Back in 2016, Mark Zuckerberg predicted that Facebook would be mostly video by 2021. This was four years after purchasing Instagram for $1-billion and then seeing the platform dip as Snapchat took the lead. And of course, all of this was long before Tik Tok launched in the US, rapidly becoming the most downloaded app for nearly 2 years.

The common denominator is video. Snapchat, within a year of launching, created video “Stories,” prompting Insta to try and follow suit and catch up. That eventually slid over to the mother app. Now Tik Tok has forced another seismic shift at Facebook, bringing “Reels” to life on Instagram.

In the midst of millions of businesses shuttering, or at least shifting to work from home, there have been three sectors of the economy that have consistently grown:

• Video Conferencing (Zoom, Discord, Google misc.)
• Streaming Services (Netflix, Amazon, HULU, all the +’s)
• Social Media (Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter)

Once again, the common denominator – video.

If you’re asking – and you should be – how does this affect business accounts and ads on Facebook, you’re in the right mindset.

The Good News

1. Video Ads are More Cost Effective

Video costs average around 10% of the cost of carousel or single image ads. While the holy grail of Facebook ads might be out of reach these days, you can run ten times as many video ads as image ads. That alone seems like a really good deal – but it gets even better…

2. Video is More Engaging

Users spend FIVE times more time on a Facebook post or Ad that contains a video than a static post. Twitter estimates about the same. And TL:DR is real – images on all platforms are still 2-3 times more engaging than text.

And yes, animated GIF’s count! While they aren’t as engaging as a video, anything more than a static image is generating more engagement. And that includes EMOJI’s. Whether you like or understand them or not, they are becoming increasingly more popular in posts and ads, regardless of a target customer’s age. And if you’re aiming for millennials or younger, you kinda need them.

3. Much Higher ROI & Conversions

In a study done last year, businesses who experimented with video ads saw nearly 70% more conversions than for static images or text.

People like viewing products and services from the point of view of the customer. Videos that feel like POV of the user; whether the buying process, the experience of using the product – or best of all, the emotion gained by using the product – outperform anything else.

Nothing provides social proof more than actual social proof. BUT, staged videos shot as representative of the customer experience rank almost as highly in ROI and conversions.

4. Don’t Require High Production Value

Facebook allows you to post videos that are studio-shot or mobile-shot. Studio is obvious – these are the commercials we’re used to, with high production values. Mobile-shot can still be well done and tell a good story, but… they resemble organic Stories content, similar to the effect of using a mobile phone camera, or ‘selfie-mode.’

According to Facebook, mobile-shot is:

• 84% better at getting users to view content
• 80% better at driving intent
• 78% better at driving ad recall, and
• 63% better at driving purchases, app installs and checkouts

Some companies are even shooting professionally, but simulating mobile-shot, just to get the benefits. But all you need is your camera and decent light.

In the past, I would have said great audio is a must too, but 85% of people watch videos with the sound off. Facebook even added an option to turn off sound automatically on EVERY video. Meanwhile, a recent study showed that 41% of videos on social media are meaningless without sound.

Instead of spending money on the camera and sound gear, spend time on the best visual story you can tell. It’s said that Hitchcock was such a great director because he started in silent films, as a story card artist. He strove, with every film he made, to make fewer and fewer cards. He passionately sought to make stories that worked, even if no one ever said a word, and often complained that dialogue repeated information already present on the screen.

Like Hitchcock, you want to try and create a video that captures attention and conveys purpose, even with the sound off. Add subtitles if you need to. And be liberal with your use of logos, products, and words splashed across the screen.

5. They Don’t Need to be Too Long

Embrace the minute or less. In keeping with the theme of user-generated content, don’t blast out a video that last 20-30 minutes, just because you can. Hey, if you can make something you can cross post on Insta, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Tik Tok, why wouldn’t you?

Sure the audiences are somewhat different, but you have to start somewhere. Having a short video will play better, be watched more, and can be cross-purposed. You can then tailor it more to the specific platform you want it to be on. Plus, shorter videos are cheaper to make and as a result allow considerable experimentation. You’re not spending a million dollars making a single ad for the Super Bowl that may or may not connect with people. You’re making dozens, maybe hundreds of short ads. It’s not a huge deal if a few of them underperform.

And several social media experts have pointed to Reel-type ads in Instagram as the next big trend in paid social media marketing for 2021.

6. More Formats Available

At the time I’m writing this, Facebook has 16 ad types:

• image ads
• video ads
• page likes ads
• branded content ads
• lead generation ads
• carousel ads
• post engagement ads
• slideshow ads
• dynamic ads
• messenger ads
• stories ads
• collection ads
• playable ads
• augmented reality ads
• instant experience ads (previously called Canvas)
• app installs
• search ads

You can also add polls to video ads and use ads to launch conversations in Messenger.

The Bad News

7. COVID-19 Restrictions are Still in Place

This may not affect you or a majority of small businesses, but everyone should review the latest Facebook guidelines to make sure you’re not offering a product or service that is prohibited in these trying times.

8. Costs are Liable to Fluctuate – a Lot

In all areas, of Facebook at least, cost of pay-per-click ads is down, and has been down since March of 2020. That means all of the ad formats are currently cheaper, not just video. But as it takes longer to reach some sense of normality with the global pandemic, the prices will almost surely rise.

Amazon has done stellar business because they were already in place to take advantage of the online buying experience and delivery, well, trend. Trend isn’t quite the right word, but hopefully you get what I mean. As we sit longer and shift to more delivery and pick up, as well as more digital versus traditional advertising, the rates are bound to go up.

9. Reduced Targeting Options

As our society becomes more stratified, Facebook has had to adapt. Not just in political scenarios, but rejiggering how we think and speak, and how things are addressed. They have also dealt with numerous privacy concerns, both in house and forced to be addressed by government and lawsuits.

As a result, the extreme narrowness of Facebook ad targeting has lessened considerably. There’s little chance these days of one roommate punking another with ads, as happened back in 2014. And that’s probably a good thing. Free speech is fine, but Facebook has a responsibility, both to users and their shareholders.

So several categories of targeting have been eliminated from the Facebook ad options for all the reasons mentioned above, as well as eliminating duplicate and redundant targeting options. All added up, Facebook has eliminated between 7-10,000 different targeting options. Which sounds like a lot – most people probably aren’t even aware there were that many options, let alone that many have been eliminated.

Which makes their assertion that there are more than enough targeting options to reach nearly every type of audience seem reasonable.

10.Tighter User Experience Parameters

Blame this one on the scammers. Far too many Facebook ads played fast and loose with the truth in previous years, and it reached epic proportions during the pandemic. You may remember, it got so bad, their AI was preventing posts and ads from struggling businesses because they tried to yank the reins too hard.

So Facebook implemented a Customer Feedback Score system for advertisers.

And while it feels like they’re spanking everyone for some criminals actions, there are a few easy tips to keep your score above the 1-2 that will get you booted.

1. Be transparent. Make it extremely clear what users can expect from your products. Yes, that includes images, colors, materials, and sizes. Don’t use stock images or descriptions pulled from other sites unless your item is exactly the same, including the brand name.
2. Make shipping expectations clear. Highlight expected shipping times at several points of checkout on your website. And always provide a tracking number.
3. Make your return policy extremely clear. Spell out every detail, including potential return shipping costs, possibility of refund or replacement, and timeframes permitted.

11. Strategy is as Important as Ever

If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you might think I harp on this too much. But, truly, the one thing that sets successful small business marketing apart from being unsuccessful is the approach. The major companies all use strategies – sometimes even apparently conflicting ones.

Did you know that Coke and Diet Coke are marketed completely differently? They even employ different strategists and different advertising agencies because they have two different audiences, two different types of targeted ideal consumers.

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by not having a strategic business plan in place – for your business and for your marketing. If you need help developing one – I know a guy… Please reach out and we’ll be happy to sit down with you over Zoom and work out a way to get started. We won’t even charge you for the first 20 minutes.

We’ve built our business by teaching and helping entrepreneurs build their business. We’d love to help you too. Let’s Grow The Dream together!

So if you haven’t heard of TikTok, you’re probably wondering why we’re even discussing it. In fact, our fearless leader pushed back a little when I told him that we needed to make this one a priority.

If you’re above the age of 25 and never heard of TikTok, that’s no surprise. I myself only learned about it when I booked a commercial for the application last June. I worked for a half day, dressed as a mechanic, while laughing at funny videos on the app. And the very next day I drove to Comic Con in San Diego, where I saw everything from 20 story buildings to pedicabs, all draped in TikTok advertising.

Don’t Despise Small Beginnings

TikTok started as a couple of different apps, mostly for videoing yourself doing lipsync karaoke. Back then, it was called Musical.ly. Its parent company in China, ByteDance, bought the Musical.ly app and combined it with its Douyin video editing app to create TikTok – launching under that name in 2018.  

