Product complexity, technical processes, large projects and high trust value decisions are common challenges in an energy business. Thus, it is clear that video is one of the most powerful means of communication in the industry. A short and clear video can educate the viewers on how a technology works, demonstrate a project, build a workforce or educate a customer on a product before they contact sales.
Video isn’t just important to make a company look modern. It enables energy companies to convey quicker, to minimize the confusion, and to strengthen customers’ trust in the business, investors, partner organizations, employees, and local communities.
Explainer Videos for Complex Products and Technologies
It’s not always possible to communicate the details of energy products through a text alone. In fact, many solar technologies, grid technology, battery storage solutions, hydrogen, smart meters, energy software, and industrial equipment have moving parts.
An explainer video can help convey that message.
If the viewer has to navigate to a lengthy technical page, the information can be conveyed visually in a video showing the problem, the technology, and the results. This is particularly useful if the buyer, investor or Government or procurement is not a technical buyer.
An effective explainer video should stress the following points:
- What problem the product solves
- How the technology works
- Who benefits from it
- How it is better than the old way
- What to do next
Good explainers do not use a lot of jargon. They don’t give the viewer information overload.
Embedding into Website Pages
Energy company websites can be made more useful and more engaging with video. Visitors don’t want to wade through long, technical text pages to grasp the value of a product or service.
A brief video on the correct page can assist them in comprehending quicker.
Energy companies may incorporate videos on:
- Product pages
- Landing pages
- Portfolio project pages
- Company news pages
- Event recap pages
- Testimonial sections
- Investor relations pages
- Careers pages
For instance, a short product explainer can be thrown in a product page. A project page may contain a recap video of the site, installation and results. One of the more effective ways of incorporating this information into a careers page is by having a culture video featuring engineers, techs, and field teams at work.
There are no plans to place video in every corner of the web. The idea is to know where to position the video so that the user can best grasp what it is all about on the web page.
Project Highlight/Event Recap Video
The planning, engineering, installation, safety assessments and measurable results are common requirements of energy projects. One project highlight video voice all of these aspects of a simple story.
This type of video is valuable with a finished solar plant, battery storage, upgrading the grid, a wind farm, installing a facility, or an energy efficiency programme.
The well written project recap will demonstrate:
- The client or location
- The challenge before the project
- The installation or implementation process
- The team at work
- The final result
- Key benefits or outcomes
These videos can be used in a sales team, for proposals, social media, website portfolios, and investor updates. They demonstrate a body of evidence that evidences their work that a written case study may not fully articulate.
That’s important for energy companies because the buyers want proof. A project video will make the company seem more capable of what they’re doing easier to see and easier to believe.
Product FAQs Video
You’ll find that customers repeat many of the same product questions over and over. A product FAQ video can resolve those questions easily and less stress the sales and support teams.
This is suitable for a range of applications like battery storage, energy monitoring, industrial energy systems and heat pumps, solar panels, and EV charging.
Some questions that can be answered in FAQ videos are:
- How does the product work?
- What is included in the installation?
- How long does setup take?
- What maintenance is needed?
- Is the product suitable for homes or businesses?
- What happens if the system stops working?
- What is the warranty coverage?
Also, these videos will help as the consumers have to watch them on their own time as it allows them to view it at their own speed. A brief FAQ video can eliminate the ambiguity just before a sales meeting, so that that will improve the value of the conversation.
Brand Awareness & Social Campaign Videos
When it comes to creating brand awareness for a company, particularly in the case of rolling out new services, services to new markets or for promoting sustainability goals, it is required. Social Campaign videos can facilitate making the brand more recognizable and memorable.
Not all of these videos should be very technical. They can be basic, personised and tale-based.
For instance, an energy firm can produce videos on topics such as:
- Clean energy goals
- Community projects
- Customer success stories
- Employee stories
- New technology launches
- Behind-the-scenes field work
- Company milestones
An important principle is for the message to be understandable within the first several seconds. Users scroll quickly on social networks. By following these three steps with a strong visual opening and simplifying the message and the brand purpose, we can make our videos perform better.
These brand videos make the most impact when they come across as authentic and natural, not like a marketing brochure.
Workforce Safety & Training
When it comes to business applications, safety is among the most crucial video use cases for energy companies. Field teams can operate around hazards like electricity, heavy equipment, low space, elevation, weather conditions and operational hazards.
Using video is an effective way to provide a safe procedure explanation, which is easy to follow.
Training videos provide information on:
- Site induction
- Personal protective equipment
- Emergency procedures
- Equipment handling
- Lockout and tagout steps
- Working at height
- Hazard reporting
The upside is that it simplifies things. All workers are given the same explanations, images and procedure. Video also enables new employees to see the procedure from work, which enhances their learning.
Ideally, safety videos are short, to the point and easy to look back at again. They must supplement formal training, and NOT be substituted for the proper supervision or compliance requirements that apply.
Product and Technology Demos
Product/ Technology demo will be a demonstration of the solution in practice. This is particularly important if the product is complicated, hard to understand or costly.
For instance, an energy company can serve a demo video that illustrates the tracking of energy usage, how a battery storage system can respond to the energy demand, or how an EV charging system can be implemented at a commercial site.
Demo should demonstrate:
- The product in context
- The main user actions
- The result on screen or on site
- The practical benefit
- The next step for the viewer
It is important to concentrate on value rather than features. Readers need to know how the technology will assist them to do something better, faster, safer or more efficiently.
Sustainability & Technology Storytelling
Energy companies are usually expected to make it clear what they are all about, and what they’re selling. Critical connections between business activity and a greater purpose are possible with sustainability and technology storytelling videos.
This type of videos can demonstrate how a company works to promote better energy choices for customers, uses its infrastructure to incorporate cleaner energy, enhance energy efficiency, reduce waste, or any other reason.
Specificity is the best quality of sustainability videos! Don’t just say “we care about the future;” demonstrate projects of the future, people of the future, and improvements of the future!
Good story ideas to go for are:
- A community energy project
- A company reducing its energy use
- A new technology being tested
- A customer shifting from fossil fuels to less polluting sources of power.
- Engineers solving a difficult problem
- Long-term investment in innovation
That makes sustainability “real” and “doable,” rather than “theoretical.
Conclusion
Video provides greater visibility of technical products, strengths in terms of project experience, team training and answering customer questions, as well as brand storytelling. The most effective way to go is to not develop also a single general business video and implement it everywhere.
Having a handful of helpful videos is better than having one-long video for various business situations.
Begin with the part(s) of the communication process that is slow and/or unclear (or worse). It could be product education, sales support, safety training, visits to sites or sustainability storytelling. Video helps save time, gain trust and demystify complicated energy solutions when it is used at the right time.
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