Video is the quickest way to Validated Claims of Value

Produced and distributed correctly, as a firm operating in a highly-regulated industry video is one of your most effective tools for building trust and credibility.

But beyond the superficial level, why does it work so well?

The answer lies in what we call The Ladder of Validation.

The Ladder of Validation

To understand The Ladder of Validation, you must begin by imagining a ladder. We place all of your marketing and sales efforts on their own rung.

At the bottom of the ladder, we may put some of your core 'sales' activities. For example, email inquiries, phone calls, and personal visits.

In the middle of the ladder, we would put your more marketing-orientated activities: PPC, advertising and sponsorship.

And at the top of the ladder, we'd put your 'educating' activities: things like speaking engagements at conferences, books you've authored, and strong Thought Leadership pieces.

Why are things are placed where they're placed?

Your marketing and sales efforts are placed on a rung on the ladder relative to their power in validating your credibility.

At the bottom of the ladder, the activities feature Private Claims of Value. You call a lead and make a claim as to the value of your product or service, but within the confines of the conversation it's very difficult for somebody on the other end of the conversation to validate it; it's just your words. They may be suspicious that you are just saying what you think they want to hear. Accordingly, the credibility of your message is low.

In the middle of the ladder, you begin moving towards Public Claims of Value. These activities involve making claims which, even if only on social media, are verifiable to a certain extent because somebody could come and publicly dismiss it or prove it to be wrong. We've all seen an Instagram advert with a stream of negative comments underneath. Here, the credibility of your message is increasing but it still lacks a strong level of validation.

That's reserved for the very top of the ladder, where you have your Validated Claims of Value. Broadly speaking, this is where you've made a claim about your product or service, and a trusted Third-Party — whether that's the conference your speaking at (and by association, their headline sponsors plastered behind you), your book's publisher, or even just your large audience — have validated it through their willingness to be associated with you.

The key here is they lend you their skill set and audience because they trust you, and are happy to be seen publicly trusting you. This in turn amplifies the credibility of your message.

But a subtle, and arguably more significant shift also occurs when you increase your Validated Claims of Value: you move from being seen as a 'commodity' i.e low status and influence, to a market-leader with high status and great influence.

Where video sits on the Ladder of Validation

Looping back to the start of the article, produced and distributed correctly, strategic use of video sits at the very top of this Ladder of Validation — validated and confident in its Claims of Value.

If a new client of ours doesn't have an in-depth case study with one of their existing customers, it's very high on our to-do list when we begin working with them. Having a Third-Party talk authentically (remember we Ditch the Script, embrace The Drop) and publicly about their lived experience is unrivalled in building credibility and communicating the value or your product or service. After all, they wouldn't do it if they didn't believe what they were saying and that removes a lot of uncertainty for potential customers in your pipeline.

So when you’re next working on a video or your video strategy, consider:
- What value are you trying to communicate?
- Who’s delivering the message, and can they help the audience validate it?
- What would help your viewer believe it?

At Bear Video, we help highly-regulated firms earn trust & communicate complex topics with clarity, whilst avoiding compliance headaches. If anything in this article resonated, feel free to get in touch to discuss.