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The Digital Marketing Podcast
Practical Video Marketing - How to Make Video More Human, More Useful and More Effective
00:27:56
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome back to the Digital Marketing Podcast brought to you by targetinternet.com and in this episode, we're talking practical video marketing. So in this episode I am joined by Kendall Brightman from Riverside. And you'll learn loads more about Riverside and what they do as well. But it turned into a very interesting and practical conversation about using video for content marketing. And actually some of the techniques, the strategies in here I think are really useful and I really learned from this interview and I've taken away some of those principles applied to some of the things that we're doing for Targetinternet.com so I think there's loads of good insights. It's practical, it talks about why videos changed has become so important and some of the impacts it has on things like AI, overviews on search optimization more generally, but also really going into those practical production techniques, like how can you do this, make it effective, but also do it in an efficient way. So over to the interview. Okay, so I'm here at Kendall. So why do you think videos become so central to digital marketing right now? And why, why is that kind of changed in the last couple of years, do you think particularly.
- [01:18]
B
I think there are a few reasons about this. One of them and a huge one I really think is SEO. I think that right now, and especially also with now the AI feature at the top, when you Google, they are prioritizing content that has video with it. So if you have a blog post and you put video on top of it, it's much more likely to perform well. So that's one thing. Just like technically SEO, it's become essential to have video. I also think that a big part of that now, and it's funny because I mentioned AI too, but already in this. But I think that people are looking for human connection and video gives people that. It gives people the a way of looking at somebody and like assigning a human to a voice of a brand. So I think that there's like the technical of SEO and then there's really the emotional of putting a face, a name, an idea, a person behind a brand. And then also on top of that, social media. So much of social is so based in video between TikTok, Instagram, but even LinkedIn is pushing video now. So all of these algorithms are prioritizing video and it's kind of created this perfect storm where videos just become so essential when it comes to marketing.
- [02:30]
A
And we'll get into this later on, but I think something you mentioned to me, we were talking before we started, was the Fact that people feel like there's this kind of barrier to doing video content. So I want to come back to that little bit later on. But how do you think video is going to change the way the brands are building trust compared to their traditional kind of social content or their blogs or anything else?
- [02:49]
B
I think that what we're seeing right now is a lot of really authentic video content. And by that I mean, like, down with the completely overproduced video, where when you think of a marketing video that you maybe think of a YouTube ad that's completely produced that probably costs thousands of dollars to create. A marketing video can be having a conversation with a bunch of your users and putting out those testimonials on online. It can be your CEO talking to camera about where he or she sees the industry going. I think that just what we think of as far as marketing video has changed and will continue to change from something that is like storyboarded to something that just becomes much more authentic and human to human connection. I don't know. Do you agree with that?
- [03:36]
A
Yeah, I mean, we were saying before we started as well, the reason this podcast kind of worked originally, it was a bit of a refresh from all the, you know, how to make $10 million through marketing using this formula that nobody else knows through to actually what have we learned from this? What's real, what's kind of true, what were the disasters and everything else as well. And I think that authenticity, I think that corporate tone has become a bit of a liability in a lot of cases. Yeah. Because if what we're trying to do is stop the scroll, then they're massively. How I'm going to stop that scroll is by probably reflecting something that looks authentic to you as opposed to what looks like marketing.
- [04:11]
B
Yeah. I think if you think about it also, it's like it's. Social media was not built for brands like it almost when you think about Facebook, like they fought against ads for so long. Social media was built for people. And so the way that you can connect on social media is kind of go away from being the brand and more about being the people. And I think that's what's actually succeeding on social and what has been and what will continue to. And I think that there was a huge. When video first started, it was like, here are five things you can do to streamline your workflow. Like that kind of like hook and that's still there. But I think that then all of a sudden I'm on TikTok and I'm seeing somebody Do a selfie video explaining something that happened to them that day. And I'm stopping and watching that. So I think video is just becoming more and more human. But it's always been kind of based on the fact that social media is such a great, great ground for people, but not for brands. It almost fights against it.
