Tips for Making a Masterful Marketing Video

In this section, I’ll be providing some general guidelines as to how you can make videos that will make you money. While tutorial videos have a decided focus on the how of using your software product, marketing videos instead focus on the why. Why should the audience care? Why do they need your product? How is it going to solve their problems, aid their efficiency, and generally improve their lives? It’s up to your video to tell them. A smartly done marketing spot that truly addresses the users’ needs will soon leave them smacking their foreheads and reaching for their wallets. Of course, in-person sales demos, brochures, and other media can do the same thing, so let’s talk for a moment about the specific advantages offered by a video.

Why Sell with a Video?

There are a number of ways that a screen video can pull its weight as an essential part of an overall sales/marketing strategy. Consider the following:

• Videos never take time off. Consumers and even business- people don’t always adhere to normal business hours when researching new software purchases. You may well have sales- people whose exclusive domain is to make cold calls, follow up on sales leads, and close the deal. But they can’t be around 24x7. Videos don’t sleep, don’t take breaks, and, unlike your salespeople, can serve hundreds or thousands of potential customers at once.

• People don’t read. When browsing your site, it’s astounding how little people actually read. They will quickly scan a page’s content, and decide within five seconds whether said content merits a second look. But it’s amazing just how often those same people who shy away from a full page of the usual marketing blah-blah will take the time to watch a video. I once had a client who told me that after embedding a video I created for their home page, the average time that users lingered on that page more than tripled, and the number of both downloads and purchases increased substantially as a result.

• Pre-qualify your leads. A video can help take the heat off your sales team by addressing initial concerns and removing purchase objections before ever talking to a sales rep. Some people don’t relish approaching a salesperson early on in their purchase process, out of fear that the rep will harass them with constant follow-ups. After watching the video and feeling a bit more comfortable with the product, the prospect can then target your sales staff with specific questions and, if all goes according to plan, their credit card number.

Know Your Video’s Purpose

The ultimate purpose of any marketing video should obviously be “Sell more of our product.” But the purchase process consists of numerous steps, and you’ll need to determine exactly where you envision your marketing videos fitting into that process if you want them to be effective.

For example, does your product offer a free trial download? If so, then your video might serve as a springboard for increasing your download rate. In this case, you’ll want to mention in the narration that you offer a demo, being sure to use words such as “new,” “risk-free,” “fully functional” (if applicable), and the mother of all magic marketing words, “free.” If creating a Flash video, you might also want to add a clickable link to the end of your video that starts the download right away.

If you’re selling higher-cost B2B software, and the goal is therefore to persuade the customer to call a salesperson, then placing all the appropriate contact information at the end of the video is essential. In fact, I had one client who had me add their toll-free number as a water- mark for all their videos, so that a person could pick up the phone at any point while watching the video and immediately contact a sales rep.

Address the Customer’s Need

As I mentioned earlier, the core component of the marketing video is to target the user’s need rather than blathering on about features. The individuals you’re trying to reach are busy people with problems to solve. It’s the job of your marketing department to figure out what those problems are. It’s your job as a video creator to convey the solutions to those problems in a quick and compelling way. At barest minimum, you have to know the difficulties that your potential customers are experiencing and how your solution helps alleviate that pain. This probably means having a good, long sit-down with the marketing team (that is, if you’re not already part of the marketing team) to hammer these things out.

Unlike a demo video, where the target audience tends to be more specific, marketing videos are generally aimed at a very broad audience, possibly the entire potential customer base. But you should still try to find out as much about your target markets as possible, and address the needs that apply to the greatest percentage of them. If your target markets are really segmented, you may want to consider a special video for each group, rather than trying to kill multiple birds with one stone. As an example, let’s take a product that I’m somewhat familiar with - Camtasia Studio. This is a product that appeals to a variety of groups, and for a variety of reasons. Let’s look at a few possible markets, with a benefit for each one:

• IT managers. Construct a library of “how to” videos so that users aren’t bugging you all day long when they could be helping themselves.

• Educators. Put lessons online to help your students better prepare for their exams.

• Law enforcement. Collect computer-based evidence to help prosecute an online predator.

For each of these groups, we’ve identified the unique selling proposition (or USP), the main benefit that might convince one of these folks to dig out a credit card. The USP could actually contain several benefits. If you have three or four solutions that apply to each individual group of potential users, then it makes good sense to craft a video for each audience.

It might take some digging to find the USP. While it’s beyond the scope of this humble book to give you a crash course in marketing, here are a few basic ideas as to where you might look:

• Go to conferences and trade shows that are specific to your business, and talk to your customers. If you have permission to contact them via other means such as phone or e-mail, do so. Ask them what prompted them to buy. You might also inquire about key benefits they’ve since discovered that would have made their purchase decision that much easier had they known about them at the time.

• Invest in a good web analytics package and take a good, hard look at what your visitors are doing. What pages are they visiting the most? Where are they spending most of their time?

• Mine the customer database. Take a look at what your customers do for a living (provided your software isn’t exclusive to a particular industry). Who are your cash cows? What are the niche industries you might exploit?

Once you’ve found out what benefits make up your USP, you should try to rank them in order from most to least important. Why? One of the core tenets of selling is to always start with the most compelling benefit first and work your way downward. People may not stick around long enough to view the rest of the video if you leave all the good stuff for the clincher. Give them what they want to know up-front.

Remember to Ask for the Sale

I have seen some truly amazing marketing spots created with Camtasia Studio, complete with a rock-solid USP, tight pacing, and terrific visuals. But then they trip right at the finish line by not telling the users what they need to do next! Remember, watching your video is but one step in the overall sales process. You need to do everything you can to guide viewers gently on to the next step. If that step is online purchase, you need to include a link to your purchase page. If it’s to download your demo, you should provide a link to that. If it’s to contact a sales rep, give the audience all the contact info they need, from phone numbers to e-mail addresses to your office hours (so that they’re sure to actually reach someone).

And always, always, always specifically state in your narration what the next step is. When your video already has your prospects salivating over all the time and energy your software is going to save them, don’t mess it all up by making them play detective in order to complete the purchase. Take them by the hand.