Video marketing can be one of the most effective ways to position your brand, explain your offering, and/or sell your product.
We know it’s exciting to think about music and animation and drones and all that fun stuff, but too often people start planning the details before they know why they’re making a video in the first place. It’s really important to know why video works and what its strengths are prior to diving in head-first.
These are my top 5 tips to help you make the best corporate profile video for your business.
1. Say it with feeling
The best thing about video is its remarkable power to elicit emotions, and any good marketer knows that emotion is much better at influencing behaviour than information is. So what emotions should your video create in the viewer? Excitement? Amusement? Relief? Awe? Empathy? Positive emotions are more common but it is okay to use negative emotions too (for example fear can help with a problem -> solution message).
2. Focus on the viewer
It seems obvious, but it’s too frequent that businesses create a video without speaking to their audience, and instead focus just on their business. What does your audience want to see?
A shared, common problem is what makes your audience your audience. The problem could be simple, like “hunger”, or it could be specific, like “tool maintenance costs” – but there will always be a problem. What makes your audience’s life hard? What are they stressed about? How can you help make their life easier?
Demographics-wise, are they young or old, male or female, expert or amateur, busy or bored? This will affect the look, script, duration, pacing and distribution channels for your video.
3. Check out the competition
Research your market. Know what competitors are doing and don’t copy them by accident (or on purpose, which is even worse). Is there something to be learned from their mistakes? Can you see what has worked for them and what hasn’t?
Think about what you offer that they don’t as well, so that you can include some of these key points of difference in your video. And don’t forget to incorporate your general “brand personality” into your video as well. Whether you’re quirky (like Google), sophisticated (like Mercedes-Benz), funny, minimalist, or something else, your video should fit consistently within your greater business image.
In communicating with your corporate video production company, reference videos are useful as well – they may be from an entirely different market, but humour and beauty are very subjective, so examples can help get everyone on the same page.
4. Work within your means
Consider what you have at your disposal. Do you have great people who could be the face of your video? People are attracted to people, and this is one of the best ways that you can get your audience to identify with your brand – by revealing some of the humans behind it and encouraging a personal connection.
But what else? Do you have a cool warehouse you could use as a location? Do you have happy customers who would give a great testimonial? Does your uncle own a boat that you could film on? Think outside the square and maximise the resources you have.
5. Don’t forget the most important thing: action
Beyond just the CTA (call-to-action) at the end of your video, ask yourself what exactly you want the viewer to do. The answer to this question should affect your whole approach. If you want viewers to share your video on social media, entertainment should be your top priority. If you want viewers to buy a complex product, then explaining it might be more important than entertaining the audience.
Once you’ve considered all of the above, you’re ready to create an effective video brief.
