20 Jan VideoHQ shares why case study videos are a great way to showcase what makes your business different
Introduce yourself…
Hey, I’m Hannah Quinn, the Creative Director of VideoHQ. VideoHQ is a video production company based in Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands, and we specialise in producing professional and engaging testimonial and case study videos for our clients.
So what is a case study video?
Essentially, it’s the video version of a five-star google review.
I go and film an interview with one of your favourite clients, who is going to absolutely rave about the service you provided. I then craft this footage into a three minute case study video, which you can use on your website and social media. This video covers all the really important stuff:
- Why they needed your help
- What product / service you provided
- The positive impact your service has had on their business / life
It’s the classic story formula – conflict, action, resolution. But on this occasion, the story is how your business helps people.
Here’s an example of a case study which I made for Stoke-on-Trent recruitment agency Logic Resourcing:
Why do video case studies work so well?
I said they’re like five star google reviews – but in reality they’re even better than that because you can see and hear the person giving the testimonial. This makes it really trustworthy and engaging content.
Video case studies are also really relatable content for your potential clients. I always ask the interviewee ‘what problems were you facing that meant you decided to use this service?’ This is a great question because your potential customers are probably experiencing those exact same problems right now. They can really see themselves in what your interviewee is saying. By then going on to hear how your service solved all of those problems, they start to believe that you could help them in the same way.
What’s different about how you approach interviewing a client?
I’m a trained journalist, and freelanced with the BBC for more than five years – during that time, a massive part of my job was pre-interviewing the guests, and crafting questions for the presenter to ask them once live on air.
That’s the approach I bring to case study interviews as well. A pre-interview gives me a chance to get a feel for what the guest has to say, and find out some interesting snippets of information that I can get them to repeat during the video interview. I find people are more relaxed and likely to share this information during a natter on the phone, rather than when on camera.
Finally, for me the interview questions need to find a balance between what the interviewee wants to say, and what my client wants them to say. If you’re having a testimonial done for your business, there’ll always be points about the service where you went the extra mile and you’d like them to highlight that. But on the flipside, the interviewee might have perspectives about your service that you’d never even considered before. Meeting both my client and their client before the case study is filmed gives me a chance to craft questions which balances these two points of view.
Do you ever interview people who are nervous about being on camera?
All the time! In fact, I’m far more used to filming people who have never been on camera, as opposed to working with trained ‘talent’.
For me, it all comes down to making the interview experience as relaxed and as conversational as possible, and helping people to forget there’s even a camera there.
As you can tell from the video example above, I don’t make people talk to the camera – that can be really difficult and intimidating. The interviewee looks at me instead, and the camera is positioned to the side so they don’t even have it in their eyeline!
Trying to remember a script can also be tough and takes a lot of preparation time, when really you want to make the experience as easy as possible for your customer. Instead, I ask questions that they respond to, but it feels much more like an informal conversation than a stressful interview. The questions are there as a guide to make sure everything gets covered, but generally I’m asking follow up questions and following the conversation where it flows. And before they know it, they’ve done a twenty minute on-camera interview without even remembering that it’s recording!
How can video case studies be used as part of written blogs?
One of the things about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO – or how well your website ranks on platforms like Google) is that how long people stay on your website really matters. So if people have read one of your website blogs that you shared on your social media, that’s amazing. If they then stay for another three minutes to watch the case study video you posted with the blog, that’s incredible.
Also, case study videos don’t have to stay as just one long piece of content. When I worked with Logic Resourcing, I also created three short clips from each interview which could be used on blogs and on their website.
Let me give you an example of how that works. Part of Logic’s process is to go to site and meet the company they’re recruiting for, so they can really understand the kind of candidate that would be a good fit for their business. This topic would make a fantastic standalone blog post. When I interviewed Faye Summers from UK Flooring Direct, she mentioned how important this was to the success of the recruitment campaign Logic ran with them; this one minute clip would fit perfectly onto that blog post.
What made you decide to team up with TukTuk Creative Marketing and copywriter Genevieve Lowles on the retainer package?
Honestly, the whole time I’ve been making video case studies for people, I’ve suggested that they also turn them into written blogs, and upload them to their website in a way that targets all their relevant keywords.
But quite often, those things never happened; and the longer I’ve been in business, the more I’ve realised that sometimes you just need someone with the right expertise to take that work off your hands for you.
Then I worked with yourself and Genevieve on Logic’s website, I saw how it could run like a well-oiled machine, if done by the right people with a proper process.
At the end of the day, it’s all about wanting to give the best experience possible to my clients. And I know that getting a case study video and accompanying blog uploaded to your website (in an optimised way!) on a regular basis is a bloody good service.
Want to use video case studies to showcase what makes your business different?
Get in touch with Hannah at VideoHQ on 07426 424 012 or email hannah.quinn@videohq-uk.com to find out if video case studies are right for your business.