Highly effective sales and marketing video content

How to create highly effective sales and marketing video content, and align your team around a shared vision with video and be confident that you’re doing it right.

Rather than going out and hiring a video production company, you should hire a videographer and use your existing team to create all the video content you need.

As you begin your video journey, or if you’ve already been creating video, this will help you take it to the next level.

We’ll talk about the different styles of videos you might choose to communicate what you need to share. We will discuss the types of videos that move the needle regarding traffic, leads, and sales.

We will cover everything to become a great video strategist, and by the end of this blog, you will be able to create a sound strategy to ensure that you get the results you need.

When you’re watching video content, have you ever paid attention to the structure of the video, like what drew you into wanting to watch that piece of content?

What kept you watching? What helped you remember what they were talking about and moved you to action after watching it?

There’s gotta be a structure in place, and it is called the flow.

It’s been one of the most transformational yet essential video strategies that helped people create highly effective content.

From the beginning to the end of a video, if done right, will draw the viewer in to keep them watching, help them internalise and remember the content, move them to action afterwards and hopefully stick around to watch a lot more video content.

The elements of flow are as follows: we’ve got the teaser, the logo, the intro, the segments, the call to action and the outro.

By the end of this blog, you’ll have a very clear understanding of how to start your video and end every video you make.

Now, the first element, one of the most important elements of the flow, is the teaser.

The teaser is the first five to fifteen seconds of a video in which we want to draw the viewer in, encourage them to stick around, and give them a great preview of what that video will be about. 

Without a strong teaser, it doesn’t matter how great the production value is or the value you’re bringing in the middle of the video. 

If your audience doesn’t get past the beginning, then your audience will never see your content.

You can use the bridge model to make sure you have a powerful intro. The bridge model goes like this.

You start with where the viewer is now, and then you go to where the viewer wants to be.

You position your piece of content as the bridge between the two that might sound like this.

Are you a Founder struggling to find qualified employees? What if I told you that with one platform, you could post new jobs, find qualified candidates and quickly set up interviews in one place? I want to introduce you to the top five features and benefits our platform offers to founders like you.

The first part is where the viewer is now. They are founders struggling to find qualified job candidates and want a platform that could solve many of their common problems in one place.

And we positioned our video as the bridge between the two.

An alternative method is the APP method.

APP stands for agree, promise and preview. Start with an agreeable statement that the viewer could agree with, then a promise and, finally, preview what the video is about like this.

You would agree that hiring qualified candidates can be a long, drawn-out process.

But what if I told you there was a way you could spend half the time and energy it used to take while I’ve got your solution in this video? I want to introduce you to the top five features and benefits our platform offers to founders like you.

The first thing we did was make an agreeable statement. Next, we make a promise, but what if I told you there’s a way that could take half the time and energy? That’s our promise. Then we show the solution.

When should you use the bridge model? And when should you use the APP method?

If you can identify where they are now and where they want to be, use the bridge model.

The APP method is excellent; if you’re speaking about a specific problem that any real persona could be experiencing, you have to identify a single problem that person is having to create that enticing statement that they are going to agree with. 

Now, although the teaser is the first part of the flow in the first part of your video, wait to write that teaser until you’ve outlined your key to talking points, this way, you’re making sure that you’ve included everything you need to you in that teaser formula.

The next part of the flow is the logo. The logo is an animated version of your logo, and the primary purpose is to reinforce your brand.

Ensure that people know what you’re about and that they can recognize your brand in the world. Let them know who is giving them their information. 

The logo shouldn’t be longer than around ten seconds.

What’s the difference between a teaser and an intro?

The teaser’s purpose is to draw the viewer and keep them watching. The intro’s purpose is to set up the subject matter: what is in the video with credibility and expertise and open up the topic.

Moving along with the flow, we now go to the essential parts the segments.

Segments divide your video up into smaller digestible parts. It helps viewers remember more about what they watched.

An eight, ten or fifteen minutes long video without any breaks gets boring, our brains crave distraction, and so viewers will eventually get distracted.

But if we can create segments and divide videos into small, digestible pieces of information, that will make that video easier to watch, which will increase retention, and they’ll remember more about it.

Moving into the closing portions of our video using the flow, we’ve got our call to action or CTA.

The call to action is the next best thing that the viewer needs to do after watching that video. That could be booking a call with you or downloading a pdf. They need to take some action.

For this to succeed, we first have to be super specific, so a terrible call to action or example of a bad call to action would be “for more information, visit our website” while they are on the website.

Last but not least, we’ve got the final portion of the flow, which is the outro.

Now the outro is the last thing viewers will see, so you’ve got to make this count. We’ve got to leave them with a positive impression.

You could use any emotion you choose, but this is your chance to leave that viewer with a positive impression.

You can see the flow is a straightforward formula, and all you’re doing is you’re filling in the blanks as you go through now.

I would recommend leaving the teaser for the last thing you do.

I’d recommend starting with your segments, call to action and then work from there.

I also advise you to work with your team on helping them understand the flow with as much clarity as you do. It will be much easier to work with your team on video projects now that you’ve got the flow!