Here at Ludlow Media we’re passionate about the capabilities of video to educate your audience. And as a marketer, it’s important that you understand this, since a cornerstone of content marketing is delivering content that is useful and informative to your audience . That’s why we were interested to come across Andre Oentoro’s article on producing an educational video series for marketing. Our own experience creating educational video series includes the College of San Mateo and training videos on safety and hygiene for the food processing and packaging industry.
Demonstrating Your Expertise
Oentoro’s main takeaway is that an educational video series can be a powerful tool in establishing you as an expert in your field. This is true, and if your audience thinks of you first when they have a question in your field of expertise, that’s a benefit to you and your business. However, he uses the animated explainer video as an example of a tool well suited for establishing expertise. Our view is that there are more advantages to live action video when it comes to establishing your expertise, and here’s why: Trust. If a key person from your organization presents information on camera as an expert, it’s easer to foster trust and create a lasting emotional connection. It gives your company a human face. Brain scientists have identified an area of the brain called the fusiform facial area, which is designed for facial recognition, and gives preference to faces for gathering information and assessing credibility. So when a real person authentically shares helpful information, they will more likely be perceived as trustworthy, and your expertise can only be established when your audience trusts you as an expert.
Here’s our take on the other points raised in the article:
An Expandable Topic – Having an expandable topic satisfies 2 important traits of your audience: a short attention span and a need to binge watch. After you’ve gained your audience’s trust as an expert in your field, they’re likely to want to come back to you for more information. To feed this need you’ll want to develop a series of videos to continue to capture their attention. This is the importance of developing a video series. If you work from an expandable topic, ie, a broad topic that can be broken down into smaller sub-topics, you’ll be able to create a series of shorter videos, fulfilling you’re audience’s desire for more, as well as their short attention span with content that’s not too long.
Developing Unique Traits For Your Video – This is a great way to set yourself apart and make yourself memorable. In fact, since everyone’s personality is already unique, it reinforces the argument in favor of having a spokesperson on camera. This is the process of finding your voice, which may take a little time. But the important thing is to be authentic and play to your unique strengths. And why not include your logo and a call to action in every video? Wouldn’t this be a great way to uniquely brand your videos with your company identity?
Scripting – Scripting goes back to the idea of an expandable topic. By starting with broad ideas and going through the process of editing your ideas on paper, you can easily trim a large, loose piece into 6 or more tight, short final video scripts. Remember that most people will come across less authentically when they read from a script. This is why we prefer to have people try not to use teleprompters (or only use them to refer to bullet points). Make notes on when you’re likely to cut away in the video to a graphic or photo. These will be natural places where you can pause, relieving the pressure of trying to get through the entire script in one take.
Style – This is an interesting point, and it speaks not only to the production company (or collaborators) that you choose, but to the type of video you want to make given your budget. There are many different styles to choose from – whether it be an animated explainer video, documentary or slick 30 second T.V. spot. The most important consideration is to decide which stylistic format will be the most effective in communicating your message. And while you always want some consistent elements that uniquely brand your series, you shouldn’t shy away from using different styles. Remember, your content should drive your style choice, and since your content will vary over time, don’t be afraid to change up your style.
We hope this gets you thinking about how video can be used to educate your audience, build trust and expand your reach as an expert in your field. Perhaps your already writing a blog to communicate your expertise. Would a video series be a valuable enhancement to what you’re already doing? Would video have advantages to the way you’re already educating your audience? Leave a comment and let us know.
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