By the end of 2019, TikTok reportedly had more than 500-million active users. That’s almost HALF of the active users on Instagram, which has been building for 10 years, with the help of Facebook for the majority of that time.

And since people have been self-isolating due to the Coronavirus, TikTok has had a second exponential explosion of users. Unique visitors just from the United States have increased more than 93% since October of 2019! When numbers are finally released, it would not surprise me to see that the app has crested 7-800 million active users. In fact, a leaked presentation claims they’ve already nailed that.

While 52-million active users in the United States may sound like small potatoes, that’s exactly why it’s the perfect time for many businesses to come on board.

Avoid the Demo-lition

Before I get into all the great reasons you should consider creating a presence on TikTok, let me share the one gigantic caveat.

The largest demographic of TikTok users, by far, is between the ages of 16 and 24. Let me repeat that:

The largest demographic of TikTok users,
by far, is between the ages of 16 and 24.

That’s probably why you haven’t heard of it – or just caught rumblings of it from your kids or younger family members. So if your business strategy does not include consumers under 30, it’s most likely a waste of your time and resources to invest in TikTok now.

The demographics may change – Facebook and Instagram are both aging gracefully at this point – but don’t count on it. Bookmark this article for later and work on your other marketing efforts.

Standing on the Brink

For those of you still here… There are numerous pros to claiming some virtual property on TikTok. Think of this as social media insider trading – giving you the boost up before everyone else finds out.

One of the biggest bonuses to TikTok is that it’s extremely easy to get on board. Download the app and use the camera on your phone. You don’t even need the latest iPhone pro camera – an iPhone 5 or a Galaxy 2 camera is just as good. TikTok is the one platform where lack of high production quality is not a barrier to entry. And because it’s still growing, you have room and freedom to experiment and even fall on your face without a bunch of negative consequences.

Also, pretty much any editing tool you might need for a TikTok video from adding effects, text and music – thousands of licensed songs free to use – to tightening your clip is right there in the app.

Inspiring Minds Want to Know

And not only does TikTok allow you to see and steal borrow from be inspired by other users videos – the platform and users highly encourage it, if done well.

Because it’s so new, there has still been no solid analysis of how the TikTok algorithm to recommend videos actually works, but it seems it’s much easier to go viral on this social media platform than others.

It also helps that as of a year ago, May 2019, according to eMarketer.com only 4% of social media marketers had an active presence on TikTok. That number has surely grown, especially since the platform has rolled out advertising potentials since those numbers were published. But there is still plenty of room for growth and huge potential to become the instant leader in your niche of the TikTok world.

About That Niche…

I’ve talked before about the unattributed marketing quote, “The riches are in the niches…” TikTok is the ultimate expression of this concept. About the only reason you can truly fail on TikTok is by not selecting and targeting your videos at a specific niche.

But it’s also incredibly easy to establish yourself and your company in a very specific niche – and quickly dominate it.

And while a 15-second video clip platform may not seem like the best way to build your business, if you work it properly, there is potential for a huge user transfer – hook new people and potential clients on TikTok, then port them over to your Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. In fact, there’s already a large wave of people integrating TikTok & YouTube and TikTok & Instagram. So you can bolster your audience here, then truly engage with them there.

TikTok is actually designed for this type of integration – once you create your video on TikTok, you can save it to your phone, post it to Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp and more.

But first… You guessed it! Strategy!

TikTok forces you to summarize and target your message. 15 seconds is actually longer than most people think it is. But it’s also a lot shorter than most people’s videos – corporate or otherwise. Remember when YouTube released their stats that most people tune out after 8-10 minutes? Quibi, for one, is betting millions of dollars that that’s still true.

But here’s the thing – limits force creativity. Look at something as simple as playing Charades or Pictionary. The time limit often drives you to think outside of the box to get the message (i.e., actor, film or object) across to your guessing teammates.  The constraint of 15 seconds of video, if you let it, means you create stronger, more focused and specific messages.

You’ve probably heard of the Pareto principle – 20% of customers give you 80% of your income. And you spend 80% of your time dealing with 20% of your customers – although, we usually get this wrong and waste time dealing with the 20% troublemakers who supply very little of our income.

I’m going to give you permission to walk away from 80% of less than ideal customers. I assure you that if you take the time to do some serious strategic work, the 20% of customers you keep and focus on will not only make up the loss of income, they will also decrease the stress and mental anguish the discarded customers are causing you. And if you’re aimed at your ideal customer, you’re more likely to attract more of the clients you want and fewer of the others.

The 15-second TikTok rule helps you to implement the ideal customer strategy. No more hemming and hawing, trying to make sure you appeal to 5 or 10 or even 3-4 proposed ideal customers. 15 seconds – one message. With this platform, your 2-3 TikTok videos, each appealing to the specific niche where your perfect customer is … And leave worry behind along with all the added tension.

And remember – you can repost these highly targeted videos on your other social media pages, and link TikTok to your other feeds as well.

Okay, But 15 Seconds of What?

I’m glad you asked. Your first step, is, again, to make sure you understand your target customers and what they like and want. The first rule is that you’re not here to sell anything. Seriously. The younger your target audience is – and on TikTok, it’s primarily Gen Z – the less tolerance they have for advertisements.

As I mentioned earlier, TikTok’s roots are in music, creativity and humor. It helps if you embrace the DNA of the platform. No, you don’t have to sing or be immediately humorous – although it probably won’t hurt.

For businesses on TikTok, incorporating a more personal tone, sharing the culture of your workplace, or taking us behind the scenes videos will do well…often with less talking and more of the included music tracks adding to your scenes.

If you want to really take a chance, and show your crazier side as the owner or entrepreneur face of the business, this is the app that will reward that risk. Or forgive you if it falls flat.

Find a creative way to take part in the hashtag challenges, or use the trending dances and songs. Again, there’s no penalty for looking a little silly on this platform. Look through the hashtags for your chosen niche (more on those hashtags in a moment) and see what other businesses and individuals are doing. As I mentioned before, TikTok is the place to steal like an artist – I mean do an homage to others. Your unique take – your brand story and personality will differentiate you from your fellow niche-rs. So go ahead and copy their idea, with your unique spin.

Above all, BE AUTHENTIC. I cannot emphasize this enough. Even targeting the right, narrow niche will fail if the people who come across your video feel like you’re a poser. This also goes back to the low bar for entry. The majority of TikTok’s are shot on phones. And not like that John Wick snowball fight they did on the iPhone 11 Pro. Just the standard camera phone.

In that same vein, this is NOT the place for explainer videos, training tapes, reairing your commercial or chunks of a high paid industrial effort. Trust on TikTok is built from unique, fun content that allows the viewers to see you – even if you are that guy who can’t resist a terrible dad joke.

But a simple, light-hearted video that shows off your products? Perfectly fine – just skip the sales pitch. TikTok isn’t the place for a call to action.

Nothing Up My Sleeve… 

There are two “magic” ingredients that almost always guarantee a viral TikTok – pets and kids. If you’re like us, or many of our clients, you may have pets that hang around the office – invited or not. If you can incorporate these volunteer corporate mascots, great! Even if it’s just a video of 15 seconds of you trying to talk an unwilling pet into doing their part, people will love it.

Bring your daughter (or son) to work day? Perfect! Put the kids on camera explaining what mom or dad do. Get them rolling their eyes at that dad joke. Get them to help teach their parent or other folks in the office how to do a hashtag challenge dance.

And hey, you don’t have to put them on camera, either. Have the child hold your phone and narrate, in their “kids say the darndest things” way whatever you’re doing or trying to do.

You’ll be able to look at your engagement on each video to see how well it’s performing and you can create more in the same vein of whatever’s working.

Leading a #Hashtag Fugitive Fleet

Just like Instagram (and Twitter, although seemingly less so lately), the true social power of TikTok is buried in the #hashtags. Even without followers, especially when you’re just beginning to post content, the right hashtags can bring more views to your videos. You’re limited to 100 characters in a caption, so try and utilize the strongest, narrowest hashtags to get eyeballs on your content. Think of it like website SEO for TikTok.

Be careful of double entendres and innuendos unless you mean to use them. Years ago, a business consultant shared a story with me of a company that marketed writing utensils. They wanted to utilize the Edward Bulwer-Lytton idiom in their marketing, and one of their associates quickly grabbed a URL to go with that. Sadly, the site attracted a different crowd than they were expecting at www.mypenismightier…  

On the other hand, if you DO mean to tease an innuendo, lean into it, if it fits your brand and culture.

You should also create your own brand specific hashtags. Chipotle and Guess have both had runaway success with this – creating brand hashtags and specific campaign hashtags. In 2019, Chipotle created the #GuacDance campaign – a branded challenge with hashtag. At the time, it became the highest-performing branded challenge in the U.S. And it wasn’t just posting dance videos. In addition to 250-thousand video submissions and more than 430-Million video starts over 6 days, Chipotle restaurants served a record more than 800,000 sides of guacamole. That’s a 68% increase over their standard usage.

