Could you use a 1200% boost in visibility for your business? Ep 6 Season 2

Could you use a 1200% boost in your business?

What if I told you that's the difference a video can make?

We have all heard that we should be doing more video, especially on social media, yet most of us struggle to make that happen, right?  

So is video really THAT important?

Here’s the truth; the second largest search engine in the world is YouTube, coming in right after Google (and Google also favors video content in rankings.)

Video content is also 1200% more likely to be shared.

Could you use a 1200% boost in reach?  What would that do for your business?

So why aren’t we using more video?  Are you like me and you move it to the next day on your to do list EVERY SINGLE DAY?

It’s not just you that struggles to get in front of the camera and on video, there are three reasons that so many women just like you (and I) have trouble getting out of their own way, and taking advantage of the power of video.

So let’s accept the fact that video is critical to our business – now what?

We've got you.

Valerie is on the podcast this week, with the simple tips to help you overcome those limiting beliefs, and make it easier to start using video to connect with your ideal clients and customers.

In this episode we also have simple tips to:

• Get confident on camera.
• Create a plan for your videos.
• Make all your videos more searchable and easily rank higher.
• Make sure your videos get more results.
• Get consistent with your scheduling.

And one more myth we are going to BUST right now:

If you think you don't have the right equipment or aren't "techy" enough, we will talk you through why low budget video (just you and your smartphone) is more effective than anything else.


LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Book a free 30 minute planning session with Valerie here:    https://valeriemctavish.com/

Visit SHEcorporated main site: https://www.shecorporated.com/

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Transcript

Kristy: [00:00:00] Hello Valerie, and welcome. Valerie is a video marketing and confidence coach, and she is on a mission to help women entrepreneurs get video confident and start using more video to grow their business faster. It's so great to have you here, Valerie. 

Valerie: Well, thanks for having me. 

Kristy: Before we get into the hot tips you have for us, I'd like to have you share just a bit more about how you started your video coaching, why you started and what that means exactly.

Valerie: Yeah, absolutely. So my background is in video production and television production. I've been doing that for over 30 years now. Around 2010, I decided to move into the online space, leave media, traditional media, and help businesses with their video. And I did that for a number of years, but in the last few years, I started to realize that I had a lot of passion for helping women in particular, get past the hangups that they have about putting themselves out there for their businesses.

I had spoken to all of these women who [00:01:00] were really struggling with the idea of using video. And, it just really became something that I became passionate about. And so about three years ago, I developed a program so that I could help coach these women take advantage of video because it is continues to be, and maybe more and more so as we move on, continues to be such a critical part of marketing.

Kristy: it's such a struggle for so many women entrepreneurs and we know we should be doing it. And can I tell you how many times I've moved the words, “film new reels for Instagram” to the next page on my to-do list,?

Valerie: I can't tell you how many times I've heard that video is people's favorite thing to procrastinate about it.

Kristy: So why do women specifically tend to struggle with getting in front of the camera?

Valerie: You know, there are a couple of different things going on here that women entrepreneurs deal with that most male entrepreneurs don't deal with. and that is that women more so. We're raised with this idea of being judged on how they look.

And as a result, [00:02:00] video is a medium where people can see you. So they're more likely, and in a woman's mind to be judged in video than in any other form of communicating about their business. Right. So for them, it is, It's the fear of judgment is a big piece of it. The second part of it is that we have, been raised in a society that is full of double standards.

We have, struggled with this, identity around being female, especially women who are entrepreneurs and also mothers, and also, you know, maybe taking care of their parents. Women have all of these extra. And I'm being a little bit general here, but women have all of these extra pressures on them. And as a result, when they do things, they want to do them perfectly and struggle with perfectionism.

Well, I'm here to tell you it's really hard to be perfect at video. And so that's why a lot of women also come up against video as something that's too hard for them. And then the last piece is that they think that they need to [00:03:00] have. All of the equipment, then they need to be technically savvy that they need to understand how to edit.

And so they get in their own way when it comes to the technical part, even if they've, you know, built websites and all of the other things, or if they. Are the ones who are shooting photos for Instagram. Somehow they think that video's that much harder. And so they get in their own way around the technical aspect or the lack of experience.

