By Kath Walters

Mothers are some of the most efficient people you’ll meet.

They’ve got a lot of calls on their time. It wasn’t a problem with efficiency that led Jules Blundell to close down her full service marketing practice, Marketing Hands, to focus purely on video marketing; it was the need to be around for her twins, then four years old. 

“One of my kids was feeling really bad separation anxiety,” says Blundell. “I couldn’t run a full service marketing company so I chose the one thing I liked best. VideoBuzz was born, and in hindsight, that was the best decision I’ve made.”

Then able to keep her business commitments within preschool and school hours, Blundell found a way to build her business as well as be there to reassure her children.

And her choice proved prescient. Global technology company, Cisco, pulbished research predicting that by 2019 online video will make up about 80 per cent of internet traffic. That kind of data has helped VideoBuzz build business.

Why the buzz about video?

Video is just another marketing tool, Blundell admits. It just happens to be the most popular and most successful marketing tool. “Video has the strongest cut-through. But like all good marketing, it starts with a strategy and knowing who the target market is making the message as strong as possible.”

As demand grows for the services on offer at VideoBuzz, Blundell discovered an untapped resource of talented contractors: other mothers.

“I went looking on Facebook for other mums to work with me and I got the most amazing quality of applicants; women who had been top performbers in their careers but stopped to have children and their priorities change. They don’t want to lose their brains or their skills but they want flexibility. I found a wealth of talent.”

Not just video

While video is a powerful content marketing tool, Blundell also publishes two blogs, and has written a book.

“The one on website is SEO [search engine optimisation] blogging. It’s not written by me. I sit down each year and draw up all the topics and outsoure the writing. It’s keyword laden and doesn’t do much for me. It’s about drawing people to the website. Google rewards companies that update their content regularly.”

With two years of content, it’s a valuable resource, but Blundell has been disappointed by the response to it. “A month ago, I was feeling so disappointed by content marketing. I put in all this time and effort and I just wasn’t getting the leads.”

LinkedIn posts build traction

In January this year, Blundell started posting on LinkedIn.

“I wanted to start out with a bang and be a little contraversial, so I started by saying that Australian businesses will be left behind if they don’t start using video. I got some amazing results. I started getting seen and being heard and getting comments and feedback. I very much enjoy the LinkedIn blogging.”

Blundell spends some money on boosting the posts, and loves the clarity of the LinkedIn feedback.

Lead generation

Already, the LinkedIn blog has paid dividends. “One guy got in touch and said ‘I have been following your posts on LinkedIn. Let’s do business.’ I think I gave him the video bug. We have done that one for him and he wants to do more for his social media.”

Blundell says she no longer uses Facebook for lead generation. It’s more focused on business to consumer. She sticks to LinkedIn and Twitter.

The ultimate content marketing tool: a book

In February, Blundell published a book: How To Caputure More Customers With Video.

As a positioning tool, Blundell says she hasn’t seen a big impact. “But every time I meet someone, I give them my book and it makes me feel proud, that I am a ‘key person of influence’. That is what it is all about.”

Acting on a tip from legendary American marketer and blogger, Seth Godin, Blundell always give away two books in the hope that the recipient will pass on the second copy.

“The other day I sent a new client two copies of my book and she did just that; she passed it on to someone else, who read it on the plane, and rang me up and said, ‘I want to work with you.’”

Leverage

Blundell wants to write another book directed to large companies. “The first one was targeted at small businesses, but since then I have done a flip and am focusing on large businesses.”

Her new book, not yet started, will be more about her ideas and approach. Eight months doesn’t seem like a long shelf life for a book, but Blundell says her first book will never be redundant. And she is repurposing the content.

“It’s the most practical book, and I am planning to launch it as a training course on Udemy, Linda, and Schoology.”

She will return to tweaking the website blog to see if she can drive more traffic to it.

But Blundell sees a bigger opportunity in keynote speaking at conference and events in 2016.

“For me, 2016 will be focused on me being out there, training and coaching people on meaningful messaging in the digital age. Video is just one of the tools. It’s easy when you work from home to stay behind the desk. I really want to double or triple the size of my business, so I will be driving sales by getting myself into the public eye.”