8 Video Marketing Best Practices for Professional Services Firms
It’s time. Time to pivot your marketing strategy to video.
No, this isn’t the ill-fated “pivot to video” that you’ll surely remember if you’ve been in the game long enough. That was a mirage, one that Facebook (and many publishers) paid for dearly.
Today’s pivot is legitimate. It’s real. It’s a recognition of the reality that the vast majority of content consumers now prefer or at least heavily utilize video.
You don’t have to launch your own production studio, of course. You don’t even have to buy expensive new equipment. The same camera you use to videoconference can produce YouTube-quality videos, at least to start. If you have a newer smartphone, that’s probably all you’ll need unless you really want to produce professional-grade stuff.
But you don’t want to dive right into video marketing without learning the ropes. Here are eight beginner-level bits of advice you’ll want to follow to put your team in a position to create and distribute top-shelf video content that gets you noticed.
Video Marketing Best Practices
1. Designate “Leads” for Different Types of Video Content
You don’t need a single “face” for your brand unless your brand is you and you alone. You should strive to associate specific individuals with specific aspects of your brand, however.
In a video marketing context, this means designating “leads” for different types of video content or different topical verticals (or both). You might have a “lead” for content related to your wealth management services, another for your financial planning arm, and yet another for your macroeconomic research activities. The YouTube channel for Asiaciti Trust, an international trust and corporate services provider based in the Asia-Pacific region, shows how this works in practice: multiple trusted experts speaking on-camera or narrating videos about what they know best.
2. Make Your Videos Informative But Not Overwhelming
The “selfish” goal of any content marketing campaign is to convert new users. Selfish though it may be, this is much easier to accomplish with educational video content that’s not overwhelming and doesn’t talk down to the audience. Your videos should leave viewers feeling like they learned something, not wondering what on earth they just heard.
This Motley Fool video about index investing is an excellent example. It’s part of a longer series on various entry-level investing and money management topics, delivered in clear, nontechnical language that’s both informative and approachable.
3. Mix Up Your Topics
New video marketers too often succumb to the temptation to make everything about the brand. Overtly promotional content is fine from time to time, but it shouldn’t be the main thrust of your video marketing campaign. Company news, educational content, and Interbrand collaborations are all more effective in the early going.
Enforce video variety by setting up your production calendar at least a quarter in advance. (You may need all that time to plan and shoot high-gloss videos anyway.) Make sure you’re not “doubling up” on topics or formats within the same week; viewers who follow you closely should never know what they’re going to get.
4. Make Your Videos Useful to Sound-Off Viewers
Many viewers watch videos with the sound off because they’re listening to music or multitasking on a video conference or for any number of other reasons. Some viewers have hearing impairments as well.
Make your videos as friendly as possible to people who aren’t listening by:
- Including subtitles in the video itself.
- Displaying and/or highlighting text reiterating key points.
- Using animated infographics and other visual elements to deliver information and guide viewers through the narrative.
- Posting the full transcript in the video notes or description (or linking out to a text version of the content).
Take user feedback to heart as well. If viewers complain that they’re missing key information or simply aren’t satisfied with the sound-off experience, adjust accordingly.
5. Repost Video Content Created by Others (With Permission)
This obviously saves time, but it’s also a great way to attract positive attention from other influencers and lay the groundwork for future collaborations. It goes without saying that you need the original copyright holder’s permission; don’t be discouraged if the first answer is a “no.”
6. Produce Live Video Content When Possible
“Going live” is difficult to do on a whim if you’re a busy professional who doesn’t do video marketing full-time. But you can “secretly” schedule go-lives throughout the week or month and only let your followers know a few hours ahead of time. (People love the appearance of impromptu on-camera work, and you don’t have to let them in on the secret.)
Or you can publicly schedule live on-camera sessions well in advance. Either way, you’ll get more engagement with an interactive format, like an anything-goes AMA or (slightly) more restrained Q&A session.
7. Integrate Video Into Other Content Formats
Your videos don’t always have to stand alone or even be the primary vector for a given content marketing asset. They play well with written educational guides, for example — summarizing the entire narrative, reinforcing key points within it, or diving deep into more complicated ideas.
8. Use Shorter Videos Where Appropriate
Just as your videos should cover a variety of different topics and appear in a variety of different formats, their length should vary as well. Ten-minute explainers work fine on your YouTube channel or website, but they’re not appropriate for TikTok or Twitter. If you want to target mobile-native audiences, you have to create the sorts of videos that they want to see.
A Better Way to Tell Your Stories?
We’ve covered a lot of ground here. Even if you’re not yet quite a video marketing expert, you’ve got a solid foundation to build on.
Let’s zoom out again and remember why you’re bothering me in the first place. Simply put, video is a fantastic way to tell your brand’s story. It complements and builds upon other forms of content marketing, including the long-form guides and signature infographics you likely lean on already. It communicates information in a way these other forms can’t — a way that resonates with people who don’t have 10 minutes (or even three) to read an essay.
So why not give it a try? The sooner you begin, the sooner you’ll feel like your video marketing efforts are paying off.
