Are you ready to make the leap into video marketing but aren't sure exactly where to start? On this episode of Straight Talk About Small Business Success, join us as Atiba Souza - a digital marketing expert and entrepreneur who has been in the game since 1996 - shares his knowledge on how to successfully create dynamic and engaging videos that will get your business noticed. With insight on how to optimize video content for organic search engine results through SEO and tips on how to craft videos that will really connect with your intended audience, Atiba is set to revolutionize your video marketing strategy. Tune in to get all your questions answered on organic video marketing and stay one step ahead of the competition!
[00:01 - 11:24] Unlocking the Power of Organic Video Marketing
• Atiba Souza on getting started in the “search game” from way back in 1996
• Being at the top of Google search is the target; utilize video marketing
• Create videos that answer customer questions and optimize them
• Positioning of your video is more important than the number of views
[11:25 - 22:54] How to Position Your Videos for Maximum Results
• Know your ideal customer and their questions before creating a content strategy
• Atiba introduces a step-by-step approach to publishing organic video content
• Authenticity is key - people want to connect with real thought leaders in their industry
[22:55 - 25:52] Uncover the Secrets to YouTube Success
• Google loves consistency, so post videos as often as possible
• Commit to producing content with a consistent schedule
• Reach out to Atiba Souza!
Connect with Atiba through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/atibadesouza.
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Tweetable Quotes
“Organic video marketing is centered around the concept of you understanding exactly what questions are that your customer is asking, and then creating videos that answer them.” - Atiba Souza
“We want authenticity as human beings. We're coming out of an age of fake news, overproducing things… Recreate that friendly vibe to let people know that you're real, to let people know that you're authentic.” - Atiba Souza
[00:00:00] Your customer is asking questions. Your customer wants to know that you are the person who can provide their solution. And so organic video marketing, my friends, is centered around the concept of you understanding exactly what those questions are and then creating videos that answer them.
[00:00:23] Intro
[00:00:54] Hello there, Salim Omar here from the straight of my Small Business Success podcast, bringing you another amazing guest. His name is Atiba Souza. Welcome. Thank you, Salim. I'm so glad to be here and we had some technology issues in the past. I'm glad we got those worked out. We got this done. So good here with you, buddy.
[00:01:16] So glad to, to have you so. [00:01:20] The content game is intense with third party data restrictions, new privacy laws, and growing competition. So what's the answer to generating more leads? Nothing less than fresh or original and engaging content, but, Who's got time to create content, much less launch it across every platform in the appropriate, uh, format.
[00:01:43] Atiba Souza is an expert on the topic of creating content. And Atiba, how did you get started? And yeah, give us a little bit about yourself, a little back story on you. Sure, sure. Salim. Would love to, and, and again, thanks for having me. And you know, my story goes all the way back to 1996. When myself and two friends sat in my mother's basement with a problem, the web was young, we had started a computer consulting firm cause that's what they were called back then.
[00:02:13] And. We were doing research on the web and finding information, and we had all of these websites that we found and we didn't know what to do with them because we needed to return to them. We didn't wanna lose the links and bookmarks like, bookmarks today suck. They were worse in 1996, right? And so we wrote our very own search engine, the [00:02:40] three of us sitting there in my mother's basement in 1996.
[00:02:44] And that started me in the search game. And I've been in search ever since. And so from 96 to about 2005, we were on the inside of search of building search engines and understanding search technology and understanding content, right? Of figuring out, someone's asking for this, how does the computer figure out what they want?
[00:03:05] And then find what they're looking for and return it to them. And so we were doing that from the inside for a long time until I eventually left and went and started actually working with business owners like you listening to us right now, who were trying to figure out how. Do I help my ideal customers find me in this thing called Google?
[00:03:33] Cause in 2005, there still was a thing called Google, right? Mm-hmm. And we've done that for the last 18 years, almost now. Got it. Yeah. So what you're gonna share with us, does it apply to. Certain types of businesses, certain industries, certain sizes. Kind of give us a little bit of context there. Who's this relevant to search engine marketing, getting to rank high so people [00:04:00] find you and, and that, so it, it's a great question and it's a great question because so many people, And especially some of the people listening to this may be feeling like, number one, I don't have time for this, or number two, this is only for people who have a lot of money to spend to get to the top of Google search.
[00:04:23] However, I guarantee all of you want to be at the top of Google search because you know your customers, your ideal customers are searching and they're not finding you. So this applies to everybody and you know, the things that for over 10 years we specialized in was helping the small guy compete with the really big company.
[00:04:48] So mm-hmm. Helping those who were making 500,000 to 2 million compete with people who are making 30 million in their industry. Yes. And helping them figure out how they can get to the top of Google search. Got it. Yeah. So when it comes to search engine optimization, there are different tracks. Video marketing is one of them.
