Are you struggling to produce enough video content to meet your B2B marketing goals? Video is essential for engagement, but the production process is slowing you down. You’ve got ideas, but limited time, resources, and perhaps technical know-how to bring them all to life. How many potential leads are you missing because that product demo or customer testimonial video is still sitting in your someday folder?
The pressure to create more content across more channels is mounting, but your video production capacity isn’t keeping pace. And this challenge is exactly what our guest has been solving for entrepreneurs and marketers worldwide. In this recap of Social Pulse: B2B Edition, powered by Agorapulse, guest Justin Brown is co-founder of Primal Video and a seasoned film producer with over 20 years of experience. Today, he’s here to share his insights on how AI tools can help B2B marketers scale their video content without sacrificing quality or authenticity.
[Listen to the full episode below, or get the highlights of the Social Pulse Podcast: B2B Edition, powered by Agorapulse. Try it for free today.]
Before we dive into AI tools, could you share your journey from a traditional film production company to helping businesses like ours scale their video marketing efforts?
Justin Brown: Yeah. It’s been a journey. I have to tell you, when I started, I didn’t have as many gray hairs as I do now. But this space changes quickly. So, especially now with AI. But where I started, yes, I was making videos, corporate videos for people. I even filmed underground mining training videos, that kind of stuff, then into action sports.
But on the corporate side, it got to the point where I, the limit for the company, was however many videos they could produce with me producing them for them, and they’d spend their budgets on the production side, but then not have much left over for the marketing side. I’m like it’s not a build it and they will come; YouTube doesn’t work that way.
And we’ve been through that without Channel Two, where you just put up stuff and it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be successful. Doesn’t mean people are going to find it. So we went down the rabbit hole of what if instead we help people make videos easier themselves, the more authentic, real videos, which we’re converting, and it still is converting much better for businesses.
What if we help people with that piece, and then work through to how they can get eyeballs on that? So, that’s been the journey that we’re on, and it’s awesome with some of these AI tools and things now that are going to make this process much easier for people.
What was the turning point where you realized AI could [be a] “game changer” for video content production, particularly for B2B marketers?
Justin Brown: I think where it came in first was—I think, look, there’ve been lots of little AI tools around for a long time now.
But I think when ChatGPT hits the mainstream, you’ll see all the different use cases as a sounding board for helping people create scripts, structure their content, and come up with ideas. All of those pieces became easy for people because there’s now a tool that most people seem to be using or have easy access to.
So, the prep, the planning stage now, which a lot of people procrastinate around, can now be streamlined, let alone all the tools that are going to help you with the filming and the editing piece, too.
What would you say the top two to three [tools] might be having the most transformative impact on businesses when it comes to video content?
Justin Brown: I think in terms of the planning, if we’re starting at that piece, look, there are so many options now, and it’s literally changing week to week as to which is the best one.
Like three weeks ago, my answer would be totally different from what it is now as to which one’s working the best, and next week it might be something different. But with things like Grok—Claude is one that we’ve used a lot, and that was my top pick for a long time. Gemini has stepped up recently.
So, it doesn’t matter, as far as I’m concerned, which one of those—as long as you’ve got one of those to help you create, come up with ideas, structure your content, and even help with research on those kinds of things.
That’s the planning side. We want to have, I guess, other eyeballs on your business; it’s like employing a content production team to come and plan and help everything with you. So, definitely start out with something like that to help you come up with ideas, planning, and structuring. But then, in terms of making content, the standout tool for me right now is Descript, which has been around for a long time, and it’s what we’re using to create all of our content. I’m recording directly into Descript, so there’s no AI on the recording piece. But once it’s in there, there’s AI to remove all my “Ums” and “Uhs.” It actually can do a base edit, so it’ll remove all of my bad takes, mistakes, retakes, all of that stuff, and 10 years into this journey, there’s still a lot.
So, we’re saving a bunch of time on that, through to some of the cool stuff that it’s got in there to fix your background noise, or even if you are looking off camera, it can adjust your eyes to bring them back. It looks like you are looking at your viewers and talking directly to them.
