Welcome!

As this is the first blog post, it would only be right to say a very big welcome and tell you why we’re here.

Have You Seen The Future?

That future is video.

I think it’s undisputed that video and video content is the way to go. The stats in this regard are pretty overwhelming.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t produce other types of content (says he typing). You absolutely must, as different people like to consume information in different ways, at different points in time. Much will also depend on the demographics of your audience.

But with the advent of tablets and smartphones, the growth in social media, on demand TV and film channels, there has been a seismic shift in our viewing habits. Which will only become even more pronounced as the younger generations growing up now, know no other way.

So talking generically about video is pretty much pointless.

There is only really one question…

How does it affect you and how do you leverage it?

As an entrepreneur and business owner that is what really counts.

I see so many businesses producing videos for the sake of it, as they are being told it’s the right thing to do by the market and their agencies. But they really have no clarity as to why they’re doing it or clear intent.

Producing video content for the sake of it isn’t going to work!

Video is leaving people behind

Because this space is relatively new and evolving very rapidly, not only can most business owners not keep up but nor can most marketing agencies.

There are very few people who are in the trenches doing this stuff day in day out. Testing and evolving strategies.

Those who are, are probably hidden from view. I should know, for years, I was one of those people. I know who the real video marketers are, doing this stuff in a big way. I can tell you, you will not see any of them on the ‘guru’ stands or ‘expert’ speaking tours. Most are very underground.

I’m talking about the people really ‘doing this’ and not just talking about it.

There is plenty of hot air in this marketing industry, speculation or copying.

I started using video marketing as an SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy over 8 years ago.

I was pretty aggressive when it came to ranking web properties and if Google listed 10 spots on Page 1, my job was to find a way to rank for the majority of those spots. Why not?

I also learnt that there are tactical methods and strategic. I regarded tactical methods as quick wins, while the longer-term strategic approaches kicked in.

This is where video came in

We could rank videos for our target keyword terms far more quickly. And often, ridiculously quickly because our competition had no idea.

Talk about thinking differently.

Well, video still remains a far quicker and extremely effective tactic but the game has evolved and certainly become more challenging.

But it works.

From all these video ranking projects we learnt a lot. I also used videos actively in launches and other promotions.

As an aside…

We had a huge amount of fun working on a launch with BetVictor (then VC Bet a large independent sports betting company) and Victor Chandler himself. At that point he’d not done any video work like this or those expensive TV ads he went on to do with Paddy McGuinness while still part of the company that bore his name. The truth is, it took a lot of work to get him to feel comfortable in front of those cameras. I found that by distracting him and talking about his passion, horses, that’s where his eyes lit up and he became more talkative and relaxed. He was in his comfort zone

Anyway, using video in different ways not only proved incredibly effective but got me hooked on the potential of this medium and got me wanting to do more. (Although not too many launches!!)

The Big Problem

The problem I started encountering was the unwillingness of videographers to get out of bed for less than a supermodel daily rate.

As good as they were, they invariably had been brought up in the corporate world like the BBC, ITV or other TV channels. They were not only used to being well paid but also having a full team of sound and lighting people around them with a legion of others.

The other great problem is none of them thought like marketers. They knew how to capture incredible shots and put great footage together but sometimes…you need something slightly different.

Creating emotive content is good but with marketing there is usually a clear purpose (not always, watch some of the great TV ads…but these are big budget PR productions from companies who are being advised on brand exposure. Great excuse)

Businesses & Entrepreneurs needed something else

It was quite frustrating really. We couldn’t get the film boys and girls to get out of bed to produce our pilot projects because they wanted the full daily rates and often the support teams that went with it.

Those we could get were filming beautiful footage but not necessarily what we wanted as marketers.

At about this time, the software developers (or business guys behind them) spotted the opportunity for video making software that anyone could use.

This created a whole new industry which has become rather large. Video creation software.

I think I pretty much bought, tested, or at least tried, all of them. There was quite a learning curve with most!

I realised that this is not where my time was best spent.

All hats off though, some are pretty incredible and really did make the job easier. They also seriously brought animated, sketch style, whiteboard and overlay videos to the fore. Which still can be very effective when used in the right way.

