When you think of corporate videos, it’s hard not to think about executives in suits, high production costs, and little actual impact on your target audience. This is what we’ve all been used to with corporate video. However, Google with Youtube and newer consumer video technology are dramatically changing the perception of video and enabling it to be one of the most valuable sales and marketing tools.
It was not long ago when a boring 5-10 minute professional corporate video would cost $20K+. What was even harder to swallow than spending all that money was that your messaging changes and the shelf life of that video was much shorter than you expected. It was tough justify the cost by using the video as a demand gen marketing piece.
The world of video production has changed dramitcally. Today, you can buy a Flip HD video camera ($200), a webcam ($25) if your laptop does not already have one, and a license of TechSmith Camtasia Studio ($350) for video editing. And, for about $600, you can now produce your own sales and marketing videos on demand. You can even use Youtube to host your videos for free. This is exactly what we did at my last company and it was very successful.
What’s more, video helps with your Google search engine ranking. How? While somebody may download a white paper, print it, and read it offline, video keeps visitors engaged on your web site. Google looks at the average time being spent on your site and the higher that time is the more relevant your web site is to Google. This can greatly improve your SEO resulting in more visitors to your web site. This is the number one reason why you should be using video.
Here are some ideas for your videos and what worked for us:
- Customer testimonials- You can talk about how great you are all day long and know one will care, but if your customers say you are great, it carries much more weight. Send your customer a webcam and give them 2 or 3 questions to talk about. Then let them keep the webcam as a thank you.
- Product “how to” videos -- get your technical people involved and create quick 2-5 minute videos that walk people through the install and set up process and more targeted how to do ‘this’ with your products. You’ll be surprised how these videos help shorten the sales cycle and reduce support calls.
- Partner training -- build a video library of training materials to help train your partners. Everybody is resource constrained and video is a great way to reduce the onsite training burden while still maintaining a personal touch.
- Corporate positioning -- find your corporate spokesperson and use video as a positioning tool for video podcast that can be sent to press, analysts, investors, etc...
- Funny videos- This is the hardest one to produce but can also pay big dividends, so don’t be afraid to try. Who knows one of your videos could go viral.
Give video a try and you will be amazed at what you can do and instant results you will see. Bottom line is video will greatly expand your reach on the web. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to contact me and I talk to you about how we did it and more tips and tricks.
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