- [05:08]
A
So based on that, what do you think is a kind of an effective, approachable strategy that marketers could be using to kind of overhaul or kind of start their video strategy?
- [05:17]
B
Yeah, so I obviously work at Riverside, and so we do all of our video strategy through Riverside, which makes sense. But I think that from being here, it's really taught me when you think of video strategy, especially as a marketer, you're like, unless you are a video marketer, you're like, well, how the heck do I do that? It seems really unapproachable. But there are some really easy ways that you can be doing it. So for example, let's say that we did a calls with our users. This is a great way for marketers to kind of be incorporating video. And you can hop on Riverside or any recording platform, but highly recommend Riverside and you can have conversations with them, listen and learn about their experience about your users and gain those marketing insights and. But then also be able to use that video with their permission, of course, when they talk about how your product helped them in whatever way that you're working towards. And that's incredible content to be putting online. Real people talking about their real experience with your company and how much it's benefited them. Like, incredible. And on the side, you're also able to learn marketing insights. So we've spoken at Riverside with what we call like our power users, top users, and we're learning from them. Okay, what are your goals, where you want to go with your show, all of that. Where do you want to go with your content? So we're gaining a lot of marketing insights. But then on top of that, they'll say, I've been using Riverside because I just love what I'm able to do with it. Incredible to be able to use on social with their permission. So it can be as approachable as that it can be getting on a call with your CEO, cmo, even like an engineer at your company, and talking about what their day to day is, what their goals have been, what they've been working on, where the industry is going, and, and that's not just great content for your own brand social page, but for your CEO to post on LinkedIn like it creates content for them. To be able to be a thought leader in their own right. Another idea can be webinars. I mean, you can go live and do a webinar and that can be a basis of your content strategy for a whole month. So we have a webinar on, let's say, how to be a better interview host. Great. So then I'm going to use that long form. I'm going to put that online, and then I'm gonna chop that into clips for social. Let's post one a week.
- [07:29]
A
Cool.
- [07:30]
B
Let's take that AI transcript that's generated, let's run that through ChatGPT, and let's make a blog post carousel, posts of static images. Let's make like being able to repurpose that into, let us say blog into newsletters. Like, you can use that video even as a basis for written content strategy. So I would say, like, those are just like some examples of what you can be doing, but it's kind of having these conversations using the transcripts and being able to repurpose video not just into short clips, but into written form. There's just. There's a lot that you could be doing with video now that isn't requiring this huge production team is what I'm really getting at.
- [08:13]
A
Yeah. So I think it's worth clarifying now because before, obviously you reached out to us. We are Riverside users at the Digital Marketing podcast. Anyway, so we always recall the podcast here because myself and Kieran live on different islands. So Kieran lives in the Isle of Wight and I was live in Jersey. And then we've had guests obviously joining in from around the world. So it made a lot of sense for us. But the difference between creating the content on this platform with something like Zoom is that flexibility. It's going to give you afters because you've got the raw content, you can split that up into the tracks. And then you've added all this AI functionality recently, which we'll get into later on, just talking about taking that and repurposing it fantastically well as well. The other thing about this as well is where do you think long form fits into this versus short form? And how do you kind of balance those two things off?
