Case Study: making better service and product videos

Product and Service videosThere are many types of videos companies and organizations can produce, but there are some that stand above the crowd.

I like to think of them as the core videos:

The About Us video is the one video I think every company needs.

Testimonials might be the most influential.

But if you’re looking for cold hard data to back-up your desire to produce videos, it’s hard to beat service and product videos.

Hubspot research tells us:

  • 72% of people would rather watch video to learn about a product or service
  • 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video

Holy cow! 

Look at those stats again.

If you have any questions as to why you should produce service and product videos, that data provides your answer.

Case Study: Quad

One of our customers is a leader in marketing, and they’re a perfect example of doing these videos the right way.

Quad (formerly Quad/Graphics), offers all sorts of marketing services, and when its leaders decided to promote one of their lesser known services they used video to do it.

This is a great strategy.

Video is a terrific way to shine a light on products and services that might need a little extra love.

Quad is one of the nation’s largest printers. When people think of Quad, they typically imagine huge printing jobs.

And while the company can certainly handle those projects, it also excels at short run jobs… which is what we featured in the video.

Quad leaders did something else that was smart.

They identified something that customers are always impressed by when it comes to their short run projects, and then emphasized it in the video.

In this case, it was highlighting their team and the wealth of experience they bring to every job.

When you produce a service or product video, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details.

Don’t let that happen.

Figure out what’s important and/or impressive to your customers, and focus on that in the video.

Where to start with service & product videos?

This is one of those situations where you shouldn’t out-think yourself.

A product video might just be as simple as a 15-seconds demonstrating how something works. 

It could be a 15-minute mini-documentary on the evolution of your service.

Either way, determine what’s going to help your audience and produce it for them.

And that’s the key.

You need to produce a video that will help your audience.

I’m a fan of storytelling. I’m always going to default to telling a good story when it comes to producing videos.

I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll mention it again… video isn’t about facts and figures. Video is about emotion, and the shortcut to the human heart is storytelling.

However, if you sell widgets to a group of technical people who are all about how something works as opposed to why it works… this is where I grant you some leniency.

There are all sorts of ways to tell stories surrounding products and services, but there are times when I have to set my ego aside and say that’s not what the audience needs.

If you know your viewers want the cold hard facts on how your product or service works, this is the video where you give it to them.

I still think data is better on your website than in your video, but one of the things that’s awesome about video is being able to literally show people how something works.

If this is all your audience needs, go for it.

Hello? We sell a TON of products.

Now, some of you might be thinking, great, but we offer thousands of products. We’re not going to produce a video on each and every product.

Fine. 

Maybe it’s not a video on every product. 

Maybe you produce a video on every product line? 

Maybe it’s a video on every product category?

The idea is to make it manageable. Not only for you, but for your audience.

Think strategically about how your customers educate themselves about your offerings and give them videos to help that process.

This goes for service-based companies as well.

If you offer three distinct services, produce a video on each.

You might offer a bunch of services. Break them down into a few core segments and produce videos about those segments.

You really need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. The better you understand what they’re looking for from you, the easier it will be to produce video to help them along their purchasing journey.

I just lost the internal communications people.

 

Service and Product Video Examples

Wrapping up

I know what I’m offering here on producing product/service videos is kind of vague, but without knowing exactly what you sell it’s hard to give you a precise “how-to” when it comes to creating these videos.

My best advice… always be asking, what does our audience want? 

What is going to help them?

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau - T60 ProductionsTony Gnau is the Founder and Chief Storytelling Officer at T60 Productions. He’s a three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, has led T60 Productions to winning 18 Telly Awards for its corporate videos, and is the author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller “Lights, Camera, Impact: storytelling, branding, and production tips for engaging corporate videos.”