. It's all good. But all that to say it does a good story develops a lot of intrigue and if it's good enough it can definitely set your business, your brand apart. And eventually consumers are going to be locked in. And I got to know what's happened next, which is why I watched some shows for far too long, like Lost.
[00:12:52.000] - Froof
I'm not proud. I watched it to the end.
[00:12:55.450] - Froof
I still talk about it.
[00:12:59.170] - Froof
I can't get that time back. But it's OK.
[00:13:01.480] - Jackie
It's lost .No pun intended.
[00:13:03.910] - Froof
Breaking Bad made up for it though so. I keep doing it to myself.
[00:13:08.500] - Jackie
So not to ask the obvious question, but to ask the obvious question. Can videos actually increase your sales?
[00:13:16.090] - Froof
Well I mean, videos can increase a lot of things. Sales probably. Yes, not just sales though. You can get out of anything. You can get overall awareness engagement. You can increase company culture through videos. You're making silly videos like Wier/Stewart does. It's just like, look how funny we are. We love each other. This is great. Ha ha ha. And you post it, and you get engaged with your community. It just propels your culture forward.
[00:13:41.530] - Froof
And then you also just can display your brand quality as well as control some perceptions to so VR content can really kind of level up many aspects of business because video can really, like I said, hook attention and more of an impactful way and other tactics. No dis on the other tactics not to be a little bit of a snood about it. But like if you really think about it for video, you're using more than one sense, like you're using your eyes and your ears.
[00:14:07.600] - Froof
So you are required to pay more attention. Typically when video is happening and you don't want to miss out. So you're in and it can increase sales. But that's another metric where. There's more to it, it's more complicated.
[00:14:25.730] - Jackie
That is good. And there's different ways that you can think about what a sale constitutes. Like, if you have a good company culture. You've got good employees to continue to do good work, who are continuously happy, who are continuously serving your customers in the best possible way and then trickle down effect. Bada bing bada boom.
[00:14:54.800] - Froof
I mean, video just touches all things. It's a ripple effect. So you just do one little drop and then next thing you know, there's a tsunami.
[00:15:01.400] - Jackie
Right. And I mean, like brand awareness that attracts new customers that could potentially be sales down the road. Doesn't have to be a one time sale. It could be lifelong.
[00:15:09.210] - Froof
Like I said, it's a long game, baby.
[00:15:11.060] - Jackie
Long game. I love it. Alright, Froof. How many videos do you think should be made in any video marketing campaign?
[00:15:20.260] - Froof
Well, if you're hiring Wier/Stewart at least five.
[00:15:29.050] - Jackie
Just did a shameless namedrop!
[00:15:30.410] - Froof
Cut it out. You cut that out.
[00:15:32.050] - Jackie
I'm not cutting out anything.
[00:15:33.170] - Froof
Oh, no. OK, well, great. I honestly don't have an answer to that question. I wish I did. There's not really like a no. It again, it just depends on what's appropriate for what you're trying to achieve. Of course, you know, the more the better. If you can create several, that doesn't mean you deploy them all at once. You can kind of do things further down the line if it makes sense. But I think you're doing a campaign.
[00:15:58.240] - Froof
Obviously, one very big sexy one would work, but make sure it's something that you can. We'll talk about this in a minute, repurposed pieces of it or do cut downs or something to that effect just be like really efficiently one big sexy guy and then just kind of go from there?
[00:16:14.780] - Jackie
Yeah. What do you think the life cycle is of a really good video?
[00:16:18.600] - Froof
Oh, my gosh. It's a great question, um. I would get oh, man, in 2021. The life cycle of a really good video, you've got probably three months. Three months, yeah, maybe that's just our world. There are some that I mean, obviously viral videos are what they are. They're timeless and will last forever. But a campaign video, it's good for a like a flash. And then it just goes in the history books.
