The Marketing Boss

Parchelle Hotten (Tashi):  “We are so excited about our guest on the show today.  His name is Steve Henning, and he’s from the great state of Minnesota. You guys are going to be really excited about some of the things he’ll talk about today; he’s another video marketing professional, and he’s talking about some of the mistakes that people usually are making when they approach working with video. So this is something that you listeners especially want to pay attention to.  I know I’ve spoken with many people who are really excited about doing video, but I think that this will be a great piece of content for you to consider, to approach video in the most successful way.  So, I’m really excited.  Steve, thanks for being here.“

Steve:  “Good morning Parchelle.  Thanks so much for having me.”

Parchelle:  “Absolutely.  You know, to give our listeners a little bit of background about Steve...  he is the owner, producer, and director at AMS Digital Productions.  He has helped a number of organizations from small businesses to non-profits tell their stories with digital media with artistic vision and creative imagination.  He understands technology and has a passion for quality.  He’s a great storyteller, as well, which I think you guys will enjoy, and we’re really excited to have him here with us.

Before we get into some video talk here, I definitely want to thank those who’ve connected with us so far on social media.  And, if you’d like to connect as well, definitely find me, Parchelle Hotten.  I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  And also, join in on our private LinkedIn group called The Marketing Blog Club.  It’s for marketing professionals like you and me.  We can collaborate and grow together. Again, that’s the Marketing Blog Club, so come on in and join the group.  So, with that said let’s go on and jump in the interview with Steve.  Steve, thank you again for being here.  Let’s start off and tell us a little bit about how you got started in the world of video.”

Steve:  “It goes back, I’m not going tell you how many years, but let’s just say I’ve had over 35 years of marketing experience. Earlier in my career I owned a Twin Cities-based ad agency, and we had created several video programs, both broadcast ad campaigns and corporate videos for some of our marketing clients.  We had done a lot of work in the area of economic development and used video in promoting specific projects. 

Also, some of our clients were economic development authorities or semi-regional NGO’s that were trying to attract businesses into their region and video has always been a very, very powerful tool in enabling that to happen.  Most recently my wife and I produced a cable television show for five years.  It was kind of a lifestyle and human-interest magazine, a half hour show talking about west central Minnesota.  I think, even though we haven’t been actively producing it now for a couple years there are probably still come cable network stations out there that are still airing that show. That was a good experience for a little business and really got our feet on the ground as far as kind of a different approach to doing video. We carried that into our commercial work currently as far as how we go about telling an organization’s story to the world.”

Parchelle:  “I’m pretty sure you’ve talked with and dealt with a number of companies and organizations and that’s why I’m really excited to hear and learn from you because I know you bring a lot of experience to the table, and you’ve seen a lot of things go wrong and you’ve seen a lot of mistakes that people have made.  With that being said, what do you find in all of your experience and different productions that you’ve done and different projects and campaigns - what do you find is the biggest mistake people are making?”

Steve: “Well, I see this not just as a small business problem, but this is a very common mistake in many organizations.  People look at their industry in which they are working, and they see competitors or other organizations using video on their websites or social media and they come to us and say, ‘I need a video for my business.’ And that is true; in today’s world, video is the communication tool for marketing and businesses need video.  But so often they will come to us and say, ‘I need a video, I’ve got to have a video for my business,’ and they don’t have an articulated plan for how they’re going to use video.  They think that they just need a single video.  So, they are not necessarily thinking through how they might apply it to different platforms for different purposes within the context of marketing and promoting their business. They might not be thinking about how they might do a 2 minute video for their website’s homepage and throw it out there on Facebook.  

And well, anybody that’s done much social media realizes you have a much shorter attention span for that kind of social media application;  It’s much better to keep social post videos much shorter and more focused. So, the really big issue is thinking through and planning out how they’re going to use video; and within developing that plan is overcoming the second big mistake that I see: many people, when they think about video, have this attitude that one size fits all, and they try to tell their whole story in one shot, for use in all settings. They don’t realize that within the overall story of a business, are multiple stories, you know.

