Producing Business Videos That Generate Revenue
When taking your content strategy to the next level, producing business videos has to be part of the conversation. Getting your feet wet by posting fun and/or informative videos to your social media or YouTube page is a great start, but did you know there are things you can do to make your business videos drive actual sales? Keep reading to learn more about producing business videos that generate revenue and start having your videos do work for you.
Producing Corporate Videos That Generate Revenue: Pick Your Goal
Producing a great business video that generates revenue needs to, first and foremost, have a specific goal. This goal needs to be chosen before anything else, as it will be the driver of your script, tone, and messaging. It will also be what helps measure the effectiveness of your video and determine whether the video was a success, or if picking another goal next time might be better. The three main goals for business videos that generate revenue are brand awareness, lead generation, and direct sales.
Goal 1: Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is an ideal goal if you can relate to one of the following examples:
- Opening a new store, restaurant, or office
- Announcing a new product launch
- Adding a new service to your company’s offerings
- Announcing an upcoming event that you are hosting
- Educational videos
- Showcasing your brand’s values, culture, and people
While these examples do not immediately generate a large number of revenue or sales, brand awareness videos will generate new leads and sales in the long run. These types of videos drum up business by way of a marathon, rather than a sprint. They are what allows your audience to get to know you, become familiar and comfortable with you, and will plant a seed in the back of their mind. This way, when they are ready for a product or service like yours, you will be the first brand they think of. Rather than going in for the hard sell, brand awareness videos take their time to gently nurture the lead — just like any good salesman.
Goal 2: Lead Generation
Lead generation videos are an ideal goal if you can relate to one of the following examples:
- You sell high-priced products and services like real estate, financial instruments, or luxury goods and services
- Promoting complex products that require educating the client on the distinctions and benefits, such as medical procedures and services, legal services, or complex IT products
- You need to build your own in-house list of prospects that are interested in your products and services
When it comes to lead generation videos, you are giving your viewers a distinctive action to follow. These actions should be to either pick up the phone and call you, to visit your establishment, to email you, or to fill out a form. Lead generation videos should be informative, but leave just enough of a cliffhanger for the viewer to perform your desired action.
If you are promoting a product or service that is complex to explain or has a high price point, you may want to produce a lead generation video that invites people to learn more about your offering by filling out a simple form. You can then follow up with them by phone, email, or mail and continue the sales process.
Goal 3: Direct Sales
Direct sales videos are an ideal goal if you can relate to one of the following examples:
- Selling seasonal products and services
- A sale or promotion with an expiration date, such as Black Friday
- Asking for donations
As the title of this goal suggests, direct sales videos are designed to produce a sale in real-time. Quite the opposite of a brand awareness video, you desire the viewer to take action right there and then. The features and benefits you are promoting must be presented in a compelling way and there must be the urgency to complete the transaction at that moment. Infomercials, those donation commercials with the sad Sarah McLachlan song playing, or bright social media posts urging you to act now are just a few examples of direct sales videos you’ve more than likely come in contact with.
An important note about direct sales videos is to understand that while they are the fastest way to produce revenue, they aren’t always the right goal for your company. Keep in mind that when it comes to buying ads to air your video, you will usually pay more for direct sales videos than you would for lead generation or brand awareness. They are usually priced differently by the ad networks. As business owners learn more about marketing, they tend to move to lead generation and brand awareness ads. Generally speaking, you will reach more people with brand awareness ads at a lower cost, making it important to take the time to plan out your goal accordingly.
Understanding Your Market
Now that you have chosen your goal, it is time to understand your market. And — you are wrong! Everybody in the world is not your target market. Everybody speaks a different language. College students speak differently than C-Suite executives, Moms speak differently than Grandmothers, and an HR representative will speak differently than a CEO. What is your category, or categories, of person?
Your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience at a deep level helps you determine the type of video that will resonate with them to take action. You can achieve this by:
- Casting. By casting the right actors and spokesperson, they will be able to see themselves in your video. This will allow them to feel more comfortable in making their decision to choose you, as they are able to relate and envision it in their lives.
- Scriptwriting. Setting the language and tone of the video script for the correct audience is essential. Would a young mom watch the same videos as a businessperson in their 60’s?
- Demographics. Knowing the demographic of your audience will help you when you go to ad networks to buy ads. You will be able to narrow down your audience by gender, age, household income, and topics of interest to be able to specifically pinpoint your desired audience.
Who Are Your Competitors?
The great thing about producing business videos that generate revenue is that researching what works well is simple: Look at your competitors. By finding the most effective videos and studying them, you will make sure that yours presents a better offer, value, and connect with the audience at a deeper level.
