Whether you're new to video or refining your strategy, Samantha Russell shares how to turn viewers into engaged prospects.

To learn more or to have Samantha speak at your next event, visit fmgsuite.com.

Samantha Russell is not affiliated with Hartford Funds.

Hi I’m John.

And I’m Julie.

We’re the hosts of the Hartford Fund’s human-centric investing podcast.

Every other week we’re talking with inspiring thought leaders to hear their best ideas for how you can transform your relationships with your clients.

Let’s go!

Welcome to the Human Centric Investing podcast, Samantha. We’re so happy to be here with you today. Thank you so much for having me.

It’s such a pleasure to be here.

Samantha I’m going to take a trip back in time to the good old days where I remember some of my mentors telling me how important it was to be there even when you couldn’t be there physically we called it top of mind marketing and today’s podcast episode we really want to talk about video marketing because for many of the financial professionals that we work with video is kind of a new medium but you seem to say you think it’s pretty essential. To a marketing presence now explain a little bit about why you think video marketing is so impactful.

So just from a statistics standpoint, we are spending more time watching video than almost ever before. And so much of that is happening right on our cell phones, in our social media feeds, whether that is on LinkedIn or Instagram, or even we want to search how to do something. So we go to YouTube and we watch somebody there. Podcasts now, we all love to listen podcasts like this one, we are finding that people are listening slash watching podcasts even more than they’re just listening to them. And I think a lot of it comes down to our preference for wanting real human interaction with the businesses that we’re doing business with as well as other humans. It’s sort of funny the more digital we’ve become, the more we crave that human element. And I think actually AI is going to push us in that direction. More and more that we’re going to want to see people hear their voice, see their face. And it really, really, especially in our industry where we’re trying to build trust, video is such a great way to do that.

That’s so interesting. If a financial professional has video marketing as an approved option for them, where should they start? Because I know that John and I have conversations every day with financial professionals and their teams. And it feels like they want to do it. But they just haven’t dipped their toe in and it feels overwhelming, right? When you’re trying to balance this with all the other competing priorities of the day. So in your opinion, where What are they? Step third.

I used to say, start by making a video, one video that you can put on your website. I don’t give that advice anymore because what I found is that people that make this perfect video that’s a higher production value that’s gonna live on your web site for a long time and you have to get, it’s gonna be more scripted because you wanna get all the right talking points in in just a short period of time. People go through that process and they say, I’m never doing that again. So instead now my advice is to come up with three questions. That you are asked all of the time by either the client you already work with or the prospects, you know, in those prospect meetings and answer each one of them in a short video. So how would you answer it? What are the key takeaways? And then try taking that video. You can use a software like Veed, V-E-E D. If you want to do it on your desktop, or you can just use something like CapCut on your phone. These are really easy to do. Or of course you could hire someone. But make a few edits, just add captions, put the intro slide of what it is, the question you’re answering, and then share it to LinkedIn. Start with that. Just three questions that get asked all the time, and each one be like a short 60 second to two minute video. I think that that is a lot less overwhelming than having a camera crew and this higher production value that you feel like. Is going to be around forever. And that’s the thing with video, the more we do it, the more comfortable we’re going to get.

That’s great. And it’s funny, Samantha, like, when I think about and I’m sure you’re in the same boat as is Julie, when you go out to present, and maybe you’re presenting on new content, you make an outline and you try to envision how your talk is going to go and, you know, you try to memorize all the bullet points that you wrote down and before you realize it, you’re up on the stage. You present you come down and you go that was awful i forgot to say that and what i always teach my team members is they’ll never remember what you forgot to stay so i think what i heard you saying is, get across what you think is most important in the way you think it’s like you’re talking to someone across the room and just be authentic and be yourself but i think a key to this. Is, because I’m sure you’ve done this too, you go to record a video segment, you record the same five seconds like 13 times, because it just doesn’t feel right. What do you think the keys are to kind of mastering the beginning of that video content?

