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Video Is the New Business Card. Here’s Why.

Video is the new Business Card blog post thumbnail. Showing business card with video player on it in a business setting.

The Evolution of Business Networking: Is Video the New Business Card?

We remember the day when business cards were once the cornerstone of professional networking. They conveyed identity, trust, and professionalism in a concise, tangible way. Then, we think about 20 years ago, websites revolutionized how businesses introduced themselves. Their websites were digital extensions that strengthened the credibility of the traditional business cards they passed out. In fact, if your business card didn’t have a website URL on it, some thought you weren’t legitimate. Today, we believe another transformation is taking place. Video is rapidly becoming the most effective way for businesses to showcase their expertise, engage with potential clients, and build trust.

This shift isn’t surprising. Data reveals that 91% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool (Wyzowl), and 84% of viewers visit a company’s website after watching a video (Sprout Social). At Plum Productions, we’ve observed how businesses leverage video to establish credibility and close deals. Here’s why video is now the new business card—and how it’s transforming business communication.

Why Video Is the New Business Card

The way we introduce our businesses has evolved. Websites added credibility and accessibility to business cards and it seems that video goes further by creating an immediate, engaging connection that resonates with today’s audience. How else can you connect so quickly with your potential clients? You immediately give them a peek into your business and they’ll feel more connected.

Video Makes a Strong First Impression

Think of video as your digital handshake. A well-crafted introduction video allows your audience to get a sense of your company’s values, culture, and expertise within seconds. Unlike static websites or printed materials, video conveys personality and emotion, which builds trust. Plus they get a sense of who you are and what your style is.

Credibility Through Visual Storytelling

Businesses that use video to explain their services, showcase success stories, or share client testimonials build instant credibility. A customer who watches a real client explain the value they received from your company is more likely to trust your brand than someone who reads a case study or list of accolades. Plus, they can say what you can’t say without sounding like you’re bragging.

  • Example: A software company that shares a client testimonial video showing how their platform solved their problem will leave a much stronger impression than a paragraph of text explaining the same thing.

Unmatched Engagement

Video captures our attention. Let’s face it, we are all mesmerized by moving pictures. Research shows that viewers retain 95% of a video’s message, compared to just 10% when reading text (Forbes). It’s not just about making a great first impression; video helps businesses stay top-of-mind long after the initial interaction.

How Businesses Are Using Video to Connect and Convert

At Plum Productions, we’ve seen companies integrate video into their marketing strategies in more ways that one. Here are some of the more practical ways businesses are using video to strengthen their brand and attract clients:

  1. Introduction Videos
    A short, engaging video on your homepage or LinkedIn profile can introduce your company, share your mission, and invite potential clients to learn more.
  2. Testimonial Videos
    Clients are far more likely to trust your business when they see real people sharing positive experiences. Testimonial videos provide authenticity that text simply can’t match.
  3. Explainer and Product Demonstration Videos
    Complex services or products can be difficult to describe in words. Videos simplify the explanation, offering a clear, engaging way to educate potential customers.

Above a short segment of a product explainer video (part of a longer version). Each of these video formats are basically a modern-day business card, helping businesses leave a lasting impression.

Video’s Competitive Advantage

Video isn’t just about making connections; it’s about staying relevant in a competitive marketplace. Businesses that embrace video position themselves as innovative and customer-focused. What do your customers need to know? That’s what your video should show. (Hey! That rhymes!)

A Modern Standard of Professionalism

Businesses without video content are at risk of appearing outdated. Video isn’t just a trend, it shows you understand how to communicate to your potential and current clients in the ways they want to be spoken to. It prioritizes the connection of the audience and the business beyond what a website can do.

Boosting Online Visibility

Incorporating video into your website doesn’t just engage visitors—it also boosts search engine rankings. Websites with video are 53 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google search results (HubSpot). Video also increases the time visitors spend on your site, which signals search engines that your content is valuable. The longer they stay, the more valuable Google says your website it. Guess who gets top billing between a site with video versus the same site without? You guessed it. The site with the video…because the visitor will usually watch the video versus read the site.

Driving Action

Video naturally guides viewers toward the next step, whether that’s visiting your website, scheduling a consultation, or contacting your sales team. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to pair engaging visuals with clear calls to action.

Ready to Make the Shift?

Just as websites strengthened the role of traditional business cards, video is now redefining how businesses connect, build trust, and attract new clients. It’s not just a trend—it’s a necessary step to stay relevant in today’s competitive landscape.

