If you’re reading this article, you know you need to make video, you just don’t know what the videos should be about. Here are five different styles of videos that are worth your effort because their mere existence will save you time, reduce costs, replace marketing, foster product development, and generate revenue.
Turn each FAQ into a video
Most businesses have a page of Frequently Asked Questions, a.k.a. an FAQ. But not nearly that many businesses have an FAQ on video. If you have a list of frequently asked questions for which you’re still getting support requests, augment those FAQ answers with a video-based FAQ. If you create a video that better explains and shows how to solve a problem it will save time and money at your call center and support desk. Especially if the explanation requires a lot of showing how your product or service works.
For example, I’m a customer of Crashplan, an online backup service. I’m also in the market to buy a new computer and I wanted to know how I’d go about transferring to a new computer without having to reupload the hundreds of gigabytes of data. I found an answer to the question, but I also found a video, less than 2 ½ minutes in length, that very clearly explained how to make the transfer.
A 30-second video of your elevator pitch
Smart businesspeople make sure they hone their answer to the question, “What does your business do?” down to the perfect 30-second elevator pitch. It’s not only perfected, it’s also often repeated. Do you know if your colleagues are repeating the same exact pitch? Get everyone on the same page and save yourself a lot of time by converting your 30-second elevator pitch into a video. Explain what it is that you do, and how you’re different from the competition. When you place the 30-second explanation of your business at the top of your front page, you don’t have to rely on site navigation to direct customers. Your video can explain and direct for you.
Become an influencer by associating with other influencers
One way to look like an industry hotshot is to align yourself with other industry hotshots. The best and easiest way to do this is to simply interview them about what they know. With your editorial branding around them, and merely by association, you will be considered an industry influencer. Interviewing and creating content through the minds of others is the most common way to build an editorial brand. This is one of the core models Spark Media Solutions uses to build editorial brand and influencer relations. Most traditional news and opinion-based media build their brand in this way, and as a result the public’s perceived knowledge of the media brand is extended through the wisdom of others. Plus, interviewing influencers is an excellent way to form a professional relationship with an influencer prior to building a business relationship.
There are so many more benefits possible when you seek to interview others in your industry. For more, read “Increase Your Visibility by Pulling a PR 180°.”
Video series to explain industry issues
If you want to be known for a certain industry topic, take the time to educate your audience on that topic. For those who take the effort, they begin writing a blog on the topic. For those who really want to get noticed, they start an audio podcast. Compared to bloggers, podcasters are a rare breed. There’s only one podcaster for every 900 bloggers. Even more rare than podcasters are video bloggers. A video series, like a podcast, builds brand loyalty. And if you have a business for which building trust over time is critical to your sales cycle, then creating a video series that educates your audience and steers them to solutions for which your company can supply an answer, is the best option.
For example, content marketing firm Freshwire started a series, The Content Brief, to educate existing and potential customers. While the videos don’t get that much traffic, that’s not necessary as they’re a B2B company that’s looking to form big expensive relationships with just a few companies. Freshwire claims their content marketing education series is responsible for two new clients who brought in an excess of $1 million each in new business.
Let your audience deliver business services for you
Video contests are an excellent way to generate a variety of free business services such as:
Marketing: Ask customers for video testimonials or why they love your product so much.
Recruiting: Resumes and cover letters don’t show passion. Turn a job listing into a “dream job” contest. Ask candidates to send in a video explaining or showing why they’d be the best person for the job.
Product development: Have customers send in a video asking questions of what changes they’d like to see made, or better have them send in their ideas of what changes they’d implement and how they’d make the product better.
Calculating the business cost/lost revenue of not making the video
The answer to “How much does a video cost?” (one of the most common questions we get) falls along the lines of “How long is a piece of string?” A video can cost nothing (something you shoot on your phone) to as much as six figures depending on the amount of production and post-production you need.
Your best bet to determine your budget for video is to figure out what value a produced video would generate for your business. For each of the aforementioned recommended video strategies, ask yourself what does it currently cost you or what is the lost revenue of not producing the video.
Customer service: If you know that 30 percent of your calls and support tickets are asking questions that can be found on your FAQ, you can easily calculate the wasted time and money you spend handling those questions. A series of videos answering those questions will reduce the calls to your call center, and reduce the time the help desk must take to answer the questions. If customers don’t find the answers themselves, the agents can simply point customers to the videos.
Basic explanation of your business: Is confusion of the company message causing problems? Are you and your colleagues wasting a lot of time explaining what your business is about? Are visitors to your website navigating to the wrong places? Confusion can be very costly. A video explaining your business will reduce a lot of pain, and help more people understand what it is you do. Once people clearly understand, they’ll be able to tell others.
Showcase industry influencers: How much are you spending on PR to constantly “pitch” influencers about your product with the hope of a response? And how much are you spending on your content marketing effort through your blog to build your brand? Do you have any relationships with industry influencers? Are you seen as an industry influencer? What would it be worth it to you and your business if you were respected among the top industry influencers?
Customer education videos: Determining the cost of a video series is similar to the basic explanation of your business. What is the business sales cycle costing you? Is there a competitor or a media outlet that’s better explaining the industry than you are? How can you lead that charge? How can videos help you bring potential customers into a lead capture funnel?
Video contest: Given that most of these videos are designed to augment or replace business services (e.g., marketing, recruiting, product development) your major cost here won’t actually be in producing the video, but rather in producing the contest to attract and solicit videos. Again, easy to determine cost here. Simply calculate what you’re currently spending against these areas and you now have your budget.
Looking to build your brand through video and other media? That’s what we do at Spark Media Solutions, and we’d love to show you how we’ve done it for tons of clients and how we can do it for you. Contact us.
