This post is a transcription of my interview with Chris Inman of Classic Strategic Media, recorded in 2020 for the Digital Marketing Solutions podcast. Chris’s insights into the reach and potential of video advertising remain relevant to anyone using digital marketing today, even though some of the platform specifics have changed since we spoke. See the update note at the end of this post for the corrections that matter.
Video Advertising with Chris Inman of Classic Strategic Media
We discuss why every business, regardless of size, age, or market, should be using video, and how to use it well, along with content repurposing and branding. The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity and readability; Chris’s points are unchanged. Links to the video and podcast versions are at the bottom.
David Somerfleck: Hello, my name is David Somerfleck. I’m your host, and welcome to another episode of the Digital Marketing Solutions podcast. My guest today is Chris Inman, co-owner of Classic Strategic Media. His journey there came through working with some of the best video professionals in the Cleveland market. Chris started his career at Classic Worldwide Productions in 2000, hired by his now business partner, Jerry Patton. He began as a production assistant and moved up through the Cleveland video production community. During his years at Classic Worldwide, he worked on a variety of productions, from handheld work at Cleveland Cavaliers games to traveling to New York as a grip on a documentary about 9/11. Now, with Classic Strategic Media, Chris spends most of his days helping clients create social media content. As a self-described LinkedIn addict, he’s noticed what works and what doesn’t when it comes to gaining attention on social media. Chris loves his career, but he’ll always say his favorite job is being a father to two wonderful sons. Thanks for joining us, Chris.
Chris Inman: Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
David Somerfleck: Let’s get started. You cover a lot in video production. Is there a specific type you’d describe, in layman’s terms, as best for the typical business owner?
Quantity of Quality Content
Chris Inman: There are a lot of different realms of video out there. Some companies produce big, beautiful brand videos. You might spend $5,000 on a two- or three-minute piece about how great your company is. What I specialize in is what I call a quantity of quality content. If you have a social media account, you should be posting a video at least once a week to engage your audience, tell your story, and talk about your products and brand. Video is the best way to do that right now, and there’s no argument there. With our system, you create one video for your social media accounts, and there are so many ways to use it. The return on investment is incredible. That’s the work I do with my clients right now.
Video, SEO, and the Google–YouTube Connection
David Somerfleck: Google is the number one search engine in the world, and YouTube, which Google owns, is the number two search engine. So how does having a video tie in with Google, YouTube, and your Google Business Profile in terms of SEO? And second: how long do you think a video should ideally be, and how far should you go with the cute animations you sometimes see? It’s a multi-part question.
Chris Inman: Let’s start with Google search. When you do a search, videos appear in the results. Google owns YouTube, so those tend to be the videos that surface. Say you own a power washing company, and someone searches how to get tree sap off their house. If you’ve made a video about it, there it is. You take that video, build a blog post and a landing page around it on your website, and integrate that page into your SEO. It brings people back to your homepage, which has the video and the blog. It enhances everything, because when you’re scrolling through search results, a graphic grabs your attention more than words alone sometimes.
David Somerfleck: I agree completely. From an SEO perspective, take the power washing example. Most small, local businesses don’t have video commercials on YouTube optimized for local search. So if a power washing company is in Miami, you’ll have more competition than in Sarasota. If you title your video ‘Sarasota, Florida Power Washing Company,’ it’s likely to rise to the top of YouTube when someone searches that, which carries over to Google. Embed it in your website, and it all connects naturally. Do you agree?
Chris Inman: Absolutely. I’m not an SEO expert and I’ll never claim to be, but I’ve been told many times that the longer someone stays on your website, the better. If someone sits and watches a three-minute video, that’s three minutes they’re locked in on your site, and that really helps your SEO.
David Somerfleck: Right, they’re interested, so they’re less likely to leave and go back to Google or to a competitor, which is your bounce rate. So how long should a video of that nature be? Three minutes? One minute? Half a minute? I’ve read that YouTube prefers longer videos so it can insert commercials. What do you think?
How Long Should a Video Be?