We specialize in creating high-quality videos that strengthen your brand, engage your audience, and drive results. Need help creating something awesome? Contact us today to learn how we can help your business embrace the power of video and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

 

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3 Mistakes that Business Make Related to Video

3 Mistakes Businesses Make in Video

3 Mistakes That Business Make Related to Video

Why Is This Important?

Video is an indispensable tool in the corporate arsenal, serving to engage audiences, showcase brand strength, and simplify the delivery of complex business messages. Yet, the journey from concept to execution is fraught with potential pitfalls that can undermine a project’s success. This guide identifies three common mistakes made in video production, explores why these errors occur, and outlines multiple strategies for each, ensuring your video content achieves its intended impact.

Undefined Video Objectives

Overview

A frequent oversight is entering into a video project without clearly defined objectives. This lack of direction can lead to content that fails to address any specific audience needs or business goals, resulting in poor engagement and wasted resources. Videos created without specific goals tend to lack focus, resulting in content that neither resonates with the target audience nor meets business needs effectively. This can lead to viewer disengagement and diminished returns on investment.

Why It Happens

Businesses often rush the pre-production phase due to tight deadlines or underestimation of the planning required. This haste leads to vague, unfocused video content that may lead to failure before it even begins.

Solutions

Strategic Planning Session: Before any filming begins, conduct a preproduction meeting to map out the video’s purpose, determine what must be included, what can be excluded, etc. The reason we mention what can be excluded is that sometimes saying everything is like saying nothing. No information will be retained by the viewer if there’s too much information.

In the meeting, the focus should be on deciding whether it’s for brand awareness, lead generation, or customer education.  Doing this early in the process guides the remaining production choices.

Consult with Stakeholders: Engage various stakeholders within the company, including marketing teams, sales departments, and executive leadership, to align the video’s goals with broader business objectives.

Set Measurable Targets: Define what success looks like for the project. Whether it’s views, shares, or direct leads, having measurable targets helps focus the video’s content and allows for success evaluation post-release.

Ignoring the Target Audience

Overview

Videos that fail to consider the specific preferences and challenges of their intended audience often miss the mark, leading to disengagement and ineffective communication. Videos that are not audience-specific can come across as generic or irrelevant, failing to engage viewers or inspire action.

Why It Happens

There can be a disconnect between the video creators and the actual market needs, often due to insufficient research or a one-size-fits-all approach to content creation. Sometimes an unclear target audience description or needs analysis is causing this.

Solutions

Successful video content speaks directly to its audience’s interests, needs, and challenges.

Audience Research: Invest significant time in understanding your audience’s demographics, preferences, and pain points. Tools like surveys, social media analytics, and customer feedback provide valuable insights. The more you can speak to these during the preproduction meeting, the better.

Persona Development: Create detailed buyer personas that represent your typical audience needs. Tailoring your messaging and presentation styles to these personas can greatly enhance the video’s relevance and appeal. Speak to your audience’s preference, pain points, and typical online behavior. Use this data to craft videos that address these aspects using their tone and some visuals that resonate with their demographic.

A/B Testing: Experiment with different versions of your video with small segments of your audience to determine which resonates the most. This feedback is crucial for fine-tuning the final product.

Compromising on Production Quality

Overview

Skimping on production quality can tarnish your brand’s image and send a message of unprofessionalism, significantly affecting the video’s reception and effectiveness. Poor quality (audio or visual) can severely undermine the perceived value of your brand and message. It’s too competitive out there, don’t let your branding quality remove you from competing.

Why It Happens

Budget constraints or a lack of understanding about the importance of high-quality production standards can lead businesses to cut corners. Ultimately, the client is in control, but our job is to ensure quality is as high as possible.

Solutions

Hire Professionally: Even with limited budgets, using high-quality video production teams who have the proper equipment for the production phase can make a substantial difference.

Skilled Professionals: Hiring experienced videographers, directors, and editors can elevate the production value of your video, enhancing its professional appeal. This applies to the quality of items like clear audio, stable and high-definition visuals, good lighting, and professional editing. These items, together, elevate the viewer’s experience and enhancing the credibility and appeal of your content.

Post-Production Focus: Allocate sufficient resources to editing, which can significantly improve the quality of the final video, making even less-than-perfect footage look exceptional. This is where the magic happens and where we believe we stand out.

