By Trey Robinson | Forbes

When maintaining contact with clients or encouraging prospects, you might rely on email, an occasional blog, a quarterly white paper or a report. But you might be overlooking a viable content format: video.

As a business professional outside of the marketing world—say, a financial advisor—you might think video marketing isn’t necessary. Besides, videos are hard to produce and expensive to make, right? Not true. Thanks to the latest technology, videos are easier than ever to create and can establish you as a thought leader, allowing you to stand out from others.

What Is Video Marketing?

Mention “video marketing,” and what might come to mind are YouTube or TikTok influencers introducing the latest fads or trends. But influencers and fads are a tiny part of video marketing. They also have little, if anything, to do with business videos.

Search Engine Journal defines video marketing as “leveraging videos to educate, entertain, and engage the audience to achieve your business or personal goals.”

Businesses have been using video to promote and educate since the 1940s. But this format has more recently become an essential part of content strategy. HubSpot reported that audiences spend an average of 17 hours a week watching videos online. Another study found that 94% of users watched videos to learn about products or services.

The Impact Of Video

Video can be a great way to educate current clients and prospects, establishing you as an expert in your field. Here are some other benefits of this content format:

Video can improve user engagement.

The adage of a picture being worth a thousand words is scientifically proven. An MIT study indicated that the human brain identifies and reacts to images in as little as 13 milliseconds. Furthermore, visuals stick around in a user’s long-term memory. When you tell your story through video, it engages your viewers’ visual and audio senses and evokes emotions. It puts you in a position of trust with your audience. And when a video is memorable and resonates with your audience, it’s often shared with others, thereby extending your reach to additional prospects and future clients.

Video can boost SEO and website rankings.

A video on your website’s page improves that page’s quality in Google’s eyes and increases visitors’ time on your page. This can mean a higher ranking on a search engine results page (SERP). A higher SERP position is gold; in keeping with our example, when prospects input the term “financial planners” into a search engine, your company name is more likely to come up near or at the top of the list.

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Using Video To Your Advantage

While video marketing can be an outstanding tool, you must know how to use it properly. Before hitting that “record” button, consider the following:

Understand your audience’s pain points.

People seek out financial planners for multiple reasons, such as when they want to reduce taxes, transfer wealth or are interested in generating more income. They require financial advice when navigating life events, including early career, raising a family and retirement. Your job is to know what’s bothering your clients and prospects.

Understand how your video helps alleviate that pain.

Your videos should provide information to solve their problems by showing off your expertise and should present you as a trustworthy expert. Building trust helps maintain your client base and boosts prospect conversions.

The next step is to put your information and know-how into a compelling video.

Determine the right topics.

Your topics come from understanding your audience’s needs. For financial planners, as an example, subjects to consider include end-of-year contributions to retirement plans, estate planning, income tax filing and understanding financial needs connected to life events.

Don’t make the mistake of winging it when recording your video. Be sure you have a written script that tells an interesting story. For example, rather than stating that estate planning is important, point out why this is the case.

Use an appealing spokesperson.

Many people think they have a knack for being a video spokesperson. If you’re one of these people, that’s great. Just be sure you don’t freeze up suddenly when someone hits the “record” button.

If the thought of being in a video causes your palms to sweat, get someone in your office who is comfortable on camera and can speak naturally. It’s recommended that the financial advisor do much of the talking, especially when dealing with certain facts (like market or economic outlooks). But if you’d rather swim with the alligators than be on camera, don’t hesitate to find an office manager or partner who is more comfortable delivering your message.

Incorporate plenty of visual aids.

Talking heads have their place. But too much yapping can cause your audience to tune out. Include graphs, charts and other engaging visuals to enhance your story.

Edit properly.

Good editing is essential for continuity and ensures that your story follows a logical pattern. You don’t need expensive film editing equipment. There are plenty of tools to help with your efforts, including Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple iMovie, DaVinci Resolve and Wondershare.

Keep it short.

The human attention span is notoriously short. Because of this, your goal shouldn’t be a long, drawn-out video. Keep it under five minutes. Furthermore, you have only a few seconds to make a good impression. An impressive “hook” at the top of your video is a must.

For instance, if you want to share a market outlook, use a 45-second video to introduce the topic, summarize it with a few key points, and then offer a URL where viewers can click for more information.

Leverage multiple channels.

You don’t have to restrict that video to your website. Share it with clients and prospects through email. Also, consider posting your piece on the following:

• YouTube.

• Instagram and Facebook Reels.

• TikTok.

• LinkedIn.

• Webinars.

Educating Clients And Converting Prospects

Once upon a time, creating a video was considered difficult and expensive. That’s not the case these days. With some strategic planning, audience research and the right ideas, you can use video marketing as a viable tool to build trust, improve website rankings and ultimately boost your client base.