Good film used to be costly to make. The medium also required millions of bucks to reach a mass audience through TV ads. Today, changes in production technology and the advent of social video mean that every business must be in the movie business.
Online film will continue to grow in importance for customer communications for two very different reasons.
- Video works better in online advertising, producing higher response than static content. But also matters for search engine optimisation (SEO). Google upranks sites with strong user experience, and mobile-friendly content.So, well-optimised online film can tick those SEO boxes for you. And, of course, it doesn’t harm that Youtube is part of the Google ecosystem.
- More important, video matters to customers, especially in B2B.After pricing and competitive data, what’s the next most important thing prospective customers want?They want to hear from the company’s experts. Not sales blurb, not case studies, not product sheets, not ‘think-pieces’ – they want to hear from you.
Uniquely, online film can deliver emotion and engaging information – as well as convey a sense of the company culture in a way that no other medium can.
The gift of sound and vision
When customers are browsing for information, they’re often using devices which are not really designed for reading. So video content has an immediate advantage at times and in situations where mobile technology is prevalent.
Consider the verb ‘to browse’. These days, we usually think about browsing as an online behaviour. But, in the days of shopping in real shops, it used to mean ‘just looking’.
It signalled an early phase of a buying journey – after ‘window shopping’ but before ‘trying things on’ or actually purchasing.
It’s a lazy, mildly motivated kind of shopping. So, the experience has to be easy, and pleasant.
Uniquely, of course, film enables that kind of ‘just looking’ experience. Through the unconscious allure of moving images, the emotion of music and spoken word, it draws people in more powerfully than any other medium.
Human stories
Naturally, there’s great value in making films which put a human face to the expertise you have in-house, or which simply add life (and animation) to a technical product demonstration.
But film also has a unique power to tell human stories.
Moving images and music capture attention and engage customers emotionally, often sidestepping their rational responses. So it’s surprising that so many businesses still miss the opportunity to use film to create differentiation and relevance in sustainable ways.
If you’d like to develop a 21st century video content strategy for your business, we’ll help you put it into ‘action!’