[00:05:13] Why is video marketing so important? Yeah, so let me say video [00:05:20] marketing is so important right now. Okay. And in 2005 when, when I made the switch and, and went into the private sector working with small businesses, video marketing didn't exist in that sense. Mm-hmm. As it does today. And so we spent a lot of time doing written marketing for 10, 12 years.
[00:05:38] Okay. Actually, more than that, but it was. Up until 2019. Uh, got it. And, and written marketing, meaning creating articles, blog posts. Yes. Yes. Okay. All that traditional content that we know, but the world has shifted and the world has shifted because Celine, number one, it was happening anyway. Okay. We've been seeing this shift come since 2017.
[00:06:05] And we knew that it would be here in the mid 2020s. Then we had this major thing that happened in the world in 2020. We all know what that is. Hmm. And when that happened, and we all ended up at home for so long, we all ended up with a choice. And that choice was we were gonna consume content, were we gonna read it or we mm-hmm.
[00:06:32] Were we gonna watch it? And to a human around the globe. [00:06:40] We chose to watch. We chose to watch. And so that sped up the video revolution that sped up the need for video marketing. So coming out of the Global Pandemic in this post pandemic era, now that we're in, we just witnessed people get conditioned to love video in the pandemic.
[00:07:08] And coming, they're saying we want more. Hmm. Got it. Now, for the person viewing this, they hear video marketing. Yeah. And they hear videos. What does that mean? Are they a business owner creating videos and putting out, putting it out there and where are they putting it? Yeah, it's a great question because it's a question that elicits a lot of anxiety and if you're listening to SLI and I right now and you're still with us, thank you.
[00:07:40] Okay. You didn't turn this off as soon as you heard video. I'm too scared to listen to this. It probably has elicited some anxiety for you. And I get that. I completely, completely get that. And I hope by the end of this show today that we've alleviated some of that an [00:08:00] anxiety for you and, and what we're talking about.
[00:08:02] So specifically we're talking about organic video marketing. Organic video marketing, and in the realm of organic video marketing, what we're attempting to do is help your customers who are on a journey. Every single customer is on a journey to buying your product from the time they realize they have a problem, to them becoming aware you of you and engaging, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:08:28] In that span of time, of that journey, your customer is asking questions. Your customer is looking for information. Your customer wants to know that you are the person who can provide their solution. And so organic video marketing, my friends, is centered around. The concept of you understanding exactly what those questions are that your customer is asking, and then creating videos that answer them.
[00:09:04] Then we take those videos, we put them on YouTube, we master SEOs, search engine optimization to help those videos rank. At the top of page one of [00:09:20] Google. So now when your customer is searching and looking for answers to questions, they find your video. So if your competition has an article and you have a video based on what they just experienced coming out of the pandemic of wanting to watch more videos, which one are they going to choose?
[00:09:41] Of course, they're gonna choose your video. Yeah. Yeah. And the way that. The search engines decide on who they're gonna rank higher mm-hmm. Is based on the videos that get the most eyeballs, that get the most attention. Actually, it isn't, it isn't, actually. I'm glad I asked you that for us.
[00:10:03] Yeah. That's one of the really fun parts of video marketing, organic video marketing right now. Okay, is it's about the positioning of your video, not the number of eyeballs per se. Okay. And let me give you an example. , we have a client, Matthew, who he took our advice, which will cover in just a little while too, on how to create these videos and put them on YouTube, and went through my checklist and Matthew has gotten it now where he posts a video and three hours later, He's on page one of Google.[00:10:40]
[00:10:41] Mm. That video doesn't have a ton of views. Mm-hmm. And now I, I, I know what you're gonna say. Yeah. But Matthew's probably some big time star, and so his channel must be fantastic. And that's why Google would've put him there. Guess what? Matthew doesn't even have a hundred followers yet on, on YouTube. Mm.
[00:11:01] He's got a tiny little channel. He gets his videos on page one of Google, so it isn't about the views, it's about the positioning of the video, which I will teach you. We'll cover that today. As I said, I want you to alleviate yourself of the anxiety behind creating video, and I wanna help you do that today.
[00:11:25] Awesome. Great. So I guess one of the anxieties people are getting, uh, with video marketing is, what, what am I gonna say? I mean, I, I am, I am this, I own a restaurant, or I am a professional service provider. You know, I do what I do. What can I say that's going to be useful and people are gonna watch, watch my video.
[00:11:50] Yeah. And, and that's. That is where people start with anxiety. And so I'm glad that you brought that up, so, so we can really dive in and talk about [00:12:00] that. Okay. And what we're really talking about there is content strategy, but I need you to understand something before we talk about content strategy.
[00:12:07] Right? Before we talk about placement in seo, we have to talk about something really fundamental and that's your audience. Here is the key, my friend. You have to know who your ideal customer is, and I pray that you've already done that work and you already have that understanding of who your ideal customer is.
