How many first impressions do you get in marketing initiatives? If you answered one, congratulations! You’ve made a great first impression! Of course, you’re not reading this because you’re worried about what I think of you—you’re thinking about first impressions in your B2B interactions.
So, with your one and only first impression, how will you impress your audience? The first step is choosing the right format, and there’s one that stands head and shoulders above the rest: video. C&I Studios urges the use of video as soon as possible: “It can be the first impression you give your potential customers or it can be something you slowly build up over time.”
An Ongoing Project
C&I expands on this later, writing that “Even video marketing veterans have to continue working towards video marketing success—there is no ‘set it and forget it’ video strategy.”
Video marketing is an ongoing effort, and while you do have only one first impression with each prospect, the best users of video continue to augment that first impression with each successive video initiative.
The Importance of the VBC
Consider also Lawrence Mansell’s thoughts on the video business card, or VBC. “This is the best way to make a good first impression with your prospective clients and quickly help them learn who you are.”
Mansell goes on to define the VBC as being “your elevator pitch in video form, explaining to every one [sic] about who you are as a company and what makes your company unique.” He suggests having such a video on the frontpage of your website, which is a great way to not only accomplish the video’s specific goals, but to keep visitors on your page longer as well.
Now, there’s a tension between C&I’s suggestion that video marketing be a sort of endless work in progress, and Mansell’s recommendation to have a sort of permanent video introduction on your website. Should your VBC be constantly improving, or should you ‘set it and forget it?’
Audience and Personalization
Maybe the answer is tied up in a question of audience. A VBC on your website is meant to interest as many visitors on your site as possible, and engage them enough to keep them interested in your offerings. In this sense, you only need to revisit your VBC until the first impression of your brand that it creates is the one you want.
It’s in more personalized videos that you’ll be creating and revising regularly. Individualized messaging necessarily doesn’t work on a wide audience, and while there might be parts of these videos that stay constant (like your logo/title screen, for example), most of them will require frequent updates to serve their highly specific audiences.
So what kind of videos might you make that would be this specific? Pulkit Jain simply calls these videos personalized video marketing, and they’re a great way to make a first impression with a prospect. Jain describes a personalized video as one “that connects with an individual and has information that the viewer finds relevant.”
Research, Research, and Research
How will you know what the viewer finds relevant? You’ll need to do your research. Quoted by Inc., Zach Binder emphasizes the importance of researching your viewer through the broader lens of business in general: “Before you connect with your potential business partner or client, it’s important to do your research on them. Understanding who they are, what they do and what they have done in the past will demonstrate that you have a good understanding of them.”
As you research your viewer, adjust your personalized video to reflect their expertise and interests, and you’ll be positioning yourself as someone who’s genuinely invested in the burgeoning relationship.
Whiteboard is Your Best First Step
With this understanding of the power of video to make a lastingly positive first impression, the next question is one of form: what type of video can make the best impression? For both VBCs and personalized video marketing, look no further than whiteboard.
Thinking first about personalized video marketing, whiteboard’s eminently customizable nature means that your individualized messages will always have just the right drawings to entertain and engage your viewer. Unlike another talking head video or quickly-assembled clip art video, whiteboard’s hand-drawn visuals are authentic and non-standard.
Your viewers will feel a connection to the subject matter, a fascination with the unique video, and enjoyment of the look of each frame. Your whiteboard video will send a clear message that you took time to get to know the viewer, and give them something special.
Whiteboard is also well-suited to revision. Since whiteboard video doesn’t require a particular time of day to shoot, you can refilm and reedit your video without restriction. The parts that aren’t personalized can stay (like the logo/intro screens mentioned above), and the individual information can be replaced by information specific to your new recipient.
Stickiness, Conversions, and Long-Term Partnerships
What about VBCs? Does whiteboard work for your longer-standing first impression video? Absolutely—it’s a more broadly-targeted example of your desire to bring visitors something fun and interesting, above and beyond a simple product list or boring talking head video. Partnering with a whiteboard video firm like TruScribe can make your landing page stickier and more likely to drive conversions than ever.
Making a good first impression can’t be quantified the way some business metrics can, but there’s no debating how important it can be. When you present yourself and your brand as engaging, tuned-in, unique, and genuinely interested in your viewer, you’ve taken a major step towards a long-term, positive relationship. And there’s no better way to do that than a TruScribe whiteboard video.