Do you have a story? Of course you do! The question is, how can that story help you sell your product or service?
Your story is not necessarily what got you from point A to point B. While an interview-style video is very informative and can help you tell the story of how you go to where you are, it might not always be the best way to engage potential clients. The story I’m talking about in this blog post is the story of YOU, TODAY. What is it that you do that makes you different? What is a typical day like in your field of work? How will the client feel like they are special and that you are doing all you can to make them _____ (profitable, comfortable, happy, etc)?
Tell the story of YOUR product or service with a documentary-style promotional video! Think of your favorite show on HGTV, Style Network, Food Network or any of the other networks that follow people in regular jobs to show what they do that is different, better or just plain interesting! Even if you are camera shy, you’d be amazed at what the cameras can see and how the editor can put it together in an entertaining package.
Not really sure what I’m talking about here? Take a look at this photographer’s video. We spent a day with him in his studio as he went about a typical shoot. The camera was like a friend quietly observing throughout the day.
>офис обзавеждане not one to conform to the “norm.” So when we started E Video Productions in 2001, I never looked around to find the standard name for one of those videos that incorporate moving still images. I just called them what I thought they were – Video Photo Albums. In our 9 years of business, VPA has stuck as our office’s term for these intricate videos that don’t actually feature any video! However, for the sake of the understanding of our reading (and viewing) audience, I have decided to title this post as “Photo Montages.”
No matter what you call them, a Video Photo Album (or VPA) is a collection of photos set to music. Most people associate these types of videos with weddings. You’ve all seen them – from the horrible videos created by the bride & groom themselves on their laptop to the elaborate Hollywood productions with 3D images and special effects. These can be great ways to entertain your guests and maybe even make them feel special by including them in the presentation. However, a VPA is not only for weddings.
Here are some examples of how YOU can use a VPA to help your business!
1. Entertain & Spotlight your employees at the annual dinner. Just as a VPA is used in weddings, you can do the same to celebrate a corporate milestone, honor award winners or just highlight special moments of the past year. St. Bartholomew’s Church did just this at the 25th anniversary dinner last year.
2. Create a dynamic WEBMERCIAL using only still photos. Of course, in the example below, the client is a photographer, so we have to show his photos! However, this can work for just about any company that has something interesting to show. If you have photos from past events or jobs that you have done, incorporate those into a webmercial for a fraction of the cost of hiring a videographer to go to multiple events!
3. Use photos to tell the history of your company. We recently blogged about an orientation video we did for Bucks County Electric Works. This video starts out talking about the history of the company & how they started. In order to show this while the voice-over told the story, we used photos! It creates an interesting way to immediately capture & hold the attention of the new hires watching the video.
There are many other ways to use a VPA to promote or assist your business. I’d love to hear your ideas on how to incorporate PHOTOS into your VIDEO MARKETING!
One of the most confusing parts of completing the video production process is determining how you want your video delivered. There are two primary options:
1. Online
2. DVD
If you opt for Online delivery, you need to decide what format you will be posting the video to your website. Will you be using the “embed” tools from YouTube or would you prefer to host the video yourself? YouTube has come a long way in the quality department. At one time, I strongly urged people NOT to use YouTube for putting videos on their site. The quality was awful & it was a very poor representation of your company. Now, it’s not as bad as it was. However, there are still many good reasons for choosing to host your own video (or using an outside source to host the video & creating a custom player for your site).
1. You can control the LOOK & FEEL of the player to match your site.
2. You can control the BUFFER time (the amount of video that loads before it starts playing), allowing for better playback.
3. You can control the QUALITY. Most settings on personal computers default to the standard definition YouTube setting. In order to see the better quality High Def version, they would have to choose that option.
4. You completely control the BRANDING of your video – no YouTube logos to detract the viewer, making your site look much more professional.
5. YouTube often puts videos “like” yours on the same page as yours or after your video, and you have no control over them! They could be something that goes against your company’s values, or even a link to your competition. One click takes a potential customer away.
6. If you embed a YouTube video, and the person clicks in the wrong spot, they are taken away from your page to the YouTube website. Another lost customer.
If you do decide to go with a YouTube video, make sure that you upload a FLASH version of your video. YouTube videos are played back in Flash format – if you upload any other version, it will go through extra compression, taking away the quality of the video.
If you decide to go with your own player, you have to decide which player you’d like to use. The most common is FLASH. The following is an example of a Flash player.
Other good options are Windows Media and QuickTime. Once you decide the player, determine where on your page you want the video to live, and what size is optimal for that space. A web designer or video producer can help you determine this.
The second type of delivery is DVD. It seems easy – figure out how many you want & order that amount. But wait, what about packaging? What about those cute little DVDs that fit in a pocket?
