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There’s a visual epidemic that is affecting half a billion people around the world. It’s probably affecting you too.
Over 500 million people are watching video on Facebook every day. That’s a huge number.
Facebook’s bullish call on video content began back in 2016, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s focus i.e. obsession on what Zuck called a megatrend. Since that time, the company has made a major move into live-streaming video with Facebook Live and most recently, the introduction of Facebook-exclusive video content in long form with Facebook Watch.
Over the last year, daily watch time for Facebook Live broadcasts has quadrupled while time spent watching video on Instagram has increased by an impressive 80%.
But it’s not just a Facebook or Insta-thing; it’s the entire Internet!
According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast , 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic will be by video by 2021.
The same report states Live Internet video will grow 15-fold from 2016 to 2021 and account for 13 percent of Internet video traffic by 2021. Do the math. That’s only three years away.
My question to you and your firm—so what are you doing about it?
What It Means for Financial Advisors
We have entered an era where visual content is table-stakes and competition for attention has never been fiercer. Words alone won’t cut it anymore. If a financial advisor wants to be seen and heard, video content must be produced and readily available on all channels, especially a firm’s website.
Companies embedding video on their websites enjoy 41% more web traffic from search than non-video users. Our friends and Vidyard and Aberdeen Group said so, way back in 2015 when the S&P 500 Annual Total Return was 1.38% (Source: YCharts).
Video content is not just for websites either. Considering that the average Internet user spends over 2 hours per day on social media and messaging services, videos must be also shared and available on all social networks, especially Facebook and Instagram — plus the big gorilla in the room, YouTube.
YouTube, that same public company with a 707.12 billion market cap owned by Google has the data to prove it: 81% of video-viewing occasions get all or most of people’s attention (Source: Think with Google).
Why Video
The voice of video is louder than words alone. We fail to recognize just how deeply personal and intimate the experience of watching another person on video really is.
We’re much more likely to engage when someone seems to speak to us directly and communicates one-on-one. Videos also help to engender trust. Paola Sapienza, a professor of finance at the Kellogg School, says we are more likely to trust people who look like ourselves.
There are several financial advisors wleveraging video to build a following and a tribe as Seth Godin puts it. The next time you’re on YouTube check out their videos – Brittney Castro, CFP®, AAMS, CRPC® and Justin Goodbread, CFP®. These same advisors have also utilized video marketing to increase brand awareness, capture leads and ultimately earn new clients and AUM.
Videos can also be used in to retarget online visitors in a process known as retargeting or remarketing. Any organization or firm with a Facebook Business Page care create a list of people who have spent time watching their videos on Facebook, anywhere from 3 seconds to 10 seconds or who have watched 25%, 50%, 75%, or 95% of the video in the last 365 days. Once that list is curated, a Facebook Ads campaign can be launched to target that specific audience.
How to Get Started
Getting started on video can be a daunting task if you try to go at it alone. Ideally, speaking to someone already doing it is a good first step. They can uncover some of the pitfalls and limit the number of mistakes attributed to learning a new platform. Learning from others enables an advisor to model best practices thereby increasing likelihood of success. You don’t know what you don’t know.
As we work with financial advisory clients and their firms to do more video in 2018, we see three main reasons why video marketing is a must:
1. Increase brand awareness and content visibility exponentially,
2. Differentiate from others competing for the same ideal clients, and
3. Introducing new leads into the sales funnel, particularly in new markets and niches previously untapped.
Let’s talk about the types of video projects we’re working on for clients, things that might inspire you to do more with your video marketing and get a jump start on 2018!
Related: 7 Takeaways from the T3 Enterprise Conference
1. Facebook Cover Video – We produced a short, 1-minute video for a prestigious investment firm that combined branding elements – pictures and messaging – from their website. This video replaces the static Cover picture previously used. To date, video views are up 1650% from the previous 14 days, as are minutes viewed, up 1825% for the same period.
2. LinkedIn Post Update – Our videographer combined still shots, segments of important video, and music to create an industry event recap for a Regional Director of a $4 billion-dollar firm. This video asset can now be used for a LinkedIn Profile and post update.
3. Facebook Live – By introducing Facebook Live Video to supplement regular monthly audio conference calls of a multi-million-dollar RIA, we increased Reach and Post Engagements by 228% and 268% in one week. People on Facebook that watch these same videos are now grouped into their own Custom Audience for a new Facebook Ad campaign.
4. YouTube Channel – Videos from a recent educational seminar is in YouTube production. These videos will be posted to YouTube and tagged for search. Yahoo is the 2nd largest search engine behind Google. Before the videos are made public, they will be professionally transcribed for compliance and record-keeping. Captions will be added to design for sound-off, a best practice.
5. Email Marketing – The same YouTube video from above will be embedded in an email campaign, sent to over 500 clients, prospects, and centers of influence. Most importantly, the clients who could not make the educational seminar now can experience the event on their own time, from any device, regardless of geography during the holidays especially. This helps strengthen the client experience and adds value to the client-advisor relationship.