When was the last time that you looked for a business online? When you found the company or person’s Facebook or LinkedIn page (or Google or Instagram), what did you look at? What did you like or dislike about their content?
I’ve been hearing from my network that sometimes video turns people off. Of course it does. Do you know why? Because people aren’t being authentic on their videos and it shows.
When making a video, business owners obsess over the lighting, what they’re wearing, how good the sound quality is – and these are all important pieces of the puzzle, but what is also vital is how authentic you are.
Now people have control, they can simply flick to the next video or piece of content, and the way algorithms are set up, they might see a competitor of yours straight after they’ve moved away from your feed. With 90% of consumers saying that video helps them make a purchase decision, you can’t afford to lose them.
What is Authenticity?
What do I mean by authentic? I don’t mean that you’re lying to your customers or not being yourself. What I mean is, the customer needs to believe that you truly want to help them.
Think about this – your (potential) customer has probably come to your page because they’re interested in buying something from you. BUT they don’t want to be sold to. Video boosts the “know, like and trust” factor so remember that you’re trying to win the customer’s trust. If you’re directly selling to them – you might come off as inauthentic. You must be helping them, providing a solution to something they need.
Being authentic means being yourself, but the best version you can be on video. This isn’t about reading from a script, or even memorizing one and delivering the lines word-perfect, as that can actually put people off.
Showing your own personality is a great thing on video. People love watching people, that’s why video marketing has exploded in the past few years. If you don’t feel confident on video (and believe me, that’s very common) there are ways to overcome this, which I cover in Module 4 of my Visibility Matters course.
HOW CAN I BE MORE AUTHENTIC ON VIDEO?
You need to get really comfortable when shooting video. By that I mean, don’t think about the technical elements when presenting to the camera. If you’re focused on something else, or distracted in any way – the viewer will notice that, and you’ll come across as inauthentic.
Think about who you’re talking to, who you really want to help. Every marketer talks about your target audience and your video marketing also needs to zero in on that. You know that your video could be watched by hundreds or even thousands of people. Forget that. Just speak as if you have one of those in front of you when you’re filming.
Remember you’re the expert. People are watching your video because they believe that you know more about something than they do – and it’s true, you do! Believe in yourself and the information you’re sharing and that authenticity will shine through.
The impression we make on video is based on so many things, but much of it is non-verbal. If you don’t sound confident about something, your viewers may subconsciously interpret this as being inauthentic. If you touch your face a lot, they may think you’re nervous. If you don’t look directly into the camera, they may wonder if you’re being shifty.
I could write about this all day, because I’ve worked with so many business owners to overcome these challenges. I hope you’ve found some helpful information here and if you’d like to discuss it further, please get in touch. We can arrange a Power Hour to help you be more authentic on video, or perhaps you’d like to sign up to Visibility Matters, the online course to take you to the next level with your videos.
Find out more about UFocus on our Instagram page, where you’ll find the ABCDEF of a script that sells and much more information specifically for small business owners using video.