How to make compelling videos

Article
07/08/2022

Why use video? It's worth investing time and resources to create marketing videos for your app, it's taken seriously in a business environment.

Reasons why video is a superior medium

Videos offer a rich, stimulating communication medium that engages multiple senses.
Video engages the mind and triggers emotions, which makes it more compelling than text-based content.
Our brains have an easier time processing visual stories than bullet points or straight facts.

A recent Demand Gen survey indicated that 58% of B2B buyers consume video content, while Hyperfine media states that 59% of executives would rather watch video than read text. Also, 50% of executives look for more information after seeing a product/service in a video.

Speak to Specific Personas in your videos

You should create a video for each of the three core personas in the company:

WHY persona: Owner/executive/leadership
HOW: Business line manager
WHAT: IT buyer, User

A horizontal generic message that attempts to speak to everyone will likely not reach anyone in an emotionally engaging way. Wasting a prospect’s time by requiring the prospect to listen to irrelevant data or information will only create frustration and lead the prospect to form a negative bias towards your company.

Choose the video format that is relevant for the audience that you want to target

Video type 1: “Why” video

How to set up “Why” videos

Recommended length: 60-90 seconds
Purpose:
- Your video should clearly communicate WHY prospects need to buy your solution now.
Focus:
- Make sure the prospect is the hero of the story, not you or your company. Prospects aren't interested in hearing about your company at this stage. They're simply trying to determine if what you offer is of value to THEM.
- Your video should speak to the principal challenges and goals of your core decision-maker persona.
- Describe the desired end state they'll achieve by using your app.
- A client/customer speaking about the benefits they received from your app is far more credible and compelling than anyone from your organization.
  - Don’t only rely on “features” to acquire new customers.

How to speak to a WHY persona in a video

Target audience:
- Owner/executive/leadership
- They have limited time and financial resources as well as many competing priorities and resource requirements
- You need to elevate the discussion to a strategic level, where you highlight market share, competitiveness, profitability, differentiation, revenue loss, and more.
Message:
- The question you must answer beyond a doubt is WHY should they invest the time and money to buy your app? What will they get out of it?
- Why should they spend money on a new system now? Can’t they put it off?
- The WHY messaging teaches people something and it's industry specific and results oriented, as well as being memorable. It engages the emotional/limbic brain and leads to meaningful action.

Video type 2: “How & What” video

How to set up “How and What product videos”

Recommended length: Up to 3 minutes.
Purpose:
- This video goes into greater depth communicating the main benefits of your app and HOW you solve your prospects’ problems. You can include some WHAT content. • Focus:
- Demonstrating the proof of your claims is critical during this video.
- Show specific dashboards or visually show how you address prospect challenges.
- If possible, use contrast to create desire and a sense of urgency. For example, you could show a complex, ugly data-filled forecast spreadsheet next to a beautiful visual dashboard stating “your sales forecast before and after.”

How to speak to a HOW persona: (Business line manager)

Target audience: Business Line Manager
- HOW focuses on the operational benefits your solution will provide and HOW your organization will support the implementation.
- Speaking to the HOW persona starts to separate you from the pack. • Message: o HOW content is VISUAL in nature and ACTION oriented. It allows your prospects to identify with you at a FUNCTIONAL business level and to add on with you. It provides evidence that your organization has relevant industry experience. Tribal acceptance increases, while risk decreases.
- HOW messaging begins to appeal to the limbic brain because it's focused primarily on emotional business pains and problems.

How to speak to a WHAT persona: (IT buyer, User)

Target audience: IT-buyer, User
- WHAT people are often tasked with finding a solution and are important influencers in the decision, but they aren't the financial decision makers, and their opinions are easily overturned by HOW and WHY people in the organization.
- Therefore, don’t invest all of your marketing time, money, and effort into providing content just for them.
Message:
- You need to survive the WHAT inquisition and provide information about product-related features, functionality, and data so that prospects clearly understand your solution offering.
- However, this will seldom trigger an emotional response and, therefore, it's likely there will be little or no emotional engagement with your content.
- WHAT content is binary. WHAT content is a commodity. WHAT content is boring. Logical WHAT content is a necessary evil because many prospects initially go looking for it, but stopping here means remaining relevant only to WHAT personas.