There’s a lot of cool stuff like that you can bring in. If you make a mistake, you can type the new words that you want to say. In our case, if I create a video and it doesn’t go out for four weeks, if there’s a pricing change, then I can just type in the new price, and it will say it in my voice, and it will match the tonality of the entire sentence. So it sounds real, saving you from going reshooting a video, because of a little detail like that, it’s now made that piece much easier as well.
How can B2B marketers leverage AI while maintaining human connection and that sense of authenticity?
Justin Brown: I think this is a big point because there are a lot of people that we’ll see out there. A lot of advertising as well. People are pushing AI as the solution, and AI will make your videos for you. I’ll come up with a script. It’ll create an avatar for you, a fake person, or it’ll even make you the fake avatar, using your voice, your image, your scene from a photo, or something like that. So I’m not talking about that.
I don’t think people should be doing that because at that point, it’s not you, it’s not your message, it’s not your words. I’m saying we can use them as tools to help you refine your message, to make sure that you’re not missing anything, to make sure that you’re structuring your content in a way where it can be consumed easily, so that it is engaging that we keep people watching.
So, the key is to use the AI piece as a sounding board for the prep, and it still makes it yours. Don’t just run with it, ’cause I don’t know about you, but I’ve experienced so many times where the AI will just hallucinate and give me wrong information. Once, I was like, “How much is CapCut? The video editing application, how much is it in US dollars?” And it said $99. I’m like, “That doesn’t seem right.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s actually 799 a month or whatever it is.”
The fact that there are people out there who would just take that [AI] first response as fact and go and allow that to create content, without their piece in there. Then I think that’s where you’re opening yourself up to, first off being disingenuous, but also having your viewers see that, especially if it’s wrong, bad advice. So the integrity piece, the human piece, you still need to bring that into that, too. And likewise with your editing, you and the production piece.
I think now we’re in this amazing age where we don’t need to be over-editing our videos, which makes it easier. But it also makes it more raw, more real as well, and more engaging. And that’s the piece that you’re not going to get in these fake AI-generated videos, is that human connection. So I think while you can make your eyes look at the camera, they do look a little soulless.
So I would only use that feature sparingly and only if it was to help you create the videos. If, for your first ones, if you’re freaking out, you’re scared. Awesome. Cool. Let’s use those tools to get you creating content. Let’s get those runs on the board. Let’s get your confidence up. Once you’ve done a few, it’s easier, so then we can push our comfort zones a little bit further.
So I’m all about getting people to start because if you start, you’re more likely to continue. Whereas so many people want to have all their ducks in a row and have everything figured out, and they don’t actually start, which means they’re not moving towards their goal, they’re not hitting their KPIs, or anything like that.
Do you see any business use case for the digital and virtual avatars that people can create with AI today?
Justin Brown: Yeah, I’m with you. I see people using them. But I don’t think that it’s going to have a positive look. I’m all about having a positive impact on the internet, right? There’s a real human on the other end of that, and it’s a connection. And while we do, B2B, B2C, it is H2H.
It’s human to human, no matter what level you’re playing at. And as humans, we want to connect with humans. We don’t want to connect to an AI that we can just feel off. I’m not sure, like there are so many videos on YouTube now where I hit play and. that it’s not real. It’s an AI-generated voice.
It’s just images that are moving or generating B-roll. I think if that was someone’s first video or something, and that’s what they did to get started, awesome. Cool. But when I see that, I just mentally switch off. I want to hear from a real person. I don’t want to hear how an AI thinks something should be done.
I want to hear how that person did it, and what their thoughts and opinions are. What’s the human piece? And I think this is the big opportunity for people to not be cutting corners to that level and go, Oh, just create content. More content means more results. It’s absolute BS. Fewer videos that are real and authentic are targeting your customers, your clients, and helping them add value to the internet; that’s not going to change.
If anything, as we get more into this AI thing, the people who are not being lazy in their content creation and being mindful and thoughtful about what it is they’re putting out, those are the people who are going to succeed, as far as I see it.
Could you walk us through a specific example of a B2B company that might use AI to turn one video recording session into all kinds of different pieces of content for different reasons?