In my case, most remain on my hard drive coming out very infrequently. The only exception being Camtasia, which is my personal ‘go to’ video editing platform for quick stuff I want to produce. (MAC users tend to opt for Screnflow, also very good).

So, the problem was really about combining the skillsets of a top video production team with some people who really understood and knew video marketing.

They say chance comes along when you need it.

That’s exactly what happened

I had just been frustrated on a project for a personal injury lawyer and could not find a videographer to work on a pretty aggressive commercial basis initially. With a very big upside potential. This lawyer was spending five figures each and every month on just SEO.

That’s when the message arrived in my LinkedIn mailbox.

Fate has a way. The timing was great.

Even better, after a number of discussions, it was clear they had a commercial mindset, a refreshingly creative approach and an outstanding track record.

That was two years ago!

We talked about what we could do and create. We did some projects together, learnt a lot. Particularly around launching new products and other people. Plus doing some fun stuff for ourselves.

Unfortunately, we recognised the huge potential of video marketing but allowed our other projects to get in the way.

I will stick my hand up there!

I was still the ‘underground guy’ that the other agencies came to, to deliver the solutions their clients needed and to dig the agencies out of trouble and make them look smart.

But, over the last couple of years, the thing that became painfully obvious, is the lack of knowledge and understanding within most of these agencies around online marketing techniques and in particular video marketing. Let alone the newer and evolving marketing methods.

Experience and knowledge counts.

People were staggered

Over this period we had not only launched video ranking projects but video advertising had well and truly arrived.

This had just become an even bigger ‘new’ opportunity. Despite YouTube running video ads for a long time, Facebook introducing video and video ads really upped the ante…massively.

We were able to demonstrate the incredibly cost effective nature of video ads.

In fact, I took a lot of satisfaction, when we grabbed the attention of a National Tourism Board when a project they partially funded for a regional area, was able to generate a huge amount of exposure from a ludicrously small budget.

Especially when you consider that same National Tourism Board was spending £ millions on untargeted TV ads, yet had no idea what to do with their YouTube channel videos. In fact, they could have been running incredibly targeted and cost effective video ads on Facebook and YouTube and achieved amazing reach.

It really was time….

So, as they say, we realised we really needed to do something and make the skills and knowledge we had acquired more widely available. Yes….it was a bit of a slow process for us!

VideoMarketingPros.org is now here. It’s really about helping smart entrepreneurs and business owners really leverage the power of well crafted videos with cutting edge video marketing methods that deliver results.

Please do take a look around our website

Whether it is producing high quality video content, ranking videos in the search results, or running video advertising campaigns.

And there’s the point. These are campaigns, so everything needs to be structured in the right way. From a deep understanding of your target audience and their desires, all the way through to turning these prospects in to customers.

This is what we know and understand. Video marketing in this context.

I would also like to add how important and effective it is to craft your prospects journey based on how well they know you or their current situation. Working that much harder to ‘tailor’ these journeys makes them so much more effective.

This personalisation is becoming a real differentiator. The tools are increasingly getting better but once again, something that very few really appreciate or are prepared to put the effort in to. If you are running advertising budgets then you should seriously consider this because you can improve your metrics across the board.

OK, the clients we help…

We are quite fussy about the businesses we work with. We are most certainly not a generalist agency.

If we don’t think we can make a substantial difference to your business or find a way to do that, we will say so.

The markets we focus on are financial services (trading and technology in particular because I have a bit of history there 😉), coaches and consultants and then those I like to term as ‘experience’ style businesses. We absolutely love cars, especially classic and sports cars, spas and resorts, unique drinks companies and those businesses where there’s a great story to tell.

I like to tell business owners to get out from behind their brand or tell their ‘why’. I often find the passion that they have for their business and why they have created it, remains hidden.

So you know what to expect.

If you have a good story to tell with a great target market…get it out there!

Video and social media has really changed this and people love to identify with brands and people they can connect with.

Tell your story!

We’d love to hear from you and see how we can provide you with some guidance. Do get in touch!

P.S. That’s way more than enough about us. From here on in, it’s about you, the results you want to achieve, how we help you get there and how to leverage this great video marketing opportunity. In my next post…I’m going to kick it all off with an insane offer. If this is right for you or you think it might be…Sign-up to our Video Marketing Insights and I’ll make sure you get first notification…otherwise come back soon!