- [08:59]
B
I actually think that a really cool way to think about video is to think that of long form as kind of the bottom of this pyramid. So, for example, I was using webinar for my last time that I was talking about this, but let's say for this example, I'll use a podcast. So let's say that your Brand has a podcast. So you record an hour long podcast episode. Let's say that it's an hour and then that's the basis of the rest of your content strategy. So for example, here you have that podcast episode and then from that long form you can make 10 minute videos and have it be super SEO searchable. So let's say I have a podcast about YouTube, about how to succeed on YouTube and I have a guest on. I'll take a really searchable keywords. So how to succeed on YouTube, how to start a channel on YouTube, let's say, and I'll ask my guest during my interview. So how would you say what's the best way to start on YouTube that sets you up for success? They'll give their answer. Great. I'm going to chop that, let's say it's a five to ten minute answer into its own medium form clip. And that is a really searchable YouTube clip that people can discover my long form from. So then let's take it a step further. I can make social clips from that. I can put that on TikTok, I could put that on Instagram, LinkedIn and have that be there. And then we can even go beyond video. So I can take a quote, let's say a really cool quote from that interview. And that can be just a standalone static post that I put on Instagram or on a story, just that quote. I can make a carousel. Here are five ways to become successful on YouTube with guest so and so. And that can be a carousel. I can make a guide out of it, let's say like gated white paper or something. Make a blog post. I can make a for my newsletter that month. It can be five key strategies and to learn more. Here's my episode. So I actually think that like a lot of people start with trying to find the short form, trying to make these like really hooky kind of clips. But what you can really do is start the basis of your entire, let's even say like a month of a content strategy off of just one piece of long form.
- [11:11]
A
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, we do a couple of things for our members of our platform when we do these one hour webinars every month as well. And actually you realize quite quickly that all the short form content you're trying to produce, actually I mentioned that in that one hour session. Yeah. Turn this on its head and actually just do the one hour and then take everything from that as well.
- [11:29]
B
Ends up creating less work for you.
- [11:31]
A
Yeah, right. And I think that one of the questions we've been asked a lot because we're a tiny team, bearing in mind that we work with all these big global brands like Google and Apple and etc. Etc. And it's actually the way that we've managed to do that is to block create things. So we will either get together and spend a whole day just creating content and then trickle that out gradually or we're doing anything blocks and chopping up into smaller form as well. But I love the fact that you mentioned medium form because this gets missed, I think so much. If I do a one hour podcast. Yes, maybe it can, it can live in YouTube and some people that like us will follow that. But realistically, if someone's going to come across us, first of all, I need to probably be putting more of that medium stuff in there that's actually answering a specific question rather than meandering around the topic. Yeah, the short form can live on social media and will do great. But actually the medium form in YouTube tends to work pretty well. And on the website that's the other thing we've been finding is embedding. You said about having video as part of your SEO strategy. Well, our biggest success with AEO with answer engine optimization has been writing answers to questions, putting in a straight to camera video at the top. And actually that is being picked up by YouTube. It's being picked up in the AI overviews and it's doing really well for us as well. So it's interesting when you think of
- [12:47]
B
video it seems like this huge hurdle, but when you think about it in like a really manageable way that okay, here's a super searchable question. In my industry, I'm going to just straight to camera answer this question, put on a blog post. It's so approachable, it's actually so easy and it's so incredibly effective for getting to whatever goal that is as far as SEO or that AI overview.
- [13:09]
A
Yeah. And I think the other trend we've seen in YouTube is the move away from YouTube prioritizing faceless video. So that idea that actually if you've got a video that's been produced by AI that's really easy to produce now because it's so easy that YouTube is looking at going, maybe that gets downgraded a little bit. But actually the straight to camera stuff or the conversation in this kind of scenario is working really well when embedded in as well. So I think it's a great point.
- [13:31]
B
Yeah. And also I would even say like when you think of marketing video too A lot of it is also people looking for tools and looking for how to use those tools.
- [13:40]
A
Right.
- [13:40]
B
So it's super easy also to just go through screen share, put yourself on like the on camera in the corner and say, let me walk you through this feature and then maybe title it how to edit your podcast in five minutes. And that could even be okay, now somebody's introduced to your tool, you're showing how to use it, but also a really easy, approachable, incredibly easy to create video that you've made that answers a question, gets people in front of your brand and is not needing this full production team. And it's just so much more approachable when you think of. When you start to think of video that way.
- [14:15]
A
Yeah, I think in a period of massive overwhelm as well, where everything's moving so quickly because of AI actually just sitting, going, look, this is how you use this thing. And kind of going through it works. We'll put this into the show notes. But if you look at the stuff that Rand Fishkin's been doing, where he talks about Spock Toro, his tool, he talks about a report that they've created, he does a screen share and talks about it by the side. Our most successful LinkedIn video is now generally me talking straight to camera and just saying, here's a quick tip using this AI tool or this search tool, whatever it might be, as well. So with this in mind, what are some of the biggest mistakes you're seeing when people are moving into video? What are the kind of biggest challenges they're kind of coming up against?
