Video marketing is no longer an option, but rather a necessity for entrepreneurs. The good news is that even for those who may not want to be on camera, there are ways to create engaging video content to help you grow your engagement, nurture your leads and close those sales. 

In this blog post, we’ll share everything that business owners need to know about video marketing. 

Understanding Short-Form Video

What is the difference between short-form video and long-form video content? In short, short-form videos are quick videos that are great for driving engagement and pique interest. Oftentimes, short-form videos are used to promote long-form content such as long-form videos, blog posts and podcast episodes. 

We love creating blog posts or even longer videos to inspire our short-form videos. This allows us to be smart with our content strategy by giving our content more life while allowing us to reach a wider audience at the same time. 

What are the most popular types of short-form videos? On platforms like TikTok, you’ll find lots of “trending” videos that are created and inspired by a popular audio clip or an original concept that went viral that is now being replicated. Other types of short-form videos that are popular are videos that make an audience problem-aware, short educational tips and anything to help your audience in their journey to working with you. 

As a business owners, creating short-form videos that will help you answer the questions of your current audience as well as your potential audience is the best way to set you up for success. Can you still take advantage of trends? Yes, 100%, but you should always keep in mind that nothing beats originality, and the best way to do that is to create videos where you share your expertise. 

Tips for Creating Effective Short-Form Videos

Now that you have a better understanding of why video marketing can be helpful to financial professionals, let’s cover some tips and tricks to help you create effective content. 

Keep your videos short and sweet by addressing one simple topic at a time. It’s already hard enough to retain someone’s attention on social media, so keeping your videos short and to the point is ideal. If you want to share long-form video content, it’s best to do so on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn platforms. 

Your message in each video should be clear and address one topic, tip, or concern at a time. Each of your videos should also include a call to action. What action would you like your audience to take after viewing your video? This is an important step that shouldn’t be missed. 

What can we do to ensure that our videos are engaging? Adding text overlay, as in “a video hook” is always a great idea. This is what’s going to encourage anyone in your audience to stop and view the information. 

Here are some example video hooks for let’s say financial professionals: 

• You NEED this to get your finances in order. 
• Your money is going down the drain because [enter a reason.]
• Stop complicating your bookkeeping process. 
• Do these 3 things for better financial health. 
• What not to do when [enter action.]

Aside from adding a video hook as a text overlay or even as your first sentence, some platforms, such as Instagram, will let you add a graphic cover to your Reels. This is a great opportunity to create visually appealing hooks or a great way to label your videos, giving your audience a preview as to what they should expect. 

Another essential concept to understand is storytelling. You may think that in order to effectively tell a story, we need to leverage blog posts or long-form videos, but that’s not the case. In one minute, you can share a quick story related to the solution you offer. 

Example: “How life changed for client X after implementing our unique savings framework.” 

The more you create storytelling content, the more familiar it will feel. There is no right or wrong way to tell a story, but remember that it must take your audience on a journey and show them the before and what life is after. Another example could be your story of how you started a career in this industry. 

Here are some ideas if you do not want to be on video yourself: 

• You can take clips of your office or workspace and add voice-over video. 
• Take some B-roll content, such as short videos when on a walk, videos from when you went on a vacation, or quick sunrise videos, and add text overlay on the clips. You can do the same with voice-over audio. 
• This last tip is not our favorite method, but you can also take stock video footage and add text-overlay or voice-over as well. 

The ultimate golden rule when it comes to video marketing is to be yourself. It’s easy to get caught up in the comparison game, but remember that your clients will come to you because of you! We invite you to have a look at our Instagram to see some video content ideas and formats. 

Best Practices for Promoting Your Short-Form Videos

Now that you know how to create some great video content, once you hit publish, it doesn’t end there. In order to maximize your reach, we recommend that you promote your videos on an ongoing basis. 

Here’s what you can do: 

• Regularly share your video content to your Instagram or Facebook stories. 
• If you are sharing your videos on TikTok, don’t forget to tag older videos relevant to the topic in your descriptions. 
• Link to a few of your videos in some of your emails. 
• Share the links to your social media platform in your email signature and add a call to action to learn more about your latest videos. 
• Link to your various short-form videos in your blog posts. 
• Link to your short-form videos in your LinkedIn posts. 

Always think about cross-prompting your content. It’s a great way to grow your reach even further. 

Closing Notes

As you have learned in this blog post, video marketing is an important part of marketing success for business owners. We hope that you will find the tips and tricks shared useful. If you are looking for a video strategy for your marketing efforts, we can help!