Amanda Lee from our office recently took a Facebook Marketing class, and the teacher, Bill Hillestad, highlighted a prodigy of his teaching named Chris Prickett.
Chris is a Realtor in Anthem, AZ who quickly dominated his target market b/c of his effective video marketing via Facebook.
His videos are not professionally produced and they often have nothing to do with real estate, but they nonetheless worked incredibly well for him.
Many of his videos are just interviews with local business people or stories about local points of interest. For example, one of his most widely viewed videos (11,000 views) is a brief story about AZ’s tallest Christmas tree.
Videos are effective b/c they build trust, appeal to mobile users, increase conversion rates, allow you to explain complex topics, and greatly enhance your Google presence (you’re 53 times more likely to show up on a Google search if you have a video embedded in your website, according to moovly).
So, if you’re not making videos now, you definitely should b/c it is easier than you think, and, once again, they work!
2. Get the right equipment (iPhones are fine though). While an iPhone is more than adequate, you should probably invest in a plugin microphone for much better sound quality and a phone stabilizer too to avoid shaky filming.
3. Edit them just enough. We don’t recommend over-editing your video to movie-level production, but we do recommend editing to clean up the sound and add extra visuals. Camtasia is our favorite tool to edit with because it’s so user-friendly.
4. Use subtitles. You can write your own or pay to have subtitle auto-generated on almost any video platform. Many consumers have their volume turned down or off, so subtitles are a must to make sure you’re still getting your message across.
5. Always be branding. Show your logo in your video and include text with your name, title, etc.
6. Clear messaging. Our videos are never more than a minute long and have a clear topic that is easy to explain.
7. Call to action. Include your contact information so that viewers can follow-up with any additional questions about your topic.
8. Record in widescreen (turn your phone horizontal). If you’re posting on YouTube, for example, you should turn your phone horizontally so you have a widescreen shot that fills the entire screen.
My above list is hardly comprehensive, but it does address a few of the issues we often see in videos that we watch.
