Are you already vlogging? If not, using financial video blogging or “vlogging” is quickly becoming one of the best ways to improve your overall online marketing strategy with both clients and prospects.
Whether you love it or hate it, this popular medium is continuing to gain momentum and is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Consider this. By 2021, a million minutes or 17,000 hours of video content will cross global IP networks every single second!
The average person spends 88% more time on a website that has video. What’s more, people retain 95% of a message when they watch a video in comparison to just 10% when reading only text. How’s that for research on retaining your content and marketing messaging?
These certainly should be motivating statistics to put vlogging on your radar.
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Getting Started on Your Vlog
You do not have to have the latest and greatest camera or equipment to begin your financial vlog. Matter of fact, simply using your smartphone will do the trick nicely.
Sound quality is important, however, so if you do use your smartphone, be sure it has a good quality microphone. If you want, you can use a Bluetooth microphone to ensure the clearest audio.
Using the best lighting possible is also essential. Try to record your vlogs during the daytime when you have the most sunlight in the room you are recording in. Also make an effort to keep the background you film in front of simple. Sitting at your office desk or in a client meeting room will work just fine, as long as there is no disruptive background noise.
Editing your videos is also necessary. Once again, you don’t need to purchase the latest and greatest video editing software. You should easily be able to use Windows Movie Maker if you are PC-based or you can use iMovie if you are a Mac user.
Your Vlog Content
Be sure to create a content calendar and create your vlogs regularly. Just like you would do with your blog or client newsletter, create a consistent topic calendar for vlogging.
If you already have a weekly blog or newsletter you write for clients and prospects, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You can use the same topics and themes. Keep a running topic list and jot down ideas whenever they come to mind.
You can also get creative with your vlogs and interview your staff members and create behind-the-scenes videos in your office. Consider branding your videos with your logo or even wearing a shirt with your firm’s logo in the videos. Also create catchy titles for your vlogs, just as you would for your blogs.
Chances are your first few vlogs might feel a little awkward, but stick with it.
Follow vloggers who you like to watch, and learn from them. Also be authentic and show your true personality so your viewers feel connected to you.
Less Is More
While the length of your vlogs can vary, the best rule of thumb is that less is more. If you are mostly posting your videos on social media and your website, you can keep the video length tight. Somewhere between 90 seconds and 5 minutes is a good goal.
Research shows, however, 56% of all videos published in the last year are less than 2 minutes long.
Keep in mind that if a viewer watches the first 3 seconds of your video, they are most likely to finish it. This means that those catchy titles are important, as well as how you open up your videos to gain your viewers’ attention.
Gaining Traction
To gain traction with your vlogging efforts, create a community. You can consider creating a YouTube channel to gain a following. Keep in mind if you create a YouTube channel, your videos can be longer. Although the research varies, the average length of a YouTube video is 14 minutes and 50 seconds.
Aside from YouTube, post your videos on your website, email them with your newsletter and post them to all of your social media channels.
Be sure to ask for feedback from your viewers. Engage with your audience by asking them questions to reply to. Also be sure to respond to their comments. Research shows that a video’s comment count is strongly correlated with higher rankings. Encourage them to share your videos with others. Also include meta tags, which are located inside your html’s head area, to improve your SEO.
When choosing to follow other vloggers, be sure to comment on their content and invite them to follow yours.
The Bottom Line
Vlogging is an extremely low-cost but powerful way to improve your overall online marketing strategy for your advisory business.
Through vlogs, you are able to impact your clients and prospects in a very engaging and personal way, ultimately building your relationships. Social networks allow unlimited sharing to reach exponential audiences. This will build your expertise, credibility, referrals and loyalty – all of which reinforce your brand.
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