But don’t go overboard – use ONE or two main company hashtags and only one specific hashtag for a dedicated campaign. That way, it’s more likely that it will get shared by all the users joining in, and makes it trackable and measureable.

Finally, hashtags are also what you can use to stalk your competitors and other users on TikTok for the best content and hashtags. Just use the discover tab (the magnifying glass), enter your hashtag, tap on search, then select tags and you will see the number of users using this hashtag next to the name of the hashtag you have searched.

You Mentioned Advertising Earlier…

Yes, around August of 2019, TikTok rolled out some more traditional advertising approaches, although the most popular ones are still those that understand and employ the fun TikTok narrative.  

• Infeed Native Content: This type of ad is similar to Snapchat or Instagram story ads and supports multiple features like website clicks or app downloads. They play full screen – are entirely skippable – and can only be 9-15 seconds in length. Remember what I said about Gen Z having no use for explicit advertising? While you can very specifically target who sees these, most users are gonna swipe up, unless you’re delivering undeniable content like those unskippable YouTube Geico commercials.
• Branded Lenses: Branded lenses work for TikTok videos just like the Snapchat 2D, 3D & Augmented Reality (AR) lenses do for faces and photos. If you decide to go this route, shoot for fun, creative lenses that people who could care less about your brand will want to use. Yes, in this case, go wide.
• Brand Takeovers: This lets brands take over TikTok for the day. They can create images, GIFs and videos with embedded links to landing pages or hashtag challenges. As you can imagine, this gets pricey pretty quickly, even for a smaller scale platform. These aren’t really designed for small businesses – with one possible exception
•  Hashtag Challenges: Instead of trying to make a hashtag challenge go viral on your own, you can use promoted hashtags to get more engagement. Now, honestly, if you’ve done your strategic work and know your niche, you are probably just as capable of generating your own viral hashtag challenge. But the wild success of many of these paid campaigns is worth mentioning, because once the paid campaign is over, the hashtags still linger and grow. So if you need a push, you can do a brief ad spend, then hope it continues to build organically. You can even add a shoppable component to the hashtag – guiding users to your site.
• Influencer Takeovers: These are not coordinated or implemented with the platform’s creators, and technically aren’t part of their ad offerings. But influencer takeovers allow you to align your brand with TikTok “stars” that already have significant followings. Of course, you’ll want to only reach out to influencers whose audience matches your target market. Rather than pay the platform, you work out a deal – money, trade, barter – anything goes as long as you both agree to the terms of the partnership. Then the influencer uses your product, recommends it, or creates an engaging video with it. Really, the sky’s the limit with creativity in this area. And everything is posted with the appropriate hashtags.

Time Is Ticking Away…

Should TikTok be a part of your marketing attack plan? If your clients are 16-25, or the parents who purchase things for them, it’s entirely possible.

However, if you haven’t done the crucial strategy work, how do you even know the demo- and psycho-graphics of your ideal customer? Too many businesses rush into marketing plans, grasping for goals and targets that aren’t clearly defined. Sometimes, even with the best intentions, they let go of their vision just trying to stay afloat. They end up serving clients that cause them stress and mental anguish – clients outside of their target market – because they’ve lost track of, or never completed, their business strategy.

Here at Grow the Dream, we don’t want that to happen to you. We’re here to help you BUILD and GROW your business dreams and step into your ambitions. If you need to do the strategic work, or you need a refresher to get you growing towards the sun again, let us do a free consult to see if we can help you.

Right now, while many of us are stuck at home, unable to do “regular” business, might be the perfect opportunity for you. Or if the problem is finding the time to implement the strategy, we have solutions to assist with that too. Please reach out. We want to help in any way we can.

Update: 6/25/2020:

TikTok announces TikTok for Business, housing all of their marketing solutions for brands including access to TikTok ad formats, TopView, Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, Hashtag Challenges and Branded Effects. And launched their newest feature — AR effect Brand Scan.

TikTok is also launching EduTok, an e-learning center, to advise marketers about ad options, with product guides and resources to help launch campaigns. Now users and brands have even more ability to make a meaningful and positive impact on their communities.

One of the most interesting parts of writing these posts is seeing the numbers – and then looking at where they actually come from. It’s hard to get accurate counts when sites repeatedly repost data from 3-5 years ago as current, or worse, report the predictions made as far back as 2013 as “facts” today. Facebook isn’t the only site with fake news issues.

Regardless, while Facebook hasn’t made it to the point where it’s mostly video and almost no words, the social media sites themselves are constantly adjusting their algorithm to make video more important and visible. Likewise, since Google bought YouTube, video search results have risen in their rankings.

So, even though the numbers thrown around are a little skewed, video content is a dominating force for marketing. And these days video creation is much more democratized and achievable for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

So What Do I Make?

That’s the question isn’t it? Where do I come up with ideas for these videos? Especially if you’re going to be putting out at least one a week. Yes, one a week. So much like our posts on where do content ideas come from, I’m going to break down several ways to target your videos to get them seen, and, with any luck, shared. (And there’s no reason you can’t repost these videos on your business website as well!)

There are four main ways you can target your videos – to Educate, to Entertain, to Endorse, and to Engage.

To Educate:

Educational videos are the closest videos will come to mimicking or matching your content blogs. If you’ve done your strategic work, you know the questions your ideal customer is asking that brings them to you. This is your chance to let them see you answering their questions, briefly and succinctly.

No, do not just make a video of you reading the blog. That also goes for reading your PowerPoint slides during a presentation. Sorry, at least one of you needed to hear that.

Educational videos can also show your customers how to use an aspect or feature of the product or service you provide. It can be as simple as showing them the hot keys in your program, or the simplest way to set up your product. Make them feel like insiders by peeling back the curtain.

Speaking of that “curtain,” you can create behind the scenes videos to let your customers get a glimpse of the life or business behind the great and powerful Oz you are. These types of videos deepen your customer relationships and build brand trust.

Educational videos can also be an opportunity to share your unique take on things – get personal with wisdom, advice, or a thought-provoking idea, even if it’s not directly connected to your product or service. Let your personality shine – authenticity and transparency are key factors in viewer engagement.

To Entertain:

No, you don’t have to become Tom Cruise, dangling off an airplane or the Burj Kalifa to get your customer’s attention. But remember where video content came from – the best material is the most entertaining.

One way to connect – give the gift of a smile! Think about how you scroll through your social media feeds. There’s a reason GIF’s and Meme’s are exploding right now – they usually make people grin – or even better, literally LOL!

If they’re finding your content amusing, they’re more likely to not only engage with a comment or like, but share it across their social media feeds. A few videos like that will exponentially raise your cache on social media – the more popular any of your videos, the more all of them are exposed to viewers.  

Along the same line, inspiring videos can rapidly build your social engagement. How many times when you were in the doldrums of building your business did you pull out Rudy or Hoosiers, or Miracle or click on a Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar video on YouTube?

Even if you don’t have Will Smith style experiences to share with your audience, it’s likely that your own story is more inspiring viewed from outside. Or you can mine the stories that inspire you and retell them in your videos.

Speaking of Stories… Good storytelling is a vital aspect of your marketing approach in any medium. Sure not everyone is a natural raconteur, but you can learn and improve your storytelling abilities if you focus on it. And, again, feel free to be personal and even show and share your failures – if you dare!

To Endorse*:

Endorsement videos share new products or services being launched, or highlight updated features and upgrades. You could do a trailer for the new launch (it’s actually a publishing trend now), but you can also just sit on camera and show things off without flashy graphics and music.

Promoting sales or one of a kind promotions are also endorsement videos. Let them know about your Black Friday or Cyber Monday specials. The key here is “special.” If you’re running sales every week, or promoting the same special every few days, for a couple of months, like one client I worked with, people will get tired and click off. Urgency and scarcity make these sales work.

*Okay, I’ll admit, my original header for this section was “To Promote,” but I was trying to maintain the alliteration. Sue me.

To Engage:

Of course, this is what we’re hoping all of the videos do. But in particular, asking your viewers a question, posing a poll or requesting direct feedback is a great way to engage your audience. Remember, in the social media ranking, Comments are more important than Likes. Shares are the most valuable social media currency, which means you might want to re-read the “To Entertain” section.

The hardest and the easiest part of creating engaging social media videos is getting started. So why are you still sitting here reading this? Go! Make a video!

What? Oh, yes, of course, Grow the Dream can not only help you with your marketing strategy and drilling down to your ideal customer, but we can also create content for you – both blog posts and videos. If you’d like to learn more, just reach out and we’ll be in contact!

But everyone else? Some 60-70% of consumers would prefer to watch videos from the businesses they work with. And video engagement is rising across all of the social media platforms at a dramatic rate, much more quickly, in fact, than images displaced text in the early days of social media.

