St. Louis, MO – August 29, 2022 – Mission driven organizations should be investing in video storytelling to put a face to their mission. Non-profit organizations thrive when they share their story. No medium is more effective for sharing stories with potential donors than video.

Video storytelling plays a critical role today in helping non-profits grow online and connect authentically with donors and other like-minded individuals who share their mission.

Video storytelling is the single most powerful medium conveying important information and compelling audiences to take action. Nothing else comes close.

Most non-profit organizations recognize the value of video today but are not sure about how they can use it without breaking the bank. They are afraid of what it might cost to invest in sharing video stories.

I understand this given what a typical production company will charge for a scripted video. The production model of a scripted story doesn’t lend itself well to consistent storytelling.

I recently shared the story about a friend of mine in the agency world who was reviewing a bid for $18,000 for a three to four minute video that would be shown at the annual gala of a non-profit. It is well worth it if they end up raising more than that number in donations that night. While he had sticker shock, I was mostly put off by all the time and steps involved in the proposed process. It would take them months to get a story done, not weeks.

Investing in storytelling has to make sense and cents to you. Part of that comes with understanding how you will share the video once you have it.

That is why we will share three FREE (emphasis on FREE) best practices for sharing your video story. These three tips are FREE to do using things you likely already have and they are easy to implement. When you do them consistently well, your business will grow.

These tips begin with the assumption that you have already invested in video storytelling.

Why Video Storytelling?

Today, no medium is more powerful than video. And not just any video. A video story. There is a reason all the social platforms are falling all over themselves to create their own version of “stories” and enabling you to share them with video. It works.

Your organization should be investing in video storytelling, whether it is DIY (do it yourself) or DFY (done for you). No authority is stronger than you when it comes to your story. Think about that for a second. In the past, you needed mass media like your local paper to share your story with the masses, now you can do it yourself thanks to the internet and social media.

You have the ability to own you own story. You also have the ability to reach your target audience directly. The barrier to entry to video storytelling has never been lower than it is today. Businesses should be sharing their stories consistently if they want to grow sales and connect authentically with customers.

The challenge for a non-profit is deciding how to resource that investment. DIY or DFY?

If you decide you want to engage a professional to help you tell your story, we hope you will consider StorySMART.

At StorySMART, we specialize in helping small businesses and non-profits make the most of their story on screen with our premium done for you (DFY) video storytelling services using experienced TV reporters and journalist filmmakers following our proprietary system, which is often a fraction of the cost of other services.

But price and value is simply one consideration in choosing a partner.

We don’t see that as the driving factor in using StorySMART. We see quality storytelling as the number one reason to engage us. It is all about the story for us.

Our business is founded on the belief that you should own your story and tell it in amazing way that connects authentically with your target audience, whether that is audience includes your customers, prospective customers, donors or the general public. We believe a professional will do a better job telling your story than you would yourself. That is why we created our business.

All that said, we believe you--not us-- are better positioned to share that story. That is the beauty of today’s search driven world. You are the ultimate authority on you and you have all the tools at your finger tips to grow your organization thanks the democratizing effects of technology and social media.

Okay so you decide you want to invest in telling your story with video. Once you undertaking your video storytelling, what are the basic FREE best practices for sharing your video story?

Here is what we tell all of our clients to maximize the benefits of their storytelling. These are three FREE things they can do to get their story in front of their audience.

1. Post your video story and written blog post copy to your website blog.

The fact that you are reading this post helps best illustrate our point. Nothing drives your website authority or maximizes your search engine optimization than consistently blogging. Like it or not, you website is essentially a modern media outlet capable of reaching anyone anywhere in the world thanks to the power of search. You drive search results by posting video on your website and you super charge it by posting a companion written post. That is why we sell our service with a done for you AP style written blog post. We are making it turnkey simple for our clients to share their story on their website. Anyone who posts a video on their website is 53 times more likely to get a front page google result. We are assuming you already have a website. And assuming that you do, it isn’t expensive or difficult to add a blog. It should be free with your web hosting platform.

2. Share your video story via your social media platforms.

Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Instagram. YouTube. We tell our clients to start by sharing the story via their website. From a practical standpoint, it may actually be shared first via YouTube. Most websites are set up to embed video from YouTube or Vimeo or some other hosting platform. Google prefers YouTube since they own YouTube. Once you’ve shared your video on your website, you can either upload it directly to Facebook and LinkedIn or share the post from your website. Play around with both. You can tweet a link to your blog post. You can also post video directly depending upon length. One of the reasons we recently added our “Full Service Five Packs” with our video storytelling packages as we want to provide turnkey simple solutions for our clients to share short shareable social media stories that feed back to the website. Bottom line for your organization – social media is FREE to use and it is where you will likely find your audience. It also empowers your audience to share it with their audience, which is the modern media landscape. It is a common sense best practice to take advantage of this free way to market your organization.

3. Share your video story via an email newsletter.

Many organizations have built strong email lists to connect directly with their customers. When I worked for the Cardinals, nothing was more effective with driving sales than their blast emails. While they took things to a level most organizations might not be comfortable with – sending almost daily or more emails. All businesses – whether B2C or B2B - should be staying in touch with their community. And it is FREE to get started. You can start with a MailChimp account for free. As it grows, you may decide to invest more, but for the most part you can do an email campaign to your customers for FREE

Okay, so those are three free ways to share your story. If you invest in consistently doing these things, your business and sales will grow organically. Talk to any expert in the field of digital and social media to confirm this fundamental fact. Nothing drives organic search traffic better or works better than this fundamental approach.

All that said, you can super charge all it with paid efforts. Boosting your social media posts. Paying for search terms. Digital advertising. You can do all of that to drive even faster results.

But here is the key to all of it. It starts with the video storytelling. It all starts with telling your amazing story on screen with video storytelling. So what are you waiting for?

About STORYSMART

You have a story to tell, but don't have the time or resources to do it yourself. Not only is it hard to find someone who can help you tell your story, but it can also be quite expensive. And once you find them, you're not even sure if they'll be able to stay true to your brand and values.

STORYSMART is different.

STORYSMART is a nationwide premium video and motion picture storytelling service that empowers individuals, families, celebrities, small businesses and other organizations to have their stories told professionally while retaining their intellectual property rights.

STORYSMART provides experienced video storytellers who follow our proprietary high-integrity brand journalism method. Our transparently priced premium service guarantees that you get an authentic, high-quality story you own the intellectual property rights on forever.

You deserve to have your story told in an amazing way that you own. Learn more about STORYSMART at getstorysmart.com.