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, trying to get past that mental block of not saying, um, or not pausing or not tripping over your word, that makes you more real. I mean, why do we watch? Why do people get sucked into watching YouTube shorts or TikTok or Facebook? You know, they keep showing the videos. It is not a perfectly polished video. Actually, the more polished and on brand it is, the more we’re likely to swipe off of it. We want to see. Somebody coming into the frame and then start talking or somebody laughing because they tripped up over their words and then continuing on. The more authentic it is, the more relatable it will be. And for whatever reason in our industry, we cannot get past that. We still think we need to be perfect in order for people to want to invest their money with us, to trust us. And that is just not the case. So I think allowing yourself to make mistakes, to be human. And what you’re saying is the first thing. The second thing is, to your point about pretending you’re just answering the question that a friend asked you, it might just be that you use your phone, you put the phone up and you think, okay, I’m gonna picture my friend, Beth asking me this question, how would I answer it? And the more specific you are actually, the more again, relatable it will be. So you could even start your video by saying something, you know, I have a client who’s 45 years old, they own a business, they just asked me this question today. So you’re giving a very specific scenario and here’s what I told them, and then you answer it. And so there’s not a script as much as it is you talking out the scenario. I think that really helps people feel less overwhelmed.

How does someone build confidence in doing this? Is it just a practice makes perfect scenario or do you have other strategies that you would suggest? If they, even if they sort of envision their best friend, Beth, and they’re trying to answer it but it still is feeling scripted or stiff and they just can’t quite get into the zone of, I know this, I own this, I talk about this every day. How do I reflect that in my video recording?

Yeah, I mean, for sure, the more you do anything, the better you will get it. And I think we all in life, but especially as adults, how many things are we doing every day that we’re not good at? Not very many anymore, right? When you’re a child or you’re growing up, you do things every single day that are brand new for you. But by the time you’re established in your career, you know your job, you go home, you know the recipes you wanna try. And even if you’re trying something new, you know, the skills you need to start that recipe. If you’ve never been on camera before, and you’ve never really taken ownership in creating something like that, it’s brand new. So you shouldn’t expect that your first video is going to be a home run. In fact, expect it’s going to kind of suck. And if you do that, you will be so much more OK with it not being perfect the first time. I love this quote where it says, if you don’t look back at your first iteration of something brand new and think, man. That was pretty awful and cringe a little bit, then you waited too long to ship it. Way too long, right? So we should be getting better as time goes on, but nobody’s going to not do business with you because you weren’t an all-star on camera. That’s not, you know, also something. So... I think you you really have to be okay with the fact that this is a skill you’re going to be better get better at and you don’t have to do anything with the video. You don’t have to post that first video, right? You can record 10 videos, show them to your friends, make edits to them and never post them. So also be okay, with that that maybe you just need to get in the habit of recording, but you’re not actually using them until you comfortable.

So Samantha, as a financial professional who’s getting a start in this, how do I think about topics? And when I say topics, if I intended to do a video on the history of the stock market and everybody who’s ever invested versus breaking it down into pieces, Julie and I hear a lot that it’s smart to keep your videos to. Three minutes, three and a half minutes, four minutes max. Is that like, what’s the current thinking on what should I be mapping out? Do I need to ask a question that could be answered in three or four minutes?

Yeah, I love this question. So I think of it as three different buckets. You need really short form video for any kind of social media. So we’re talking 60 seconds or less in most cases. It can get up to 90, but really less than 60 if you want it to be usable across all platforms is really the golden standard. That doesn’t give you much room to answer questions and get into the nitty gritty, right? So that’s just one use case. Then on the other complete end, we have longer form content. So a podcast, a interview style where you’re getting on camera, maybe it’s you delivering a presentation webinar style and you’re using that as one of your videos. Those are where you are going to really dive deep into a needy subject. And those lend themselves great for a YouTube upload. You could put that on your blog with a transcript of, you know, what it is that you’re talking about. And then in the middle... We have things where you’re going a little bit more in depth about one specific question. So instead of just giving the overview 60 second answer, you’re gonna go a little bit deeper. Think of it more like a TED talk on one particular topic, right? So 15 to 18 minutes and you’re going a lot deeper on one specific question. So you would use those three formats, again, in different areas. So the really short ones would be for social media. The longer ones can live on YouTube. You can share them with people via email. You can put them on your website as a blog or video blog. And then the shorter ones can be used in many different environments. Right. So you could again, use it as an email campaign, put it on a landing page, upload it to different platforms. And you don’t need to start with all three. I don’t want to overwhelm anybody. But as time goes on, those are the three that would make up a great video strategy.

