5 Ways To Do Video Marketing During COVID-19
These are some weird scary times, friends. COVID-19 is spreading throughout the world and the US economy is all but ground to a halt. Here in Austin we’ve been under a stay at home order for 3 weeks and there’s not much of a sign of things returning to normal.
And if we can’t go into the office and we can’t interact, does that mean our video marketing has to stop? For many, it may. For others, we may want to try and survive this thing. Think of it like the scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest and Lt. Dan survive a hurricane. Because they weathered the storm they took over the gulf coast shrimping business. Do you want to survive this thing? And thrive when it’s over? Do that the same way you overcome any other challenge. Adapt.
1. VLOG VLOG VLOG
Traditional video production is off the table right now. We can’t exactly have a video production company make a corporate video at your office when there’s no one in your office. But this is an excellent chance to get ahead of your competition by making yourself visible to your customers. People are at home. And they’d love to see you. So internally made vlogs are an excellent tool right now. An astounding 51% of people use the internet to watch vlogs. So assign someone creative and interesting to give people updates about your company. Or check in with different employees. Give people advice on concerns they have about the current state of affairs. And the best part is, you don’t have to be a stickler on video quality. If late night talk shows can produce content via their webcam, so can you!
2. Record a Zoom meeting
Remember when we could go 20 minutes without hearing about Zoom? Me neither. A thing that could be interesting to your customers is a recorded Zoom meeting. An example of something you could do is a roundtable discussion about how to adapt during the pandemic. You could also invite clients to a meeting.
3. Use a stock video service
Don’t get too scared by the concept of “stock video” and assume you’re going to have to learn the elusive art of editing. There are some really great services like Promo that package together a bunch of really professional content and all you have to do is plug in your company information/logos, etc. Would it be preferable to have corporate videos with your own people and images in them? Sure. But this is great-looking video production, it's great for social media that will help get you through the current moment.
4. Animation
You know who can work during a pandemic? Animators. That’s who. Now the scope of animation projects can vary widely. You can get a simple infographic animation piece done or you can produce a complex 3-D project worthy of Pixar. And there’s also a wide range of quality of animator options. You can get something very inexpensive off Fiverr or you can get something custom-made by a high-end animation studio. It really depends on your budget so shop around and decide how important the animation content is to your company. A word of advice: have someone in your company do the voiceover. Animation tends to be less personal than traditional corporate video production so internal voiceover can give it a personal touch.
5. Get your video production company to makes clips from previous video projects
You know who else has all the time and resources to work right now? Video editors. Video editors have been living the quarantine life before it was trendy. So a good idea could be to reach out to your video production company and ask if they can take some previously shot footage and clip it into some content. For example, if a corporate video company did a company culture video for you they probably still have your footage and maybe only used 10% of the video clips they shot. If there were interviews in the video production you could clip together single interviews as testimonials. You could clip together some b-roll and create a snazzy image-only reel. You could put some funny outtakes onto your social media. These days, more than ever, people just want to see people. People want to see you. Show them you’re still here. And that when we get through this thing, you still will be.
Michael Mason is the owner of Perfect Chaos Films, a corporate video production company in Austin TX, specializing in corporate video production and corporate documentaries.