Podcast: Play in new window | Download
When it comes to video marketing, it’s easy to get caught up in the tech and forget about the human connection. That’s where Michael Cinquino steps in. With a background that ranges from the U.S. Navy to MFA in acting, and 20 years of photography and coaching experience, Michael brings a unique perspective to the world of video marketing.
In today’s episode, Michael and I dive deep into the 3C Method, a powerful approach that combines acting techniques with top communication frameworks. If you’ve been struggling to make your videos resonate, you won’t want to miss this conversation.
Converting Clicks to Customers through CRO Summary
Key Takeaways
- The 3C Method: Learn how Michael’s unique approach combines acting techniques and communication frameworks to create videos that truly connect with audiences.
- Structure vs. Spontaneity: Discover the importance of balancing a predictable structure with spontaneous delivery to keep your video content engaging.
- Overcoming Camera Shyness: Michael shares strategies to boost your confidence on camera, emphasizing the power of focusing on being useful to your audience.
- Technical Tips: Essential advice on framing, lighting, and sound that can elevate the quality of your videos without requiring expensive equipment.
- Remote Video Production: Explore how platforms like Riverside.fm are making high-quality remote video marketing possible, even for dispersed teams.
How to Elevate Your Video Marketing Strategy with Proven Techniques
In today’s digital landscape, video marketing has become a critical component for businesses looking to connect with their audience. Whether you’re a small business owner, marketer, or entrepreneur, the ability to create compelling video content can set you apart from the competition. But how do you ensure your videos aren’t just another drop in the vast ocean of content? The answer lies in combining structure with creativity, leveraging the right technical tools, and, most importantly, focusing on the human connection.
Balancing Structure and Spontaneity
One of the key principles in effective video marketing is finding the right balance between structure and spontaneity. A well-structured video provides clarity and direction, ensuring that your message is delivered in a coherent manner. However, too much structure can make your content feel rigid and uninspired.
Think of your video as a stage performance. Just as an actor relies on a script to guide their performance, your video should have a clear structure—whether that’s a well-thought-out script, storyboard, or outline. But great actors also know the value of spontaneity; it’s what brings their performance to life. The same goes for your video content. Once you’ve nailed down the structure, allow yourself the freedom to be unpredictable in your delivery. This unpredictability keeps your audience engaged and makes your content feel authentic.
Overcoming Camera Shyness
For many, the idea of being on camera is intimidating. Even seasoned professionals can feel a bit uneasy when the lens is pointed at them. But the good news is that you don’t need to be a natural-born performer to excel in video marketing.
The first step to overcoming camera shyness is to shift your focus from yourself to your audience. Instead of worrying about how you look or sound, think about how you can be useful to your viewers. What valuable insights can you share? What problems can you help them solve? When you center your thoughts on being of service, the nerves start to fade, and your confidence grows.
Technical Tips That Make a Difference
While the content of your video is paramount, technical aspects like framing, lighting, and sound quality can make or break your video marketing efforts. Here are some essential tips to keep in mind:
- Framing: Position your eyes above the top third of the frame. This simple technique, known as the rule of thirds, creates a balanced and aesthetically pleasing composition that draws viewers’ attention to your face.
- Lighting: Make sure there’s adequate light in your eyes. Whether you use natural light from a window or a ring light, good lighting enhances trustworthiness and keeps your audience engaged. Avoid harsh overhead lighting, which can create unflattering shadows.
- Sound Quality: Clear audio is non-negotiable. Viewers are more forgiving of less-than-perfect visuals, but poor sound quality can quickly turn them off. Invest in a good microphone or use quality earbuds to ensure your message is heard loud and clear.
Simplifying Remote Video Production
With remote work becoming the norm, many businesses are exploring how to create high-quality video content without the need for in-person production. Fortunately, platforms like Riverside.fm have made it easier than ever to produce professional-grade videos from anywhere.
