Gone are the days when brands used to survive and march along just by writing content and using images for their marketing. Things have certainly changed a lot and have changed big time. Creating eye-catching, powerful videos is the new norm to keep audiences engaged and make things more interesting. 

We live in that day and age, where screens are used to entertain and communicate more than any other source. Technology advancements have resulted in an oversupply of internet sites, and digital resources for the public to gain information.

Video consumption is the fastest-growing thing of the new digital technologies, accounting for more than 75% of all global Internet traffic. New mobile technologies are transforming how video-based content is created, consumed, and delivered.

Consumers who can make video material and post it via social media communication channels like YouTube are benefiting from generalizing media creation. So, now the question that I’m sure would have popped up in your mind is how do we shoot a video and use it for video marketing?

Well, we tried to catch up with Lou Bortone who is famously known as “The Video God Father” to understand how exactly video marketing works and the different strategies that can be used. Lou Bortone is someone who is into video marketing, a strategist, an author, and a speaker who helps entrepreneurs in creating videos for their businesses.

 

Avi Arya – So, tell us your fascination and belief or conviction in videos.

It’s funny because I’m introverted and I’m shy, so I don’t particularly like being on camera. I like to help other people who may be a little more camera shy and get their message out. What I believe is that video is the fastest and most effective way to get your message out to the world and I want to give other people that ability and empower them to get their messages out to the world.

 

Hacks For Introverts To Get Started With Video Marketing.

Avi Arya – How to get over shyness and find awesomeness when it comes to introverted people?

You have to realize that your message matters and that it’s more important for you to share your gifts with the world and your message than to get over your shyness. When I was standing first time in front of the camera, I would put my kids in front of the camera, my dog, and anything that would take the attention away from me, and then what you realize is that you can do this and you are not going to look foolish and even if your first video isn’t that great, your next videos will get better.

So, if you want to get your message out to the world, you just have to go for it and get in front of the camera.

 

Alternatives To Get Started In Early-Stage Without Showing Face.

Avi Arya – Could you give us some tips or hacks to get over shyness?

Well, I mean the great thing is that you don’t necessarily have to be on camera. You can do videos that are PowerPoint webinars, screen shares, or animations. So, there are other ways to get your message out. I mean at some point you wanna be on camera so that people can see you and build that trust. But again, it’s just a matter of starting and realizing that the first few videos may not be that great. 

I think Facebook Live is a great training ground because Facebook Live is usually less formal and less pressured. So, I have a lot of my clients start there and kind of build a little bit of confidence before they do other kinds of videos. Live streaming is another great way again as it’s not highly produced in some cases.

 

Benefits Of Videos In Getting More Leads And Sales.

Avi Arya – How do videos fit into getting more leads and sales?

I think that video accelerates the sales process and gets you there quicker whether it’s awareness or leads or conversion in sales because as I mentioned earlier, the video helps you build trust. People can see you on camera, they get a sense of who you are like, you know you shared your story and people say ”oh my god you have got 6 dogs!”. 

So I think that the trust factor helps them make connections and helps move the process along more quickly. You can say if you were blogging, people would get to know you over the course of time through your articles but if they see you and hear you in person on camera, then that’s more powerful.

 

Top Ideas For Creating Videos.

Avi Arya – Can you share some amazing video ideas?

Sometimes I would just say okay, go, and pick an idea or any topic like what is your favorite movie and you can talk about your favorite movie and maybe how that applies to your business. I am a big fan of ‘The Godfather’ movies and I don’t necessarily apply it to business rather than, say well, you know if you really wanna sell something you have to make people get engaged and that gives you a topic to talk about. 

Similarly, you can talk about the top 5 influencers in your industry which is a great way to sort of giving shoutouts to people or you can talk about productivity apps or you can talk about yourself which is great because that helps share some of your stories to folks and share some facts people might not know about. 

So, there are no limits except your imagination. I mean you can talk or do anything. Eventually, once you get comfortable talking about stuff like that, you can bring it back to your business.

 

Advice For Entrepreneurs Who Are Looking To Get Started With Videos.

Avi Arya – So when it comes to entrepreneurs who have a business, what is your strategy to get them started with videos?

To get them started, I would say before you even do the video think about your goal. What do you want to do, like do you want to get people on the phone, do you want to sell a product or do you want to sell a course? So, begin with the end in mind and then reverse engineer that and decide what is the best way to do that. 

Before we even talk about videos, we talk about, what is your business goal. If you say ‘Oh, I wanna sell 100 courses’, okay well, let’s backtrack a little bit and figure out how we can use videos to accomplish that goal. 

A lot of people just start with the video and feel things against the wall and hope something sticks when we want. But again, you just have to use it as a tool to achieve your business objective. So it’s not necessarily that video is the end, but the video is a means to an end.

 

Strategy For The Webinars.

Avi Arya – Do you have any strategies for people when they do their webinars?

For webinars, you need to treat them like an event and promote it. A lot of people just think “Oh, I will just announce that I’m doing a webinar and people will show up”. That may have been the case a few years ago when webinars were a little bit new but now they are constant and always happening. 

You have to give people a reason to want to attend and talk about the benefit. Nobody wants to show up and just hear you talk about yourself or your product the whole time. You want to see what is the viewer going to leave this webinar with. What is the outcome or the benefit that they can have? So, I like to give a lot of value in the webinars and not just use it as a sales pitch but use it as a way to share important information that people can leave with right away and use it right away.

 

Different Videos For Different People.

Avi Arya – How do you suggest different videos for different people?

It depends on the client and their audience. So a part of it is like knowing where does your audience hangs out and what does your audience wants to see from you. The other part of it that I always talk about is people have to find their video sweet spot because some people love being on camera, some people would rather do PowerPoint slide shows, some people would rather do Facebook Live or pre-recorded video. 

So once you find that sweet spot whether it’s a live video or an animated video, then that’s the good way for you to teach your people because it’s the most comfortable way of doing it.

 

Personal Life

Avi Arya – Tell us a little about your company, your work, and how do you help people?

I have been doing this for over a dozen years. What I realized along the way was that you know you really can make your own way and I did it almost not by choice necessarily because my company was sold and when I came back east, I just decided that this internet thing has got something in it. I just kind of jumped on that bandwagon of doing the .com bubble back in the early 2000s and just had to evolve and change. 

I mean the fun thing about being an entrepreneur is if something isn’t working today, you can try something else tomorrow. So, I made a lot of mistakes over time but realized that what I was best at was helping people take the power of video in their business no matter what their business is, and grow their businesses whether you are a lawyer or a chiropractor doesn’t really matter. Videos can help you in almost every business.

 

Message To Entrepreneurs.

Avi Arya – What would be your advice to entrepreneurs?

At the end of the day, it’s you who control your own destiny. It’s you who make the rules and you get to decide whom you wanna work with and whom you don’t want to work with.

 

Conclusion:

Well, this was quite an interview with Lou Bortene where we managed to learn in detail as in what it takes to get started with video, how to build confidence in front of the camera, hacks for introverts to get started with video marketing, and key strategies for different aspects of video marketing.

Just like Lou Bortene, you can start your career too as a video marketing strategist easily by following the strategies that were revealed. Or if you have already started your video marketing journey, share in the comments, and let us know how is it going, what are the points that you felt were of supreme importance and where do you want to improve the most?

Meanwhile, you can also join our Internet Moguls Of The World School, where we help you to set yourself up for success, learn the key digital business concepts to thrive, and build an online business so that you can have more time for your family, more peace, and more financial freedom.

You can also follow our Internet Moguls of the World Podcast to learn more about starting your digital venture.