You mentioned captions earlier, and I’m curious, in your opinion, is that pretty much a requirement? I can tell you that when I’m scrolling through, and I don’t usually have headphones in or earbuds, and so if there aren’t any captions, because it’s usually on silent, I just sort of go to the next one, because I, you know, there’s nothing that I can do. You don’t know what they’re saying. I’m just curious from your expert opinion about captions.

Yes, 100% you should put captions on every single video. And I can’t think of a single video editor anymore that doesn’t just have an AI tool where you hit captions and it automatically transcribes it for you. So it’s so easy to add them and it’s a non-negotiable. You need to have them in.

So when, you know, I’ve talked to some financial professional, Samantha, who, okay, they can get comfortable with recording a video, but now they get all confused in terms of the distribution of it. Do I have to go out and spend $50,000 to hire a production company who’s going to help me market it or when I’m getting started, is that enough to record a few videos and kind of test them with my current client base or maybe on my own website. What’s the progression in terms of letting people know that you have something out there to watch?

Yeah, I’d say for 99.9% of people listening, I would not recommend you go out and hire a $50,000 production crew. There are many, many things that you can do on your own. And I actually think, you know, what a lot of times prevents people from getting started is the overwhelm of there being too many things to do. So right, let’s say we go back to let’s pick three questions we wanna answer and we’re gonna record them. And we’re just going to turn that into a really simple email campaign. So we’re going to upload the video to wherever it is we want to host it. For some people, you might use Wistia. You might use YouTube, depending on what your requirements are in compliance. And then you’re just gonna get that link and you can create an email campaign where you’re saying, you know, here’s a question we’re asked all the time. Here’s some quick thoughts on it. And you can view the video here. And you’re not gonna actually embed the video in the email because that makes the video file or the email file very clunky, but you just put a little screenshot of the video so people know it’s a video. And when they go to click it, it actually opens up in Wistia or wherever you’ve hosted it. That would be a really, really simple way to start. And think about what that does too. Even if you’re just sending it to clients, if it’s question that people are getting asked all the time or maybe right now we’ve got, you know, the- the big, beautiful bill that everybody’s talking about. And maybe you’re just breaking down a question that people have asked you over and over again. That is such a great way for people to say, oh, I was just talking with my friend about this. Now, you know, my financial advisor sends me this. I’m gonna forward that email on to someone. So it really becomes these referral moments and touch points. So you could do this for centers of influence or subject matter experts that you network with. You could do it just for clients, just for prospects. But I actually think just choosing one channel or goal for your first few videos is the better way to go.

How would you respond to the question of committing to a certain timeframe or timing? So for example, these are my Friday videos every other week or every week or once a month, or are you comfortable with a strategy where it’s more periodic updates as things that I think are interesting come up, I’ll distribute this. Where do you land in sort of the timing and sequencing of distributing video marketing?

Yeah, I think just like anything else, if you want to get better at something, you got to do it regularly. And if you don’t prioritize it, it will not happen. So if you really want video to become part of your larger marketing strategy, it needs to be consistent. And it actually becomes a lot easier. I mean, we’ve all heard of habit stacking. So if, you know that every Tuesday morning, you wake up, you sit down in front of your desk, you drink your coffee, and then, you know, as soon as that coffee cup is finished, you’re going to hit record, then it just becomes part nature. When you’re getting ready that morning, you’re gonna spend a little extra time on your hair. And if you’re a woman, maybe you’re makeup, right? So you just do those things and it becomes part of your habit. But in terms of the cadence, that to me doesn’t matter. I think at a minimum once a month in order to really see improvement in how you’re able to record. And I do, like for me, I’ll batch record. So I might record three videos all at once in one morning, and then I’ve got them for. The next three weeks. I work with a lot of firms, they’ll batch record a few at once. And then if there is breaking news or something that changes that you want to throw in a recording for, you can obviously add that in.

