Making Video Accessible for Your Club (Jason Hsiao)

Editor's Note: This post was updated for relevance and accuracy in October 2024.

Feeling like you're always one step behind in your marketing efforts? If you're a club marketer, you’re probably nodding your head. It’s a perpetual feeling on this side of the club world, as marketing trends continue to evolve at a much faster pace than most can keep up with.

But before you feel overwhelmed by the thought of adding more hiccups to your current digital marketing plan, keep in mind that there's one thing that will always remain the same when it comes to marketing — the story behind your club. And there’s no better way to showcase your story than through video.

The ways we consume video have changed tremendously over the past decade with the explosion of sites like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok  and other digital platforms, which means the power of video as a marketing tool has grown exponentially. This is a trend this week's Crushing Club Marketing guest Jason Hsiao predicted when he started the web-based video creation service Animoto in 2006.

”We always just really believed in the power and the magic of video and that video is the most compelling and effective way to communicate what's important.” - Jason Hsiao

Animoto makes producing video very simple and easy, which may be music to the ears of club marketers tuning into this podcast who want to up their video game but lack the professional video production experience.

Use What You Already Have to Get Started

If you’re a club marketer, you’re already sitting on a lot of great content. There are so many things that tell your club’s story that require little effort. For instance, you likely already have great visuals (whether it's photos or video clips of your course, amenities, or an event), members with great individual stories, and a sense of what makes you different from other clubs.

“What I like to impress upon folks is video is not actually a whole new type of marketing. It's a way to actually amplify whatever it is that already works.”

Though professionally-produced videos are a great investment, Hsaio says you can share internally produced videos in the meantime to ensure your brand remains competitive.

Marketers often put too much pressure on video and assume they need to shoot a bunch of new content to get started, but that’s not always the case, as you'll learn from our conversation with Hsiao. For some videos, you don’t even need to worry about narration or the anxiety of going on camera. Just images and text in a video, for example, are very effective for audiences watching from a smartphone.

Social Media and Video Sharing

Most videos today are consumed on smartphones and tablets and (good news!) social media is very forgiving in terms of video production quality.

“In fact, part of the charm of social media is that people actually don't necessarily expect it to be perfect. They like that authenticity.”

When it comes to social media engagement, it’s more important to keep your audience up-to-date with frequent short, "snackable" clips than to post only one well-produced video and go dark. Generally speaking, if the video is newsworthy, interesting and timely, it can be shared as a regular form of communication on your social channels.

One of the most engaging aspects about social media is that it allows small businesses, or clubs, to share videos on the same playing field as multimillion-dollar companies. Plus, social media is where word of mouth is happening — which is a great organic form of marketing! More often, we're seeing people skip search engines altogether and head straight to social media to check out what’s happening with a club.

“You no longer have to kind of wait and hope that people discover you. You have a chance to actually take your message to where the conversation is already happening."

Along that same vein, a video is a reflection of your brand, so it’s important that the people, messaging, visuals, and other elements within your videos are well-aligned with what you want to communicate, regardless of the production quality of the video itself.

“Knowing how to communicate with video with your audience is something that is only going to grow in importance, and it's because we're seeing how people prefer to really consume a lot of their content and information.”

Get to Know Animoto

So, you've located some outstanding visuals of your club, but still are unsure how to compile them into a video that looks somewhat decent — that's where Hsiao and our friends at Animoto can help. As we mentioned, it's a platform that those with no video editing experience can use to crank out video content, alongside whatever other professional videos they are coming down the pipeline.

Animoto is an online video editing tool that uses simple drag and drop building blocks. It contains a catalog of starter templates called storyboards that users can select from, upload their content, and have a great video in a few minutes. Animoto also partners with Getty Images and licensed music sources, so you can add additional media elements without the headache of getting permission!

Want to connect with Jason Hsiao or learn more about Animoto? He created this page animoto.com/clubmarketing, specifically for our listening audience.

This Episode at Glance:

• 1:05 – The evolution of video over the past decade
• 6:10 - How to get your club started with video
• 8:19 – The basic types of videos you should have
• 10:17 - Leveraging content you already have to create new video
• 16:26 – What shots to use when you don't have video experience
• 21:45 – Social media and its role in video marketing
• 25:15 – Targeting your video audience on social media
• 27:40 – How to make sure your video speaks to all viewers
• 29:30 – How to use Animoto
• 36:00 – Finding the right music for your video