How To Create Short Simple Effective Video Content

Hello everyone, it's 1:30 Eastern Time and I want to welcome you to Create Great Business Videos. This is a series of live webcasts that will show you everything you need to know about how to create videos that attract clients and customers to your business. We wanted to create a series that's filled with insightful content, is interactive, and most of all, respectful of your time. Our programs will be typically half an hour, including time at the end for questions. So if you've got a question at any point, feel free to type it in the chat box to the right of your screen. So let's get started with today's program. And hello everyone, I am Jason Reed along with my co-host Cheryl Plouffe. Hi, and our producer Karina Sinclair, and we are glad you're here to join us. We're going to tell you more about us in just a moment, but Cheryl, what do we have today as a topic for our viewers today?

It's, it's a really exciting topic because it's something that I think a lot of people struggle with, and that is the idea of what to say in a video. So really today we're focusing a lot on content and what to say in your videos, how to come up with ideas for your videos. So it's really exciting. We're actually going to be talking about short, simple, and effective video content today. I just wanted to make mention before we get going that we've got a chat box, of course, that you can ask questions throughout the program. So feel free to do that. And I just want to bring up my slides, so let me do that for you right now before we move into the rest of our program. Give me one second here. Glad that you can see the screen. I hope you can see the screen. Great. Create great business videos. You should be able to see it now.

We can see it.

Cool. Great. Get, you know, grab water, tea, coffee, kind of settle in for the next 30 minutes, and we're really going to guide you through how to stand out, attract more customers. Isn't that fantastic? And profit by sharing your expertise on video. So this is episode 2 of our free training series. And we're gonna talk about short, simple, and effective video content today. Before we get into the bulk of our content, just let, for those of you who are new, I see Marnie's here. We want to introduce ourselves to you. My name is Sheryl Plouffe. I'm a video marketing strategist, but I spent more than 25 years as a broadcaster, in fact, as a trainer, as even a college professor at one point too. For journalism students as well as a news director. So that's— we don't want to go at length about who we are in our resumes. We have lots of experience. Jason has a ton of experience as well as a professional speaker and Speak to Sell expert. He has more than 25 years experience as a news writer, as a TV producer, storytelling trainer, and also as a news director. He's also the winner of 3 international awards for writing and story editing for network TV news. And Karina is, of course, with us today as well. Karina is a freelance video producer. She's a manuscript editor. She has really cool t-shirts that have to do with grammar. And Karina has worked behind the scenes in television and documentary production since the age of 13. So, you know, we come at this with a wide variety of experience, and that's really what we love to bring to the entrepreneurial and business space is that experience, right, Jason?

Absolutely, Cheryl. And you know, this is something that is really interesting to me. It's really the essence of a lot of what I do with my own customers and clients, which is figuring out their content. Now we have to remember, if we are speaking to sell ourselves and if we are creating videos in order to promote ourselves and our businesses, we have to be mindful of that when creating content. So we need to be consistent because we want to be on brand, and on brand is being consistent. So what I want to show you today is a way of creating messaging for your videos that's short, succinct, and continues to keep you on brand. Even if you're doing something like 27 different videos, we're going to show you a way how that all comes together. Now, I call this my power message method. Cheryl said, you know, this really seems like a pyramid. So we've got the Pyramid Power Message— Power Message Method. Geez, that's not an easy— we should—

we, we probably need to shorten it.

