With COVID and this year’s election dominating the news, it’s important for companies to let internal teams and customers know what else happened in 2020. What newsworthy coverage did top teams get? Did the company receive new funding or sign some great new partners? What were the big milestone moments that need to be shared? Video can be a true differentiator when it’s used to not only market your organization’s products or services, but to market your company’s culture as well. 

It’s no surprise with this year’s shift to virtual that video is everywhere now, from the splash page on your website to everyone’s Facebook and LinkedIn feeds. In fact, 52 percent of marketers worldwide name video as the type of content with the highest ROI. But it’s not just a necessary content type, it is also an invaluable tool that can be used as a definitive teamwork and company culture asset, which can make all the difference.   

Photo by Marcos Rocha on Unsplash

Year-End Wins

Whether it’s an effort to revitalize a company’s homepage, recruit a targeted pool of new hires, or close much-needed deals, video is a useful platform to diversify a company’s marketing strategy. In particular, a year-in-review summary video, shared on social for customers and prospects alike, can promote a company’s achievements and extend an organization’s culture, making wins the focus of discussion as the year comes to a close. Highlighting the “Best of 2020” moments and releasing them to your community can be truly motivating as we prepare for exciting new challenges that await us next year.

Whether you are utilizing your own video resources or partnering with an external team like N6A, take the time to outline exactly what the last year held in terms of what major accomplishments should make the cut. A dedicated external video team can easily break down the barriers between a company and potential viewers through a mix of customizable messaging designed with the brand in mind, matching custom fonts, colors, logos and assets to produce something that represents a company’s exact style and culture for all to see. Just remember to keep focus on the positive elements including exceptional media coverage, product announcements, new partnerships and key client-adds or testimonials. 

As an alternative, we all know 2020 has been a tough year, so producing a leadership-led video outlining the plans and strategy initiatives of 2021 is another great way to give employees and customers alike a better sense of what your company is working towards in the coming year.

Who’s Who

While it’s novel to have the higher-ups talk about a company’s accomplishments, a truly great video asset lets the people speak for themselves. Consider crowd-sourcing content from your employees, giving them the chance to express how they overcame 2020 challenges, took part in community outreach techniques, or expanded major diversity initiatives within your organization. By giving employees a voice, the company culture is defined by the cohort driving that culture. 

As such, creating a video highlighting core values or challenges from an employee POV also gives companies the opportunity to share a customer story directly from employees throughout the organization. These options work incredibly well as internal pieces, but also for social channels to promote the outstanding people that work at the company for hiring initiatives.

Another possibility is to create a video focused on new employee introductions. It can be challenging in the WFH era to meet and greet new faces at a company. While you may see some fresh new faces on a Zoom call, it just isn’t the same as learning or hearing from colleagues directly, so it’s a great opportunity for companies to put together a video once a quarter to highlight new faces, roles they will play, and, more importantly, let them express something about themselves or show personality beyond a face in a digital grid of faces.

Being able to communicate clearly why a company does what it does, with the people doing it, is incredibly important — especially via video channels. Let N6A help tell your 2020 story and get in touch with us today!

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I’ve spent the majority of my career working with B2B technology companies. No matter the size or stage, each organization has one thing in common: a passionate belief that their company or platform is solving a major business problem. Their fire is part of the reason I enjoy this corner of PR so much; it’s always very evident that the founders and teams love what they do. 

When I first begin a client engagement, I always ask about the business goals they want to accomplish through our PR program. Do you want to drive leads, attract new talent, or simply increase website traffic? About 50% of the time, contacts have an incredibly specific answer: “I want to be in [insert major media outlet here].”

While it’s understandable that having your company’s name in an outlet that has 100 million viewers a month is nothing to scoff at, I always try to take a step back and focus on the business goal of that placement. It’s not necessarily about getting your message in front of a lot of people, it’s about getting it in front of the right people.

Photo by Stéphan Valentin on Unsplash

Many clients I’ve worked with throughout my career have been quick to write off trade outlets because of lower readership; it’s an expectation I immediately work to reset. Counter to popular belief, trade placements are great at moving the needle with core audiences. If you’re trying to sell a SaaS platform to a developer, you need to think about where the developer is getting their news — it’s probably not the same place that you are as a CEO or CMO.  

Trades may garner fewer readers overall, but that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer readers that come specifically from your target audiences, who are highly engaged and truly care about the news being presented, i.e. more read-throughs, fewer meaningless clicks. 

The reporters at these niche publications also tend to be more deeply ingrained, covering industry-level issues that don’t necessarily have relevance for a general, national audience. Trade reporters can ask the questions a potential customer might and go much deeper in the weeds without fear of alienating their readers.

All of this is not to say there is no value in a New York Times placement — there absolutely is, but it’s likely serving a much different purpose. That’s why, as PR professionals, it’s our job to help our clients understand which types of articles will provide the right value. With companies that are brand new to PR programs, it can often be difficult to break through the noise with a top-tier outlet right out of the gate. Without brand recognition or hard news, it’s easy to get lost in an inbox, but I always try to explain that the world of journalism is small — especially tech journalism. Establishing a steady drumbeat of trade hits can be a great way to get on the radar of larger newsrooms — reporters are readers too! 

Particularly over the last six months amid the COVID-19 pandemic, newsrooms have changed quite a bit. More than I’ve ever seen, reporters are leaving major outlets to start their own platforms or moving to smaller sites to build them up. You really never know where a writer will end up in a month or a year, so to write off anyone at a smaller publication is unwise — every interview is an opportunity to own your story.

As we head into 2021 planning, I encourage marketing and communications teams to consider ways programs can be tailored for trade-level audiences to help drive business objectives. If you’re not sure where to start, drop the talented crew at N6A a line!

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