School case study videos can increase your sales with the education sector – but they need a tailored approach in order to be successful 

If you’re looking to produce a customer success story video with one of your school, college or university clients – you’ll know it’s not always straightforward.

Safeguarding, filming permissions, and the unique structure of schools make it a different prospect to any other case study video shoot.

But at VideoHQ, we film in schools all the time (producing promotional content directly for the schools) – so we know exactly how to set your school case study video shoot up for success.

 

Choosing the right school or college for your case study

The first decision to get right is what’s the best customer for you to film.

To work that out, here’s some questions you can ask yourself and your sales / partnerships team:

• Which customer has seen the best results from our service?
• Which is the biggest organisation we’ve worked with to date?
• Do any of our clients represent a specific sector or niche we’d love to do more work with?
• Are there any schools we’ve got a particularly close ongoing relationship with?

Answering these questions will ensure you’re telling the right customer journey story – not just any story.

 

Safeguarding and permissions for the filming shoot

This is the really big one at the moment – especially with many schools looking closely at their own promotional content to make sure they’re keeping children safe online with the rise of AI image manipulation.

Permissions forms can be drafted to clearly outline what platforms the images will be used one, the duration of that use, as well as potential reuse risks.

And the great news for case study production is you can absolutely capture warm and engaging content, without showing student faces.

Footage of students using your products or services can focus on close up or behind shots – while interviews can use their voices and overlay this footage. It’s still authentic and genuine, but doesn’t put students at risk.

 

How to capture authentic stories from teachers and students

What’s really going to improve the effectiveness of your school case study videos is making sure it feels authentic and relatable to any school decision makers watching.

They want to hear about the genuine experiences of a similar school – not be fed sales material.

So the key is ensuring your teacher and student interviewees feel really comfortable on camera, so that they come across naturally.

At VideoHQ, we’re experts at this – our Creative Director Hannah used to be a journalist, so is great at putting interviewees at ease. A lot of the time they say they forgot the camera was even there!

You’ve got to make sure it feels conversational:

• Don’t read from a list of questions – have a natter. Nod along.
• Ask questions about something they mentioned in their last answer.
• Be engaged, and keep eye contact.

If it seems like you’re not thinking about the cameras, they won’t either.

 

Fit the filming day around the school day

The last thing you want to do is make the filming an intrusive experience for your clients. 

Here’s my recommendations to make it as easy as possible for them:

• Aim to arrive after the start of the school day – you don’t want to be involved with the mayhem of child drop off
• Find a quiet place you can interview the children at break times, so you’re not taking them out of lessons
• Set up the interview filming location before the teacher arrives, so you’re reducing the amount of time they need to spend with you for the filming
• For b-roll footage of your product or service in use, create a separate activity just for the children who have permissions to reduce the risk of capturing kids without consent

 

Great school case study videos gives prospective buyers the confidence that your product or service delivers actual results in real educational settings.

If you’re looking to showcase the impact your solution is having in schools, we specialise in producing case study videos for education companies. 

We understand how to work within busy school environments and how to tell stories that resonate with teachers, school leaders and decision-makers.

Book in a free marketing review with us.