While not an essential facet of an adviser business, the implementation of video content is a boon when it comes to engaging potential clients, according to Steve Billingham.
The medium, which has been augmented in recent history by faster broadband speed, gives individuals a glimpse into the culture of businesses, the director of West Sussex-based Steve Billingham Consulting, said.
Mr Billingham added: “Your business will be unlikely to go belly up just because you don’t use video, as there are even advisers who have no web presence whatsoever who still have massively successful profitable businesses. But video has the ability to convey your content in an interactive and stimulating way.”
The first of the 10 key pointers for using video, as outlined by Mr Billingham, is to ensure the content is relevant to the adviser business, and the second centres on brevity so as not to lose the audience interest.
Third, videos do not have to be formal, according to Mr Billingham, who added that a light- hearted humour and cartoon-type creative approach can more effective.
On the fourth pointer, he said: “It’s great to be able to ad lib on a video where you know your topic inside out, but even the best presenters get in a tangle from time to time. Use a transcript and an autocue – both are easy and cheap to implement.”
For the fifth, Mr Billingham suggests advisers do not have to fork out a lot of money on sophisticated camera equipment to produce high-quality visuals. Recording tools that are available on modern smartphones and tablets can produce good quality content, he said.
The next tip requires advisers to host videos on their website to improve their search engine optimisation and Google rankings, while step seven delves into the importance of using a hosting site for the video for a “quality, professional look and feel”.
Step eight and nine is to embed videos into email campaigns and promote and share them on social media, respectively.
The last tip requires the adviser to make the video interactive. Mr Billingham said: “Take the opportunity to add a survey at the end that can help you gain valuable research from your viewers and always, always include social media-sharing buttons.
“Video can be produced quickly and it doesn’t have to be expensive. You can even produce video in-house, but the results can be mixed. However, it’s amazing what a few hundred pounds can do. What you do need is a good film production or video marketing agency and, yes those sound expensive, but they needn’t cost the earth.”
Adviser view
Stephen Jones, managing director of Derbyshire-based Clear Solutions (Wealth & Tax Management), and fellow of the Personal Finance Society, said: “We have video content on our website and loads more that is yet to be published. There are many marketing gurus who say you simply have to have video contact. Also, this is a person-to-person business and videos allow people to get a flavour of other individuals that you simply can’t get through printed words.”