So, Samantha, you mentioned some software packages and maybe even some hosting platform. So explain what’s important in a platform or where it’s important to host in order to get maximum exposure. Why is that a critical decision?

Yes, that’s a great question. So in terms of hosting your video, some people still don’t want to put it on YouTube and then embed. Embed means take the video from YouTube and have it show up on your website or show up in your email because when that video’s done, the nature of YouTube is there’s gonna be a panel that comes up, we’ve all seen it, where it shows you next videos you might wanna watch. You cannot control what those next videos recommended are. They are based on user behavior. So I’ve had some interesting phone calls sometimes where people will call me saying questionable videos are being, you know, recommended after. And it’s like, well, that’s actually based on your previous views. So we cannot control that. But if you don’t want that to be the case, then if you host on a platform like Wistia, when the video is over, it’s just over. There is nothing else or Vimeo. Those are two. You need to pay for those. But those I would recommend more for an email campaign or on your website. But you still do want to add your videos to YouTube for a maximum exposure. Because if you’re talking about, you know, what tech employees at certain companies in Silicon Valley need to know about their RSUs, people might be searching for that and they can land on your video. So it really isn’t an either or strategy. It’s an and.

How do you guide people to measure success, right? I would imagine, I mean, yes, there’s clicks and things like that if it’s a YouTube video, but are there other ways or avenues that financial professionals should be thinking about as they’re embarking on this process?

Yes, that’s a great question. So if you have a YouTube channel, obviously you can watch for certain metrics over time. So for instance, YouTube really pays attention to two things. How much of the video was completed? The percentage that was watched overall in completion. So that’s also why you want both long and short because of these two factors. So they’re looking at percentage completed. If it’s a 60 second video, it’s lot easier to get 90, 100% completion. Versus if you have a one hour webinar, most people don’t watch the whole thing. So that’s the first thing that they look at is just how many people are watching the whole thing or what percent. And then the second thing is the total amount of time overall your videos are watched. So if you had just 60 second videos, your total time is going to be a lot lower versus if have some of those 10 style talks or longer ones, you’re going to have a lot more total minutes viewed. Um, and so you want to have both. So those are two metrics that YouTube really pays attention to. So you would want to pay attention to them too. You can also look at total number of people who just clicked to watch it. So, um, on a platform like YouTube with your thumbnails, that is going to really, um impact how many people click. Just do you have good thumbnails, which we can obviously talk more about. Um, And then for any other kinds, right? So social media, just. How many total video views did you get in plays. But then for metrics that are not necessarily as measurable, I like to pay attention to if you do this consistently for a year. Do you get asked to speak anywhere you’re you know, you’re speaking eloquently about a topic and showing your expertise has maybe a local business or someone else asked you to come and speak as a journalist asked you for a quote. These are the types of things that really start to happen for the firms we work with who incorporate video marketing, but it doesn’t happen overnight you do got to give it some time.

Samantha, as we’re recording these initial videos, how important is titling or description in terms of being found? Like you mentioned, how important it is that somebody might trip across you on YouTube. Is it better to be direct about your topic or is it better to think of some kooky title that makes people go, wow, that’s pretty clever? Or doesn’t it matter at all?

It matters greatly. And the more you can think about what are the people that I’m trying to work with searching for that would lead them to this video, the better. But you don’t want to bait and switch people, right? So if you’re not actually covering something in the video, you don t want to put it in your title. But for this type of video, right, we know that advisors, financial professionals are always searching video marketing for financial professionals or video marketing, for insurance, whatever it is. So that’s what I would put in the title or, you know, video marketing 101, what you need to know as a financial professional to get started. Those kinds of titles work really, really well. If it’s something, if you’re talking about something like a bill, a piece of legislation, it’s great to include that very specifically in the titles, those trending topics. Um, if you ever, you know, have anything where people are comparing two things using the verse is always really good, you know, um, so, you know, should I take social security before this age or after this age? Or, um should I get this type of insurance or this type of insurance, right? Verse. Um, those re those types of things also perform really really well.