They can be broken down and presented in shorter individual videos rather than wrapped into the context of one big presentation.  When you have an organization with multiple stories or multiple facets, don’t try to pack it all into one video.  Try to divide them out and spread them, you know, across your, well let’s talk websites.  Because that’s a big part of what we do is website design.  I’ve been telling people that, really, our work is developing what I call video-centric websites.  We try to get video on just about every page, or at least many pages, of a given website so that it’s not just all on the homepage.  And I try to keep that homepage video real short, and more like a teaser.

You know, just a teaser and maybe even sometimes not even have talking.  You know, people want to tell their whole story and they want to do it right there on the homepage and, well, if you have a larger organization or you serve multiple markets with your product line or your service, they each deserve a more refined, targeted message rather than trying to shotgun it all into one piece, so that’s a big part of what we do is listen very carefully and learn a lot about our clients and then develop that video content that conveys those messages in ways that are much more targeted and specific and then on a website for a client like that we would have maybe a 30 or 45 second overview that just touches on the things but not necessarily does a lot of the storytelling. 

Sometimes the storytelling unfolds as you explore the website.  You go to the staff page and maybe you hear the manager of the department talking about philosophy that drives their department and then you go to a subpage where it’s talking about a particular product line and you get a little bit more of a story about the product line.  Sometimes, and it’s not just the people that are engaged in the everyday business itself, actually  and I know you know this Parchelle, and that is probably one of the single most powerful uses for video and one most commonly used actually and that is the testimonial.  And I think sometimes the very best way to tell a business’s story is through the words of a customer that’s actually using that business.  Trust and credibility goes way up.   

I have one client, kind of fun, for whom we redesigned a website earlier this year.  It was an established business that had been around, and had a website up for the previous 6 years.  We did a whole new website design for him, put video on every page.  The business was a luxury rental facility and on one page we would have an interview with the architect who designed the buildings in which he talked about all the unique design features.  He talked about the creative process, the architecture, and why it was visually and functionally different and unique.  And we would have another page where we interviewed a few of the clients and talked about the lifestyle living there.  And we have another page where we actually talked to the developer and talked about the construction of the condominiums and how they were more soundproof and private and went into more descriptive detail about the floor-plans and how they were unique.  And then we had more customer testimonials on another page just talking about how flexible this company was as a landlord in working with them and permitting them to have pets, etc.  And this fellow came back to me, the website had been up, he called me about 30 days after it had gone live and he was so excited to report to me that he had had more inquiries in the first 30 days than he had received in 6 years. 

And that was back in March of this year and just 2 weeks ago, the same person, we’re both members of a business networking group, and he stood up in front of the group and announced that he was just absolutely amazed because for years he had been gathering leads and referrals through various referral websites that some of these prospects might subscribe to, and he was so excited because the direct leads coming  straight off of his website had now exceeded the number of referrals that were coming to the website from other websites.  And I attribute a large part of that to the success of the videos working on his pages.  One of the things we did that was also a little unique on his project, and I’ve been trying to incorporate this as standard procedure, sometimes it requires more time than we are able to invest, but we try to do video SEO, so that people are also finding his website via the video server platform when they are doing a search.  I think that’s a big part of that success. “

Parchelle:  “Absolutely.  This is really interesting.  So, you were saying a number of things in that time you were talking: that you can use a video in different ways and, of course, I have these conversations as well with a number of the people we work with because - as you know, we are in a day and age where the video just can’t live in one place.  You know it has to be utilized and it has to really have a strong plan in place and so, I like the fact you have said that it has to be used in different ways and especially if it’s going on your website. Don’t try to jam pack it with any and everything.  You know, keep it as a teaser, and if possible, you can break it up. 