Remote video production allows you to save on costs and time while maintaining the quality of your content. With the right setup, including a good webcam, microphone, and lighting, you can create videos that rival in-person shoots. The key is to use a platform that prioritizes audio and video quality, even with varying internet connections. Riverside.fm, for example, records locally and uploads in high resolution, ensuring that your final product looks and sounds polished.
Making Video Marketing Work for Your Business
At the heart of any successful video marketing campaign is a clear understanding of your business objectives. Before you hit record, ask yourself: What problem am I trying to solve with this video? How will this content help my audience? By answering these questions upfront, you can create videos that not only engage viewers but also drive meaningful results.
Remember, the ultimate goal of video marketing is to build a connection with your audience. Whether you’re creating brand awareness, educating your customers, or driving leads, your videos should always serve a specific purpose. And as you refine your video marketing strategy, don’t forget to measure your success by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your goals.
Final Thoughts
Video marketing is a powerful tool in the digital marketer’s arsenal, but it’s not just about the flashy visuals or the latest tech. It’s about telling a story, solving a problem, and connecting with your audience on a human level. By balancing structure with spontaneity, overcoming camera shyness, nailing the technical details, and leveraging remote production tools, you can create video content that stands out and drives results.
So the next time you plan a video, remember these principles. Your audience is waiting to connect with you—make sure your videos are ready to meet them.
By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to mastering video marketing and making a lasting impact on your audience. Happy filming!
Converting Clicks to Customers through CRO Episode Transcript
Rich: My guest today is co-founder of the Soho Creative Studio and creator of the 3C Method. He merges world class acting techniques with top consultant communication frameworks to create high quality, engaging content. His background spans the U.S. Navy, an MFA in acting, and 20 years in photography, acting on camera coaching.
As a business communication educator at UNH’s Paul College, he emphasizes storytelling and emotional resonance. With over 15 years of experience with Fortune70 CIOs, he fosters innovation and deep connections in high stakes setting, believing in the power of human connection.
Today, we’re going to be leveraging all of that experience to get a better understanding of how to make powerful videos for your digital marketing campaigns with Michael Cinquino. Michael, welcome to the podcast.
Michael: Rich, thanks for having me, man. I’m very happy to be here.
Rich: So you were a Navy rescue swimmer, an actor, a professional photographer, quite a diverse skill set. How do you feel that all of these experiences shaped your approach to video marketing?
Michael: What a great question. So they didn’t for a while, actually. I used to think that having a bunch of different interests were a disadvantage and not an advantage. And I picked up a book called, The Portfolio Life by a woman named Christina Wallace. And she’s someone who’s what you would call a multi-hyphenate like me, kind of been a little bit all over the place.
So the time came when I actually decided to go, wait a second. These things all in seemingly different places are actually an advantage. So from a video marketing perspective, as you laid out my bio there, I’ve been a little bit all over the place. So how it helps me in video marketing, there’s one really, I think a core reason. And it’s something that we always used to work with our clients.
One of the things I believe about video marketing, or really communication in general, is that you have to be predictable in structure, but unpredictable in delivery. Meaning, there needs to be, of course, some structure. And it’s not just one structure, there’s many. There needs to be some structure to what you’re saying, but at the same time, there needs to be some spontaneity and unpredictability. And I like to say you’ve got to give the audience something other than information. Because if it’s just information delivery, we don’t really need to be here, You and I. If there’s no spontaneity to what we’re doing, we could just send an email back and forth or write a memo or a book.
So to answer your question, the way it helps me in video marketing is that I look at it really in a twofold way. One, I look at it from the perspective of an actor, and actors are really good at being predictable in structure, i.e. a script, but unpredictable in delivery. They don’t really know how those lines are going to come out. Good actors, at least.
But in business, in video marketing, you’re not necessarily an actor. You’re a business. So how do you apply this to business? And I like to say, enter Barbara Minto. Barbara Minto was a consultant, the first female MBA consultant, at McKinsey Company back in the 1960s. And she created a communication framework there because she realized that the communication was inefficient. And the reason why it was inefficient is because these consultants were writing 30 pages of a memo to eventually come to a point. And she said, look, our clients don’t have time to read 30 pages to figure out what the point is. So she created something called the SCQA framework and mental pyramid.