Chris Inman: Let’s start with YouTube and longer videos with ads. As a company, you’re not making money off your YouTube channel; that’s not the point of having one. So you don’t want to insert commercials into the middle of your videos, or run ads at the front. The pennies you’d make are irrelevant compared to what you make in your real business. The purpose of your channel is to solve a problem in your industry and show what you do. With that in mind, you don’t need a long video. Let’s be honest about attention spans, they’re short. So I usually suggest a YouTube video under three minutes, unless the subject matter calls for more.
If you’re doing a full series, say you’re a financial advisor listing the reasons a 20-year-old should be investing in a retirement fund, and the subject matter is genuinely long enough to fill the time without dragging, then yes, go longer. But be short, concise, and to the point. People’s attention spans are low. They get bored during a commercial break and start flipping channels before their show comes back. So if you’re producing for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, I’d suggest under 90 seconds.
Choosing Your Platform: LinkedIn vs. Facebook
David Somerfleck: What’s your preferred social media platform? I think I know what you’ll say.
Chris Inman: I’m a business-to-business person. My ideal clients are marketers. I love working with marketers and helping their clients succeed with video content. So I’m on LinkedIn, because I’m not going after the average consumer. As my bio says, I’m a LinkedIn addict. I spend hours every day going through people’s posts, interacting, sending messages, and engaging with my ideal client.
David Somerfleck: Is it fair to say that, in terms of social media return on investment, Facebook is more about reaching everyone, like Walmart trying to reach the broadest possible audience, while LinkedIn is more expensive but caters specifically to business owners who are serious and committed? It’s the difference between a general networking event and an industry-specific one. Would you agree?
Chris Inman: Totally. I consider LinkedIn the world’s largest networking event, open 24/7 whenever you’re available to enter it. The other great thing about LinkedIn is that you can connect with people you don’t know. You run a search; I look for ‘marketers, Cleveland area,’ find those people, and send a connection request. But don’t sell them right off the bat. Don’t message people the moment you connect, and don’t unfriend them if they don’t respond, those people are the worst. The idea of LinkedIn is to create engagement. People start reading your posts and articles, seeing your videos and infographics, learning about your company and industry. Then you’re in the back of their mind when they need something. ‘I’m looking for someone to do my taxes; hey, there’s that guy who’s always giving tax advice on LinkedIn.’ I guarantee that if you’re an accountant on LinkedIn putting out great, informative content, you’ll be in the back of everyone’s mind when they’re thinking about hiring.
David Somerfleck: Especially if they search for a tax accountant on LinkedIn. Now, what about video introductions? Everyone in digital marketing has been contacted through LinkedIn with these short, 30-second video intros: ‘Hi, this is what I do, I think I can make you a million bucks overnight, let’s connect.’ I usually delete them, and if they’re really persistent, following up every day, I remove them. Personally, I need the soft-touch, long-game approach. Is that realistic for today’s consumers and business owners? Should they be using these video intros, and what was that person missing?
Video Introductions and the Long Game
Chris Inman: Social media is a long game, a long game to attract your clients and customers. No one is going to see one magical video, read one magical blog, and instantly call you up to hand you thousands of dollars. Maybe if you’re selling some widget, some magical new thing. Have you seen that golf-cornhole game on Facebook? Instead of bean bags, there’s a little mat and you chip a ball into it. If you’re selling a product like that, someone scrolling through Facebook sees the video and thinks, ‘Wow, that looks fun. I’m stuck in my backyard all summer; I can play this with my kids and my wife.’ That’s a totally different product.
When you’re selling a service and you send a video to someone in a private message, there are some negatives, and I’ll admit them. The first: how many people have their audio up while scrolling through social media? So now you’ve got a video of someone talking, but you can’t hear them. That’s why, when we create social media videos for clients, we add subtitles. When you’re scrolling, there’s a graphic at the top of the screen telling you the subject matter. It’s eye-catching, so if it interests you, you slow down and start reading what the person is saying. If you’re somewhere you can turn the volume up, you do; if not, you can still read the whole 90-second spot through the subtitles. You’re hitting the target either way.
David Somerfleck: I agree completely. I’ve read that elsewhere, and it’s a great point. Now, what would you say are the five platforms business owners neglect to post their videos on?