What’s the one piece of advice you would give to a financial professional that, where maybe this type of marketing has been what I like to call a cut and paste on their business plan. So year after year, they don’t really make any progress. So they just cut the next year. What, what’s the, one piece of advice she would give them if they’re listening.

I think this applies to all things in life, not just video, but the time is gonna pass anyway, whether you do it or not. So we could be sitting here a year from now and you could have recorded 12 videos or it could be another thing that you didn’t do that you wish you do. And the only person that can make you do is you. So knowing that at the end of the year you could 12 videos and you can have exposure to so many more people because we know people watch videos more. And there’s something called the mere exposure effect. It’s a principle from psychology that tells us just by seeing someone’s face or hearing their voice, the more we see it, the more hear it, the more will report that we feel familiar with them. And then that familiarity makes us feel like we like them more. We will report that our feelings of fondness for them have increased. So who doesn’t want that from strangers that are checking them out online? I mean, it’s really a win-win. And so... Whatever you gotta do to make it happen, blocking off time in your calendar, having someone hold you accountable. Know that the time’s gonna pass anyways and sort of envision yourself 12 months from now how good you’ll feel if you’ve done it.

That’s great advice.

Well, Samantha, we have a little trick you mentioned earlier about people using video to kind of make themselves more personal to people. Well, this is the Human Centric Investing podcast. One of the things that Julie and I like to do is ask our guests questions that have nothing to do about what we just talked about, but really to help our audience get to know Samantha a little bit better. So if you’re a game, we’re going to fire some questions at you and we’re looking just for your top of your head responses and. Maybe some thoughts behind why that answer, but if you’re game, Julie, do you want to start?

Sure, what’s your go-to karaoke song?

Oh gosh, I was just in a karaoke bar with girlfriends for someone’s birthday, not that long ago. And they, we were just talking about this because I don’t do karaoke very often. I don’t have a great voice, but we, these were these two girls that went up on stage and I was like, that is such a good karaoke song. Okay, wait, let me think of what it was. Oh gosh. I have it on my phone, but you probably don’t want to have to edit this part out. It brings to mind. Okay. I know how that is, where it’s on the tip of your tongue. It’s going to drive me crazy because I literally just, just had this. Um, hold on. You guys are going to get so mad.

We want the real answer, so we’re willing to wait.

Yes, we are. Yes. For this first email. It was so, oh, total eclipse of the heart. Oh, sorry.

There you go.

So good, right? Like you just get so into it. Okay. Anyways, that took way too long to answer. That was not quick fire. I’m sorry.

That’s okay. Hey, while you’re looking at your phone, what’s your favorite app on your phone?

LinkedIn, I love LinkedIn.

What’s your superpower in one word?

Mom and so hard. I think I am my husband passed away 22 months ago. And yes, thank you so much. And he was amazing. And we really split everything 50 50. So I have had I feel like 100% had to become the superpower has to become like trying to do it for you know, both sides and play mom and dad role. Absolutely. They’re all thriving right now. So yeah, that would definitely.

Amazing.

What is your favorite way to unwind after a long day?

Oh, a cup of peppermint tea and a good book.

What’s your go-to comfort food to tack onto that?

Oh, mint chocolate chip ice cream. Especially Breyers, that’s my favorite.

Nice. What’s your favorite city in the United States?

Oh, okay. I mean, I guess it’s not really a city as much, but I absolutely love Siesta Key down in Florida. And I mean it’s a town, it’s the village, it’s so walkable. And the vibe is just so relaxed. I feel like you’re not in the US anymore. Walk everywhere the beach vibe. Does that count? It’s not really a city.

That counts. That’s all good. Okay. I love it too.

Well, it was so nice to get to know you a little bit better during our lightning round. And we can’t thank you enough for joining us today on the Human Centric Investing Podcast. And for our listeners that would like to know more, please feel free to visit Samantha’s website at fmgsuite.com. Thank you again for your time and expertise today.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to the Hartford Bunds human-centric investing podcast. If you’d like to tune in for more episodes, don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube.

And if you’d like to be a guest and share your best ideas for transforming client relationships, email us at guestbooking at HartfordFunds.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Talk to you soon. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the guest who is not affiliated with Hartford Funds.