B2B content material technique is one thing of an enterprise oxymoron. The technique is there, however usually the content material is just not.
Video is a promising space for reaching the Knowledgeable B2B Purchaser, however too usually the content material is stilted and overscripted. Or, the content material is kind of good, but it surely will get buried in an occasion archive, arduous to seek out after the present.
Brent Leary of the Playaz Manufacturing Community is aware of a factor or two about B2B video that engages audiences. I’ve talked to Leary extensively in regards to the urgent query: can “AI” make video content material manufacturing simpler?
In a current stay video present on LinkedIn, Leary and I broke down the substances of high quality B2B video content material – and whether or not AI for video modifying may help. (You may see the full video replay on LinkedIn, or examine the audio podcast under). Through the video, Leary vented out on the plight of B2B video content material, and the way we will do higher:
One of the best a part of these conversations are the natural components that are not guided.
Certainly. The total quote:
It is as a result of there is a want for folk to really feel like they’re in charge of the content material. And due to that, they do not belief the folks in entrance of the digital camera to ship compelling, attention-grabbing on-point content material. They really feel like they must attempt to information it. And the perfect a part of these conversations are the natural components that are not guided. They simply come out from the give and take the conventional interplay.
For the video spotlight clips, I demoed a bunch of “AI” associated companies. I produced a pair spotlight clips with OpusClip, together with the aforementioned Leary quote:
(OpusClip was initially launched for social influencers, so it simply has a vertical phone-style clip format, however I'[m told a landscape clip option will come in the September timeframe).
I could devote an entire post to “what makes B2B video great.” But today, I’m going to hone in on the AI for video editing topic. It’s a huge pain point; it also sheds light on the potential (and limits) of what AI can do today.
The business case for AI video editing
I do a fair amount of live, interactive B2B video events. The attendee chats are vigorous and the events run long, often a bit more than an hour. Unpredictable, unscripted events keep people engaged, but: watching the full replay is a different matter. Yes, if you’re deep into ESG, you’ll probably want to watch my full ESG research reveal show with Brian Sommer, but if you’re not, watching a full hour video replay, where you are not part of the live discussion, is a big ask.
In the past, I handled that mostly with my audio podcast option (aka my Busting the Omnichannel series). Audio versions lack video cues, but at least it doesn’t tie you to watching the replay on a computer or phone. You can putter or listen while commuting, etc. But I’ve wanted to bear down on highlight clips, something Leary does a terrific job of. But there are two differences: Leary is a better video editor than I am, and he seems to get something useful out of the video editing process – at least more than I do.
Could you outsource video editing to a human expert? Sure – but as Leary and I discussed, even most human editors won’t necessarily know what the most important B2B topic is on replay. Then you have the inevitable delays of handing work off to the human editor, and the tedium of transferring files.
When would I use a human/expert video editor? When I wanted a super-slick, 2-3 minute highlight video, such as an event reel or keynote highlight package. Sometimes these highlight reel clips involve splicing 20+ pull quotes together, in a super fast-paced format. Back in the day, the now-retired Den Howlett produced an event video where we asked each attendee to sum up an event in one word. The final product went down like hot cakes, but the editing was a beast.
There is a more modest/typical B2B editing use case: B2B companies tend to produce longer videos like webinars, interviews, or event content. This editing use case is less about a super spiffy highlight reel, it’s about:
Pulling a few 30 – 120 second clips from a longer conversation, perhaps splicing a few of them together, and getting them out on social channels.
Doesn’t that sound like something today’s “AI” could do? For the purposes of this show, I tried several AI for video editing services. There are a slew of them out there. The ones I am interested in are not really editing helpers, as much as social clip producers. To get the most out of these services, I believe you still need a fallback video editing environment (and someone who can use it where needed). In my case, I use Vimeo’s online video editor, which allows me to do things such as:
- Quickly combine a few shorter social clips into one video
- Iron out a rough edge, such as clipping a longer segment
- Add an intro and outro if I want (not all AI social clips services give you this option)
- Tweak the layout format (example: for vertical OpusClips, I add a black background, such as this clip with Leary on what makes B2B video entertaining)
The pros and cons of clips services: OpusClip, Wisecut and Pictory.ai
When evaluating AI services, be wary of the what I call the “AI overreach.” This is when the AI system is making too many decisions without your input, leaving you with flawed output. All the social clips service are a work in progress; they are still refining and adding features. I tried one clips service that just dumped a bunch of 30-60 second social clips for my use, but without any ability to influence the output. (Some of these services limit either the video file size or video duration upload length, either on free/entry plans or mid-tier plans, which adds friction).
