Analysis paralysis, self-shame, and fear of the unknown are three things that keep brands from engaging with their audience. And it’s killing brands. What's the scariest engagement with your audience, and how do you overcome it? It's video.
There are a lot of things that keep a business or a brand from growing. This would be a pretty depressing topic to cover if I listed them out, one by one. I’ll spare you: the primary ailment that causes brands to stall is the fear of creating authentic, engaging video content.
Why are we afraid?
Things in the online sphere have changed rapidly over the past five years. The change has been incredible: we can now easily connect with people we care about, discover new brands/products, and build entire businesses on top of ecosystems that would’ve been hard to imagine previously (Shopify and eCommerce platforms are a great example). With all of that connectivity and ease of access, we’re exposed to really stunning stories and an endless stream of fodder for self-comparison: friends blowing up their social feeds with images of their perfect lives, entrepreneurs on stage at TED Talks - everyone looks so incredibly perfect and polished.
When we’re starting at the beginning, it’s really hard to imagine ourselves competing with all that beautiful, envy-inducing content. And, on the off-chance you do imagine yourself creating content of that caliber, often your first (second, third, fourth, tenth, twentieth) attempts will leave you feeling less-than.
What we’re afraid of isn't just being NOT being good enough, but being SO not-good, that we feel like a failure.
Great, we’re all afraid. Who cares?
Let’s just bury ourselves in the things we are good at, amiright?
This isn’t how the world works (and you already know that). Here’s an example: industry trends and analytics on engagement indicate that more and more online traffic is mobile, which means addressing usability issues on mobile is critical for businesses. Obviously. So, what do online businesses do? They make sure their sites are optimized for mobile traffic. They do not simply ignore mobile traffic and force users to bumble through a full blown desktop site on their devices by pinching, zooming, and scrolling.
It’s the same deal with video content. Wyzowl released their 2017 statistics on video marketing, and their findings are scary for companies not using video:
63% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool.
84% of consumers have been convinced to make a purchase after watching a brand’s video.
79% of consumers would rather watch a video to learn about a product, than read text on a page.
Real-talk question: In 2018, do you want your brand to be a part of the ~40% (and shrinking) number of brands NOT using video?
No. No, you do not.
How do we get over it?
The answer is easy: start creating. You absolutely cannot compare your beginning to someone else’s “middle” or “end” results. Your videos will likely feel like complete garbage when you first start out, and that’s okay. The more you create, the more comfortable you’ll get. The more you create, the more tricks you’ll discover for pre-video prep. The more you create, the closer you’ll get to your ideal “end” results.
If you’re just starting out, keep the stakes low. Create a little stash of content, and just keep it to yourself until you get into a rhythm and feel good about what you're creating. Once you feel a bit more comfortable, start posting it to limited audiences to get acquainted with how it feels to have your content out in the world. Rinse and repeat.
And just for fun, here’s how easy it is to start creating video without thinking too much about it (as practice):
