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HOW BENESSE CORPORATION REDUCED COSTS AND DOUBLED EFFICIENCY

bsp-admin-1 on August 28, 2019

Benesse Corporation is a company that mainly operates distance learning services for infants, children, and junior high and high school students. For its “Kodomo Challenge” distance learning service for children aged 0 to 6, the company had previously created video learning materials and delivered them to customers on DVD, but it has now switched to providing them online only in response to changes in customers’ viewing environments. The service has been highly evaluated as one that meets customer needs, and the company has succeeded in providing content that is even more popular with customers. Brightcove’s Video Cloud is supporting this system.

VIDEO CLOUD HAS ACHIEVED A STABLE DISTRIBUTION ENVIRONMENT AND COST REDUCTIONS

Kodomo Challenge provides video teaching materials, including animations of the program’s most famous character, Shima Jiro, and how to use the teaching materials. Previously, some videos were distributed on the website for members, but the teaching materials were basically distributed on DVDs. However, as the number of members who do not have DVD players has increased in recent years, “we began to explore the possibility of distributing everything online,” says Daiki Kubota of the Kodomo Challenge Engineering Department, Engineering Division, Kodomo Challenge.

“The first thing we considered was video distribution via mobile apps. While this would have the advantage of allowing parents to watch the videos anytime, anywhere, we also anticipated that some parents might be concerned that their young children would be watching on a small screen, which might be bad for their eyesight. In that respect, we felt more comfortable with the idea of DVDs, as they are usually watched on a big TV screen at home.” (Kubota)

The service we were using when we were already streaming some videos on our website did not support TV streaming, so we decided to look into using a different service. After comparing several services, we decided on Brightcove because of its ease of use on TV devices and its stable streaming environment. From April 2023, we will be streaming all of our video teaching materials online.

“We knew that Brightcove offered an all-in-one service for video distribution, and that we could use it to provide a stable service for video distribution of Kodomo Challenge. For these two reasons, we decided to make Video Cloud the standard for use within Benesse. Of course, video distribution is also more cost-effective than DVD distribution” (Yuki Shibata, Infrastructure Strategy Promotion Section, Infrastructure Solutions Department)

Kodomo Challenge has six courses, each with 10 to 20 editing staff, and the video teaching materials are produced with the cooperation of production companies.

“We create around 10 videos for each course each month. These include new video teaching materials, re-edited versions of videos we have used in the past, and supplementary videos that are not the main teaching material, but by switching everything to online distribution, we have been able to provide around twice as many videos as before. Also, with DVDs, we could only deliver them once a month, but now we can also deliver them on a weekly basis, for example, every Saturday, and we are really feeling the benefits of this” (Kubota)

BEING ABLE TO WATCH VIDEOS ON MOBILE DEVICES HAS BEEN WELL RECEIVED BY

The biggest challenge after introducing Video Cloud was transcoding. Of course, if the data size is large, you can deliver beautiful videos, but if you’re watching on a smartphone, it will take up a lot of space. We had to experiment to see how we could reduce the data volume while maintaining a satisfactory quality.

For example, with anime, you can watch it relatively easily even if the file size is small because it’s a series of still images, but with video teaching materials that have actually been filmed, if you reduce the video file size too much, things like video distortion and dropped frames will occur. While actually watching the video, we adjusted it by saying things like, ‘This is a little too compressed’ and ‘This is too big’.” (Kubota)

As a result of being able to watch it on a mobile app, the way it was traditionally viewed became possible.

“We’ve received a lot of feedback saying that it’s great to be able to watch videos while you’re out and about, such as in restaurants or while waiting to buy something, when before you could only watch them at home on your TV or in-car DVD player. Also, with DVDs you have to change the disc, but with streaming there’s no need to do that, so it’s less of a burden for parents. Plus, unlike free video platforms, there’s no risk of being taken to unintended videos or being interrupted by ads, so people say they feel more at ease about showing them to their children” (Kubota)

