Video: Content is King

Last week I shared that video could definitely be the way to go with marketing for so many businesses. But I bet a lot of readers saw that and said “naw, I don’t have anything I can video.” That’s not likely true. 

Almost every business has those questions that customers are always asking. I’ve written about these repeat questions in my What Time is the Midnight Buffet post. There are so many things you can do video about and one of those things is taking your frequently asked questions and posting them on your website as videos. 

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These don’t have to be difficult or even fancy. If you’re sitting at your desk or sitting at the counter or there in the kitchen at your restaurant all of these are great platforms for your videos. Simple. Honest. Authentic. That’s what you’re shooting for. 

I bet answering these kinds of questions alone would be quite a series of videos. For example, if you’re a dry cleaner why not answer the question about what makes your company unique. You know you have a unique process for cleaning clothes so why not shoot that? How do you clean clothes without getting them wet - or is it just a term and they really do get wet?

I used to feel that I would hold all my business secrets close to the vest and not divulge the things that truly make my business different. Then I realized that by speaking to groups, including groups of competitors, I even shared my best secrets and nobody copied them. If they hadn’t thought of this already they weren’t likely to do so. And most, if not all, were too lazy to implement the changes to copy what I do. It’s unfortunate and true. And I’m already working on a new idea so who cares if they have the old ones? So by sharing great tips with your customers it will present you as an expert in your field which adds credibility and quality as part of your brand. 

By sharing videos of the most frequently asked questions, too, you might have to answer fewer of those and now you look like the business with the answers. 

But you also work toward making your operation better, more special, and unique. Those are all great subjects for videos. For example, if you’re a resort and you have a unique way to clean stains out of sheets, that would be a good video. Or what about a sauce as a chef? Or maybe showing how to scramble eggs? I just happened to look this up and Gordon Ramsey did this very video and got over 36 million views. 

Oh, and the scrambled eggs I learned to make were fantastic but seeing this and even doing it myself wouldn’t stop me from going to his restaurant if I had a chance. 

Okay, so we’re not Gordon Ramsay but I shared about Josh Winters last week and how his videos about RVs have gotten him over 40,000 subscribers for an RV dealership in Michigan. No fancy camera tricks, no unusual editing. Just honest, authentic video answering peoples’ questions. Simple. 

I recently needed to replace a faucet and did what we all do nowadays - went straight to the University of YouTube. I found a plumber who showed how to do this job and he had over a million views of his video. Again, nothing special about this video, it was just an authentic video that answered a question. Apparently a question that a million people had. 

And, if this plumber were close to me, don’t you think I’d rather hire him than crawl under the sink myself and deal with the leak that I can’t stop? 

For everyone who thinks they don’t have things to shoot videos about, I bet you have plenty of content. Next time someone asks you a question and it’s the same question you’re hearing over and over again, or you’ve got a unique way of doing things perhaps it’s time to grab your smart phone and shoot a video. 

Next week we’ll talk about tools for creating videos using just a smart phone - not even a computer!