Local Video Marketing provides the best way to connect with local customers on a more personal level without them having to actually drop in on your place of business or schedule an appointment with you.
The primary reason I love video is because of the connections it can build and the stories that are so often uncovered during the process, enabling current and future customers to discover reasons to not only be customers, but fans.
If you are a believer in the power of content marketing, SEO and all that jazz then look no further than video for the holy grail of content creation.
Once you have a strategy in place, video marketing enables you to cultivate remarkably effective, message-on-point content that self multiplies off of one effort.
Here’s how I do it.
Shoot Local Video
Don’t fear this. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are terrified of the camera. This usually comes from the ego sending a radio signal to your brain that people will think you look less than flattering. Get over it. Seriously, no one is going to be even fractionally as critical as you will be of yourself.
I love creating documentary style, beautiful local video for small businesses. But I also firmly believe if the message is authentic and the information valuable, almost any video will get the job done. Break out your phone and get going. No excuses.
What about editing? I do very little editing when it comes to quick shot videos on smartphones. If you do want to do some editing or add music, text overlays and so on, then knock yourself out. I use Screenflow for most of mine. It’s extremely quick and easy to use. Whatever the case, don’t let this hold you up. The hardest part is getting started and as soon as you consider local video marketing your mind may begin looking for excuses to delay. Just do it.
Distributing Local Video:
I won’t dive too deep here, but let’s just say there are remarkable ways to turn that video into profit if your strategy is on point. Video advertising on Facebook and YouTube is one of the biggest opportunities today. I’ll put together information on this later, but today let’s just stay focused on the content creation process.
Once you shoot your video you should definitely post it to YouTube (duh) and any other video platforms you can. Some great options are Vimeo, Viddler, Veoh. Don’t forget the social platforms of LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and so on.
If you’re using a company like Wistia you can begin to build in lead capture and other sweet little integrations to turn that video into a more powerful sales tool.
Video is a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal. Take a look at the article I did recently on video marketing statistics.
Once you create your video – get it out there for people to see, baby!
The Transcription:
There are a myriad of transcription services out there. I have used Verbalink and Rev with great success. YouTube automatically transcribes, but it’s sloppy and can create significant errors so I would highly recommend outsourcing to someone who knows what they are doing.
A transcription is literally a written or printed representation of something. This is how you get the spoken word in video into written form.
Why is this fantastic? This plays a role in your local video marketing and content strategy. It’s one thing to shoot video; it’s an entirely different animal to make it work as a marketing and sales weapon.
Your transcription will help deliver better SEO for your videos. Since search engines aren’t quite to a point where the accuracy of their translations are perfect, they rely heavily on descriptions, tags, titles and so forth. The transcription provides a detailed account of the content in the video. Translation: Google knows what the video is about and can then provide that piece of content in their search results.
The Article:
Depending on your time and the importance of the content being discussed you may choose to write your own article. You’d simply write an article directly related to the video you just produced.
The downside to this is time.
If you are more interested in outsourcing this so you can go do something more productive, then you’ll find a myriad of services to help you out. Over the years I’ve used Elance and Outsource for most of this work. If you give these freelancers some direction on an article and provide the transcription and link to the video, they’ll knock it out for you pretty well.
When you get a good article you can distribute to article directories and relevant news outlets. You can post to your own blog, guest blogs, and social media pages and wherever else you can get your information out there.
When you get comfortable with video and begin shooting long and short video based on your expertise, passion, story, process and news you can begin to build a content factory that overwhelms competitors and puts you on the map – everywhere.
The Audio:
Creating audio files are simple once a video is created.
Why do you want the audio files? The simple answer is more content in a different format. Some people prefer audio to watching a video (not many, but there are times it’s easier such as when you’re in transit or exercising).
Pulling the audio file and posting it to your website is a simple task. I use software called Wondershare Video Converter which is literally a drag and drop to pull the audio out of a video file. I can then take that MP3 and post it to my site, blog, article sites, social media pages and so forth.
For those of you who have a podcast, this is a simple way to get a podcast episode, or supporting content to an episode, put together in an instant. If the video is valuable information, then turning it into a podcast episode may be a smart option to gain even more traction.
Compilations:
Yes, just like your favorite artist you can pull together compilations after you’ve done a few of these.
If you have a strategy in place from the get go, this is an easy way to take advantage of your short term efforts while you build up the compilation for what may become a tutorial, how-to catalog, online course or whatever your entrepreneurial heart desires.
There are many well-known entrepreneurs who have turned a year’s worth of blog posts and other content into a book or fee based course. Others leverage the bulk of content as a lead capture component to their sales funnel by offering up bits and pieces but requiring email information to get at all of it.
There’s hundreds of ways to leverage the work you put in as the catalog grows.
The Holy Grail:
I know of no other effort that can multiply itself the way video can.
The ever growing push toward content creation is easy for gurus and information marketers, however the small business, whose core business requires considerable time and effort, building out impactful content on an ongoing basis can be a struggle.
Here’s the thing: there has never been a better time to gain an unfair advantage on a local level. If you are a small, local business and you are looking to get in front of more people, build upon your reputation as a market leader, make the phones ring more and create a foundation upon which your business can grow – now is the time.
Most will do nothing. Others will take the path of least resistance, which typically means blogging or firing up a PPC campaign. The few who put some thought into how they want to be found one, two and three years from now can build a pipeline of content that makes it exponentially more difficult for competitors to catch up.
Sharing your knowledge, regardless of the medium, is something everyone should be doing. Every effort is valuable and has within it golden nuggets of opportunity for you and your business. But if you are looking to really make your mark with content marketing, you’ll find video to be the Holy Grail.
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