Companies today, large and small, face a daunting communication challenge.  First, you’re looking to establish a clear identity in a very crowded and noisy marketplace.  Second, you’re looking to attract relevant prospects, convert them to buyers, and encourage their loyalty and advocacy.  Third, you’re looking to attract and motivate the talent you need to grow. And to complicate matters, the old channels of communication have been supplanted by a plethora of new media that seem to multiply every day.  What’s an organization to do?

There’s no silver bullet, no one answer.  But one new medium has clearly emerged as dominant in this new world, and smart use of it is key to success in any and all of these business goals: video.  We’ll spare you the endless stats showing the explosive growth of video consumption (cf. Youtube, Brightcove, Hubspot, etc., etc.). What we want to call out is that video can be used effectively for all of these critical business goals, and further, that a little video strategy can get you a lot more bang for your video buck.

The beauty of video is that it is ideally suited to the new world of digital communication.  On your website, it can be the dramatic cornerstone of your identity, telling the story of who and why you are.  In your sales efforts, it can lend support at every stage of your customer’s journey, across all mediums. Origin stories, customer testimonials, product/service explanations and more can be used on your website, on social media, at events, in targeted advertising campaigns and directly by your salespeople.  And when it comes to projecting your company’s culture and bringing a diverse workforce together, video again has a unique power to tell compelling stories that inspire response.

We see our clients using video in all these ways.  We also see that when clients formulate a clear video strategy – which video types, which channels and when – they get a much higher return on their video spend.  In general, a shift away from mass media to targeted digital is the start. Specifically, leveraging a video production to produce multiple assets expands value across media.  With one shoot we can produce an anchor video for a campaign microsite plus multiple teaser videos for social media. Or a video template with different versions for different target audiences.  Or a suite of related videos that drive home a common message. It’s all about formulating a deeper, longer-range video plan that’s aligned with your marketing plan.

We don’t have to convince you to use video – that’s a given.  But tapping into some video making and marketing expertise can help you use video more effectively.