BY ACQUIRING VIEWING DATA, WE CAN ALSO PICK UP ON HIDDEN NEEDS

In addition, the ability to acquire viewing data, which was not possible when DVDs were distributed, has also led to changes in video production. “When we were delivering DVDs, we could only obtain qualitative feedback from questionnaires. However, by switching to online distribution, we have been able to find out in real time which videos are popular with children of which age groups. We knew from a gut feeling and from the results of questionnaires that the videos featuring Shima Jiro were popular, but it was only when we obtained the data that we realized that the English-language videos were also being watched a lot. We can now make use of this data to create videos,” says Shoji Ueda, General Manager of the Infrastructure Solutions Department. Benesse Corporation, which has many other projects in addition to Kodomo Challenge, is moving towards consolidating all video distribution for other departments on Brightcove’s Video Cloud. “Kodomo Challenge“ distributes a lot of video content, but other projects don’t do that much video distribution yet. Even in cases like that, we can make a single contract as a company, so it’s also great that it’s easy to get cost benefits. Now that we know we can do stable distribution with ‘Kodomo Challenge,’ Benesse will continue to provide video distribution to customers using Video Cloud” (Ueda).

WHY YOU NEED TO ESTABLISH A DATA STRATEGY NOW

bsp-admin-1 on August 28, 2019

Data can be a powerful tool for marketers around the world. By leveraging customer and prospect data, you can drive successful campaigns that resonate with your audience in exciting new ways.

But before you can effectively leverage this data, your organization needs to have the right data strategy in place. As Drew Donaldson—content and data strategist and founder of GroHaus, a consulting firm focused on helping businesses develop organic content and data strategies—points out, this strategy must address three main challenges:

  • Data standardization and governance

  • Data transformation and automation

  • Data storytelling

“Most organizations collect data on video views, web site visits, downloads, etc., only to find that they are unable to effectively leverage the collected data for marketing campaigns, management insights, or even simple trend analytics,” Donaldson stressed following his presentation at Brightcove’s most recent annual PLAY conference.

“To make the most of the data we collect—and not spend countless hours manually creating reports that are not all that meaningful—organizations need to bite the bullet and establish a strategy for managing data. This first step can be a heavy lift, but it is critically important in order to begin using data to drive marketing.”

WHY YOU NEED A GOVERNANCE PLAN FIRST

In order to make the most out of the data you collect, you need to have the necessary governance plan in place. “Data governance, while broad in scope, boils down to the rules of the road for data collection, storage, and utilization,” explains Donaldson. “You need to have a clear policy on how you collect data, what data you collect, how that data is stored, who has access to it, and what you’re going to do with it now that you have it. You also need to clearly share these policies with your audience (customers/prospects) not only because it is the right thing to do but as it’s now a legal requirement according to GDPR and CCPA—as well as a host of smaller laws making their way through legislatures around the world.”

“Without governance, all your cool data-driven automations and deep-market insights won’t be possible,” Donaldson stresses. “Data governance is the liver and onions before you get a big bowl of micro-targeted ice-cream. It is the foundation from which everything else that you want to do with your data is built.”

When it comes time to establish an effective data standardization and governance program, your executive leadership plays a crucial role. Unfortunately, as Donaldson called out, this type of leadership is lacking among many companies today. Consider the reaction among companies to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an EU law on data protection and privacy for all individual citizens of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). Six months after the law was enacted, 47.9% of affected companies still had no formal process in place to become GDPR-compliant. And they’re not alone:

  • Only 41% of all companies have a defined data governance program in place

  • 39.6% of companies report they do not have the human assets in place to establish a formal governance strategy

  • And 18.8% of companies have senior leadership that do not think data governance is important

It’s time to take action. “Without governance, marketing will be consumed by the manual and repetitive creation of reports that offer two-dimensional static insights,” Donaldson notes. “Without this crucial first step, discovering and tracking those high-value insights on a consistent basis will be nearly impossible. What you’re left with is all data, no story (or worse, the wrong story).”

AUTOMATING REPORTING AND REVEALING DATA

Once your organization has the necessary data governance and standardization procedures and policies in place—which typically involves establishing a schema, creating a unique identification convention, and mapping user data—you’ll be able to automate reporting and fully leverage your databases. Doing so will reveal a treasure trove of critical insights and stories.

