So you are the owner of or Director of Marketing for a small business, and you are considering using Video to reach your target customer. First of all, BRAVO. You are on the right track and you are ahead of many of your peers.
I won’t go into the stats - but video marketing has been shown to WORK time and time again, and I am excited for you.
So excited that I almost don’t want to tell you what I have to say next.
But I will - because I want you to win:
You don’t need a marketing video… you need twenty.
“You don’t need a marketing video… you need twenty.”
Time and time again, phone call after phone call, meeting after meeting, I hear the same thing: We need a really compelling marketing video - it needs to land - it needs to drive ROI. Believe me, I get it. As a small business owner myself, I understand that you need to see ROI, and that you want everything you put out in the world to be amazing, but here is the secret: that is not how the internet works, and that is not what’s expected of you.
It’s also 100% impossible.
Do you want to know the best way to ruin a good video? Force it to “accomplish” more than one goal.
“Cody, we need to tell the story of the founding of the company, but make sure that potential customers know about our newest product, and also that we are funny and have a good company culture in case future employees see it.”
I cannot tell you the number of times I have been on the receiving end of a sentence like that.
The vision is there, but I can tell you for certain that video will fail. That’s 4 or 5 videos - each one serving its own goal.
But isn’t it going to cost more to make 4 or 5 videos than just 1? yeah, probably. But it will cost 10 times more to waste your content creation budget on a video that doesn’t perform .
Perhaps we should look at you bringing some video production in house? At you yourself shooting some video?! There are countless ways to reduce or spread out the cost of multiple videos.
So what’s next?
Figure out your video strategy first: what goal does each video have? how many platforms will the concept work on. what question are you answering for the viewer, what need are you meeting with the video? Who is the target for your video and which platforms are best to reach them on?
List out the videos that need to be made
Figure out how to make them: can you hire a freelancer, can you add the duty to someone already on the team
Let go of your perfectionism: You know what your customers want more than perfection? Authenticity. In fact, they will never connect with the perfect picture you paint of your organization, the will connect with the imperfect, the personal.
The goal is not to produce 1 perfect 10 video. The goal is to release 6’s and 7’s consistently.
Need some ideas for starters? Here are 25 of them:
How was the company founded:
* Funny story
* Serious story
* Biggest failures
* Overview of the whole story (archival photos)
* From then to now what has changed
What’s new in your industry
* hot take - overall impressions
* Make a forecast of where it will go
* Hands on / how to
* Interview with a relevant third party
* How is this going to change the way you work
Casual series
* culture at your company
* Story time about a funny work event
* Hurdles you have had to overcome
* Future plans (get employees excited)
* Research the topic at other companies and react to similarities and differences
Executive series
* as personal as you can get, interview / life
* Follow vlog
* Sit in on meetings where it fits
* Daily routine of the execs
* Execs having fun with employees (set it up and make it happen)
Problems in the industry
* identify the problems and ask for comments on solutions
* Interview employees and get their reaction
* Video on existing literature /other media addressing issue
* Completely different industry - any similarities or ideas you can find?
* Positives of having this issue - how has it lead to progress
