Do you want to be a social media video star and improve your business? You can! Nobody likes to see and hear themselves on video at first, but with practice anyone can be their best marketing asset. The key is to know how to produce compelling and profitable videos on social media and then stick with them long enough so that you want to see and hear what you are doing.

Let’s be honest — especially in the insurance world, doing social media videos is not “instant coffee.” Results are not automatic. Insurance products are seen as a serious and important topic that do not easily lend themselves to funny reels and posts. Do not expect to do a video one day and then create a bubbling stream of great leads the next. That just doesn’t happen.

On the other hand, if you want to differentiate yourself in your marketplace and leverage social media and technology to expand your reach far beyond your usual driving limit, you can become a video all-star — an insurance influencer. Many successful advisors are using targeted social media videos to tell their lead story anywhere they are licensed and multiplying their sales results many times over. They combine social media and virtual sales technology to maximize their potential. In time this is not about incremental change but incredible change.

When you follow the 5 C’s to produce social media videos, you can build and enhance your brand in your marketplace, make your prospecting job a lot easier and attract much more new business.

These 5 C’s dig deep into what it takes to make a success of social media videos for your business. We will talk about commitment, category, content, communication style and consistency. Great videos and profitable results don’t just happen; they are the result of a planned approach that attracts the right people the right way and at the right time.

1. Commitment: What does it take to get started, to keep going and to maintain your social media presence? Suffice it to say that social media success is not for the faint of heart, and starting and stopping your effort is worse than never getting involved at all.
2. Category: What category of video will you be doing? How will you frame them? What will you be trying to accomplish in your videos? What is your lead story? It’s your leading edge of the wedge concept that opens doors to many more people than just what most prospects expect. It’s your differentiator. For whom are you producing videos? Nothing is more important to agent success than the choice of audience, and that is particularly true for videos. You must first identify your target audience. Then identify the results you are expecting. Do you want sales, leads, both or just better name recognition? Do you want to build your brand so that you become the go-to person for your expertise in your market?
3. Content: It may sound cliché, but content is king. If you don’t have the right content to tell your story convincingly for your category, then you will be spending a lot of time and money for nothing. No one wants to do that. Videos without a purpose and a call to action just sit there, and nothing happens. Every great video is built around the right concept, and that concept must fit your business and business model. After years of doing my own successful business-attracting videos and helping many advisors do the same, I know what it takes to be compelling.
4. Communication style: A video that sounds like you and looks like you is much more effective than one that is produced for you and looks and sounds like someone else. You must be genuine and authentic to be believed. You may be tempted to have someone else write them for you but be sure they are in your voice. Everyone has a style, and to be compelling, videos need to be in your words and with your style — your voice. It’s not good or bad; it’s just natural, and natural sells. You must also look the part, and what that means differs depending on your audience. What works for one audience may not necessarily work for another. But there is more to videos than your communication style. There is the significant matter of the production values of your videos. Even if you have the commitment, category, content and communication style right but you produce a video poorly, your message will be washed out. Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan coined the idea of “the medium is the message” in 1964, and even though there have been tremendous strides in technology since then, the medium, in this case the speaker, is still the message.
5. Consistency: Consistency is the hallmark of the sales professional. Nothing is more important to your ultimate success in selling than consistency. So how often do you have to produce your videos? When should you produce them? Can they be a casual thing that you do when you feel like it? Can you stop and start doing videos?

Finally, social media videos can help you attract new business and build your brand, but there is an even greater value in sales. It’s who you become as a sales professional when you become great at them. If you can do video, you can really do sales.

You can be your best marketing asset when you are a social media video all-star!