There we are. So let's, let's go to the other slideshow. We'll talk about what this is. So structure is really important in a power message because we don't have a lot of time. We need to really kind of be succinct and to the point. So we're going to give you, um, some detailed examples of this, but I just want to go through this with you Once so you can understand kind of where we're coming from. So we want to start with a problem and solution. So no matter what we do as entrepreneurs, even if we offer a service or even a product, what we have is a solution to people's problems. So for instance, you know, the problem I solve is, you know, how do entrepreneurs get more clients quickly in a noisy environment? Well, I help them by showing them how to speak about their business. So that's an example of a problem and solution. Another one I use is the Egg McMuffin. Who would think that the Egg McMuffin is the solution to a problem? But it is. It's the solution to the problem of how do I eat a traditional breakfast and do it on the run? So once you set up what the problem is and the big picture solution, then you want to get into 3 points. So if we're talking about the Egg McMuffin here, maybe one of the points is, you know, you want to have traditional ingredients because you want the bacon and eggs and cheese and all of that stuff. And the number 2 part of solving the problem is combining those ingredients in a way that makes it easy to eat on the run. And a little tip here, you shouldn't put the cheese on the outside, it should be the English muffins. And then perhaps the last point might be the fact that you really need a fast delivery system. If you're on the run in the morning, you need to be able to go to a restaurant, use one of these fancy things called the drive-through, and boom, get her done. And then finally, at the end, we want to have some sort of call to action. So once we get people excited about what we do, we want to figure out what is it we want to lead them to, whether it's signing up for a free information product or a free coaching session, or maybe even to buy a product or a service. So why don't we look at an example of this type of message in action? So this is an edited version of one of the videos that I have on my YouTube site. And Karina, you can run this whenever you're ready.

Here we go.

You know, for years people said sales was a numbers game, but I'm telling you right now that with increased competition, it's becoming more and more of a quality game. So you need to be able to make a connection with your customer. You need to be able to provide them with insight. And you need to be able to show them how you can solve their problem. And the great thing is stories can help you do all three of those things. So I suggest, as a way of building connection, you tell a true-life story about yourself and about how you've been in a position that your clients are probably in now. This shows that you understand their problem, you understand their mindset, you understand the feelings of what they're going through. Now the second thing is insight. So whether you sell a product, a service, or an idea, the way you sell it is going to be all based around a problem that your client has. So that leads us to the third way that we can use stories, and that is to deal with audiences' objections. So usually the objection to buying is related around price. Will this product or service be worth what I pay? So for me, if I include in my talk a true-life tale about a client who I've helped incorporate stories into their presentation, and I talk about how much money they made before working with me and after working with me, I can deal with that price objection right away and do it in a way that's efficient, effective, and doesn't sound like boasting. So there you have it. Stories can help you build connection with your potential customer. It can provide insight for that customer into their problem, and number 3, it can help them deal with any objections that they may have.

So there you have it. You know, 3 key points. You explain those points based on a big picture problem or solution. Now, in that particular video, I actually cut out the call to action, so you didn't see that.. But that's also a part of it. So now that you've seen this in action, Cheryl, why don't you go through what we'll call this pyramid so we can look at once we have our basic message, how we can drill down and create new topics and use the exact same structure.

And you know what I love about this, Jason? I love this pyramid idea because it does allow us to drill down. And really the result is that we end up with so many more ideas. So what do I say? As an example, if you are, let's say, a holistic health coach, as an example, the problem and solution that you offer is, you know, the problem is to lose weight, but you do it in a holistic approach, in a holistic way. That's your solution.

Sorry to interrupt you, but, um, are we seeing the screen, the slides?

Oh, hang on. You know what, sorry, I think when the—

I think when the video fires, so Are we seeing it now?

There we go. Okay, good. Yeah, no, I think when the, when the video plays, I have to go back. Sorry about that. So, the example of what do I say in this case if you're a holistic health coach, the problem that people have that is that they want to lose weight and you have a holistic approach to it. So, if we take that as an example, if we look on the right-hand side and if it's a pyramid that we're looking at, we're at an inverted pyramid. At the top layer of that is kind of a larger scale kind of approach. And we may pick 3 points that we may talk about in, let's say, a video message. And we could break it down into 3 key points for that particular message. Why we really want to stick to 3 probably points at most is because we really want to keep these videos shorter than longer. Typically, you know, when we talk about power messages and messages where we really want people to get to the end of the message so that they can get to the call to action, we want to keep them as short as possible.

Possible.

