TBV Insights

What are the best subjects for technology marketing videos (part 3)?

best subjects for technology marketing videos
More than anything else, buyers want insight. Videos that are rich in visual information can deliver a lot of insight.

This is the third post in a “What are the best subjects for technology marketing videos?” series. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 3

According to the social media analytics firm Simply Measured, video content gets shared 12 times as often as links and text posts combined. True, the videos behind this stat are promotions by Facebook’s top ten brands, and your technology solution video may attract a different sort of fans.  But video, and visuals generally, are more likely to be shared online than content that requires more effort to grasp. And what is the quickest and easiest thing to grasp? Pictures. Information presented visually.

Visualizing the value proposition

best subjects for technology marketing videos
A hypothetical, but realistic, value prop calculation, can challenge the viewer to think hard about the vision you’re presenting.

If you can quantify your value proposition or proof points visually,  you’ve got the makings of a very persuasive video. Of course, sometimes there are too many unknowns and complications to come up with a back-of-the-envelope value calculation. But if you can find something to say with numbers, you can gain credibility and demonstrate your understanding of the customer environment. Here’s a down-to-earth excerpt from a BMC product video in which it’s clear that the company is savvy about mainframe costs and the value of their solution.

Making words work harder

By themselves, words on the screen communicate little or no actual information, though animated phrases and captions can reinforce a message and help keep the energy level up. Don’t overdo it —  too much kinetic text can be wearying.

 best subjects for technology marketing videos
Words on-screen make the message concrete and add to the realism of the scenario.

In conjunction with pictures, words that come across as highly relevant to the industry or persona your video is addressing can help to ground your video in reality and engage the viewer, often without having to be spoken aloud by the narrator. Here’s an excerpt from an IBM Smarter Planet video where the words on the screen help to put the concept being presented — mathematical optimization — into a business context.

”Realistic” software demos

best subjects for technology marketing videos
Combining animation with software demo.

Most of the technology products and services we’ve produced videos forcome with a user interface. Much like words on the screen, screens on the screen can be wearing if there are too many of them. If you need to give the viewer a sense of what the interface is like, don’t just show some pointing and clicking, show something being accomplished. Here’s an excerpt from a Dynatrace 2-Minute Explainer video that conveys the idea of rapidly drilling down to the root cause of a performance problem, without any actual pointing and clicking onscreen.

best subjects for technology marketing videos
Rapid-fire drill-down to root cause.

If you need to do a more realistic, screen-cast-y demo, it will be even more real if you can add animations that dramatize how the things you do with the software affect the environment. Here’s an excerpt from a 5-minute product demo created to introduce the Brocade Application Resource Broker.

More visual explanations

Emotion matters in storytelling, but it’s not necessarily the best way to explain something. If you truly empathize with the viewer’s situation, that should come across in the video. In too many “explainer” videos, the visual content consists entirely of animated characters on screen emoting or reacting to spoken words. You can communicate a lot more valuable information in a short time if you make your explanation in pictures, not in words.

For more about visual explanations to speed up the buyer’s journey, download our free report Creating Videos that Support the Technology Buyer’s Journey.

[Newsletter Archive]

Selling To IT Using Video? How AI Can Help

Every technology buyer’s journey involves watching videos. If you’re involved in budgeting and producing those videos, you’re probably looking for ways AI can help. I think you can get the most out current AI solutions by looking at cost savings

Personalizing Videos with AI

Sixty-three percent of B2B technology buyers disregard content that is not personalized to their interests, needs, industry, or role. Interests and needs can vary widely across industries and roles. This makes producing “personalized” videos at scale a challenge. Which makes personalizing