fbpx
Articles Tagged with: video marketing
Home / Blog Archives

Brand Awareness or Sales? Setting a Goal For Your Video Production Project

Before you spend any money hiring a video production team or videographer, you want to make sure you have a clear goal for your campaign. The two most common goals we see are for brand awareness or sales, but which is the best fit for you?

Far too often do we get inquiries about creating a video that’s intended to do both. A video that attracts users, educates them, walks them through a product and convinces them to make a purchase. That would be an amazing video, except it’s usually impossible. Videos that drive traffic and are primarily intended to build brand awareness are best as short, catchy videos that appeal to emotions. Videos that educate prospects and drive sales are usually longer and full of information. Marketers are increasingly trying to do too much with a single video asset and as a result are wasting their money on ineffective video content.

The truth is that businesses require both brand awareness and sales. This is why we recommend video campaigns to our clients, producing multiple videos with different goals at the same time.

Measuring Brand Awareness and Your Sales Process

Brand awareness can be measured for both digital and traditional methods of marketing. For online marketing, brand awareness usually can be measure with metrics such as: website traffic, clicks, followers, social media engagement or reach.  Traditional marketing methods relies more on surveys and studies but incorporating discount codes, URL identifiers or QR codes can also be ways to measure brand awareness.

Your organization already measures sales and revenue, but it can be helpful to identify other metrics that contribute to sales. If your sales process requires customers to submit a form, add to cart, call a representative then these are metrics that you should also track. Some conversion points that you may want to consider include online signups, form submissions, downloads, phone calls, meetings, in-store foot traffic, add-to-carts. For each of these you want to measure the totals and successes to find a conversion or success rate.

Create a Strategy

When you evaluate the conversion rates for every part of your sales process, try to find any ‘low hanging fruit.’ Any numbers that are low based on their historical performance are good places to start. If you have a profitable sales process, then you also want to look at introducing more brand awareness into the strategy as well. Here are some common issues you might encounter:

  • Website traffic doesn’t convert. If your website doesn’t convert viewers, then you need to find a better way to educate them on the value you provide. Provided that you have enough website traffic, you can accomplish this with an explainer video, product video or customer testimonial. All great ‘sales / conversion’ boosters. A quick aside, this occasionally appears as a brand awareness issue. If your website doesn’t convert, then you need to make sure you’re hitting the right audience with the right messaging.
  • Not enough traffic or leads. This is a straight up brand awareness issue through-and-through. You want to make sure you’re communicating your value well enough on your website, but if you’re not getting any website visitors or foot traffic then you want to focus on building brand awareness.
  • Leads don’t answer emails. If your leads aren’t booking appointments or accepting your emails or calls, then you need to do a better job of convincing them that you can help them. This could be an explainer video, a brand video, customer testimonial or case study. It would be a great idea to incorporate this as part of your outreach as well as on your website.
  • Low proposal conversion rate. If you have a low conversion rate you will need to dig a bit deeper into the heart of the problem. On the one hand, if you’re not communicating your value to your prospects then you should focus on clarifying your messaging around that topic with a case study, explainer, or brand video. On the other hand, if you’re sending to proposals to leads who aren’t your target audience then you will want to revisit your brand awareness strategy. If you have some team members who sell better than others, then streamlining this process with video or video training could also help to address your low conversion rate.
  • High than average success ratios. If you’re seeing success with all your conversion points/success ratios, then congratulations! You can focus on driving more traffic and let your funnel do the work

Produce Your Campaign

Once you’ve gone through this process you should have a much better idea of how to move forward. When you contact a video production company, you can give them a clear goal. Often, when you’ve identified the areas, you want to focus on, the concept or script for your video campaign comes naturally.

Still Not Sure? We can help

Contact Us

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

The Secret to Increasing Conversion Rates Through Video Production

Customer testimonial videos are a must have for marketers and business owners. These videos hold the potential to establish credibility, build trust, and drive conversions. For high-ticket products and services, consider hiring a video production company or professional videographer to create a high-quality and effective testimonial video. If you sell at a lower price point, user-generated content can often work as well. In this article, we will explore the benefits of customer testimonial videos, from the perspective of a video production company, while providing valuable insights for marketers and business owners on how to create impactful testimonials.

Length: Less than 1-minute or up to 3 minutes for a compilation of multiple testimonials. Location: Website, Social Media, Sales Presentations.

Benefits of a Customer Testimonial Video:

Customer testimonial videos can help businesses leverage the power of video production by increasing credibility, generating trust, and improving conversion rates.

These videos establish credibility by demonstrating that real people have had positive experiences with your product or service. When a potential customer is considering your business, it increases their perceived likelihood that you can help solve their problem. Often this can be the tipping point that convinces them to hire you.

Trust is a crucial element in the customer journey. A well-crafted video testimonial can build trust by showcasing genuine customer experiences. When potential customers see past customers who have vouched for your business, it helps them believe that you can solve their problems as well. A major benefit of producing a testimonial video over a written testimonial is that prospective customers are more likely to personally relate to the interviewee. This makes them more likely to trust them and you by extension.

