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Do you need to work with experts or employees to create marketing videos? Looking for a proven process that results in great content?
In this article, you’ll learn how to guide experts to deliver talking points you can use in your marketing videos.
Explain the Process to Your Interview Subject
While you may think what you’re after from the expert you’re interviewing is crystal clear to them, there is a world of difference in interpretation so it’s helpful to clarify what you want.
The object of this video is not to present your subject as another monotone talking head. The goal is to come away with responses to key prompts or questions that are delivered in an authentic and conversational tone.
Explain to the person you’re interviewing that you need them to respond to your prompts or questions with a full sentence. Tell them they can even restate some form of the prompt or question in their response, if that’s helpful.
Finally, let them know that if you don’t get the response you’re looking for, you will pose several versions of a prompt or question until you get a more satisfying response from them. Alerting them to this in advance will help avoid confusion or frustration during the interview.
Develop Your Talking Points
The talking points below are solid, and have been used to create a number of successful marketing videos. They provide a good starting outline for this type of interview.
That said, you may need to develop your own prompts or questions to fit a specific or unique situation. Just be sure the additional questions you ask or prompts you use are specific enough to give you exactly what you need.
1. Tell Me Who You Are and What You Do
Give someone a chance to introduce themselves, especially with a camera recording for what they know is a marketing video, and you’ll likely get an answer similar to, “My name is Bob Jones and I’m the CEO of Company X.”
You don’t need to hear the words, “I’m the CEO.” or “I’m the Supply Manager.”
What you’re after is a humanized version of that sentence—you want Bob to say his full name and describe his job. Put the focus on what your expert can do for potential customers, because that is more important to them than the title behind your expert’s name.
“I’m Bob Jones and I make sure my customers are never without a wifi connection.”
2. Tell Me About Your Customers
Many business owners make the mistake of trying to serve everyone. While serving everyone is a possibility for some businesses, marketing videos can’t (and shouldn’t) speak to every customer segment at the same time.
Get your subject to focus on one target audience at a time so there’s no doubt who each video is meant for. Drive that point home quickly and early, and the people you want to reach will be pulled into the content and continue watching.
If the business serves seven customer segments, collect seven different soundbites. This will allow you to develop a target video for each segment during a single interview.
If the word ‘customer’ doesn’t quite fit, you can adjust the question. Depending on who you’re interviewing, you can say, “Tell me about your primary clients,” or “Who is your primary audience?”
“I serve small business owners who need wifi in remote locations.”
“I serve retirees who want to stay connected to wifi while they travel.”
3. Tell Me About the Specific Problem That Your Customers Face
You may need to reiterate that you want specificity and detail here. You want an answer that presents a very targeted solution to each segmented customer group the business serves.
If the business truly does serve more than one customer segment, multiple responses may look like this:
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“Our customers are small business owners who often find themselves in areas that don’t have reliable mobile or wifi connections. This makes it difficult or impossible for them to conduct business on-site.”
“Our customers travel a lot and often find themselves in areas that don’t have reliable mobile or wifi connections. This makes it difficult or impossible for them to stay connected to family and friends.”
4. Tell Me About Your Approach to Solving the Problem
This is where you ask your subject to explain their unique solution to the problem their customers face. Help them remember that this is not the time to pitch their product or service; they can address that later in the interview.
Rather than, “Our product delivers on-the-go wifi to remote locations in 50 states,” you’re looking for something that speaks to the unique nature of your solution.
“We understand that portable wifi is something best offered on an as-needed basis. We don’t require our customers to sign up for expensive mobile data or wifi packages that expire each month. Instead, we offer multi-day service bundles that customers activate only on the days they need service. With no expiration date.”
5. Tell Me About Your Qualifications
At this point, you’ve helped your subject identify the customer, the customer’s problem, and the solution process.
Now it’s time to help your subject tell viewers why it’s better to do business with their company rather than with a competitor. What industry awards have they received? Is there a customer testimonial or success story to share?
“In a single week, our portable wifi service helped business owner Suzy Smith connect with her secure point-of-sale software and complete over $5,000 of on-site purchases from three customers while on the road.”
6. Help Me Overcome Any Objections to Trying Your Product
The possibility that someone may not like your product or service is real, and it’s not something you should shy away from. Ask your subject to respond to the question, “What if I don’t like it?” by detailing their quality control process, their customer service, or their refund process. If there’s a money-back guarantee or free trial period, tell viewers about it.
The goal here is to give the viewer peace of mind before they’re asked to commit to a purchase.
“Worried we won’t live up to your expectations? If, at any time, you are disappointed in our service or connectivity we will refund your purchase in full.”
7. Close With an If/Then Call to Action
Humans use emotions to make decisions but use logic to justify those decisions. If you’ve done your job, the prospective customer has seen and heard enough to feel good about your subject, their business, and the product they offer.
Help your subject give customers a logical reason to purchase by having your subject deliver an If/Then statement that uses numbers to establish truth in the mind of the customer.
“So if you want portable wifi with a signal you can count on when you need it, then give us a call today and save $20 on your first 10-day service bundle.”
Conclusion
If you’ve been given the task of interviewing people to create a marketing video for your business or a client, it’s important to help those people give you the soundbites you need in a way that’s human and engaging rather than stiff or stilted.
The best way to help the people behind a business talk about what they do—in an authentic and warm way that appeals to prospects and customers—is to lead those people into telling their story without them having to think about it.
Whether you create videos for your boss, company executive, fellow colleagues, or clients, the responses you draw from your subject are key. Structure your interview around the content you want to get from your interviewee and you’ll end up with the right clips for your video.
From here, use your favorite video editing tool to put your talking points together into marketing videos for your business.
What do you think? Do these prompts inspire you to create more employee spotlight videos? What questions and prompts would you include? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
