A question I get fairly frequently – in various forms – is “What kind of video do I need?”
When that happens, I generally counter with another question – “What is it you’re looking to drive with your video content?” The answer ranges from brand awareness or more traffic to thought leadership and engagement, and sometimes even “something that looks interesting to bring people to our booth at trade shows.”
Let’s look at each ROI goal and what types of videos can help reach it.
Brand Awareness
When you’re looking for brand awareness, the assumption is that you need people to know who you are and what you do – even if their perception of you may be different, such as after a you’ve gone through a rebrand and need to “re-introduce” yourselves.
This is where you want your real high-level, visionary pieces, such as:
- A corporate promotional video with your CEO and executive team
- An animation that breaks down the “What you do” concepts that first-time visitors may not understand
Traffic
If your end-goal is traffic, then you want to focus on things that will get people’s attention and also play well socially. A high-volume strategy like daily or weekly video blogs can give you fresh video content to push out and bring people onto the site.
Some other options that do well in search and social on YouTube:
- How-to videos
- Vox Pops (man on the street interviews)
Engagement
Video content aimed at engagement should be focused on getting viewers involved with your brand, as well as your core mission and offerings. You’re looking for comments, shares and other similar reactions that show your audience is tuned into what you’re saying.
See if you can generate discussion with:
- Vox Pops that address issues in your sector
- How-tos or demo content that can give customers ideas of how to better use your products or services.
Thought Leadership
While hard to define precisely, the driving force behind thought leadership is educational content to help generate trust and start to nurture prospective clients. Remember that if you’re creating videos for thought leadership, they don’t necessarily need to be tied into a particular conversion goal.
With thought leadership, you want to be known as a resource and a leader for industry issues. So look for ways to creatively discuss those ideas:
- Interviews with experts or executives
- How-tos that show viewers how to do something new
- Video blogs that convey your take on an important issue
To be successful with this goal, you need to step out of your comfort zone and avoid rehashing the same talking points everyone else has. If you’re not saying something different, then you’re not being a leader.
Lead Generation and conversions
If you’re focused on lead generation and trust, visitors are already aware of your brand, but they still need a push to become an actual conversion and start talking to your sales team.
To help visitors overcome that “Does this company actually know its stuff?” question, try formats such as:
- A product demo (or web demo for software companies) that shows how your products work will help people really start to understand you and see how your products could impact them.
- Interviews with your subject-matter experts
- Testimonials from some of your existing clients
In the end though, no matter what kind of video you do, you need to make sure you promote it correctly. Just making a video and showing it to your team with pride at your annual event doesn’t do anything other than make people feel good. You need to integrate it properly onto your site (here are our tips), and promote it the right way.
That’s how you really use your video content to drive your ROI goals.