Customer testimonials also have the power to influence purchasing decisions. When a prospective customer is evaluating your business on your website, or if they’ve received the video as part of your sales information. The increased trust and credibility reduce skepticism in your prospect. This is almost guaranteed to increase your conversion rates. 

Video Production Tips for Creating a Customer Testimonial Video:

Here are some tips from our video production team on how to create an effective customer testimonial video:

  1. Select the Right Customers:

You may have noticed that this is a common theme when creating videos. Not only do you want to identify customers who have had positive experiences and are willing to share their stories, but you also want to find individuals who represent your target audience. This is because their testimonials will resonate most with potential buyers.

  1. Focus on the Journey and Outcome:

Encourage your customers to share their journey and highlight the specific benefits they achieved as a result of your help. Pay attention to including measurable results and personal anecdotes. Numbers can be very convincing while people connect personally with emotions and stories.

  1. Include Relevant Information:

When making video testimonials, ask your customer to provide information about themselves or their businesses. This helps potential customers relate to the testimonial and understand how your product may fit their specific needs.

  1. Prioritize Authenticity:

Ensure that your testimonials come across as genuine. To do this, you want to avoid scripted interviews. Authentic testimonials that showcase real emotions and experiences are much more relatable. Typically, this is best shot using an interview or documentary style of shooting. A video production company can be invaluable in eliciting this type of story and connection from your subject.

Customer testimonials are a valuable asset for website or sales process. The benefits of effective testimonials cannot be underestimated. By following the guidelines outlined in this article, you can harness the power of customer testimonials to attract new customers, foster loyalty, and drive growth.

Interested In Producing Your Own Testimonial Videos?

Contact Us

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

The Best Videos for Brand Awareness Campaigns

Branded stories have emerged as a powerful tool for marketing professionals and business owners to create brand awareness. Branded stories are general stories intended to educate your audience about your brand’s values. For small and medium-sized businesses these are generally more personal stories or occasionally include some event capture but for larger brands these can be scripted or documentary-style short videos. Branded stories are probably the widest genre of marketing video. Branded stories are often more useful in B2C organizations where sales are made on a one-to-many basis, but still make an appearance in B2B businesses from time to time.

These videos are best used at the top of the funnel, where you want to educate your intended audience about your brand. As an added benefit, we like to chop these up and create video ads to maximize brand awareness.   

Length 1-2 minutes. Dimensions: 16:9. Location: Social Media,  Website, Email Newsletters, YouTube.

Benefits of a Branded Story:

The main benefit of these videos is that they’re effective in building brand awareness. These videos can help customers understand what your business does and what you stand for. By using brand videos instead of static or written content, you can position your brand in the minds of your customers without having to explicitly state your values (which can often come off as forced or inauthentic).

Branded stories tend to have high engagement rates. At a base level, video is much more engaging than static content and is more likely to drive engagement. In comparison to other types of videos, branded stories still tend to have higher engagement rates and this is because, when done well, branded stories elicit emotional responses from viewers and when people connect with a story they’re more likely to engage with it.

Branded stories also have a much stronger ROI than other forms of advertising. Branded stories can easily be cut into video campaigns that drive awareness over a couple of months. Although brand awareness and brand positioning are difficult to measure, viewership is easily tracked and can serve as a proxy. Campaigns that use branded stories are easily repurposed and tracked, and therefore far more likely to show a higher return on investment than other marketing campaigns.

How To Make an Effective Branded Story Video:

As with any video project, you want to start by identifying your ideal audience for the video. Think about what types of values you share with them, and what they think is important in brands they support. Identify the values and emotions that you want to portray so that you can build a strong connection with them.

Decide where the best place is to reach this audience. It could be on Instagram or YouTube, or maybe you want to run ads and drive traffic to a landing page where they can watch the video. Whatever you decide on, it’s important to make sure that you have tracking implemented at each step of the viewer’s journey.

Next, we start looking at the story we want to tell. There are so many types of stories that can be used here. For larger corporations, personal stories work best and we recommend looking at the stories of individuals within your organization, stakeholders or community initiatives that you run. For B2C businesses, scripted stories, events, or interviews with customers all work well.

We actually recommend that you don’t talk about the features of your product/service at all! Focus on creating a compelling story that portrays the values we identified earlier. For example, if you want to position your brand as an adventure product, then tell a story that creates a feeling of adventure. By showing your brand in a video, you align your brand with the feeling of adventure.

For production, it’s becoming more common to use some user-generated content but for higher end brands we still recommend sticking to high-production quality when possible.

Sample Branded Story Video:

Interested In Producing Your Own Case Study?

Contact Us

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

Field Notes 005: Lytton Forest Fires

In August of 2022, we the Environmental Justice Foundation contacted us to capture footage and interviews of forest fires that were going on in Lytton. Based on the traditional lands of the l’Kemstin First Nation, Lytton had been devastated by forest fires in 2021, flooding in 2021 and a second round of fires were threatening the region in the summer of 2022.

The footage was intended to be used in a project at the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 in Egypt, as part of a project to highlight the impact of climate change around the world. Teams were hired all around the world, and we worked as the production crew for the Canadian portion. We prepared as much as possible but ended up relying on our in-the-moment personal skills to get some unique footage for our client.

