Planning for a convincing case study video that impacts your audience
Trust, authenticity and empathy are essential to understanding why case study videos are compelling. Providing your audience with an invaluable and honest insight into your world, project, or business is a very effective way of empowering connection and creating change.
Many of our clients manage social impact projects and require their audiences to see the impact of these projects directly. Over the years Clipo has produced hundreds of case study videos. You can view a selection of these videos here.
Case study videos are powerful communication tools that show the impact and effectiveness of what you offer. At times we have produced a case study video for an audience of just five people! But if those five people understand in under three minutes the value of your project and why it requires adequate funding - the video is worth every cent.
At Singing Bowl Media, we primarily create case study narratives, the most complex type of case study video. It involves a mix of on-camera interviews with B-roll visuals, graphics, music and occasionally voice-over.
Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text (wordstream).
Questions to consider before producing your next case study video.
1. Do you need one?
Do you already have written stories that help to communicate the success of the work you are doing? Do you think seeing the impact directly and hearing someone authentically telling your audience about their personal experience would be engaging? Then yes, you do need one.
2. What are your three key messages, and who is your specific audience?
How can you create a successful case study video without knowing who you're trying to convince or what you want to say? You can't. Audiences can rarely remember more than three messages at once, so be clear about what you want to say and then work with your video producer to deliver those messages in the most honest and engaging way possible.
Sometimes it helps to think about what problem you are solving with the service or product you offer. How do you solve this problem successfully? What are the critical narrative points in this journey to solve this problem?
3. Think story, talent, questions.
All great case studies rest on a compelling story. Finding the right talent to tell that story is significant. They need to speak openly and passionately about the topic and invest in what the project aims to achieve.
Crafting the right interview questions is the best way to tell the story, deliver the key messages and make the video feel authentic. At Clipo, we typically craft these questions for you once we know your story and message. We also add in additional questions for 'golden responses.' These questions are very open and illicit a heartfelt, genuine answer.
4. Show, don't just tell.
Video is a visual medium, allowing you to tell your story through compelling visual content, sound, music and spoken word.
Good case study videos intersperse their interviews with quality supporting footage (also known as B-roll) to keep viewers engaged and add to the overall narrative. Want to learn more about B-roll - Well, we have another blog all about it.
Supporting footage is filmed as either staged scenes or actual real-world events. We can also incorporate specific storyboarded content or stock footage. The main aim is to help illustrate what is being spoken about, add to the overall messaging, and make the video more compelling to watch.
5. Plan for distribution early on.
Where is your audience? What platforms are they on?
It's a good idea to plan how your audience will be viewing your case study video before the shoot. How will you get it in front of your target audience? Luckily, case study videos are versatile pieces of content that you can use across various marketing channels. Here are some options to consider:
Embed the case study video on your website, either on the homepage or a dedicated case study page
Include the video in a marketing email
Share the case study on your social media accounts
Incorporate the video into presentations
Expand your reach by promoting the video in a digital ad campaign
If you think a case study video is something you are considering, feel free to book a 15min free consultation with us to discuss what's possible or fill out our request for quote form.
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