Justin Brown: So, there are lots of people who share a repurposing strategy around this stuff, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think if you are smart and you are strategic with the content that you’re creating, then you can repurpose it.
But I think the biggest area where people go wrong when they are repurposing or creating multiple pieces of content from one is that they’re just thinking about how many videos [they can] cut out of this instead of what the viewer’s experience is, like where this video is going.
So, if we had a long-form podcast, a strategy is that you could chop it into little pieces and take them out and put them on different platforms. From the viewer’s experience, that can work well. But it’s also the viewer would know then that this is just a snippet from a piece of a podcast, which, again, could be good ’cause it might tease them to go and listen to that podcast or watch that longer form piece of content. However, it might also be a deterrent because they’re like, “I’ve missed out, and this little piece of content that I’ve given my attention to, and I’m giving up time from my day to watch doesn’t feel right. It feels off because it’s not created specifically for me at this moment.”
So, what I see works much better than just repurposing long-form content. Look, still do that test. (It’s always a test, right? Because you might have some that take off and some that don’t.)
Repurposing your long-form stuff, it might still be beneficial to you, and it’s a low-effort thing, but what I found works much better is creating intentional content off the back of a long-form piece of content.
So you could summarize it for people, you’re giving them the TLDR, here’s the top answer, but it’s created specifically for the viewer on that platform. “It’s like I said in my Instagram video that was repurposed from YouTube. Make sure you hit that subscribe button.” The viewer’s going to go, “There’s no subscribe button on Instagram, I know that this was just cut from what it doesn’t, it feels off,” which is why we want to be hyper aware of what the viewer experience is like for our content if we are repurposing it.
What I’ve seen work well is people just reshooting it, so they’ll do their long-form podcast, and they’ll have their notes from it, or wait till their editor’s done it for them. They’ve got their show notes. Then do a quick recap video. If you’re looking for the top five social media platforms or whatever, here they are, like list them all out.
And this is just a quick snippet from our longform podcast, in which you can go and watch that content created strategically or intentionally for the viewer will normally resonate and connect and work so much better than just slapping bits and pieces. Or it could also be that if you are going to take a piece, a nugget from a longer form piece, just put a quick intro on it. Now, this works well on YouTube because YouTube is analyzing what you’re saying. It’s transcribing your videos, and this can help you get your content showing up on the platform. If you’re using some good describing words and keywords and things at the start of that, it’s going to work for the viewer ’cause they’re going to know why they should stick around.
But it’s also going to work for the algorithm side of it as well.
Mike Allton: Oh, that is fascinating because it’s a tactic I’ve seen people use, and I’ve been debating whether or not to do that with our podcasts here at Agorapulse, because I’ll see them publish the entire interview to YouTube, and we do that, and then we’ll publish shorts like either one or two vertical clips from that podcast. But that’s it.
We don’t typically share segments of the interview as additional videos on YouTube, like three to five-minute clips. We haven’t done that, but I’ve seen a lot of other people do that. And the one thing that I’ve done personally, where I’ve seen which, which is in line with you, you’re talking about in print form, I have my podcast, which I publish on Saturdays.
On Sundays, I use AI. My AI Chief of Staff, who’s named CLU, reads my transcript from that interview and generates a LinkedIn newsletter from CLU’s perspective. So it’s the AI’s perspective on that interview, and it’s just like you said, it’s a summary. In this case, it’s a written summary, not a video summary, which I guess I could do.
But there are a couple of thousand people subscribed to that newsletter just to get clues, insights into my latest interview. Yeah, it sounds like if we did what you were talking about, if I’m understanding you correctly, take like this interview and this segment right here where you’ve answered and talked about this particular topic, which might be four minutes long.
And I just inserted at the beginning a little intro. It says, “Hey, I talked to Justin. We were talking about AI and video tools, and he shared what he thought people should be thinking about if they want to repurpose one long-form content.”
Is that tracking with what you’re thinking?
Justin Brown: Yeah, for sure. Yep. And link it.
