How Often to Update Video Spokespeople

Your website is now live, complete with a video spokesperson who greets site visitors and provides them with compelling calls to action. It’s hard to imagine that someday you’ll have to update this part of your website eventually. How often should you update the virtual spokesperson? Or is it even necessary?

In an earlier discussion, we talked about creating “evergreen” virtual spokespeople. The concept of an evergreen presence involves originally creating content, in this case video content, that can stand on its own now and in the future. For example, a video spokesperson who says, “This offer expires on December 31, 2011” will be obsolete on January 1st, 2012 while the video spokesperson who says, “Hurry, this offer expires soon” can stay on your site for years to come.

With that in mind, updating a video spokesperson depends a great deal on the script. If the script remains current and relevant, you may not need to update this element at all unless the spokesperson starts to look dated as time passes and styles change.

As your product line changes, your video spokesperson may need to change with it. Again, if the spokesperson discusses specific products, such as by saying “Our laptop 5000 is built to last,” those segments will become obsolete as soon as you discontinue those products. On the other hand, the video spokesperson that says, “Our laptops are built to last” will have a longer shelf life.

Because of the possibility of discontinuing products in the future, it’s smart to shoot several scenes at once so that you have alternative versions to display when you need to remove a product-specific scene. If you didn’t do this originally, you may need to contact your video production company and hope that the original spokesperson is still available for updated content. When shooting new content, think ahead and shoot with “evergreen” content and alternative scenes in mind so you don’t find yourself back in the studio again in a few months.

Since the initial investment in video production must pay for itself, your video spokesperson shouldn’t need a major update for at least one year, if not two or more. However, like any initiative, you should closely monitor results and tweak your site as needed. Just as advertisers pull underperforming commercials off the air, if your research indicates that your audience is not responding to, or worse, offended by, your virtual spokesperson, decisive action is necessary. Fortunately, if you team up with a professional video production company and choose your video spokesperson wisely, these issues shouldn’t be a problem.

In short, plan your video script for longevity and shoot alternative, non-product specific scenes, and you shouldn’t need to update your video spokesperson segments for at least one year, if not more.

What do you think? How often should you update a video spokesperson? Share your thoughts below.

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