Now that LinkedIn is all in on video for Sponsored Content and Company Pages,
you need to know how to make your videos look more corporate, professional, you know more business like and respectable. Take a video, any video and add these three items: Bumper, Bug & Lower Thirds and now your video is ready for the B2B dance. When we say any video, what we mean is just about any video as long as it has good sound. Of course great sound is better, people will endure poor or bad video as long as the sound is good.
So what are these 3 things to make any video a B2B video? Let's look at each one, along with a few of the reasons why you need them and a few rules to follow when applying them. And just to be clear, these three terms are not the only names used in the film and video production industry, but if as a layman you use any one of these three terms when discussing the project with your motion graphics company, they will know what you are referring to.
1 - VIDEO - Bumper:
This refers to the small (a few seconds), introduction to your video. Small is very important here, between 3 and 15 seconds. If you have a video interview or testimonial of 30 seconds to one minute the maximum Bumper should be 5 seconds or less. This may sound short but on a 30 second video 5 seconds is over 15% of the overall viewing time. And trust me, 5 seconds of a slow paced bad photo collage can feel like an eternity and will make the viewer click off immediately. A Bumper should either establish your brand and it’s message or set the tone for what follows. Depending on the various types of video your company is producing you should have 1-3 different Bumpers to use for the appropriate video, i.e interviews, training, products and more.
2 - VIDEO - Bug:
This is a small graphic, usually your company logo in the lower, far right corner. Think of CBS, ABC or any other broadcast network logo. A few things to remember when creating this very specialized graphic, make sure the graphic is a simplified version without small text in it. Additionally, you need to have some contrast, quite often in the form of a light or dark translucent glow, outline or shadow around the graphic. This will insure the graphic or logo is visible whether the video is on a light or dark background. Most all Bugs are translucent to some degree, remember it is not the focus of your video, it is there as a brand reminder. One final thing to keep in mind, if you plan on using or sending the video to a broadcaster, you will need to make sure your Bug is within the “Title Safe Area”. Broadcast safe and title safe is a discussion for another time.
3 - Lower Thirds FOR VIDEO:
Usually a Lower Third is an informational piece of text or graphic or a combination of both. Lower Thirds do not stay on the screen for the entire length of the video and usually have a slight animation to them to make sure the viewer is aware of their presence, on and off the screen. You are probably familiar with the newest in Lower Thirds on broadcast TV. Due to most people now having High Definition TV’s the lowly Lower Thirds has become a new promotional tool for broadcasters, also known as a Snipe. This is the new pop-up from the bottom of the screen with a sometimes annoying announcement of what is coming up.
Now that you have these three things in your video arsenal you are ready to dress your video for the big B2B dance. Below are four reasons to motivate you to incorporating video in your everyday marketing mix.
Here are a few reasons:
- 65 percent of organizations share visual content at least once per day.
- 75 percent of social post always use a visual when posting to engage their audience.
- 70 percent of companies drive better marketing ROI when they use visuals with their content.
- Video is on the rise, however 81 percent of companies claim video is still the hardest content to produce.
Most companies either have videos already or have the ability to shoot instructional videos in-house, but do not have the tools or expertise to add these three basic items.
So why dress your videos for B2B? It means more eyes on your company, which means more money. To see how we dressed this mothers video for B2B click here.
Maybe next time we will cover where your B2B video would like to dance. There are many, many other hosting platforms out there other than YouTube, not that there's anything wrong with YouTube. But, is it right for your videos?
Author: Wm. Brimer
Wm. Brimer is an marketer, author, and video editor. He has been shooting and editing since the early years (1999) of digital filmmaking, and has helped numerous brands grow over the years. He is the Founder at BeOriginal, a creative services marketing agency.
When he’s not writing or speaking, you can find Barry in his garden, on the basketball court, or volunteering in his local community. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.