You’re Doing Video Wrong... Here’s the Fix ⚠️ GUEST! Emmy-winner Tony Gnau | Ep. 390 - Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

Jay Schwedelson: We are back for do this, not that podcast presented by Marigold, and I got a buddy here, but more important than the fact, I got a buddy here who's super smart. We have for the first time ever in the history of the show, we have an Emmy Award winner on the show. What the hell is going on?

Jay Schwedelson: And so we got Tony. Now he's the founder and chief storytelling Officer at T 60 Health. But really what he is, he is the greatest person when it comes to video, everything that I know. He's a three time Emmy award-winning journalist. He's won 18. Tell awards for corporate videos. He has a number one Amazon bestselling book, lights camera.

Jay Schwedelson: Impact and all these other words. And here's the deal. The reason I asked Tony to come on is we all know that video is like the thing of the moment, but it's the thing of the future. It is the content that's going to drive all business and consumer marketing in every way, shape, or form. So we gotta dig into how to win with video easily.

Jay Schwedelson: So Tony, welcome to the show.

Tony Gnau: Thanks for having me. I mean, I am a genuine listener. I listen to this podcast all the time, so I'm, I'm thrilled to be here.

Jay Schwedelson: That's amazing. I appreciate you. Alright, before we get into how we're gonna help everybody get over this thing that they think that video is hard to do or it's a big deal or whatever, how did Tony become, Tony?

Tony Gnau: What was that? I'm sorry.

Jay Schwedelson: How did, how did you become you? How did Tony become Tony?

Tony Gnau: Oh, how did Tony become Tony? Well, I, I mean, it started off a long time ago when it comes to video because, I mean, I started making videos when I was like, in junior high school. I remember my best friend Tom got this like camcorder thing and you know, we just started making videos. So it, it goes way back then, but.

Tony Gnau: But really, I mean, like when it really started to kick in was I, I went into TV news. I wanted to be a TV news reporter when I was in college, and that was sort of my, uh, uh, career trajectory for a long time. And after about 10 years of doing that, I sort of said, you know what? I'm gonna break outta this. I wanna go do my own thing and start my own video production company and do corporate videos.

Tony Gnau: And that's kind of what I've been doing ever since. And it's, it's fun. I mean, the, the great thing is, is I just, I love telling stories. I love telling visual stories, and so that's what video gives everybody the opportunity to do. And it's a powerful thing.

Jay Schwedelson: So I'm all in on video and I saw a stat the other day that short and long form video make up 90% of all internet traffic. I mean, you're in the right business. Good job, good choice. It's crazy. Yeah. Uh, so I wanna, so before we get into how to incorporate video easily into your marketing, whether you're a big or small company and why you need to do it, I wanted dis spell a myth.

Jay Schwedelson: People sometimes think, well, we can't really do a lot of video because the setup is we don't know the right camera systems and microphones and things and that, blah, whatever. Give us the quick, uh, like ballpark. How much does it cost? How hard is it to do to set up something that is not going to embarrass your brand?

Tony Gnau: I mean, I don't know if there's any other sort of. Tactic in marketing where you could say, well, it could cost you $500, or it could cost you $500,000. I, I mean, it, it really is that broad. But I mean, for as little as a few hundred bucks, I mean, honestly, you, you pick up this thing outta your pocket or your purse, your smartphone, you have a video camera in this thing that is better than the video camera I was using, you know, five to 10 years ago.

Tony Gnau: So, I mean, the entry point to video. Is so low at at this point that anybody can do it. And you know, especially you mentioned the short form videos are so popular right now. Even big brands are doing very low cost videos. For these short form videos so you don't have to spend a ton of money on them. If you want to DIY video, it is totally fine.

Tony Gnau: I mean, even just five years ago, if you would've asked me about DIY video, I would've said, well, there's some things. The bigger the brand you are, you don't wanna do that. But I mean, even the big brands now are, are, are doing it at, at a low cost and, and doing sort of these low production value videos. So literally anybody can do it.

Tony Gnau: And you know, kind of the standard I give people is, you know, if you're doing something that is for these short form videos that are sort of top of the funnel, you're just building awareness or whatever, DIY, those, it is totally fine the closer you get to conversion. Is maybe where you want to go, more pro video, where you're hiring people to actually help you do it.

Tony Gnau: So that's, that's kind of the standard that I give everyone.

Jay Schwedelson: That makes a lot of sense. Uh, I, I, I get that because, and most of what everyone's putting out is top of the funnel. Um, alright, so what I really wanted to dig into, and I've heard you talk about this and it really hit home with me, is that what a lot of companies do, business or consumer brands is they work really hard on.

