Part 2: Is your video content working for you? Find out!

Thursday, April 14, 2022

In Part 1 of this blog series we asked Question 1 - Do you know that your audience actually saw the most important content? This blog post started this series about increasing video ROI by asking yourself three questions.

In this entry in the series we move on to the second question.

Question 2: Do you know that your audience understood the message you were communicating based on the action they took?

It’s one thing for your viewer to watch your content, but are you sure they actually received and internalized the message? Did they internalize the key value your product or service provides? Did they understand the nuance of your features and how they compare in the market? Did they understand the next step in your customer onboarding process or learn the information you wanted in your video training materials?

This is where video interactivity can really help. From specific navigation prompts and detailed questions to conditional logic that only displays content based on the viewer’s actions, you can drive home your critical points and ensure viewer comprehension with interactive elements. For instance:

Add hotspots or images that link to a knowledge sharing asset your viewer can download to learn more. This could include white papers, best practices articles, or knowledge infographics. Encourage the viewer to explore and download various content based on their interests.
Make access to the downloaded assets described above conditional based on the viewers answering the questions and indicate there is ‘special content’ for those who participate in the video. This can be as simple as collecting basic info about the customer and then using a ‘field exists’ conditional form to display the link to the high value content.
Add video clips to drill deeper into specific content when the viewer reaches a specific point in the video.
Jump the viewer to a secondary video entirely to reinforce a core component of your message and then have them click back to resume the original video.
Use Mindstamp’s simple ‘Collect Feedback’ function to ask a simple question at any time to check in with the viewer. Ask if specific content made sense or if they have any additional questions they would like answered after the fact.
Use Questions throughout the video to check understanding or gather more insight about interests or demographics of your viewer. Can you determine, based on their progressive answers, how well the concepts are landing or if you are triggering the right level of introspection?
Conduct simple ‘polls’ using multiple buttons or images presented on the video at a single time with a ‘pause until viewer action’ control such that they must interact to continue. Assuming the content of the buttons is thoughtful, you can determine comprehension based on the distribution of answers you receive.
Present multiple ‘next steps’ at the end of the video using the same ‘pause until viewer action’ treatment, including the ability to jump out to the next video in a prospective series or learn more via your website or blog content.

Ensuring viewer comprehension of your content, or at least driving steps to maximize the potential for their comprehension is a critical step in realizing the highest value of your investment in video marketing, training or onboarding.

Each of these interactive elements gives you deeper visibility into how well your viewers are actually watching and listening to your content. Are they getting enough of the message to proactively consume more detail? Based on simple questions are they following the point of the narrative. Do their clicks match to the behavior we’d expect from a viewer who is truly following the educational path you’re laying down? If the answer is yes, then you’re on your way to maximizing video ROI.

And finally, in Part 3 of this series we’ll look at the intersection between comprehension and action, of which many of the items above start to straddle. Specifically: