Videos and podcasts increasingly popular for marketing – and it’s not hard to see why. We live in an age of short attention spans, where a wealth of content competes for your time.
Against this background, the growing popularity of videos and podcasts is easily understood. They can:
- Deliver easily-consumed, quick insights
- Provide you with additional content for your website, aiding SEO
- Offer another string to your content bow, giving you a wider range of material to share with your audience
- Help to improve your social media ROI, increasing engagement on Twitter and Linkedin
- Enable you to market via channels you may not previously have considered – YouTube, Instagram and Facebook
- Raise the profile of some of your key people
Add to this the fact that both media are both increasingly cost-effective – with technology enabling them to be produced in-house in many cases – and their growing popularity is no mystery.
What content works on video and podcast?
So, you’ve decided that videos or podcasts are the route for you.
What next?
If this is new to you, how do you go about producing something professional and engaging? If you work in a regulated industry, what compliance issues do you need to consider?
Many financial or professional services marketers, particularly those who are regulated, may think that video or podcasts are not appropriate media. How true is this?
We would argue that they can be just as relevant for financial services and regulated firms as they are for others.
You may think that your content isn’t suited to video treatment. But in fact, video can be the ideal way to explain complex products, solutions or subjects – breaking down hard-to-understand concepts into bite-sized chunks.
And while there are regulatory issues to consider, these aren’t impossible to overcome.
How to produce a marketing video or podcast
If you want to produce a video, you need to think about:
- What kind of film do you want to make?
There are many options when it comes to video content. A ‘talking heads’ piece featuring two or three of your key people can be used to debate a new piece of legislation, or discuss key topics from your latest piece of thought leadership.
If you have a weighty survey, whitepaper or other piece of content, use an interview-style format to summarise some of the main issues and encourage people to download the full collateral.
Consider whether animation might work – could you work with a professional team to produce an animated film showing the benefits of your new product, or the highlights of your latest thought piece?
- How can we repurpose what we have?
Think about how you can re-use existing material rather than producing something new. If you’re running seminars, client conferences or webinars, could you record them and publish the content? Sharing the presentations from a seminar as a series of separate short films stretches your content without the need to create anything new.
When you start to think about it, there is no shortage of material you can use as the inspiration or source for video content.
- How professional do we need to be?
Remember, your video is a shop window into your overall approach. A professional-looking result reflects well on your business.
It’s worth getting external help; an experienced film-maker with a decent camera, and a location that works in terms of appearance and sound quality. Many agencies produce corporate videos and can help you, both with best practice tips on content and style, and with practical support in terms of filming and post-production.
If you want to start publishing podcasts, think about:
- What will you talk about?
As with videos, you probably have far more potential podcast content than you think. You can summarise thought leadership, reports or surveys in an informal interview style, cutting your content down into easily-digested snippets. Preview an upcoming event, or review one that has recently taken place, sharing key messages and take-aways.
- How will you produce them?
Removing the visual aspect can make podcasts far easier to produce than videos. If you have in-house webex technology, you may well be able to use this. But as with film, it’s always worth getting professional input in terms of appropriate content, quality, length and style.
- How often will you publish?
An important consideration for both video and podcast content. Once you start to produce content in this way, your audience will expect to see regular content, and you need to deliver. Make sure that whatever you start, you can maintain. It’s better to commit to a one-a-month publishing schedule, if that’s realistic for you, and stick to it, than to start with a flurry of content, lose momentum and tail off.
What compliance considerations are there?
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) rules on financial promotions and adverts apply to videos and podcasts in the same way that they do to press ads or brochures.
What you produce needs to be fair, clear and not mislead customers. The regulator also says that when producing financial promotions, you should use systems and controls to make sure that:
- people designing and approving promotions understand the rules
- promotions remain clear, fair and not misleading over time
- you monitor promotions and keep adequate records
- you review complaints and apply lessons learned to future promotions
This means that your Compliance team needs to review and approve and videos or podcasts you produce. You also need to follow the required process on record-keeping, maintaining a compliant audit trail of videos and podcasts alongside your other financial promotions.
Introducing a degree of automation to your Compliance approvals process, and taking steps to make your approvals process as good as it can be, can help to reduce the time it takes to get materials signed off. This can be particularly relevant if you’re using podcasts and videos to share topical or time-sensitive content, when it’s more crucial than ever to get them to market quickly as possible.
Videos and podcasts – a valid option for regulated marketing
Videos and podcasts can be valuable channels for all firms – B2B or B2C, regulated or unregulated. Get professional input, think creatively about the content you can share, and make sure you meet the FCA’s requirements on compliance.
Then, ensure you make the most of what you produce by promoting it on your website and sharing it on social media. If you want to read more about how to devise an engaging, compliant social media strategy.
If you want to read more about how to devise an engaging, compliant social media strategy, read our guide to Twitter for Financial Promotions.
The Compliance workload shows no signs of decreasing. An ever-growing list of requirements and regulatory changes makes the compliance role harder than ever.
When you face business or regulatory challenges, we provide solutions that are tailor-made to your needs with a view to releasing your energies to focus on your clients.
How can we help!
At LS Consultancy, we offer a complete solution with a range of cost effective, regulatory compliance and marketing products and solutions that are uniquely suited to supporting firms.