So there are all kinds of things that kind of makes this perfect storm that when it comes down to it, they're just happier to put it off. They're happier to move it to the to-do list for tomorrow. I know I am. 

Kristy: but it's a stumbling block because video. So critical right now, and we keep hearing how incredibly important it is and that it's set to kind of eclipse all other mediums for reaching our audiences.

If it hasn't already, can you put that in into perspective for us? What that looks like 

Valerie: right now? Sure. I can give you some statistics. I mean, video is growing and people are consuming more and more video. so in 2021, the average person [00:04:00] was. 100 minutes of video per day. So it's surpassing listening to the radio. It's surpassing even traditional television. So. This is why it's so important for entrepreneurs to take advantage of that, because this is how people are getting their information. We know that YouTube is the second largest search engine, right after Google and that Google favors videos.

So when you are putting videos on your website, for example, you're more likely to have your website show up higher in the ranking. So it's a good for SEO. 82% of all consumer web traffic. Is expected to be from video. So think about that when people are searching online, they're turning to the videos.

So if you're not there, you're missing that opportunity. We also know that on social media videos just get shared significantly more, something like 1200% more than. Like 1200% who, who, as an entrepreneur can possibly say, [00:05:00] I couldn't use 1200% more reach. Right. And, you 

Kristy: know, I believe that because every time I'm just trying to think now of what I've shared with people recently.

And I would say probably 80% of it at least was video. 

Valerie: and it's not just, Facebook and Instagram where that's happening. It's also LinkedIn. LinkedIn says that. Videos we'll get 20 times more shares than other posts. So across the board, it's serving entrepreneurs more, you're getting more out of your effort than any other, marketing efforts that you would be doing.

and on top of that, you know, it increases your conversion when you have a video on your sales page and there is not a single spot along your customer journey where video is not going to help. 

Kristy: So we knew it was important, but it's, even more important maybe than, many of us suspected.

So, so today you are going to help us. You're going to walk us through how to build your video strategy and how to grow your business, using video and get out of your own way and all of those great things. So where do 

Valerie: we start? I like to call this my three CS of effective video, That way you only have to remember three things. They all start receipt. Okay. [00:06:00] So the first is clear. And this is for sure. The number one thing that I find people come to me and they're like, I just don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know where to start. So here is where you start to build your clarity.

There are three key things you want to do the first is you want to really be clear about why, why are you using video? The second element of why they're sort of three why's. The second is. Your why, why does your business matter to you? Is it because you have, financial goals? Is it because you're on a mission?

Like I am? Is it because you are really committed to growing your business for other reasons, maybe it's to support your family or maybe it's to be a good role model for your kids. Right? What is your why? And then the final, why. Is to really understand your ideal clients. Why, why do they need you? And this is something that's going to be important and powerful when the rubber hits [00:07:00] the road and you actually have to hit record, I'm telling you right now, That Y is going to be a big piece of what keeps you moving forward. So the first part of your clarity is your why those three why's the next part of your clarity is who Pretty much every entrepreneurs it's down figures out their target market. Right. They sit down and they go, okay, let me think about this demographically. And maybe they go psychographically. But what I like to do when I'm thinking about. who your ideal customer is, is to really think about them and how it is possible for them to, intercept what you have to offer.

Right. So when you're thinking about your home, Hopefully you've got them dialed in from a demographic perspective, but I want you to also think about the problem that you solve for them. Think about, what that problem feels like, think about how they're dealing with that problem on a day-to-day basis.

when you think about it, that way you are now starting to set yourself up and getting some clarity around what you need to be doing with your.[00:08:00] So, this is a really critical step that a lot of people skip when it comes to being clear about the kinds of videos that they need to be creating. 

Kristy: so just that I understand that you're going to fine tune your message and you're going to try and more emotionally connect with them. 

Valerie: Right. And you're also going to dissect. Their relationship to their problem and their emotional connection to their problem so that you can then actually create little videos around that.

This is going to be a way for you to help them get through their problem through video. So you're going to use video to help them see why you're the ideal person to hire, to solve their problem. If you're selling product. That's very true. And if you're selling services as well, so it's really about using their problem and their connection to that problem in the video content that you're going to be creating.

