B2B chalk talk videos: capturing your best experts

Even the smallest company has at least one guy who can tell its story really, really well. He’s the guy you always want to bring to important sales calls and meetings. The one who can make your story seem so simple, clear and compelling.

This guy is a priceless asset – but the one thing even he can’t do is to replicate himself. So his persuasive powers are not what the techies call ‘scalable’.

Unless you capture him doing what he does best: giving a simple chalk talk or whiteboard session. That’s what we did with Paul Schnell, the CTO of App-DNA and top Windows 7 Migration expert (dig that anchor text). When Paul talks, you don’t just get what App-DNA does, you want it. So we stuck Paul in front of a whiteboard, did a bit of pre-scribbling and let him loose.

Paul is a natural performer. It feels like he’s in the room with you, having a chat. That’s why we had him deliver his chalk talk straight to the camera. If he had been just as articulate but not quite so ‘telegenic’ we probably would have had him talk to an off-camera interviewer (maybe with a second, hand-held camera for energy), then edited together the best bits.

With Paul, we just got out of the way and let him present right to camera – and it works really well.

As a B2B marketer, one of your most important jobs is to capture the expertise of your best people, then bottle it up in eBooks, white papers, slideshows, videos and blog posts.  The chalk talk is a great way to present your gurus undiluted. And since it feels like a ‘roll up your sleeves’ working session, you don’t have to spend a fortune on production values. Just light it well, get good, professional audio, and you’re there.

Even the best, most articulate presenters will usually need a bit of editing. Paul turned out to be something of a one-take wonder. One thing’s for certain: everyone who sees his chalk talks will know that App-DNA are the go-to guys for application compatibility software (okay, enough with the anchor text).

Have a think: is there anyone whose mojo you’d love to bottle? Break out the chalk or marker pens, wind them up and get the hell out of the way.