Does your oil and gas business need an explainer video? These brief videos are a simple way to reach out to your prospective customer base and explain what products or services your business provides.
With an explainer video, you can make clear to your clients exactly how your company solves their problems. Explainer videos can be a great first contact for potential clients checking your company out. That means they should be short, attention-grabbing, and clear.
Take a look at five simple steps toward creating the explainer video that your company needs.
1. Conduct Your Research
Start your work on your explainer video by thinking about who’s going to watch the video. Will you be speaking to people who know nothing about your products and services? Do you plan to show your explainer video on your website, or are you preparing it for a trade convention?
Think as well about why your viewers will want to watch. Are they hoping to achieve something? Does your product or service relieve their pain points in some way? Understanding who your target audience needs can help you structure your video so you provide answers in a short period of time.
2. Write the Script
Start by defining the problem that you identified in the first step above. Your explainer video should then go on by demonstrating how your company’s products or services are the solutions to your target audience’s problem. Show how your products work, and provide evidence of the benefits they provide to your audience. And don’t forget to include a call to action.
Writing the script for an explainer video is often best accomplished by hiring a professional writer rather than relying on your own skills or those of another insider. Often an outside voice can do a better job of explaining what you offer to prospective customers who don’t have your inside knowledge. Make sure to explain to your writer what kind of tone you hope to strike in the video, the better to connect with your target audience.
3. Plan and Execute the Visuals
Whether you decide to use live-action or animation for your explainer video, make sure that you storyboard the entire video to get an idea of what it will look like. If you go the animation route, you’ll want to work with professional animators who can deliver exactly what you have in mind. Even if you opt for a simple live-action video filled with testimonials, hire a professional cameraperson to deliver high-end lighting and video. Your explainer video doesn’t need special effects or other bells and whistles, but it does need to look polished.
4. Record the Voiceover
It’s all too easy to focus so much on the visual aspects of your explainer video that you neglect the sound — in which case, you’re likely to end up with a muddled mess that makes you look like an amateur. Again, plan on hiring professional talent to record the voiceover for your explainer video. You’ll be amazed at how an actor can help your audience feel an emotional connection to your product.
5. Launch Your Video
The first place you should launch your explainer video is on the home page of your company’s website if you’ve planned a consumer-facing video. Even if you’ve made a trade show video, go ahead and post it on your website. You should also distribute your video across all your social media channels. Consider posting it as well on an easily accessible video host such as Vimeo Pro, and sending links to it via your company newsletter.
In a world in which 54% of people choose video as their preferred method for learning about brands and companies, an excellent explainer video can be a superb choice for introducing your oil and gas company to new clients. Keep your explainer video brief and professional to make the best possible impression and attract a new audience.
Oil and gas operations are commonly found in remote locations far from company headquarters. Now, it's possible to monitor pump operations, collate and analyze seismic data, and track employees around the world from almost anywhere. Whether employees are in the office or in the field, the internet and related applications enable a greater multidirectional flow of information – and control – than ever before.