Why School Program and Curriculum Videos Are Important Marketing Tools

by Joe Monzo | Nov 24, 2021 | General

Part IV of the School Video Deep Dive Series

Your school’s video marketing campaign is made even more powerful when it’s broken down into a set of topic videos, each one offering an inside look at different aspects of the student experience. Part of this process is keeping your target audience in mind. While general admissions videos encapsulate the heart and soul of your community, school program and curriculum videos offer an opportunity to speak directly to your targeted prospective families even more.

Publishing a set of these videos as part of your campaign can help families who are interested in specific programs discover your school through online search, and learn more about your curriculum, faculty, and the student experience. 

Here’s how you can take advantage of school program and curriculum videos as part of your marketing strategy. 

What Is a School Program Video?

A school program video goes into more depth about a program within your school’s curriculum. While the general admissions video is more of an overview of the schools core offering and value, program videos help families further explore the departments and activities that are most important to them.

For example, you could choose to highlight the performing arts program in your curriculum with a dedicated video. In this video, families can learn about performing arts classes and events, and meet the teachers and faculty directly involved, without actually meeting them (yet!).

Generally, school program videos are short, sweet, and concise, providing just enough information to intrigue families. A brief overview of what parents and students can expect from the program will suffice. At the end, the video should prompt families to contact the school for more information. 

How Do School Program Videos Add to My Marketing Campaign?

Program and curriculum videos are important and effective because they narrow down the audience and target families with specific interests. Families who are particularly excited about one program, such as theatre or the science department, can be spoken to directly. In doing so, you’re giving them all the important information they need to move forward in the enrollment process.

By adding program or curriculum videos to your video marketing campaign, you can also dive into the heart of your school and introduce teachers that students will interact with every day. Previously, teachers added their thoughts about the school in the general admissions video, but in the program video, this is their chance to shine. Families get to virtually “meet” these teachers before they meet in person, and teachers can make their best first impression.

Overall, program videos humanize the school and break down key topics or concerns that families can more comfortably approach. As a result, they’ll become confident in the school, programs, and teachers, knowing that their students are in good hands.

How Can I Produce an Effective School Program Video?

One of the great aspects of producing a school program video is that the format is open to interpretation. These videos break down your school into parts that families can explore with ease, but how you present your school is up to you.

In other words, you could create a separate video for all the main programs at your school, offering one for academics, one for athletics, and some for extracurriculars. If you’d like to do something different, you could focus each video on a separate grade level or range of grades, covering the curriculum for lower, middle, and upper schools. Regardless of your choice, the most important point is to help families enter into the school experience and understand what to expect.

Another thing to keep in mind is the kind of footage you use. Many other school marketing videos have been best formatted as a combination of interviews and B-roll, but that doesn’t have to be the case here. You could have one of your teachers explain the program while presenting footage of the classrooms or events involved. You could also have a walk-through video of the program’s space. Get as creative as you’d like!

Build a Powerful School Video Marketing Campaign

As with other types of videos, producing school marketing videos means you’ll have a vault of marketing assets that you can use across channels and at events. Adding videos that address specific programs or classes to their respective pages on your school website should help your website rank better in search engine results. To learn more about how school programs and curriculum videos can improve your marketing strategy, contact Monzo Media Productions today.

How to Use an Event Video to Draw Hype

by Joe Monzo | Nov 8, 2021 | General

It’s a relief to say that live events are finally making a comeback, which means businesses and companies in the live event space should be getting a head start and taking full advantage of marketing opportunities. To get your community excited about your upcoming events and encourage attendance after such a long hiatus, consider boosting your marketing strategy with a video campaign.

Before the pandemic, events and event recap videos were powerful tools used by businesses, nonprofits, and schools. These marketing videos capture not only the “where, what, and who,” but also the energy of the event and the value it offers attendees. Event videos are powerful because they visually express the experience that attendees have and can inspire the viewer to experience it for themselves. 

Keeping in mind the value and reach of your marketing dollars, here’s how you can harness the power of event videos for your organization.

What Is an Event Recap Video?

While event recap videos are powerful tools, they’re typically simple in nature. Event video productions do not require any extensive scripting or rehearsing. Rather, producing the video is more about capturing the event in real-time and precisely editing the footage down to less than 3 minutes of content. Keep in mind that a video production crew can capture the whole event if needed, but most of this footage will be archived. 

We suggest to our clients that event recap videos be between 1 minute and 2.5 minutes long. This length might seem short for events that could last an entire day, but you’d be surprised at how powerful a 60-second video can be. Viewers will get an idea of the size and structure of the event visually, and short clips will highlight the venue, speakers, and main event. Overall, though, it’s more important to convey the value of attending the event to convince viewers to take action or to get involved.

Elements of an Excellent Event Video

A successful event video consists of a few key elements pertaining to the types of footage captured and editing techniques. Your video production partner should aim to understand the core value of the event and how it pertains to your brand, and then use this as a guide for capturing footage and editing the content.

First, an excellent event video should express the message and value of your event, mainly in a visual way. Instead of dictating the details of the event, the video will immerse viewers in the event experience through high-energy, fast-paced clips. Short clips, edited with visually interesting transitions, serve the purpose of showing the size of the event, attendee engagement, presenters/special guests, and more.

Second, candid testimonials from attendees during the event can be interspersed throughout the video. Unlike in other types of marketing videos, these interviews don’t necessarily have to be planned or rehearsed. Instead, the production team can pull attendees or event coordinators aside during filming and ask them about their experience with the event. Ideally, these testimonials will express how valuable the event is to them personally as well as to the community.

Finally, event videos should always finish with a clear call-to-action. After fast-paced visual storytelling and compelling testimonials, you should capitalize on the viewer’s excitement by giving them the exact action they should take. For example, direct them to register for an upcoming event and offer the direct link or resource they need to follow through.

Using Event Videos to Draw Hype

Experienced marketing video producers understand exactly how to capture the right footage for your event and edit it into a captivating marketing tool. They’ll also know how to archive and repurpose unused footage, otherwise known as evergreen video assets, to get the most of your film day content.

Here at Monzo Media Productions, we’re proud of the event recap videos we’ve provided our clients, such as this video for Veterans Shark Tank in 2019. Take note of how the pacing ideally captures the energy, and the ending presents all the necessary information for further action.

To begin boosting your marketing efforts for your upcoming events, connect with Monzo Media Productions today for a conversation about your project.