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

A New Approach to Pre-Production

Preparing for this project was unique for us, as we weren’t editing at all. This job was more of a video-journalism assignment than most of our branding/marketing work. We were hired to spend 2 days in the interior capturing footage of the devastation from forest fires and interviewing survivors.

Although fires were currently going on, interviewing survivors would be difficult as many people who had been impacted were spread around the province.

We knew we could get some distant footage of the current fires but wanted to prepare enough content for a full story. Through our network, we were connected with two residents who had lost their homes in 2021 from fires in the Kamloops region. They agreed to help us out with the project and share their stories. Between the current fires and these interviews, we knew we would get enough footage for the project but weren’t 100% certain that we would be able to get enough b-roll to connect with their entire stories.

As the forest fires were under control, we were running out of preparation time and we set out.

Day 1: Victoria to Lytton, BC

Day one was a hot day full of travel. We left Victoria, BC, and took the ferry from Vancouver Island to the mainland. We made a quick stop in Vancouver before driving the next 3 hours to Lytton.

As we arrived in Lytton, we found out that the entire town had been closed off due to the devastation from 2021. We knew that access would be restricted, but hardly anything was visible from the road and there was nowhere to stop. Although it’s understandable, as it probably helps to stop the public from holding up traffic, it posed a serious issue to our project.

We decided to call it an early night nearby and decided we would investigate early in the morning.

Day 2: Devastation in Lytton

We woke up with the sun on our second day and did a second drive by of the town. We confirmed that the likelihood of getting any shots from outside the grounds would be nearly zero.

As a back-up, our plan was to interview local community members and see if anyone would be willing to share their stories about how they had been impacted. We found a small market at a nearby gas station and began asking a few of the people there. On a lucky break, we met the public liason officer from the municipality who offered to take us on a tour of the site so we could get ground level footage.

This was a huge opportunity, and we were quickly set up with hard hats and reflective vests before entering the site. The images were heart stopping. Much of the clean up was already underway, but a lot of the wreckage still stood. There were twisted bicycles, burnt cars, scorched houses, and ash over many of the house plots.
We were incredible lucky and thankful to our guide for all his help.

With some impressive footage on our memory cards, we headed over to Kamloops to prepare for our interviews on Day 3.

Day 3: Stories From Survivors

We had another early day and went to set up our interviews. Our first contact had bought a new property, to lose everything during the Monte Lake fires in 2021. Hearing the story of their family and how quickly they had to evacuate put whole new meaning behind the footage we captured the day before.

We had the opportunity to fly our drone and capture some aerial footage of the region that had been burnt only 12 months before. Then we headed back to Kamloops to interview our second contact who was impacted by the same fire.

Hearing the stories and seeing where the survivors were one year later gave a whole new perspective. It’s easy to see the impacts of climate change on the news, but seeing the devastation and talking with people who directly had their lives changed was eye opening.

After these interviews were wrapped up, our team had finished early enough in the day to make the full drive back to Victoria. After another 6 hours of travel, we arrived back downtown Victoria with some amazing footage and a new perspective.

Final Thoughts

This project was a new challenge for our team. It required a journalistic intent and a new approach to pre-production while relying on our ability to make connections in the moment. Now that the project is all said and done, we’re grateful to get the opportunity to work on video production projects like this and extremely lucky for all of the help we received on this project.

A Strong Case for Case Study Videos

Case studies in marketing are becoming increasingly popular as marketers are looking for new ways to showcase their products and services. A case study video tells the story of a specific use case from a customer or client and highlights the benefits they have received. These videos are often used by B2B or service providers. Case Studies are ideal for the middle of your marketing funnel, as they help educate your prospective customers on why they should do business with you.

Length: 2- 10 minutes. Dimensions: 16:9. Location: Website, Email Welcome Flows, Presentation Decks. 

Benefits of a Case Study Video:

Case study videos have very strong value propositions. When your prospects watch these videos, they get a clear idea of exactly how your business offers value to their life. Especially for services or b2b offerings, case studies can make your offering much more tangible to your audience.

Incorporating a narrative can be much more relatable than reading sales copy on a webpage or brochure. By incorporating a story (the story of ‘how your customers have benefited from the use your product/service’), you’re building a connection with your audience and ensuring that your prospect keeps your offer in mind for longer.

The strongest benefit to a case study video is that it builds trust and credibility. This works in two ways- one, when a customer advocates for your business it creates social proof and acts as a testimonial. And two, if your client is a well-known brand, then you can borrow some of their brand attributes by positioning your business as a partner.

How To Make an Effective Case Study Video:

Start by identifying your ideal audience for the video and what are some of their major pain points that you address. Make sure you select a customer who is fits into this demographic and has had a great experience working with you. This is not always going to be your typical customer. For example, if 90% of your sales are D2C but you want to grow your enterprise customer base, then make sure to pick an Enterprise partner to be featured in your case study.

