It's 2019 and videos are everywhere. Marketers include video as a part of their content strategy and it is slowly becoming a vital part of the overall marketing plan. Hubspot is my favorite brand when it comes to content marketing, and they are successful in engaging a lot of followers through videos.

All the platforms support videos now, which is a clear indication of how important video marketing for businesses that thrive on these platforms.

To have an expert's advice on Video Marketing I invited the Digital Strategist, Brand and Influencer Consultant, Shane Barker.

In this episode, Shane talks about -

• how video helps marketers in lead generation

• the best platforms for B2B marketing videos

• tips for creating and launching B2B marketing videos

• personalizing video marketing + one awesome tool

• the best platform for building a personal brand through videos [bonus]

How video helps marketers in lead generation?

Video Marketing, I think, is used by quite a few people. But I think the problem is, not enough people are using it right. I mean when it comes to video, it obviously is going to have more engagement when somebody puts a video out there versus a stagnant picture, or even just written text.

But a video is very engaging and we see that on Instagram, Facebook and all these platforms. If you put a video on Facebook and the same thing on Instagram, when you put that up against a stagnant picture, then they open up their algorithm because they really want people who are seeing those videos.

We've been using video for a while and we have a lot of our clients that have been using it too. And when it comes to lead conversion, I mean, it can be anywhere from a call to action all the way till the end of your funnel, right. Anywhere from awareness to the call to action. So if there's anything in between where you can put a video means you get more opportunities. By doing this you make people feel more engaged like you're actually talking to them. It is going to be important.

A lot of times when we have people sign up for something, I'll send them a thank you video right after that on the thank you page just saying, "Hey, thank you guys for signing up." Or "this is what we're going to be doing. This is the opportunity, this is a community which you're going to be a part of, this is kind of what to expect" and so on.

People get excited, you know, there's less buyer's remorse. A video where somebody actually gets to see you, I think it's kind of a warmer welcome than just sending a text message or sending an email that goes over That's kind of dry, and it doesn't have a lot of character to it.

What are the best platforms for B2B marketing videos?

There are the obvious ones, you know, like your website, you're able to put the videos on it and then there is YouTube. But I think one of the things that I think is interesting is like, LinkedIn being an example.

One of the things that you want to do when it comes to the distribution of your videos is you also want to crossroad your videos on multiple platforms. So, you know, if you have a video that you put out, and there are a lot of different ways that you can distribute it. You can have a piece of content that you can slice it up and share it in different places. So, you know, Instagram be an example. LinkedIn is an example of where you can go, and you can have whatever, it can be a one minute clip that you can cut down to 15 seconds for Instagram, it can be, you know, 60 seconds for LinkedIn, and then whatever you can put on your Facebook as well. So you have to figure it out when you get that content. When you have that raw footage, how do you break that down into for each platform?

One of the things important is to keep your video short and easy to understand. Some people watch long videos, but for the most part, people are likely to love the shorter ones. It again depends on what your products and services are, but a lot of people like the ones where it's short and kind of gives them some information. They can watch it and not have to spend 10 - 15 minutes trying to figure something out.

And then one thing we've used a lot is using the marketing videos made to explain product features, or uses or, or how you use a certain product. We see a lot of these videos on YouTube because YouTube is a big search engine, where you can go and put something on how to use your product. And if somebody has a question, and they write on a certain topic, or title or keywords, then obviously YouTube shows up your video a lot of times. Regardless, because it's a video or it's a live production, somebody can see how to use a tool or use your product, or better understand your services.

I think another thing is, using a catchy headline for your video, obviously, to grab the users' attention. I mean, you can have the best video in the world. But if you have a very lame or a subject line, or a headline that doesn't get people's attention, it's not going to succeed.

That's usually the first step I'm focusing on. It's the same thing with email marketing. If you have the best email that you've ever put together, but if you have a headline that's not that catchy, then you get put in a situation where, you know, people aren't going to click on it. You're not going to be able to convert those people. So that's really an important thing.

Any tips for creating and distributing B2B videos?

I would say in regards to LinkedIn, there's a lot of different ways that you can go about that. LinkedIn has more than 200 million people engaging with video content. And obviously as you said earlier,  they've started really supporting the video side of things a few months ago, because you know, it also keeps people on the website longer and it's very engaging content.