Five Platforms Businesses Neglect
Chris Inman: The first is Vimeo. A lot of people think YouTube, because it’s the second-largest search engine, which is wonderful. But if you’re embedding video into your website, Vimeo has some amazing capabilities. One, you can customize the player with your own brand colors. Two, and even better, you can add a call to action at the end of the video: ‘sign up,’ ‘click here to get our newsletter,’ ‘click here to download our PDF.’ And consider this: when you embed a YouTube video, it shows thumbnails of random other videos afterward, so your website gets cluttered with other people’s content. Vimeo keeps your brand intact on your own website.
David Somerfleck: That’s a great point. What about Facebook and Facebook Premiere?
[Editor’s note, 2026: Meta retired the Facebook Premiere feature in August 2022, and Facebook now converts uploaded videos into Reels. The advice below still illustrates the strategy of scheduling video as an event; see the update note at the end of this post for the current equivalent.]
Chris Inman: Everyone knows about Facebook video; you upload a video. But what’s rarely used is Facebook Premiere. Premiere is essentially going live, but without the stress of going live. You produce a video, set a date and time for it to be released, and you can build a whole marketing push around it: ‘We’re going live at this time with this video.’ Then you have a seamless video going out to your audience, almost like a webinar.
David Somerfleck: Like back in the day when we had to tune in and watch TV at a certain time, because we couldn’t record everything; the VCR clock was still blinking because our parents couldn’t figure out how to set it.
David Somerfleck: That ties into telling your audience: tune in at this time, for this specific event. You could even add urgency, ‘limited time,’ or ‘we’ll take it down after a week.’ Now, how do you integrate these things with a newsletter?
Video and Newsletters
Chris Inman: Video is great for newsletters, but the problem is you can’t embed a video in a newsletter; that’s where everyone stumbles. You can put a thumbnail of it, or here’s a trick: create a small GIF of a short portion of the video and put that in. The GIF has that little bit of motion, so it looks like a video, but it isn’t. You’re tricking the system. They click it, and it sends them back to your website, which is what I always recommend. Always bring people home, back to your website, and that’s where they can watch the full video.
David Somerfleck: I agree completely. Now, when you’re doing videos like the one we’re doing now, how can you better use the kind of lobby or waiting-room experience some platforms have? I don’t remember what Zoom calls it. How can you use those in video production?
Using the Lobby and Waiting-Room Experience
Chris Inman: I don’t know that you can do much in a Zoom lobby; I don’t think that’s really a thing. But if you’re a dentist, a massage therapist, or anyone with a physical lobby in your building, you can put a TV in it and run your own content. You don’t need to show a morning talk show. You can even sell commercial spots to your business partners. If you own a hair salon, the companies that supply your shampoo and products might want to buy a commercial spot in your lobby. And you can run your own content too, talking about different haircuts, whatever. It gives people a personalized experience while they’re at your facility.
David Somerfleck: That’s a very good point. Every doctor I’ve been to locally, without exception, has some kind of widescreen TV in the lobby, whether you want to watch it or not. Most just cycle through commercials for their own practice, or show testimonials. The only exception was a high-end surgeon who showed relaxing mountain landscapes and butterflies to calm you down before surgery. Everyone else ran commercials for their own practice, which I understand. What you described would be very relevant for them. Even with the relaxing landscapes, every couple of minutes you could show a brief clip, ‘Hi, here are some testimonials,’ or play them silently, with the relaxing music as a subtle, almost subconscious reminder. As for waiting rooms in Zoom or similar, maybe you could insert video somehow; I’m not entirely sure you can. Now, what would you say are five questions to start with when thinking about what your videos should be about, from both the business owner’s and the digital marketing consultant’s perspectives?
What Should Your Videos Be About?
Chris Inman: It’s very common for people to get on a Zoom call, so popular these days, and say, ‘I just don’t know what to talk about.’ And I say: you do know what to talk about, you’re just overthinking it. It’s simple. The first question is, what does your product or service do for others? What does it solve? Why would someone want or need to use your service?
