3 Lessons on How to Use Video to Drive Business Value

Video is quickly becoming one of the most effective marketing tactics. However, many organizations waste loads of time and money creating videos that fail to deliver results. Here’s our secret formula for producing videos that drive business ROI.

Media One Creative is a digital video agency and creative production house based out of Toronto. My co-founder and I launched the agency in 2008 to help clients solve their business challenges through creative thinking, storytelling, and video.

We have since become one of Canada’s fastest-growing digital video agencies, with a team of more than 150 professionals on staff and contract. One reason for our rapid growth is that we continually look for ways to stay on the cutting edge and lead the pack.

When our clients ask for something, we do whatever we can to provide it. In particular, our clients needed better metrics into how their videos performed. They wanted to move beyond vanity numbers—such as likes, views, and shares—and find out if our services translated into real business value.

We needed to show clients in-depth data on the viewers who engaged with their content so that we could prove our work’s value. This would increase our “stickiness” and give clients a reason to stay with us beyond their initial project.

In-Depth Data on Buyer Behavior

In 2013, we looked into software vendors who could give us comprehensive metrics.

Then, a Vidyard sales rep reached out to us. When we met, I discovered that our companies have a similar audience. We also both believe that every organization in every industry can better tell their story with video.

It soon became clear that we could form a valuable partnership. Media One Creative provides the video production services, and Vidyard provides the underlying technology. It’s a win-win.

I had our marketing team evaluate Vidyard and received feedback that it was simple to use. Vidyard also integrates with two of our key platforms—Salesforce and Pardot. These integrations would make it easy for us to collect in-depth data on customer engagement and buyer behavior, as well as see which videos caused the most leads to convert.

Signing off on Vidyard was an easy decision!

Achieving a 76.4% Click Through Rate with Personalized Video

We use Vidyard for all of our in-house and client videos.

We focus on creating personalized videos where viewers can choose their own adventure based on specific triggers or actions that they take.

For example, the YMCA asked us to create a video to thank donors for their contribution. We personalized the videos with the donor’s name and showed them how their gift is making a difference in their community.

Here’s an example of one of the videos:

The video has a 76.4% click-through rate, and 82% of viewers watched it until the end. These are very impressive metrics, as they show much higher engagement rates than we see with non-personalized videos.

The YMCA received a lot of positive feedback from donors who felt recognized. Donors appreciated that the YMCA personally thanked them—even if they only made a small contribution. The YMCA achieved its goal of showing all donors that they matter.

Using Video to Engage Busy CEOs

One of our clients, Ernst & Young, celebrates Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs with their Entrepreneur of the Year Award. We created videos that announced the finalists. Each video included the finalist’s story and their name on a trophy.

Ernst & Young sent videos to the 207 finalists of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. The videos currently have more than 550 views, meaning that the finalists have shared them multiple times with their families, friends, and colleagues. The videos also have a 69.5% click-through rate, and 71% of viewers watched their video all the way through.

I was surprised when CEOs took screenshots of these videos and posted them on LinkedIn. The high level of engagement impressed me, but more importantly, it impressed our client.

3 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Started With Video

Over the years, we’ve experimented a lot to learn what works and what doesn’t work with video. Here are my top three tips on how to drive business value with video:

1. Personalize your content.

To cut past the noise, you must create content that speaks directly to your target audience. If you publish a general video for “everybody,” you’ll fail to address the needs of your key personas. If your content doesn’t speak directly to their concerns or goals, they will tune you out.

When we personalize videos, we don’t just create one or two variations. We might make five videos for a single persona to allows us to engage our client’s customers across different demographics.

As you can see from our success stories, personalized video can help you blow your ROI goals out of the water.

2. Find technology that proves the value of your videos.

Video is very costly if you get it wrong.

Look for technology that gives you in-depth analytics about your videos, so you can determine if they drive business value. With Vidyard, we can see the exact percentage of a video that someone watches and if they watch multiple times. We can also see if viewers take action when they watch our content.

These analytics allow us to learn what works, so we can make informed decisions instead of doing something based on how we feel.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

Agencies are in the business of creating content and understand which strategies win—and which ones fail. Since they produce hundreds or thousands of videos each year, they can handle quick production cycles. When you work with an agency partner, you can avoid mistakes and achieve results faster.

Plus, it’s hard to find resources to produce videos in-house. Many video professionals prefer to work for agencies, so they can produce videos for a variety of clients and keep their ideas fresh.

Now Is the Time to Get Started with Video

Your customers are demanding video, and your competitors are using it. If you don’t make video an essential part of your marketing strategy, you’ll fall behind.

Luckily, getting started with video doesn’t need to take up all of your time. Work with an agency that understands your industry and can create videos that deliver results. Also, use technology that gives you in-depth analytics and shows you how your videos drive business value.

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