So let's say 3 key points as an example. And those 3 key points for this particular problem and solution may be nutrition and proper diet. Exercise is point number 2, and emotional support is point number 3. So let's say that that's the body or the bulk of your message on that particular video. You would follow that up with a CTA, a call to action, that may be to sign up for a free session. It can be whatever call to action you want. The point being here is that we're starting at the top of the inverted pyramid and we're looking at the larger scale approach, the losing weight from a holistic approach, the 3 key points, and the call to action. Now, if, as Jason said, if we drilled that down and we choose only one of those 3 key points to go further, we take nutrition and proper diet and bring that up into the problem solution, we can use that as our jumping off point for the next 3 key points, and now we're drilling down the pyramid. Now, we're in the middle part where we are gonna say, as an example, talk about knowledge, planning in advance, and changing habits if we're talking about this particular problem of nutrition and having a proper diet. And your call to action in this case, it may be like my Facebook page. It could be driving to your website or a landing page, whatever the call to action is in your particular case. So, you can see that as we continue to go down this, line, we can then take one of those 3 key points again and guess what we do? We bring it back up to the top, Jason. So now we're continuing to drill down and drill down. What I really love about this approach is that we end up with a whole bunch of different ideas, don't we?

Oh, Jason, I'm not sure your microphone's on.

Sorry, you're right, my mic was not. So there's really two key things here that, that I really like about this, this model. So like Cheryl said, often we have a lot of different things, a lot of different topics we want to address, but how do we make it consistent? Well, by doing this sort of pyramid, what happens is we're able to basically classify all of our topics into basically three buckets, which are the three big points at the top of our power message. So what that does is that allows us to talk about some different things, but it's still consistent with our overall message. So that's the one thing I love about this. The other thing I love is the math. And just think about this for a second. So here's, here's the math of it. So obviously you start out with one problem and three points, and then for your next level, the next videos you want to do, you can take each of those 3 points, and then those have 3 points. So suddenly you go from 1 topic to 3 topics to 9 topics to— when we're down in the 3rd level, you've got now 27 different topics. And the pyramid doesn't necessarily have to end. You can keep drilling down and keep drilling down, but it's a way to get a lot of content and have it organized. And, you know, sit down for you know, a couple of hours, you could probably get enough content for your entire year.

Yeah, absolutely. And, and, you know, if you, uh, look at other strategies— and we're not going to talk a lot about batch recording today as an example— I mean, here's a great way to use this strategy with another to help you be more efficient. But I love this, Jason. I love the idea of being organized. And not only is this a really great approach to be able to really mine down But what it does lead to is that it helps us. It helps us to create short, simple, effective video content because we are getting very granular. And the more we drill down, the more granular we get. What I mean by granular is this concept and idea that we take for granted what we know as experts in our own niches, in our own fields. We take for granted what we know and our expertise. We think that it's like, well, doesn't everybody know this? They don't. And so what I love about this is taking something that may seem simple to you, or even, I wouldn't say insignificant, but simple, and, and really mining that down into teaching people specifics, really mining it down and drilling down to a granular level, which allows you then to create more content. What's great about that is it keeps it short, because the more granular you get, the shorter that content's likely to be, the more content you create. Let's say in Jason, Jason's math example there of 27 different videos. Imagine if you have 27 different content videos that are structured properly, all with a call to action, all driving to your website, your landing page to call you, a strategy call, whatever that may be. Those are like little soldiers that are out there working for you on an automated way. And that's exciting. So the key to creating short, simple, effective video content is to get granular. Don't take for granted what you know. Other people don't know what you know, and what may be simple to you is, is something that could really benefit someone else. The other point is that you want to add value and insight as you do this. You are adding value and insight to your particular topic. And the other point is, if you want to keep it short, simple, and effective, Don't say everything in one video. Don't you think, Jason, Karina? You guys can chime in on this one, but I feel like, I feel like often people feel like they need to just put everything into one video, which is not what you want to do, correct?

And that's, that's one of the big things that stops people, because it's like, how can I take all of this stuff that I know and, and put it together in, in one video with one message? Now, what I do with my clients, we figure out what that big picture message is, that sort of the first message on the, on the list, but it's still, you know, very specific because we're looking at their business through a specific lens of a problem and a solution. The other challenge is you want to meet your audience where they are, not where you are. So you may be an expert with advanced knowledge of this or that, but if you're too advanced for the people who are listening, they may not be able to follow you. So don't worry about kind of simplifying it a little bit because sometimes that works better.

Yeah, and physically just trying to get through a lot of information can be difficult for people and they'll have a lot of ums and ahs and starts and stops and redos, but when you have one focused idea that really helps you get something complete and immediately There's immediate gratification of seeing something that's short and sweet and not belabored. So the idea of being very granular just helps you get that all out in one breath without exhausting yourself.

