Now as a marketer what I’m about to say could be deemed controversial but I’m going to say it anyway: I don’t really watch, enjoy or engage with other people’s marketing videos. There, I’ve said it. Apart from a very small few who I get great benefit from (such as Carrie Green) I tend to think that quite a lot out there just aren’t very good. And not only that, I – like many others – just don’t have the time or the circumstance to engage with video fully.
We have been getting it rammed down our throats for a few years now that if we own and run our own business, video needs to be prominent in our marketing and used as a key part of our brand message. For some people this is indeed true – video is an essential part of their brand, they use it well and it is a vital selling tool but what’s also worth saying is that it’s ok not to do it too.
I have had clients who when starting working with me have a blind panic about the fact that they ‘should’ or ‘need’ to be doing video, despite not wanting to and dreading having to do so. I explain to them that it’s not an essential, it’s a nice to have if you want to do it and you will enjoy it, get value from it and your audience will engage with you as a result of it. There is no point forcing something that is not your natural arena – it does more harm than good.
I mean, we’ve all seen the videos of the health expert who looks like they’ve just been dug up or the self care guru who looks like they need a good night’s sleep – they come across an inauthentic, not credible and, ultimately, damaging to their brand. So where video is concerned, you have to tread carefully.
I too got swept up in the ‘I must do video’ mantra and had a header at the top of my site saying ‘Video – coming soon.’ They were never coming soon or at all in fact – I knew it but I was kidding myself to think they were.
My advice to myself, my clients and others is to always do what feels right and natural for you – if that’s video, that’s great, if that’s writing a blog, great. But don’t force something that isn’t ‘you’ or your brand as it people will know, trust me.
The Video tab has been replaced on my site with the word: Podcast and this is sitting a lot better with me. The reason being that I genuinely do listen to a lot of podcasts. They can be on while I work, while I’m walking to a meeting, on the tube – everywhere and I find the intimacy of listening to someone in such close proximity comforting and affirming. I lose interest trying to sit and watch someone, I’ve got too many other things to do, but listening – that I can do.
I have a number of podcasts I listen to a lot and it’s a random bunch. I love: The Brighter Marketing, Standard Issue, Marketing Over Coffee, This Old Marketing Podcast, Ask Gary Lee Show, Stuff You Should Know, Hotbed Collective, Mike Skinner’s In The Third Person, Adam Buxton, The Guilty Feminist – I could go on.
What I love about podcasts is that a lot of the time I don’t think a lot of other people are listening to them so I’m part of some secret club getting to hear and learn stuff others aren’t (this is, of course all in my head!). I mean I was the only once listening to Mike Skinner and Liam Gallagher talking about their kids’ playdates in north London, right?
Seriously though, for me the future is audio, not video. My dream and goal for this year is to create a Karen Campbell Marketing Podcast filled with great marketing chat, insight and advice, interviews with amazing guests and to create a tribe of listeners and contributors that – hopefully – receive great value.
Watch this space!