Communication is the bedrock of any company and communicating with your clients in a meaningful and intentional way is step one for building a successful brand that people trust and stick with throughout the years. Video carries a lot of currency when thinking about your client communication strategy and has become increasingly integral as the world becomes digitally-oriented.
Yet, using video effectively for your brand to communicate with clients isn’t as easy as pointing a camera at something and hollering ‘action!’ You’re going to want to learn some key video linguistics before jumping in and saying hello to your clients at 25fps.
Here’s some handy tips to keep in mind.
The Power of Video
You may be thinking, why is video so important for client communication? Well firstly your competitors will be using video to speak to your clients. So just like how face-to-face meetings fosters trust and a deeper understanding of who each other are, video is a great way of emulating that. It puts a face to your company. It humanises your brand and allows you to express your personality in an organic way. Clients are people and people like to work with people that they feel align with their values.
It’s also worth mentioning that video is one of the most shared forms of content on social media. It’s the modern day word of mouth and clients are much more likely to be receptive to your marketing efforts if it is being recommended to them by a trusted source. The stats speak for themselves;
65% of upper management who watch B2B related videos visit that companies website after watching their video.
That’s the kind of traffic you do not want to miss!
What’s Your Goal?
Ok so we’re on board with the fact that video is an important tool to incorporate when communicating with our clients, but just like anything we set out to do in life, it’s just as vital to have an objective. So what do you want to achieve? Do you want to demonstrate your products and services? Or do you want to provide information on how to use your services (for existing clients)?
We’d also suggest not trying to say too much with each video production. Think of video as more of a tapas plate rather than an all-you-can-eat. You don’t want to send your clients into the video equivalent of a food coma where they come feeling delirious and in need of a nap. So instead limit each video to having just 5 clear key messages you want to get across and these messages should all be working towards a common, overarching theme.
For instance, you’re a charity and you want people to fundraise for a campaign you’re launching. This isn’t the video to also talk about past campaigns, or other unrelated services your charity may also offer.
Stick to the issue at hand and your clients will thank you for it.
Which Type of Video Is Best for Your Purposes?
Now the medium of video can be approached from pretty much an endless array of angles but not every style of video will be relevant for you, your client communication goals or your clientele.
For instance, an explainer video is a great way of informing your target audience on how one of your services work. A commercial video is an effective way of communicating your organisation’s personality and core values. You want to ensure that you’re using the right video language for each piece of visual content you produce to ensure that your messaging is being received in the way you intend it to be.
Decide on a Tone of Voice
With video it’s all about the subtext. You know that saying, communication is only 7% of what someone actually says and the rest is non-verbal, i.e. facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. Well the same adage rings true with video. How you communicate with clients through video is just as important as what you say through video, if not more so.
This is time to really think about your businesses core values and ask yourself, how do you want people to perceive you? Do you want people to think of as a young hip start up? Well, make sure that your video reflects that. Everything from the people you feature and the locations you chose, to the music track and colour palette of your graphics. Everything must be working towards building your brand’s tone. Because people can only gage your business’s persona from what they can see and somewhat from what they hear. And make sure these two elements are working together in union.
For instance, if you want clients to think of you as a polished, corporate focused organisation don’t film your talking head interviews in the basement with an employee that maybe skipped a shave that morning.
Examples of Tone of Voice in Videos
Here’s some examples of videos with different tones of voice:
Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust
The client wanted to engage young women on the fears they may have regarding getting their smear tests and wanted to try and dispel some of those myths. In order to target that demographic they incorporated the appropriate talent, colour palette and accessible social media style to ensure that their intended audience would be receptive to their key messaging.
Chicago Booth
For this video the client wanted to provide brand awareness to their existing and potential clientele. Their target audience is professional minded individuals who are serious about developing their business skills. So the video emulates that mindset; from international diversity, showing the awareness of a global economy to motivational music that inspires and excites.
Research Your Clients
However, how you want to be seen should be aligned with how your clients best respond to you. Charity organisations are often dealing with people when they are at their most vulnerable. So for them it’s important that their tone is one compassion, empathy and trust. Fintech companies are known for shaking the incumbents and for being a little more innovative and fresh than the traditional financial institutions. Yet, they are still asking their clients to trust them with their financial well-being, meaning it is crucial for them to come across as trustworthy, organised and put together.
So before you start carving out a brand persona, carry out detailed research on your clients and find out what is important to them and thus what sort of tone they expect from you.
Stick to the Format
Different types of videos have different formats; long, short, animated, actors, etc. It’s important to know these formats and know what elements make it effective.
For example; if your video is primarily for LinkedIn or Instagram, think about how your video is being consumed. People are scrolling through their feed, they have a thousand other things vying for their attention, i.e they’re at the school gates, they’re making dinner, they’re on their commute. To grab their attention your video needs to be visually engaging, it needs to work without audio (as most people scroll without the sound on) and also needs to get to the point quickly.
Always Incorporate a Call to Action
A Call to Action gives your audiences meaning to the video they have just watched and is a stepping stone for further communication with your clients. Whether it’s asking viewers to head to your website to find out more, asking them for a small donation or asking them to share your hashtag.
You want to ensure that each video your produce has a solid CTA and that the entire video has been working towards that end card. A video that just ends with a black screen is missing out on a great opportunity to engage with your clients beyond the realms of your video.
It’s like sending someone a text without a question, you’re less likely to get a reply back. And don’t worry about asking (in a nice way) something from your audience. You’ve just shared with them an entertaining and informative video, they will be much more inclined to be receptive to your call to action at that point. So don’t just assume that they will automatically guess that they should log on to your website ask them, this isn’t the time to be vague.
Communicate Better with Your Clients
So with that said, if you’re not currently using video to communicate with your clients you should definitely get started but remember video has its own language and set of golden rules so it’s important to be prepared and produce content that feels authentic and conveys the right type of messaging for your clients.
