Enhance Your Story with Video

by Dan Sondhelm

Adding multimedia to your marketing mix is a dynamic way to engage prospects. You can choose a high-energy corporate video that showcases your firm's full story or incorporate a more focused, economical approach. Advisors and investors will benefit by knowing you better through sound and sight.

Video can bring your history, people, outlook and funds to life with a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your investment philosophy, what goes into your stock selection process or how your team operates. Audio/visual messages can be incorporated onto your Web site, looped at trade shows or distributed on CDs as a sales tool.



Complement your style and budget.

Whether high energy or "talking head," most videos for the Web should not exceed three or four minutes. Yet, unless taping a live event, you need to count on a minimum of a few hours and, in the case of corporate story videos across multiple locations, even several days to shoot the required footage.

If you do plan to have gavel-to-gavel coverage of an event, be sure to have a plan on how the footage will be used. A producer working with your camera operator can keep track of what's shot and how to create segments. Simple, long-shelf life: Short clips of each portfolio manager, either biographical or explaining their underlying approach to the specific products they manage, can be very effective. These clips have a long shelf life and are always new to prospective investors and advisors. See a sample of this type of video (Bronze).

The format can be Q&A or enhanced to include intermittent graphics to visually drive home a concept. Varying the speaker by having two or three people speak or adding a voice over helps keep the viewer's attention. See a sample of this type of video (Silver).

A senior manager speaking about your investment philosophy in short, news-style features give a behind-the-scenes glimpse at what goes into a fund's security selection process. This approach can enhance the relevance and credibility of your portfolio managers. It allows the portfolio manager the time and space to make an impression and to get points across that might not always be captured in a live news interview on TV.

Simple, frequently updated: With the familiarity of You Tube and reality TV, website viewers have come to expect video when they visit a site. This can be an advantage for you. Each quarter, quick recaps of your portfolio moves and economic outlook will bring advisors and investors repeatedly back to your site, if you produce effective videos with attention to quality.

Decent lighting and a good microphone are important, use of a tripod and varying the background in your office can help. Remember that a focused presentation that drives home only the most important points - just a few - makes a stronger presentation. Let video do what its best at: offering a visual glimpse into the person speaking and insight he/she provides.

Event-driven: Plan ahead and take advantage of due diligence meetings with advisors or interviews with influential journalists by having the event taped. While not used in its entirety, the raw footage result can be invaluable for adding flavor and energy to a fully edited corporate video later.

Highly structured: To truly showcase your firm, consider a fully edited, graphically enhanced video with accompanying music. The pace and audio/visual selections should complement your firm's image and will cement your firm in the viewer's mind. Looping this video at your industry trade show booth is an excellent way to add energy to your presence. See a sample of this type of video (Gold).

In this age of fast-paced, highly visual stimulation, video with strong storytelling, proper backdrops, corporate branding, lighting and audio will connect your firm with a generation of investors who may prefer clicking on a movie to reading articles.

Extended play: You can get the most mileage out of your videos by promoting them in mailers and linking them in email newsletters in addition to posting to your Web site. They can also be posted on social networking sites to expand your audience. Retail advisors can show videos on their iPhone or iPod at a one-on-one client meeting or to prospective investors at a lunch.

Videos are meant to be seen and shared, and every person who sees them gains some understanding into your firm, its financial products and the fund managers and senior management that are earning trust and growing assets every day.