With his clients, Donaldson is able to automate the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process in order to marry data from multiple data sources through the use of Domo and other BI tools—including Power BI, MySql, and Python.

“Our multi-channel client reporting ETL automation pulls in data from Google Analytics, Eloqua, Brightcove, and various other sources; runs a number of labeling processes; and then separates the content based on identifying values for each client thereby creating independent data sets for each client,” Donaldson explains. “The data that we collect in various forms—from site-served cookies, white paper download forms, webcast registrations, etc.—provide insights into the demographics of our audience. This allows us to show our clients that their content is getting in front of the right people and which user groups are being attracted by a specific piece of content, with daily breakdowns and running totals of the data.”

On the video side of things, Donaldson gets data from Brightcove Audience, which allows him to track viewer behavior to the individual level and introduce a much deeper level of reporting to his video clients. Instead of just reporting on impressions and views, he can provide aggregate and individual-level engagement to highlight how well a video is performing among specific subgroups. When interconnected with additional engagement, demographic, and individual data sets, Donaldson can tell much richer stories and provide valuable tools and information.

JUST DON’T FREAK PEOPLE OUT

Of course, the purpose of data collection is not just to generate a report or one-off anecdotes, but to develop marketing vehicles and campaigns that leverage these findings to reach existing and prospective customers. But Donaldson’s advice to marketers who want to use ultra-granular demographic or behavioral data to directly target prospects is simple: Don’t do it.

“People tend to be creeped out in general by the idea of data collection,” he points out. “If a marketer uses an overly targeted approach or if your marketing materials leverage overt personal details about your recipient based on data collected online, it may have the opposite of the intended effect and freak people out.”

When creating data-driven campaigns, it’s important to keep in mind how your tactics will be perceived by your target audience. Donaldson urges you to put yourself in their shoes: “How would you feel if you received an advertisement or offer from a company that seems to know more about you than they should, integrating your daughter’s name or your anniversary? This may seem extreme but this is all data that is easily scraped from public sources. Would you choose to continue doing business with them or be freaked out and avoid them like the plague?”

Right now, valuable stories are hiding inside your organization’s data—from trends that only come into focus through joining and analyzing of different data sets to deeply granular demographic information about your audience. By implementing data governance, standardization, and automation, you can identify these stories and leverage your data effectively.

About the double speed playback function

bsp-admin-1 on August 26, 2019

Starting with the latest version of the Brightcove Player (6.35.1), the Players module on Video Cloud now supports the ability to play videos back at double speed. This means that you can now add the ability to play videos back at double speed to your video players without having to configure any plugins.

HOW TO TARGET HARD-TO-REACH AUDIENCES WITH VIDEO

bsp-admin-1 on August 23, 2019

Executive-level decision-makers are a notoriously difficult-to-reach audience for marketers. In order to develop an effective video campaign for this audience, you must conduct research to drive every facet of the initiative, according to executive producer and creative director, Eliot Brodsky.

“We’ve come a long way from the stale, formulaic corporate videos of the past,” Brodsky stressed following his presentation at Brightcove’s most recent annual PLAY conference. “In today’s information-rich, social-media-driven world, the video work needs to have value, be informative, and connect with the audience, not its creator. Time is becoming more of a premium, and the best ways to not waste people’s time is to conduct research on your audience, collect data on it, and then use those insights to coordinate everything from the creative to how it reaches the viewer—delivering a personalized video experience.”

Interested in hearing some best practices for launching a data-driven video campaign? You’re in luck: Brodsky shared an example from his time at Oracle, where he recently served as the director of video strategy and production for over two years. Follow the three steps below to ensure your video reaches your target audience across channels.

1. CONDUCT YOUR RESEARCH

As Brodsky explained, Oracle wanted to be viewed as a future technology leader—and as a progressive brand that is taking on and supporting noble causes. To understand just how one of the company’s key target audiences—executive-level decision-makers—view Oracle in this context, the company conducted initial research of industry influencers, information technology (IT) decision-makers, and C-level corporate executives.