- [14:52]
B
I think that a big mistake is that a lot of really incredible things that could be video are just not recorded and you're leaving it on. I wouldn't even say the cutting room floor because it's not even making it to the cutting room. So, for example, like I was saying this, the speaking with users, how many times, if you're a marketer, first of all, like, I think that it's a great practice to get on calls with people that are using your product and learn more about them. I would so many times be like, I wish I just pressed record. Like, I wish I even transcribed this just so that, like, I could have that person saying, oh, Riverside really transformed the way that I work, especially with video like that is so powerful. I think that right now, especially as we're, as we continue to evolve as people on the Internet, we're seeing and it's like a definitely a switch in our industry that people are looking, they'll look at your website. But what I'm looking at when I'm looking for something new, I'm looking on Reddit, I'm looking on social media to see. Not on your social media, particularly. Sometimes I will. I mean, it's an important part of my research. But it's also, I'm looking at other people who have tagged you on social media. I'm looking at somebody on TikTok who, who tried you for the first time and their reaction. So the power of actual people saying actual ways that you're promoting product or service helped them is just so incredibly impactful. So you should be recording more and on one hand, and then also like using long form as a driver for short form. Those are the two mistakes that I feel like I see.
- [16:26]
A
I think it's really interesting because that advocacy piece, you know, it's not just what we're saying about ourselves. Clear. It's what other people have been saying. It's been like that for a long time. But if you, if we look at how the large language models are working and having those citations and mentioned to different places and that if you're actively going to build an advocacy program, video being part of that can be phenomenal. And we've got the same thing. We've, we know we've got some real advocates, people that will speak about and say nice things about our products and services. And therefore, if we can get that as video, that just hits home so much more than just a written testimonial or something else, because it just, as you say, it feels kind of authentic as well. So, so to leaning into that a little bit, then. Yeah. If someone has very little time to focus on one video strategy for 20, 26, what should they lean into the most?
- [17:11]
B
Ooh. I would say for one video strategy. See, it's hard for me to give a blanket answer because I think that it's about, I think that it's about your industry and your business and what you're trying to convey. Right. If your story is, look how much that we're helping people and that we've helped, that our users are happy with choosing us, then it'd be getting these testimonials. If it's education, if you're deciding that you want to lean into education, I think that it would be webinars and chopping up those webinars based on like, topics that your users or your clients would be interested in, or it's those how to kind of testimonials. If it's creating your brand as a human kind of voice as an authentic place that people can really connect with you, then I would say that it's speaking with C suite and recording video to put them front and center and. Or it's also like employee advocacy videos. And I think that it would really depend on what you want your video strategy to do for you.
- [18:08]
A
Yeah, I mean, I think I always tie this into the context as well. Who's the target audience? Where are they in the journey? And where do I really need to focus my efforts to improve that journey?
- [18:16]
B
Exactly. Is it beginning? Is it the person that. Are you trying to get more people to come in? And that is the thought leadership with your C suite, creating those kinds of human connections? Is it okay, now that you're here, we want to stick with that loyalty. And then that's testimonials.
- [18:31]
A
So I mean, looking ahead, then how do you see video shaping up in the future? Where do you see going in the next few years? Which is a very hard thing to predict at the moment given the pace of change. But let's. Let's give it a go.
