Meet the Master of Video Marketing – Ronnie Bincer

How to use Multimedia for Marketing

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You’ve created your business strategy, defined your product or service, identified your target audience, and produced some content. What comes next?

Marketing.

For many start-ups, marketing is both confusing and intimidating. And if it is not done right, it’s simply not effective.

So what are your options for effective marketing? Well, limitless, really. There’s text-based blogs, email marketing, direct media, video marketing, social media and so much more it makes your head spin.

But how do you know which one’s right for you? The truth is, It’s not easy and you’ll have to try out different things before you find out. But the good news is that I know some experts that’ll get you pointed in the right direction.

That’s why I invited Ronnie Bincer to “Get on Track, Stay on Track”. He’s a highly respected expert in the field of multimedia marketing – specifically video marketing.

What is Multimedia Marketing

Ronnie Bincer defines multimedia marketing as the “process of using multiple types of presentation methods to communicate a message. I suggest starting with video and then reusing the content over and over again”

In effect, multimedia marketing allows a business owner to repurpose content in different ways in order to reach a wider audience. For instance, here at On Track Tips we start with the video interview, transcribe it into a blog, rip the audio for podcast, then snip it into bit sized pieces or “Quick Tips”. This way we cover more ground and our followers can consume the content in a format of their choice.

Watch “Should I Place Ads on my Website?” on Youtube

What Kind of Business Models Would Benefit from Video Marketing

There’s not a business out there that can’t benefit from Video Marketing.

In today’s customer-centric market, businesses have to focus on forging a trust-based, mutually beneficial relationship with their customers. The only way this can happen if these companies connect or emotionally resonate with their audience. It’s what sets video marketing apart.

Ronnie summed it up perfectly, “video is an emotional tool. It helps create emotional connection with audience, differently than other methods. So any business that can utilize emotion will benefit from video marketing.”

Explaining further, he said that videos add “contextual information” to communication, allowing the audience to interact with a “real, animated” person, and not just a faceless author or an inanimate profile picture. It gives the audience an opportunity to hear voice inflections, see gestures and experience the body language of the brand spokesperson. It also gives brands the opportunity to convey emotions and get closer to their current and potential clientele.

Hangouts-On-Air or HOA as a Video Marketing Tool

Google Plus has simplified the process of video marketing by creating Hangouts-on-Air (HOA). All you have to do is log into G+, click a few buttons, and you’re automatically in a face-to-face broadcast or private meeting.

Private meetings are ideal for interviews and business pitches. We can learn more about a person from a 20-minute private video call than from months of emails and text-messages.

You can quickly size up a person from their non-verbal cues, such as body language and expressions and you’re able to ask questions and receive instant feedback. To sum up, these one-on-one conversations help you efficiently assess your chemistry with another person and decide whether you want to pursue a long-term relationship.

Broadcast HOA’s work much the same way, but with a wider audience. You put yourself and your brand in front of your customers and let them meet the real you.

Personally, I’ve seen an explosion in my follower numbers and comments since I started “Get on Track, Stay on Track” Why? Because my viewers have a familiarity and relationship that goes beyond text. They recognize my voice,  they see my face.

Another real benefit of the HOA’s is that they’re automatically uploaded to YouTube and your Google Events will stay live indefinitely. People can go back and watch the replays and read the comments in their own time.

Hurray for Small Business Owners

Google Plus HOAs have made it real easy (and inexpensive) for small business owners and solopreneurs to present themselves to a broad audience, increase their visibility and generate brand awareness.

Today, video marketing has almost become mandatory because people prefer visuals. People love image-based platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, so now add animation to these images and you have a goldmine! You can see why YouTube is the number 2 search engine.

In effect, video marketing is powerful, purposeful, prevalent…and here to stay. It’s time to hop on this bandwagon before you get left behind your competition!

Video Marketing: Practice Makes the Marketer Perfect

Much like a business strategy, (video) marketing requires short and long term goals in order to create measurable and sustainable success.