[00:16:44.720] - Froof
And then in an ad class in college, someone's going to talk about it and then that's it. I mean, what was the one the. Apple commercial that came out and was it nineteen eighty four or something, and it was just like this big deal and it broke boundaries and it was super cool and innovative and that was a commercial spot. Doesn't run anymore, but we are still talking about it because now it's like a historical thing and is being studied.
[00:17:13.340] - Froof
Yeah. But if you have just like one really good Nike ad now, you're kind of like, oh, that was good. It was a Super Bowl ad and that's the end until the next Super Bowl ad comes out. And then it's, you know, it's cyclical. So I would say not. Super Bowl was maybe three months at the most. A sexy video will last. Love it. It's short life, but it's a fun one.
[00:17:32.750] - Jackie
It is video, I think.
[00:17:33.950] - Froof
And I think it's important to stay relevant and memorable with those. And I mean, there's always there may even be opportunities which, again, we're going to get into where you can reference back to those same ideas, the same concepts, the same videos as make them make them, I wouldn't say built to last, but make them industrious.
[00:17:53.780] - Jackie
I like that. Built to last. Industrious.
[00:17:57.260] - Froof
Yeah.
[00:18:08.330] - Jackie
Yes. Yes. All right. So my next question for you. I want to talk about my favorite topic, which we have touched on a few times now, which is repurposing what are some of the best ways for businesses to repurpose their video content?
[00:18:23.720] - Froof
Well, I think you have to start off with a concept that, you know, you could recycle a couple of things, uh, repurpose a couple of things. I apologize. It's not right for me to do. But, yeah, as efficiency is one of my love languages and one of the ways to get to that is through doing things that can be repeatable or, for example, making an animated video just to talk about a new product you have coming out in fifteen seconds for your roll.
[00:18:57.560] - Froof
That's all good. You're obviously going to have audio associated with that. And if you have the money for a buy for radio, you can just repurpose the audio for the animated pre roll and use that for a radio spot. It's little things like that. Or if you just have a two minute long explainer video, perhaps there's opportunities within that to cut down [inaudible]
[00:19:28.880] - Froof
My mouth just like, totally betrayed me.
[00:19:31.010] - Jackie
Your mouth definitely quit.
[00:19:32.060] - Froof
Let me try this again. Specific.
[00:19:35.660] - Froof
Thank you. There could be fortunes in a longer video. There are specific cut downs that you can use for different audiences or something to that effect. But it's good to think about that as your. Creating a big piece.
[00:19:51.540] - Jackie
Yeah, it's more like you plan you plan evergreen content for those repurposing opportunities.
[00:20:02.140] - Froof
Why not? I mean, unless you're just balling out of control and you're just ready to throw money away and just think through ways that you can repurpose pieces of content. I've done interviews where they're awesome. I'll talk to people for like an hour I was chatting away and I'm just like, oh my God, that is not at all what this video was about and I've been having the best time.
[00:20:25.890] - Froof
And you're fantastic. And I'm seeing personality shine through and it's wonderful. So you're just it's you don't want to waste hate waste. So there's opportunity maybe to create a funny little series or in the very least, you can just make cute little gifs of, like, people laughing or whatever. Do you still frames of other things, just like look for any reason to reuse whatever you can.
[00:20:49.830] - Jackie
Yeah. And I mean, like if you take a look at your content strategy and I mean first and foremost, you need to have a solid content strategy. So that way you can have like, you know, you can reach your goals at the end. But when you have a good piece of content like that, that you enjoyed the personalities and they were good, like, man, I really want to fit this in somewhere. Look at like where you're trying to raise awareness or, you know, build up your community or even drive people to other places like your website or your sales page or your calendar.
[00:21:18.090] - Jackie
There are ways where you can inject those kinds of conversations and plant them on your social media or in your emails or in your podcasts or on your YouTube. And like no one says, like when you make a piece of video, it needs to live in one spot. There are millions of places where you do that to her exactly around the world. Well, that's where you do with this podcast, not to get too meta about it, but like we're recording this now and what happens and then what happens actually is we make we'll make some social, quote cards.