The next part of the, who is understanding where your ideal client. Is consuming video. It seems like an obvious thing, but so many people forget about this. They focus on where they are, [00:09:00] right? So, oh, well I am comfortable being on Facebook. So I'm going to post my videos on Facebook. if your ideal customer is on Tik TOK, or if your ideal is on LinkedIn posting, where you want to be, isn't really going to serve your purposes.

You're not going to have the results that you want from your. So this is why you need to be focused on your ideal customer and thinking about where are they and where are they consuming video? So that's the who, and then the last piece of your, clarity is how, how are you going to be, sharing these videos with that ideal customer?

So you need to be thinking about their customer journey, You want to have videos for every step of their customer. You also want to be thinking about the style and type of videos that you're going to be creating. This is based on that, where piece that we just talked about, because the style and type of video that your ideal customer is consuming is going to be based on the platform they're watching.

There's a huge difference between the kind of video you would share on a YouTube. Then obviously the videos you're going to [00:10:00] share on Instagram or Tik TOK, right? I mean, right 

Kristy: from the messaging down to the format and the length, right. There's no point in doing a two minute video and then trying to put it 

Valerie: on reels.

Right? Exactly. And there's no point in shooting something horizontally. If you're trying to make it. we see this all the time, right? How many times have you seen videos that are the wrong format for the platform they're on? So you want to make sure that you have that in your strategy. that's the last piece of clarity is putting all of this together.

Your why your who, the problem you solve, how you solve it, how you're going to help them through the process, the types of videos you're going to create. the calls to action that you're going to have to keep them moving along their customer journey and the places that you're going to put your videos, all of that goes into your strategy.

Now you have a plan and that video plan is the key to you being completely clear about what you're doing with video, because how many times have you thought. In this sort of generic way. I need to create a video but you're not clear on [00:11:00] what kind of video, why you're creating it, who you're creating it for, where you're going to put it.

What should it look like? What should you say? So those pieces are now in your hands. Great. I love that. 

Kristy: That's such an 

Valerie: important piece instantly. You feel more confident when you have the plan, you feel more confident. You can show up that day and you can go right today. I'm supposed to be doing a reel and the reel is supposed to be about X, helping my ideal customer solve this problem or this part of their problem.

now it's a lot easier to step up. So that's the first C. And I love to say that clarity breeds confidence, but the next seat is confidence and there are three key steps to building up your confidence. the first, step of building up your confidence is what you just said, which is your message.

It is very difficult to show up confidently on video. If you don't know what you're going to say. You've figured out through the clarity step the kinds of information you need to be presenting, but you want to be clear about [00:12:00] what exactly you need to be saying in your videos.

So I like to make sure that people are starting with a core message and the core message is kind of like the one message to rule them all. the one thing that if people watch your videos, they are going to understand that you can do. Well, that's a great idea. I love that. Okay. So start with that core message and then you can start to break it down into ideas and topics.

And 

Kristy: do you normally suggest that people actually script video, word for word and then practice it? Or would you rather, they go with just some main messages and kind of ad 

Valerie: lib in between everyone is different. So what I suggest is find what's comfortable for you find the one that feels less hard.

for some people it's going to be all about. having the in and the out, I always recommend this, have what you're going to say to get into your video, you need your hook and then know exactly what your call to action is at the end. Right? You always want to end with your call to action and then bullet points in between.

anyone who's getting hung up on saying the perfect thing, the exact thing, the [00:13:00] first thing I make them do is go to. Because this is one way to get out of your own way, about having to be perfect in what you're saying. And this is my second tip for message, which is make sure you're showing up authentically and using your authentic voice.

what tends to happen when people are scripted is they turn into. On a good day, newsreaders on a bad day robots. Right? So either way it might put a little too much Polish on your videos and it might impede your ability to connect with your viewer. You want to make sure that you are using, language that they use.

And this is a special note to anyone who has a university degree or a master's degree or a PhD. your script is not a dissertation. You want to use the kind of language you use if you were having a conversation with your ideal customer over coffee. That's really important.

Valerie: even little things that people don't think about. So for example, one. Is a very normal thing for you to say. So don't worry about saying it. The second is if, example, if [00:14:00] you were writing something out, you might say, do not use words like blah, blah, blah.

