Should I Talk In My Business Video?

When you have your business video made one of the things you need to decide is if you are going to appear in it. You then need to decide if you are going to speak. There are many different reasons why you may want to.  I want to look at whether it is a good idea and, if it is, how you can prepare yourself. In my next article I’ll talk about the actual performance. Let’s start with why you may think it is a good idea to talk to your customers in your business video.

Why Would I Talk In My Business Video?

1. By appearing in your video  and talking directly to your customers you give them a face to recognise. You represent your business and the skills or values or products it sells. You become a focal point and give customers a sense of familiarity when they make contact. This exploits one of the major advantages of advertising with video. It allows your customers to see you and build a relationship.
2. I have written fairly often about using video to show your skills or to demonstrate a product. Both of these tasks are made so much easier and more effective if you talk your customers through what is happening. You can show your product or a technique without speaking but it is so much easier to make people understand if you describe what you are doing, and why.
3. If you have to sell, you will know that your personal enthusiasm for a product or service is one of the most powerful tools you can muster. If you are good at enthusing people why would you not use that skill in your video?
4. This brings us to the most obvious reason for you to talk in your video. You talk to sell. In your video you can issue a call to action for viewers to contact you or to buy a product.

You can hire an actor to do all of this for you. That can be expensive and if you have to teach them to perform a task it can be very time consuming. That is why many small and medium size businesses choose to have a member of staff or the owner appear and talk in their videos.

How Do I Prepare To Talk In My Video?

First we need to answer a question. Will you present or be interviewed? Being interviewed in easier in general. If you are demonstrating it is easier to present directly. Being interviewed allows you to relax more, while presenting requires you to be more practiced. If you are being interviewed prepare by reviewing the questions you will answer. Do not rehearse your answers. The whole point of the interview technique is to allow you to be natural and at ease when speaking. You are knowledgeable about your business so that needs to naturally shine through. This is also true when you present, but to allow a natural flow you need to know what you will be saying and when.

Breakdown the steps you will follow in any demonstration. Take your sales pitch and rework it to make it as concise and easy to understand as possible. Now comes the first difficult part. Learn it. Learn it and practice what you will say. Practice in front of a mirror. Practice over and over until you are sick of hearing yourself. What you want is to be slightly bored with what you will be saying so that on the day you are not trying to remember. There is nothing worse than watching a video where someone is desperately trying to remember what to say.  It destroys the efficacy of talking directly to your customers.

Be Calm

Finally for preparation I want to talk a little bit about your state of mind. You may be very confident in your abilities. You may not. When it comes to doing something for the first time most people get very nervous. Nerves are good. They will give you energy for your performance. Too many nerves will be bad. They will make you stumble and lose confidence. Your practice will help alleviate nerves but you need to be able to calm your body before your begin.

Alongside your learning and repetition, practice body and breathing control. Practice in front of your mirror assuming and holding a confident pose. Not overly confident, nor aggressive. Your body language should be calm and in control. Practice this over and over to make it comfortable. Next practice your deep, slow breathing. If you know what your diaphragm is, use it. Breath like a singer preparing for a concert. Breath slowly and deeply pushing your stomach out to draw breath in. This will calm you and give you control over your breath. This in turn will give you better vocal control to help you make the most of your opportunity to speak to new customers.

Next time I’ll be writing about your actual performance on the day of recording.