You Mean Video Marketing Doesn’t Have to Break the Budget?

Today’s technology makes quality video more available than ever to education marketers… without breaking the bank.  Here are some affordable and creative ways to use video in your marketing.

Video Blog Transcript

Amy:

Welcome to another Caylor Solutions video blog. Welcome Bart Caylor, president and owner of Caylor Solutions. And we’re here today to talk a little bit about the importance of video in marketing, and I was reading a statistic – and I know there are many statistics to gather as far as how many hours of video are watched every day. The one I read earlier today was that more than 500 million hours is watched every day just on YouTube, which isn’t counting all the other platforms. Tell us a little bit about why you think Internet users are so prone to video watching.

Bart:

Well I think that now we’ve become such a culture that’s used to having our smartphones. And I think that where we used to daydream or people watch when we were standing in line at a supermarket or other places, people are now consuming content on their phones during that time and so I think a lot of times when they’re consuming that content – whether it be on social media or on YouTube – we’re all using that time on our mobile devices to consume video. And so I think that that’s one of the reasons why you’re seeing so much more video consumption. It’s easier to consume video, and you can kind of zone out with video a little bit more than you can trying to read an article or focus in on reading. And so I think that’s one of the reasons why video is becoming so popular.

Amy:

Absolutely and for those that don’t necessarily know a lot about Caylor Solutions, and even for those that do, our focus is on a lot of educational marketing such as private k12 but then also college and university level.

So if I’m an education marketer, what tips do you have for me as far as how to best utilize video marketing?

Bart:

One of the things that I try to tell a lot of our clients – and a lot of our clients our smaller, private schools and so they might not have the budget or the team that a state university might have for instance – and a lot of state universities might have a entire department dedicated to video. Well, if you have a one or two person marketing department at a school, you’re not going to have the same types of resources available to you. So I think what’s really important: Two things:

One, figure out what you can do on the budget that you can do it on and so a lot of times that might be just utilizing your iPhone. I’ve been doing a lot of videos this week on LinkedIn – kind of using their native video platform. All I’m using is my iPhone, and I have this little lavalier mic that plugs into my iPhone – and all it does is just gives me a really good quality audio. And so trying to figure out how you can utilize maybe what you already have and then you can also use a lot of free tools. I use the iMovie app on the Mac or on the iPhone. Google and Android have similar apps that you can do – and just start experimenting and trying things.

And I think the second thing once you get past the the hurdle of ‘oh it’s too much – I can’t do these things because I don’t have the equipment’ – once you get past that then it’s a matter of figuring out where to put that video online and how to distribute that into the channels. And so it’s not just putting it on your website, which is one way to do it, but it’s putting it out where your audience and prospective audience can discover it.

And so with prospective students, let’s say at a higher ed institution, you’re going to want to put that out in YouTube. YouTube is the number one search engine, the number one social media network. People are watching, especially Generation Z, is watching a lot of YouTube videos. It doesn’t cost very much to get a pay-per-click ad – a bumper ad at the beginning of a Google video and you can do that with a Google ad account. And so that’s a really good way to get brand awareness and get some information out about your school in that channel.

You know, Instagram is doing small videos now – put your videos there. Keep them short – anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute or minute and a half is kind of ideal for those type of videos (brand awareness). Or maybe a little bit longer – like what we’re doing here – for something you might want to talk a little bit more about. And then I think beyond that, looking at your audiences. So if you’re a secondary school, mom is the main decision-maker. So look at Facebook, look at Pinterest –  and as I said, with adult learners and higher ed you’re also going to be looking at Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s just a matter of making sure you have the right equipment and right tools, and then making sure you put the videos in the right spot.

Amy:

I think it is important to get the point across that it doesn’t have to break the budget. We all know that super high quality produced video is quite expensive and that often times will scare the higher education marketer because the budget isn’t there. But I think the truth is there are a lot of affordable ways to use video marketing, and you just hopefully helped our audience with that.

Bart:

Well, one thing to keep in mind too – what we have on our phones is so much better quality than 10 years ago – that you could get in a professional environment. And so, I mean, we’ve got 4k video capabilities in our pockets now. So, with a little bit of lighting and a little bit of discipline you can get some good quality video even on a phone.

Amy:

Are there any drawbacks or any hurdles that you would want to tell our audience about or maybe even negative things that can happen using video marketing?

Bart:

I think probably a couple of the drawbacks I would say is and I’ve experienced this week – I’ve produced six videos for LinkedIn – it’s really easy to keep trying to make it perfect. So ease yourself into it – I think is a really important thing to do.

And then I think also if you do the same types of things every time – if all you’re doing is talking heads – that might not appeal to your audience. And so mixing it up with different types of video – whether it’s some 360 videos on YouTube, whether it’s interviews and social proof with testimonials, it could be an infographic type of video – just a lot of ways to mix it up. So don’t feel like you have to do just one thing because if you do just one thing, that could be a detriment at the end of the day.

Amy:

Excellent, thanks so much for your time today Bart!

Bart:

Thanks Amy, it’s been great talking.

Wondering what equipment to use for your video?

Check out some of Bart’s favorites here.

And, if you need any help with any aspect of your marketing endeavors, feel free to reach out.  We’re here with proven results.  

---

Market More. Spend Less.

Set yourself free from your shrinking marketing budget with my popular ebook Marketing on a Shoestring Budget! This ebook is jammed with practical ways to produce high-quality marketing on the cheap.

Inside, I’ll show you proven marketing tactics like…

• • How to leverage low-cost technologies to reach your target market,
  • How to craft a content marketing strategy on a bare-bones budget,
  • The number one thing your website needs to do,
  • The key to getting free, organic traffic to your website, and more.

No hype. No pie in the sky. Just real solutions for getting the job done with the budget you’ve got.

Download your copy today!