So, you want to be a video star? Or, at the very least, you believe people have shorter attention spans and don’t like to read much anymore, and that the best way to convey the values, investment philosophy and personality of yourself or your financial advisor firm is by telling your story through video?

You’re not alone. While the number of financial advisor firms adding personalized video clips to their websites probably isn’t a groundswell, there appears to be a discernible trend toward having some type of video presence as a way to reach 21st century consumers.

Like it or not (and not everyone does), various media in the online world seem to be pushing us into the realm of visual stimulation—or perhaps overstimulation. And as video communication begets even more video communication, it becomes an inexorable wave that, if you serve the public, almost becomes a “gotta have” element.

That said, do you really need to have a video presence on your website? And for those who think it makes sense, what’s the best way to do it? The answers to both questions are subjective. Some advisors are happy—and are quite successful—going videoless. But for advisors who want something more than just words and photos on their website, the options are many.

Some people opt for a polished, professionally made video shot in various locations that costs thousands of dollars, while others prefer a low-key effort made in their own bedroom at virtually no cost. Videos can be about the individual, the firm, an investment-related topic or all of the above. Either way, it’s all about brand management and how you want to present yourself to the world.

“It has become a marketing trend as Internet speeds have gotten faster and people have been using video more on the Web,” says Maggie Kokemuller, advisor agency director at Raymond James Marketing, the in-house unit that provides advertising and marketing—including video—services on the corporate side for the financial services giant, as well as for Raymond James financial advisors. “In the past few years, it has emerged as a trend for how people absorb information and how they want to get information, so you want to keep up with that from a marketing standpoint.”

Raymond James has been producing videos for more than two decades from its studio at company headquarters in St. Petersburg, Fla. They also shoot videos for advisors at conferences where they throw up a green screen (in what is called chroma keying, a technique used to replace a background scene) and do a quick Q-and-A the advisor can use on his or her website.

“We help them strategize what the video should be, what the content should be and we help them write the content,” Kokemuller says. “We either build the brand around the video or build the brand and then provide some direction on the video.”

And because advisors are, well, advisors and not actors, the company’s team of in-house experts coach advisors about pacing, proper breathing and using inflection to help them come across more natural on camera.

Most of all, Kokemuller says, they encourage advisors to be their own person in their videos. “We encourage Raymond James advisors to brand themselves as themselves—not necessarily to rerun the company line but to create their own brand.”

Some Raymond James advisors opt to make their own videos without company help. At David Adams Wealth Group LLC in Nashville, Tenn., the company’s “Meet Our Team” video is polished yet casual, complete with acoustic music and company founder David Adams talking about his passion for his job and the work his firm does while viewers see him interacting with staff and clients in the office and around town.

The video takes viewers into music studios while Adams discusses helping musicians and songwriters with their financial decisions, and to a ballpark and basketball arena where he describes how he helps athletes and coaches prepare for the next phase in their lives. It’s a tidy, 2:04 minute package that ends with the company logo and “Raymond James” on the screen as it fades to black.

The “Meet Our Team” video is the third iteration of an effort that began five years ago. “It’s about me getting more comfortable on camera and wanting to improve the quality of it,” says Adams when describing the evolution of his firm’s video efforts.

Adams employs Nashville-based Snapshot Interactive as the videographer, and says he’s been very much involved in the creative process by writing the script and determining the imagery he wants to use. “I know some advisors don’t want to mess with all of that, but for me, being involved is the reason why the final product came out more authentic and probably more of our brand versus having someone else craft the brand,” Adams says.

He adds he had to run the script—as well as the final product—by Raymond James for compliance reasons. His involvement on the creative side has helped tamp down expenses. He notes the “Meet Our Team” video cost about $5,000 to make. As a rule of thumb, video producers say a simple video where an advisor gives his or her short pitch, and which employs a film crew and simple editing and graphics, can cost around $1,000. More complex productions that include a couple of cameras, nice lighting and maybe a couple of locations with plenty of B-roll, or extra footage, can cost $8,000 to $10,000, and in some cases north of $20,000.

Adams also does quarterly market update videos displayed on the company’s website that are shot with a camera kept in the office. “It’s lower-budget, but it still looks good,” he says. “We do it quickly in-house because we do so many of them.”

But as for his featured video, he acknowledges it’s hard to track its actual return on investment. More than anything, he says, it’s a branding effort that helps connect potential clients with his firm before they even meet.

Bedroom Studio
Kate Holmes has a playful personality, and she likes to feature it on the website for her one-woman firm, Belmore Financial. So when it came to making a video to put on her website that described herself and why she became a financial advisor, she wanted a style that fit her persona. She also intended the video to act as a filter for prospective clients. “[I wanted] to have prospects weed themselves out before speaking with me,” she says. “I have a high close ratio with prospects because by the time they schedule an intro call, they feel like they know me and understand how I operate.”

The Belmore website’s featured video was shot in Holmes’s master bedroom on her MacBook Air. “I think my microphone wasn’t working that day, which means I was using just the speakers on my MacBook Air,” she explains. Other production tools she used included a $60 light set bought on Amazon and free iMovie editing software on her Mac. She set up the camera herself, pushed the record button and let it roll.

The video is no frills, but comes across as a step above homemade. “How great is it that I’ve had a number of people say it looks professionally done,” says Holmes, a certified financial planner in Las Vegas. “I think people make video more complicated than it needs to be, thinking you need to go into a studio and pay someone thousands of dollars, or have everything perfect. I just used what I had and it turned out fine.”

