Explainer videos explain. Marketing videos create awareness. And then what? What do viewers actually do after they click the “Play” button? Who knows? This is marketing video’s big fail — an impersonal user experience that captures no user data. The big opportunity is interactive web video.
This used to be specialist technology. It didn’t really scale. It didn’t work on iPhones.
Now it’s HTML5 and works in a browser. That’s instant scalability. With the release of Apple’s iOS X, it works on iDevices. That’s big.
Interactive web video: a new kind of personalized user experience
Why is this such a big opportunity? Because instead of one-way passive communication, you can provide customers with what are, essentially, video web apps. Users have control. They can choose their own path. They can give you feedback right in the video. They can learn on their own, in the bite-size chunks eLearning experts recommend.
They are also generating data that tells you how specific leads and prospects engage and interact, data you can send to your CRM or sales/marketing automation tools to guide further interaction.
Better user experience
Let’s say your product has three major differentiators, X, Y, and Z, and you usually pitch them in that order. Some viewers are really interested in Y. Others care more about Z.
Now you can let viewers skip ahead — they’ll like that. (And why do you care if they skipped X? Unless everyone skips it.)
If they skip to Y, you can pop up a button offering to show even more information about Y. Now you’re guiding the buyer’s journey.
Better video content management
Product explainer videos are usually under two minutes long. Important details always get left out. Now they can be “included” in the video production process, so viewers who want to learn more can do it with a click. It’s never going to be cheaper or easier to create that additional content than it is when you’re producing the video it’s additional to. It’s like planning — then using — what otherwise would have been left on the cutting room floor.
Another way to create additional related content on the cheap is to record subject matter expert interviews conducted during pre-production, as you write the script. “More info” links can then guide viewers to additional relevant content.
Interactive web video opens up numerous such opportunities to develop well-coordinated video content strategies.