So people want to watch the whole video, if you're reading content, you can look around or not, look at other websites and not really be that into the content. But when you're watching the video, it's usually a pretty engaged audience that can hear and can watch that. So I mean, in regards to LinkedIn, the way that we go about things is that we do it either for a brand to start awareness, to let people know about a product or service that's either launching or it has been around for a long time.

We also use it for thought leadership where we can talk about, "Hey, this is what we're seeing in the industry." It can be a weekly update or something. So the idea of that is, you have the CEO of a company, and it's just, "Hey, these are the updates and industry, this is what's going on", and people start going to the brand to get those weekly updates. And so then you obviously put that person on that thought leadership position.

You can do it for client testimonials, where you have a client that says something great about your product or service. You can also make it a little more humanistic and what I mean by that is, you can make a video of your office or people, somebody that's won an award in your company, or something like that. There are a lot of different ways to do it, it just doesn't always have to be all about sales. It doesn't always have to be like, "Hey, go buy our product", or, "Hey, this is what we do".

I think one of the things that you want to do when it comes to creating video type content for any platform is to come up with a video content calendar. It can be like,

• once a week updates on the industry

• reviewing a certain article written by somebody

• talking to our VP of Sales about what's going on in the industry in regards to sales

• doing a customer testimonial

You want to be doing it at least one of those a month. So people see that you have happy customers. Putting up that calendar together doesn't have to be something where you're putting something up daily, doesn't even have to be weekly. But I think being consistent with one thing is the only way that you're going to build that community. So post a mix of different types of content, and be regular and consistent.

One of the things that people do like is that, you know, like with emails as an example, everybody likes it that my email goes out on Wednesdays at 8 am. So I think some people start to look forward to that, if you start switching that up, then people aren't used to changing. It's like the newspaper in the morning, I'm used to getting my newspaper at 6 am, I get up, I look at my newspaper, and I drink my coffee. If my newspaper isn't there, and it comes the next day, it throws me off, because then I don't know when that's happening. So make sure that you're very regular and consistent with your content.

You can also take inspiration from other videos that are being created. I mean, there's no reason to try to go and reinvent the wheel. If you see some content from a competitor or something that seems to be doing well, you don't have to necessarily do that exact same thing. But you can definitely look at it and garner some ideas in regards to that. And then obviously, you can use LinkedIn and personal page metrics, and future detractors, in your content as well. So there's a lot of cool ways to do it.

Once again, the hardest thing about any video is just doing it right. Most people are always like, "I don't know, I gotta do this. This can be perfect." It's not going to be perfect. Just you got to get out there and start doing it. Because I can guarantee that the person you know, somebody famous on YouTube right now, their first video is probably terrible, right? People who started writing probably weren't that good quality, but they had to start somewhere. So it's the same thing with this.

If you put a little calendar together for LinkedIn and let's say you only post once a month, that's fine. That's a start, at least you're getting something going. And you might have to iterate and change it up a little bit. But you know, a video is just very compelling a medium because when people look at it, they watch the ones which they can certainly get used to seeing. No different than the news and everything else. I think it's going to be an important avenue, especially in 2019.

How to personalize video marketing?

I think, personalization obviously depends on your product or service. There's a company that I work with, called Bonjoro. And what they do is, so if somebody comes to your websites signs up, then you can send them a personalized video instantly.

So you can start the video and say, "Hey, John, wanted to thank you for signing up for my services." This is super exciting, and it's personalized, and then it gets sent to them. They see it, they just signed up for your program and two minutes later, you send a personalized video to them. People kind of lose it because they're like, I can't believe that Shane actually responded to me for signing up for my product or service.

It is one of those things that not a lot of companies are doing, yes, they have it with emails. But personalizing the video, if you can do it at scale can be extremely valuable. I mean, if somebody signs up for my services, and, you know, I have no problem with spending a few seconds, giving them a personal Thank you, because at that point, those people are like, wow Shane actually, personally reached out to me and said, Thank you for signing up for services. So you have that level of customer service by which they're already wow-ed.

So the number of people that actually canceled on my services is very low. Because we go in and again, we want to personalize it as much as possible, because people feel like you have this custom touch that I think is definitely needed.