[00:12:28] Because if you do, if you do, then you also have an understanding of the questions that they ask you before they become your customer. Mm-hmm. If you haven't. Take a moment right now. Close your eyes, pause this recording and even think about what are questions that people have asked me. What are questions people have asked me?
[00:12:53] Now, here's what you're gonna do. I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you the whole thing right now. Hope you all are ready for this. All right, Salima, I'm deep dive right now. Okay? You're gonna take those questions that people have asked you, all right? Write them down on a piece of paper.
[00:13:11] You know the answers to them because you've already answered them before. You're just gonna write them down on a piece of paper, right? That's the start of your content strategy. Then [00:13:20] you're gonna take out this little device that I guarantee that you have one of these, okay? I guarantee you have one of these.
[00:13:27] This phone, they're always attached to us. Yes, you're going to take your phone and on your phone there is an app, I guarantee you have this app, it's called the camera app. Mm-hmm. And in the camera app, you can switch to video mode, and when you switch the video mode, it gives you a red button. You're gonna press that red button pointed in front of your face, and you're gonna answer the question that someone asked you.
[00:13:56] Hmm. That's it. Just like if there was something in front of you, just like you were talking to a real person and they asked you the question, you're just going to answer the question that they asked you. Mm-hmm. When you're done answering the question, you're gonna stop the recording. That's very important.
[00:14:16] Okay. And then you're gonna do the next thing, and, and I want you to, to hear me on this. You're going to immediately, You're going to go to the app, call YouTube on your phone, guarantee you have that app as well. When you open the app, call YouTube on your phone. At the, in the bottom middle of that [00:14:40] app, of the YouTube app, there is a circle with a plus sign.
[00:14:44] Mm-hmm. You're gonna click on that circle with a plus sign and it's gonna give an option that says, upload video. You're gonna click that option. It's gonna show you the video you just recorded. You're going to upload the video and it's gonna ask you for the title. The title, my friend, is going to be the exact question that you answered.
[00:15:06] Mm-hmm. That's all it takes. Wow,
[00:15:13] you've really simplified with, for us, you've really made it like, yeah, I can, I can do this. Right. You can do this. so timma that video, let's say the question, it was, a question and the answer is, let's say two minutes or so. So that's a short video and is that okay?
[00:15:30] Absolutely. Okay. Mm-hmm. Right. You know, people get hung up on, oh, how long does my video need to be? And the answer is very simple. It needs to be long enough to answer the question and not a second longer. Hmm. Got it. You're really giving value, so you're just making it, you know, it's really very honed into the questionnaire at hand that was asked.
[00:15:53] Yep. Yeah. And so this is not a professional production by any means. They are using their [00:16:00] phone. Right? Yes. And is it okay? It's absolutely okay. And here's why. Here's why we want authenticity. As human beings, we're coming out of an age of fake news. We're coming out of an age of. You know, people trying to, overproduce things and, and who don't know anything.
[00:16:23] Trying to sell stuff on the internet. With ads, we're coming out as, and people are skeptical. Think about yourself. You are skeptical. Yeah. However, if your friend gives you a referral and says, Hey, I use this guy, he was really great. Hmm. You're more likely to trust that. Right. And so what you're trying to do is recreate that friendly vibe to let people know that you're real, to let people know that you're authentic.
[00:16:50] Mm. People aren't looking for you to be a newscast. If they were looking for news, they would go to Channel Nine or Fox, right? They'll be on cbs. They're not. They want to connect with you, especially my friends in the B2B world, and, and I know this seems so counterintuitive to history, but in the B2B world, people are looking for more connection with real people who are thought leaders [00:17:20] in their industry to do business with.
[00:17:25] Hmm. They want to know that you're super smart. They want to know that you know your stuff, but they also want to know you're human just like that. Hmm hmm. So, aima te tell us now, how should that video be placed? You know, taking the example of Matthew that you shared earlier with us, the placement of that video.
[00:17:43] , what does that mean? You upload the, the video onto YouTube? How are, how are we placing it for optimum results? Okay, great. So this is the next side now, and this is the side. I'm gonna take some notes on. You ready? Okay, ready. Let's take some notes here. So, number one, I already started the process with you and told you when you upload the video, the title of your video is going to be your question that you're answering.
[00:18:14] Okay. Very, very important. Now, you're gonna put that title, you can't put your brand name on the end or your name on the end, or the channel name on the end. That's fine. But the first thing in the title needs to be the exact question exactly the way someone would've asked it, not the way you interpret it.
[00:18:36] Not the way you wish they would've said it. Not what you think they [00:18:40] said, but exactly what they said in their words. Even if it's broken English. Mm-hmm. Exactly the way they said it. Then you're gonna write a description. YouTube allows you to write a description for every single video. All right. Now in your description, within the first two sentences of your description, You are going to repeat the question.