Competitor research is easy: search for related products and services on YouTube, Vimeo, and Google and find out what your audience is likely to see if they search the web. Write down a list of their Unique Selling Propositions or USBs. If there are lots of USBs to go through, you can categorize them into some general categories like:
- Quality. Promising high-quality products, services, or experiences.
- Pricing. Promising the lowest price or discounts.
- Risk Aversion. Promising money-back guarantee, warranty, or price matching.
When writing your script, make sure that your offerings meet or beat your competitors’ offerings. If you’re not able to beat the offerings, make sure your video is better through production quality, humor, length, or guarantee.
What Are Your Industry’s Current Trends?
Market trends are changing all the time. Just as fast as we get the hang of something, there is a newer or better way to do it. We want to be aware of the trends in our industry and use them to help our brands stay relevant. Social media platforms like Twitter and TikTok are great places to uncover trending topics in your industry, as well as Google Trends.
These are important because talking about a trending topic can help your video or commercial gain high viewership very quickly. Find the trending topics and hashtags and use them to your advantage so that you can become part of the conversation, and seen as the thought leader in your space whenever something new emerges.
Effective Content Strategy
Now that you have your video’s goal and target audience, it is time to develop an effective content strategy to engage with them to win business away from your competitors.
This is where we see a lot of commercials and corporate videos fail. Producers spend a lot of time making beautiful scenes with clever dialog, but the core message that will make customers take action is weak or it’s missing altogether. Without it, your video will fall short, no matter how much you spend on production and high-end cinematography.
To avoid this when producing business videos that generate revenue, you need to find answers to these 5 content strategy questions:
- What are your core messaging and value proposition?
- What is the one thing you want your audience to remember?
- Where is the social proof?
- What is the call-to-action?
- When do I A/B test?
What Are Your Core Messaging and Value Proposition?
Whether your video’s goal is brand awareness, lead generation, or direct sales, you are presenting the viewer with your brand messaging and an offer. It is important to clearly define your offers and position your brand’s value offering above that of your competitors. You need clear differentiators that are important to your audience and are memorable.
We need to convince your viewers that your company, brand, and offerings are not just the right choice for them, but the only choice for them. That is done by carefully positioning your brand messaging and building a real value chain that is aligned with the goals and values of your viewers. This is where an experienced marketing professional, like the marketers at Navazon, can help distill your brand message and offers.
Unique Selling Proposition
What makes you different from your competitors? Are you:
- Closer
- Lower price
- Better quality
- Better customer service
- Newest technology
- A more user-friendly app or website
To win business away from your competitors, your Unique Selling Propositions must be stronger than your competitors’. If you have done your research and you know your audience at a deep level, then you know what is important to them, and it is not always the lowest cost. As a matter of fact, it is rarely the lowest cost that moves customers to take action.
The takeaway. What is the One Thing You Want Your Audience to Remember?
If you could pick anything for your audience to remember after watching your video, what would it be? It should be a very simple message. Think about Geico: “15 minutes can save you 15% or more”. They have spent millions to make sure that is engraved in all of America’s brains because it is easy to remember. What is the one thought you want to make sure is conveyed in your script?
Where is the Social Proof?
Providing social proof gives your message credibility. People believe in authentic customer testimonials over corporate messaging every time. Social proof can include recording testimonial videos of your past clients and let them share their experience with your brand, product, or services.
If you don’t have customers who can record testimonials, another way to display your social proof is by hiring influencers to review your products and give their honest opinion. That has the added benefit of introducing your brand to their audience, through a name they already trust and rely on.
What is the Call-To-Action?
Your call-to-action needs to be crystal clear. If you want them to call, ask them to call. Be that direct! Have your call-to-action appear shortly after the offer is presented. Do not assume that viewers will watch the video to the end, as many do not.
When Do I A/B Test?
Sometimes, we may not know the best way to present an offer. Should you offer a 30-day money-back guarantee or a 60-day one? What is the right price point for the offer? Should you offer a coupon early in the campaign, or wait 90 days?
There is only one good way to find out, and that is through scientific testing or A/B testing. If we want to know whether to offer a product at $24.95 or $29.95, then here are examples of the steps we would take:
- Create 2 versions of the commercial with a different price point
- Make sure they have a trackable phone number
- Run the two versions of the commercial using what is called an A/B Split
- Measure the number of calls received, the conversion rate, and the total sales
- Let the test decide which price point is the right one
If you are ready to take your brand’s content strategy to the next level by producing business videos that generate revenue, we are here to help.