Based on the research findings, Brodsky’s team developed an overarching theme: “Smart companies have a vision of their future and are taking concrete steps today to secure it.” The team then used additional demographics and personal interest research on executive-level decision-makers to determine what would be the best type of creative to tap into the audience’s personal interest—and position the Oracle brand as a driving force for positive change that empowers them to take immediate action.

Take a page out of Brodsky’s book and consider how your team could benefit from performing a similar exercise. Start by determining how you want your brand to be seen in the marketplace and the type of research you can conduct to understand how to effectively develop that image.

2. USE DATA TO DRIVE YOUR CAMPAIGNS

To tailor its media strategy to executive behavior, Oracle used existing research to learn how to best reach and engage executive-level decision-makers. These findings prompted the team to adopt the following tactics:

  • Amplify social content with paid promotion

  • Co-brand the content on premium news sites

  • Create an organic, mobile-friendly user experience

With their media distribution strategy in place, Brodsky’s team then leveraged data to shape the content of the video in an effort to portray Oracle as a company that is all about delivering “your tomorrow, today; and dedicated to customer-focused innovation, speed of change, anticipating what’s next, and having an action plan for getting there,” explains Brodsky.

“In our execution, we decided to showcase visionary customers that are innovating beyond current trends; tell stories through video, social posts, editorial content, and outbound advertising; and use arresting headlines and striking images to drive readers to a vision of the future.”

Additional research findings that also influenced Oracle’s creative included:

  • The average human attention span is eight seconds

  • 82 percent of all videos on social media are watched without sound

  • Less branding helps audience retention, but hurts brand recall

In light of these findings, the team created short and focused videos that started with the most engaging content, made heavy use of on-screen text, and experimented with lighter vs. heavier branding.

“All of this research essentially boiled down to the fact that we had mere seconds to catch the attention of a busy executive as they glance at their phone between meetings,” Brodsky notes. “That’s why we knew that we had to reach them on an emotional level.”

One of the videos created for the campaign is reminiscent of the film, Gorillas in the Mist—highlighting the efforts of Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI) to save mountain gorillas with the help of technology from Oracle.

3. BOOST TRAFFIC VIA PROMOTION

Once the creative was ready, Brodsky’s team used paid promotion to drive and boost video viewing and traffic. “We carefully balanced our budget between production costs and media spend to give the campaign the biggest bang for the buck,” Brodsky recalls. “In the end, we saw that optimized, data-driven videos outperformed other videos across all platforms. On average, these videos had double the completion rates and half the cost-per-completion.”

Using data, Brodsky and his team achieved their goals of successfully reaching executive-level decision-makers across channels, realizing a slightly positive impact on brand metrics, and producing stories that resonated with the target audience in a number of formats and environments. The video campaign generated 151 million impressions, 93 million video views, and 31 million complete views.

The results above tell one simple truth: Data can be a powerful tool for helping you understand how to create campaigns that reach your target audience effectively. Consider replicating the steps Brodsky outlined to define your brand image, conduct audience research, and leverage the insights you gain to improve your content.

HOW TO TAKE YOUR EVENT VIDEO CONTENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

bsp-admin-1 on August 23, 2019

Whether you’re promoting a conference your company is hosting or your participation in a major industry event, video should play a large role in your marketing strategy.

Here are some tips and tricks for the different types of video content you can create before, during, and after an event.

PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS

Your pre-event promotional assets can be a valuable tool for driving attendees or meeting signups for your next event. By following the best practices below, you can ensure your event videos reach your audience effectively and keep them engaged.

LET YOUR TALENT DICTATE YOUR APPROACH

If you’re creating a talking-head video—in which someone addresses the audience by talking directly into the camera—your choice of talent is super important. After all, this is the person who’s really going to sell your audience on the value of attending your conference, meeting with your team at an industry event, etc. The ideal candidate is someone who is engaging and comfortable on camera—providing the energy you need to get viewers excited. That being said, you can (and should) play around with different formats depending on who is on camera.

CREATE SEGMENT-SPECIFIC VIDEOS

Your target audience is likely made up a variety of personas in different industries—and it’s important to remember that each of these segments wants to go to a particular event for different reasons. As such, you shouldn’t use the same assets for promotions across your entire audience. By developing segment-specific videos, you can ensure your message resonates, which will help to boost the overall ROI of these assets.

