5 Types of Video for Next Year
The importance of video increases each year alongside the rapid changes in technology: We’re now viewing content at a higher resolution On-Demand, on a range of devices, laptops and TV screens and with that comes the ability to stream higher and higher resolution.
We now live in a binge-watching society – where audiences digest content in varying quantities, be it multiple 15 second Instagram stories to 6 hours straight of The Crown.
Although very different, both of these examples share one glaring similarity – the need to encapsulate an audience. For marketeers, it’s a similar story – How do I captivate an audience so they truly understand my product, service or company? Below I share the top 5 Video Types of 2020 as well as some tips to ensure that you draw your audience in...
Subtitling videos is actually one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to further enhance your latest videos and to rejuvenate older videos. Transcription is quick, cheap and painless and adding subtitles is literally just a drag and drop. And for all that, you are then able to have your videos on loop at exhibitions and be able to promote them socially.
Every video you share on social media should have subtitles, bottom line, and if you think that this isn’t needed, take a thought into how you personally watch videos on social media.
It doesn’t just end at subtitles – think of who your audience are – and where they are from? Growing markets in South America and Asia? It doesn’t take much or cost a lot more to put subtitles on your videos in multiple languages, but the return can be fantastic.
One tip to make that process run smoothly would be to get your translations proofread as with scientific content, certain terminology can be mis-interpreted and a quick proof from a distributor can be a very worthwhile exercise.
I remember filming a four-hour symposium that was sponsored by one of our clients. It consisted of several presentations by key opinion leaders and the place was full of relevant people who the client would be looking at targeting. How do you get all of those relevant individuals in one place? That would be the key opinion leaders, experts in their field sharing their research.
Thought Leader Testimonial Videos
When you or your sales team talk to your existing customers, there will always be moments when they say something positive about your product or service and you think ‘man that would be great if we could get them to say that on camera!’
Get a video production crew, go to your client’s premises, interview them and film your instrument being used in their lab. However, always remember why that symposium is packed full of people – they are interested in the research first! When you interview your client, ask them about what they’re currently doing or are involved with? Ask them about their research and what they are trying to find?
Plan your Video Strategy
You’ll not only get great content that specifically targets and engages your audience, you’ll also get a passionate testimonial from a key opinion leader: What starts off as a leading, well respected academic discussing their research also doubles a natural promotion of your product, service and company.
This is a lot easier than many people think! You may find that you have a competitor who is very active when it comes to video and are producing several videos a quarter that go out on multiple distribution platforms. And you think to yourself ‘how on earth did they manage that? It takes me 6 months to get one out!’
A lot of the time you can take one video and split it into short snippets that can be promoted separately via social media (don’t forget to subtitle!) or targeted email campaigns.
You can also produce quick videos based on applications or market sectors by taking advantage of stock video or imagery alongside on screen text. They are relatively simple to put together and can help you get so much more from video.
How many ‘deer in headlight’ corporate videos have you watched where the person in front of camera is robotically listing off key company information verbatim from their about page?
‘Behind the scenes’ videos are really powerful in showing the human approach to your company as well as seeing the level of detail that goes into the production of your instrumentation, service and support. This type of video would be great socially and would connect more with your audience.
Training videos are a key learning tool for any product you have whether it be for internal staff or new users. For staff, they are a great tool for showing how a product operates, its key features and applications.
Whereas for users it is a fantastic way to troubleshoot and learn how to use the product. From a customer service perspective, having short tutorial videos are a clever way of meeting the need for instant gratification, especially living in the Youtube generation.
Training & Ease of Use Videos (View Examples)
Think of the prospect who is based on the other side of the world – you missed them at that tradeshow, they weren’t able to make the event at your demo lab… so how do you reach them with your product? Sometimes seeing a product in a real-world setting is better than a promotional product video as it will highlight your USPs in a much greater way.
If your USP is ease-of-use, such that one person can operate your instrument from a desktop as opposed to four people operating it in a purpose-built lab, then demonstrating that feature can be extremely powerful.
2D animations are an elegant way of presenting your company, product or service in a manner that is simplistic, shareable and easy to understand. When people ask about 3D animation, I would advise using it only where 2D simply doesn’t show enough detail as your budget can rack up fast even if you know exactly what you want.
2D animation, is a cheaper alternative that can still have the same impact as 3D and in some cases, due to its simplistic structure, be more effective than 3D animation.
The price range for 3D animation can vary massively, and it is mainly based on length of the video and whether models have to be drawn from scratch. One tip I would have when it comes to animation is have a decent sized script and project that covers multiple areas and then have them split up into smaller shareable chunks. This, like video, would be considerably cheaper and would give you more bang for your buck.
If you want to discuss this further on a more company specific basis, please contact us or take a look at our Video Services page.
Plan your Video Strategy
Thought Leader Testimonial Videos
Training & Ease of Use Videos