Ronnie made it clear that the short term goal of any video marketer is to “get comfortable in front of the camera”. It’s common to find people getting tongue-tied their first time out. The only way to combat this is PRACTICE. Boring, I know – wish we all had some magic potion that transformed us into super-video marketers, but alas this is not to be.

He suggested getting inside a hangout or private recording and looking at yourself while rehearsing. You could also start a HOA and – when done practicing – delete it or make it private so your practice sessions are not exposed to the general audience.

Here, it should be mentioned that you need to evaluate yourself objectively. In fact, it is highly recommended that you start a private hangout with a trusted friend who can help improve your camera presence. Often, you are not the best judge of yourself, and someone objective will be able to offer more valuable advice for improvement and growth.

Once you’re comfortable enough in front of the camera on your own, transition into group HOAs. Start off as a guest and make a comment once in a while to assess your comfort level.

Bottom line, practice is the only way to improve as a Hangout participant or host. The only thing worse than having no video is to have a bad video!

As Ronnie puts it, “when you can get the best face out there, you’re going to have a better result moving forward”

He emphasized the importance of hiding or making private any unprofessional or amateurish videos. You have no way of knowing which video will be exposed to your audience first, so take extra care to ensure that their first impression of you is one of your best impressions.

Emphasize on Short Term and Long Term Goals

It’s worth creating a separate section to emphasize the importance of having goals as a video marketer. Mindlessly throwing out videos without an underlying objective is not only a waste of YOUR time, it is also a waste of YOUR CUSTOMER’s time. Worst case scenario? They may never again come back to you. This is NOT the time to be a risk-taker.

Have specific goals and objectives in place – such as lead capture or driving traffic – so your videos will be relevant to your customer’s needs.

My short-term marketing objectives, for example, is to get my face known and build relationship with my audience. My long term goals are to find sponsors for my series, increase my blog readership, and drive traffic to my landing pages.

With a background in video SEO, Ronnie transitioned wholeheartedly into Google Plus Hangouts because it’s owned by – what he called – “that small search engine company called Google” He elaborated that his activities on G+ make an impact on Google search. Specifically, his goal is to get found or become known for his area of expertise, which are hangouts.

One of the major benefits of Hangout Events is the ability to receive real, genuine, meaningful feedback. It is a forum where your audience can interact with you and each other.

Example of Video Marketing Strategies

Okay, now that we’re all convinced that video marketing is a powerful and effective tool, what are some ideas of video-based strategies that might work for your audience?

Aside from the common “How To” and “Product Reviews” genres, Ronnie tossed out some out-of-the-box themes, such as product demonstrations.

Demonstrating a product or service online gives an opportunity for your customers to ask real-time questions, which can then be ‘re-purposed into an FAQ video’ on your website. Going one step further, Ronnie mentioned that it’s also possible to ‘slice and dice’ that one video into multiple videos, one for each question and answer. This way, you now have several ‘snack-able’ videos that will prove highly useful to solve your client’s common needs, problems and issues.

Video Marketing: DIY Tools

After understanding the value of video marketing setting our short-term and long-term goals, we are now ready to start producing videos.

What are some of the DIY Tools that a ‘total beginner’ can use to create videos?

Ronnie recommended reelseo.com – which, according to their website, is ‘a leading resource for news, analysis, tips and trends for online video and internet marketing’ – for those who are committed to taking the plunge into the world of video marketing.

IF you are not sure about whether video marketing is a feasible option for you, he recommends Google Plus’s HOA as the perfect option. All you need is a Webcam, headset and decent lighting to get started. YouTube allows you to cut and edit your hangouts within their website.

Other tools that I use regularly are Camtasia, CyberLink PowerDirector, and Audacity.

Debunking the Myth: Is Video Marketing Really THAT Easy

While we definitely encourage you to try out HOAs and video marketing, we also remind you to set realistic expectations.

It is a common myth that just because DIY tools are low cost and tutorials are everywhere, video marketing is easy and anyone can do it.