As a best practice, create a template for these targeted videos. While the content itself will certainly be different, the look and feel can be the same for all audiences.

Interested in seeing an example? Check out the four segmented promo videos we created for our most recent PLAY conference. As you can see when you watch the videos play side by side, the imagery and standard PLAY messaging is the same for all four, but some content—such as the specific breakout sessions and speakers highlighted—varies by the target audience:

LIVE STREAMS

Live streaming your event comes with its own unique set of opportunities and challenges. By putting the right plan in place before the event, you can avoid the dreaded live-stream-gone-wrong scenario.

UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE, BUDGET, AND CAPABILITIES

Nowadays, streaming your opening and closing keynotes is just table stakes. To take it to the next level, you need to think about who your target audience is and the type of additional content they’d like to see. For instance, this could include live interviews with your speakers. Of course, you need to think about your capabilities from a technical and promotional standpoint, too. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What types of content do you have the budget, time, and resources necessary to stream beyond the keynotes?

  • What types of content will you have the bandwidth necessary to promote effectively (on social and other channels)?

Set yourself up for success by ensuring your streaming plan incorporates a strategy that your team is equipped to execute well—and content that will resonate with your audience.

BUILD IN TESTING AND REHEARSAL TIME

This tip might seem a little obvious, but it’s important to call out explicitly. When it comes to live streams, the more testing and redundancy the better. And this period of testing and rehearsal time should include a few different things:

  • Meet with the camera operators. Use this time to lay out expectations for the types of footage you want these individuals to collect. For instance, if you know your keynote speaker is going to make a joke at a certain point in her presentation, you can instruct the camera operators to do an audience reaction shot at this time. Consider creating a cheat sheet that spells out these types of instructions explicitly.

  • Rehearse with the presentation on-site. By conducting this type of dry run, you can ensure the whole team is aware of what comes next in each stage of a presentation. For instance, if a certain slide links out to another site or asset (such as a video), you can align on a plan to make this transition as seamless as possible. And don’t forget to build in fail-safe slides so that your team knows where to point to if you encounter some technical difficulties.

RECORDING EVENT SESSIONS

Have you ever thought about how you could repurpose your event content down the line? One super valuable way is to record some (or all of) your sessions and turn them into video on demand (VOD) assets—which could potentially all live in one designated site, landing page, or playlist.

DEVELOP AN ASSET MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

If you do decide to record some of your sessions, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Of course, asset management—both on-site and post-event—is an important factor to consider here. The more organized you can be, the better.

First you need to define how much data you will be generating, and whether you will have enough space to store it. If you have limited space, consider which content you should prioritize.

Then, define who will manage the media on-site and who will be in charge of the asset “dump.” I recommend that you have one dedicated DIT person to perform the latter task, as this will help you to streamline and simplify the process.

CREATE A BACKUP PLAN

When you’re creating and producing content at an event, it’s always best to plan for the worst-case scenario. After all, you could run into a variety of technical difficulties—from a camera malfunction to your recorder burning out.

Consider the types of things you could manually do later if the audio or visual were to cut out in a particular recording, and put a plan in place so that you have all the necessary materials to do this work. For instance, make sure you have access to all the presentation decks, so you can always add those back into a recording down the line if something goes wrong on-site.

EVENT VLOGS

In today’s media landscape, viewers want and expect vlog-style content on a variety of channels. These assets empower you to engage with your audience in a whole new way—giving them a firsthand peek into what it’s like to attend a particular event. Here are a few of our tips and tricks on how to create a powerful vlog strategy.

  • Identify team members to own each channel. In an effort to avoid duplicating work, it’s important to lay out vlogging responsibilities before an event takes place. When defining these roles, be sure to lean into your teams’ existing skill sets. For instance, if a particular individual is an Instagram pro, let him or her own Instagram Stories throughout the event (and shoot in their preferred style).

  • Develop a content plan. In order to compile footage that’s engaging and boosts your ROI, you need to establish your goals and determine which themes you would like to focus on in each vlog. For instance, one video could provide a behind-the-scenes look into an event’s live stream while another could focus on highlighting the coolest new technology on the show floor.