I mean, the iPhone has only had video capabilities since 2009. (Nokia released a video capable camera phone in 2007, but was eclipsed by the original iPhone launch.) Instagram and Snapchat are both less than 10 years old, and Insta didn’t have video sharing options until 2013. So in terms of human or even computer history, the acceleration is quite remarkable.

And Cisco predicts that 82-percent of consumer internet traffic will be video by 2020.

The New 4-Quadrant Approach

In case you’ve missed our last couple of Instagram-centered articles (you can check them out here), you may not be aware that Instagram is growing at a lightning pace. It boasts more than 1-billion active monthly users; 500-million of whom use it daily. It appeals to a demographic sweet spot for many businesses, adults 18-29. And it racks up even higher engagement under 18. And unlike Facebook’s dwindling business returns, 80% of Instagram users actively follow at least one business.

The key, of course, is actively following. While Facebook grows older and businesses yield more and more virtual real estate to Facebook Stories and Groups, if you can effectively engage your customers on Instagram, there’s a great chance they’ll stick with you for life. Studies show at least 30% of Instagram users have purchased a product they first discovered on Instagram.

There are four basic ways that people use videos to interact on Instagram, and they’re all available for small business use as well.

Videos as Part of Your Instagram Feed

This is the original video posting that Instagram launched in 2013. They’re pretty straightforward, and because they’re the old guard of the Instagram brand, they can be in just about any format – square, vertical or horizontal.

Even though some of these are ancient, by Instagram terms, they’re still engaging people and they’re grandfathered in, so you don’t need to go back and re-shoot or re-edit these videos to have them work.

I would suggest that you go back in and see which ones have the most comments and likes, and either respond to some comments that you may have missed, or add a comment. Because of the way the Instagram algorithm operates, doing this will bump the videos back to the top of your company feed. That allows some of your newer clients who may not have seen them to engage. This is especially effective for inspirational or motivational videos.

The stats:

• 3-60 seconds in length
• Minimum 1.91:1, maximum 4:5 aspect ratio
• 1080 x 608 or 1080 x 1350 pixels

Instagram Video Stories

Similar to the now ubiquitous Facebook stories, Instagram stories launched in 2016 as a way to compete with Snapchat stories, preferably without puppy dog ears and giant glasses. Or am I the only one creeped out by those filtered shots?

Because they’re designed to be short, Instagram stories work best for personal stories. A glimpse of the office; maybe someone’s birthday party; even a weekend gathering or team building trust exercise. Of course, just like Facebook stories, you can share a long series of 15 second videos strung together. But that kind of defeats the purpose of the shorter videos and can annoy some users.

And just like on Facebook, these stories disappear after 24 hours.

The stats:

• 15 seconds apiece, may be consecutive
• Always vertical, 9:16 aspect ratio
• 1080 x 1920 pixels

Live Instagram Videos

Spontaneous, raw, unedited fun makes these videos unique – and effective. Live Videos appear as part of Instagram Stories, at the top of the feed – but Live Videos trump the rest and immediately post to the front of the line, with a clear “LIVE” tag to set them apart.

Although spontaneity is part of the whole “Insta” brand, there are advantages to consistency as well. If you know when your users are generally on the site, you can schedule a Live Broadcast of just about anything for them to see. And once they find the value of your live videos, they’ll show up for them on a regular schedule.

Some businesses live stream corporate events, entertaining meeting presentations, even trips to places like Word Camp seminars, networking brunches and more. Each Live video can run up to 60 minutes. How and how much of that time you use is up to you, but make sure it’s valuable to your customers that will “tune in,” or you might as well be cancelled.

Of course, even after your live broadcast has ended, the recorded video lives for 24 hours, but the more you can engage and interest your watchers during the live broadcast, the better off you’ll be.

The stats:

• Up to 60 minutes long
• Vertical, with an aspect ratio of 9:16
• 1080 x 1920 pixels

IGTV

Now here’s where things get really interesting. IGTV was designed to compete with Netflix, YouTube, and, when it arrives, Quibi. It even got its own IGTV app, although you can still post to it through the standard Instagram platform.

IGTV is set up so you can build a channel, connect with a niche audience, and even offer exclusive content. It’s also designed to work only vertically, instead of forcing viewers to attempt to “Go 90” to get the best experience.

The videos can run up to 10 minutes long – unless you’re verified, in which case the top end moves to 60 minutes. But IGTV is the best place to truly implement a specific strategy to connect with your customer base.

In addition to all the fun, lifestyle and behind the scenes corporate stuff you can share in the other forms of Instagram videos, you can also upload expert interviews, tell stories about your brand, share exclusive tutorials or walk-through’s. You can educate viewers about your product’s features, uses, as well as doing specific Ask Me Anythings (AMA’s), and going beyond the usual approach.

Extra Engagement Tip 1: Respond to your users comments on a regular basis. Doing so builds trust and rapport.

Did I mention the channel aspects? You no longer need to be an advertisement interrupting your customer’s entertainment or educational opportunities. Now you can create them for yourself – and nobody minds that it’s shot on your cell phone.

IGTV also allows you to curate and feature other relevant companies and products, user and influencer reviews, tutorials, and demonstrations. Nothing builds trust like word of mouth, and the right “mouths” on Instagram can reach millions of ears and eyes.

And building a Community is the number one thing small business marketing needs to focus on this year.

The stats:

• 15 seconds to 10 minutes long
• Verified or high-value (lots of followers) brands can be approved for up to 60 minutes
• Vertical, 9:16 aspect ratio
• 1080 x 1920 pixels

Extra Engagement Tip 2: Every week, take a few moments to review your most popular Instagram posts. Then add a comment or respond to a user comment. This pops the post back to the top of your feed and continues the cycle of engagement.

Using videos on Instagram is a fantastic way to continue to build your business’ social media presence and engagement. While I still prefer to read the step-by-step instructions on a task, I am aware that millions of others would rather watch someone following the steps in a video. And I create those videos on a regular basis for Grow the Dream and many of our clients.

Of course, all the old guidelines still apply. You want to be consistent with your brand, know who your ideal customers are, and what they are looking for. In fact, the deeper you drill to find what your ideal customer wants and needs, the more effective your videos will be.

Don’t be left behind – make videos a priority in your marketing plan this year. And if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, please reach out. As I said, Grow the Dream creates and curates videos for several of our clients and we’d be happy to help your business succeed in this area as well.

I discussed in a previous article about how YouTube began simply as a site for large file sharing, much like what we now call Photoshop was once merely a program to exchange graphics between PC and Mac.

Just 15 years ago, no one could imagine that people would be watching 5-Billion videos a day, with another 300 hours added to the pot every minute of every day, around the world.

When YouTube launched in 2005, as Internet speeds were rapidly increasing to accommodate the bandwidth the company would require, it radically changed the ability to effectively market and utilize video for businesses of all sizes.

Luckily, a few technology makers saw the potential early on and scrambled to invent or recreate assets to allow people to take advantage of the new horizons.

Although DSLR cameras were first experimented with in the 70’s, they didn’t take on the prominence – or the underlying video recording capabilities – until the early 2000’s, about the same time YouTube & Google were developing. And in 2008, camera makers took things to the next level with High Definition (HD) recording options.

And while your iPhone X can record HD, 4K video, it’s only been since 2010 that smart phones of any kind could record video at all. The original iPhone that launched the smart phone craze could barely take a grainy, mostly in focus, 2-megapixel picture.

Coming Out of the Dark

With improved, easily accessible, not too expensive cameras available to everyone, one of the best ways to stand out is to have your video be properly lit.

Now I’m not talking about the bright lights on a product, brushed with oil or glue that is still the norm for advertising photos (trust me, you don’t want to bite that Big Mac).

This also won’t be a full-on, detailed explanation of ISO and F-Stops, etc. There are good resources for that, if you want to dive deep.

I’m just going to focus on a few easier techniques and tips I can offer to help improve the look of the video you’ll be shooting for your marketing campaign.

I’ll start small and we’ll work our way up.

Natural Lighting

Obviously, the cheapest and easiest way to get light from your video is from what they call in the film business practical lighting. That’s everything from the lamp on your desk to the overhead fluorescents to the big ball of hot gas in the sky that rises in the east.

Because of the high quantity of readily available light, a vast majority of the videos we shoot here at Grow The Dream are staged outside. The sun is a wonderful light source that makes everything clearer, and it also gives a warm feeling to the videos we do, reinforcing our agriculturally-themed brand name.

Shooting indoors with practical lighting can be a bit more difficult. Old-school fluorescent lighting tends to give everything a very yellow or blue cast, especially in areas that are darker. If you use a lamp or torchiere light, just make sure the camera isn’t pointed directly at the camera, as you’ll get s sharp lens flare. Nobody likes seeing that – even JJ Abrams adds his trademark effect in editing.