It’s really two parts. SCQA stands for situation, complication, question, and answer. It’s a pretty basic storytelling framework. And then her idea of this pyramid structure means you start with your main point, and then you give supporting points and then supporting data underneath that.
So whenever we attack a video marketing campaign, this is the framework we use. So we encourage our clients to use this framework. But at the same time, there’s got to be some give, some spontaneity. It can’t be by rote. You have to leave room for things to, quote, “go wrong” or for happy accidents to happen.
So that’s it. That’s a long answer to your short question on how all of this stuff has come together to help me in video marketing.
Rich: I like how you remembered where we started, because I had completely lost the thread, I was so fascinated by everything else you were saying.
I discovered you, I believe I just saw one of your videos on LinkedIn. You were holding the camera, you were talking to the camera and talking to us about how to create better video. And I felt myself pulled in.
So using this pyramid method. When you’re creating your videos that are self-promotional, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, do you have editorial calendars all planned out? Or do you wake up in the morning and say, here’s an idea that I should share with my audience, and just basically grab your camera and turn it on yourself?
Michael: The answer is yes and no. So I’ve got a couple of things that I do. So I’ve got an initiative on Instagram that I also share to LinkedIn sometimes called, Deep Thoughts on Walks. And it’s literally just that I walk basically every morning and whatever comes to me in that moment. That’s a deep thought. Usually it’s like shallow thoughts on walks, but nonetheless, I always try to share something useful, a thought that’s come to me in the morning. And there’s common themes around personal development and communication. So I am in that realm. So that is something that is consistent but spontaneous.
And then on the other hand, for a content calendar, yes. There are some things that we do that are very structured campaign, like things that I’ve recorded before, and we’re using a platform to send that stuff out onto social media at certain points in time. And then with my podcast, I’ve really gone all in a multi-hyphenate mastery. So that actually also has a content calendar, is very strategic. So the answer is yes and yes, and no and no, it just depends on the channel.
I’ll be very honest, Rich. I’m not someone where planning content strategy comes natural to me. It’s something that I continue to have to work on and go, okay, let me think six months here. Let me think 12 months. How can there be a progression here? What does this look like? What’s the beginning? What’s the middle? What’s the end? So for those things I really do have to bear down and think strategically and get out of the tactical mindset.
Rich: I think most businesses these days, and the listeners of this podcast, appreciate how important video marketing is in this exact moment in time. And yet, such a small percentage of them have either gotten started or are actively doing it on a regular basis.
If people are in that stage, what are some of the things that they should consider as a way to get started? Or what are some of the first steps that they should take to maybe make this a regular part of their marketing?
Michael: One of the things that I’ve come up against is not that people are not competent, because they’re wildly competent. But the biggest barrier that I see is the confidence thing. There’s something about a camera And I’ve spent the last 20 years either in front of or behind a camera with some of the best performers, literally, on the planet, and certainly some of the best teachers. And even the best actors, we get nervous when you hear that “action”. It’s not a natural thing.
The good news here is that it’s never been easier to create high quality videos. And you’ve got more filmmaking power on your phone than they had for Citizen Kane, and this is a really good thing. So I’d say the first thing I would suggest is, don’t worry about production value. Let it go. It’s not necessary. There’s even large enterprise companies doing very low production value kind of stuff. I would say don’t let technical stuff get in your way. You know how to do a video on your phone, you’re good to go. So take that off.
I would say also one of the things to think about is that one of the biggest mistakes we make when we get in front of a camera is to think it’s about us. And it’s a very natural mistake to make because it’s weird to have this thing pointed at your head and not be connected to a human being. I like to say that the camera is the great accelerator. It accelerates all of our insecurities. It just does. No matter who you are, no matter how traditionally attractive you are. It can be incredibly affronting. But if you focus on being useful and ask yourself the question, “How can I be useful to my client base? What do they need? What can I share that’s useful?” That starts to get you beyond those nerves a little bit.