But when you're speaking to someone, you would say don't, it's very little things like that. Are important when you're creating your videos and that authenticity really 

Kristy: makes your message land 

Valerie: better, doesn't it? It absolutely does. And the more it is like you, the more likely that they're going to feel like they really do know you.

And the whole point of video is to be building relationships. That's the secret to video. You are not marketing. You're building a relationship. You're not pushing your message out there. You're pulling people. the more 

Kristy: you are like yourself, the more likely you're going to find your ideal clients, customers, and audience, they've got to connect with you as you are.

They're not going to be the right 

Valerie: audience. right. And they're gonna be drawn to you. And then when you get to the point where you're converting them, whether that's through a sales call or, through a final sales video, or however you're selling your service or product, if you don't show up as yourself, they're going to feel like it's a bait and switch.

I have a client [00:15:00] who is very soft-spoken and she has it in her head that she has to, raise the volume and pull up this energy. And she starts to do these kinds of like, jumping jacks to get her energy. And I keep saying, that's not you, You don't have to be any other version of yourself.

You have to show up as yourself because when people finally book a call with you and they're sitting across from you and you're low key and calm and all of these beautiful things that you are. They're going to be like where's the energy, where's the woman that I saw on the video 

the message is really key and using the right language, being authentic, and then looking for those ideas and topics that serve that core message that we talked about. So making sure that all of the videos that you're doing are aligned with that core message and feeding into people, understanding how you can help them.

And this is another mistake that people make, right, is that they start talking about things that are unrelated to their business, simply because those things get. Like I could sit here and make videos about knitting, but there's no knitting in my video marketing mastery program.

So I might attract a bunch [00:16:00] of people are interested in knitting, but that's not necessarily going to mean that they understand what I can do for them in terms of video. So that's the first part of the confidence, getting confident with your message. The second part of confidence is to get confident with the tech that you need in order to create video.

This is probably the most shocking thing that people discover when they finally get around to doing video. And that is you do not need anything more than your smartphone. You truly do not. It is about your message when your message is dialed in, how you present. That message is really not that important.

You want to make sure people can see you. You want to make sure people can hear you, and you can do that by making sure you have some light. if you can't afford to buy lights, face a window. you can get a very inexpensive ring light that gives beautiful.

You want to make sure they can hear you. So in some cases, that just means getting close enough to your camera and controlling the background noise, That's the number one thing. And then the last piece is that you may need to learn how to edit, but it doesn't have to be difficult. There are editing programs you can [00:17:00] use in your phone.

There are online editing programs that are really inexpensive. You can use Canva, you can use Facebook, you can use YouTube. Like it has never been easy. to edit down your videos and you don't have to be fancy about it. You don't need dissolving transitions and all kinds of motion graphics and all that kind of stuff.

Just show up as you share your message authentically show up to serve your ideal customer. And the tech stuff is going to wash away. People will still watch your face. The last piece of confidence is of course confidence having the confidence to step up and get on camera.

So the number one thing that people need to do at this sort of step is to really recognize those limiting beliefs recognize these things we talked about earlier in the podcast, which is we have been conditioned to believe that how we look. Matters. We've been conditioned to believe that if we don't show up perfectly, people are going to, say mean things about what we have to say or they're going to judge us, right.

So we have to get [00:18:00] over those limiting beliefs, recognize them as stories that we're telling ourselves, recognize them as being untrue, rewrite them and get past them. The next thing to do with the mindset piece is to really focus on, I teased this earlier, your ideal customers. Why, why do they need you to show up, think about that problem that you solve.

Think about how they're going to continue to suffer from that problem if you don't show up. So show up for the. 

Kristy: I think that's a big thing for women in marketing, a lot of women in marketing in general, not just video marketing, they tend to think they are, they're trying to sell something or they're offering something that's not needed.

But if you really believe in your product and you have something where your service and you have something that's of value. Then you are doing them a disservice by not marketing it. You're doing them a disservice by not getting on a video and telling them about it, that you're not helping them by not letting them know that you exist.

And I think that's something when you, when you turn it around like that, I think that helps women not feel like they're pushing or selling. They're [00:19:00] actually helping, 

Valerie: And I often will say to someone who's really still stuck in that fear of judgment.

I'll say. If there were 10 people who watched your video and thought, Hmm, that doesn't really help me. And one person who sees that video and says, this is exactly what I needed. And I have to work with this person. Would it have been worth it every time they say yes. those 10 people, they don't exist.