I guess if it’s on the YouTube side, you can link it directly to the longer form one. Maybe that’s your ending, that you shoot at the end. Your call to action, if you like this, download my whatever. And if you want to catch the full thing, like this was just four minutes from the hour-long thing, then it is linked on screen.
I guess that viewer experience thing is more powerful than ever before to consider, because that’s what every algorithm is trying to give is a good experience for its users. No matter what platform you’re on, if you are having a good experience, you’re enjoying your time there, you’re going to stick around longer.
So any algorithm change or whatever is following the viewer or the user to give them a good experience.
Mike Allton: Now, I know there are a lot of additional steps brands can take, marketers can take, or YouTubers can take. I know they can add end cards, they can tweak their thumbnails. I’m sure there are plenty of other things that I’m missing.
Does AI help with some of those things?
Justin Brown: Yeah, I think even though AI is—I would use it again as a sounding board to start with, and you can ask for feedback. Especially if you’re going to update a video like I made this video two years ago. I’m going to redo it for now. Let’s break it down, here’s my watch time from the previous video. Here’s the transcript from the previous video.
And, look, if you haven’t done it before, maybe pick someone else’s video ’cause you can grab the transcript of anyone’s video. You won’t be able to grab the watch time, but you could grab the views, and you could quiz the AI, and say, “Let’s help me make this again, like share my thoughts and opinions on this topic. This is what someone else has done. This is the number one video that’s got millions of views. Help me break it down and help me create something, maybe with a similar structure.” So, the content can be different, but the structure works. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel in a similar structure, similar pacing.
You could also pipe in some of the user comments and create a better video than ones that are already out there, based on things that a lot of people are saying, “Hey, but you missed this,” or, “What about this, is this still relevant today?”
You can create a better piece of content with hindsight using things like AI to help you analyze what might have worked and what didn’t work. It’s just another set of eyeballs or analytical eyes on things. But the other piece of this, too. And it’s probably more to where we were just before with the question before being the repurposing piece. A lot of people miss that it’s a different viewer for a different type of content or a different consumer.
Yeah, so some people will listen to a 40-minute podcast no problem, but it’s their intention when they’re clicking on it. I’m listening to a 40-minute piece of content. What if the answer that they want is buried in that podcast or something somewhere, and they don’t have the mental commitment and the time to go, “I need to watch the 40 minutes.”
So by repurposing strategically, we can still help people that maybe will only consume a two minute, five minute, 10 minute video, but we can also then give them the answer quickly in a sub 30 minute or sub 60 seconds, 30 minutes, 30 seconds, or 60 seconds as a short as well. So that’s what I mean by the repurposing.
We’re not cannibalizing our content. We’re not saying that the short viewer who got their answer in under a minute or under a minute and a half is now not going to watch our other content. That could be the perfect teaser segue for them to go watch the mid or the full long-form version of it.
Or maybe that was enough. Maybe that’s all they needed, and you changed their life. They may have signed up and worked with you. You helped them. Like, people are going to pick different things.
So by repurposing strategically, we can be able to help people at different levels with different, I guess, time commitments and things going on, and also their preferences.
Mike Allton: That’s a fantastic point. I love that example. And it reminded me of another tactic I’d seen other folks use. AI for, which seemed to work well, is timestamps. You throw your timestamp, the script is going to give you a wonderful transcript with the timestamps in there. Drop that into Gemini and ask it to give you your YouTube timestamps.
And then I also loved your point about it, identifying things you haven’t talked about yet, and that conversation with Mark Schafer that I mentioned this afternoon, we were talking about his book, which was, I should grab it. His book is Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World. And he did not use AI to draft the book, but he took the manuscript and dropped it into both ChatGPT and Gemini and asked, “What am I missing? What didn’t I talk about in this entire book?” And they both came back and said, you didn’t talk about measurements and how, if you’re succeeding, which is actually a chapter he drafted and then dropped from the manuscript. So I convinced him to drop that back in.
Any other potential mistakes that you’ve seen B2B marketers make?
Justin Brown: I think the biggest one is not making it. And I know I touched on this a little earlier, but if you are using AI as your north star, as your soul point of truth, then I think it’s going to come unstuck. It’s going to be something that people will see right through when it’s not right, where it doesn’t feel right, or the information is actually wrong.
