Video is quickly becoming the media format with the highest marketing ROI for businesses of all sizes and industries nationwide. YouTube recently hit the 2 billion monthly active users mark, a statistic that, alongside many others, indicates internet user preference for the video medium over other digital and traditional content types.
So how do small to mid-sized Reno businesses keep up with an ever-increasing demand for video content (not to mention high video production rates)? We’re glad you asked! Or at least, we’re glad you’re willing to entertain the question.
Today we’re talking about best practices for making video production scalable and affordable, including a trick called content repurposing, the value of making video a part of your company culture, and a few examples of scalable and affordable video formats you can use immediately! We’ll also look at some folks who have mastered video in their content domains. Let’s dive right in and get started!
1. Learn About a Little Thing Called Video Repurposing
What is content repurposing and how does it apply to video?
Content repurposing is the act of taking one piece of content and reworking it into various formats to be used across your marketing channels.
Content repurposing is the act of taking one piece of content and reworking it into various formats to be used across your marketing channels.
A video, if it’s long enough, can be that initial piece of content that is re-iterated into various forms.
Let’s say that you filmed a 15, 30, or 60-second commercial for your Reno business.
You may upload that video to YouTube, place it on the home page of your website, announce it on Facebook, and think you’re done, you’ve exhausted all channels on which to publish your video, and it will soon be forgotten in the hubbub of the internet. But you would be wrong! There is a lot of life to squeeze out of one video production.
The individual elements of your commercial, the audio, video, and B-roll, can each be taken apart and re-edited to make several shorter video snippets. You can focus on key phrases or key moments in the footage.
These snippets can then be shared to your social media over the following weeks, months, or for however long you can make the lifetime of your video production last!
In this way, you are spending less money on less video production for more video content. How cool is that?!
Perhaps the best way to understand content repurposing is to see it in action.
Example: Gary Vee, Video Extraordinaire
People have mixed feelings about Gary Vee. Some love him. Some think he’s a little too crude for professional media.
One thing we all know for certain, he’s the king of video and content repurposing.
Gary Vee seemingly records every waking moment of his life. In reality, he just flips his video camera on whenever he has an important thought or anecdote. But it looks like he is doing 100x more than he actually is because he’s a content repurposing genius.
Gary uses what he calls his “content pyramid” model, which takes one long-form piece of “pillar” content and repurposes it into 30 different content pieces including videos, gifs, podcasts, blogs, social media posts, stories, and more on 20 different platforms. You can learn about the model on his SlideShare, here.
In his SlideShare, Gary Vee provides an example of a keynote he repurposed that generated over 35 million views.
How much money do you think it cost Gary to give that one keynote? We may not know, but we can guess that the two hours he spent talking was more than covered by the marketing value of the views he received.
Video Strategy Saves Your Reno Business Money
Learning how to content repurpose and following content models is about more than just the coolness factor, it saves your Reno business money.
Start with a plan, and you’ll end up spending less money for more video content.
One of the best ways to ensure excellent content repurposing is to make your video commercial as “repurposable” as possible.
In the storyboarding process, plan to film B-roll and record audio that is modular and can be rebuilt into several different formats of video.
This will give you a library of video content to work from for, again, more content for fewer dollar bills.
2. Make Video Production Part of Your Reno Company Culture
Another great way to make video production scalable and affordable at your Reno business is to get your staff involved!
It’s a common misconception that video production is the exclusive task of a professional videographer.
Although it is important for your Reno business to be publishing high-quality video content for your reputation, the technology of the iPhone camera has greatly improved over the last couple of years and your staff probably have some customer communication skills and experience with what a video for social media should be like.
They may not be the best quality, but iPhone videos are passable, and the fact that they are filmed casually will make your Reno customers feel like they are getting an exclusive, transparent look into your everyday operations.
Make picking up the iPhone and recording a quick video a simple, fun thing that everybody in your office is encouraged (*cough*required*cough*) to do!
You will save a lot of money by supplementing more costly video production with these shorter forays into video media.
Example: Allen Gannet, LinkedIn Video Guy
Allen Gannet is an excellent example of someone who is not afraid to just pick up his iPhone and record. His platform of choice is LinkedIn.
As spontaneous as his videos may be, Allen exemplifies the idea of creating a plan before filming. Every one of his videos in his series #AllenAsks follows the same format.
Allen is known for asking questions of moderately famous business people when he runs into them at networking events or over the course of his business day. He starts by introducing his special guest and himself, he asks a simple question, gets their answer, summarizes that answer into something “bitable,” and then literally “peaces out.” The videos typically last no more than a minute.