  • Create a promotion plan. Of course, you need to determine how you will promote each vlog that you create—from distributing them on your social channels to embedding them in related written content.

My final tip is to always shoot more than you think you need. Doing so will help you achieve the fast-paced energy you’re looking for and equip you with lots of resources you can leverage in next year’s promotional materials.

Remember: When covering an event, your goal should be to not only create great content—but to produce event videos that give off the exciting feeling of being there in-person.

BUILDING CULTURE WITH VIDEO: BEHIND THE SCENES WITH BRIGHTCOVE

bsp-admin-1 on August 9, 2019

When your workforce is spread across the globe, whether in regional offices or remote home offices, building a cohesive company culture is a challenge. Because we’re a video company at heart, we rely on internal video communications to build up our culture and unite our global workforce, and we’ve found that it works pretty well. The key is personality. On two recent occasions, we had the opportunity to revitalize a couple of ongoing internal video programs, so they aligned more closely with our personality. Here’s how we did it.

C SUITE COMMUNICATIONS

Internal videos, particularly those involving company leadership, can be challenging for creative teams. Generally, there’s a tight lid on messages coming from the C suite, and the first impulse is to produce a tightly scripted video so the outcome is guaranteed from the start. The problem with that approach is that it ends up feeling robotic, the message doesn’t come across as friendly or warm, and natural personality is lost.

We wanted our update videos to show who Brightcove CEO Jeff Ray really is—a fun-loving, approachable leader who’s passionate about video—so that our entire global workforce feels like they know him no matter where they’re logging in from. Producer Jason Oliveira pitched a genius concept—create a “video podcast” style set, ditch the script in favor of bullet points, and let an organic conversation unfold in front of the camera. Check out the video at the top of this blog post for a behind-the-scenes look at how we did it.

It took some trust, but our first video in this style managed to inform the company of important midsummer updates while still feeling warm and conversational—and it’s much more engaging to watch than a stiff talking-head video. Jeff and his guests, Chief Revenue Officer Rick Hanson and VP of Design Carolyn Pampino, really brought it in terms of personality.

brightcove-jeff-ray-rick-hanson

INTERNAL EVENTS

We’ve live streamed our annual ping pong tournament in past years in an effort to help our regional and remote teams feel like they’re part of the event. It’s one of Brightcove’s big summer traditions, and we want to include our entire global workforce! This summer, we took the opportunity to build on that foundation and add some personality (there’s that word again). Like a lot of tech companies, the ping pong table at Boston HQ is a central gathering place, and the annual tournament is a tightly contested battle. We wanted this year’s live stream to reflect the drama…and, let’s be honest, the inherent silliness and fun of ping pong.

For the final match of the tournament, we added color commentary and a graphics package to the stream to mimic a real live sporting event. We also trained a camera on the scoreboard for real time, picture-in-picture score updates and mic-ed up the table for crisp game audio. Because we knew the final product would be a great way to showcase our internal culture to an external audience, we decided to stream it live to Facebook using Brightcove’s Live to Social module.

Within just a few hours, the social engagement and reach of this live event had already out-performed all the videos we’ve posted on Facebook over the last three months. Our conclusions are:

  • Facebook is a great channel for behind-the-scenes and recruiting content—so consider repurposing your most fun internal comms content for Facebook.
  • A little polish and personality, combined with strong visual elements and a sense of fun, boosts results for live events on Facebook.

In the end, this was a pretty low-lift, high-reward effort. We got to try something new, use the Brightcove Live solution and Live to Social, and create engaging content for social media on top of our regular internal audience.

Video is a special medium, because it can convey authenticity in a way that text and photos can’t. But you have to embrace the risk and uncertainty—otherwise your videos come off as “corporate trying to be authentic.” It’s not a good look. If you do embrace that risk, the reward of conveying your company’s personality is huge—it brings together your workforce in a way that email updates just can’t.

VIDEO CONTENT MARKETING GOLD: YOUR SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS

bsp-admin-1 on August 7, 2019

Video is the leader when it comes to marketing content designed to drive business, increase awareness, and maximize ROI. Companies today realize the necessity of incorporating multiple types of business video into their content strategy—as well as the need to create more unique assets in order to rise above competitors.