David Somerfleck: I agree completely. When people make videos, and a lot of it depends on the platform, but for myself, I work from lists and outlines. I’m used to working in a very organized, deliberate structure that I learned working with marketing agencies, where you had a team lead who checked in with the director of marketing. You worked as part of a team, so if you don’t have structure, you’re lost. Some people can do things on the fly; some can’t. I always work from lists. I write down questions before I talk to a guest. If I don’t have questions written out, I feel like I’m meandering. Even with a great guest like you, you can easily forget your points. So it really helps to have them written out. I’ve seen people write out outlines and tape them to the monitor, or use a stand to hold the outline right below the camera.
Chris Inman: Another great approach: think about what people are Googling when they look for your product or service. If you get into your SEO, your keywords, and your Google Analytics, those are the things you should be talking about; those are the answers you should be providing for your clients.
David Somerfleck: What do you think are the main pain points for your ideal customer or client?
Chris Inman: That depends on the industry, you know?
David Somerfleck: Right. But they always need more leads.
Chris Inman: People always need more leads. That’s correct.
David Somerfleck: So what should your clients know about your industry, services, and products before they call you, instead of just asking, ‘How much is the video?’
What to Know Before You Call a Video Pro
David Somerfleck: From my perspective, I get that call daily: ‘How much is SEO?’ Well, how much is a car? I don’t know what you want done, how much work you’ll need, how much hand-holding. So what should people know before calling you, whether they’re a business owner or a digital marketer like me, instead of just asking for a price?
Chris Inman: That’s exactly what people should ask themselves when they make these videos, too. But directed at me: the first thing you need before calling someone like me is to have your social media accounts set up and be somewhat active on them already. We can’t start from zero, where you have four followers on Facebook and we spend money creating a video. Your return on investment won’t be there. You need a following first. You have to have the chicken before you start selling the eggs.
David Somerfleck: I agree. So your ideal customer is a marketer working with businesses, but from the business side, it would be a digital marketer working with what I call enterprise businesses, 50 or more employees. Or it could be an attorney with a small staff, an accountant, a doctor, a dentist, but someone with some infrastructure. Is that close?
Chris Inman: Very close. I work with a financial advisory group, and we do everything: webinars, coordinating guest appearances on podcasts and TV shows, the full structure. They do YouTube channel videos and social media videos, probably three to four videos a week, with a staff of about eight people. They constantly turn out content for people to watch and tune into. Every Thursday, we have a webinar that goes live from our studio.
David Somerfleck: Consistency is sometimes the key to success: repetition, consistency, running it like a machine. An example: that surgeon I mentioned was the only one in Sarasota with more than ten reviews on Google or Yelp, which is hard to believe. I found him because he had so many reviews. He was on YouTube with multiple videos showing his work, interviewing patients afterward, interviewing others in the industry. He was all over Facebook talking about the latest news, surveys, and research. It instilled confidence; if this person is going to literally cut you open, he seems like he knows what he’s doing. He had at least a hundred reviews. It increases the perception of professionalism and commitment.
Chris Inman: How he’s doing that is how you should do your social media: flood your audience with information, reviews, and content that builds confidence that you’re an expert.
David Somerfleck: From an SEO perspective, when you’re flooding social media channels with video content, coordinate it. Connect it to blog posts, podcasts, and other things, and use different hashtags. You can re-send that video next week or next month; you don’t have to post it only once. That may be different on YouTube, since I don’t think they want to see the same video more than once. But on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, you can reshare it, I’d say once a month, maybe twice at most, with different hashtags, titles, and search terms, submitted to different groups. For some people, that will be the first time they ever saw it.
Repurposing and Return on Investment
Chris Inman: That goes back to the five unique places to post your video. We didn’t get to it, but I’d also suggest Pinterest. Pinterest is a great idea; create a board. Especially if you’re selling something like women’s cosmetics, you need to be on Pinterest, because it’s entirely visual, just like Instagram, and there’s a whole niche of the market that loves it. My wife loves Pinterest; I never go on it. So if you’re selling something to women in this country, I’d say Pinterest might be even better than YouTube.
David Somerfleck: Or anything that’s a very visual product. I agree completely; it didn’t even occur to me that you could use video on Pinterest.
Chris Inman: Funny thing: because people rarely put videos on Pinterest, it actually bumps you up in search. You get a little boost, because it hasn’t been overused yet.