If they're not interested in what you have to say, they just don't watch your video. That's the reality. Have that mantra, whether that's, remembering exactly why you've decided to show up on video, remembering who you're serving and why they need you so much, or keep a picture of your biggest transformation, the person who loved your product, the most, the person who, had a complete turnaround that you changed their life because of what you did have their picture there.

Let them be your inspiration because. 1,000, a thousand more of them out there that you can help when you show up on video. And then the hard part practice Just got to get out there, put yourself out there and practice. All right. And stop pushing 

Kristy: it to your next day [00:20:00] of your to-do list ladies, right?

Valerie: Yes. As you're getting your feet wet with video, it's okay to just do, do it, you know, in a Facebook group that allows videos. I have a Facebook group where literally the point of it is for people to show up and practice doing video.

So you can just come into that Facebook group. And be messy as hell if you want, And the more you do that, the more comfortable you'll get. And then it just feels like a natural thing. Of course, I should be sharing this. 

Kristy: And done is better than perfect. Right? I mean, we, we get so stuck.

We can sit and make it, you know, spend weeks trying to make it perfect. And by the time you got to perfect, the, the opportunity has passed. The message is old, whatever it happens to be. So get it 

Valerie: done. Yeah. And you know, here's the other. we individually, we want to be perfect. Right? We have this drive to be perfect. But how many times have you seen a video that was less than perfect. That totally resonated with you when you're watching a video and they're perfect.

You start to question how authentic they are. You start to wonder, you know, what kind of team they have on. Perfect is actually [00:21:00] not the preferred people don't want. Perfect people want. 

Kristy: Well, then they connect, you know, I think it's easier even in storytelling, it's the same thing. It's, it's so much easier to connect with somebody when they start where they weren't perfect and they weren't making hundreds of millions of dollars when they were messy and things weren't going properly.

And then you connect with them because you can see yourself there and you can see the transformation that's potentially going to happen. 

Valerie: Exactly. You can relate to them better. And I will often, you know, earlier I said, video marketing is about relationships and think about the friends you have are any of them.

Perfect. you're not drawn to people who are perfect. You're drawn to people who are like you, people who can accept you for who you are. Right. So that's how you need to show up on. So we have the confidence now got that dialed in, and that enables the consistency, Because until we're confident, we're not going to be doing it consistently. And this happens all the time. People do a video here, they do a video there, or maybe they get on a roll and then they get. And it's the confidence that kills that consistency, They lose their [00:22:00] confidence. So now that we have the confidence, we move forward with the consistency.

This is our third. See if you're following along clarity, confidence, consistency, and the most important pieces of consistency, or that you need to have a schedule and you need to be producing your videos on a regular basis. I highly recommend bulk. You're going to plan a bunch of videos.

You're going to write outline scripts, plan, exactly what you want to talk about. And then you're going to produce more than one at a time. Now, this doesn't work for lives. But you can plan your lives in a bulk way, right? So you can schedule them in, you can write your outlines, you can sit down and be in the Headspace of how you want to communicate with your audience and write out those outlines all at once so that it never feels like.

This slog, there's nothing worse than entering into a new workweek and thinking, oh, I got to come up with a topic for my life and I've got to produce a. Well, then it 

Kristy: kills your strategy too, doesn't it? Because you haven't got an overall plan. If you're doing that and life gets in the way, I mean, [00:23:00] exactly stuff pops up it's way too 

Valerie: easy to make excuses and push it off.

Right. And then the procrastination is easier because you're not, you have no plan. schedule and plan are really key. and of course your content calendar is going to come into play there as well. And then the most important piece here is. To make that commitment. One of the things that, my clients find really effective is especially with lives, if they promote their lives.

So what they'll do is they'll build out their content calendar and then they'll do a little promo video. For each life and they'll, schedule it for two days before that live. So that they're basically on record. As I I'm going to go live at this time. 

Kristy: People can RSVP and you're stuck with it. 

Valerie: So whatever it takes to make that commitment, and make it stick. that's the key with consistency.