Jay Schwedelson: A video, they go, we gotta make a video. We gotta get it out there. But it's not part of their, in like their marketing, infusing all their marketing. Like when anyone does a regular marketing coming, they don't leave email to the site. Email's a part of everything that they do. And what you talk about is that that is now how you have to think about video.

Jay Schwedelson: So is that what you believe? And also how do you actually do it without losing your mind?

Tony Gnau: Well, uh, the first part's easy. The last part that's harder, but no, uh, I mean, no seriously though, I, I mean. I understand, you know, like I've been in enough meetings where video is born. You know, somebody raises their hand in that meeting and says, let's do a video, and everybody's just like, yeah, let's do a video.

Tony Gnau: But that's not really what you need to be doing with video. I mean, like, I, I'm glad to see people doing it, but it really needs to be a part of your overall marketing strategy. It's not, you know, every once in a while let's do a video. I mean, there are a lot of companies out there, especially like medium sized companies, that it's like they'll do a video a year, one video a year.

Tony Gnau: You're not gonna get any traction off of any marketing tactic that you do once a year. Now there might be a very specific reason for it. Maybe you're doing an About us video for your webpage or your, your website, or maybe you're doing a specific video for a landing page or a specific campaign or so you should be doing videos for those things, but you should be doing videos.

Tony Gnau: For everything that you're doing in marketing. If you're doing a website refresh, you should be figuring out how do we layer videos throughout this website? If you are putting together a a, a newsletter that you're gonna be doing every month, how can we incorporate video into that newsletter every single month?

Tony Gnau: If you're doing social media. How can we do video as often as possible since that is the thing on social media. So you need to be thinking video all the time. It is not just a let's do a video. Scenario anymore. It was in the past. It's not that way anymore. And people need to think of video as this tactic that they're going to be using as part of their greater strategy with everything they do in marketing.

Jay Schwedelson: And, and I, I, I could not agree with you more, and we, it, it is a North star for my company. We also look at video as multiple buckets. We look at short form video. We look, which is usually 90 seconds or less. We look at longer form, which we're calling 10 minutes, and then we look at like webinars or podcasts, which is even longer form video.

Jay Schwedelson: But the thing that we are always doing is we are very intentional about, okay, when we create this, how, how is it gonna be repurposed? Chopped up or whatever. And so how does that all work? Is that like, is that like a part of a strategy that you, like, talk to businesses about, okay, you can't just create a video.

Jay Schwedelson: What is, how are you going to, what are you gonna do with it?

Tony Gnau: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I mean, the crazy thing is, is that it can work. You know, top to bottom or bottom to top. I mean, like you just mentioned, short form videos and long form videos, and it's easy to imagine that you can go from a long form video and cut it down into shorter versions. But you can even use short form videos as inspiration for the long form videos.

Tony Gnau: Like you might do a short form video that just blows up and does great on some sort of a subject matter that you're like. Wow. I never would've even considered doing a long form video on something like that, but there's obviously a lot of interest in here. Maybe we should do something a little more in depth on that.

Tony Gnau: So it, it can work in both directions, but I mean, it's really, I. Making sure that you're thinking about it strategically and and that's really where people fall off with video because video is fun and it's exciting and that sort of thing. And it's a creative endeavor that people wanna get involved in and have a say in.

Tony Gnau: We lose track of just the whole notion that no, we need to think strategically about this as well. So I mean like you are a perfect example with the way you just described it. That you know, like we have a plan for doing short form, medium form, long form. Like just the fact that you're even discussing it means that you're like ahead of everybody else.

Tony Gnau: Like this is what everybody needs to be doing and that's the way they need to approach it. And honestly, with. AI and how we can use that to help us. Now it's just making everything easier. And I mean, I love the fact that you, you know, when you talked about long form video, you talked about webinars. I don't think like a lot of people even think about their webinars as being video content.

Tony Gnau: Because they think of it as a webinar, you know, but that webinar is in video form. That's long form video content. That's exactly what you need. And you can be breaking that down to, to, you know, make shorter form content and all sorts of different things. So it's really, it's thinking about strategically, it's having a plan going into it, and that's what's really going to help it be effective for whatever it is that you're trying to market.

Jay Schwedelson: You know, and you said something that is so true that I wish I realized sooner. I realize it now and we're doing it, which is. Sometimes I think, okay, we're gonna do this video, make a long form video, put it out there, and I think it's gonna crush it. It's a topic that I'm like, everybody's gonna be interested and it's crickets.

Jay Schwedelson: Nobody cares. Right? And then I'll do a short about whatever, and I think it's gonna be terrible. And it's like, oh my God, it takes off. And so one of the things that we've started doing is, uh, we make a zillion shorts. Pump 'em out. They're each 60 seconds. They're not hard to make. You can make, you know, 10 shorts in, like, I don't know, an hour.

