We were super excited to put the spotlight on Rob Balasabas – the latest marketing badass to take a seat and have a chinwag with our CEO, Kate.
Rob’s a video maverick and expert social media marketer for Thinkific, an ace all-in-one platform to create, market & sell online courses.
He started off very much behind the camera, playing around with a camcorder at college, then taking and making cute videos of his family. Before long he recognised the mahoosive potential in video marketing and started using it for professional gainz.
Here we talk about why Rob thinks video content is having its moment, how to get better at doing video and a few tips for successful vid marketing.
Watch this and other Lately Live vids here.
“As humans, we gravitate towards video” and Rob believes we’re possibly drawn more to it than text and audio. They can be more authentic and build that direct connection – they’re the closest thing to looking your audience in the eye.
It’s an exciting format, it’s hot and platforms are making it easier than ever to create good videos. The big platforms have pivoted and their algorithms are helping video content get seen.
There’s also loads of cool in-built tools on platforms to help create, spruce up and deliver stellar quality marketing vids.
Rob’s thing is educational videos so that’s what he sticks to, it’s what he feels most at home. Deciding what you’re best at i.e educational/entertaining is key.
Videos catch more attention too. Rob stresses that you have to try and stop an audience scrolling past your vid. Lots of people might not even be watching vids with sound, so captions are great with video. And not everyone consumes video, people like to read blogs on their way home from work. Start with a long-form Youtube video, transcribe it and then use that as a blog post – there are lots of ways to use video content and repurpose it.
Rob is a believer in the mantra of ‘put the wow on social’ but the ‘how inside the course’. On Youtube, show cool features and effects etc, to draw an audience in but show how to do it by leading them to a resource or course. More theatrics on social, but inside course instructional, step by step
For Rob, video content is a continuous learning curve. When he thinks back to early videos, he knows that there’s loads of stuff that he’d do better now.
Making your space comfortable for you and feeling good on camera is a big plus. Even if you’re doing a livestream at home – “act like you’re going to work, be professional with a good set-up”.
Another thing that jumped out was Rob’s idea that it’s easy to look at a content creator/influencer you admire and think their videos have always been slick and exciting. But he guarantees that if you go back to the beginning and take a look at early video content, you’ll find that they’re simply not the same level of quality.
And a good plan to follow: always work on how you can improve your video content.
A great tip that came out was creating your own fake test-Instagram/Facebook account and then uploading and looking at the content you post objectively. This lets you experiment, take a look at things objectively, learn how to communicate and see how you come across on video.
People can get intimidated by video as well and think they need amazing mics – Rob says, not really, you can use your phone for speech and a laptop for webcam. Buy a simple headset cos an expensive mic doesn’t give you a massive difference in quality, it’s something you can look at further down the line.
And what does Rob think’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make when starting out? Not understanding your audience. Think about how your messages come across to different crowds, so you don’t create a disconnect. Put lots of effort into learning about guests and brands you’re interviewing or going live with.
