1. Define and then refine your audience first

Marketing is about positioning and communicating your unique value to a very specific audience. Your product or service won’t appeal to everyone. In fact it probably won’t appeal to that many people at all. You have to ensure that you craft a message that is tailored to the specific concerns of a very well defined audience.  That sounds risky because if you narrow the focus of your message you have to leave stuff out. The only thing riskier than that is leaving everything in.

4. Your customer is the focus, not you.

Your customer wants to know how you can solve their problems – that’s what matters to them. They really don’t care much about your history or your processes. And yet the vast majority of corporate videos today are still not written from the client’s perspective. Most businesses continue to create videos that talk about themselves. You should be putting yourself in the shoes of your customer. What do they care about? What are their problems? Then position your company as the obvious and unique solution to those specific problems. Give the people watching your video something they can relate to, something that let’s them see themselves in your video.

2. Tell a great story that makes an emotional connection.

Our conscious mind would like us to believe that we make rational decisions. Our sub-conscious mind knows better. Virtually all purchase decisions are emotional decisions. Your lubricant may be 23% more viscous than your competitors, but the fact that the local fire-department uses it is going to be the idea that people relate to and remember. Most corporate video productions today are recitations of facts, features and benefits. Most viewers never get to the end of these videos. If you want your viewer to watch and remember your message then you have to connect with them on an emotional level.

5. Share what you believe, not just what you do.

Today, a high level of transparency is expected in business. This is new for most companies.  Getting people’s attention is just the first step. Somewhere along the buying cycle you’re likely going to have to give up a bit more of yourself than you’d like. What do you believe? What are your core values? Why should I care about you when I have a huge number of undifferentiated options in front of me? This never really used to matter. Today it does.

3. Show me, don’t tell me.

Video is by far the fastest growing marketing tactic in use today because it informs and persuades better than any other media type. Video is engages the audience both visually and orally. Why just explain how your product works when you can actually show people using and benefiting from that product? Video is gaining popularity because it is the best means of conveying a great deal of information quickly to an attention-deficit plagued audience.  Video is particularly effective when you need to showcase the more intangible benefits of a product. Imagine trying to promote a perfume solely on the merits of that particular fragrance. You couldn’t. You sell perfume by creating imagery that suggests the “promise” of that perfume.

‘Include a call to action in your video’; ‘Make sure you employ smart SEO practices in naming, placing and promoting your video’; and ‘Distribution is everything’ are all smart tactics to ensure that your video gets seen by it’s intended audience.