Let’s face it: not all businesses were built for the exhilarating, tantalizing, sales-driving world of content marketing.
And that’s okay! Some industries just don’t lend themselves to very engaging visual or written content. No shade, but if your company sells medical supply management software or distributes aircraft fasteners, you probably know what we’re talking about.
While you might not want to miss out on all the increased revenue that comes from the extra traffic driven by a well optimized blog, you might be driving your marketing managers up the wall by forcing them to come up with “hot takes” on the waste management industry.
That’s where video comes in! Video can turn otherwise boring source material into rich, fascinating, and valuable pieces of content.
Today we’re going to explore a handful of creative ways you can incorporate video into your content marketing initiatives, helping turn your boring industry topics into engaging, exciting content your users will be excited to see.
The first thing you should do to spice up your content comes before you ever sit down to draft up a single video script or concept. You have to think about what’s most interesting about your company, processes, or industry.
Every company or industry has some sort of importance, and to those who work in those industries, those details can actually be really exciting. Think about waste management – while most people might think, “Gross!” and end their thoughts on the subject there, a lot actually goes into waste management. Just think about that giant trash island in the middle of the ocean – how did all that junk get there?
What gets you excited about what you’re doing? If you’re a nerd for aircraft fasteners, what do you love about them? How can you convey that information in a way that others can relate to? Most importantly, why is that information important to your potential customers and clients? Why is what you do important to the world we live in? If you start with why, and find a compelling answer, what you come up with next won’t be boring.
Once you’ve figured out what’s compelling about your company or industry, now you can start making videos around that content. After all, you know your industry and company better than anyone else – that’s why you’re still in business. You can show off that knowledge and share it in a compelling way with video!
Consider creating an industry video, for example. In an industry video, you would typically share and discuss an issue that faces your industry, and how your company is making a difference to combat that issue. If you work in a boring industry, try thinking a little more creatively about what your company does. Do you own a dry cleaning shop? Talk about the environmental hazards of chemical disposal and how your shop is leading the green charge. Do you work for Dunder Mifflin? Talk about how digital technology is changing the way you approach paper distribution.
Try comparing your industry issue to another one your viewers do care about using visual cues they can understand. Or weave in how what you do can impact other aspects of your viewers’ lives in a way they hadn’t realized before. For instance, if your work involves irrigation systems, you can create a video showing how your industry impacts water conservation efforts around the world, and how your work can make a positive impact on your viewers’ daily lives.
Your top executives and team leaders might be experts in their field, overflowing with knowledge to share, but just because they’re brilliant doesn’t mean they’re good at expressing it.
If you or your team members are in the unlucky category of lacking “exhilarating” presentation skills, don’t worry! You can spice up your video content by hiring a charismatic spokesperson to bring some life to an otherwise lifeless discussion, or explain something fundamentally boring in a unique way.
Or how about creating an event video to share your team’s experience attending an industry-specific expo? By showing your movers and shakers in action, it’s often easier to capture their actual personalities than trying to stage something that feels forced and keeps them in their shells.
It’s one thing to tell stories – it’s another to bring them to life. Video allows you to tell compelling stories in a way that simple blog content cannot. Why are the humans in your business or industry and the work they do compelling?
For example, what happens if an aircraft doesn’t have the proper nuts and bolts? What happens if medical companies can’t get their equipment in the right hands? Better yet – what amazing things happen when they do?
Now tell this story in a compelling way with a customer spotlight or employee testimonial and let real people tell their own stories. You can and should cut this content together with footage of your employees hard at work, or footage of your top clients as they crush it out in their own respective industries (now that they have your product or service to thank!)
Video allows you to cut away without cutting out your key points. In this way, you can use video to engage viewers who might otherwise tune out during the technical bits.
Let’s say you want to create a brand video to share your company’s mission and core values. Don’t just let your CEO or spokesman ramble on about key talking points – use video to show your employees, business partners, and customer community in action and interacting together.
Think, too, about the explainer video: used to explain how your product or service works, the goal of the explainer video is to make an otherwise complicated topic simplified and easy to understand. If you have a boring or overly complicated product, try to infuse humor or a clever concept into it, like using legos to explain machinery or workflow systems.
Don’t get us wrong – not all video types are able to bring your complex subject matter to life. That’s when you or your creative partners need to put on their ingenuity caps and start thinking outside the box, adding a little spice to the boring bits.
Speaking of spicy, say you’re filming an interview with your CEO for an FAQ video – why not have them do the interview while trying out spicy hot sauces? While this idea has been done already by First We Feast, take a look and see how they found an ingenious new take on an otherwise basic video format and totally turned the traditional celebrity interview formula on its head.
Or let’s say you’re in B2B sales. Sales intro emails are just a part of the game. Why not create personalized introduction videos your team can use to introduce themselves with a little more style and flavor? By personalizing their video intros, your sales team can show off their personalities and make a great first impression.
When creating content to nurture leads, the number one goal is to provide value to those leads so they continue to come back to you as a resource. Incorporating your customers and their needs first when planning out your marketing content is paramount to creating value. What do your customers and leads need to know that they can’t go anywhere else for? How can you share it with them in the most efficient and interesting way possible?
While the specifics will depend on the type of information you’re sharing, you can never go wrong by answering their questions. That includes creating FAQ videos as mentioned above, but to get more creative with it, consider turning your frequently asked questions into short and fun how to and tutorial videos, instead.
When working in a highly technical industry, you’re going to be producing a lot of technical manuals. While you may not be able to get rid of them completely, there’s still plenty of valuable content in there for you to mine for marketing – just turn it into a compelling video series.
For instance, turn your tech guides into a tips and tricks video. Show your product’s full installation process with a step-by-step tutorial video. Use explainer and product videos to show your products in action. And if you’re selling software or a similarly difficult to visualize product, use animation to show off your systems with brief and easy-to-digest renderings.
Now that YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world behind Google, people are searching for answers online more than ever. Just including compelling and creative video content on your website and blog will dramatically increase your SEO. Even including simple stock video in an online how-to guide, and slideshows on blog posts helps! Or consider creating a how to video series to dominate your industry by answering the questions your customers are searching for. By providing value and your unique expertise, you’ll gain traction and attention. Just keep your videos short and attention-grabbing!