[00:21:50.010] - Jackie
We'll also do like an audio clip on social media. It lives on probably 20 different directories right now. And there's going to be a few more coming. We do put it in the email and we actually share it with our partners who end up getting mentioned in the podcast.
[00:22:08.290] - Froof
How about that? And everybody, we're eating family
[00:22:12.270] - Jackie
Hold, please. I'm not done.
[00:22:13.830] - Froof
Oh, my God. Let me take a swig.
[00:22:18.000] - Jackie
Go ahead and also take a breath too, because it's going to be a minute. I also transcribe each of the episodes. So it's not just audio we have written link like it's just a blog post or it's just like short copy, but it's stuff that I can use. I plan it out for the next six months planned out. It is. And I mean, anybody can do this and it's just with like really good quality content that you can share over and over again.
[00:22:41.170] - Froof
Make it make it make sense.
[00:22:43.170] - Jackie
Exactly. We're twenty minutes into this interview right now, but this is going to live forever. We'll find ways.
[00:22:50.280] - Froof
Yeah, well, I'm sweating now. Let's go live forever. Yes, that that would be delightful. That's the good thing about content. It can live forever. We unfortunately cannot.
[00:23:01.650] - Jackie
No, we can't. But I mean, but to your point, we can't live forever, but like, the things that we make, they can they can go on and they can be revised and they can you know, you can continue to build it up. And there are just different ways that you can use, not even just like video content, but like any content that you produce. You can always put it into a campaign or an initiative or a goal and just continue to refine it.
[00:23:24.240] - Jackie
And that's the biggest thing with content. You have to be, like you said earlier, you have to be willing to fail. But so that way you can test and try and grow.
[00:23:31.410] - Froof
You have so much content in this world. It's insane.
[00:23:34.350] - Speaker 1
Yeah, you don't have to feel. So I coming from the freelance world, I always dealt with people who were like, I don't want to look stupid when I go on social media. I'd be like, "Friend, everyone looks stupid on social media."
[00:23:48.390] - Froof
We're all out here looking dumb.
[00:23:51.270] - Jackie
But it's fun and it's great. It's exciting. And you just, you watch your numbers, you find the content that you like to produce and you just kind of keep doing that. But you don't know until you, like, test and try and find your story. And once you find your story, guys, it just flows.
[00:24:05.640] - Froof
It helps. And you'll know when you know.
[00:24:07.020] - Jackie
You know, when you know. Jeez. So I have one more question is my last one. Yeah. Let's do it. One, should a business consider consider doing video marketing.
[00:24:17.400] - Froof
I would really suggest it on any day. That ends with "y."
[00:24:21.720] - Jackie
I see what you did there.
[00:24:22.530] - Froof
Thank you so much. Right now, nothing stopping you again. If you have no budget or some budget or all the budget, just consider video. It is it's insane not to. As long as the Internet's around, as long as social media is around. Video is king or queen. Or the jester. But it's important you should consider it in whatever endeavors you're doing because again, like I said. It's fantastic. It's the one is the hook, it's the way tell the story.
[00:24:58.540] - Jackie
Thishas been such a good conversation. I really enjoyed this today.
[00:25:01.090] - Froof
Oh, I thank you so much. We'll have another podcast or we talk about pasta,.
[00:25:06.290] - Jackie
It's not today, that's for another day. Thanks for coming on today, it's a pleasure.
[00:25:10.940] - Froof
Thanks for having me.
[00:25:11.510] - Jackie
No problem. To everyone who's listening today, thanks for tuning in. We actually added a few links here where you can see a couple of examples of video marketing that's done really well by Wier/Stewart right here in this agency.
[00:25:24.210] - Jackie
If you have any questions, please reach out to us. But make sure you subscribe so that way you get the latest episodes. All right. That's all from us today. Thanks so much. And I hope to talk to you again soon.