One big thing to watch for, indoors or out, is too much lighting. If you’re outdoors, try to find a contrasting background to shoot against, and indoors just make sure everything’s not too radiant, or everything will be so bright that you’ll lose definition – the subject will be hard to distinguish from the background.

Pro-Tip: Golden Hour

If you can, plan to shoot your outdoor videos during the hour right before sunset or after sunrise. That’s what film crews call the “Golden Hour.” The sun’s natural light is dimmer and less vibrant because it’s on its way ‘up or down,’ but still bright enough to shoot with natural light. When the sky is a factor, they love the poorly named Blue Hour – the 15-30 minutes following sunset where the sky is colorful and not too bright.

The Whole Kit & Kaboodle

If you’ll be shooting mostly indoors, or even if you plan to make videos a strong, central part of your marketing focus, it would behoove you to invest in a lighting kit. Now, back in the day, lighting was difficult and expensive. Luckily, just like camera and internet technology have both rapidly improved, so has lighting.

LED-ing by Example

In the past, LED lighting was great for lighting parts of rooms, but didn’t work as well for studio or pinpoint camera lighting. It also wasn’t dimmable. That all changed about 10 years ago, and now even the major broadcasters have shifted to LED studio lighting.

While you likely won’t be setting up your own studio, the advances in LED’s benefit you as well. First, a majority of LED lights can be run off both AC electrical current and DC battery. That means you can just grab and go, if you need to. Not to mention, they weigh about ¼ of what they used to.

The Basic Set-up

You can pick up a decent kit on Amazon with 2-3 lights for anywhere from $150-$1000. There are several options out there – it can easily get overwhelming. You’ll want something with 2-3 LED panels that are dimmable and have at least dual color temperature settings (3200K/5600K). The good LED panels come with their own masking boxes, but double check before buying. You’ll also have an easier time if you get at least 1 tripod, preferably 1 for each light.

If you’re looking for a shortcut, my friends over at No Film School have done the research and suggest this $250 kit for folks on a budget.

If you’re a little handy, and you have more time than money, you can put together a DIY light kit for around $100, shopping at Home Depot or Lowes. Luke Leonard, from Full Sail Film School in Winter Park, FL, explains how in this video.

Wait. Go Back. Color Temperature?

Most people don’t notice it, or only notice it when they change bulbs, but different types of lights give off different colors. Remember the yellow cast I mentioned for fluorescents? These color differences are referred to as color temperatures.

Soft light, which is used in most homes, especially in bedrooms and dining rooms, is 2700 Kelvins. It has a yellowish white tone to it. The brighter Cool light that you’ll find in most bathrooms and kitchens is 4100 Kelvins. It appears mostly white. And Daylight, which comes off as a bluish white, is 5-6500 Kelvins.

So the lighting you use to ADD brightness and hue to the subject of your camera needs to exceed the naturally available standard light – hence the warmer 3200K indoors and cooler toned 5600K outside. So you need that switch or dial on the LED panel that allows you to use it properly, and make sure its set to the correct setting.

Let’s Talk About 3-Point Lighting

While 3-point lighting was originally developed for shooting theater, then adapted for film, it’s good to get at least a basic understanding of how it works, so you can utilize it in your video shoots.

In Shakespeare’s day, of course, theater performances were almost entirely outdoors and so whatever was on stage was what you saw. As electrical lighting started being more widely used, stage managers found they could control where the audience’s attention was drawn by how they placed the lights. This, of course, led to the cliché, ‘you’re standing in my light.’

The simplest way to control light is with three specific sources: key, fill, and back.

The Key Light

The key light serves as the main source of light for your subject (product, interview, you, etc.). When you’re outside, the sun is the obvious key light, and you should position the person or object with the sun shining directly on it – not behind, as that will obscure it.

Inside, you would use your largest LED as your key light, making sure its center is aimed at the center of your subject.

The Fill Light

The fill light also shines on the subject, but from the side. As the name implies, it ‘fills in’ extra light on the side of your face or product, to make it stand out and be clearer. Typically, a fill light is also set at a slightly lower angle than the key light. Its main purpose is to banish unwanted shadows.

If you’re going for a fancy lighting effect, the fill light is usually the one you change to add shadows, make an interesting light cut across a subject, or other stylish touches. In truth, most marketing videos won’t need this, but I’m mentioning it just in case.

The Back Light

You may hear this light source also referred to as a hair light, a rim light, or a shoulder light. If you only have two lights, the back light is the one you skip. The main purpose of the back light is to add depth to your scene. Back lights shine on the back of the subject, adding an extra “rim” or highlight of light that makes your eye see a separation between the subject and the background. It can also add some additional contour.

Pro-Tip: Reflectors

If you’re budget is too tight to add a third light, an easy substitute is to get a reflector. You can get a professional one for $10-20 on Amazon (or even a white foam board will work). A reflector can be used to, well, reflect light from one direction, into your back light, or even your fill light. It’s also useful if you want a softer, subtler feel to your back light. Properly placed, you can even get spill over from the key light reflected back as the back light. For more extensive uses of a reflector, check this article out.

For more information on getting started with video, sound, framing and more, check out the whole Grow The Dream collection of Best Practices for Marketing Video here.

There was only one problem…

Okay, Make That Two

Considering most small business owners have been in this position, you’ve probably already guessed what that problem was. As we all know, the two most valuable resources for building your small business are almost always the ones that are in shortest supply: Time and Money.

Yes, you have the same number of hours in a day as everyone else, but when you’re just getting started, you lack the ability to leverage other hours. That means, even though you have your 24 hours, you have to divide that time between several very pressing priorities, including sleep and family relationships.

It will come as no surprise to you that I’m going to suggest that we apply some strategy to the situation. After all, our company is based on implementing and teaching Strategic Marketing Solutions.

We know there are dozens, if not hundreds, of ‘voices’ in your head, reminding you that you need to do this or that right away. But to really manage things, it would behoove you to take a few days to a week and map out how to best tackle all of those concerns.

After all, what good are free resources if you never have time to use or even look at them?

Think of it this way – time and money should be working FOR you, not the other way around. By strategizing and prioritizing, you’re able to eliminate to-do lists and focus on what is really important. You’ll also have a clear justification for ignoring (temporarily) minor problems that arise, instead of rushing to put out fires that may die down on their own.

Remember to schedule time for family, for critical tasks that must be completed each day, and for researching & learning new skills. Leave a little flexibility, but the more detailed and specific you make your schedule, the clearer and more focused you will be and the faster you can start to see your goals come to fruition.

This list, while extensive, is by no means comprehensive. There are countless other resources you’ll likely be able to find online for the various areas I’ve outlined, but I’ve tried to stick with the ones that we have used here at Grow the Dream and can recommend, and those I’ve seen clients use to some success.

Pre-Launch Business Planning

Typically, most small business owners will have already done this work prior to finding this article, but for those of you still in the planning stages, or looking to find financing for your business’s expansion, this will help to get you started.

• SBA.gov – The Small Business Administration is an invaluable government resource to get your business journey started and continued. They provide everything from loans, to free classes and training, to finding mentors to help you and your business succeed, and so much more. It’s the first stop I recommend all new business owners make, even when they’re still at their survival job.
• Bplans.com – This wonderful site provides sample business plans, representing nearly every industry—from caterers to construction companies and beyond. I recommend taking advantage of their examples to tailor the advice and pre-planning work you’ll do with the SBA.
• Enloop – Taking your cue from the above resources, Enloop allows you to easily create a professional looking business plan complete with 3-year financial forecast reporting. And they’ll score that plan for free as you work and develop it. Your first business plan is free, with affordable subscription rates for additional plans and added features.

Content Blog Publishing & Web Design:

One of the most powerful tools you can have in this day and age is a business website – one with a regularly updated content blog. And while there are lots of different ‘free’ (often ad supported) website builders out there, few are as powerful, optimized and easy to use as…

• WordPress.org – An open source blogging tool and so much more. 31% of all websites across the world utilize WordPress for their primary website design. It’s so popular that many hosting companies have it as an easy install in their back office infrastructure. It’s fast, easy to use and get started with and has an incredibly powerful behind the scenes algorithm that will literally launch your site into the top search engine results. If you download and install it yourself, make sure you’re using the .org version Yes, the .com doesn’t require you to provide hosting, but it lacks the bells and whistles you’re going to want to use. Which brings us to…
• WP Engine – Our top choice for your managed WordPress hosting. WP Engine’s basic plan starts at $35 a month, but it’s super fast, incredibly secure – with CDN and SSL included – and can handle up to 25,000 visits and 50 GB bandwidth use per month. It’s also easy to upgrade as you grow and expand and offers additional tools for marketing optimization. And there is a crucial benefit of WP Engine – DAILY website backups. And you can force an additional backup at any time. No more lost data!
• Namecheap Shared Hosting – This is a great solution if you’re on a tight budget or extremely risk averse when getting started. Namecheap can get you a domain name, WhoIs Guard, and hosting for as low as $3/month. Their top end is less than $10. They aren’t as integrated as WP Engine, and they only backup your site twice a week, but it’s a great deal for the beginner. And you can always port your site over to WP Engine or another hosting service with minor effort.

