It was a real pleasure to catch up with Atiba de Souza, an organic video marketing expert who’s the CEO and Founder of Client Attraction Pros, a video marketing agency based in Rockville, Maryland. As his website explains, his agency “specializes in helping busy expert entrepreneurs get more of the right kind of videos out in the world so they can book more speaking engagements, become a recognized authority, and spend less time chasing clients.”
Like myself, Atiba has a lengthy background in SEO and his success in getting favorable organic rankings for clients deeply informs his video marketing strategy today. Key to this approach is creating video content that precisely answers questions posed by the audience that one’s marketing efforts are targeting.
As Atiba notes, “it’s not about what you think is cool and what you want to say. It’s about what the audience is asking.” In other words, one needs to align one’s content — whether it’s short form or long form — with Google’s core purpose to favorably rank the best, most consumer-centric content in order to provide the best user experience.
Atiba and I discuss the virtues of creating short-form “snackable” content, which today dominates video-centric platforms such as TikTok and has an increasingly influential presence on YouTube. We address the key role of “the hook” (that all-important introductory segment of any video which sets forth its theme and, therefore, user expectations as to what’s ahead) and explore the potential for customer testimonials and partner-created content. As Atiba observes, “partnerships are the easiest way to grow your business.”
Creating compelling video content for “boring” industries is a constant challenge for B2B marketers, and Atiba provides some great insights and excellent examples as to how this can be achieved.
We discuss the importance of focusing video marketing efforts on building relationships with customers rather than just pursuing it from a brand perspective, chat about best practices for repurposing, or “splintering” long-form content, and brainstorm ideas for future-proofing video marketing strategies against AI (which may profoundly change the way that video search results are presented), including the use of digital PR and syndicated content.
If your video marketing efforts need a boost, you’ll get a lot out of this interview — I know that I did!
