A great event requires your audience to relate to your organization’s story. To do this effectively, you need to engage your potential audience by presenting your story in a format that’s easy to follow. Due to its interactivity, video is an excellent way to present your business’s story.
As Derek Doeing of G2 Crowd says, it’s essential to “create videos that are actually valuable and entertaining to your audience.” The stats also support video – 87% of marketers say that video has helped increase traffic to their business. Statista has projected that video will make up more than 82% of all internet consumer traffic.
So, why not use this screen time to engage your audience? This article will look at seven types of videos to level up your event.
Here are a few reasons why videos boost audience engagement:
Unlike text that requires a person to pause and read, video can instantly grab attention. Within seconds, a video can present enough information to educate or excite a potential customer, in a way that text cannot do. According to the latest research, the average attention span of a customer is only 8 seconds. With video, you can maximize that time effectively and provide crucial information.
A great video allows you to draw a potential client's attention in seconds, which is an effective way to ensure they build a connection with your story. When they build such a connection, they are more likely to be engaged with your event.
Videos are a form of passive learning, requiring little work for your message to be passed to your audience. Unlike text which may require your audience to give their attention to understand your message, video has no such requirements.
In fact, a study carried out by a researcher at Vanderbilt University showed that video can “minimize extraneous cognitive load, optimize germane cognitive load, and manage intrinsic cognitive load.” This means that video takes the work off the shoulders of your potential audience, making it easier for them to understand your message.
Because videos allow you to take control of the story your way, videos help you to reflect your company in a positive light. Stories are powerful ways of building credibility and empathy, two powerful factors for keeping your audience tuned in. For example, to bring awareness to the importance of medical research, PhRMA created a series of videos in 2017 highlighting stories of researchers at the forefront of research into cures for serious diseases. These garnered a lot of attention and helped create relevance in the public eye.
Videos are an excellent way to build a soft spot for your company in the minds of potential audiences. Videos help to humanize your business, providing a face that audiences can form emotionally connect with. Your business can leverage that connection to gain your audience’s attention. As your audience feels your business is important, they can better engage with your message and gain maximally from your event.
Here are seven video types that can help you up your game at events:
A teaser video is a short video sample of what your event has to offer, stating important information such as the date, theme, venue, and time. Teaser videos are launched pre-event and are a great way to drum up excitement.
You can release your teaser videos to all your social media pages and promote them via paid ads to reach your target audience. It’s also best practice to include a CTA or link to your event so that viewers can register easily.
Like teaser videos, promotional videos are also pre-event videos released onto relevant social platforms. They can take a variety of formats and feature anything that you think is a great way to attract your potential audience. You can include clips from previous events, short interviews, expert endorsements, and much more!
Thought leader videos are a great way to build credibility for your event and your business. By inviting a respected thought leader to feature in your video, you’re able to ensure audiences associate your business with quality.
Testimonials are unscripted presentations from past attendees which describe how your event positively impacted them. A great feature of testimonial videos is that, since they’re unscripted, they help your event garner organic social proof.
Suppose your business is offering a new product, or you’re in a technical industry. In that case, a demo or explainer video may be a great way of helping potential customers understand what to do. Demo videos also build recognizability for your brand, which is critical for boosting engagement.
If your event hosts an award session, creating a video of the past award-winners is simply a no-brainer. By showing past award winners, you add an extra layer of excitement to your event and more industry credibility. Your awards can motivate people to attend your event, as they’ll want to find out who is the best in the industry.
As an event organizer, it’s essential not to take your attendees’ knowledge of your event goals for granted. With tons of other activities to grab your audience’s attention, attendees will want to know why they should attend your event. With an orientation video, you can show attendees why your event is relevant, giving them a reason to attend your event.
Videos are a great way to increase your event's relevance. With excellent video coverage, you can generate more excitement for your event, allowing you to reach more of your target audience. With Performedia, you can get high-quality video coverage, so your virtual or hybrid event needs are always covered.