You can watch Allen’s videos on LinkedIn, here.
Allen is a LinkedIn influencer and his videos frequently get thousands to tens of thousands of views. Given that LinkedIn is a lately reemerging platform, this is significant. And it only cost him 60 seconds on a Tuesday afternoon.
Get Video in Your Blood
A fantastic way to get “video in the blood” of you and your Reno staff is to make it as easy for all of you as possible.
Write scripts for you and your team and provide them with mini “production kits” with everything they will need to say in their video and to publish it, including any calls-to-action, how-to instructions, and any graphical elements you want them to use.
Empower your Reno staff with the resources they need to be the heroes in front of the iPhone camera and to learn to enjoy the video production process!
Lead the Video Charge by Example
An important thing to note is that, if you are going to be requiring your Reno staff to get in front of the camera, you can’t balk away from it yourself.
We all know that people are led by example. Not only will seeing you do it first make the new thing palatable for your team, but it will show them exactly what you are expecting from them and it will set the tone for the rest of the videos they produce.
Just like video helps your customers visualize what you are doing for them, an example video will help your Reno staff visualize what you want them to do.
3. Try-On Some of These Video Formats for Size
After all of this discussion about “just get in front of the camera,” you’re probably wondering, “but what do I say??”
Hopefully, some of these video format ideas will help you out.
Get inspired by the ideas that create a vision in your mind as something that might actually work for you and your Reno team.
Example: Beacon, Video Playground
Beacon Media + Marketing (that’s us!) is at a place where we’re taking the video trends seriously, exercising our content repurposing muscles, and getting everyone on our team in front of the camera.
We’re creating videos for YouTube, on Facebook Live, for our blogs and web pages, and more, each with particular content repurposing…purposes.
Our team has been making plans, experimenting with new formats, and writing scripts. In summary, we’re walking what we’re talking! Here’s our latest staff-recorded video, Social Media Specialist Luke Pahlau filming an intro for one of our social media blogs.
This video was recorded using a simple iPhone tripod and a mic attachment. Again, you don’t need any fancy equipment to get these done, just some thoughtful planning, a willing subject, and a pre-written script!
The blog this video was recorded for currently ranks #1 on Google for the search “social media for med spas.” It is a part of one of our marketing funnels that regularly generates (pre-sold!) leads for us. And it only took about fifteen minutes to film.
Doing Short Interviews Like Allen
Possibly the easiest format of new video content to produce at your Reno business is the short interview
All you need is a simple format, such as an introduction, a question, and a summary, like Allen Gannet uses.
Consider pulling people aside over the course of your business day–staff, clients, partners, people in your community–and asking them to record a quick 30-second video with you!
Creating Long, “Pillar” Videos
Longer video productions may seem daunting, but they can be curated fairly easily as well.
The first place you should be looking for long video content is among the other formats of long content you are already producing at your Reno business. For instance, if you are already speaking at events (like Gary Vee), guest lecturing, offering trainings, or recording podcasts, you should be filming this content as well.
Publish these “content pillars” to YouTube and break them down into smaller bite-sized pieces using the Gary Vee content pyramid model. You can also film yourself reading any blogs you are publishing or giving blog summaries to your audience.
One of our favorite formats of “pillar content” at Beacon is our Facebook Lives. We regularly bring in clients, other business owners, and change-makers in our community to our office to interview them in a shorter podcast-style format to publish live to Facebook. Once the live video is complete, we download it and publish it to YouTube. We have also repurposed our Facebook lives for landing pages.
Another idea for pillar video productions is the product demo. Some of the best YouTubers get views by casually unboxing products in front of the camera and filming their reactions and commentary. Consider filming yourself walking someone through your product or service.
Just Picking Up the Camera
Sometimes video production is less about having a plan and more about knowing when is the right time to turn on the video camera.
Gary Vee is great about filming whenever he has an important thought or insight to share, no matter who he is talking to.
Whether you are in a meeting with a client or talking something over with a team member, if you are sharing something that you think other people could benefit from, “lights, camera, action!”
Consider using this for your starting line, “Hey guys, I was just talking with so-and-so, and I feel like this is something you could benefit from too.”
You may be amazed by just how valuable these spontaneous videos are to your audience!
Do you feel inspired? We hope so. Our goal has been to show you just how approachable, scalable, and affordable video production can be. Ideally, you can start using some of these video format ideas as early as today if you’d like! If you are looking for a video production company in Reno who can help you develop the video portion of your marketing plan, we would love to talk. You can schedule a free consultation with our President Adrienne Wilkerson using our live scheduler here. Happy filming!