Define the story that you are going to tell. You want to make sure that you are showcasing the problems that they encountered before working with you. These should be the major pain points of your target audience. You want the video subject to share their experience with you and really emphasize how their life has changed since working with your business. Your goal is to portray both the ‘before’ and ‘after’ states of your customer and position your product/service as the cause for the transition.

Note: It helps to talk with your customer advocate beforehand, to make sure any experiences they had that are atypical are avoided in the recording.

Sample Case Study Video:

Interested In Producing Your Own Case Study?

Contact Us

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

Field Notes 004: Kapoose Creek

This spring we had the pleasure of sending a video production team up to Kyuquot Sound for a development project. Our videographers traveled from Victoria, BC via car, float plane, boat, and truck to arrive at this destination. It was by far the most remote location that our team has worked on, and it required a lot more logistics and flexibility to ensure that we were able to finish the project on time. This site is on the traditional territory of the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k:tles7et’h’ First Nations

As our usual pre-production process dictates, we conceived, scripted, shot listed, and planned as much as possible in advance. We were hit with a couple of surprises before we left but were able to think on the fly and came away with some amazing footage.

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

Pre-Departure: Major Changes

Initially, we created a video concept to show off the rugged beauty of the landscape and the progress of the commercial development underway. The idea made use of a host who would lead the viewers around the property and give the feeling of an in-person tour around the site. 

The talent we had booked to help us with this project, unfortunately, came down with COVID only days before we were set to fly out. This meant that we had to significantly change the concept for the project in a very short period. 

We decided to maintain the structure of the initial video, add more B-roll to our existing locations, and fall back on a voice-over in post-production.

Day 1: Traveling Up North

Our video production team left Victoria at 6:30 am on the first day and embarked on a 4.5-hour drive up to Gold River. This drive took us through Nanaimo, Courtenay, Campbell River, and Strathcona Park. The overcast weather in Victoria turned to rain and stormy as we got closer to Gold River. As we arrived at the dock for our flight, we were greeted by a black bear having a quick bite by the river.

We had a scheduled flight with Air Nootka at noon and were set to get dropped off at Volcanic Cove, however, the storm had set in at this point and winds were over 40km/hour. We had a rough 30-minute flight but even with a great pilot, we were unable to land in the Cove. This meant that we would be dropped off at Walters Cove where we would have to wait for a water taxi.

Unfortunately, it was still pouring rain, and we had a healthy amount of camera equipment to protect. We waited in a nearby shed for the taxi to arrive and tried to stay as dry as possible. After half an hour, our water taxi arrived, and we were off. We had a 40-minute ride on choppy water but arrived safely at Volcanic Cove.

The final leg of this journey was a half-hour drive along old logging roads before we arrived at the site. When we finally arrived, we had spent 10 hours of straight traveling in a car, truck, plane, and boat. All we could do at this point was hope that we would get some nice weather or the whole trip would have been a waste.

Day 2: Enjoying the Sunshine

The weather forecast predicted stormy weather for the next several weeks, so we knew that we would have to make the most of any nice weather patches. 

We woke up at 5 am to overcast but dry skies. We decided to make the most of it and get some footage along the beach and of the mountains. We had a quick tour around more of the site before grabbing breakfast and heading out to film more. 

There were sunny patches throughout the morning as we filmed some of the construction and development sites, but rain set in, and we took a break for lunch.

By some miracle, the rain cleared up as we were eating, and we were treated to beautiful, clear, blue skies for the rest of the day. Rain was still forecast for the rest of our trip, so we made the decision to film as much as possible while we had great weather.

We toured around the area, filming beaches, rivers, forests, cabins, job sites, and farming areas. We were able to capture everything that we needed but it took a 15-hour day of filming.

Day 3: Returning to Victoria

We had initially planned to spend two normal days filming but were glad that we did everything we could on Day 2. We had some dry weather in the morning and grabbed some additional footage, but we had called for a plane to pick us up around midday.

We were picked up in Volcanic Cove this time before the storm set in, but we could see rain in the distance as we took off. Our trip stopped in Walters Cove, Friday Harbour, and Tahsis on the way back to Gold River. Even in the rain, this was some of the most beautiful landscape our team has ever seen.

We landed safely in Gold River and began our trip back to Victoria. We arrived at 8 pm, less than 72 hours from departing on our trip

Day 4: Reviewing Video Footage

This project required coordination with a third party so that we had some animations to use in the final video. Immediately after returning to our studio in Victoria, BC we had to review the footage and share select drone clips. 

After a first glance, it was clear that this footage came out better than expected. In the grand scheme of the project, condensing the shoot time was the best decision and it wouldn’t have been possible if we had additional shots of dialogue or talent. In the end, it worked out for the best.

Final Thoughts

It’s projects like these that make us extremely grateful to live and work here on Vancouver Island. Victoria BC is such an amazing place to provide access to opportunities like this and having worked on other remote projects like this in the past has given us a lot of insight to make projects like this possible. In the end, our team prioritizes the success of the video over comfort, and it really comes through in the final product.

Although the trip was challenging at times, this was an amazing experience and we’re glad to have captured every part of it to share.

