Whether you’re trying to find information about a topic or looking for entertainment, would you rather wade through walls of text online or watch a concise video? If you’re like most people, you’d probably prefer the latter.
In fact, it’s common knowledge now that the majority of people prefer to get data and learn about new subjects by seeing and hearing about them rather than by reading. If you’ve wondered how to use video to boost business for your company, here are nine great ways you can start today.
Launch a new division, product, or service
Video is the perfect medium for corporate launches for a number of reasons:
- It’s highly visual and encourages greater impact and memorability.
- The combination of visual and auditory information lets you cram lots of information into a short timeframe.
- You can generate more emotional involvement from your audience via creative filming, soundtracks, and the like.
- It’s easy to integrate into social media, which is where you’re likely to find more consumers these days.
- You can go in any direction with a launch video, from more traditional educational styles to inspirational epics with larger-than-life stories.
Release time-sensitive content
Along with product, service, and location launches, enterprises can easily use video to bring timely content to their audience. This includes breaking news, announcements, promotions, contests, and other items that need eyeballs now.
You don’t have to make these videos compete with the Oscars for artistic elements, but you do want to hook viewers from the start. You should also make your videos look and sound as professional as possible to avoid coming off as cheesy.
Become an industry authority
Educational content has been a mainstay of corporate videos since their inception, and that hasn’t changed. Thought leadership can bring your business credibility and authority, which eventually translates to revenue.
You want to be the company that the news calls when there’s a hot story in your industry and the one your peers turn to for the ultimate in encyclopedic knowledge.
That’s not to say your videos need to be boring. You can impart knowledge and still be interesting or even cutting-edge. The key is to make high-quality videos appeal to your niche market, not everyone on the internet.
Also, you want your educational videos to be part of a broader marketing effort that includes other types of video content for more variety and inclusivity.
Make complex information simpler
Part of being an industry authority is using video for business to make the information you know inside and out more accessible to a lay audience or one that’s less knowledgeable than you.
For example, if your company sells an innovative type of automotive fuel injector, you might want to do some videos explaining precisely how fuel injection works, different kinds of injectors, and how to install your fuel injector properly step by step. Break down the gritty facts of your product into bites your audience can comprehend, and they’ll thank you for the simplicity.
Give customers a glimpse behind the curtain
Depending on your industry and corporate culture, you may want to use online videos for your business to offer a look behind the scenes at your company. Think about workplace movies and television shows like The Devil Wears Prada or CSI.
People love getting that peek into worlds they don’t normally see, whether it’s the glamour of the fashion magazine industry or the allure of avant-garde technology that solves crimes.
Sometimes it’s the creative process or craftsmanship behind items that attract viewers.
Christian Dior has been very successful with this in a series of online social media videos demonstrating how their luxury products are made by hand, from the initial concept to the final trimming.
If your company is known for its amazing work environment, use video to show your offices or share a day in the life of an employee.
These days, consumers prefer to support businesses that treat workers well. If that’s you, why not take credit for it?
Share the spotlight with customers or colleagues
Consumers today also enjoy seeing videos of people whose lives have been changed in some major way — witness the popularity of home and personal makeover reality shows.
If you’ve transformed life or solved seemingly insurmountable problems for your customers or industry peers, by all means, share that with the world!
Rather than talking about it yourself, let your clients or colleagues have some fame too. It’s more impactful to watch a video where an everyday person undergoes a significant change than to hear about it from a second or third-hand source.
Did your company invent a surgical device that revolutionized the operating room? Bring on some doctors to speak about it. Was a customer’s life saved by your home security system? Put them in the frame.
Gain credibility from influencers and celebrities
For some types of enterprises, the most effective type of credibility comes from celebrities and social media influencers. This is particularly true in media, the arts, fashion, beauty, literature, and other more creative pursuits. While it’s great when one of these gurus vlogs about your product or service, it’s often even better if you control the video for the best of both worlds. Why not ask an influencer if you can film their next unboxing of your skincare line or celebrity red carpet moment wearing your gown?
Give people a break from their tired reality
Sometimes, your videos barely need to be about your product or company at all, other than producing a memorable few minutes of footage that everyone will associate with your brand.
People adore it when a normally conventional company makes an ad or social media video that’s shocking in its break from normalcy.
Say goodbye to literal groundbreaking videos of new headquarters under construction (snore) and bring your audience something groundbreaking on another level. If you’re that hypothetical company mentioned above that makes fuel injectors, take some high-end cars out on a dry lake bed and let them rip to some good ol’ rock and roll music.
Or go a step further and film some hawks flying across a golden prairie, as a metaphor for what drivers will feel like when they use your automotive parts in their vehicles.
Shootsta is your go-to when using video to boost an online presence
No matter which of these methods you use to cement your brand online, you want a product that’s professional and polished in the end. Shootsta can help you deliver that, with a cloud-based subscription service that combines your videography with local expert editing.
You choose how much control you want over post-production, and we can even assist with your shoots to give you the results you want.
