Turn Employees Into Brand Advocates With Case Study videos

Your content marketing mission? Turn your employees into brand advocates with well-developed case study videos . Share with employees the kind of impact your brand has – they have – on people and companies. Share with job candidates the impact they could have once they start working with you.

Also known as success stories, case studies are a proven way to convince prospects to make a purchase. After all, they feature your customers describing how your product helped them. Excerpts from one case study can be used across your content marketing channels – from YouTube Channel  to blog posts,LinkedIn and landing pages.

But many companies neglect to share those success stories with the people who made them possible, thus ignoring their No. 1 growth resource – their own employees. Here’s how to use case studies as a critical tool for your new brand advocates, from HR and finance to production and distribution.

Recruit the best people

Increasingly, people want to work for companies that make a difference, and the youngest generation is leading that revolution. Ensure that your recruiting team has success stories to share at job fairs and interviews:

• Create content focusing on what the new employees would be accomplishing and the incredible feeling of helping customers achieve their goals.

• Talk about specific employees who came to do just another job and ended up feeling fulfilled because they received a thank-you letter from a customer who shared how her life or business was better because of their work.

• Incorporate thank-you letters, emails, etc., into your video marketing for candidates to watch. You could create a video of customer stories. Or create a video of employees sharing what it’s like to work for a company that cares about the value it delivers, each one detailing a customer success story.

• Focus your stories on detailing the benefits and results, and mention features (like comfortable working hours) later.

You want to help your colleagues get people excited to work with your brand. When they understand the impact they could have, they’re more likely to invest in their job and become your newest brand advocates.

Train employees better

Continue to showcase your success stories during orientation. Work with your HR team to incorporate the case study videos in training materials and presentations.

When training employees who will come in close contact with customers – like customer service and social media agents – you might want to build simulations of customer interactions. In this case, share real-life examples of how the brand dealt with the situation to make sure your new recruits are better equipped to succeed – but stay open. They might just come up with better solutions.

Incorporate in office culture

While you integrate case studies throughout your brand’s YouTube Channels and social media platforms , you should do the same at the office. Videos are a great tool to share your office work culture environment to the prospective employees  

• Make your success visual – Create a customer success videos display in your pantry or conference room so employees can see it. Add quotes from case studies in the video. Consider installing screens and displaying case-study videos.

Improve customer retention

Develop case studies specifically to prove that your product or service not only works, but is the go-to solution for your customers’ challenges:

• Make a special effort to share them with your customer service representatives who are the face of your company, the ones capable of bringing preservation rates up and turnover rates down.

• Help your salespeople by giving them the content in a format that they can use to prove your product works. Diversify your case study content to ensure that it addresses the diverse objections that your sales team hears.

Grow your new brand ambassadors

While you have access to potential success story sources through social media discussions, don’t underestimate the value of your employees’ input, particularly those who work at the point of sale. To encourage your employees-turned-brand-ambassadors to help in this process:

• Ask them to make the introductions, strengthening their involvement in the content creation process.

• Feature employees in the stories, interview them for your videos.

• Ask employees for their input such as suggesting challenges to address in the case studies, analyzing drafts of the success stories, etc.

• Show your appreciation for their assistance. Read case studies in team meetings and praise those who were involved. Write generous recommendations on their LinkedIn profiles. Recognize them and their contributions on Twitter (include a link to the case study video).

• Share how the case study videos  are being used by your company and are contributing to content marketing ROI. Show how they support the company’s growth and customers’ success.

This article was originally posted on Content Marketing Institute:  http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/02/employees-brand-advocates/

How Can You Tell if a Video Production Company is Legitimate?

When choosing a company to produce your next video project you may wonder,’how can you tell if a video production company is legitimate?’

There are a few ways to determine the professionalism of a video production company when checking them out online.

First, when looking at their website do you feel that it is professional. Do the values that they say they provide resonate with you? The level of design and aesthetic that they have put into their site is a good way to determine if they have what it takes to represent you. The way they represent themselves is a reflection of how they will be able to help you represent your company.