Once you have WordPress installed, you’ll see that there are literally thousands of plug-ins and add-ons you can take advantage of – many of them free – to customize your users experience. But there are three free ones right off the bat that you should activate as soon as you log in to your Admin page.

• Askimet – One thing you’ll run into as soon as you launch your blog are countless comments from hacker sites, trying to use your blog to propagate their spam and viruses. You likely won’t have time to deal with them, and this is the solution. Akismet is a comment spam filtering service. Akismet utilizes a learning algorithm to spot and isolate blog comment and pingback spam. Even though Akismet comes pre-installed, it is not activated by default. Once you activate it, though, all those spam comments and pseudo-links will be shuttled off your site into a virtual ‘holding area’ where you never have to look at them again.
• Jetpack – While Jetpack doesn’t come automatically installed, I highly recommend it. Jetpack is the ultimate toolkit for WordPress. It gives you everything you need to design, secure, and grow your site in one bundle. Jetpack adds secure logins and protection from brute force attacks, automatic social sharing, and can increase your site’s load times. It also comes with free themes, image tools, and rich content.
• Yoast SEO – Even though WordPress is already well-built for Search Engine Ranking, there is always room to improve, especially when humans are involved. The Yoast SEO plugin helps you to optimize your website for search engines in two ways.
  • If you insist on keyword SEO (we recommend long tail and strategically targeted blog posts), Yoast can make sure your posts have those keywords.
  • Yoast also evaluates and recommends tips to improve the readability of your posts and pages, such as making sure your page is broken up into readable chunks, you’re not using too much passive voice, utilizing transition words and writing at your users’ typical reading level.
• ConvertPlug – It used to be rather difficult to build an offer or “don’t go” pop-up within your WordPress install. You had to know a bit about coding and languages, etc., and it was frustrating for many business owners. That all changed with ConvertPlug. Now for only $21, you can build a fully functional popup for your website, all within WordPress. This isn’t as critical as the above plugins, but it is a good one to have.
• Grammarly – Grammarly automatically detects grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and style mistakes in your writing. And not just your blog posts. Grammarly can be installed in most web browsers and works within Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, WordPress and Microsoft Office. No more spelling errors, typos or misused grammar.
• Co Schedule’s Headline Analyzer – This site does exactly what it promises, evaluating your headline to see what works or doesn’t. For example, this post has one of our more generic headlines. It earned a 58. Why is this important? Because the headline is the first thing everyone sees. When my sister worked in advertising, she would generate no less than 100 headlines for every ad she generated. It’s estimated that five times as many people read the headline as click through to the article. If you want people to read your article and visit your site, you need a great headline
• Hemingway App – The Hemingway App is similar to the readability score you’ll find in Yoast. But it goes a little further – identifying superfluous words (yes, I see the irony), hard-to-read sentences, and passive voice.

Email Marketing

Once you start getting customers – or even visitors – coming to your site, you’ll need a way to keep in contact with them. Of course, we recommend you use a laser-targeted Lead Magnet to offer in trade for their email, but even if they just sign up for your mailing list, that’s an important contact to keep track of and communicate with.

• MailChimp – MailChimp started as an email marketing service, and that’s still its best feature. Build custom emails from scratch or using a variety of pre-built templates to keep in contact with your clients, and potential clients. It’s free until you top 2000 subscribers or 12000 emails sent in a month. You can upload a CSV customer list, or import from a bunch of other platforms to build your list. MailChimp tracks each email, how many opens it got as well as click-throughs, invaluable information for evaluating your strategies. And you can also use MailChimp for remarketing. One client I worked for would periodically send special deals to their most active customers to bolster responses. Send an email right away, or schedule it for later. With a paid account, you can sync the email to the users’ time zone, send in batches, and reach out to customers who clicked away from your site with unbought stuff in their cart.
• Aweber – Aweber provides many of the same tools as MailChimp, for a small cost. But it also specializes in e-mail autoresponders. You can automatically send follow up messages to your subscribers after a set amount of days and at whatever day of the week and time you choose, and build and integrate signup forms as well. The sign up forms can also be coded into your website. And you can test drive it all for just $1.

“Virtual” Assistance

Just because you’re going it alone, or with a small team, you don’t have to settle. These apps and tools will help you appear larger and function more efficiently, providing lots of leverage for growth.

• Grasshopper – There’s not much more offputting for a client than trying to call your office and getting your cell phone or just a generic message – or worse, some random number comes up that they can’t call back. The Grasshopper Virtual Phone System fixes that. It can provide a local or toll free number, unlimited extensions, live call forwarding, on hold music, and name directory. And it shows your business name on caller ID when you’re calling out. Need to receive a fax? Give them the Grasshopper number and you’ll get an email with the document. You may be a solopreneur, but you’ll give off the impression of being a Fortune 500 company. Prices run from $30 to $90 a month. And they might even waive the $25 setup fee.
• Evernote – Evernote is a cloud-based software service designed for creating, organizing and storing various media files. Whether it’s a text document, a photo, a video, an audio file or even a web page, Evernote keeps all of your stuff stored up in the cloud – so you can add to your notes and access them from your computer, your tablet, or your phone, all synchronized.
• Slack – Slack is an all-in-one collaboration hub that allows you to connect your team(s), unify systems, and drive business forward through extensive communication tools. Slack stands for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge,” and it’s search feature is one of the best benefits, especially if your email inbox is as full and old as mine. While I personally prefer BaseCamp, it’s a little pricier for small business owners just starting out, and this is an article about free low-cost tools. Slack, on the other hand, provides ample tools for most small to medium sized businesses for free.
• Due – Due focuses on a complete payment solution that includes time tracking, online invoicing, digital wallet and credit card processing. It’s great for freelancers as well as small business, allowing them to track time spent on projects and port it into an integrated invoice and billing system.
• Google Tools – I could do a whole post (and I might someday!) just on the wide variety of tools that Google offers, mostly free of charge, to help you organize your life and business, grow your client base, utilize better advertising, etc., etc. If you haven’t already, check out Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Ad Words, Google Analytics, Google My Business, and of course, Gmail. For even more powerful tools, at a reasonable price, check out G Suite.
• Trello – Trello is basically the Pinterest for Business Planning and work tracking. Trello organizes your projects into boards for easier collaboration. This is great if you have a virtual office team, because everyone can see what’s being worked on at what stage on the ‘white boards’
• Airtable – Airtable is a spreadsheet-database hybrid, with the features of a database but applied to a spreadsheet. This tool helps you organize information in truly elegant ways. While it does boast a paid service, the free version is plenty powerful enough to be valuable.
• Dropbox – Before Google Drive, we all relied on Dropbox. It’s a cloud-based, virtual file cabinet for all sorts of media files that can be accessed, edited and shared, based on the permissions you set.

Social Media Management

There’s almost no cheaper way to spread the word about your business and build a following than through the popular social media platforms. But that can easily get overwhelming without help and, again, you only have so much time in your day. These tools can help:

• Buffer – Buffer allows you to schedule social media posts across a variety of social media platforms, without having to pay a penny – although there are more features if you upgrade. You can add one profile from each social media channel, and schedule posts across all of them at once. If you’re only managing a few social profiles and want to stick to a small budget, Buffer might be right for you. Once you’ve really started to expand, you can upgrade to…
• Hootsuite – If you’re working with a large team or multiple client companies and websites, HootSuite is probably your best option. While it started primarily as a Twitter scheduling app, it has expanded far beyond that now. Just like Buffer, you can schedule posts across many social media platforms, as well as many profiles. Hootsuite also provides analytical tools so you can see how your posts are being received and spread – an essential metric to track. It also starts free with options to upgrade for as low as $19/month.

Building Graphics:

Images are what makes your content and website stand out among the crowd. But if you can’t afford to have a graphic designer on retainer or absorb the cost and learning curve of the Adobe Creative Suite, these tools can definitely assist.

• Canva – Canva is a tool that makes it possible to design anything and publish anywhere. It utilizes a user-friendly drag and drop tool and thousands of customizable templates to create everything from blog graphics to business card, resume and letterhead designs. And you can even get feedback and collaboration from other Canva users.
• Pablo – Pablo was built by Buffer to help people create and share more dynamic, visual social media posts. You pick an image, a font, type in your post and voila! In under 30 seconds, you’ve got a pretty post that you can download or connect right into Buffer to schedule or post.
• GIMP – GIMP is an open source, open access graphics manipulation program that’s free and purports to be similar in style and scope to Adobe’s Photoshop. Honestly, as a long-term Photoshop user, I’ve found GIMP to be much less intuitive and a lot more of a learning tool to use. To be honest, neither one is easy to use, so tread carefully before jumping into this particular rabbit hole. Also, Adobe now offers limited access on their Creative Cloud subscription service, starting at $13/month.
• HongKiat.com – In addition to providing several free vectors and templates to build infographics, HongKiat also has lots of inspiration, tutorials and guides. If you want to use these valuable visual information slides, this is the place to start.
• Visme.co – For $20/month, Visme gives you tools to build and download infographics, more detailed PowerPoint or Keynote presentation slides, web banners, demos and even animations.
• Visual.ly – Their service is not free, but their portfolio is – if you can’t afford to have them build your graphics and infographics, they’re still a great source of inspiration for the ones you’ll build yourself.