Conclusion: Easy Fixes to these Mistakes

Navigating the complexities of video production requires a keen understanding of what can go wrong and how to steer clear of these pitfalls. By defining clear objectives, deeply understanding your audience, and refusing to compromise on quality, your business can produce compelling, impactful video content. Reflect on these questions to further enhance your approach:

  • How can we better integrate video content into our overall marketing strategy?
  • What are the latest trends in video production that we should consider for future projects?
  • How do we measure the success of our videos more effectively to ensure continuous improvement?

By considering these questions, businesses can not only avoid common mistakes but also continuously elevate their video production efforts to better meet their strategic goals.

 

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What Length (How Long) Should A Business Video Be?

How Long Should a Business Video Be, video camera and lens

How Long Should A Marketing Video Be?

We get this question a lot…”How long should a marketing video be? Especially for a business?” Most people think a video should either be short (15 to 30 seconds) or long (4 to 5 minutes). Both might be right; both might be wrong. Here are our thoughts.

The length of your video depends on your goals and objectives. Are you looking for leads? Are you looking for sales? Are you looking to inform? Bring them to a funnel? Provide education? There are several reasons videos are created, but not all perform the same and not all should be used for any given situation.

How Long for Informative Videos?

Video marketing is a bit science and art, so let’s first identify where you’re using the video. That’s going to drive content and length. For example, many popular videos on YouTube are longer videos. Longer videos are popular because they are providing information and viewers watch longer to learn more. Their content is giving the viewer information that they need or want (think How to Create Your First YouTube Video or How to Use Doodly). These online videos are informative and provide insights into something extremely specific. It has nothing to do with a viewer’s attention span because they want to know the information.

How Long for Facebook Videos?

On the other extreme are Facebook Videos and Instagram Stories. These tend to be shorter in length because they are more social in nature and typically more promotional. Instagram limits the length of your video, but most companies are finding that 30 seconds for an Instagram video is most effective. If someone is scrolling through Instagram, they’re usually doing it to relax or waste time while waiting somewhere. Ads can be effective, but you must get to the point quickly.

Facebook videos are remarkably similar to Instagram in that they’re being watched while relaxing or waiting somewhere. Also, like Instagram most of the time people are scrolling along on mute; therefore, when creating social media videos, it is important to incorporate graphic punch words like this below.

How Long for Corporate Video?

Video content used for the purpose of marketing tend to be 60 seconds to 2 minutes. Most of our clients tend to keep their videos around 90 seconds so that the overall message can be shared yet keep the length short enough to hold their attention. Long videos can perform if used properly. For example, an Explainer Video typically requires a little more time to illustrate how something works. But an About Us video typically requires less time and people typically won’t watch the entire video.

What About A Corporate Website Video?

For any video production project, we’ll want to know where the video is being placed. This usually drives length as well. We might recommend editing a variety of lengths to give you flexibility in where to use each. For example, videos for a corporate website should be 30 to 90 seconds…just long enough to make the viewer want to learn more or take action (call you or fill out a submission form).

How Long for Landing Page Videos?

If you have a landing page to sell a product or service, once again, these videos should be 30 to 60 seconds, less than a minute long. People are not watching these videos long because they want to hear your key message and decide to purchase or not. Typically, this happens within 10 to 15 seconds. Any video on a landing page should be placed high up on the page…above the fold so that viewers see it immediately and know what to do.

Email Marketing Campaigns

While these videos can be any length, think about who you’re sending this to and why they should watch any longer than they must. These are typically slightly longer because they’re sent with the intent to educate and inform…not to sell. Using the word “video” in your email title should help your open rate (just make sure there’s a video to play!)

Explainer Videos

Explainer videos are typically meant to help people understand your product or service and explain how to use it. If you want to do these, you’ll want to keep them between 60 and 90 seconds…and get to the point rather early (by about 30 seconds) so they can feel like they should keep watching.

What About Case Study Videos?

Depending on the content, these videos can be 5 to 10 minutes, but can also be made into shorter chunks to make them easier to consume. We’ve seen long form versions perform well and short form videos of this type perform well. If it’s more complex, we recommend shorter chunks.

And for About Us Videos?

This is a video that can vary a little too. If you sell something that needs to earn trust before you make the sale, a longer video might be appropriate. That might mean it runs 3 or 4 minutes. This gives the viewer some time to consume and make some trust-level decisions. If they like you and your team and your culture, they’ll call you. These videos are typically about your culture, your team, and who you’re trying to attract to your team.

What about Interview Videos?