As such, marketing departments are challenged to come up with greater quantities of video while at the same time making sure that the content maintains the desired level of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Video should rank highly on your content marketing checklist, so let’s look into one of the strongest forms of business video, content driven by subject matter experts (SMEs).

Read on for a sneak peek into my recent presentation at Brightcove’s PLAY 2019 conference.

EXECUTING THE PERFECT SME VIDEO

Self-serving talking head videos are not engaging—and can be quite cliché. These types of videos have given the term “thought leadership” a bad name, and typically lack any real value for the viewer.

When creating SME videos, the focus should always be on your audience. How will they benefit from this knowledge? And how will this content help you establish their trust?

Overall, you should focus on these three primary goals:

  • Create valuable, informative, and engaging content

  • Make videos for each stage of the sales cycle

  • Develop content that can be easily scaled, repurposed, and remixed

“The Content Marketer’s Dilemma: Those that create content, don’t have the knowledge, those with the knowledge don’t create.” ~ A. Lee Judge

HOW DO YOU GET BEYOND THE CONTENT MARKETER’S KNOWLEDGE GAP DILEMMA?

In order to close the knowledge gap found when seeking to create quality video content, you must enlist both internal and external SMEs:

  • Internal experts have the unique knowledge that can only come from your company. These are your company leaders, product creators, service providers, and even sales team members. Sales leaders have rehearsed their pitch on your brand’s main differentiators. They’ve been reciting it over and over again, and are basically camera-ready.

  • External experts lend authority and trustworthiness to your company. These are your industry analysts, partners, and customers. Companies often throw big events where they invite customers, partners, and other industry experts, along with salespeople and high-level executives. These moments are perfect for a video shoot because all of the individuals listed can provide information that your competitors will not have.

CREATING BASE CONTENT WITH VIDEO

The next step is determining the base content capture format. Video provides the most fruitful type of content because by nature it consists of both visuals and text. Hence, video is where your true repurposing power lies. You can break a larger video asset down to create various types of content, such as:

  • Web page content
  • Articles
  • Podcasts
  • Infographics
  • FAQ videos
  • Behind-the-scenes videos
  • Shareable clips

HOW TO GET HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT FROM SMES

At Content Monsta, an Atlanta-based marketing agency, our team has developed an offering that we simply call a Video Day. This is a video shoot in which we slot a time frame to interview multiple SMEs in a company within a given day. We’ve developed a strategy and structure that empowers us to generate a large amount of quality content beyond video. Some of the strategies we use to get the content we need include:

PREPARE OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS

When you know that you are going to create written articles from an interview, you can ask questions that lend themselves to that type of content. For example, listicles are a successful article format, so instead of asking a thought leader about how great their product is, you would instead ask them to provide five reasons for why their product or service is better than their competitors.

If you’re interviewing salespeople, ask them to tell you about the most common objections they hear from customers. They will give you the information, but naturally add a positive spin in the end to explain how they respond to these objections.

ASK QUESTIONS WITH SOUND BITES IN MIND

Imagine the best possible quote you could take from a company CEO to post on Twitter or Facebook. What would it sound like? Use that as a point of reference to reverse engineer the interview, and ask the SME questions in long-form video content that you know you are going to be able to chop up into quotes or one-minute snippets down the line. These sound bites will be excellent for social posts.

ASK DIFFERENT THOUGHT LEADERS THE SAME QUESTION

If you’re in a position to interview several people in different roles, ask them all the same question. That way, you’ll get different quotes and multiple options to choose from when you’re editing your video. Also, when repurposing this video into text, you will gain alternative ways to state your point. This will provide you with synonyms to your content keywords. More, but different, keywords will assist in your SEO efforts.

Always interview with a purpose: By asking the right questions, you can lay down the necessary foundation to get insightful answers for your video content.  So perhaps I should say, “interview with a re-purpose!”

Through a series of videos and content created from the video material, you can get subject matter experts to share valuable information and knowledge. The best thought leadership videos will deliver value to the target audience—while helping your company gain a competitive edge.