For this type of auto-generated clips service, I really like OpusClip, enough that I’ve become a paid subscriber. OpusClip allows users to include keywords from the clips as well (before the AI gets to work), and specify the desired clip length. I also produced this Leary clip on what makes B2B content entertaining with OpusClip:
Now, OpusClip is typical of the social clips companies: the “AI” goes to make some choices on which facets of your video to focus on. Due to this fact, whereas these clips are tremendous handy, they could not comprise the precise a part of the video you had been considering of capturing (nor are you able to mix two clips, however that may simply be achieved in a primary video editor). OpusClip takes this additional, and has the AI really rank the standard of the clips for engagement worth. No surprises – I discover the rankings a bit flawed. Nonetheless, I am critically impressed by the effectiveness of their proposed video titles, in addition to the AI’s clarification as to why the clip is participating. Take this instance from the ESG present:
The try and rank, title, and clarify why clips are participating actually impresses me. It is not good – I do not just like the phrase “revolutionary” on this context, nor do I believe the social media angle is related in anyway – but it surely’s nonetheless helpful to see what the AI places out. From right here, I sometimes obtain these clips, tweak them a bit in Vimeo, and they’re prepared for add to YouTube and social channels (I add them to my Enterprise hits/misses video highlights playlist). The time saved is gigantic – maybe 80 % (it takes me about quarter-hour to finalize considered one of these clips, if I must tweak it). It is the distinction between clips and no clips. I haven’t got the bandwidth to make clips from scratch.
However, as I’ve mentioned, OpusClip has social clips limitations: what if I would like extra management over what I can produce? I discovered that Wisecut gives a bit extra complete video collections than different clips companies. And, for essentially the most half, their interface is fairly straightforward – not as straightforward as OpusClip, however fairly good.
The one drawback I discovered with Wisecut: I usually wished to deliver the tip of 1 clip into the following one. They’re engaged on a method to do this, however for now, that needs to be achieved manually. Wisecut additionally gives intro/outro clip choices, although I struggled to make these work. However in idea, you possibly can put intro/outro on Wisecut clips while not having an exterior editor. Wisecut can output in panorama mode, which is usually higher for B2B social sharing.
Lastly, there’s a completely different method to strive at Pictory.ai. There’s extra to Pictory.ai than simply AI video modifying; Pictory additionally gives weblog to video, and script to video (I have not tried these). For AI video modifying, Pictory.ai has a studying curve. It took me some time to get setup with my intro/outro clip templates. However the nifty factor about Pictory is having the ability to edit the video by modifying the transcript itself. Or, you possibly can spotlight textual content from the transcript and switch solely that highlighted textual content into video. That spotlight choice could be helpful when you have a specific theme in thoughts. Throughout my present with Leary, he did some nice present and inform of his gear setup. I used to be capable of seize that in Pictory in an 11 minute spotlight video, pulling a number of disparate segments collectively:
The one drawback with the spotlight choice? When you make your spotlight textual content picks, you possibly can’t re-arrange them a lot. I hope they improve that. You too can ask Pictory’s AI to choose crucial components of the textual content for the video. I have not tried that but, solely as a result of my use case with Pictory.ai was extra in regards to the textual content modifying this time round. I most likely saved 80 % of my time utilizing Pictory’s text-based modifying to create that spotlight clip. I like that Pictory.ai is approaching this drawback in a different way.
My take – video editors aren’t threatened right now
AI modifying instruments are nonetheless immature, however they’ve improved within the final yr – to the purpose I think most individuals (or groups) with the same use case to mine can discover a good choice. I do know that these clips companies have helped to significantly lengthen the replay attain of my movies, upwards of 75 % extra replay views of all clips than I used to be getting earlier than.
Will these instruments take work away from video editors? Maybe, however I am unsure that the present crop of instruments is subtle sufficient to make a lot of a dent. I can see video professionals turning the tables, and benefiting from these instruments in their very own workflows, not in contrast to how I exploit instruments like Auphonic to streamline podcast manufacturing and distribution. Additionally, skilled video editors may help arrange the templates to get these companies buzzing and “on model” (Pictory.ai is among the companies that allows automated emblem insertion). They’ll additionally assist tweak/edit the output.
To me, the shorter time period impression is to unencumber content material and advertising groups to share (and repurpose) extra stockpiledcontent, in a citizen developer kind of method. AI would not substitute video editors but, however it may make these editors extra productive, and, to some extent, democratize video content material manufacturing. In fact, none of this issues if the uncooked materials of fine video footage is not there. Caliber of content material property remains to be the most important drawback for many. However for these with good footage on the shelf, these companies can inject new life into the video pursuit.
