There should be a Tsunami warning blaring. I’m scrolling down my Facebook feed and every post features a video. Every. Single. One.

When I did my planning for this year, I thought, "Whoa, this video tidal wave is growing faster than most of us can imagine." I got a queasy feeling in my stomach, like the time we rode out a hurricane in La Paz, Mexico. You prepare, scramble, stock up and wait for it to hit. At least we had some notice. I think about people who live in areas where they don't always get advance warning of hurricanes, tsunamis or tidal waves.

If you are a woman in business whose success depends on connecting, engaging and influencing your online audience, this is your tsunami warning. As an aside, the basics apply to men as well, of course (hi guys!) Women simply have different mindset challenges around video, and I address some of that here.

We are going straight to el corazon  (heart) of the most valuable content out there.

Video. And lots of it.

We're going to call out why you aren't doing this, and why you should be. In part two, I'll go over how to create lots of quality video without losing either your mind or your shirt paying for production.

Gary Vaynerchuk says the future is audio, and maybe he’s right. I’m not so sure. Did I just doubt my man GaryVee? Yes I did. Blogs and podcasts are great (well, some of them are), but unlike images, a podcast isn’t worth a thousand or million words. People multitask while they listen, shredding their attention and retention. 

Regardless of what the crystal ball says, the statistics and trends are clear: the one thing 99% of entrepreneurs need to focus on, starting today, is a video strategy.

So why aren’t you?

I know why. After 15 years as an marketing consultant, producer, and creator of online marketing videos for small businesses, I know why you aren’t doing video.

And it’s not because you are too busy.

Especially women. We’ve got our own special designer baggage around being on camera, don’t we ladies? Mindset is almost always why you aren't doing video. I have a separate blog post to help you with video jitters.

On top of that, video is a bit complex, especially to do a decent job. Kind of like most things worth doing in your business. 

What do you do when confronted with complexity in your business? Run and hide under your desk? Catch up on your Insta posts because we still can't 100% automate the damn things? (#SOannoying)

Watch someone else's sappy viral videos on Facebook to restore your faith in humanity?

Well, maybe. But AFTER all that, you create a strategy and a system. You stare down your fears, grab them by the, um, tail, nail them to the calendar and get this goodness DONE.

First, some brief statistics that speak for themselves:

• By 2020, 82% of all web consumer traffic will be video. (Cisco)
• 53% of people want to see more video content from marketers.
• 60% of marketers use video for marketing, both B2B and B2C. 
  
  

I could go on about how people buy more stuff after they see a video, about how, in this era that has seen the death of organic reach, Facebook and Google both reward video content with more shares and higher search rankings. But then you would stop reading because statistics only get you so far.

Let's talk about why. Why video?

Engagement, pure and simple. People prefer watching videos to all other formats.

My experience gives me a unique perspective in this space. This is a real opportunity for women that make this perspective shift, and quickly!

Let me explain:

The question used to be - how do I get a marketing video done? As in just one, maybe two. In truth, a couple of videos is not nearly enough anymore to remain relevant, let alone lead, in your market space.

Here is the problem:

• 64% of marketers say video is the most difficult content to create.

Do you agree?

Most of my colleagues certainly do.

Once they learn about my video experience, I always get questions for advice about what kind of videos to create, how to shoot videos that look decent, what to say, and how to edit.

I have been watching this space evolve for 15 years and I know how challenging it is for entrepreneurs.
These are the typical options. Which one applies to you?

1. Avoiding video altogether because you don’t know where to start.
2. Shooting video and editing by yourself, which is incredibly stressful and a terrible solution for busy women.
3. Trying to find, hire and manage videographers, also a terrible solution for busy women.
4. Posting video directly from your phone, which has its place, but without structure or strategy, you end up with a jumble of video that quite frankly doesn’t look that great or say much. 
5. Relying on Facebook Live for all your business video.
6. Extremely expensive (5 figure) studio shoot and branding packages to have it all done for you. A great solution if you can afford it, but it does nothing to help you implement a flow of videos that today’s smart content strategy demands. And quite frankly, we wonder about the small business ROI on that level of investment for so few videos.
   
   

So what can you do?

The solution lies in creating a strategy, using a system, and taking action while you can still catch this wave.

It's not too late, and you can start today without disrupting your whole schedule. 

How? Start here with our time saving video miniseries - The 3 Biggest Video Mistakes - and How to Fix Them!   

But the videos do a beautiful job of proving a point. There we are, women who are, quite honestly, used to doing things really well, settling for imperfect video, because our priority is in serving our audience and inspiring other women to do more videos, too.  


In this case, the image quality isn't critical, especially with the best comments plucked out to create short videos, allowing the personality and integrity of my guests to really show through. 

And lastly, interviewing someone else - inviting their Voice into your video content, is a collaborative example for everyone, and that’s always a good thing. 

Any questions? I can help you with this. Let's find your video happy ending, minus the mistletoe.