Your prospects will do tons of research on your company, service, or product before they pick up the phone, fill out a form, or start a live chat through your website. Videos in every area of your digital presence can give them an immediate peek into your brand and offerings before they reach out for more information. And seriously, who doesn’t want a shorter sales cycle, increased ROI, or better talent?
Of course, figuring out what video content to create can be a full-time job, but it doesn’t have to be. When we pulled our video production team in-house we saw a great opportunity to step back and analyze the flagship videos we needed to feature across the website. We started with our product, identified the gaps we had in our digital content, and created videos to feature product capabilities. Then we applied this process to other areas of Brightcove and now we have videos for all aspects of the company, including marketing, sales, and of course recruiting videos. It wasn’t a one-and-done project. Every quarter, we review which gaps we have in our video content and make a plan to fill them the next quarter.
We’ve found that the key to success here is simply knowing that you don’t need to produce hundreds of videos per quarter, and you don’t need to receive an Emmy to see results. You can keep the effort manageable and build it over time. We’ve compiled a list of the five types of videos you should and can produce no matter what your budget or resources.
1.) Product or Service Video
All the videos on this list are important, but your product or service video is the must-have, especially on your website. Why? Because prospective customers can read about your product or service, but they’ll really understand its full capabilities and value when they see it.
Video viewers said they retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text. Now that’s a profound stat! So by repurposing your content into a short product or service video, your prospective customers will actually remember your company and the message you wanted to convey to them. It’s a win-win.
For our product videos we like to focus on three key value points upfront so if viewers only watch the first 30 seconds they will be left with our top messages. And for this type of video we aim to stick it in 90 seconds because we know there will always be context and content around it.
Here’s an example of one of our Brightcove product videos:
2.) Company Explainer Video
Your explainer video is the view into your company’s mission, culture, and day-to-day operations. This is a great opportunity to get your executive team and employees in front of the camera so they can talk about the heart and soul of your organization and what makes it unique.
Your company explainer video only needs to be 2-3 minutes long and can include B-roll shots or photos of your team working together in their offices, at their desks, and even out in the field. This video humanizes your brand and helps your future customers put a face to the people they will be interacting with on a daily basis. People like to work with people, so let the personality of your employees shine through.
3.) Recruiting Video
You’re only as good as the people around you and those people can help you attract talent. The right talent. So for a recruiting video, turn the camera around and spotlight your team and workspace to show prospective employees what it’s like to work at your company. You should have at least one recruitment video on the careers page of your website and you can also share it on social media, especially LinkedIn.
I love our recruitment video. We wanted to help guide prospective employees and take them on a tour of our headquarters, which includes a look at our team and where we like to go for lunch or after-work happy hours. Through this video, they can immediately feel the corporate culture and can visualize themselves working here.
4.) Sales Video
How many hours a week does your sales team spend setting up and hosting demo calls with prospective customers? You can drastically reduce the time dedicated to these prospecting activities by creating informative and entertaining demo videos for your sales team. But it shouldn’t be your standard demo video that’s simply a screen share of your product or service and a voiceover from an employee.
Instead, start the video like you are in a face-to-face meeting and show the team member who is giving the demo. You can make your demo videos more dynamic by showing a human face and other shots in between product views. With Brightcove integrations, you can add call-to-actions into your video to lead a prospective customer to learn more on your website or to set up a call with an account manager. With interactive demo videos, your sales team will be able to cut down the length of their sales pipeline and can focus on doing what they do best — building relationships with your customers (instead of sending emails back and forth to schedule that demo meeting).
5.) Social Media Marketing Videos
According to Social Media Examiner’s 2018 Industry Report, 65% of marketers use video in their social media marketing, up from 57% in 2017 and surpassing blogging. You should definitely jump on this bandwagon if you haven’t already since video on social media has shown to increase post engagement and conversions.
Your social media videos should be treated a little differently than the other ones in your toolkit. They should be short (30 seconds or less), should have catchy imagery and text, and should get to the point of the video in the first five seconds. It’s also a good rule of thumb to make your videos in a square format so they take up more real estate on a user’s news feed. And you don’t have to spend hours creating and producing videos for social media either. You can simply grab your iPhone and start recording.
Where To Use Your Tools
Now that you have these five videos in your toolkit, keep in mind that they don’t just have to live on your website. You can (and should!) use these videos on a variety of channels, including social media, landing pages, emails, and digital advertising. You’ve put in the hard work to create these incredible videos about your team, services, product, and culture—it’s time for the world to watch them.
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