Like all forms of content marketing, sharing helpful videos is a great way to establish yourself as a reliable source of valuable information for your marketplace and give your SEO efforts some extra muscle. Most importantly, videos will continue to provide ROI years after being published. Video content really stands out from the rest of the content crowd though, not just because audio and video demand more attention, but when people can see you and hear what you’re saying, they’re connecting to you on a deeper level than they would from a text article or static infographic.
Where do you start if you’ve never made a video before?
The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of information you’ll be sharing – and as an insurance agent or broker, you already have a leg up on this challenge. Holding a wealth of knowledge about insurance is part of the job description, right? Be careful not to be too broad about your topics. Ask yourself, “what part of insurance do I know more about than anyone I’ve talked to?” That’s what you want to focus your video content on. You need to be easy to find. When people have questions about insurance, they’re not searching for just any kind of insurance. There’s something specific they want to protect, or they have a knowledge gap about a coverage they’re interested in, or are unsure if something is even worth insuring. Determine your area of expertise and answer as many specific questions as you can.
What about creating the actual video?
There’s great news about this part. It’s easier than it has ever been to create good video. The truth is, everything you need is built right into your smartphone. The cameras and microphones on these devices have gotten genuinely good. Are there better options available? Of course! But you don’t need the best, you just need good, and good has become easy to come by.
While there are options to edit and upload videos directly from your smartphone, I do believe you’ll have a better time and get better results using at least a basic editing program like iMovie or Adobe Premiere Elements.
All you really need to do is find a setting that doesn’t have a lot of ambient noise and record. You can use the front-facing camera on your phone and record yourself, have someone hold it for you, or buy an inexpensive clamp and tripod for your phone. There are great examples of all of those methods, and some (like the example below) will even combine some of those methods.
What is an example of great video content in the independent insurance channel?
Agency Revolution client, and panelist on our Live Webinar Roundtable ‘The Power of Content Marketing for Insurance Agents & Brokers’, Alex Dopazo of Dopazo & Associates Inc. has a fantastic ongoing series called ‘Small Business Coffee Break’.
Alex specializes in ‘Main Street Businesses’ and this video does a wonderful job speaking to that audience. He uses a simple formula that anyone could emulate with minimal resources, but also adds a couple small flourishes to help his series stand out in people’s minds. In the first 30 seconds of each video, he describes an issue or question he’ll address, and follows it up with a few minutes of discussion about the stated topic. Nothing too fancy or in-depth, he keeps these videos short and to-the-point. However, to take his videos to ‘the next level,’ he does 3 things:
- Brings in a guest expert to discuss the topic with him
- Adds music in the beginning leading up to a title sequence to bridge the 2 settings in the video
- Includes title bars at the top and bottom of the video itself so anyone that stumbles upon his videos in the wild knows exactly what they’re watching and who he’s talking to
What makes ‘Small Business Coffee Break’ stand out?
These videos are great because they offer real, valuable information to exactly the people he wants to connect with. They’re concise and follow a simple, recognizable format. He avoids taking a ‘sales-y’ approach and just focuses on being a valuable resource for the people he does want to work with. In his own words:
“The idea was simply to add value to our customer and prospect base by offering information with no sales pitch and we will continue to do that. Education is one of our core values and these videos feed into that. The aim is to eventually have enough content to have an online small business reference guide powered by ‘Dopazo Insurance’.
“We also use the videos with our current clients and/or prospects by sending links to the videos on Facebook when they ask a question that’s one of the covered topics. We have found that having the resource starts the shift from just client/prospect to fans… and well I don’t think I have to tell you that fans are how a small business really begins to grow.”
Alex is playing the long game with these videos – he understands that there’s real power in being a genuine source of valuable knowledge. While he could probably drive some short returns by including a pitch at the end of his videos, he doesn’t want to distract from the value he adds. Instead, he chooses to use these videos as a way to strengthen communications with clients and prospects.
As ‘Small Business Coffee Break’ grows, it casts a wider and wider net for small businesses that want to grow and protect themselves. Over time, as his audience realizes they need one protection or another, they’re going to remember how knowledgeable and helpful Alex and his agency have been throughout their growth and research. That’s exactly who people want to do business with.
That’s all there is to creating great videos
There are of course many ways you could approach creating video content for your agency or brokerage, but I really believe the example provided by Dopazo & Associates is an ideal format to follow in the independent insurance channel. So long as you’re providing information people seek in a simple, recognizable, and easy-to-digest format, you will build trust with the audience you wish to engage.