What makes a successful video in the fintech sector? Simon Crofts of Big Button is sharing his top 4 tips for creating the ultimate fintech marketing video, based on their latest consumer research analysis.
I’ve been working with clients in Finance and Fintech for many years, always looking to create more effective content that stands out from the deluge of video being produced by others with similar messages. So how do you create more engaging films that people in the sector want to watch?
Most of us have access to a wealth of data behind our video archive, and that’s the perfect place to start. Auditing your existing video content to see what works best will help shape the films you make next; look through the analytics behind your films to see how your audience has been responding. In Big Button’s recent white paper, we focused on these analytics and looked at hundreds of films in the sector, to see what we could learn from those that were most ‘successful’.
Duration: Longer videos often get higher engagement
One thing that became clear is that the duration of a video plays a key role in engagement, but perhaps not in the way you might think. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just making your films shorter. Although duration can make a difference to audience engagement, sometimes longer content can be better.
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For example, our research showed that 1-minute films received over 80% retention (people watched 80% of the film), which, of course, sounds great. Conversely, the films that were longer than 10 minutes only received 20% retention… which sounds bad. When you dig a little deeper though, you realise that the longer films had people watching for more time; on average around 2 minutes, as opposed to around 40 seconds on the films that ran to about a minute. So if you’re looking at increasing dwell time on your site, longer content might be the better option.
Style: Animations seem to work well for explaining complex finance-related products
The style you choose for your video also plays a big part in whether it’s successful or not. When it comes to educating an audience about finance-related topics, animation can work incredibly well. Whether you’re targeting members of the general public, or professionals with plenty of assumed knowledge, an animated approach allows you to fine-tune the tone and message to reach the right balance between simple and complex. Options include adding animated motion graphics to live action, as we have done for PensionBee, or creating an entirely animated environment as in a recent project for an asset manager. As the results below indicate, a video we produced recently to explain Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities has performed very well.
Sometimes live action is the preferred approach, and for those videos where a presenter was used, our research suggested that their confidence on-screen really influenced success. The more confident the presenter, the better the results. A performance can be enhanced through a number of techniques, but avoiding a script is a good place to start to keep things ‘natural’. Make sure you work with professionals who can ensure you get the most out of those you ‘have’ to put on screen. A good director, for example, can help relax the interviewees, encourage the best performance, and steer the interviewee in the right direction to deliver the agreed messaging.
Budget: You need to allocate part of your budget to pre- and post-video production activities
Naturally, budget can also play a role in the success of your video content, although it’s not just what appears on screen that counts. Research, preparation and planning significantly influence the effectiveness of your content, so remember to allocate part of your budget to that pre-production phase, as well as for measurement and analytics after the video has been released.
It’s all about the audience
Of course, creating video that your audience actually want to watch is the most important part of the puzzle. Jyske Bank have been working with video platform TwentyThree to create fantastic engagement, with a commitment to producing videos that their audience want to watch, rather than videos they want their audience to watch. As Jyske’s Head of Communications, Lasse Hogfeldt, says, you need to make stories that people are interested in. That way of thinking has brought over 41,000 minutes of engagement to their videos, with a view retention rate of over 50%. Impressive numbers. You can learn more about their story at https://www.twentythree.net/customers/jyske-bank.
In summary, consider your objectives and create content that your audience really want to watch. The style, duration and budget should all be defined by that.
About the author: Simon Crofts is Client Services Director at Big Button, a strategic video agency that work extensively with clients in the Financial Services sector.