You know it’s important to use video in your marketing campaigns to increase engagement and conversions, however, marketing with video can be intimidating at first. So where do you begin? We reached out to some of the top video marketing experts and asked them to share their #1 tip to help businesses get started with video marketing. Read below to see what they had to say.

The Story Is the First Building Block

“Get started with the story, then get in front of the camera!”

Rob Ciampa, is a YouTube-certified, award-winning innovative CMO & entrepreneur @Pixability

“Tell a story! Today’s tech makes it easy for anyone to create quality videos – but it won’t matter without a great story to tell.”

Brendan Cournoyer, is the Director of Content Marketing w/ Brainshark. He tweets about content strategy, sales enablement, inbound, and SEO.

“Story drives form. If you’re thinking video before thinking the story you want to tell? You’ve already failed.”

Kevin Dugan is a veteran marketer bringing creativity and strategy to award-winning marketing communications, social media and public relations.

“Para mi, es crear una buena historia breve y con un mensaje que se entienda: que se pueda explicar.”
“For me, its to create a good brief story with an easily understandable message.”Mariano Espel works at solomarketing.es

Be Consistent

“Please don’t think you can use YouTube like Dropbox and just upload any old content. You need to be active!”

Carla Marshall, is the Managing Editor @ReelSEO

“Consistency. People will start to expect it at a certain day/time.”

Jackie Pearce is a copywriter and marketer.

Get Your Hands Dirty

“Honestly? Just start doing it. I know that sounds simple, but you’ll learn the most and the fastest that way.”

Tim Schmoyer is an entrepreneur and certified YouTube consultant. He helps digital creators spread messages that change lives.

“Just do it! So many are “planning” to do it in the (insert season here), but keep postponing. There’s no need to wait. Try it out!”

Josh Rimer produces and hosts The Sassy Scoop which can be found on his YouTube channel.

“It’s counterintuitive but my advice is just – start now. Don’t wait till you’ve “figured it out” cause it will change – just start.”

Mark Robertson is the founder of ReelSEO (reelseo.com/ ). He is a video marketing & SEO expert.

“Create short video and experiment with uploading straight to Facebook and Instagram.”

Donna Moritz is a social media strategist and visual marketing specialist. Her blog, Socially Sorted won Best Australian Business Blog 2014 | Visual Social Media & Content Strategy.

“Don’t try to be perfect, just hit record and start figuring it out. Action is key.”

Marcus Sheridan is passionate about writing, consulting, and speaking on all things inbound & content marketing, business, & life.

Simplify It

“Create videos to explain their company’s value proposition before trying to have a viral video success.”

Colin Christianson is the founder of TenaciousEvents Online Marketing w/ Digital Media Production. He is avid with live video streaming, social media strategy & analytics love technology, film & fashion.

“Keep it simple: do one video to start, get your feet wet and don’t be intimidated.”

Dan Rayburn is the EVP for StreamingMedia.com, Principal Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, and recognized by many as the voice for the streaming & online video industry.

“My number one tip would be to take a minute and sit down and figure out all the topics that you want to make videos about pertaining to your niche. Then start to make the videos with a purpose instead of just turning on the camera and shooting.”

Bryan Burrell is a marketing consultant, blogger, and entrepreneur who loves to play basketball.

“Be clear about who you’re speaking to and what they’re interested in – there’s so much white noise that adding to this is a waste of your time and resources. I’ve seen the ugliest videos get results, and the prettiest ones do nothing for a business. Why? Lack of clarity.

Ideally, you’re reaching an audience that is not only interested in your product or service but doesn’t even know that they are.

The best marketing no matter what the medium – video, social media, etc. – speaks to a problem that someone doesn’t want or to a need that nothing else seems to meet. As someone said you can try to outspend or out-educate. Which one is more effective and efficient?”

John Chang is currently working on helping local businesses with their online marketing, author of Amazon best seller: Local Business Alchemy: How to Transform Your Business with Online Marketing; published 1st Kindle ebook in 2012 – Field Rep 101 – Starting a Profitable Field Inspection Home Based Business and recently launched new blog Tango Vagabond.

“Like a mini skirt, make it long enough to cover the subject in an informative or educational way and short enough to keep the audience’s interest.”

Darren Woolly is a marketer, adman, pitch doctor, head honcho at trinityp3 and developer of evaluating.

“Outside of optimizing the message, sound quality is a must! Invest in great mics.”

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog and the CMO of CircuPress and CEO of DK New Media, an agency specializing in assisting marketing technology companies.