Another way to determine if they are legitimate is to look through their client list. If they don’t have a client list that is a major red flag. They are either novice or don’t feel comfortable sharing their past client work. Both factors will do not give you confidence in their abilities. Their client list should have clients that are of a size, a level of professionalism, a region, or in an industry that is relatable to your business. If they have testimonials, watch/read them and see if they seem genuine and if they highlight things that are important to you like detailed outlines, or never missing a deadline.

Next, you should look through their portfolio and see if their work resonates with you and is the caliber you are looking for. You also want to make sure that their work is consistent from project to project. If one of their videos is amazing and some of the others are awful, that is a red flag. You don’t know what you will be getting from the company. If they are willing to share the information, it doesn’t hurt to ask if they produce all their work alone or sometimes work with an agency. This will give you a good idea of whether or not you can expect the high quality work you are seeing in their portfolio. If they are not open enough to share this information, you could also Google the name of their work or project and make sure no other agency, company, or vendors claims to have produced it.

You should visit their contact page. If their contact page is just a form and they don’t tell you where they are located, that could be a red flag. If they do have a location, you can find out if it’s a home, an office, in a good part of town. This can give you more insight into what type of company they are and how they operate.

Lastly, when you contact them their response and response time can tell you a lot about them as a company. If they are looking for more information rather than just trying to make a sale, they are likely a more legitimate company.

You need to vet a video production company like any other type of company. The big things to look for would be that their client list and portfolio seem transparent and honest and that their work speaks to you.

This article was originally posted on Phanata media:   http://blog.phantamedia.com/how-can-you-tell-if-a-video-production-company-is-legitimate/

5 Essential Elements of a Successful Marketing Video

Video is the most lucrative marketing material around, promising higher engagement, more conversions and bigger profits. Pretty compelling stuff – at least it had better be, because the expense of video production leaves little room for error once the cameras start rolling.

However, the success of your marketing video is largely decided before the production process even begins. Tick the right boxes in the planning stages and you should have yourself a concept, storyboard and a bag full of confidence that your video will be a hit – and here are the five elements that make the difference.

#1: Emotional appeal

Whether you leave your audience weeping, crying with laughter or stunned into silence, your video needs to make an emotional impact if you want to provoke a reaction. This is nothing new to video though, even in the digital age, because TV has been perfecting this art for decades.

#2: Relevance

Reaching your audience on an emotional level starts with creating a relevant message to them. We say it so often, but this is why you need to understand your audience, down to the finest detail. Appeal to their pains, needs, desires, fears and you can use these emotional connections to bring them that extra step closer to your brand.

#3: Benefits, not features

A large part of this is understanding how to sell the benefits of your products or services. Benefits are not the features of your products, or even what you think people love about them most. The benefits you need to capture are the ones that show your audience how you’re going to improve their lives, whether by fixing an everyday problem, saving them money or making their wildest dreams come true.

#4: A narrative

To capture the benefits of your brand, make them relevant and appeal to your audience on an emotional level, you’re going to need a strong narrative. The art of storytelling is at the core of every marketing message, and it starts with a character your audience can relate to. This is the emotional bridge between your viewers and the marketing message at the heart of your video.

Every good story needs a point of conflict too, a problem that puts your main character in jeopardy and your viewers on the edge of their seats. Bang! There you have your emotional appeal and now it’s time to show your audience the beauty of resolution.

#5: Call to action

With the hero in your story facing impending doom (or something less dramatic) and your viewers full of empathy, it’s time to introduce your brand. That’s right, you’re the answer to all their problems and, if your video hits your audience on an emotional level, all that’s left is a strong call to action to seal the deal.

Always keep your goal in mind – even if you’re using humor, fear or whatever emotion to engage people, your goal isn’t to make them laugh or scare them. Your goal is to inspire action and compel your audience to buy into your services and your call to action is the final prompt – so use it wisely.

This article was originally posted on Matinee Multilingual:
http://www.matinee.co.uk/blog/5-essential-elements-of-a-successful-marketing-video/