So I think using it as a sounding board and then making it yours, and, yes, you can train it, you can train it on your voice, but there’s still going to be little bits and pieces that you want to make sure that it’s yours. And I think even if we started, like we’ve said, AI is a great place for helping you come up with ideas and things, but as a business, you’ll already know what the top topics are. You are frequently asked questions, the things that people are, you, the conversations you’re having over and over again.
Let’s start there with our content creation, so that we can just send those videos out to people, or they can find them themselves, and they can work out if you’re a fit or not based on how you’re responding to that.
But that’s where that personality and creating real, authentic videos are, representing your brand. If you are seen to be cutting corners with AI and whatever, I’m sure that’s going to turn a lot of people off. And if that’s the experience they’re seeing before they work with you, what’s the experience like when they are working with you?
So, be mindful again of having a good experience for your viewers because every piece of content you put out there is showing up and representing your brand.
How would you suggest that marketers integrate some of these AI tools without disrupting what might already be working for them?
Justin Brown: I think that’s a good question, and I think this is where you want to not just switch, let’s run some of these tools in parallel. Especially if this is a business, if you’re not a content creator, where you’ve maybe got the flexibility to try and test stuff out. And if something fails, as a business, if we’re doing this again strategically, which is what I think everyone should be doing, then I would run things in parallel.
So, when we’re testing something, we’re testing it as well as running through our regular process. If I’m testing an AI tool for editing, it’s still going off to our regular editor as well, so that we can compare the result. We’ve got a baseline that this is what we would do with that piece of content.
Let’s see now how far we can push the AI to get there. I think that’s a big piece, and I think it’s going to make it easier for you to test and to see what areas you can level up in. I think time tracking on these things as well, because it might feel faster. But is it actually faster? How much time did you burn researching this stuff?
So I think for a business, and like when we’re testing stuff, we’re running the app just to see how much time we are actually spending on this. And it’s not that there’s a limit on the time, but we need to know where the dollar areas are, where is the time going for this stuff?
And then we can rein it in because as a creative piece and something that changes so quickly, if there’s no I guess metrics on what we’re doing. Then it could easily blow out.
That’s not reasonable, but just like a year or so, specifically for B2B video marketing. And
Is there anything that you think we marketers should do today to prepare?
Justin Brown: I think it’s plain, be testing. Always. There are so many new tools and things. I’m not saying you need to go figure them all out.
Listen to podcasts that share this stuff, hear what other people are learning, and how we get the result faster. And you don’t need to do all the testing yourself, but there are specific tools that are related to what you’re doing and can help you save time. Then, yeah, you want to jump in, spend a little bit of time, because just going through the motions of what you’ve already done, this is a whole new way of being able to run businesses and run our lives.
Just having knowledge before and being a smart person, that’s kind of irrelevant now, because everyone is now a smart person with access to AI. So it is a whole rethink on what the areas are that I could use this to level up my personal life. Planning, as you’ve said, and I have to say, your podcast process that I went through to be a guest on here was awesome.
It’s one of the best ones that I’ve seen.
Check out insights, tips, and tricks from B2B experts in every episode of Social Pulse: B2B Edition.
So not only have you saved two hours in doing this, but the experience from my side was fantastic as well. So, this is the point that we want to get to: If you could just keep doing these two-hour blocks of things that you’ve always done, ’cause we have a process and I know that in a company or a business, that’s your holy grail, right?
You need to follow these things. We don’t break processes, but we need to have at least someone out there who is testing and always evolving these processes. And I think that’s the focus.
So, try to get across different things as they come up. Subscribe to newsletters and things that are going to make this easier for you. Allocate some time each week to seeing what we can evolve and always be testing.
Thank you for reading the recap highlights from this podcast episode with Justin Brown. Don’t forget to find Social Pulse Podcast: B2B Edition on Apple and drop us a review. And check out other editions of the Social Pulse Podcast like the Hospitality Edition, Agency Edition, and Retail Edition.
