Trouble convincing your bosses you need content marketing? Explain your strategy starts by featuring them in executive interview videos.

As a marketer, you know know your website could generate more results if you invested in content marketing. Your executive team? That’s a different story. If they’re not sold on the idea of content marketing, they won’t approve your budget or take the time to seriously consider it.

A CEO interview video might pave the way to getting approval.

Step 1: Ask them about their marketing goals

The next time you bring up content marketing in a meeting with your executive leadership, ask them about their goals for the year. If increasing leads, visibility and thought leadership are among them, you can explain that quality content is at the core of those needs.

Part of the way you’ll achieve those goals is by putting your company’s execs on camera and making a video about them.

This usually gets their wheels spinning.

video for content marketing

There’s nothing more exciting (and flattering) than being asked to get featured on film, especially if you’re a dynamic presenter and comfortable in the spotlight – which most CEOs are.

Your executive team will start to think about how they can communicate the values of the company, and how their vision is paving the way for the company’s future. They’ll start to consider how they can present the business to spark interest and explain what they can do for customers.

Suddenly, they might come around and see how creating content about the company would be a beneficial way to educate prospects.

Step 2: Hit them with cold, hard numbers

You can really sell them on the idea with stats about how other companies are already investing in video, and numbers on the results they’re seeing. Translation: If you forego the opportunity, you’re falling behind and you’re leaving money on the table.

Also see 3 ROI stats to share with your boss about the value of video.

Step 3: Layout the video marketing strategy

After you’ve hooked them with stats that back up your suggestion, it’s time to sell them on the vision.

An executive interview doesn’t have to be a stand alone investment. And really, it shouldn’t be. This video should be part of a bigger marketing strategy that sets up the shot for multiple wins across the sales funnel.

1. Corporate overview video

When we’re putting together video marketing strategies for our clients, Videography Supervisor Zoe Arniotis recommends starting with a corporate overview. This is one of the most important and versatile pieces of content on your site. It shows:

  • Who you are

  • What you do

  • How you’re different from your competitors

  • Why someone should partner with you

Here’s how it works: Our video producers go on location to get footage of your company, including interviews with the CEO and other members of the executive team like the CTO and marketing director, as well as upbeat and energetic B-roll.

We end up with a short video (we recommend two minutes or less) that’s rich with footage of your company, employees and your leaders. You can put this front and center on your homepage, add it to your About Us page, put it on your YouTube Channel and show it to new hires  and prospects to educate them: This is who we are, this is what we do, this is also what we offer.

    • Potential objection: We already have a corporate overview.
    • Harsh reality: Your company video is probably outdated and needs a facelift.

“If you have a corporate overview that you’ve shot in the past five to seven years, it probably is time to update it,” Zoe explained. “It’s time for an update, based on average video lengths a few years ago alone. (Plus, corporate offerings have probably evolved.) It’s important to update from what companies were doing back then versus what people expect now – they’ll leave if  a video is too long.”

Style-wise, it’s always good to revamp your corporate overviews every four or five years.

“Even an extra 30 seconds at the end can hurt your engagement numbers. We can sculpt those short videos so they’re ending on a note that makes people want to keep watching.”

One way we do this is by asking about new products that are coming out. It’s interesting to capture a CEO’s excitement about this to tie into the ending. This leaves viewers asking what’s next, left wanting to learn more about those products.

2. An executive interview

Using the footage we shot for the corporate overview, we can produce executive interviews and testimonials for all the leaders who were interviewed at the on-location shoot.

By repurposing the raw clips  you’ve already captured for the interview, you don’t have to spend more money or time on an on-location shoot. The footage already exists. The questions have already been asked and answered.

Now, we edit these bite-sized insights into free-standing video resources that showcase your brand’s leadership.

It’s not magic – you don’t walk in and say 5 lines and then it’s done. But it’s worth the time investment. What you end up with is content that’s essentially timeless until you change all the values of your business.

We turn their answers into 30 to 60 seconds of content that your business can put up on an Executive Leaders page or an About Us page. You might even release them in a ‘Meet our Leaders’ series that you pair with written blogs from each exec, and also promote on social media.

These kinds of assets are great marketing tools for building trust. They give your prospects access to the C-Suite and make your company more personable.

3. Client testimonials or product overviews

After you spend a few months rolling out your new corporate overview and executive interview series, you can move forward with other video projects. Depending on your business model, we might recommend a client testimonial or a product overview.

  • Client testimonials are awesome tools for bringing in a ton of traffic and engaging the viewer. It speaks directly to the consumer who’s looking at your business and deciding if they should buy from you. These are relatable to the viewer because the customer on camera was once in the same position as the viewer – she had a problem and this is how your company solved it. It works because it’s not just an exec talking to you about her company (although that’s valuable to someone deeper in the sales funnel).

These pair nicely with written case studies that contain raw results your clients have seen after working with you. They can also be promoted as part of a social media strategy.

  • Product overviews are great if you offer a physical product or even software. They’re heavy on the script writing and turn concepts into visuals that educate your target audience about what you do.

These pair well with product-focused landing pages. They can also be referenced in related blog pages to drive traffic to your highest-converting resources and increase sales.

4. Event coverage or on-location interviews

Once you’ve got your brand’s bases covered, you can move on to formats that really drive up the engagement factor, like live-event coverage and on-location interviews.

  • Event coverage is an opportunity to capture expert interviews, vox pops (man-on-the-street interview style videos) and keynote speeches. When you go in to capture the main event, you can also shoot some B-roll to round out the video and give it the feel of a polished production.

  • On-location interviews with clients show that the company is not just involved with themselves, but also active within the community that surrounds the industry. You can say, “We’re going to be talking with people we’ve worked with for 10 years,” and show your prospects the great relationships you’ve built with your customers.

Live event coverage can be coupled with written articles about the event, and social posts. Interviews and vox pop footage can also be repurposed in blog posts, or quoted in white papers to add exclusive insights.

Check out these related resources to see how our teams have made an impact with on-site, exclusive event coverage:

Video is a great way to get buy in for a content marketing strategy. It’s exciting, it’s engaging and everyone is doing it because it has proven success.

As Senior Animator Jim Davis puts it, “Video sparks the tinder for the flame of curiosity. Whether someone watches an animation describing Microelectromechanical systems or a video discussing Montesquieu’s book collection- they should be dragooned into further investigation.”

That’s where your other content marketing assets come in. Once you’ve hooked your viewer with an executive interview, you can point them toward other information on your site, which will encourage them to convert. What that means for you and your executive team is more sales.

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.