Free Images:

So where do you get all the wonderful pictures for blog posts, quote backgrounds and banners? You may be tempted to just do a Google Image Search, but that’s a good way to ‘accidentally’ use someone’s image without permission and find yourself on the wrong end of a cease and desist case. Try these instead:

• FreeImages – Once known as Stock.XCHNG, Free Images is the free site that runs parallel to GettyImages – the largest provider of official images in the world. Free Images boasts over 2-million users that contribute their images for free use with permission and/or attribution. Just pay attention to the details on any photo you’re interested in.
• Scx.hu – Now in partnership with Adobe, this is the other side of Stock Exchange. This site specializes in more stock photography while Free Images is more broad.
• Wikimedia Commons – with proper attribution, you can download and use any of the 48-Million images made available through Wikipedia’s creative commons use license.
• Flickr – This user generated photo sharing site has a huge array of images available for free with or without attribution. Check out the creative commons section of Flickr and read the usage terms to make sure your photo usage is on the up and up.
• Pixabay – If you’re feeling bored by the typical line up of free stock images online, Pixabay is a great resource to shake things up. The images here have a slightly more more indie feel compared to the more generic vibe of traditional stock images.
•  Unsplash – Unsplash boasts stock images that don’t feel like stock images. They’re updated every 10 days. Their collection of free to use, no attribution images may establish a personal connection with your audience that typical stock images can’t quite reach.

Video Editing Tools

Video used to cost a considerable amount of money and needed to be planned out well in advance. Not so anymore. Check out our series of Best Practices for Shooting Video, then use these resources to edit and shape.

• Blender – The Blender Project is a free, open source 3D and video editing creation suite. Be warned, this one comes with a bit of a learning curve. But if you want to create 3D images or even experiment with simple CGI, it has all the toys – modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking.
• Wideo – This online video creation tool enables you to create, edit, and share compelling videos at no cost. Create animated videos with images, objects, movement, shapes, text, and audio.Perfect for simple and short video clips.
• Wirewax – For a simpler approach to video editing, check out Wirewax. The free version allows you to work on videos up to 10 minutes in length.

Marketing & Analysis

In addition to GoogleAnalytics and Facebook Audience Insights, there are a few stand alone tools that can help you analyze your marketing efforts as well as hone your ideal customer profile.

• SurveyMonkey – SurveyMonkey provides free, customizable surveys to help you drill down on anything. Plus, you can upgrade to get more extensive data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation tools. It’s a great way to not only see if you’re on track with your content, but if there are aspects of your perfect client you’ve missed.
• BuzzSumo – Among its many uses, BuzzSumo can help you find blogging or social media influencers in your niche. You can use it to expand your list of content blog post topics. But you can also find potential guest bloggers or marketing partners you can work with to expand both of your businesses.

While you may be the only person working at your small business at the moment, there’s no need for despair or panic. Utilize these tools to look and act like a bigger fish in your pond. There are always creative ways to expand your business and reach. Take these suggestions and create your own success, on your terms.

 “Sound is fifty percent of the movie-going experience” ~ George Lucas

Being Prepared is Half the Battle

First, take a breath. The military has an old tactical rule – take the time you are assigned for a task and spend 1/3rd of it in preparation. That leaves 2/3rds for execution, whether by yourself or by others. When you plunge right in with no preparation, generally things take longer to accomplish, and lead to more errors.

It’s the Script, Stupid

Alfred Hitchcock is quoted as saying ““To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script and the script.” It’s fine for highly trained professionals like Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise to start shooting a Mission Impossible movie without a complete script. However, it doesn’t always work for them, and almost certainly it won’t for you.

Take the time to figure out what you want to say before you turn the camera on. I know this sounds like a detour from best practices for sound. But having a great audio recording doesn’t help if you’re just babbling on, never quite getting to your own point. This is especially true of many entrepreneurs who might suffer from a touch of ADHD. Write it down and you’ll be sure it’s right.

Cue Me!

When I said write it down, I meant literally, and twice. You should type up what you want to say, and how. Then take that script and put it on cue cards. Not everyone needs to do this, but it’ll definitely help, especially your first few recordings. If it worked for Marlon Brando, it’s good enough for you too.

Practice reading the cards so it sounds natural.

Yes, Out Loud

This is also an opportunity to test your equipment and get used to hearing how your voice sounds on tape. Unless you’re James Earl Jones or Don LaFontaine (the famous ‘In a World…’ trailer voice), you’re going to be thrown off a little the first time you hear yourself outside of your head. Test it, play with it, get used to it.

Make sure you’re using good diction. You don’t need to sound like Miss Manners, but if you’re used to mumbling or have other speech tics, lose them now. The same applies if you are generally soft spoken. In person, I tend to be quieter, but when I’m acting, I have a theater voice that projects. You don’t need to sell the video to the cheap seats, but make sure you can be heard.

Pro-Tip: Make sure the microphone is turned on. It sounds simple, I know. But back in the day, I worked with FOX News’ Shepherd Smith and he was notorious for going on camera during a live broadcast with his mic turned off.

And, again, make sure the microphone you’ve chosen – more on that later – is recording sound the way you want it to. Not too tinny or bassy, or not picking up your refrigerator or ceiling fan too loudly. Utilize speakers or preferably headphones to test your recorded audio levels.

 Location, Location, Location

Just as with the Best Practices for Lighting post, you’ll want to select your location carefully. If you’re shooting in public, you don’t want too much background noise,  like recording next to a freeway or too near the airport.

Also, if you’re shooting outdoors, invest in a wind sock. Even the lightest breeze rumbles on a good mic and muffles the audio you want to hear. There are foam windscreens, softies and blimp systems. Foam is the most basic, and is generally best indoors. Softies look like a grey fluffy dog on your mic, and are the best budget-conscious option. Blimps are typically used by professionals on film shoots. They offer maximum wind protection, but at a considerably higher price.

If you’re recording indoors, you still have a few things to worry about. Sounds still penetrate your home or office. Noises you’ve grown accustomed to, like a ticking clock or the hum from your air conditioner, are multiplied when you’re recording quality sound. Many of my friends that do Voice-Overs utilize their closet, but that isn’t really an option when you’re on camera.

Isolate the desired sound, minimize undesired sound

Don’t forget to mute your phone or laptop, and, if you can, shoot when everyone’s out, or at least aware you’re recording.

Get as close to the Mic as you can, but not too close. This can be a challenge when you’re on camera. Unless you’re doing a live broadcast of a podcast or radio show, it looks weird to be wearing headphones and holding a giant microphone. If you can afford to invest in a lavalier mic, I’d encourage it. In a pinch, you can even record decent audio on your smart phone – using the voice note feature.

Plug and Play

Generally, you will want to avoid recording audio with your camera. I know it sounds easier, but mic inputs on cameras are tuned to raise and amplify the sound coming in, including the silences between sound. That means your sound, especially if it’s just your voice, is going to sound either muffled or scratchy. And you’ll hear EVERYTHING else when you’re not talking. When recorded together, the camera can causes audio issues if the image is too bright or dark. And sometimes internal mics on cameras record the camera’s mechanical act of recording.

I almost always use an external mic, plugged into a digital recorder. I’ve found that Tascam and Zoom offer some of the best high quality digital recording ability. There are a lot of more expensive options out there, but you should be able to find options in the $100-300 range.

Pro-Tip: these digital recorders may also sport their own mics. In most cases, it’s still better to plug in a separate mic.

Microphones vary in price and quality, depending on what you need. You might be tempted to skimp on the mic, especially if you’ve paid a bit for the camera. But don’t. In the audio world, with minor exceptions, you do get what you pay for. Test the mic, but generally invest in the best mic you can.

In an ideal world, you can repurpose the microphone you buy for your podcast, but often that’s not possible. Most podcasts tend to use an Omnidirectional Mic, so that everyone and everything can be heard.

For a video recording, you’ll want to use an Unidirectional Mic – or one that only records what it’s pointed at. The USB Blue Yeti mic I use for recording voice overs can be switched to unidirectional, but it’s too bulky and unwieldy to use on camera.

As I mentioned, in a perfect world, a lavalier mic is going to be your best bet. Even though they’re omnidirectional, they’re small and can clip easily to your shirt collar or tie – or can even be hidden behind them. You can use wireless lavs (the slang term) or wired, if you’re close enough to the recorder. Wired are going to be cheaper overall.

