With online advertising brining in record amounts of ROI, companies are bringing innovation to the fore when creating much of their marketing collateral. This innovation is fostered by a need to stay on top of the tidal wave of content that finds its way onto the internet every day. Viral videos in particular, have a tendency to spend weeks monopolizing user attention and it’s no surprise to see organizations turning to professional B2B video production houses when it comes to creating an effective and infectious company video.
If you’re planning a jaunt along the graffitied halls of video virality, here are a few tips to keep you ahead of the competition.
1. Get The Crux Out, Repeatedly
State your core message twice or thrice, preferably at the beginning, somewhere in the middle and at the end. Fail to do this and you risk undermining the impact of your video. Additionally, without a frequently repeated core, viewers may not know what to take away from your production. Intermittently repeating the crux of what you’re trying to get across can solve that problem.
2. Too Many Cooks
If you’ve included people in your video, make sure you have a single person doing the talking with two auxiliaries at most to support him/her. Any more than that and the video will sound like a string of testimonials. However, by placing emphasis on a single person, you can give the audience a persona to remember and relate to.
Be careful, though. You want to promote your product benefits and your company. Not your spokespeople.
3. Keep It Short
If you need help figuring out how long or short your video should be, think of the average pop song or music video. Most of them aren’t more that 2-4 minuets long. If you want viewers to watch the entire video, you’d emulate music producers as far as video length is concerned. People will not watch a video that is longer than 4 minutes, believe me. Why? Because there is a storm of video that’s constantly raging across the internet and folks will want to watch other stuff, too.
4. Keep it Tight
Don’t say a lot. Your video should communicate a single, highly marketable aspect of your business. One way to make a short video impactful is to craft a single core message into. Anything more and you’ll be perceived as a rambling, bland buzz that will never be filed away in the brain’s memory banks.
5. Get Rid Of The Amateurs’ Hire A Pro
You may be tempted to cut costs and use that shady, little digital camera that you picked up at a yard sale, but unless you want to look like a small town mom-and-pop thrift store, you’re going to have to hire a professional team. Like all advertising, the quality of your video will represent the caliber of your company. You don’t want to come off as a heavily pixilated enterprise with crappy sound quality.
6. Write A Creative Brief
A brief will help you keep all the aspects of video production in order. Figure out who your audience is likely to be, video resolution, length, sound quality, budget, etc. Set down the roles different production team members will play in creating your video and deadlines for each task. Also, define what the parameters of success are and outline your post-production plans. Putting everything that matters into this document, you’ll be creating a master plan for team members and an instrument that will keep your bosses in the loop.
7. Captivate And Enthrall
Creating a successful business video is ALL about entertaining your audience and keeping them interested in your video. In fact, if you want to go viral, you’re going to need the kind of video that keeps viewers wide-eyed as they replay it. You’ll need the kind of video that makes people want to be the first ones to share it. In short, you’ll need a highly entertaining piece that keeps users in their seats, eyes glued to the screen, rapidly clicking on social networks buttons to spread some of your awesomeness around.
8. Maximize Your Coverage
Make sure your video reaches out to everyone who makes a difference to your company. This includes shareholders, suppliers, future investors, the general public, social media audiences, employees, visitors to headquarters, important clients, industry forums, seminars, etc.
9. Step Into Someone Else’s Limelight
Getting your product or service endorsed by a celebrity or a major industry player can sometimes be exceedingly helpful, since the endorser’s reputation and fan base can be relied upon to drive your video up the search rankings.
10. Be Animated
If you don’t have the resources to hire a hit video squad, place your money in the hands of a skilled animator. You may not get exactly what you wanted, but the infographic style of delivering information is all the rage. This is especially effective when you’re trying to explain a complex process, or attempting to knit many elements together to form a unified whole.
Oh, and one last thing include a call to action. Depending on the industry you’re in, you may want to ensure that the call to action is, in fact, the crux of your message. I hope this article helps you create a better B2B video experience and should you care to add to or dispute any of the above, feel free to leave a comment!
