Canadian Music Trade - February / March 2020

2020 RETAIL REFRESHER As far as an ideal mix of these categories, Herman says it’s less about adhering to any specific ratio between each of them and more about ensuring that your brand-building, relationship-building, and educational content exceeds your promotional and sales-oriented content. “You want to create plenty of content that pulls your audience in – things that offer them value or build your credibility as an expert or resource they trust,” Herman shares. “Then, when you have a promotional or sales-related video, they are more likely to respond to those.” For those yet to test the waters of video, Herman notes that the essentials you need to get started are relatively minimal; in fact, the ground floor is a smartphone. “We often get too caught up in the ‘need’ for all this equipment and then give up thinking it’s just too much to coordinate,” she says. “But all you need is your smartphone; it has high-quality filming options and records in high definition. Then you just have to upload that video to whichever tool you use for sharing. It’s that easy!” If you want to up your game beyond that, for about $200 you can get a good tripod, simple ring light, and lavalier mics that plug directly into your phone for improved audio. When it comes to your setting, ensure you’ve got a quiet, well-lit area. Natural light is your friend, so she advises putting a window behind the person holding the camera and having the object or person on camera facing said window for ideal lighting. Herman also shares some general tips on creating effective video content. First and foremost, get right to the point. “Do a super- quick intro – a few seconds max – with your name and company, then say what you’re going to cover in the video and jump right in! Or even better, list the video topic right away then give your name and company name. Don’t waste people’s time by rambling through the start or you’ll have big retention issues.” Second, make it as long as it needs to be and no longer. On that note, she says video length can be optimized for certain platforms. For example, vids posted to Facebook should be over three minutes; Facebook Live videos, which offer a more direct and interactive connection with your audience, should be at least 10-20 minutes. Instagram posts go up to 60 seconds. Videos posted directly to your website should be one to three minutes. And keep in mind that all serve a slightly different purpose. Finally, make sure you’re creating videos your audience wants – not ones you want to create. See which keywords are most common- ly used in your niche or retail space (there are keyword search tools to help with this) and you can ensure that you’re dedicating your resources to creating content with the greatest potential impact. 22 CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE Hey, Alexa … How Does Voice Search Impact My Business? Mitch Joel, Innovation Expert & Best-Selling Author According to a recent study from the University of British Columbia, one in four U.S. adults and one in five Canadians say they own a smart speaker. What’s more, nearly 30 per cent of smart speak- er owners now use them to make pur- chases, and 30 per cent of all internet MITCH JOEL searches are done without a screen. “Sometimes with tech, we have innovations that are kind of ‘wait and see’; other times, like this, there are inevitables,” begins Montreal-based innovation expert and author Mitch Joel. “We’re talking about this in the context of smart speakers, but the speech technology behind them is already out there in over three billion devices – it’s in our cars, on our watches, speakers – pretty much everything.” To drive the point home, he notes that Amazon currently has over 10,000 employees dedicated to Alexa alone and thousands more positions they’re looking to fill. But even with the mass-proliferation of this technology on these devices, as of now, it’s all on a sort of closed loop controlled by the few developers behind it with limited opportunity for outside input. Because of that, Joel makes it clear that this particular session wasn’t intended to provide actionable takeaways, but rather fore- cast what’s to come and prepare attendees for how it could impact MI retail. “Back in the early years of the internet, I was telling people, ‘You need to have a website.’ Then [Google] Search came and it was about capitalizing on AdWords,” he says. “Here, with smart audio and music merchants, the message is, ‘There’s going to be a landgrab here soon for people audibly asking about you, so you should know the landscape of what’s out there and what’s coming.” Central to this is understanding that searching via voice and searching via text is inherently different. “If I wanted to find out right now if Steve’s Music in Montreal has the new Fender Ameri- can Elite Jazz bass, I would type something like: “Fender American Elite Jazz Steve’s Montreal.” If I’m asking, it’d be, ‘Hey Google, does Steve’s Music in Montreal have the Fender American Elite Jazz bass?’ I’m asking for the same thing but in a totally different way, and as we know, search is currently optimized for text.” Again, there’s not much retailers can do in this area for the time being. If your company is big enough that it has its own account

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