Colouring in for Business Success. OR - How to make your video really count.

Colouring in for Business Success.

OR - How to make your video really count.

If you market a service in today’s content driven environment then video is something you should seriously consider.  It’s too good an opportunity to miss.  And yet there is a huge pitfall for the unwary.  If your only visual resources are your staff and your premises, then you are going to encounter some big challenges.  

You’re not Jeremy Paxman – but then who is?

This was the theme of a seminar I gave early last year to members of the Business Networking SW group in Bristol.  The point being that even the most knowledgeable and experienced people can come across as horribly wooden and boring on screen.  It’s not surprising really – few of us are natural Evan Davies or Robert Pestons (and even they needed a bit of practice).

Am I bovvered?

The problem is that we live in a fast paced business environment – only slick presenters, supported by rich content, delivered with speed, variety and dynamism, will successfully engage viewers whose attention spans seldom stretch beyond a few seconds. 

In my talk I suggested that talking heads, presenter or discursive based videos are just too ponderous and dull for today’s audience.  What’s more, they don’t use the medium to maximum effect.  

They are relatively easy and cheap to produce – but what’s the point if nobody watches them?!  Their only value is the mild SEO boost you’ll get from embedding video into your website.  

What worked back then may not work now

Having said that, they’re very popular with the ex-broadcast community for whom the style is not only tried and tested but comfortably familiar.  That explains why they are so often recommended as the default approach.  But the truth is it’s a dated one.

I’m not suggesting that one should never use people talking to camera when you produce videos for your website or your social media marketing. Far from it – satisfied customers delivering credible and natural testimonials are hugely powerful as pre-sale qualifiers for the risk averse or the nervous prospect. 

But PLEASE .....don’t use talking head videos as a core element within your content marketing strategy.  The only people who really watch them are those who already know the speaker.

Don’t watch my lips – there’s more exciting stuff for you to see

There is real value in what knowledgeable, experienced, people have to say about the work they do.  But the best way to leverage the full value from their words is to avoid sticking a camera on their face for minutes at a time.  A much more engaging approach is to fill the screen with dynamic visual content which reinforces the audio information being conveyed.

Think about it – how many TV commercials do you see with the client talking to camera for 30-60 seconds?  Not many!  How many do you see with lots of exciting and highly watchable visual activity and a voiceover running in the background?  Lots!  Why do big advertisers do this?  Because it works!

Video offers the power of pictures – use it!

If you fill the screen with visuals that grab and hold the attention you get twice the bang for your buck.

  

If the words and the visual are the same (ie you are just watching someone talking to camera) then half of the power of the medium is wasted – you might as well just have the sound alone!  

But if you have visuals that demonstrate the service in action, that help people visualize the features and benefits, that dramatise the value being delivered, then you double the effect (actually, it’s more than double, as the sum is greater than the parts and the way they combine can increase the power by a factor of three, four or five times).

Seeing is believing 

The use of video is more than just a marketing opportunity. It is the "must have" component in your content marketing tool box. Particularly for technically rich or complex information first consumed on a mobile device.

Here's a short summary of the seminar content.