And one of the things I'm, of course, that I'm a big proponent of is not feeling the necessity to have to word-for-word script all of your social media videos. And by using this particular strategy, it's more advantageous to you because it's more doable to be able to create shorter, simpler videos without having to script them all. So, there's lots of different advantages for why to employ this type of strategy into how to create effective videos. But when it comes to creating the content, let's say we talk now. It's like, okay, well, we've got our ideas. We're mining it down. We've drilled it down. I've got all these topics and different ideas. The one thing that we want to remember and the thing that's going to make you stand out and the thing that's going to build your brand throughout this entire process is adding insight to that information. So, it's not really enough to just regurgitate information. Information is available everywhere. But what isn't available everywhere is insight. Insight is your experience. It can be context to said information. Stories. It can be experiences that you had, lessons you've learned along the way. It can be your opinion, advice, it can be all kinds of different things, but one thing I just really want to encourage you to do is always to add your own flavor, your own insight, and you can do that, you know, with your own, your own take, your own personality, your own, your own, I don't know what the word is, but like try to give it your own flavor. So insight is really important, so you want to look at What kind of experiences have I gone through? What kind of lessons have I learned along the way? Can I tell a story to really help to give more insight into this particular video? Which, because if you don't do that, it's just information. And information is a commodity. We can, I can Google anything right now, right? So can you. Information's available everywhere, but what isn't available everywhere is your take on it. It's the spin, that's the word. The spin that you have on that topic. So, it's really important to look at that and say, okay, here's, here's what I should talk about. Here are some topics. I've drilled it down. But always think about adding context to that information.

Absolutely, Cheryl. I mean, ultimately, this is about taking wisdom and really making it human. Because what we want, especially again, if we're doing this to promote our business, we want people to be able to connect with us as human beings. So the more we can relate these problems and solutions to actual human experiences that we've had or something that our potential clients are thinking about, the better off it's going to be. How-to videos are fine, but they don't really pack the same punch as real insight.

And if, if you think about the types of things that people like to share, they like to share stories. It's not that they're necessarily sharing facts and figures and details in an informative way, but they're thinking about the story. And there's emotional impact there. There's personality inflection there. And that's what's shareable. When you're a business owner, that's what you want is people sharing your stories too.

And the wonderful thing is, I mean, that same structure that we've talked about, which is the problem-solution, the 3 points, you can still do that in a story. I mean, you can tell that story and then say, so this is what I've learned. Number 1, do this. Number 2, do that. Number 3, do this other thing. So, it's not like you have to make that choice between the story and the structure. They can both really go together.

Yeah, and I think that you add a little bit of personality in there as well. Sprinkle a little bit of your own uniqueness in there. It's really a winning combination. So it's— these are the things that make your videos stand out from others. And if we can encourage you to, to do that, that's really going to help you get some great results. So we're at the questions portion now. So feel free to either put in the chat box any questions that you may have related to this or other topics. We're happy to answer all questions related to storytelling and to videos so we can really help you to grow your business along the way.

And the other thing to note too is, you know, if we've got an episode coming up and perhaps you don't think that you'll be able to make it or you really want your question answered, you can actually send us questions by, by email or also on Facebook too. So we're going to give you that information at the end of this broadcast so that you, you have that in case you want to ask those questions in advance.

Yep, no problem. Okay, Karina.

We do have a question from Marnie. She is asking, would it be okay to talk about different products in office supply store, or is that too much of a selling sort of story?

Can I take this, Cheryl?

Go for it.

Okay, so I love this because what you can do is you can take something that everybody will expect to be a sell job but really approach it from a different way. So think of the Egg McMuffin example. Where I started out with what problem does this solve. So even if you had, you know, something as simpler as a stapler, as simple as a stapler, you can figure out, okay, what is a typical problem that people have that, that this stapler helps them solve? And the more you can make the problem true to life, you know, have you ever, you know, been walking to a meeting and you have a whole bunch of papers in your file folder and You've got the coffee in one hand and you go to open the door with your elbow and everything falls down. You have no idea. Now you've got all these papers, you know, what, um, how do they fit together? Like, you know, how many, what's the sequence, you know? So looking at a product from that point of view of a solution provider will allow you to do videos that are actually educational. They will promote and sell for you, but they'll come across as educational, which is great. That's what you want people to be thinking because those are the type of things they're likely to want to watch and also share with friends.