And then, of course, in marketing, being very specific about who you’re talking to. Not just some imaginary person, but a very specific person. So for people that are not implementing video marketing, do one a week. Talk to your clients, go to your clients first, listen with the intent to understand, “Hey, what are you struggling with? What’s going on? Can I take 10 minutes just to see what’s going on?” They’re going to write the content for you.
And then really all you’re going to do is you’re going to take what they said and share it to a larger audience. So I say one, don’t worry about technology. Use your phone to make sure you’re thinking about how to be useful. And then three, when possible, let your clients and potential clients write the content for you. Because at the end of the day, it’s in service of what they’re trying to do.
Rich: So that sounds like sound good advice. In fact, it’s great advice also for getting up on stage to is just thinking about being useful. But I know that sometimes what trips people up is the questions that perhaps the experts hate answering, and that’s about some of the fundamentals. Like, what camera should I use? What should I think about for audio? What is framing? So can you talk about maybe some of the basic building blocks of creating an engaging video outside of the content that we might be sharing?
Michael: Sure. So let’s just talk technical stuff from a framing perspective. Authority lives above the top one . That means your eyes should be above the top third of the frame – as you put your camera down.
Rich: Listen, I’m a quick learner.
Michael: That’s the same in some senses. It takes me sometimes a while, but I definitely learned. One of the things about framing, it’s called the ‘rule of thirds’. So I would say, make sure your eyes are living above the one-third line in the frame if you’re horizontal, same thing for vertical. You don’t have to cut your head off. I’m just cutting my head off right now. Leave a little space above your head, but make sure those eyes are above the one-third.
The second thing is, make sure there’s some light in your eyes, whether that’s a window or a ring light. Now for people with glasses like you, Rich. One of the things you can do, people go, “I don’t want to use a light because it reflects my glasses.” I got you. All you have to do is bring it up on a 45-degree angle to your left or to your right, and then it’s not going to, or even right in front of you coming down, then you’re going to get that glare out of your glasses.
But it’s really important to have light in your eyes. If you don’t have light in your eyes, we call it dead eyes. It actually decreases the trust. If you want to make someone look like a serial killer on film, you light them from above without any sort of light in their eyes. So their eyes look like hollow sockets. So frame yourself with your eyes above the third. Make sure there’s some light in your eyes.
Now, third but equally important, we’ll actually forgive not so great video, we will not forgive not so great sound. I see you have your headphones in, probably using that as a microphone as well. Earbuds?
Rich: Yep, I’ve got a Rode Tasker right here, so it’s actually just for blocking out noise.
Michael: Fantastic. I couldn’t see it, it was off camera, which is great. It doesn’t have to be in the frame, doesn’t have to be out of the frame, but you want to use a microphone of some sort on your phone. If you’re using your phone, you could even use earbuds plugged in. You can use wireless earbuds.
On your laptop, if you’re recording there, there’s a lot of plug and play microphones that are available that don’t require tons of software. I love the Elgato line of products just personally, they’re a little higher end. They’re not inexpensive, but the quality of the products are fantastic. I use their lights. I use their microphone.
So to review, get your eyes above a third, make sure there’s light in your eyes, and make sure that we can hear you clearly. Because we’ll forgive not so great looking video, but we won’t forgive not so great sound.
Rich: All right. Now I know that you specialize in remote video marketing. Can you just walk me through that? Because it seems impossible to me to actually be able to help somebody remotely with their video marketing. So talk to me about how you work with clients a little bit.
Michael: Yeah, it was impossible not too long ago. And it’s only possible because of a platform I use called Riverside.fm. I discovered Riverside when we needed to bring in some speakers in a secure way, in a studio quality way for a hybrid meeting for the CIO group I used to work with. And they were one of the few people that actually fit the bill. So this is I think 2021 when we were doing these hybrid meetings.
Then I went away from the platform and then I had a software development company come to Soho Creative and they wanted to do a video marketing campaign, but they have a completely dispersed workforce. It’s all remote. So they’re like, how can we do this? And I thought to myself, I’m not sure. Let me do some research. And I thought of Riverside. And the good news is Riverside had continued to develop their platform.
