How about having your own Corporate Video on your website? A real blockbuster that makes you stand out from the competition, shows you as the authority you are and generates clients queuing for your service?
No? Too expensive?
I agree.
What about a corporate STYLE video, instead?
Cool?
Let me tell you why this is a really bad idea.
What Do Corporate Videos Look Like?
Corporate Videos generally they look like they are made to a serious budget, primarily, because they are, and they tend to cover topics like:
- Company history;
- Company philosophy, processes or technologies that set them apart;
- Corporate mission statements;
- Company milestones like corporate anniversary, new President, new CEO, new building; new technology.
Typically, you’ll find that videos like these are done by interviewing the company president, CEO or other top C –level officers.
In brief, they’re all about promoting the company.
Now, would such a corporate video be right for your business, service, project or company?
For starters, given the budget involved, probably not.
How about a video made in the STYLE of a corporate video?
Corporate STYLE Videos
Let me show you why I had clients come to me who hated their corporate style video.
You see, in a corporate video you are usually in front of the camera, but not facing your viewers.
You are facing and talking to the interviewer, which means you have turned away from your viewers.
And the interviewer talks to you while the viewer now becomes a separate third party. Your viewer no longer engages with you directly.
In a typical corporate STYLE video, though, the interviewer disappears.
This means that you are left talking into an empty corner.
And the interview becomes a fake interview.
The Fake Interview
As a consequence, the content of these corporate style videos becomes self-aggrandizing. It is now all about me, my company, my service, my clients.
This is the wrong content for a video that is supposed to engage, connect and build trust.
This, of course, is a huge mistake, and to rescue the situation, video producers get creative:
They zoom in.
They add some artistic black and white moments.
They focus on your hands.
These are all artefacts that distract visually.
But these are only short term measures.
Because, meanwhile, you are still talking to the wall, the viewer gets bored and clicks away.
What happened here?
Let’s get back to basics for a moment:
What is the best way to engage another person?
Having a dialogue where you talk face to face.
Now let us transfer this to your website and have an online dialogue.
Sure, online you are less interactive.
But you still pick a topic that interests your viewers and answers their question.
It is, therefore, still a dialogue because, as, for instance, in the video above I am talking directly to my viewers about a specific question: “What about having your own corporate video on your website?”
The main difference is that now, it is not a continuous to and fro anymore but restricted to me answering various aspects of a single question.
But what happens when you use a typical corporate style video, instead?
As we have seen, you are talking to the wall mostly about nothing of interest to the viewer. The viewer is now a disengaged bystander.
The video is no longer a dialogue, but a monologue masquerading as a FAKE interview that is generally about nothing of interest.
And what do we do when we get bored online?
Yes, we all click away.
What can you do about it?
Create affordable alternatives to the corporate style video that will help you achieve your online goals.
What could these alternatives look like?
One option is to create something that is modelled on my series of ‘A-Z of Video for Professional Services.’
This is at the core of my A-Z of Video for Professional Services:
Providing you with the information that empowers you to connect and build trust with your online audience; that helps you get your message right and get it out there with the most powerful online tools available; that helps you come across as a Trusted Advisor on your website and on your social media properties.
You can see all of my the A-Z of Video for Professional Services on my blog.
This article was first published on the VideoMagnets.co.uk blog.