Use Corporate Video to Reach your Clients

Corporate video can be a powerful and persuasive tool in presenting a company’s value, building a brand, and as a medium for responding to a crisis. Relatively recent advances underlying the digital revolution have made it easier than ever to produce, edit, and distribute video quickly and inexpensively. Small, cheap video cameras have recently become available. Coupled with low cost or even free video editing software, these cameras enable users to produce decent quality video for informal messaging purposes. Training videos, for example, are much easier and cheaper to develop than ever before. The ability to quickly upload video onto the internet on sites such as YouTube has simplified distribution dramatically. Instead of duplicating and shipping tapes or DVDs to a corporation’s audience – an expensive and time-consuming process – online distribution is virtually cost-free and practically instantaneous.

These technological advances can be very important in crisis communications management. If your company is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, a video response may be appropriate. You can quickly put your company’s “spin” on an issue, refute false information, and convey an image of a calm, credible organization.

Internet-savvy people are well-conditioned to video these days, which is both an opportunity and a challenge. These folks are used to checking out videos, so they are predisposed to consuming this type of communications. The audience is there, ready and waiting to see your productions. That’s the good news. The challenging news is that these people expect to see high quality, well thought-out video pieces that are interesting and entertaining. Dull, lifeless video productions are deadly on the web. People will not put up with inferior quality productions, so the bar is set pretty high. You are competing with high quality productions for the attention of your target audience. This means that you must carefully plan, light, edit, and produce corporate videos to ensure your material is compelling enough for people to watch it.

It all starts with deciding what the “take away” message, or unique selling proposition should be for each video production. Then, you have to construct a story by writing a script that lays out which sound bites will go with which visuals in great detail. Your script is your plan and your road map. It is more important than any piece of equipment or technology. How well you construct your script will make the difference between success and failure.

About the author:

Claire Jarrett runs Marketing By Web, based in Bristol and is writing on behalf of Clear Blue Productions