Dotty Scott started posting one how-to video every week in 2011 by batching production and pulling topics from client questions. Her first video was in 2008, but the weekly commitment is what boosted her visibility and brought in local referrals.
17 years in business. Video marketing, I know, is one of the things that we're going to dive into today that really has contributed to greater visibility and success in your business. But my question is, how long have you been using video marketing in your business? Like, did you know— were you an earlier adopter and you knew this had to be a part of it way back when?
Well, interesting you asked that question because as you were introducing me, I brought up my original YouTube account to see.
Oh, really?
I posted my very first video, which happened to be a demonstration on how to set up your LinkedIn profile. Yay, yay, Laura! In 2008. Wow.
All right. So you've been at this a while, but not quite as consistently, right?
Oh, heavens, no. I will tell you, in 2011, I made a commitment to myself that I would put out one how-to video a week, uh, and the only way I could do that was by batching. So I would set aside a Friday, and in the morning I would do like 20 little videos. I would edit them the afternoon and just have this stockpile ready to go out once a week.
First of all, tip number 1, do some batching. Don't just say I'm going to put out a video on Tuesday and think I'm going to sit down Tuesday and come up with the idea, do the editing, put on the makeup, like batching them is the first suggestion, right?
Exactly. And the idea thing, the whole time I was like in between batches, I would do them about once a month or so, maybe every 2 months. Whenever a client asked me a question, I wrote it down on a piece of paper and then in Evernote when I graduated to that. So I had a running list of questions for the next batch.
I love it. So, so really your how-to videos came about by reflecting what do clients ask me all the time? What are the types of questions that I'm getting?
Yes, yes, they did. And I want to tell you, that was wildly successful, uh, in the sense that when I went to, say, a chamber event, um, I was— I'm— I still am one of these people who I will promote going to networking events and meeting all these people, but I would rather be home than, than do it. Um, so I went ahead, and when I go to these events after I started doing these videos, people would come up to me and they would start talking to me and having a conversation with me as if I knew what they were talking about. Like, like they picked up a conversation from one of my videos and they just started chatting to me about it like, like I was right there. You know, and they would say things to me like, Dotty, you're everywhere. And in my mind I'm thinking, well, no, I'm really sitting at my office doing my work all by myself. But yet the impression was I was everywhere. And it really, really helped with the referrals, especially locally.