So the way that it becomes possible over Riverside, they have a really unique setup where it doesn’t rely on a good internet connection. It’s taken off the table. So as I’m recording with my clients it’s as if I’m in the room with them recording on a separate device. So what happens is the signal goes to your cache and then goes up. So you can get up to 4k quality video on the Riverside platform, 48 Hertz sound. You get really studio quality across the board.
So I’m able to do this, and I was actually just on a call yesterday with a client, she was laying down a video. She’s got her 4k webcam. She’s got an Elgato microphone, some great lighting. And then I’m there with her on the Riverside platform. And the cool part about the platform is I’m not being recorded. So I’m there as a producer saying, okay, try it again this way. All right, maybe this way. Now she’s the only one that’s being recorded.
And the really cool part about it is when we’re done, I’ve got a HD high quality audio and video. Now you can use any camera you want with this platform. So if someone wants to set up a cinema camera, they can do that. There’s no limit. I like this idea and we offer this, so we’ve gone to this being our core offering. We should do very little in person production. It lowers costs tremendously, even just flying someone else thousands of dollars in a hotel.
Secondly, the pace of content and then being able to repurpose that content is tremendous. So one video a month doesn’t really cut it anymore. You’re going to have to be a little bit more visible than that. And then also what I’m able to do directly on the platform is edit through a transcript. So I’m able to edit just from the word. So it really shortens the amount of time where I don’t have to sit there and listen to two hours of footage. I can just look at the transcript and I can also take the transcript into AI and go, okay, is there anything redundant here? Are we following the SCQA? And then really hone in on the message and edit it in a way that’s going to be super effective.
But Riverside is something that’s a really incredible platform used by very large enterprise companies. So we use it for remote video marketing and also for video podcasts for companies.
Rich: It sounds pretty awesome. It sounds also like there may be certain types of videos that Riverside would perform well for, and maybe some others where it just wouldn’t be appropriate. Maybe moving cameras might be difficult or something like that.
What are some of the best cases for something like Riverside and remote video production for a dispersed team? And what are some ones that probably aren’t going to work as well?
Michael: Okay, I’ll start with the aren’t going to work as well. If you’re going to do multiple camera setups with world class lighting and national commercial level production, you’re probably not going to use Riverside. It’s just off the table. So that’s one reason not to use Riverside. If you want to be in the room with the person you’re filming for whatever reason that might be, you’re not going to want to use Riverside.
What you would use Riverside for is if you want to record and not be in the room. You don’t want to fly somebody out. You don’t want to spend the tens of thousands of dollars it’s going to cost to bring in a production team. You would use it for a podcast, for a video podcast. You would use it to record an hour of content and then parse that up into five-minute clips.
So I would say to summarize if you want to be in the room with your client. And there’s a bunch of people that need to be in the room deciding on things, you got to be in the room. Or if you want super high-quality production where you’ve got cinema cameras and high-end lights and sound and stuff like that, probably not Riverside.
Riverside is more ideal for really good production remotely. Which for them, depending upon who you are, this suffices a lot across the board. Because you’ve got enterprise level companies just using their phone now to post up on social media. They’re not even… Nike’s not even trying.
It’s interesting. It’s like a fat, you know what I’m saying? It’s like a they want things to look not overly produced. Yeah, exactly.
Rich: So you’ve worked on a lot of different campaigns for a wide variety of companies. Can you give us an example of one that you thought was really successful as far as the marketing campaign went and why do you feel that way?
What made it successful in your eyes?
Michael: We did a campaign for the city of Portsmouth an employer branding video. So the city of Portsmouth was having a hard time hiring because they’re a municipality and they don’t have tons of money to throw at people like most municipalities.
So our process when we do these employer brand videos is first to survey the employees, and we surveyed 90 employees and ask them all the same questions. Now, these are not yes or no questions. These are questions that they’re going to need to weigh in on, give me the top reason why you like working for the city of Portsmouth. So from there we analyze all that information that we get from them, and then we identify what the top three to five most common themes are.
