Part 4 of a helpful 6 part guide for any B2B marketer planning a profitable web video.

Contents today include:

• Understanding the importance of storyline in maximising contact form completions.
   
• How to pick a web video producer who understands your business
   
• Recognising false economies when you see them

What happens once the customer clicks to view

When a customer clicks to view a web video, they get hit by a storyline – your storyline.

It might be voiceover, a presenter, or animated captions – but whatever it is, it’s a story.

And it’s a story that must engage – immediately.

If it doesn’t engage immediately, then the video will probably be abandoned within a few seconds – or maybe within 30 seconds.

And this hurts.

So your job as a buyer or planner of web video is to ensure you get a great storyline that will win for you.

This means your web video supplier needs to understand your business.

So when asking for video quotations, why not ask for a sample 30 second script to be included in the quotation?

A good scriptwriter can do this in 15 minutes and get a pretty close approximation of your business video requirement.

After all there’s only so much you can say in 30 seconds – maybe 4-6 sentences?

Persevere with searching for a video production company that offers – or at least attempts to offer you – a good storyline.

A good storyline will be full of common sense that matches the profile of your customer, solves their problem, and heals their pain.

Don’t be distracted by talk of a great presenter, great images, great graphics, a great shoot, or some one-trick-pony.

Here’s a story to illustrate this point:

How many times have you seen an advert on tv with a simple story and a relatively low cost production.

And the ad works.

Examples are:

> Ronseal – like it says on the tin

> Tesco – every little bit helps

> Asda – that’s Asda price

These ads work, and are unashamedly cheap.

Now remember how many expensive car adverts you’ve seen where the visuals were super impressive – but you can’t recall the brand afterwards.

You can tell this from conversation with friends

“yeah didn’t that ad look great – you know the one?”

And everyone knows which ad you’re talking about but no one quite remembers the brand.

Ouch!

You also need to remember:

> a tv ad gets many repeated viewings.

> while your web video usually gets only one.

You get one chance to pitch.

This is why storyline is king!

The False Economy of Video

Here’s a real life example any effective web video production company gets faced with every week.

Clients say things like this:

> Company A are the best maker of profitable web video.

> But Company B cost £500 less – and they don’t seem too bad

> And Company C cost £1,000 less – though you mightn’t be so sure about them

Many companies standard buying approach will aim towards Company B to save £500.

But Company A are still the best videomaker-for-profit.

They make the most engaging videos, that win the most leads, and claim the least bounces.

Now ask yourself – what’s £500 worth if a client can win lots of new customers with a truly engaging (and therefore effective) video.

£500 extra is peanuts to play for a winner.

This suggests it pays to look at what a web video company can do for your business – rather than focus on price.

The take-home message is: Be certain the web video production company understand your business.

In Part 5 we’ll examine the 2 best storyline approaches, cover the 30 / 15 Rule of Buyers, and see how AIDA can work in video to increase the buyer’s level of desire.

Thank you for reading Part 4 of Planning a B2B web video production for profit.

You can view more information and video samples on web video production here