David Somerfleck: I’ll have to post this on Pinterest now, and I’ll use your headshot, because you have more hair than me. I have a hundred or more infographic images on Pinterest, and it’s very true. That goes back to repurposing content, using one piece of content in different ways.
Chris Inman: It’s all about return on investment in the repurposing. You can take this podcast, put it on temi.com, and get the transcript, and instantly you have an interview blog post. There are so many ways to reuse video, even if it starts as a podcast. We have a video and a podcast from this one interview, two formats reaching two segments of the population. The person working out can listen to us; the person sitting in an office can have the video playing while they work. Video is an amazing return on investment. Done right, you can be on every platform and reach so many people.
David Somerfleck: I agree totally. To anyone who’s hesitant about using video: just organize your branding, your marketing message, what you want to talk about, why, and who you’re speaking to, and don’t be afraid. I’m here, and I’m by no means Brad Pitt. But it’s not about that. It’s about something you’re passionate about, that you truly enjoy and believe in and want to share with others, and that connects to your business interests as well.
Chris Inman: And the other key I like to tell people: stop selling and start helping. Help people with your content. It shouldn’t always be about trying to make the sale. It’s about educating your clients about your industry, your product, and how it can make their lives better.
David Somerfleck: We’re recording this in the middle of the pandemic, and we’re all hoping it fades soon. But the reality is that more people are working from home than ever before, and even those who aren’t need to be marketing online, using digital marketing. Before, it might have been optional; now it’s more relevant than ever. So, Chris, I really appreciate you being on the show. Any parting thoughts, or anything you feel I should have asked about?
Chris Inman: No, just this: when you’re making content, make sure you’re informing your clients about what your product can do for them. I always tell people, don’t be Muhammad Ali. When you make videos, you can’t pump yourself up as if you’re the greatest thing ever. If all you’re doing is talking about yourself, people turn you off. You need to talk about what your product or service can do for them.
David Somerfleck: Very true. I couldn’t agree more. It really is about: what does this have to do with me? That’s what every consumer is asking.
Chris Inman: Correct. Nobody cares about your company. No one cares about your awards. Nobody cares how long you’ve been in business. They only care about what you do for them.
David Somerfleck: They have a problem, and that problem is always attracting more leads, whether they’re clients, customers, restaurant diners, or patients. They always have the same core problem, but the specifics, what it has to do with their business, are what make it different. So you speak to those needs. Chris, thank you so much for being on. And for everyone listening or watching, thank you for your time. If you liked this, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe, and stay tuned. Thank you very much, and have a great day.
What’s Changed Since This Conversation
This interview was recorded in 2020, in the middle of the early-pandemic shift to remote work. The core principles Chris laid out have aged well. The platform specifics have not, and a few are worth correcting.
The biggest shift is short-form vertical video. In 2020, this conversation was built around LinkedIn, Vimeo, and Facebook, and Chris’s recommendation of “under 90 seconds for social” felt aggressive. Today that’s the baseline. Short-form vertical video, meaning TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, is the dominant format in marketing, with the majority of marketers reporting it delivers their highest return on investment and most consumers preferring it when researching a product or service. Chris’s instinct about attention spans was right; the format simply went further than either of us expected.
A specific correction: Chris recommended Facebook Premiere for scheduling pre-recorded video as a live event. Meta retired that feature in August 2022. Facebook now converts uploaded videos into Reels by default, and the old “Watch” tab is now simply “Video.” If you’re applying this advice today, treat Reels, and a scheduled Live, as the Facebook equivalents, not Premiere.
Two smaller notes: Twitter is now X, rebranded in 2023. And we mention temi.com for transcription, still a workable option, but the category has shifted to AI tools like Descript and Otter, several of which transcribe, caption, and strip filler words automatically.
Everything else holds. Consistency, repurposing one asset across platforms, captioning for sound-off viewing, and “help, don’t sell” are more true now than they were in 2020.
Watch and Listen:
- Watch on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iZPmCvnwRo
- Listen on Apple Podcasts — https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/video-advertising-with-chris-inman/id1494525547?i=1000474207198