And then we go back to the client. We went back to the city of Portsmouth and said, okay, these are the three to five most common themes. Here’s our data to back it up. And they’re like, great, this actually aligns with what we’re already saying.
So from there, we created a script for them. We said, okay, are there five or six people that can get on camera? And this was actually in person camera. This wasn’t over Riverside to talk about these things. Then we again, went in person. We asked them very pointed questions. And it went very well.
And then we’re able to put together a video that did two things for the city of Portsmouth. It honed in on who would be the exact right fit. And then it also repelled the people that would not be the right fit. At the end of the day, the city couldn’t have been happier with our work. And now they’ve got a video living on their website. And for all their hiring pages that if someone wants to work with the city of Portsmouth, they get to hear firsthand from the employees why they work, in a very honest way.
These are not actors. A lot of them were very nervous, but they were also very honest. And we consider that a success because the city was really happy. It’s going to live there forever. And the fact is that I think the number of 78 percent of potential employees would believe another potential employee over anything that the city, the company organization says.
So I would say that was a really good example of a home run for us. Where we were very intentional about what we were doing, and the process was validated in that sense, which was great.
Rich: Very cool. So we’ve talked a lot about some of the frameworks and the basics and the things that we should be thinking about almost from a more mechanical standpoint. But you did talk a little bit earlier on about Barbara Minto and the Pyramid and I think it was the SCQA method. Can you give us a little bit more context?
So as you’re approaching a project, whether it’s for yourself or for a client, what are some of the engagement elements or what are some of the other things that may be moved away from technical to help us really create that video that’s going to grab somebody and help us achieve our marketing goals?
Michael: So we work mostly with subject matter experts. So we like to say we help you leverage your human capital. Now the subject matter experts are not necessarily performers or comfortable on camera. So it’s our job to help them be just that, your subject matter experts. And I want to turn them into movie stars.
So one of the ways that we do this is we use the SCQA format. I’ll think of a topic here. We were talking about app development or something like that or something about app development and how to shorten the time to market. So the first thing I do is I get on with a subject matter expert and we SCQA and mental pyramid it. So I’m like, what’s the situation? What does everybody have to know before they’re going to understand this? What’s the problem that’s come up, complication, what question has arisen, and what’s the solution to the problem? And then we go through this SCQA.
So once I have the SCQ, and it’s great because you have to make logical arguments. The SCQA Minto Pyramid is fantastic because it checks your logic. And if it’s illogical, you have to keep working until it’s logical. So once I have that, it’s really cool because then I’m able to birth questions from this. So what happens is, I have a format now, a predictable structure that human beings love to listen to because it’s in a pyramid. So what I do is I’m able to get on with the subject matter expert, and I like to say an effective video or presentation is really just a bunch of answers to a bunch of questions.
So where the predictability comes in is we know what the structure is going to be, but I ask them the question in the moment and because they’re a subject matter expert, they’re able to just, Give me an answer right there. I’m not a preconceived thing. So this is where these two things come together.
I’m like, what would be the best way, or what is one big thing an organization can do to shorten the time span for app development in your opinion. And then they just go and talk. So we’re getting clear, real information, but they’re not reading from a script. But they feel supported because they know what the questions are going to be. I’m there with them. So I think that’s probably the best example that I know of in the moment where you’re being intentional, but at the same time, you’re leaving a little bit of room just to answer the question because you’re a subject matter expert.
And assuming you know, of course. You have to know what you’re talking about. This only works if you are a subject matter expert. We have to stick within the bounds of your expertise, of course. And I’ll say that a lot of times They’ll get very nervous and want to read. I’m like, you know what you’re doing, don’t, it’s okay. Like, just give it to me.
