Even A Goldfish Would Heed This Advice

15 Apr Even A Goldfish Would Heed This Advice

Did you know most people have a shorter attention span than a goldfish (Statistic Brain)? Did you know that simply including the word “video” in an email’s subject line, you could boost open rates by nearly 20 percent, while also reducing unsubscribe rates by 29 percent (HubSpot)?

Facts like these underscore the importance of video, animation and motion graphics to marketing and sales professionals. The real question for most organizations is not a matter of weather or not to use videos. Instead, it’s how to do a better job at video for a lower investment.

Below are key questions and tips that can help.

1. What’s your call-to-action? Many people create videos to generate online shares, increase awareness or educate. What would you like your video to cause your viewers to do? Visit your website? Favorite a Tweet? Call a 1-800 number? Whatever your goal may be, communicating a clear, precise call-to-action will make your videos, animations and motion graphics both more effective and more measurable.

2. What’s your production plan? Many corporations outsource video to production companies. The teams at the corporations typically have varying knowledge of the video production process.   Those with above-average video production knowledge save a lot of money and time. Whatever your knowledge level is, it will be profitable for you to identify the various steps your video vendors are using, the costs of these steps and the time required to complete each step. You’ll be able to use this information to eliminate budget and other production surprises.

3. How should you be telling your story? Many corporations use narrators or on-air talent to tell their stories. This adds cost to your video. At Axiom, we’ve always used a TV-news style approach to storytelling that focuses on letting the individuals themselves tell the story in their own words, supported with visuals. Think TV newscast. We’ve found this approach to be more authentic, more emotive and more memorable. For the bean counters in your organization, this approach speeds up the video process dramatically, while reducing your investment.

4. How long should your video be? Although there is no “magic length” for videos, we typically focus most of our videos on 60-120 seconds. Why? As we all know, shorter videos get more views. Shortened length forces us to be more efficient in story points and visuals which translates to faster production times and lower investment costs.

One final note: my alma mater Northwestern University and The Kellogg School of Management just launched at major cross-disciplinary program called “The Trust Project.” The goal of the project is to provide a variety of views about how trust impacts decision-making. Phase one of the project includes 30 videos that contain varying perspectives from scholars and business executives about factors that impact trust. They could have used a variety of mediums; however, they chose video. They’ve correctly recognized the authenticity that only video can provide.

For more information on best practices in video production, please email mreiber@axiomco.com or khennessy@axiomcom.com.