[00:19:08] You're gonna repeat the question in the first two sentences. Then in the rest of your description, you're gonna summarize your video. What the heck did you talk about in this video? Did you have five points? List the five points. Let me dispel something really, really quick and take a quick aside. Okay. I'm taking a pause.
[00:19:29] There are a lot of people out there who give you bad advice, and here's the bad advice that they're gonna give you. They're gonna tell you when you write a YouTube description, write the description to entice someone to watch the video. Think about yourself for a moment. When was the last time you read a YouTube description before you watched the video?
[00:19:46] It doesn't happen. No one does that, so it's bad advice. Mm. Write the description. To summarize, to rephrase, to add even more context [00:20:00] to what you talked about in the video. That helps Google understand how to rank your video and what your video is about. So that's the second thing. The third thing, you must, you absolutely must transcribe your video and upload.
[00:20:21] What's called the S R T, which is the transcription file to YouTube now. Hmm. A lot of people ask me this and they say, oh, better T but YouTube allows us to auto transcribe. All I gotta do is press the button. Can I just click the button And let it auto transcribe? Yeah. You can't. However, YouTube's only about 60%.
[00:20:42] Correct. And you don't get to choose which words they were correct on. So imagine if all the important stuff that you wanted to say was in the 40% that it messed up. Mm-hmm. You just screwed yourself. Mm-hmm. Okay. There are great tools out there like Descript, which is the one that we use that's super dirt cheap that will transcribe your videos.
[00:21:10] I mean, literally, it will transcribe your video in seconds for you. Mm. Okay, you can spend less than 10 minutes and have a perfectly transcribed [00:21:20] video. You upload that s r t file to YouTube. Why? Because Google search will find that s r t file and it will read it. It will read that s r t file, my friends.
[00:21:37] And so now Google is listening to your video and understanding what you're talking about. And that leads me to the next point, which most people miss, and this is the funniest one that most people miss. If you have a video that you're creating about answering this question, repeat the question multiple times in your video.
[00:22:04] Mm-hmm. Say it multiple times. If it's a two-minute video, say it five times. Mm-hmm. If it's a one-minute video, say it 20 times. Truthfully, if it's a 1 minute video, you probably wanna say it closer to seven or eight times and then rephrase it a bunch of times. Make up the 20 truthfully. Okay. Yeah. Repeat it because then it ends up in your transcript and then Google again.
[00:22:35] When it goes to look at how do I rank this, what is this video about? Oh, I see. Keeps saying they're talking [00:22:40] about this topic. That's what it's about. That's how you end up. Mm-hmm. That's what Matthew, that's what Matthew does to get him three hours later. Number one on Google. That's, this is so good. Wow.
[00:22:55] I'm looking at the clock time's running fast when you're having fun. Which this is, has been absolutely fun and very, insightful. Really appreciate, uh, everything you've shared with us so far. A couple of questions before we finish off. Atiba. How frequent should the video be recorded, posted? Yeah. Consistency is key.
[00:23:16] Google, since its very beginning and by extension, YouTube, since Google owns YouTube. Loves consistency. They want to know that every Monday at eight o'clock you're gonna have a new video. Mm-hmm. And so whatever you can commit to, that's what you commit to. If you can commit to once a day, then do that. If the best you can do is once a week, then do that.
[00:23:41] If the best you can do is once a month, then do that, but be consistent. Yeah. Yeah. And I know, I mean, when it comes to things like this, accountability plays a big part in it. Having somebody like yourself that makes people accountable, that's probably one of the [00:24:00] many benefits , that you provide offer.
[00:24:03] What's the best way for folks to reach out to you? Yeah. Well, thanks for asking and honestly, I know that you just listened to us. And in listening to us right now, you probably have some more questions. I hope that I took care of some of your anxiety, but now that anxiety is gonna be replaced by the next set of questions, right?
[00:24:25] And I want to help you answer those questions because I, you need to create the video. Period, period. It is the future of your industry, the future of marketing in your industry. And I wanna help you answer the question so that you can start doing that. So the best way to reach me is actually to go to LinkedIn.
[00:24:43] Go to LinkedIn. , and the best way to get to my LinkedIn is meet aba.com. That's meet A T I B A, my first name, atiba.com. That will take you directly to my LinkedIn. When you get there on my profile, hit the more button and choose to connect with me. Don't do follow. Connect with me and send me a note.
[00:25:07] Send me a message right there and let's start a conversation. Let's talk human to human one-on-one. Love that. That's awesome. Aat, this is amazing. Thank you so much. Enjoyed it [00:25:20] Salim. Thank you for having me and for everybody listening, thank you for your time. We really appreciate you. You take care.
[00:25:27] Thanks.
[00:25:27] Outro