Field Notes 003: Victoria & Cowichan Lake

This year we began production on our first short documentary. The filmmaking process began as a search for local craftsmen with an interest in sustainability and post-production is ongoing at the time of writing. We had several locations set for production and we sent a member of our film team to go visit each location and ensure that we were adequately prepared for any outcome.

Our video production team went to a Victoria BC beach, a guitar workshop in Cowichan Lake, and a trail in Mesachie to get the footage for this project and we can’t wait to show you how everything turned out!

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ nations and for this project we also recognize the traditional territory of the Ts’uubaa-asatx where we filmed.

Day 1: Cowichan Lake Recce

Our first visit to the location was done several weeks before production was scheduled. Especially, when coordinating across several sites, it’s important to have a team member visit in advance so that we can put together an adequate plan for the shoot.

On a normal recce, our team is looking at the lighting, space on location, furniture in the room, or natural features of the location. Once we get an idea of some angles and light availability, we’re able to put together a list of lenses and lighting that will be necessary on the shoot day.

We took several photos of the space, which were useful in planning out the look and feel of the video. Having images to refer to and test out colour grades gave a clear vision for the project.

This day also had a second benefit, we were able to chat with our interview subject and learn about his process. We had talked with Steve from Lone Tree Guitars via email and on the phone but meeting in person was a crucial step in getting to know the subject for the film and planning out the stories’ structure.

Some angles that we initially were considering were dismissed solely on the fact that it wasn’t authentic. Talking with Steve in person gave a much stronger impression of his process and intention with his guitars. We always aim to elevate our subject’s story instead of manufacturing one, and meeting our subject was an important step towards that goal for this project.

Colour Grading Sample

Sample footage taken from our recce that we used to test out different looks and feels for the documentary.

Day 2: Video Production in Victoria 

Our first shoot day was scheduled for a beach in Victoria. For this day, we kept the equipment minimal to prevent any disruption. Since this location was familiar to our team, we picked a time that would work well with either overcast or sunny weather. This proved to work well since we had overcast weather for the first half and sunshine for the second half of the shoot.

On this day, we had a sequence to shoot that would be cut into the film and show part of the process away from the guitar shop. Although the interview hadn’t been recorded for the storyline, visiting the shop and speaking with Steve was really helpful in piecing together some ideas or different shots that we would want to match within the film.

We left with everything we needed, confident that it would fit together well with the larger part of the film which was to be recorded in a couple of weeks.

Day 3: Production in Cowichan and Mesachie

Although this was the third day of our film shoot, it was also the most packed. We had 3 portions planned for the day: hiking in Mesachie, an interview, and building a guitar in the shop.

The forecast for this day was overcast and rainy but on arrival, we had some clear skies. We made the call to switch around the schedule and shoot the hiking portion while we had the chance. Making this call, we knew that the workshop would have relatively consistent lighting throughout the day since we noted this during our recce. We filmed several hiking portions and then came back to the workshop as the rain blew in.

Since we were shooting in a small workshop, the initial plan was to bring several lights so that we could have consistent lighting in different parts of the room. Luckily, Steve had several overhead practical (built-in) lights that we could use and it meant that we only needed to bring in interview lighting. We grabbed the interview shots and filmed part of the guitar-making process for the rest of the day.

To Be Continued

Overall, we walked away with a great story and some beautiful footage. We were lucky in the sense that Steve and his workshop were great on camera but the success of the shoot was also due to our pre-production process and scouting locations in advance.

We’re still working on the edit for this project but can’t wait to share this when everything is done and cut together!

VIDEO: Create a Video Marketing Campaign

Ever wondered how to create a video marketing campaign? Video has become so common in today’s marketing that every business should be considering new ways to implement it. We produce video marketing campaigns all the time and wanted to provide a resource for you to learn how to do the same. Whether you’re producing the video in-house or hiring a videographer/video production company to help out, this video should help you get yours started!

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

Pick Your Marketing Goal

The very first thing you want to do is decide what your goal is going to be for this video. What is the meaningful objective that you want to reach? Because if you don’t have one of these, then there’s no way that you’re going to be able to measure the results of this campaign. And there’s no way that you’re going to know whether or not you’re spending your money effectively or if you’re just pouring it down the drain. Whatever it is you want to have a measure of what you’re currently at and a goal of what you want to get to. 

Identify Your Audience

So then you’re going to decide who your audience is. If it’s your existing customer base, you probably know them pretty well but if it’s a new set of customers, then you’re going to have to spend some time learning about them and learning why they’re going to come to you. You’re going to want to think a little bit deeper than just demographics. You know where they live, what their likes are, and what they’re looking for, but you also want to think on a deeper level and think about what they’re going to receive from you and why is it that they’re going to come back to you?

You want to think a little bit more about internal motivators. For example, someone who is hiring a resume writing service. Sure, they’re getting a resume, but what they’re actually trying to buy is, success or a feeling of productivity.

When you can think of that layer deeper, then you’re going to have a much better understanding of the messages that you’re going to have. 