And I would say to anybody listening, you don’t have to get every tidbit in there. And I understand some things are highly technical. We work with blockchain companies. We work with tech companies where I understand this is not just cut and dry answers necessarily. But I would say for each video that you do, you could only ever have one takeaway, one singular one. This is why you should go see Barbie. This is why you should go see another movie. That’s the takeaway. And then why and how you can have a lot of that, but it can only be one singular takeaway.
I think where we go wrong is where we want to make multiple points or multiple suggestions. It’s just one takeaway. Disney should do another theme park in this place here at this time. Now argue why or how are you going to do that?
Rich: I think that was really helpful. The one other thing that I’m trying to think about though, is you mentioned Barbara Minto and the Pyramid. And it almost reminds me of old school newspaper writing, where you put the most important things first, because you never know where the editor’s going to cut you off. So the end of the article is usually a little more loosey goosey, so everything’s up front, so people only read one paragraph.
With that in mind, and that does sound like the Minto Pyramid approach. What are some things that we can do at the beginning of a video that are going to get people to stick around for the whole video?
Michael: Open a story gap. Open a story gap in some way. In this video, I’m going to talk about the easiest way to make a hundred million dollars in three weeks. What? How, man? Us human beings demand to know why or how. So I would say your first line is going to be the main point.
Now, it’s also being compassionate and considerate of your audience’s time because you’re stating what the topic is going to be. And if I’m not interested in gaining 50 pounds of muscle in three weeks, we’re done. Don’t make me wait to the end to find out that this is what it’s about. State that bold story gap in the beginning. Here’s why you should see Barbie over Oppenheimer. I’m going to give you three reasons why Barbie was a better film than Oppenheimer. Or, let me give you the top three reasons why if you only had to pick one of the films, you should see this one.
Now I can decide as an audience member, do I want to keep listening or not? So I know right away what the topic is, but at the same time as when you’re producing a video, you are opening a story gap there. And you’re right. It does have to come early on. These what do you call ‘inciting incidents’ come very early on, seven minutes into a film or something. I figure what the stat is, but very quickly a problem arises where we go, “Oh, heck, what’s going to happen?”
Rich: So as we’re thinking about this, we’ve talked about some technical stuff. We’ve talked about some emotional stuff, and how we create the videos at the end of the day. How can we determine if the video marketing campaigns were successful? What are some of the KPIs that your clients look for to be like, this was money well spent, this helped me accomplish my objectives.
Michael: I had a client say to me one time, I need to have a tree fall in my yard that I didn’t chop down. Meaning that my marketing needs to do the work for me and not have me out there doing it. So I’d really say that for us, usually the main KPI is brand awareness that equated to a new lead. And somehow see looking on the backend to see that whether it was a LinkedIn video or something on YouTube, or in the case of employer branding, what inspired you to reach out.
So for the city of Portsmouth, we’ll take them as an example. One of the questions they have now as a KPI is, what inspired you to reach out? And one of the answers is the video. So seeing what percentage of applicants had seen and or were inspired to reach out because of the video was it was a KPI to go, okay, great. This is something that caused them.
So really at the end of the day, of course, I know that there’s the old John Wanamaker quote of, half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I don’t know what half. So sometimes it can be hard to measure. And I’m not going to say that it’s not. But I would say looking at the backend to try to understand and be very specific that, okay, this was connected to this lead. This was connected to this call.
So we know we’re doing the right thing now for B2B where it’s not an econ business where you’re not talking about click through rates in the hundreds of thousands kind of thing. It’s really, it’s not anywhere near that. It’s sometimes more of a roundabout way. It’s just this supporting kind of thing. And it can be hard to measure like in an employer branding video, unless they’re ticking that box. It’s hard to know if it did have an effect. But I would say the big question to ask in the beginning is what business problem are you trying to solve, and then work backwards from that.
So is it the right video marketing solution, the best video marketing solution for the right business problem, and what are the expectations around that? So I would say for if you’re looking at a video marketing campaign, what’s the real business problem you’re trying to solve? And can this actually solve that problem for you?