Video type 3: “Getting started” video

How to set up “Getting started videos”

Recommended length: 2–3 minutes maximum.
Purpose: This video should prove it's quick and easy to get up and running with your app.
Target: What personas (Users, It buyers)

Video type 4: “Customer testimony” video

How to set up “Customer testimonial videos” - Recommended length: Up to 2 minutes

Purpose:
- Social reinforcement: Customer stories are the best proof of gain.
Focus:
- A story coming directly from your client in the form of a testimonial is stronger than having your prospects take your word for it. If prospects see that other similar people or companies have already purchased your solution, then their natural response will be to more readily accept it as a solution for themselves.

Video tips

How to structure your video and practical things to keep in mind when producing videos

How to structure the flow in your video?

Gain immediate attention in the first 10 seconds of the video Stimulate curiosity by including a hook phrase/comment that will elude to solving a pain point. Ask questions about the prospects’ core business challenges or ask about something they would like to do but can’t accomplish today.
Highlight the prospects’ problems: Use an empathetic approach when describing their current situation and demonstrate that you understand their current business challenges. They must relate to this if they're to continue watching.
Give them new learning Teach them something they don’t know. Demonstrate you have expertise and knowledge about their business or industry that they might not. Show you can offer strategic value to them.
Paint a picture of a desired outcome they would love to have or state they crave to experience. Highlight the benefits, rewards, and value they'll enjoy after they purchase from you. Include both what it looks like and how it will feel.
Prove what you’re saying is true Prospects don’t trust us when we say our products are great. Include objective and credible proof in the form of data, charts, graphs, quotes, statistics, or testimonials as evidence of your claims.
Ask them to take action. Include a call to action at the end of all videos. When viewers watch your videos, they should feel inspired to take the next step towards purchasing. Tell them what to do next and include an interactive link to the next step in the buying cycle. Use scarcity to compel them to action. Provide a time limited offer or, for example, say it is “only for the first 20 customers”.

Practical things to keep in mind when producing and distributing your video

Does and don’t when producing your video

Don’t make the video too long As our attention span is 8 seconds the ideal length of video is 90 seconds (minimum 30 seconds/maximum 2 minutes).
Add interactivity where possible Overlay text, charts, animation, questions etc. Visually call out key messages.
Make sure your audio is high quality.
Make your video easily shareable
Enable your video to be shared on multiple media. Track views and attention span. Observe and measure viewer patterns so that you can learn from prospects’ actual behaviors and then improve future content.

How to make a good narrative that speak to the right persona in the right way?

Your narrative should have a beginning, middle, and end.
- Lead with a story, not with your app or the technology.
- Don’t turn your videos into a product pitch.
- You’ll build more brand affinity and trust by shedding light on a problem your prospects care about rather than by pitching your solutions to them directly.
The brain is on alert at the beginning of the video and at the end.
- Make sure the first and last 10 seconds are compelling, memorable, and interesting.
Speak directly to a particular persona in the second person.
- Don't talk about them in the third person, and avoid using terms like “our clients” and “companies”; instead, use “you” language as often as possible.
- Use many industry specific vocabulary, terminology, and visuals. If possible, film onsite at a customer’s location rather than in your office or in a studio.
Speak to a particular persona:
- Don't try to appeal to everyone at once, as you may not fully engage anyone with this approach.
- Keep your delivery casual and authentic to instill trust. Speak directly to the prospect as if you were having a fireside chat
- The prospect should be the hero of the story, that is, don't speak about you and your company.
Ask rhetorical questions that stimulate pain and anxiety in your prospects in order to demonstrate that you understand their business problems.
- For example: Are your margins decreasing? Having cash flow problems because you can’t collect payments sooner than 90 days? Had another large write-off? Lost an important customer recently due to a late delivery?
Use visual and auditory language to help the prospect imagine a new possible future.
- For example: “imagine seeing”, “picture yourself”, or “how would you like to hear your clients say…” and so on.
Use contrast whenever possible.
- Compare prospects’ experience now versus what it could be after the implementation of your solution.
- Call out your competitive differentiators while anchoring your solution in prospects’ minds so that they can compare all others against the bar you set.