I make videos for a living. I’ve marketed everything from power tools, to beard oil, to now, with SupportNinja, time. It’s an odd concept, selling time. It’s not something I’ve done before and the thought of it still confuses me some days, but in my role I’ve learned that selling time is a lot like selling anything else. The only difference is that time is an abstract concept that you can’t physically purchase and doesn’t take up any shelf space.

Pretentiousness aside, what I mean is that as a content creator for a BPO company like SupportNinja, I market the idea of saving people time and money within their own companies through outsourcing. So, that begs the question, how do you sell an intangible item? Well, you’ve got to be transparent.

Transparency

Transparency is the name of the game in marketing outsourcing services, especially in a visual medium like video. I like to stand by the idea, “If I don’t understand it, how is our audience supposed to?” With that in mind, I approach each video knowing that if the audience doesn’t have a basic understanding of what I’m talking about in a video by the time it ends, I’ve failed in my job. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, outsourcing can be and very often is a complicated subject, but the goal as a video marketer is to simplify it. I do that by breaking high level concepts down into digestible snack-sized ideas. I don’t treat the audience like they’re dumb, because frankly they’re not. Rather, I treat them like I did myself when I first encountered outsourcing by answering their immediate questions. 

What is outsourcing? How can it save me time and money? And most importantly, why should I trust this company to do it for me? 

Keep in mind, as a video creator answering these questions, I have the blessing (and the curse) of getting to use visual representations. These manifest in the form of showing the facilities overseas and letting our audience meet the people who actually handle the support tasks. The more I can show all while keeping things easy to understand, the better our company is about being transparent with the audience.

What Would You Say You Do At SupportNinja?

Specifically in my role, I work in two motions: broad strokes and tailor made. 

Inclusive Content Creation

The former is wherein I answer questions like the ones above. This work style shows up in places like an FAQ video series, visual guides for an audience who want the big picture of what we do and how we do it. 

Exclusive Content Creation

On a more distinct level, I work directly with team members to create custom fit videos for a specific target. This is where things can get personal, because I’m not marketing to the world, I’m marketing to twenty, fifteen, maybe even just one person. In this instance, I still follow the idea of, “If I don’t understand it, how is our audience supposed to?” The only difference here are the specifics. Now, I still aim to be precise and concise, but in exclusive content creation there are opportunities to be personable. I do that by learning about the target audience. What do they need? How do they present themselves? Are they strictly business or is there room to be a little fun? Recognizing these things yields a final product that really does feel like what it should be, a custom made video. Broadly speaking, both of these creative avenues intertwine and sometimes share the same lane for a moment. The ability to achieve both simultaneously though, has proven crucial in my role.

The Time Transaction

Okay, maybe I’ve gotten a little far from my initial point of selling time, but the thing to recognize is that this concept is present in every single video I produce. That’s because, at the end of the day, I’m selling people’s time in order to save people’s time. Ironically, the process of creating content about saving time is very time-consuming. Video creation, when handled all the way from pre-production to post-production, is an arduous endeavor. It requires a bit of finesse and no matter what project I work on, I always remember, when it comes to making videos, everything can and will go differently than you planned. The key is to be adaptive.

All in all, working as a video content specialist at a BPO company is probably unlike most jobs. It’s an ever-changing position with a clear endgame but a million little variables that change along the way. I always try to stick to my beliefs and keep the audience informed, entertained, and craving that sweet sweet intangible product, time.