Video marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for financial advisors looking to expand their reach and deepen client engagement.
According to a recent study, 88% of marketers say video has helped them increase user understanding of their product or service.
This guide talks about the strategic use of videos, providing financial professionals with practical insights on creating compelling content that resonates with audiences.
What types of marketing videos can you create?
Marketing videos are powerful in connecting with potential clients and showcasing your expertise.
But what kind of videos can you create as a financial advisor? Well, here are some types of videos you can create:
1. Educational Videos
As a financial advisor, you possess valuable knowledge that can help demystify complex financial topics for your audience.
Examples:
- Understanding financial markets: A video that breaks down complex market mechanisms and trends, helping clients make informed decisions.
- Retirement planning explained: A series of short videos that guide viewers through the retirement planning steps, including savings strategies and investment choices.
- Estate planning basics: A detailed video explaining the importance of estate planning, covering wills, trusts, and legal necessities.
These videos not only inform but also establish your credibility as an expert in your field (and depending on your case, they might be the easiest to create).
2. Testimonials and Case Studies
Nothing builds trust like hearing directly from satisfied clients.
You can create testimonial videos where clients share their positive experiences working with you or case studies on how you’ve successfully managed a client’s portfolio.
Note: Check with your firm if they allow this.
Examples:
- Client success story: A video featuring clients who achieved their financial goals through your guidance (challenges and solutions).
- Before and after scenarios: Showcase a comparative analysis of clients' financial health before and after they received your advice.
- Client reviews compilation: A montage of brief client testimonials that express satisfaction with your services.
These stories resonate with potential clients by showing the real-life benefits of your services.
3. Service or Product Demonstrations
If you offer specific financial products or services, videos can help explain how they work and the benefits they offer.
Examples:
- Investment product overview: A video explaining a specific investment product you offer, detailing its features, benefits, and ideal client profile.
- Software tools for financial management: Demonstrate how to use financial management tools that you provide to clients.
- Process walkthrough: A step-by-step guide on how you develop personalized financial plans, including initial assessments, planning phases, etc.
Whether a new investment fund or a financial planning tool, a well-produced demonstration video can help make your offerings more accessible to potential clients.
4. Company Culture Videos
Showcase the human side of your business with videos that highlight your company culture.
Examples:
- Meet the team: Introduce your team members, their roles, and how each contributes to client success.
- Day in the life: A video showcasing a typical day at your office, highlighting how you interact with clients and manage daily tasks.
- Community involvement: Highlight any community service or local involvement that your firm participates in.
Culture videos help potential clients feel a personal connection to your firm, making them more comfortable with the idea of working with you.
5. Q&A Sessions
Interactive Q&A sessions can be a dynamic way to engage with your audience.
Examples:
- Live FAQ session: Host a live video session where you answer frequently asked financial questions submitted by viewers in real time.
- Special topic Q&A: Focus on a particular financial planning topic, such as tax season tips, and answer common questions.
- Client interaction highlights: Clip highlights from past Q&A sessions where you provided insightful answers to complex questions.
These sessions can be advertised ahead of time on your social media platforms to gather a wide audience.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Engaging Videos
With that, let’s talk about how you can actually create those types of videos.
Note that these principles are general in nature, which means you can apply them to any type of video you want to make.
1. Planning Your Video Content
Planning your video content effectively is essential for producing engaging marketing videos.
There are three important steps here:
- Identifying your audience
- Setting clear objectives
- Creating a compelling message
Determine who your videos are intended for—whether it’s current clients, potential clients, or a specific demographic like retirees or young professionals.
Then, you must define what you aim to achieve with your video.
Objectives can range from:
- Educating clients about financial topics
- Generating leads
- Increasing brand awareness
Each goal will dictate different content approaches and calls to action.
Finally, align your video’s message with your audience's interests and your business goals.
? Tip: Keep the message clear and avoid complex financial jargon to ensure it resonates with your intended viewers.
Once you have your message outlined, it’s time to develop these two important elements:
- A well-written script to keep your video focused and ensure all key points are covered
- A storyboard to help visualize the flow of the video, mapping out each scene to facilitate the filming process
Planning also involves logistical considerations, such as scheduling and budgeting.
Set deadlines for each phase, like filming and editing, and outline a budget to cover all necessary expenses, ensuring the project remains on track and within financial limits.
2. Producing Your Video
Producing a video involves several key steps—from gathering the right equipment to the actual shooting and post-production processes.
As you may know, the quality of your video significantly affects how your audience perceives your message and brand.
That’s why you must start with the right equipment:
- Camera: You don’t necessarily need a high-end professional camera — many modern smartphones can shoot in high definition or even 4K.
- Microphone: Invest in a good lapel or shotgun microphone to ensure that your voiceovers and dialogues are crystal clear without background noise.
- Lighting: Softbox lights or ring lights can help illuminate your subjects evenly and professionally.
- Tripod: A sturdy tripod is a must to avoid shaky footage, which can detract from the professionalism of your video.
Now let’s talk about the actual filming.