The next piece of consistency is to promote those videos, Because we want our videos to have traction it's. So, and I have. Happen where someone will create the video, they'll go through all the process and then they'll like publish the video and then be like, okay, I did the thing I'm [00:24:00] out. And the reality is, especially with social media, these days just publishing isn't enough.

We need to promote. The marketing, we have to market our marketing. and, and this just might be something as simple as creating little snippets or, letting people know, mentioning it in, in groups that you're in, mentioning it in your email, mentioning it on your, you know, posting it on your website, making sure that different platforms are pointing to the primary platform where you've published it, which is another key piece to the publishing and promote.

Step, which is making sure you've optimized your video for the primary platform you're sharing it on. We talked about this a little bit before with regards to, format and style and type of video, These are all key. but you also want to make sure that you're optimizing.

Perspective of SEO titles, good descriptions, tagging people who need to be tagged. I'm using hashtags depending on the platform you're using. So all of this is part of promoting your videos to make sure that you're not just. Putting [00:25:00] videos out into the vacuum. And I 

Kristy: think that then that's going to circle back to consistency, right.

Because if you're putting it, you doing all that work, you're getting to this point, you're putting your video out and then nobody's watching it because you haven't promoted it. How likely are you going to want to go out and do more 

Valerie: video? Absolutely. Right. And so this is why it's important and this is why it's in the consistency piece because you need to keep moving from.

The last piece of consistency is to really leverage the videos that you're creating so that you don't just publish a video once and forget about it, You want to be putting it in different places you can potentially break it up and make it into different videos. Put a bunch of videos together to create a series or even a lead magnet.

you might be able to create, take videos that you've published and turn them into a mini. This can be a really valuable way to take the videos that you've created and make them work a little bit harder for you. Plus, I really love, especially if people are, using videos on Facebook, using the audience that you've grown with your videos to remark it.

So if you're doing advertising on Facebook, using those [00:26:00] videos as a way to build an audience that you can market to. And then of course, there's lots of learning. There's lots of data that video collects that you can use to better understand what your audience is looking for. What videos did they watch?

What videos do they engage with? Which videos did they watch all the way through and which videos did they stop watching? What's the average watch time on your videos. Maybe your videos are too long, There's so much learning that you can get from your videos to better understand how to serve your audience.

That's excellent. And maybe keep it list of kind of a 

Kristy: best of file, you know, when you see ones are performing really well, and then those are ones that you definitely want to pull snippets from and remark it again and really hone in on the message that resonates. 

Valerie: Absolutely. So once you get consistent with it, that's when you start to see.

And that's what it's all about. We're using these videos to grow our business and we want to see results. So you've got to have all three CS clarity, confidence, and consistent. And I 

Kristy: think all of that planning and all of that whole system that you've put together, [00:27:00] it sounds like a lot, you know, it sounds like there's a lot of steps and there's a lot to do, but in the end it's actually going to simplify things because you're going to batch produce, you're going to have a plan.

So you're not wasting your time. You're going to put the time in, and then you're actually going to make sure that it gets in front of people again. So you're not wasting your time. So I think putting that time in, on the front end, going to make your time more useful and give you a bit more freedom on the 

Valerie: backend and it takes us out of overwhelm.

Right? It takes us out of that state of this video thing. It's just too much. I can't handle it. I can't. yes. And it's not going away. 

Kristy: So we need to, we need to get on it. this season we're, focusing a lot on, sticking to the budget. not necessarily things that are free or cheap, but things that have a lot of value. And I think for any business, any woman entrepreneur. Video has huge value for very, very low costs. And you had some ideas.

We talked about this a little bit earlier, as far as, growing our audience when we're on a budget specifically and using video to do that. And he share that with us. Yeah. 

Valerie: So the key here is that you do not want to. Avoid video, [00:28:00] because you can't afford the lights or because you can't afford a camera because you can't afford the mic, Video actually serves you better. The simpler it is the more authentic you show up, the more your audience is going to relate to you. And remember, video marketing is about relationships. We're building that know like, and trust factor and people are more likely to trust you if they feel like they have a direct line to who you are.

So I'll share a little bit of a story to give you a sense of, or maybe to shift your thinking that video production equals bigger audiences. So, several years ago, when I was still doing video strategies for businesses and I was actually creating videos for. I was working with an organization and we had three different types of videos in their strategy.