Choose Your Platforms

The next step before we quite get to the message is you’re going to decide on your platform because we already know now what your goals are and who your audience is. You want to think about where is the best place to reach them. If you’re looking at a younger audience and you want to, reach them with something that’s a bit more fun and casual, then you’re probably not going to be running this campaign on LinkedIn. And likewise, if you’re trying to reach a more professional, older audience, then you’re not going to be running tick-tock ads and you’re not going to be trying to promote videos on Snapchat. You want to make sure that your platform aligns with the people you’re going after and the goal that you have identified. 

Create Your Message

And then from there, you can start to think about more of your message. So what is the one takeaway that’s going to be part of this video? For longer videos, you can occasionally have secondary messages. But you always want to have one main core focus of the video, and it’s probably going to be a call to action. For example: come to our website, come in on Tuesdays, buy these shoes for 30% off, come in for Black Friday, etc.

You want to have one main message that’s going to carry through this whole campaign and it’s going to point people towards that initial goal that you identified there.

Get Creative With a Concept

You know your messages, you know who you’re trying to target, you know where you’re going to target them and you know what you want them to do. And this is where you can get a little bit more creative and come up with a concept, like what are some you know, what are some creative ways that I can communicate the value that they’re going to get from me? Remember those deeper levels of value that they’re going to receive? How can you communicate to them in a way that’s going to catch their interest?

Depending on who your audience is, it’s going to be, totally different. You’re going to want to spend some time and really make sure that you have a good creative concept for that.

Plan the Release

Your next step is going to be planning your rollout. And remember, we still haven’t produced any video yet. We’re only just in the planning stages. You’re gonna think about where you’re going to share the videos and when. How often are you going to swap them between each other? If you’re running video ads, maybe you want to have several videos that are retargeting customers at the same time. Maybe if it’s social media, you’re going to have them run consecutively depending on what your concept is. You might have a story that’s built across several portions and maybe you want to roll those out at specific periods of time.

Produce Your Video

Once you’ve kind of decided on that, then you can go into production and you can hire a videographer or a video production company if you have the budget. We have a video if you’re still not sure on who to choose, but you should be able to find one of either that kind of fits within your price range. But it might also be the case that, it makes more sense for you to shoot yourself or you’re going to ask your customers to send user-generated content. Or maybe it’s going to be that you’re going to have your employees take the video for you depending on your rollout, your budget, and your platforms. It might make sense for you to just shoot this yourself.

Roll Out Your Video Marketing Campaign

And then once you have your video all produced and you finally have gone through this fun process of seeing it come to life, you can go from there and start to roll it out. If you’re running YouTube ads, you’re going to be working with your Google ad manager. If you’re running it on social media, you could probably have a planner. Maybe you’re using Hootsuite, Later, or Sprout, there are lots of different planners available.

If you’re going to be hosting a video on your website, you can share it on YouTube or Vimeo. If you want to get a bit more reach and get some, search engine optimization out of it, then it might be better to use YouTube. But if you want to host a higher quality video, then it makes more sense to host it yourself and use it or on vimeo

Track Your Results

If you’re anything like me, you keep your eyes on it as you’re running the campaign. But if not, you want to kind of come back and double-check and see the results. You want to track your analytics and make sure that your videos are reaching the right people and that your videos are getting the results that you wanted.

Remember we started with a goal right off the start, and it’s only now that you can kind of look back and see that we spent X amount of money and X amount of time in creating this video and our conversion rate only went up Y percent. Maybe you found out that certain videos had a much higher impact or that people who clicked on certain videos stayed on your website way longer. This is really important information for future campaigns. You can use this information to continuously improve and continuously iterate.

And you can continuously repeat this process, keep creating video campaigns and keep rolling them out.

VIDEO: Top 8 Brand Video Ideas

Branded videos can be a great asset for many businesses. They can be used to create brand awareness, to assist with re-branding campaigns, increase leads or improve conversions depending on how they’re used. 

Since we’re a video production company that specializes in branded content, we often get asked about what types of videos can be used to create brand awareness. We put this list together to help you think of different video concepts that can help your brand expand its’ reach. 

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations. 

1. Brand Video

What is it? If your goal is to increase brand awareness or to establish your brand, then a brand video is a great way to do so. A brand video helps to create a personal connection with your viewers and educate them on the what and why behind your business. These types of videos focus more on the values of your business rather than the specific products or services. If you’re an outdoors brand, then you might want to show off an appreciation for nature, or if you’re in the health industry you can convey a sense of dedication and perseverance. This can be a very open category but these videos will always try to align a brand with certain values in the eye of their audience.  

How do I use it? The audience for this video will be everyone who falls into your ideal target market so it’ll be a bit more generic than other videos. You want the video to serve as an introduction to your brand for new viewers and to build a connection with customers who are already familiar with you. Typically, we try to keep these videos under 2 minutes long and recommend hosting them on your website, social media channels and google my business.

What are the Benefits? Increase brand awareness, improve brand reputation, increase consideration, leads and sales.

2. Founders Story

What is it? Take your audience from customers to advocates with a founder’s story video. These videos dive more into the journey of the owner or founder of an organization and provide context for your goals and mission statement. The goal of this video is to tell the viewer why your organization was created and what motivates you.

How do I use it?  A founder’s story will occasionally serve as a brand video and this can be really effective for some businesses (especially for small businesses), but there are times when you want to keep these separate. 