Jay Schwedelson: It's easy. And then we put it all out there, whichever ones get traction, we're like, okay, let's go with the long form out of that. I love that kind of, um, that kind of maneuver. So, I, I, I'm curious about something though. Um, how everyone, if you do like thumbnails and B roll and maybe you can explain what that is to everybody.

Jay Schwedelson: Some people are like, that's gimmicky. That's cheesy. I don't wanna do that. But isn't that the game that we have to play to get people to engage with it? Or do we not need to do thumbnails and B roll and all that stuff?

Tony Gnau: You know, I, I mean, I would love to sit here and just say that if you do a great video, it's gonna take off, but the. Whole notion of that is just flawed because we have to get people to watch the video before they can understand how good the quality of the content is. And, uh, you know, it's another thing that I talk about frequently is that every video needs its own strategy for success.

Tony Gnau: It's like we want it to be a part of this greater strategy, but when you've decided. Hey, we're gonna do a video. Well, now we have to, uh, employ some sort of strategy that's going to help this video be successful because once it is, then it's going to help us with everything else. But we have to focus attention on that, on getting eyeballs to watch that video.

Tony Gnau: And if that means we're going to. Create some sort of a, a, a creative thumbnail. And you mentioned if, if somebody doesn't know what that is, that's just the image that you see, uh, the first frame of that video in the video player that entices people to click on it, to click that play button. If you need to create something that's going to entice people to click, and it's, and it's a, a fancy thumbnail or something.

Tony Gnau: Do it. Please do it. You know, we need to get them to click on that video. Um, you know, so it's just whatever it takes, you have to do it. You need to promote that video through your social channels, through every, every means you possibly can. And people just don't think about it that way. They think that, you know, it's like that video ends up being the strategy, you know, and they don't realize it needs its own strategy for success.

Jay Schwedelson: Well, two things. First off, um, if it, if you use Canva at all, just go to Canva and look up thumbnails. I mean, they have the best thumbnails on the planet. It takes three seconds and you'll have a great thumbnail, but I, I always say the, I say the phrase B roll. I don't even know if I know what I'm talking about.

Jay Schwedelson: What I am, what I'm referring to is like the, the graphics that jump up, that move around the whatever. First of all, is that B roll and second of all. Um, whenever we don't include it, it doesn't do as well. So we just try to include this garbage in our videos. Is that, do you need to be including B roll and is it, is that what it's called?

Tony Gnau: Well, uh, yeah. B roll is a generic term for, you know, it's like you have a talking head in a video or uh, a voiceover or something, and all of a sudden there's video on top of that that is sort of demonstrating or, or showing. Whatever is being talked about, uh, you know, that is B-roll and, and, and so, yes.

Tony Gnau: Now, do you need B-roll? I don't know. Sometimes I, I mean, there's no, like, I wish I could just say, yes, every single one of your videos should have B-roll in it. I mean, I've seen plenty of successful videos where it's just. Two people talking to one another or one person on camera just talking. And you know, if it's compelling and it's captivating and it's bringing value to the viewer, uh, then, you know, you don't necessarily need it.

Tony Gnau: Now from a visual standpoint. Does it, you know, elevate your video from a production standpoint? Absolutely it does. And you know, I mean, in today's world of trying to capture people's eyeballs and, you know, grab their attention and everything, B-roll is a valuable thing that you can use to do that. But ultimately, do you need it?

Tony Gnau: You know, I'd say that's subject for debate.

Jay Schwedelson: So everybody that's out there, this is not one of these, oh, video. Sure. We might incorporate that. Whatever. If you are in marketing and you don't have a level of sophistication for video. You will not be able to do marketing in the next three to five years. It's, it's going to be marketing. Video is going to be marketing, and there's nobody better to follow than Tony.

Jay Schwedelson: We're gonna put his, uh, LinkedIn. He's a great, great follow on LinkedIn and I, you, you spell Tony now TONY and it's GNAU. That's how you spell his last name. Tony. How does everybody get involved with your world? Tell 'em how to work with you. We're gonna put in the show notes. What do they do?

Tony Gnau: Sure. Absolutely. I mean, first and foremost, you can always go to tony now.com and, and check out the, the website there. Uh, I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn, so, you know, hook up with me on LinkedIn. If you're in healthcare and you wanna do video. You know, go to healthcare video specialist.com.

Tony Gnau: That's my video production company. We specialize in the healthcare industry and, uh, I think that's about it.

Jay Schwedelson: Well, Tony is a legend in this space. I mean, uh, he, he works with a lot of the biggest events, the biggest stuff, biggest whatever. You'll see him everywhere. Uh, I really appreciate you being here. I learned a lot and, uh, thanks man.

Tony Gnau: Jay, a pleasure. I really appreciate you having me on. I.

Jay Schwedelson: Awesome.

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