The reality is, not everyone can do it. It’s hard work.

For instance, Ronnie Bincer is an expert video marketer but this market evolving so rapidly, it is a full time job just staying on top of the tech.

And not just tech, you have to constantly work on your voice modulation, body language and communication skills. Most importantly, you have to be open-minded enough to modify or refine your presentation based on feedback. Again, trial and error – and PRACTICE – is the only way to become a consistently effective video marketer.

Ronnie Bincer’s Secret of Success

Knowing the amount of commitment it takes to be a successful video marketer, I wondered how Ronnie manages to put out three to four videos per week. Note that his videos are not simple animations – they consist of complex descriptions, graphics, and other advanced features!

OBVIOUSLY, that’s a lot of work! So how does Ronnie manage?

With twinkling eyes and a self-deprecating smile, our wonderful guest shared his secret. I do it “by subscribing to the 48 hour day!” He tells us that he does most everything by himself but admits its time for some help.

He’s currently working on spreading out his “How To” videos – instead of bunching them all together in one video – to help “people see more of his stuff on a regular basis” and “introduce themselves to another level of what he has to offer.”

Video SEO: Basic Tips and Strategies

Considering Ronnie’s background in Video SEO, I asked him to share the absolute basic things you need to do for Video SEO.

Here are his top three:

  1. Nice Thumbnail: A video thumbnail acts like a magazine cover and determines whether your audience is motivated to click on it.
  2. High-quality Headline or Title of Video: The title needs to have something related to what you believe your audience is seeking. Be sure to include the most important keywords
  3. Keyword-optimized Description and Tags: But remember, don’t over do it by keyword stuffing.

Ronnie also shared one of his NINJA tricks that he uses to improve click-through-rates of his videos.

Have you noticed that once you are done watching a YouTube video, you see all those ‘related’ videos? Ronnie edits all his descriptions and adds ‘a consistent tag’, like his name or something unique so that YouTube will choose his other videos to display in the center or on the right side.

Final Thoughts

In our lightning round wrap-up,  we hit him with a few last minute questions:

  1. What Tools do you use to get the audio from your video if you want to use as a podcast or Sound Cloud? Get your audio using Download helper from Mozilla, then convert from MP4 to MP3 using Any Video Converter
  2. Is it OK to put the same video on multiple video networks? Will this incur a duplicate content penalty? This shouldn’t be an issue, as long as you make minor tweaks to the description of each video. You are not responsible for the SEO of those networks, so don’t worry about it.
  3. Where is the best place to upload your videos, YouTube, Vimeo or Blip TV?: The location of your video should be determined by the location of your audience. Find out where your customers watch their videos. For instance, Vimeo might be the best choice for ‘artsy’ video. YouTube is always a safe bet because that has the largest audience and it is the number 2 search engine
  4. What are your thoughts about iTunes Audios and Videos?: I think re-purposing is excellent and increases your over all internet real estate. This gives your customer the power to choose their preferred format of consumption. Since not everyone has the time to watch video, having audio files in easily-accessible locations, like Sound Cloud or ITunes is a safe bet.

And if you are still not convinced of the power of video marketing, here’s some startling facts:

  1. Value of 1 minute of video = 1.8 million words (Source: BrainShark)
  2. Video can increase click-through rates by more than 90% (Source: Mist Media)
  3. Video attracts two to three times as many monthly visitors, doubles their time spent on the site and has a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engines (Source: MarketingSherpa)
  4. More than 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month (Source: YouTube)
  5. Having video on the landing page of your site makes it 53% more likely to show up on page 1 of Google. (Source: Mist Media)

Are you feeling the heat of video marketing?!

Get to know more about ‘The Hangout Helper’, Ronnie Bincer.

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Host of "Get on Track, Stay on Track" weekly interview series, helping your small business one expert at a time. And CEO of Wiser Sites, a general contractor and marketing agency - connecting your customers with your products.

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