Interview videos are typically informative and internal (or sent to a specific audience). They provide insights into the company and what he or she is working on to achieve objectives. We would recommend lengths of 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how engaging the topic is. Please don’t make people sit through something they don’t need to know. 🙂

Thought Leadership Videos

If the leaders of your organization want to stand out from the crowd as a thought leader, this video is ideal. Think TED talk or presentation style video. The speaker doesn’t have to be on stage, but the concept is similar. This content should be used for industry presentations or other relevant situations. These are typically 10 to 20 minutes in length, depending on the complexity or needs.

Video Reviews/Testimonial Videos

Have your customers/clients tell your prospects how good you are. These are highly effective for a landing page (under your main video or interspersed into the main video). Prospects often need validation to their decision. They need to know they’re making the right decision and don’t want to feel alone. This is a highly effective way to do that. These typically are short (30 to 60 seconds) and can be combined into a longer piece if needed. You can also use these in email campaigns after someone has hit a landing page but has not purchased.

We hope this post helps you decide what length your video should be based on where you are using it and what your objectives are. If you have any questions, please reach out and we can answer them.

 

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Animation versus Live Action Video

Animation vs Live Action Video

This is similar to the old question, “Paper or Plastic?” Both will do the job but each has a benefit. So to think it doesn’t matter, we would disagree. If you’re about to create a corporate video or a product video, you’ll want to consider your options carefully. Whether you’re creating a video for a retail endcap, your website, or social media, there are benefits to both Animation and Live Action video.

First, let’s define each. Animation can be a variety of things. It could be one of those whiteboard videos you’ve seen where a hand draws all the content out for you. It could be simple 2D graphics (as in the video below), or it could be complex 3D animation. Sometimes this can be a little confusing so it’s good to review what each looks like, why you might want one versus the other, and how to get what you need. Let’s get started.

Let’s start with 2D Animation.

When we refer to 2D animation, we basically mean graphics. Graphics can be more intricate or very simple, but in the end, they typically add value to the message that is being conveyed. For example, the video below is an example of how 2D graphics can be incorporated to show the story about a product or service. Each time the graphics come up on screen, you understand how and what the device is measuring while people are exercising. The goal of each animation is to show who each number is connected to and what it is measuring. When the numbers appear, you can see that it is measuring in real time what their heart rate is doing at that very minute…illustrating exactly what the product is doing. A perfect paring!

Examples of 2D Graphics incorporated into a video. See 0:05, 0:10, and 0:25 seconds.

3D Animation

On the other hand, a 3D animation is something that is created to illustrate an object or thought that is difficult to replicate or cannot be shown without using a microscope or destroying something real. For example, in the examples below, we have a consumable supplement that will breakdown in the body. While saying that is easy to understand, it’s even better when you can show how that works.

3D Animation appears at 0:16 seconds.

At around 0:16 seconds in, you can see how the supplement will breakdown the body slowly over time providing maximum support and nutrition. While the rest of the video is mostly some stock video and 2D graphics, this video used high impact, colorful 3D animation to support what was being said.

In this example, a lending company wanted to target realtors by describing the all to familiar pre-approved buyer. Realtors sometimes hear that a buyer is pre-approved for one amount, but in reality is actually pre-approved for much less. To make this funny, they asked that we destroy a house and show what they’re really pre-approved for. The tough part is destroying a house…so, it’s time for animation.

Both can be appropriate for any video, the key is knowing what you need and deciding what is the best way to get there. We can help you decide or you can tell us…but know that creating a custom animation matching exactly what you need has it’s own time element. Instead of shooting something and using 2D animation, a 3D animation simply reduces shooting time and increases editing time. By adding 2D animation, you can accomplish what you need and maximize your investment. 3D animation allows you the flexibility to add visuals to your video without having to take the time to shoot, create something new, or destroy something large. Use what makes sense…and know that we can help you either way.

Live Action Video

Live Action video is simply video we shoot and edit together to create the story you need. Live action video is the most common type of video we and most other video production companies use to get the job done. There is no better way to help people understand who you are as a business than putting the very people who will help the customers/end users on camera. Every time we do live action video, our clients tell us that it has helped them improve the relationships they have with their clients because there is a visual and emotional connection with their employees, directors, etc. and the end users, clients, or customers. When clients of ours use video reviews (or testimonial videos) to help tell the story, it only improves the relationship and, ultimately their repeat business.

When you’re ready to create your next video and you want to spice it up a bit, ask us how we can use 2D or 3D animation in your live action video to help you share your message. Let us know if you have any questions!

 

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Defining Animation