If you’re a company seeking investment or funding, you’ll likely want a brand video targeted towards your customers and a separate founder’s video to appeal to investors. For larger organizations, we often want to hire talent to create an emotional connection that resounds with the audience. In these cases, a founder’s video can go a step further to create a more personal connection with the people behind the brand and enhance your brand video.

The length of these videos can be longer than a brand video as the viewers typically are already familiar with your business. The actual length will vary based on how compelling your founder story is, but usually, they’re still between 2-5 minutes. We recommend hosting these videos on your website, social media channels, Kickstarter, and investment decks (when appropriate).

What are the Benefits? Increase brand reputation, increase consideration, leads, sales, and advocacy.

3. Product Commercial

What is it? When you want to highlight a product or service to your audience, a commercial can still be very effective. Product commercials introduce a new product or service, highlight some of the main features of at least the main features that appeal to the target audience of the video. These videos are more effective when they’re visually appealing, eye-catching and short. 

How do I use it? When starting to develop your commercial you want to consider your marketing strategy. Introducing a new product to an existing audience (Product Development), new product to a new audience (Diversification), existing product to new audience (Market Development) or existing product to an existing audience (Market Penetration) will all require different approaches. Knowing your strategy here can help guide your creative process.

You will want these videos to be high quality and under a minute, and usually under 15 seconds (or at least have a 15s cut available) if you’re going to run non-skippable ads on YouTube. Although these videos are short, it can take a lot of consideration to include all of the features in such a short timeframe.

What are the benefits? Increase leads, sales, product awareness.

4. Explainer Video

What is it? An explainer video is a mix of a brand video and a product demo. It highlights the features of your product or service for prospective customers. Usually, it stops short of explaining ‘how to use’ the product or service but gives the audience an idea of what to expect from your business.

How do I use it? These videos are typically up-beat, snappy, and short. It’ll give your audience an introduction to your business or product. The goal of these videos is to entice them to spend more time on your website or convince them to research your product/service in more detail. These videos are effective on your website, social media, or paid advertising.

What are the Benefits? Increase brand awareness, increase consideration, convert leads and sales

5. Explainer Video

What is it? Product demonstrations show how to use your product or service. If you have a complicated product or platform that users will have to navigate, it can help to give them added support and cut down on your customer support costs. Some products will show a physical demonstration but for products that aren’t tangible, the product/service can be effectively demonstrated with a screen record or basic animations.

How do I use it? You want to write a script that is extremely easy to understand. These videos can be quite long, although if you have a complicated product, you may want to consider breaking it down into different videos for each chapter. Often, customers will watch several videos before making a purchase decision and each one of these videos can be used indirectly in your sales funnel. Another option is to create a ‘Product Care’ video, this can help continue the relationship with your customers after they’ve made a purchase. Alternatively, if you have a very simple product you could even use a demonstration as a creative product ad.

What are the Benefits? Convert leads, increase sales, reduce customer support costs, increase retention rate.

6. Customer Testimonial

What is it? A testimonial video is a great way to add social proof to your business. These videos feature a customer or user of your product who talks about how great their experience was with your business. The format is fairly similar to a review. Usually, this is an interview-style video with some additional shots of the customer using the product laid over top. It’s important that these testimonials cover the ‘sticking points’ that prospective customers have so you can bring them closer to converting.

How do I use it? Often, we’ll see this video placed directly on the product or service page. This placement can be effective because customers will see the testimonial as they’re in the consideration stage for your product. If you’re just interviewing one customer, these videos can be as short as 30 seconds but it’s common to show multiple customers and run around 3 minutes or so.

What are the benefits? Increase brand awareness, build trust, convert leads to sales.

7. Showcase Video

What is it? A showcase video is similar to testimonial videos, but instead of asking a customer to give a review of their experience you want to showcase how they use your product. The benefit of this video is that you can borrow some ‘brand equity’ from your customers and appeal to a similar audience while giving them an idea of how they could implement your product themselves.

How do I use it? This video can be used on the product or service page of your website or it could also be effective on social media or paid advertising. This type of video is becoming more popular with larger corporations or businesses that have less of an ‘approachable’ face. By showcasing how their small business partners use their product they can effectively let their customers act as the face of their business.

What are the Benefits? Increase Brand Awareness, build authority & trust, increase leads, convert leads to sales.

8. Branded Documentary

What is it? Many brands are starting to fund short documentaries about causes that align with their values. The subject matter varies extensively, but as marketing tools, they can be very effective since the audience is choosing to watch the video. Consumers are getting better and better at tuning out advertising on all platforms so creating content that people want to watch can be a great way to expose your brand to people. 

How do I use it? You may want to create a landing page for this video and share clips on social media where you send people to your website. The goal here is to get as many eyeballs on this type of content so you’ll likely want to share on YouTube or Vimeo as well.

What are the Benefits? Increase Brand Awareness, Builds Authority

Summary

That’s it! We hope you picked up some ideas on how to spread your brand through video. The most amazing thing about video is that within each of these categories are hundreds of possibilities for each business. If you’ve picked a type of video to create but you’re stuck for ideas, try combining multiple concepts from this list and see what you can come up with!