For the city of Portsmouth, it was really like brand awareness around who they were and trying to filter the applicants. And from there, from them, it’s working. But it’s hard to, to put a dollar amount on it. It’s, it can be hard to know. I’ll be honest about, it’s hard to know. But again, we’re not a video marketing firm that does e-comm, so we’re not somebody that’s going to be running Google ads for you, looking at very large cross sections of data. It’s not going to be like that. You’re going to look at the engagement, someone might’ve reached out from a video, your B2B. Again, another longer answer to your short question, but I hope that was helpful.
Rich: That was great. And just one last question as we’re thinking about this. So it seems like most of the video that you’re talking about, certainly most of the video I consume these days and create, is for social media or at least the web. It’s going to go on my website. They’ll go on YouTube, you mentioned Instagram, so forth. I know for me, one of the things that I’ve been using more often recently is running things through a tool called Kapwing, which puts in the dynamic captions, because so often people have their audio turned off. Are there anything like that or other recommendations that you feel people should be considering if they’re creating video for quick consumption or for social media?
Michael: OpusClip. Do you know that platform?
Rich: I do. It’s like Kapwing, and I know everybody uses OpusClip. I think I tried Kapwing first, and it has more controls on the back end. Because when I tried OpusClip, I felt like my hands were tied, but everybody does seem to love OpusClip but me.
Michael: Yeah, OpusClip is one, Riverside does it internally now. So we can do the whole thing on Riverside. But yeah, OpusClip works. What was the one you mentioned that I might have missed?
Rich: It’s called Kapwing. I did not name it. It’s K A P W I N G. And apparently it’s named after a sound effect from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip from years ago. But it’s just, yeah, it works like a lot of these. There’s an AI tool. It grabs the best parts of say an interview like this, and then basically gives you a rough draft of the video that you can either accept or tweak some more.
Michael: Yeah. Can I say one more thing?
Rich: Of course.
Michael: You still have to be careful, because if you become wholly reliant on the AI, you might miss a really great moment in your video. So I would say like with any AI, what’s the Russian – trust, but verify. I would say with your AI and using in video trust, but verify, because you really don’t want to miss a great moment.
One of the ways that we make sure we don’t do this is when we’re using Riverside, you can mark in real time when someone hit a really cool point. So if I’m like, I’m flying Ooh, that’s awesome. I literally just hit the M button on the keyboard. And what it does is it marks 15 seconds before and 15 seconds after. So I make sure that I didn’t miss a key thing.
And a lot of times you’ll have it run the magic clips or whatever, and it excludes that. And you’re like, Ooh, no, that was something that’s important. So I would say when you’re doing this, Pay close attention in the moment to save yourself some time. Oh, like here, like one minute in, that was something that’s good. Run your magic clips, let AI, run with it, because it’s going to find stuff that you never thought of as well. But at the same time, make sure that you’re not overlooking some things that you know, as a subject matter expert or whomever that could be potentially helpful to your audience.
Rich: I don’t have Riverside, so I don’t have that exact tool, but I do make notes as we’re going along. So when you say something that’s absolutely brilliant, Michael, I just make a little note so I can find it later on in the transcript.
Michael: But that was a very short transcript you held up.
Rich: Yeah, well I have shorthand. I gotta let AI do something, right?
Michael, this has been great. If people want to learn more about you or more about Soho Creative Studio, where can we send them online?
Michael: Sohocreativestudio.com. And I’m also very active on LinkedIn, Michael Cinquino. There’s not many of us. And then on Instagram, I’m also very active daily. Michael Cinquino, all one word as well.
Rich: Awesome. And we’ll have those links in the show notes. Michael, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Michael: Rich. It’s my pleasure, man. Thanks for having me on.
Show Notes:
Michael Cinquino is the co-founder of Soho Creative Studio. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, Michael helps clients visually articulate their brand identity and capture compelling narratives through various media. Be sure to connect with him on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Rich Brooks is the President of flyte new media, a web design & digital marketing agency in Portland, Maine, and founder of the Agents of Change. He’s passionate about helping small businesses grow online and has put his 25+ years of experience into the book, The Lead Machine: The Small Business Guide to Digital Marketing.