Brand Marketing

Why You Shouldn’t Fear Producing Your Videos In-House

You know adding videos to your marketing mix is a no-brainer. But did you know you can produce high quality video content in-house?
Article Outline

Marketing videos can be a key part of your content marketing library. They enable potential customers to see your products in use, and allow complex ideas to be explained quickly and easily. As an example, the rest of this blog post (the text part) pretty much recaps what’s in the video embedded below. Which format is more informative? More interesting?

While most of you are on board with videos, few CMOs or their marketing teams have video production experience. However, not all your videos need to be outsourced to expensive video production agencies. With some planning, time, and a few bucks, you can produce high quality video content in-house.

Previously, Act-On’s Rick Daino walked you through the steps to creating a quick, Do-It-Yourself video setup. If you missed it, you can watch it here:

We’ll use that as the basis for the video embedded at the top of this post. In the future, we’ll cover other options for shooting in-house videos.

The first step to creating a great video is understanding that great content will beat out big budget productions every day.

Take a look at your analytics to find the best performing content you already have. This could be a blog post, infographic or white paper. This can be the framework for your first videos.

Not tracking your content’s performance?  Here are a couple reasons why you should and how to do it with Act-On:

Until then, consider chatting with your sales team or customer service team and ask them what questions your customers and prospects are asking.

The next step to building out your in-house video library is to consider your marketing funnel. Sure, you could have spent $5 million for a top-of-funnel Super Bowl commercial, but I believe you will get more bang for your buck if you focus on the middle- and bottom- of the funnel videos.

A great middle-of-funnel example is a client case study or a client testimonial video. These videos have been found to be among the most effective tools you can have in your marketing toolbox.

When you shoot your video – whether you use your smartphone or shoot with a DSLR – you will want to remember the rule of thirds, make sure you have good lighting, use a tripod, and use an external microphone.

Like the case studies you have written in the past, you want your client case study or testimonial to introduce the client, introduce the problem they encountered, address how and why they chose your solution, and what results they’ve had using your product.

In addition to interviewing your clients, you will want to shoot plenty of b-roll. What is b-roll? This is the secondary footage you capture of people working at their desks, entering the office, talking over some stuff with coworkers, and so forth. It helps liven up the final product so it’s not just talking heads the whole time, and you will use it to cover up the edits and multiple takes you shot during the interview.

Your client testimonial or client case study video can be used on your website, could go in your monthly email newsletter, could be included on a playlist on YouTube, and can be used directly in the sales process. You may also consider gating the video so that you can get a name and email of the person watching it.

As we move into 2016 and beyond, technology advances – including adding personalization – will continue to lower the barrier to you creating excellent in-house videos. Please comment below and share a link to the videos you are creating in-house.

Learn more about easing those prospects down the long road to a sale, with our free eBook, “10 Ways to Nurture the Buyer’s Journey.”

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