Did you know that the world spends 3 billion hour a month watching videos on YouTube. And if you factor the time that people watch TV and movies, that’s a lot of time we spend watching video. Video has become a powerful medium for entertainers, marketers and advertisers. An audience will remember movie clips that makes them laugh or cry and there’s a high chance they’ll share it with their friends. But for the longest time, high quality high definition video, like what you see on TV was out of reach to small and medium businesses who cannot afford the big studio production equipment and manpower. But in recent years, consumer and prosumer video cameras gotten so much better in image quality that even small budget films can have that big budget movie look.
Videos are an effective way to get your company’s message to engage and excite your audience and bring out the expertise and passion of your team. Let’s start off by going through some of the most common types of video content.
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Transcript Below
1. Interviews
Conducting an Interview is a great way to bring out the personality of your subjects. Whether it be a CEO or a front line employee, there’s always lots original and genuine content you can bring out from them.
People love talking about themselves, so interviews are one of the simplest ways to get unique and original content for your web videos. And audiences love watching interviews, especially if its about a notable or familiar person.
All you need to get started is an interviewer and the interviewee. The interviewer can ask questions about the person’s role in the organisation, a subject matter the is familiar with, or talking about the challenges faced in their industry and how he or she is working to solves these challenges. Those are just examples, the possiblities are endless.
2. Venue / Product Showcase
Is your business in the hotel , food or retail industry? Want to show off your storefront , hotel facilities, or menu items? Why not make a video and share it with the your potential customers.
In the past we’ve done videos to bring out the beauty of a rooftop pool, hotel lounge, and even some scrumptious food. Try to make your audience imagine like they’re actually standing in your restaurant or hotel. This can get people excited hooked on the beauty of a facility.
When you showcase your products or venues, the focus is on the visual aspects. Do your best to find the best angle to shoot at, and ensure the you have adequate lighting.
3. Case Studies
You can use case studies to highlight accomplishments of your business. All you need to do is create a simple narrative summarizing how your business has made a positive impact in the community support by testimonials and footage.
We recently did a case study on a pilot project about a panda promoting deals around singapore. We put in footage of the panda interacting with pedestrians as well as showed how businesses benefited from the campaign.
Case studies are about educating your audience, so focus on key learnings in your video. People will appreciate videos that can gain them insight and learnings, so taking time to carefully craft your case study’s narrative will be critical to the video’s success.
4. Discussions
If you’ve watched our previous episodes of happy hour you’ve probably seen Rachit, Prantik and I talk about various topics in Digital marketing.
We have talked about digital advertising, social media, search engine optimization, google analytics and many more topics that we find interesting. You can discuss or even debate about issues important to customers and businesses in your industry.
Discussions are supposed to be casual, and natural sounding. Why this style rather than a more formal setting? The more natural your subjects are, the more genuinely they will discuss, and the more the audience will believe them. So take some time coming up with topics that you team will enjoy talking in depth about. And once you’ve shot it, you can upload it to the web. Just make sure your discussions aren’t too long. Keep your discussion video under 7 minutes long or else you’ll risk losing your audience’s attention.
5. News Updates
Just like the evening news, you can recap recent relevant developments in your industry. Are there new product launches or company announcements that your stakeholders need to be aware of? Are you in the fashion industry? Talk about the latest fashion shows, or fashion trends. In the tech industry, talk about the latest gadgets or cutting edge technology.
Keep your news updates brief and light hearted…almost conversational; there’s no need to be so formal like on TV, leave that up to the news anchors. And make it regular, start off by having a monthly recap of the biggest news stories, and when you’re ready move on to weekly news updates. The frequency is really up to you. The more the merrier because Audiences will always appreciate quick and snappy updates about topics relevant to them.
6. Company Introductions / Corporate Video
Company introductions give your business a chance to make a great first impression to those not familiar to your brand. We’ve done that for our company and we’ve gotten great feedback for it. You might often see company or product introduction videos on the home page of a website.
These types of video’s purpose is
- To quickly and concisely introduce your company and its aim
- To introduce the people who run the company which will humanize your brand.
People love stories. coming up with a great story about your business can be an effective way to introduce your company. Think of the story about how did your business started off and how did it get to where it is today?
7. TVC / Commercials
Creating video to marketing and advertise products is usually the first type of video businesses go for when diving into video marketing. Similar to company videos, commercials need to be crisp and concise when explain products. And since you want to make your product look desirable to your audience, it’s important that you pay attention to the visual quality as well as the audio quality of your video. A poorly produced commercial can easily turn off an audience, even if its an amazing product. A professionally produce commercial will excite your audience and create a strong desire to purchase your product. So take the time to plan out your commercials. The effort is worth it.
So what type of video is best for your business?
So you seen a lot of ideas: interviews, venue Showcases, case studies, discussions, news updates, company introductions and commercials. These videos all have the potential to entertain, inform and inspire your audience. Which of these types of videos fit into your business best? Creating great videos for your business and even for yourself is worth the effort.
If you have any questions about video marketing, feel free to drop us a message at hello@happymarketer.com. Until next time, happy shooting!
David Liem
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