You can also incorporate testimonials at all these different places which work really well, I think, when you combine the strategy with the creative, you know, how it really can result as in the example you mention where somebody was able to generate more leads and inquiries than they had in several years past.  I mean, that’s what it’s all about, it’s about how all this comes together. You know, with so many platforms that are out there Steve, I wanted to ask you this as we start to wrap up here, when it comes to all the different platforms that video can be placed and utilized, why do you find that it’s important, because we talked about this a little bit before, you know we have to modify the content for the platform and not go with a one size fits all approach, why do you find that this is important?”

Steve:  “The whole idea of using video as a marketing tool is to effectively communicate with a target audience. So you look at how does a specific platform fit my audience?  Maybe you have a multi-faceted audience and you have to acknowledge that not all audiences are on the same given social media.  Not everybody is using Facebook, for instance.  There might be a more appropriate use for a targeted business video on LinkedIn, you know, versus what is seen on Facebook, which is more of a broad shotgun audience.  So, if you are a business-to-business marketer, for instance, Linkedin might be the platform you go for. And you might, rather than do a single video, you might be better served by doing part 1, part 2, part 3 in a series and try to capture audience that comes back and qualify them. 

We talk about the old marketing funnel, and we know that it’s very important to use video that speaks to people at every level of a given marketing funnel.  All the way from being a prospect, all the way down to taking that final “buy” step, and afterwards.  After they become a customer, keep them engaged with your business through your messaging and your communication.  Like I’ve said now, and I’ll keep saying it until I’m blue in the face, I think video is THE communication tool to use.  It’s so important for businesses and non-profit organizations today, whether it’s social media or websites, you use it in your marketing, you use video to connect with customers, with donors, with sponsors, with members of an organization, everyone.  You know, it’s just the tool to use as far as I’m concerned.”

Parchelle:  “ Absolutely.  Well, Steve, I definitely want to thank you for your time and being on the show today as a guest.  This has been great, and I love always talking and hearing, you know, about how video is working for other companies and organizations, so this has been great to hear some of the stories from your clients and how you’ve been approaching video.”

Steve:  “None of this is new to you, Parchelle.  I won’t let you escape without giving you a well-deserved accolade, because I have watched several of your videos and your blog posts and I think you are right on.  You have been doing a great job and obviously everyone listening knows that, but I’m going to reiterate it anyway.”

Parchelle:  “Well, I thoroughly appreciate that.  It means a lot. I really do.  Is there any other last words that you want to quickly share with the listeners as we wrap up and then, also if anybody has additional questions or wants to connect with you, where they can find you online?”

Steve:  “Sure, well this is a stereotypical statement, but it is so true. Every day I see this over and over again, and that is the adage that everyone has a story - and video is such a powerful tool for storytelling.  Everyone, and every business has a story, every company has a story, every product or service that you’re trying to market – it has a story. And that story needs to get shared, and video is a great way to do it.”

Parchelle:  “Absolutely.  Everyone take notes there.  Storytelling is really what it’s about and it really connects all of us. So, that’s great.  Where can people reach you and connect with you, if they’d like?”

Steve:  “My business is AMS Digital, and the website is advideos.net, and I’d love to hear from people after they visit the site and listen to this show.  I hope they’ll follow up  and give me a ring if they are in the Midwest.”

Parchelle:  “Steve, thank you so much for being a part of the show today.  It’s been great.”

Steve:  “Thanks, Parchelle.  I sure appreciate the opportunity and wish you the very best.”

Parchelle:  “Same to you, Man. Well, hey you guys, that does it for this episode.  Thank you so much for tuning in and being a part of this as well.  Until next time, remember a good boss is a good leader.  Go out there and serve your gifts to the world because you are the boss. Take care, until next time.  Bye.”

Learn More About The Power of Video:

Why Your Business Needs Video
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3 Popular Types of Video and Why They’re Useful
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A Powerful Video to Benefit Every Organization
Explaining about your company in your own words may be effective, but nothing works better than a testimony from one of your customers.