Can I add something? Sure. Actually, it has to do with a stapler. I was at the office supply store and I was putting together— I was going to go speak at an event in front of a group of CEOs and they wanted printouts of my slide deck. It was very thick. It was like literally this thick. And so, I went and had them printed off. And then, I'm at the stapler and I'm putting them together, but they wouldn't bind because it's too thick. I spent 20 minutes in the aisle of, like the staple aisle, trying to figure out the difference between all the different staples, which ones to use for this thickness, that thing. And so, like, it's just an example, but I mean, could you take that that as an example, Marnie, and run with it. It's like how to choose the right staple for the right job, or, you know, tie it into a story. And then that's my story, so I can't, you know, but are there other stories like that that you could use as a jumping off point to be able to tell that story?

And maybe what the solution to their problem is is not a stapler, but one of those binders like the comb binding. So if that's something that you have that you're thinking of of promoting, talk about it again as that solution to the, to the problem of, you know what, sometimes you get a lot of stuff and just a staple isn't enough. It doesn't look great, there's too many pages. What you really want to do is be able to create nice reports like this, and here's the machine that will help you do it.

Yeah, so problem, solution, 3 points, call to action.

Absolutely. And I'll add something there too, is think about how you, you might have different markets than what you'd expect. So office supply might suggest that you're dealing with people who just work in offices. But as an artist, I know I love office supply shops for the whole range of gadgets and goodies that can be found in there. And I use them in artistic ways, not just in office work type situations. So maybe I'm looking for colored staples to go in some fancy Christmas cards that I'm making, and I want red and green staples to do a fancy design. Or maybe I'm looking for a kind of pen that has archival quality if I'm doing drawings with that I want to stand, you know, the length of time. Those are kinds of things where I think outside the box of who your usual customer is and broaden the scope of who else would enjoy these products in a totally different way.

And Marnie, if you use this pyramid, this Pyramid Power Message method as a way to mine down, I think you'd be surprised at the just how many things you end up with in your pyramid, different topics that you could really explore. You will never be at a loss of what to say if you use this method.

We do have another question that's popped up from Kevin. Kevin says, "I'm a realtor. How do you sell trust and reliability?" Well, that is a great question.

I want to do the show. Part of your customer base.

Yes. Hi, Kevin. I like how he says selling it, selling trust and reliability. Well, I mean, I think that it's almost the kind of thing, Kevin, that happens just from the fact that you're adding value and providing solutions to people's problems. And in this manner, you know, using video is obviously one of the most effective ways to do that. But when you are providing information and the context, as we as you described to people that helps them with their solutions, it's your, you are building trust because they're coming to rely on you as being a solution provider, right? And so that's gonna happen naturally, I think the trust, the building of the trust and the, I would say also likability and reliability. They're gonna come to know that you're a guy who is giving, giving without asking for anything in return. I think it's absolutely acceptable. Like when we talk about not asking for anything in return, It's acceptable to put a call to action. In fact, a call to action is a favor to people in that you're not leaving them hanging without a next step. I don't view the call to action as a selling. Like, I don't think that you're selling necessarily the call to action. So I want to make that distinction. But I think that if you're creating content and you're giving and you're providing solutions, you're going to build trust and reliability naturally.

And if I could add to this, Cheryl, One of the things, because I've worked with realtors as well, and one of the challenges is obviously that, you know, people view all realtors as basically the same. You do the same job, you're interchangeable, right? And the challenge with realtors and also financial planners too is they tend to be always looking for sales. So people always expect, oh, okay, this guy's going to try and sell me this or that. So if you can create videos that are educational to answer people's questions, so think about your customers, there's probably a myriad of questions they have about buying or selling a house. It may be having to do with the school system, or maybe it has something to do with house inspection. So, you know, what I would advise is to write down all of those topics and then just give basic answers to them, not basically saying, you know, I am the expert, because let's face it, when you're giving that information, people know you're the expert, right? So this is a very subtle way of showing your expertise and also providing a lot of goodwill because people are watching those videos going, oh yeah, okay, I've got something from that, I've learned something from this. And then when they need a REALTOR®, who are they going to think about?

