History has shown us that during most economic downturns or declines in company performance, marketing budgets are one of the first to be cut. The thought process is that a company can run on the fumes of past marketing campaigns while heavily relying on sales teams to squeeze existing customers for more business. As a marketer and content producer, I think this approach is often too broadly applied without consideration for the long-term effects, but it’s a short-term cost reduction strategy that can right the ship financially.

During a COVID-19 driven financial decline, do you cut marketing budgets going into 2021 like in the past? The answer for some companies is yes, but what’s considered marketing vs operations, has changed. With social distancing and working remotely, video has shown itself to be a powerful tool for bringing teams together, interacting with clients, and transforming important in-person events into digital ones. Video in these operational use cases is for business continuity and not for brand establishment. It’s not a luxury to have, but critical to have.

Operations videos are produced to replace a process that was essential to the business’s success pre-COVID-19.

How do you differentiate marketing videos from operations essential videos? Operations videos are produced to replace a process that was essential to the business's success pre-COVID-19. Below we will look at a few examples that showcase video being used for business continuity that support the argument for video content being part of your 2021 operations budget.

Are Zoom Calls an Example of Operations Based Video Content?

The use of Zoom for video conferencing is one of the best examples of video being essential to business continuity. Without Zoom, Google Hangouts, WebEx, we would be missing out on even more of the human connection that we lost when we transitioned to working 100% from home.

However, now that we are 3/4 of the way through the year, people are suffering from Zoom fatigue. Poor internet connections, talking over each other, audio dropouts, and distracting background noise have made people reluctant to use the tool as often. It’s also leaving your employees surprisingly exhausted. For more information on Zoom Fatigue, this Harvard Business Review article by Liz Fosslien is a great resource. Your employees and clients are longing for clear communication that is well thought out, easy to hear, and without interruptions, especially when it comes to important information.

Operational videos discussed in this article are videos that can make a bigger impact on your organization than a quick Zoom call. Information is prepared ahead of time, recorded professionally, and shared with the option for viewers to rewatch content. It’s a refreshing break from Zoom fatigue, presenting your speakers and organization in a professional clear manner.

Sales & Partner Training

It’s not a new concept to use video for internal training and onboarding. However, existing training programs are usually outdated and missing new product releases, sales methodologies, or recent changes to the company strategy. In the past, this wasn’t a significant problem because annual sales meetings, business conferences, and/or in-person training events helped close the knowledge gap. At these events, sales members could ask engineers or product experts questions directly in person or participate in group training classes.

With the current state of social distancing, reduced travel, and remote work, these in-person interactions and training sessions are not possible. Professional videos can be used to replace those interactions both with pre-recorded new content or live Q&A sessions with product/service experts. A combination of sharing a pre-recorded training video with a live Q&A after can be a very effective combination.

It’s also the perfect time to replace outdated training content. Employees are still making career changes during a pandemic that requires the onboarding of new employees and the training of promoted employees. Emplify, an HR analytics company found that 73% of employees are open to a new career opportunity and that 33.1% are actively looking (see their 2020 report here). Retaining employees and managing turnover needs to be proactively managed with new digital strategies in 2021.

Information Disclosure That Requires a Personal Touch

Throughout the year, businesses find themselves presenting to investors and business partners that are critical to their success. Even the most detailed slide decks and spreadsheets shared with these audiences still require a presenter to help them navigate the information and form the desired conclusions. Without this human component, there is a risk that the wrong conclusions are reached.

Information Disclosure - Professional Video Production

These investor type presentations could utilize a Zoom conference call, but poor audio quality, connection dropouts, and interruptions make it harder for audiences to pay attention. Alternatively, pre-recorded videos allow for multiple takes and time spent perfecting important messages. Pre-recorded video also elevates the importance of your message through a higher production value. Ultimately, these benefits help increase the attention span of your audience and showcase your authority on the subject matter.

Events Including Annual Meetings, Employee Appreciation, Recognition Awards — Relationship & Culture Critical

There are 80,000 books on Amazon for the search term “Business Culture”. It’s no secret that financial performance is linked to business culture. Preserving a culture without in-person human interaction is a difficult challenge that we continue to figure out as we work our way through this pandemic.

Giving up on your business culture because of the lack of in-person interactions is giving up on your employees. Well produced videos that are used to recognize employees, celebrate company wins, or discuss strategy are crucial for maintaining enthusiasm and passion with your workforce. Your employees deserve more than a thank you on a webcam with a crying baby or barking dog in the background. A grander gesture through a well-produced video highlights the importance of their accomplishment in the same way company-wide meetings used to do.

Quarterly new product launches can be conducted digitally instead of at conventions and conferences. Apple’s June 22, 2020, Keynote is a great example of this. Instead of presenting product updates live on a stage with journalists in the crowd, this year they used a higher-end video production that was pre-recorded. You can view it here.

Replacing the Retail Discovery Experience

In-person retail locations and arguably in-person sales meetings used to provide an essential early step in the sales pipeline. Window shopping and early discovery meetings helped plant a seed in the minds of potential buyers. A potential buyer could ask questions, see a product from different angles, and learn about the craftsmanship in a way that was different than online shopping.

E-commerce platforms have already led the charge in replacing the in-person retail experience for decades. Their use of well produced product photos and videos help showcase products and entice sales conversions. In 2021, this model can be replicated across other industries by using high-quality video to showcase B2B services or high-value products that traditionally relied on in-person client experiences. Compared to e-commerce, these videos may be a longer format or delivered as a series for potential clients to digest over time. They may be less creative by nature, but effective for delivering technical information, building trust, and planting that initial seed. This use case does blur the lines between marketing and operations, but the idea here is to make digital content to replace in-person interactions that are no longer possible.

How to Proceed

Q4 is quickly approaching which means budget planning has already kicked-off for many businesses. While you may be quick to strike out most of your marketing budget, it’s worth a pause to reconsider what is considered marketing. Is video really marketing if it’s used to maintain communication with investors and employees? Is it really marketing if it’s used to replace in-person meetings or provide training that is critical to your business growth?

Author Biography: Phil Skulte is the owner of Visual Captive, a Minneapolis-based video production company. He specializes in commercial video work and enjoys sharing his knowledge with aspiring creators and business owners.

In 2021, Is Video Part of Your Marketing or Operations Budget?