Pro-Tip: If you’re getting some static or interference off a lavalier mic, loop about 1½ inches of the cable, then gently clip it behind the mic. I don’t know why it works, but it does.

Remember, good audio isn’t a choice. It’s a necessity when producing professional looking videos for your business. Spend a little time and money now, and you’ll see a better return on investment pretty quickly.

At that time the founders, all former PayPal employees, had two concerns.  They wanted to share a video file that was too large for their email servers to handle, and they couldn’t find footage of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

So many technology innovations have been launched for puerile or superficial motivations. But while the terms “Wardrobe Malfunction” and “Super Bowl” still give some videos plenty of attention on the YouTube platform, there is far more to it than that, and YouTube is certainly aware of it.

YouTube already has a larger reach than any of the cable magnates. 6 out of 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV and experts predict that within the next 6 years half of the viewers under 32 won’t subscribe to any traditional paid cable TV service. Of course, that might be accelerated by the platforms own YouTubeTV, which is less than half the cost of cable.

What Does That Mean For Small Business?

First and foremost, it means that access is easier and cheaper than ever.

Since the popular invention and rapid growth of the television in the late 1940’s and early 50’s, TV ads rapidly became the most effective and far-reaching form of advertising, on both a local and national level. But that also meant it quickly became one of the most expensive way to get your word out unless you settled for “Run Of Station” rates – the most affordable prices, most often airing in the worst time slots.

There’s nothing that said desperate and cheap more than seeing your local business airing its commercial between two different infomercial blocks at 3am in the morning. Right before the National Anthem and sign off! Or seeing the plumbing company that’s been using the same ad for almost 50 years (true story) in the middle of the night.

But unless you’ve been living under a literal rock, you’ve noticed that  traditional TV viewership is plummeting. It’s not just the ratings on the networks, where a smash hit today would have been cancelled 10 years ago or vice versa, but TV in general is fighting a losing battle for eyeballs.

And those eyeballs have largely gone to YouTube. Every day, one BILLION hours of videos are watched on YouTube — in 76 native languages, in more than 88 countries.

That’s a lot of potential customers if you’re a global business. But even if you’re not, it speaks to the power and proliferation of the YouTube platform, which you can leverage on a local level as well.

And I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet.

Some Startling YouTube Statistics

The numbers are changing – almost entirely in an upward direction every day, but as of June 2019:

• 1,500,000,000 people watch YouTube every month
• 3-400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute!
• Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day.
• YouTube gets over 30 million visitors per day.
• YouTube could be considered the world’s second largest search engine.
• In an average month, 8 out of 10 18-49 year-olds watch YouTube.
• There are 10,000+ videos on YouTube that have each garnered over 1 billion views.
• 38% of YouTube viewers are female users, and 62% male.
• Almost 50% of the users on YouTube are in the key demographic age group of 25-44.
• More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
• YouTube’s mobile revenue is up to 2x y/y.
• YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
• The number of hours people spend watching videos (aka watch time) on YouTube is up 60% year-over-year.
• The average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes.
• The time people spend watching YouTube on their TV has more than doubled in the last year.
• 80% of YouTube’s views are from outside of the U.S.
• According to Google, people who watch YouTube ads to completion are 23 times more likely to visit or subscribe to a brand channel, share a brand video, or watch more by the brand.
• Even those who don’t watch to the end are 10 times more likely to do one of those things.

And yet…

ONLY 9% of Small Businesses use YouTube for ANY reason
And even fewer advertise on it.

But is YOUR Target Audience on YouTube?

The simple answer is probably. However, that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee. Not good coffee, but, yeah, coffee. As small business owners, we don’t rely on guesses and probably’s.

You know what the key is. That’s right. Strategic work. You may be sensing a pattern here. None of your marketing efforts should be started or considered without knowing who your ideal customer is, what questions they’re looking for answers to, and how you can heal their pain.

So yes, while it’s highly likely, given all the numbers I just threw at you, that your potential and existing customers are on YouTube, you need to make sure. Plus, that information will help with the next steps.

Counting the Costs

While professional videos are always going to look and likely sell better, as long as your own videos rise to a reasonable standard, they’ll work on YouTube, both as ads and as informational videos.

I’ll address it in another post, but creating longer-form videos that appeal to your existing and prospective customers and posting them on YouTube as well as your own site is a great way to build brand awareness, customer loyalty and enhance any marketing, especially YouTube Ads.

So while you can spend quite a bit of cash hiring a production company to produce your YouTube videos (and why not partner with another local small business?) you can also utilize much more affordable cameras and editing software to get comparable results. And no, you don’t have to be on camera, either.

A quick caveat, though: on average, 20% of the people who start your video will leave after the first 10 seconds. You’ve got to grab them with something compelling QUICKLY. For inspiration, consider these “unskippable” Ads from Geico. Or these clever ones from German automaker Opel Mokka.

YouTube is more cost effective than either Google or Facebook Pay-Per-Click ads. Not only do you have better engagement – you don’t pay until a viewer watches 30 seconds or more of your video (unless it’s shorter) or engages in other video interactions, such as clicks on the call-to-action overlays, cards, and companion banners.

And those YouTube views cost an average of just $0.06 per click. That’s a whole lot cheaper than any of the search engine options.

You should also be aware that YouTube can be huge for audience engagement. It’s not just about watching videos – YouTube is practically its own society and community that provides a hub for sharing,  as well as just for video access. Plus, we know psychologically that sight, sound, and motion can elicit emotional involvement with content that you don’t get with other forms of media. It’s one of the reasons TV is so effective.

A Productive Partnership

As you may be aware, YouTube was bought by Google in 2006. And that’s a VERY good thing. While corporate synergy doesn’t always work with large, sprawling businesses, in this respect, it helps you out.

Not only can you target your YouTube ads based on people’s viewing history, you can also target them with their Google search history. And that’s not all. Just like GoogleAnalytics and Facebook Audience Insights can help you narrow your focus, YouTube has similar tools to precisely aim your ads at the most likely candidates:

• Target by Demographics: age, gender, or parental status.
• Target by Topic Interests: Reach people based on certain topics or life events.
• Keyword Contextual Targeting: Your Target Keywords are matched to web content.
• Target Affinity Audiences: Use the information you have from existing marketing efforts to aim at building brand awareness through interest-based groups.
• Custom Affinity Audiences: Dig even deeper into your ideal customers and tailor everything to what they need or want. No need to go broad.
• In-market Audiences: Find customers who are researching products or services and actively considering buying something like what you offer.
• Remarketing: Reach viewers based on their past interactions with your videos or YouTube channel. If you link your AdWords account with YouTube, they’ll automatically begin the process so you don’t miss anyone.
• Tighten Your Focus: YouTube Analytics provides audience demographics, levels of engagement, and performance, not only for your videos and Ads, but also generates a comparison with similar videos.

Finding Your True View

YouTube offers two types of ads you can utilize:

• Video Discovery Ads (Previously Named In-Display Ads)

These are the ones that are most like the ads on other platforms, like Google. Video Discovery Ads show up on the YouTube home page, as well as the search results pages, and as related videos on the right side of video watch pages. Just like on Google,  these are identified by the yellow AD box that sits next to them.

• In-Stream True View Ads

These are what people generally think of when you say YouTube Ads. They are scheduled to play before the video you’ve selected. In the past, they were all skippable. Now, you have two options.

“Skippable” TrueView ads must run between 12 seconds and 6 minutes in length, and obviously are skippable after 5 to 7 seconds. And while popular opinion seems to be that people skip them as soon as they can, recent studies have found that in reality people watch longer, especially if it’s something compelling like a movie trailer. These can also be translated to any site within the Google Display Network or on sites that have purchased Google video ad space.

“Non-skippable” TrueView ads – where you’re ‘stuck’ consuming the whole video – need to be no more than 15-20 seconds in length.

Both types of True View Ads can utilize custom videos with overlay text that offers a call to action before the video is finished.

YouTube has also added an option to run a non-skippable mid-roll ad in videos that last 10 minutes or more. These appear similar to standard TV commercials, breaking up the long form video, usually at an appropriate moment near the middle of the video (YouTube is MUCH better at this than Facebook is so far).

Like standard search PPC ads, you can set up campaigns in YouTube to limit the number of impressions, set deadlines and start and stop times on any of your ads.

While YouTube Advertisements may not be for everyone, given that they air on one of the most visited websites in the world, can be targeted extremely precisely to reach exactly your target audience, and cost pennies on the dollar compared to standard PPC, there would have to be very compelling reasons to not consider YouTube Ads as part of your overall marketing strategy for your small business.

The largest hurdle most small businesses will face is generating video content. But, properly executed, even that is an investment that can pay off quickly. If you’re not looking at YouTube, it’s time to start.