Yeah, and that's— and goodwill is, is a huge, huge part of that about this whole, this whole thing is creating that goodwill and putting that out into the marketplace, and it comes back to you in spades.

Also, being very focused and being granular allows you to have that trust and reliability built in because then you're not rambling on and on and trying to find all sorts of words to fill the void. When we go on too long, we, maybe our words aren't as meaningful as they were as if they were just focused. So when you remain focused on a single idea, then your clients will know here's somebody who can be focused on the job at hand and get right down to what needs to be done. And that's a good way of showing them that without you saying that.

Agreed. I'm going to just, here's one thing about this webcast series, we want to make sure we're mindful of your time. So let me go back to my screen. I just want to— what episode 3 is going to be about. And that episode will be on October 26th. You guys see the screen? I want to make sure I see it.

Yes, we do.

Probably. Okay, October 26th at 1:30 PM Eastern Time. Um, episode 3 is going to be centered around storytelling to sell, how to create engaging and effective stories that attract customers. So that's episode 3. We'd love to have you there live. Of course, we do offer the replays. And I see another question actually in the chat box about how do we see episode 1. Um, Angelica, we'll make sure that you get the link to episode 1 because we have obviously a whole series of different shows that we're producing. We'll make sure that we get you that. What we really want you to do right now is we don't want this just to be, here's a bunch of information. We want you to take action. So your take action plan for today is to create your own 1 to 2 minute video using the Pyramid Power Message Method and use the hashtag. Well, you have a few different ways that you can let us know that you've done it. Use the hashtag #greatbusinessvideos or you could email us the link. I'll show you our email addresses in a moment. Email us the link or you can tag us on social media. If you do, we may feature you on an upcoming show, which is really exciting. Here is how to contact us. Jason had mentioned this earlier in the program that if after this broadcast is and you have questions, we reply to all emails. So email us your questions. Jason@PowerStoryMaster.com, Cheryl@CherylPlouffe.com, and Karina@LineByLineStudio.com. The URL to share this with your friends or family or people that you know who are looking to build their businesses and would, could really benefit from this content, send them to GreatBusinessVideos.com. And there will be a signup form there. But this is really exciting for us because we want to create a series. We're creating a series for you of useful information that helps you to use video and storytelling to grow your business.

And just to add to that, you are signing up for the whole series. So what will happen is obviously you're going to get information about our upcoming telecast, but also you're going to receive periodic emails that also show you the links of where you can see the previous episodes. So if you miss one, um, the entire series will be made available to you if you sign up. And those of you who have signed up, well, that's what you're going to get. And if you, uh, suggest this to someone else, you can let them know that that's what they'll get too. We really want to provide a lot of value, and we love doing this too.

Yeah, and one thing I just wanted to mention was that The emails, Jason, will come from me, from my account. So add me to your safe senders list just so that you don't miss those emails because those emails have important information about the replays. Angelica, you're asking about the replays. I will provide those links and we'll also make sure that you're aware of when the next episode is coming up.

And Marnie's interested in knowing how she tags us.

Well, Marnie, on social media, you can just— it depends. Like if you're on if you're on Facebook as an example, you can just add the symbol and it should tag us. It should tag us in the, in the actual post.

Oh, on Facebook, also on LinkedIn as well. You can connect with us there. Connect with us on Facebook. I think Cheryl, you're on Instagram.

We're both on Twitter. Yeah, I'm pretty much everywhere. I pretty much have a handle on all social platforms. Some I use more than others. I'd say I'm much bigger on Facebook than any of the others, but definitely you can tag me anywhere. Marnie, for the hashtag, use the hashtag symbol. So use #greatbusinessvideos, and if you want to, you, if you want to tag us, then you would use the symbol to our names. So @cherylplouffe, @jasonreed, @karinasinclair.

And thank you everybody so much for joining us, and we hope you are going to be here and in our chat room in a few weeks from now when we bring you episode 3.