I’ve written before about how video is king. More and more that’s true. But for many — especially in non-profits — it’s also intimidating.
For one, nonprofits often don’t have the in-house expertise to concept, shoot, and edit video. They also often operate from a belief that they don’t have the budget. Prior to my arrival at Concord Academy, that certainly was the case: video had only been used sparingly, and without much success.
I’m a big believer in the engaging power of video. After some experimenting, some video projects at my old gig with CLF, and after watching a bunch of the video produced by Wistia (an awesome company if you don’t know it already!), I’ve either made or overseen the production of a few videos that have performed well.
This is true of the videos we produced for this admissions season at Concord Academy. Our thinking was simple: once we’ve admitted students, we want to convert them as quickly as possible into enrolled students, so we decided on sending them two videos: 1) an in-house upbeat video montage of people from CA congratulating them on their acceptance and 2) a higher end profile of the values and spirit of the school. Here are those videos.
Congratulations video:
“This is the Place” CA promotional video:
When we released these videos, I was proud of the work. I also knew we were sharing content with them at an important moment in their lives: which high school to attend is a big decision for a lot of students and parents. But we were sharing with them the right kind of content? This was my first year through the process; I didn’t know.
And so I was eager to see the engagement stats. They were better than I expected: the first video performed at about an 84% engagement rate, and the other at about 87%. That was much higher than any other video I had produced to date. I was stoked!
“Congratulations” video stats:
“This is the Place” video stats:
In the end, I think we hit them with the right kind of content at the right moment. They were emotionally primed to receive this message, this way.
I have to thank Wistia, for all of their awesome Learning Center videos, and Michelle Mizner of Field Work Media, for making the awesome “This is the Place” video.
I’m attending a conference at Wistia later this year, and am looking forward to learning a lot, as we plan to do a lot more video here at CA. Stay tuned for more!