When filming, each scene should be meticulously planned:
- Lighting: Aim for natural, soft light by filming during the day near large windows, or use artificial lighting to eliminate shadows and provide consistency.
- Sound: Record in a quiet room and do microphone checks before filming to avoid audio issues (consider using lapel microphones for interviews or dialogues).
- Framing and composition: Use the rule of thirds to frame your subject interestingly and ensure the background is tidy and relevant to the video’s theme.
As for editing, you need to know about your software options as well as the best practices on what to do after filming.
Once filming is complete, editing is where everything comes together:
- Editing software: Choose editing software that matches your skill level and budget (consider apps from iMovie to Adobe Premiere Pro).
- Editing tips: Start by cutting out mistakes and trimming footage, and add transitions, effects, and overlays sparingly (music can also help).
- Graphics and titles: Use lower thirds for speaker names and titles, and include engaging graphics to illustrate key points.
- Call to action: Depending on the goal, this might be an invitation to visit your website, schedule a consultation, or follow your social media channels.
Before finalizing your video, get feedback from colleagues or a test audience.
Fresh eyes might catch issues you've overlooked and can offer insights into how your message is perceived.
Naturally, be open to making several rounds of revisions based on this feedback to refine your video’s impact.
3. Publishing and Promoting Your Videos
The platforms where you choose to publish your videos should align with where your target audience spends their time.
For financial advisors, suitable platforms might include:
- Your website: Embedding videos on your website can enhance content engagement and improve SEO.
- YouTube: As the second largest search engine, YouTube is essential for long-form video content and can improve your visibility in search results.
- Social media: Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram offer opportunities to reach different demographics.
There’s also what’s called “video SEO” (it’s a long discussion and deserves a separate post, so I’ll just mention the basics).
To ensure your videos are discoverable:
- Titles and descriptions: Use clear and engaging titles with relevant keywords while descriptions should be detailed.
- Tags: Use tags effectively on platforms like YouTube to improve the visibility of your videos under relevant searches.
- Thumbnails: Create compelling thumbnails that give a preview of the video content — a good thumbnail can significantly increase click-through rates.
You can also use social media to improve video visibility (it’s a good thing considering you’re already publishing on social media anyway).
Here’s what you can do:
- Scheduled posts: Use tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule video posts during optimal engagement times on each platform.
- Paid advertising: Consider using paid ads on Facebook or LinkedIn to target your videos to specific demographics or interests, increasing visibility and engagement.
- Engagement: Engaging with comments and sharing your videos in relevant groups or forums can also increase visibility.
Besides social media, you can also use email marketing and cross-promotion with partners to further increase your videos’ visibility.
Effective promotion ensures that your investment in video production yields tangible results in audience engagement and business growth.
4. Using Video Analytics
The video marketing work doesn’t stop after you publish a video.
Using video analytics is important for understanding the impact of your video content and refining your strategies over time.
Fortunately, many platforms provide built-in analytics that can give you insights into how your videos are performing.
Key tools include:
- YouTube Analytics: Offers comprehensive metrics on viewership, engagement time, audience demographics, and how viewers found your videos.
- Google Analytics: If you embed videos on your website, Google Analytics can help track how they contribute to your site traffic and user engagement.
- Social Media Insights: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram provide detailed analytics for videos posted directly on their sites, including views, likes, shares, and more.
When you explore those analytics, you will see various metrics.
They may vary a little — but since we’re dealing with videos here, you will see similar metrics that may be named differently.
Understanding the metrics provided by these tools is important:
- Views: The number of times your video has been watched — high views indicate good initial reach.
- Watch time: The total amount of time viewers have spent watching your video (this is vital for understanding engagement).
- Engagement: This includes likes, shares, comments, and other interactions (indicates content that resonates well with the audience).
- Click-through rate (CTR): Especially important for videos with a call to action, this measures how many viewers clicked on links associated with the video.
- Conversion rate: Tracks how many viewers took a specific action, like signing up for a newsletter or scheduling a consultation, after watching your video.
Use the data collected to assess the success of your video against your objectives.
For example, if the goal was to increase client engagement, comments and likes would be more relevant metrics.
Based on analytics, you can make informed decisions about future video content:
- Adjust content strategy: If certain topics or styles of videos have higher engagement, consider producing more content along those lines.
- Optimize posting times: Analytics can tell you when your videos are most watched, helping you optimize posting schedules.
- Improve video quality: Low engagement might indicate issues with video length, quality, or content relevance.
Don’t forget to establish benchmarks based on your initial videos' performance and set goals for future projects.
Regular review of these benchmarks can help track progress over time and guide adjustments in your video marketing strategy.
Using Video Marketing
While the steps outlined are fundamental to a successful video marketing strategy, the final tip is to continuously innovate and experiment.
Staying abreast of new video trends, technologies, and audience preferences can significantly amplify your impact.
Whether it’s experimenting with emerging video formats like 360-degree videos or interactive live streams:
Pushing the boundaries of your content can keep your audience engaged and more receptive to your financial advisory services.