- [18:42]
B
So I think that. I think that a lot of people would say AI and then I. When I think about that answer, I think your mind immediately goes like generative AI, that it's all of a sudden going to be like, I'm not even here. It's just like AI caricature of me speaking. But that's not what I'm saying. I think that as it continues, it's going to be more and more approachable to create video. And so I think that more and more people will be able to do it. And so that's why I think that it's good to hop on now and become a professional in that craft now. So, for example, like at Riverside, we have been adding a lot of AI tools to help you with editing because you should be able to tell your story without having to be a full audio and video editor. So you are able to, in one click, take out ums and pauses. You're able to fix the sound maybe if you aren't using a high quality microphone. So I think that as we continue with AI, there are going to be tools that we haven't even thought of yet that's going to help you better tell your story. I think that's where it's going. That's where I'd like to say that it's going because I think that video and this long form is, and like we've talked about it during this interview as being such an authentic and human medium I think it needs to stay that way. I think that what has to happen in the future is make it easier for humans, who are all very busy, to be able to create that content. You know, I mean, I love that
- [20:05]
A
answer because I think that the risk is we go, well, it's an avatar and it's my 11 Labs voice, and there you go, I don't need to be here anymore. It's really simple. And I think it doesn't matter how far you take it. The humanity in the conversation and the micro pauses and all that kind of stuff is what really brings it to life as well. So I'm also senior electorate Imperial College in London, and I have 350 of these master students, all in their kind of early 20s. And we did a live demo the other day using Riverside, and we used a script, as people kind of know as well, and we basically got them to do a load of little podcast interviews with each other in a lecture theater with hundreds of people in it. Now, normally the audio would be so atrocious afterwards, and they were doing it on their phones, so you ought to be so atrocious. We did it, we ran it through and they hear it and it's like echo. And there's like people in the background put the AI filters on and it's like, this is actually usable audio suddenly. So to your point of recording more, the ability for me now to go to a conference, for me to meet somebody and then put that audio in a usable kind of format that's actually can be used professionally has come on leaps and bounds. And I remember we were talking before we started, we said, we started this podcast, like 12, maybe more than that, I think years ago. I think it's 14 years ago. So now I think back to it. But, well, the reality is, because we thought it was authentic, we used to record in a cafe and we were in Brighton in the south coast of the uk, and there were babies crying, seagulls in the background and all this kind of stuff. And you listen back now go, oh, this is just properly cringeworthy. But actually it does bring something to it, to be honest as well. But actually we could do that now. We could use that. And I, Kieran and I always tell this story that we used to try and meet up in different places, and we book a meeting room in the back of some office or hotel or something somewhere, and you go in and it would be just the echoiest room in the world.
- [21:48]
B
Oh, it's like a full glass room.
- [21:49]
A
You're like, great, yeah. So we went in and we would literally have our coats, and we would hold them over each other's heads over the microphone. And I remember a lady coming into the room when we were recording thinking, what the heck are these guys doing in this room? I'm just going to leave immediately. This looks very strange. And it. It was so hard to get good quality audio when you were traveling about, where suddenly now with tools like, Riverside actually becomes super easy. And you can just use so much more audio than you would have done before. So I think there's a real joy to that.
- [22:16]
B
Yeah, definitely. First of all, I'll say that as a former journalist, I would use. I used to, like, on the road, I used to go into, like, closets. That's where I'd record a voiceover for a video. I'd just, like, be in a closet. But also, what you were saying about this AI avatar type of thing, I think that as AI continues, there's going to be more of, like, a hunger for the real human. And I think that we see that. I think that Facebook is a really good example of this only in the way that it's like social media, and you're like, people are worried about what does this do for human connection. But now if you look at Facebook, it feels like it's kind of like last breath of air is right now groups. It's communities on Facebook. Like, people are really into Facebook groups. So it's just funny to see that as the worry increases about human connection, that we as humans continue to hold onto that we become more able to see content and be like, oh, that's AI, you know, and crave the things that are not. So I think that where AI should go and where video as well, with AI in tandem is going, I feel like, is going to be to continue that authenticity, but just make it easier to be able to tell authentic stories.
- [23:30]
A
Yeah, I love that idea. So that takes us on to a good way to draw things together. So talk is. Well, let me talk about Riverside for a second, because we love it, and
- [23:37]
B
I'll clip it and put it on social media.