VIDEO: Videographer vs Video Production

Do you need a video production company or a videographer for your business?  The line between videographers and video production companies can be blurry, especially since many businesses operate somewhere in the middle. 

When you’re trying to produce videos for your business, this can make it hard for you to know who to hire. It’s important for you to have a clear idea of what you want your video to accomplish before hiring anyone.

Once you have an idea of what challenges you want to address with your video, here are some things to consider when deciding who to hire. 

We acknowledge that we live, work and create on the traditional territory of the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱SÁNEĆ nations.  

What is a Videographer?

A videographer is usually a one person camera operator who also provides editing. The price for videography is typically lower than a video production company since the scale of the production is smaller. 

It used to be the case that videographers would cover events, weddings and small budget commercials with lower quality gear but now, high quality cameras are readily accessible and it’s made high production quality available at a much lower price point. 

Videographers will typically be more of a one-man-band, even though they may have an assistant or second videographer on their team. They’re usually considered to be generalists and will handle everything from composition, lighting, sound, set design, and directing. This is a pretty heavy workload for one (or even two people) so you’re usually sacrificing in every department to keep the cost low.

What is a Video Production Company?

A video production company usually consists of a larger team of specialists. You’ll typically have a producer who will assemble a team to create and execute a vision, whatever that may be.

Since they’re operating with a larger team, it’s crucial that there is a set plan and strategic/creative vision for the production. This means that more attention will be spent on pre-production. Developing a concept, script, shot list and plan for the production are all integral steps that a video production company will provide. 

On the production date, you’ll have a team assembled to execute the vision who have been assembled specifically for the project. If you’re shooting a product ad, you might have a specialist product Director of Photography (DoP) or if you’re doing interviews or studio work, a sound recordist might be brought on. The crew will be selected based on their specialization to achieve the best final video.

Cinematographers, Filmakers and Bears … Oh My!

You’ll also see a lot of freelancers who call themselves cinematographers, filmmakers, camera operators or even Directors of Photography (DoP or DP). What are these and how do you tell the difference? 

A Director of Photography and Cinematographer are both the same job and have a lot of responsibilities on a film set. They’re typically responsible for directing the look and feel of everything in front of the camera alongside the director. A camera operator is essentially a videographer but their role can be more specialized on a film set. If you see someone call themselves a DoP or Camera Op, they’re likely looking to get hired by a production company to work on a set rather than get hired directly by a business. 

When someone calls themselves a filmmaker, it’s usually used as a more general term for someone who can provide some or all of the roles on a film set.

Over the last several years, more and more freelance videographers are branding themselves as a filmmaker or a cinematographer without having the traditional experience of working as a DoP on larger sets. Although some traditionalists might dispute whether you can call yourself a DoP or Cinematographer without this experience, it’s more realistic to accept that these terms are becoming broader as the industry is evolving.

What’s the Difference?

The biggest difference between the two is that videographers will typically stick to what they can offer (their own style of filming and editing) while video production companies have larger networks and can provide a more diverse final videos (including: animations, special effects, documentary shoots, studio work, etc.).

Another big difference is the pre-production time in each project. Videographers will tend to film with less emphasis on pre-production. This can be beneficial if you’re hoping to reduce costs, but if you have a specific and targeted message that you need to convey it is crucial to have a script and shot list in advance. There’s nothing worse than having to reshoot a sequence that could have been captured on the production day. A good video production company will save you money in pre-production. 

Price is usually another difference between the two, videographers typically charge less than a video production company but this is more tied to the size of the production. A larger videographer team may even charge more than a small video production company for some projects. 

A video production company will typically produce the highest quality that they can within your budget, while videographers tend to add deliverables to fill your budget.

To boil down the difference between the two: a videographer will typically film action or activity while a video production company will design and craft what goes in front of the camera.

Important Considerations

Start by evaluating your options, these may be local companies or larger ones outside of your area if your budget allows. Look at their portfolios and pay attention to the style or the variety of videos that they’ve created. Take note of any options that stick out for you. 

We’d also recommend thinking about your message. Is there a specific story or goal that you need the video to communicate? If so, we’d recommend narrowing your options down to the video production companies you like.

If you’re hosting an event or want to capture footage that is less structured (and requires less planning) then you can narrow down the options to videographers who have more event coverage in their portfolio. This could also be a good option if you need a large bank of footage for social media at a lower price point.

Finally, we recommend that you consider the importance of an event in making your decision. If you have an executive or a celebrity coming in to be on camera, you’ll definitely want to spend the money on a production company to plan and execute the video with confidence. These occasions normally don’t have a second chance so it’s crucial to execute on the production date.

Who Do I Hire?

Overall, it’s best to look through the portfolio of your options and decide which style and level of production you want. Feel out the candidates and ask them about their workflow to get an idea of who will work best with you.

Since there isn’t a defined line between a videographer and a video production company, it’s more important to make your decision based on their experience, portfolio, workflow and ability to deliver within your budget.

Contact Us
contact@surfandstonestudios.com