The first type of video was a highly produced video. I worked with the talent. We had multiple cameras, there was lighting, there was microphones there. You know, we had scripts, we had outlines, we had motion graphics. It was [00:29:00] beautiful. These were beautiful looking videos that we produced. Lots of great value, lots of great information.

That was the first type of video. The second type of video was that I actually trained their staff, how to do Facebook lives and then in the strategy, They rotated and did a Facebook live every week. And then the third type of video were these just little video shorts that were sort of produced wasn't in Canada at the time.

But today you would do them in Canva. Just words, images. Really simple messaging, just a bit of fun, right? Something to get engagement going in social media. After, six months we assess the strategy. Things were going well, they were getting the ROI. They were looking for. They were getting the results, but when I broke it down and I looked at which videos were getting the most traction, it was the Facebook lives, the videos that cost the least amount of money and took the least amount of.

And skillset, And the reason is because people want real people want to feel that connection and that energy. And when you have these slickly produced [00:30:00] videos, people see that as advertising people see it as sheen people see it as marketing, when you show up live, it's just you connecting. So if you've got it in your head that.

Video cost money. It doesn't have to, if you have a phone and an internet connection, you can use video to grow your biz. So 

Kristy: you've got an advantage by putting in less money and less time in the production. 

Valerie: I like that. 

Kristy: I just wanted to kind of circle back because it piqued my interest.

You were talking, we were talking about the importance of video, and having video on your site. That's going to raise up here at your SEO in your, search results with Google, would you suggest that people should be looking at starting to do if they're not already instead of a written blog, a video blog 

Valerie: Yeah. So my recommendation is that you would have a video blog. but you want to have two things. One, you still want to have the written piece because. The search engines are going to be looking for that. They're going to be looking for that written piece. The second is, and this is if you're hosting your videos on YouTube, there's, a lot of debate on whether to use YouTube or another [00:31:00] platform like Vimeo, but if you're on YouTube, it's going to increase your search ability, your search rank, and make sure your clothes capture.

Because when you close caption, that gives, the bots that are searching content, the ability to, to see what's in your video. Oh, good tip. So this is a really key piece of using your videos on your blog. You can also, if you don't want to do like a description for your video, just take the transcription and pop it right in there for people.

This is what you have to understand too. Video we'll serve, from an SEO perspective and it's going to help people sort of see you and connect with you, but there are people who prefer to read. even though they landed on your site because the video was there, they may never watch it. They might just read the description.

So don't shortchange the description. 

Kristy: there's gonna be lots of questions for you after all of this. This is a ton of amazing information and Valerie has actually, stepped up and offered, some free time, free 30 minute sessions. And she's gonna tell you a little bit more about that and how everybody gets in touch [00:32:00] with you.

We'll put it in the show notes as well, but if you're listening and you want to get a bit more information, where do they find you? 

Valerie: Yeah, it's simple. Valerie mctavish.com. That's M C not Mac Valerie mctavish.com. That's where you'll find my, content as well as if you go to the resources page, you'll be able to see, you'll see a button where you can book a free 30 minute video marketing mapping session.

And this is. This is me walking my walk, right. I just said, show up and serve. And this is what I do with my free sessions. I help you see exactly what you need to be doing with video marketing so that you can move forward with it. And some people choose to continue to work with me and have me coach them.

And some people take that 30 minute session and everything that I tell them in that, and they put it to work and they still get great results. So don't hesitate to take advantage of that 30 minute session. I'm always happy to connect with female. That's 

Kristy: amazing. Valerie. Thank you so much for that. That's a very generous offer.

So we're going to put all of that in the show notes. We're going to put the link specifically to Valerie's calendar and her [00:33:00] site. if you're listening on a platform where you can't see the show notes, sometimes you can't see them. You can always head over to our website as well. It's one step empire.com and all of the episodes, all the show notes, all of the links, all of the good stuff is there.

Anything that she needs. So you can click on one step empire.com and find all of the links through to Valerie as well. So thank you so much for joining me today, Valerie. It was truly a pleasure and it was absolutely amazing information that you 

Valerie: shared today. I really appreciate it. Well, I will show up and talk video anytime.

and I love helping women entrepreneurs get further ahead, faster. So thank you for having me on you bet. Thank you.