OK, this may seem like on odd question to pose on a site hosting hundreds of clips from dozens of insurers, viewed by thousands in the industry, so there’s an element of preaching to the converted here.
But elsewhere in the market, there’s still some hesitancy about video’s place in marketing strategies. Even among the biggest players, there are a few who have yet to take the plunge or barely dipped a toe in the water.
Talking to insurers of all sizes, the reasons vary from misconceptions about the likely budget, skills and resources required to create quality video content, to uncertainty about the technological limitations or appetite of a broker audience.
But just as big institutions have adapted to make the most of social media, so they are coming to realise that strategy and agility are more important than big budgets and Hollywood production values.
No blog is complete without a list so here are some tips for producing video content that is both affordable and watchable:
Length matters - youTalk-Insurance founder Paul Handleigh recently blogged about making insurance marketing more ‘snackable’ and video is a prime example. It can be difficult getting complex messages across in under two minutes, but longer videos get fewer views and proportionately less of them is watched, so keep it short and sweet.
Charlie didn’t bite your finger - While video abounds with big numbers (YouTube often talks in billions) a B2B explainer about your claims process is not going viral. To set realistic expectations, think about how many recipients opened and read your last broadcast email, as opposed to how many you sent.
Do or DIY - While the technology needed to make decent video is now in most of our pockets, the quality expectation has also shifted. Customers don’t expect all a company’s video to look like its TV campaigns anymore. Authenticity often trumps polish so, with a little professional training, businesses really can shoot and edit themselves, making video far cheaper and much more timely.
Only in it for the SEO - Original video content certainly boosts search performance, but that zombie statistic about sites with video being a zillion per cent more likely to appear on Google’s first page of results is misleading. Correlation is not causation. SEO is a benefit but shouldn’t be your rationale.
Ready for your close-up – Few organisations would let an employee even talk to customers without proper training, but senior figures are often put in front of camera with no professional guidance whatsoever. A few hours of coaching will make for more confident, natural and, ultimately, watchable delivery, and will be more than repaid when it comes to filming and editing.
Work it baby, work it - Uploading to YouTube and waiting for viewers is a bit like printing a brochure and leaving it in your stationery store. Industry specific sites like youTalk-insurance will get far more views and more valuable ones. Like any marketing activity, you get out what you put in, so embed, email, update, post, and tweet.
The extent to which insurers have embraced video may vary from one to the next, but the amount of video content that their customers are viewing is only going in one direction.
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