Engaging your audience with video content is essential in today’s content rich, image rich environment. It’s also important to note that our workplaces will soon be flooded with true digital natives—people who grew up with smartphones and tablets. These people communicate in a seemingly endless array of images and videos on platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr, and using emoji, sometimes without any words at all.
It’s not likely that a professional services or B2B business will ever communicate to its audience without text, but we need to approach marketing from the perspective of an image rich background in order to capture the widest audience. And, when all is said and done, image and video rich content is simply more interesting to digest – we can all agree on that.
Video marketing comes in an array of styles and forms. Below are just a few types of video content that will contribute to a well-rounded video marketing campaign.
Video Interviews
Planning is essential when filming video interviews, so it’s recommended to work with a marketing agency to strategize about the goals for these videos, especially the final edited clips and multitude of applications for them. Plus, organizing a media library with your video content can maximize its potential. There are several steps to planning video interviews.
You will need a list of questions that garner answers to generally describe your business and some deeper questions to cover the more complex aspects of your business. These will speak to the segment of your audience who is most knowledgeable and deeply engaged. Covering as much ground as possible during these interviews will pay off in the long run. You will spend a day or more of setup and filming, but end up with many options for arranging different interview clips for different purposes.
Next you’ll develop a list of stakeholders who will answer the interview questions. Scheduling these interviews all on the same day saves time, as lighting and equipment setup and strike can take hours. You’ll assign a person to be the interviewer, someone who knows the stakeholders and has a good rapport with them. Make sure all persons on camera have been given a styling guide so they know what to wear and what to avoid, plus tips on hair and makeup. Planning a video shoot requires a lot of attention to detail and teamwork, so be sure to work with a group to make sure all aspects of the day are covered.
Environmental Video
Also known as “b-roll”, these short action clips are of your employees at work, interacting with clients, product demonstrations and applications in the “real world,” and your office as well as the city in which you are located. These capture the personality and essence of who, what, and where your business is, so plan on brief, dynamic shots that will captivate your audience. These clips can be used for website headers (without sound or music is recommended–it can be annoying to visit a website and have unwanted music blast suddenly), in conjunction with interviews to create more interest (rather than just a talking head), and as brief clips for social media ads or posts. These clips are an essential part of any media library, as they can be used over and over to create new content.
When planning for these b-roll videos, you’ll want to try to keep the shooting time to 1 or 2 days, or less. Spreading out shooting days can get expensive and time-consuming, as equipment setup is required for these shoots as well. You’ll also want to organize and schedule all the shots that you’ll be capturing, preferably with a shot list and location schedule. These will also help all of the people who will appear in the video know when they are needed and where to be.
Event Video
These videos are usually a combination of both interview and environmental shots. For those businesses that have an annual or quarterly event such as corporate sales meetings, trainings, trade shows, workshops, etc, don’t miss the opportunity to capture video and record the event and your interactions. During events, there is usually a lot of interaction between your staff and clients or prospects, your employees collectively, and your products. These are perfect opportunities to capture environmental video of organic interactions with your business. Also consider preparing a list of questions to ask people you encounter—whether they are clients, prospects, or simply people passing by. You may be able to capture video testimonials that are invaluable.
Planning for event videos means informing the videographer of the schedule during the event, such as when dinner will be served and when speeches will be made. Prepare a shot list for the videographer and make sure they have a point of contact in case they have questions during the event. Event video shoots are less structured so the videographer will need to go with the flow of the event and follow your shot list as well as they can. They (and you) have less control over their subjects and capturing certain clips so be flexible.
Strategizing about the goals of your video campaign will maximize the use of your time and budget. This will help you create evergreen content that you can repurpose for other aspects of your content marketing. Pinstripe Marketing can create and execute a video content strategy that will enhance the visual content of your business and engage your clients on a deeper level. We’d love to hear from you if you have a project in mind and are interested in learning more.