That said, Holmes isn’t happy with her current video and plans to upgrade to a 2.0 version shot with a borrowed professional camera (courtesy of her brother) and in a studio owned by a photographer friend of hers. “One of the things I struggle with in using my MacBook Air is I have to be close to the camera, and you don’t get much background, which doesn’t give me much flexibility for my backdrop,” Holmes says. “With a professional camera, the picture and sound will be better, and by using a studio I’ll be able to create more of an environment to move around more freely.”

Nonetheless, she doesn’t want version 2.0 to be too slick. “I think when things get more polished, it loses that intimate feeling,” Holmes says.

Point-And-Shoot
Similarly, John Friedman, a San Francisco-based CFP, is a one-man shop and a one-man video production crew for the videos that appear on his website. His home page features five short videos of roughly one minute—plus change—in length describing the different ways he helps people improve their financial lives in his work as a financial coach/planner/manager/educator/health advisor.

These are very basic videos with a tight field of view in front of a plain beige wall. They are homespun, a term Friedman says is appropriate—both in terms of production values and regarding the ambiance he’s trying to create.

Friedman shot the videos himself with a Canon point-and-shoot camera with a video function. “And it wasn’t a super-duper point-and-shoot at that,” he says. “I didn’t have a serious tripod, just like I didn’t have a serious camera, so I wound up using some milk crates.”

He says he’s been doing videos for a while; he used to do them in his office in downtown San Francisco. He says he was looking for a certain look with his current batch of videos. “I looked for the most blank wall I had in my life,” Friedman says, which turned out to be in the guest bedroom in his home.

Friedman’s biggest investment in this project was his time, noting that it took about two days to make those five videos. He doesn’t use a script, but works off of an outline, and the actual language comes during the making of a video. “I keep refining the message till I get ‘MVP status,’ a Silicon Valley term for “minimum viable product.” I get as close to perfect as I probably could get, which is maybe about 90%, and that takes a lot of time.”

Plus, there were other factors to contend with. “Since I’m doing it at home, I’ve got things going on like the cat climbing up the crates that the camera sits on.”

All in all, Friedman believes his videos—and his overall website, which is a basic WordPress website—get the job done. “If someone looks at a video, I can see the data on the back end,” he says. “And I know if someone looks at all five, or even two videos, I’ll probably get a call from somebody.”

Friday Five
Thomas Quealy Jr., CEO of Nottingham Advisors Asset Management in Amherst, N.Y., didn’t plan to shoot videos for his firm’s website. But after Nottingham adopted the portfolio management software program from Orion Advisor Services, he took a trip to Orion’s headquarters in Omaha, Neb., where he met folks from one of Orion’s affiliated companies, Blu Giant Advisor Studios.

Blu Giant, also based in Omaha, helps financial services companies develop branding, web development, video and social media strategies. It works with financial advisors both affiliated and not affiliated with the Orion network of companies.

One thing led to another, and Nottingham made its first video a couple of years ago through a partnership with an ETF provider it works with that engaged with Blu Giant to make some videos. That particular video featured Quealy and president and chief investment officer Lawrence Whistler in suit and ties talking about the firm’s separately managed accounts and how they craft ETF-based global, multi-asset-class portfolios focused on asset allocation. “The first one was a bit more planned in both questions and responses,” Quealy says.

That video was shot in San Francisco, and was on the ETF provider’s nickel. “We were impressed with how the video came out and began to realize it’s a great way for us to convey who we are and what we do in a more personal way,” Quealy says, noting that Nottingham hired Blu Giant to redesign its website, too.

Quealy and Whistler shot a second video in Omaha, which was more relaxed in tone (jackets, but no ties) as they described the essence of what Nottingham is all about.

Quealy says Nottingham plans to start shooting a “Friday Five” video series, where on Friday afternoon they’ll talk about the five things or events that happened that week and how they affect the market. “It can’t be a video you throw out there with no real purpose,” Quealy explains. “Everything we do has to come back to our strategies or one of our portfolios.”

Gone Fishing
Changes in technology and consumer expectations more or less guarantee that video will play a larger role in the marketing efforts of financial advisors going forward. But not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

Scot Hanson, a certified financial planner in Shoreview, Minn., who’s part of EFS Advisors, wonders if video is right for his practice. “I’ve thought about creating a video because I’ve seen other firms and competitors do videos, and they’ll do them based on questions relating to things like IRAs or college savings. I think that’s fabulous.

“But in my case, I’m very established and I’m not looking for new clients because I gain them from my reputation and referrals,” he adds. “Maybe videos are for younger advisors who are actively trying to grow their business.”

Hanson says he understands that websites (which he does have) and videos are important marketing tools for advisors, but he says he’s found many of his clients over the years simply by going about his life. “I go to church and meet people,” he says. “I live my life and manage things just by walking around.”

And he hunts and fishes. The handle in his business e-mail address is “walleyescot,” walleyes being a freshwater fish prevalent in the Upper Midwest. “For some people, that means something,” Hanson says.

The name of his walleye boat is called “The Floating Office.” “I probably have more client appointments there than anywhere else,” Hanson says, perhaps half-jokingly. “You get someone who likes to hunt or fish go out with you, and sometimes they bring their son or daughter, their best friend, their brother-in-law…whoever. It’s not like we talk heavy about financial planning, but you get to know their values and what they’re trying to accomplish.”

In an age increasingly dominated by portable electronic gadgets and visual overstimulation, it’s comforting that an advisor can talk shop and bond with clients—and possible future clients—while reeling in walleyes on a clear, cold Minnesota lake. If Hanson wants to make a video for his website, maybe that’s the story line.