- [23:38]
A
The thing is that what people don't realize is that this idea of being able to record in two separate locations. So if you're not familiar, Riverside allows you, like, zoom. You can go on a call together and you can record something, but the difference is it's being recorded at either end. So we've got the raw audio. So if you get all that flakiness and the Internet connection, all that kind of stuff, you don't have that problem. You've got really good quality audio recorded at each end, that's why we use it. But as time has gone on, you've added a whole raft of stuff. So I know now when I upload an audio recording I can go in and there's load of clips in there that have been kind of pre selected, pre edited and so on. So talk us about all this AI functionality you're adding and kind of where the product's going at the moment.
- [24:16]
B
Yeah. So after you record, I think is really, I mean there's like the magic of having a really crisp, clean recording right after you're done, no matter if you have bad Internet or anything like that.
- [24:26]
A
Yeah.
- [24:26]
B
But afterwards I feel the real like magic happens. And by that I mean that afterwards, immediately you get a transcript and there's so much you could do with the transcript. You get show notes, you get quotes, key quotes, keywords that you could put right into YouTube. But you also get AI created clips. So those are, you could do 9 by 16 for social media, format them however you want, but they're AI generated clips of what we've identified as your most engaging moments to put on social media. We've also extended that to segments now. So what we were talking about, that, that three to ten minute video, those are also generated for you and hooks as well. And so you have all of that. You have AI tools to be able to clean up the audio like you were saying, to be able to change layouts that you can in one click create a video that switches between speakers and you can put your branding in that. You can add one in one click. So I'll say, okay, this is the purple that my brand uses is their logo. And then I'll just click apply brand. And so suddenly my clips all look the same in the branding of Riverside. So there's the clear recording and then as well as that, it's being able to create all the content on the back end. Because we're talking during this interview about you can create clips and you can do all of that, but that's still, when you hear about that, you're like, that's a lot of time. And my team already has so much that we're doing, but a lot of that's already created for you as soon as you press stop on your recording.
- [25:51]
A
Yeah. And I'd say this functionality is coming thick and fast as well. There's new features kind of all the time as well. So.
- [25:55]
B
Oh yeah, there's even, I mean I even know of some that are cooking up right now that we're going to be announcing soon. So we're only continuing to. To iterate on it. I mean, and the things that the product team has started thought of are even when I say that I don't even know where AI is going because it's like we, we put out cut, fluff. And so what it does is like identifies moments where you're like, wait, is your mic on? I think you should reposition it and it'll highlight it and say, do you want to cut this? And it suggests it so that it doesn't like you can decide if you want that or not.
- [26:24]
A
See, now I'm concerned.
- [26:25]
B
Takes it out.
- [26:26]
A
You said that as the part of the actual podcast, as a demonstration. And I'm going to have to make
- [26:30]
B
sure now it's going to get. But it only suggests that it will not cut it. So don't worry.
- [26:34]
A
It's a really good point because there's so many times where you're doing something and somebody kind of halfway through your question, something happens and you've got to go back. I mustn't miss that in the edit because if I publish it that within the actual output, it's going to be very embarrassing. So, yeah, it's hugely important and it is a huge time saver. And I think we've gone from taking a podcast and kind of editing and getting it out from taking us a day now to taking, you know, an hour or two once we've messed around with things and play around with them, which is a game changer because it means that we can just get more out. We can actually focus on the ideas and the creative kind of behind it as well. So, Kendall, how can people get in touch? What's the best way of connecting?
- [27:09]
B
So you can connect with me on LinkedIn and also you can connect with our community of creators. We're conversation creators by Riverside on Facebook, but you can also connect with Riverside on all social media channels. I'm really excited that we get to talk about this because I just think that there's so much intimidation that goes around video. But it can be so approachable once you start thinking of like, okay, let me just do this one thing. Let's see how it works and iterate and see what you can do with it.
- [27:37]
A
Well, we'll put all those links into the Show Notes so Targetinternet.com podcast Kendall Brymon, thank you so much for joining us and for your insights today.
- [27:44]
B
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This was great.
- [27:48]
A
For more episodes. Resources to leave a review or to get in contact, go to targetinternet.com podcast.