Author: Peter van Aartrijk
Communication is an art form.
Some people are talented at graphic design. Some are powerful public speakers. Some are excellent writers. And some are really gifted at one-on-one relations. The agency that integrates all these into a marketing strategy using the technology available will do something that most agencies don’t do—communicate coherently across media.
But communication is more than simply a competency. Great communicators are artists. They tell your message concisely and so pleasantly that the recipient wants to watch or read or listen. Take a look, for example, at this YouTube video created and produced by Stuart Meyer, president and founder of Social Frequency Media Communications: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcWqBgQDS4Y
In just four minutes, you grab four essential characteristics of the featured agency: they are your neighbors, they are family-owned, they are proactive with answers, and they can be trusted. The entire production instills confidence and calmness and creates a call to action for the viewer—if you live near Naperville, you need to call this agency.
But is producing and posting a solid video enough?
According to Meyer, it isn’t. Video-based storytelling is one component—an important component—of an overall marketing and social media strategy.
“Unfortunately, too often, clients think once a video is produced the work is done, when in fact the work is just beginning,” Meyer says. “Video SEO [search engine optimization], digital integration, paid reach and other means enable you to reach audiences with your video.”
Distinguishing yourself is key. The Internet is a vast sea of information, and most people are drowning in irrelevant, lengthy, boring content that says little. If you have produced quality content that spotlights some expertise you have or some differentiating factor about your agency, the next step is to get it to your audience. The cost to do that is a necessary price to pay and, done right, will pay for itself many times over.
SEO is probably the most technologically challenging part of the equation—partly because search engine companies change their parameters frequently and partly because the whole process is like an adventure through Oz: the wizard and his gizmos are behind the great curtain, and it takes a lot of courage, brains and heart to force the reveal. If you have the inclination plus the time, here is a helpful one-hour video about exploiting Google’s video-SEO.
Video SEO really is the new SEO, Meyer says. “That’s because not only does Google ‘own’ search, it also owns YouTube and has made it a centerpiece of its search results algorithm.”
Google is trying to push fluff to the margins and provide the Google user the best search experience. At the 6:00-minute mark of the one-hour video, the speaker highlights what you now need in order to get search hits—your user design, good user experience, a quick-loading website, your other social media in play, quality content, and syndicating out that content, for example. The matrix of demands around core SEO for 2015 is so vastly more complex than in 2004 that many agencies producing otherwise quality content—video, white papers, podcasts, etc.—are simply not connecting with Internet users.
This is why Meyer presses agencies to incorporate video-based storytelling into an overall marketing strategy that coherently pushes content out in a way that gets it seen. While Social Frequency Media Communications and others like them can produce beautiful, even compelling, video content, it will seem like a waste if it isn’t packaged properly within a technologically savvy marketing strategy.
Ask yourself a few questions to get started:
Does our agency have something that differentiates us?
Can we tell that story in multiple ways—written word, video, podcast?
Do we have anyone in-house who can produce the content?
Are we willing to hire externally to get the best?
Do we want to have our content found by clients and prospects?
Can we afford to do it right?
Can we afford not to?
“Every piece of story-based video content needs an accompanying integrated marketing strategy enabling optimal distribution across traditional and digital media,” Meyer says. “I recommend building this on the front end of the project at the same time during pre-production.”
While baby steps towards good written, video and audio content are at least movement in the right direction, there is one last note of caution: a poorly executed strategy that produces low-quality content could do more harm to your agency than good.
Take a look at Meyer’s video on the Naperville agency and spend some time thinking about Melbourne SEO Services’ presentation on Google search optimization, then see if you can get traction for a high-quality online media presence at your executive level. That alone can become a differentiating factor for insurance agencies in an increasingly competitive landscape.