Showcase your video whenever you can.

We make videos to help purpose-driven businesses grow. In this article, we’ll be sharing some insights about how you can best utilize a finished video. Once you make a video, you should maximize its value. Your work does not end when you upload the video to your YouTube channel or similar - it’s only the beginning of that video’s life cycle.Here are some examples of contexts you can showcase your video in that you may not have thought of:

Exhibitions and Trade Shows

No matter what you sell (software, services, products, etc.), participating in trade shows for your industry can be a major force in helping you grow your company. When you plan your booth at an exhibition, you will likely notice that many brands have original videos displayed at their booths. Having a video on display makes  your booth more enticing and visually stimulating to passersby. Visitors will stop to watch your video, and be able to quickly learn about your company - if they are interested, they’ll stop and keep watching. After they watch your video, you can approach the visitors and ask them if they have any follow-up questions - and turn passersby into potential sales leads.

Press Coverage

Videos can help you get media coverage from industry-relevant platforms. Journalists for these platforms often attend exhibitions and trade shows, but that’s not the only way to get coverage.Another way to get coverage from media outlets is to send your press releases to multiple journalists, and include your video in your press release. Web-based platforms are always looking for engaging media to impress their readership, so a great video is mutually beneficial for your business and for the press. The more information you can provide in your press release, the easier it is for journalists to write an article about your business. Including a video in your press release is an efficient way to get across the information journalists need. It is also a great idea to have two versions of your video:: one version with title overlays, and one “clean” version without them. Title overlays are the text and subtitles that overlap with the images in your video. Usually, your video editor adds this extra information to your video to improve the viewer experience. However, you should have a “clean” version of your video for your press kits as well. Why? Sometimes online platforms have their own video editors, and when they ask you to provide video materials, they want to add their own text or logos to the video. In these instances, the platform’s editor usually prefers that the video you provide is “clean”. When we make videos for businesses, we make sure to always create a “clean” version for this very reason.

Pitching / Presentation

Videos can be incredibly useful when pitching to investors. Whether you are pitching to private investors, venture capitalists, or pitching at a competition for grants, opening your pitch with a video can help you stand out. Videos are much better than traditional slide presentations, because videos are an immersive experience. Think about it: if you’re an investor, and you’ve spent the past however many hours looking at plain text on slides, a video presentation would immediately grab your attention. Starting your presentation with a video can also help build your confidence as a presenter. A great video will help set the stage for your presentation, and start things off on the right foot before you even say a word.

Crowdfunding

If you are part of an early start-up, you might want to consider using your video for a crowdfunding campaign. If you have already approached private investors, venture capitals, and incubators, and you are now hoping to directly sell your product to customers, crowdfunding platforms can be a great source of growth to tap into. In order to have a successful crowdfunding page launch, a stellar video is essential. Your crowdfunding video can be the same video you used for the platforms mentioned above (we have seen clients do this successfully), but you may also want to consider creating a special video specifically for crowdfunding platforms.

Case Study - mui lab

In 2018, we made a video for mui lab, a Japanese start-up based in Kyoto. Rather than make a series of videos for different platforms, we saved mui lab time and money by creating different edits of our initial video for them to use in different contexts. The versions we created for them included a longer crowdfunding video, a pitch/competition video, a shorter video for Instagram, and a “clean” video for their press release.  mui lab received a splash of media coverage as a result of their videos, and the media excitement continues. At CES in 2019, Mui Lab was selected as one of The Best of Kickstarters of 2018. We are very proud of mui lab’s continued success!