Step 1: Choose your media – DVD, CDRom or miniDVD (business card size) – Many people ask about the small DVDs. Unfortunately, they are becoming less & less popular – primarily with laptop users! Take a look at your computer. When you put a disc in, does it go in a tray or do you insert it into a slot in the front or side? If it goes in a tray, you should see a small indentation in the tray perfect for these little discs. However, if it goes in a slot, the computer doesn’t have the ability to handle the disc & the disc could get stuck in there! Make sure you consider your users before you choose this type of disc! Regarding CDRom – remember, there is a lot of extra encoding involved in this option, so it might be a bit more expensive than a standard DVD.
Step 2: Choose your quantity – how many do you need? Remember, the more you order, the less they are per disc. Ordering 500 now is much more cost effective than ordering 100 now and 400 later. If you have multiple discs, consider putting them together in the same packaging to cut down on unit costs.
Step 3: Choose your packaging. Here’s where it gets tricky!
Paper window sleeve – this is a white paper sleeve that the disc slides into. The disc has full color printing that appears through the clear window as an attractive label.
C-shell – A c-shell case is a hard plastic clear case that is exactly the right size to fit the disc. It is round like the disc and, like the sleeves, allows the disc label to show through the case. This is more durable than a sleeve.
DVD Case – this is the most common type of case – like the ones that Hollywood movies come in. It is tall in design and typically comes with a full-color wrap around label that can hold a wealth of information. You can also get full-color inserts for the interior of the case to provide additional information. These typically come shrink wrapped for a completely professional presentation.
Clear Vinyl Sleeve – this is typical for the business card DVDs or miniDVDs. It is clear to allow you to see the artwork on the disc.
Cardboard Mailer – this is a case and mailer in one! It allows you to provide full color artwork on a sealed cardboard case that protects the disc while giving you room for address information. The case is square & about the same size as a typical CD Jewel case.
There are other options available. Don’t hesitate to ask your producer or duplicator for a custom option as well! I hope this has helped you get through some of the maze-like areas of delivery & duplication!
If you are faced with the challenge of a growing business, and need to rapidly hire new employees, how can you be assured that all employees enter with the same understanding of your company and knowledge of what is expected of them? Bucks County Electric Works in Pennsylvania & New Jersey found a solution. With the help of E Video Productions, they created an Orientation Video that has the right mix of an introduction to the family-owned business and a professionally produced video that is easy to watch.
The important thing to think about when creating this video was how important FAMILY is to BCEW. The company is run by a father & his two sons, and that was important for them to present to the new hires. They wanted to make sure each new hire understood who is in the management team and what their roles are. However, while the guys were all excellent electricians, they were not actors, and sometimes had a difficult time memorizing scripts or reciting the information on cue. This is a common worry that people have when they know it’s important that they appear in the video, but they are not sure if it will look polished enough. That’s where E Video Productions stepped in and helped to round out the video with professional voice over. It is important to keep the audience engaged throughout the entire video, as every piece of information is necessary for them to know before going out in the field. We were able to keep their interest and keep the consistency of the family owned business throughout the entire project.
Congratulations! You just entered one of the fastest growing marketing arenas on the 21st century! You are now joining the millions of Americans that make VIDEO MARKETING a priority in their business. Now that you created the video, you can sit back, relax & enjoy the thousands of leads this video will bring, right?
WRONG.
Viral Video is slowly disappearing from our vocabulary. A “viral” video is one that finds its way through the internet into millions of computers by word-of-mouth alone. One person finds the video & sends it to 100 friends. Each friend sends it to 100 more friends, and so on & so on until the evening news picks up the video and it becomes an overnight sensation.
People are getting bored with viral video. We’ve seen it all – the good, the bad & the VERY ugly! It takes alot now-a-days to shock people. Studies have shown that consumers now expect GOOD video first & foremost. They don’t want to be insulted by shaky camera work, bad lighting, and worst of all, awful audio! Before you begin to distribute your video, PLEASE make sure your video meets basic standards of good video! Run it by a few friends and see what they think. If your video was done by a professional or if it passes your friends test of what a good video should be, read on to find out what you should do next!
1. Know what your intentions are before you produce your video. Do you want to put it on your website? Will you be using video sharing such as YouTube & Facebook? Are you looking to reach current customers, attract new customers or just introduce your product or service to a wide variety of people? Knowing & understanding all of this will help you create a video that will work in the places you intend to distribute.
2. When creating your video, make sure it has the correct call to action. If it is strictly to entertain visitors to your website, you might not need a direct call. But if you are putting it up on video sharing sites, visitors need to know what to do next. Typically, you can put a graphic up with your website and/or phone number. Remember, your goal is most likely to have your video spread around the web, with visitors finding it in their email, on their Facebook page, in search results on various video sharing sites, etc. You need to get that viewer from the place they found your video to your website or storefront. A strong & direct call to action is essential!
3. Make sure you have strong, accurate & searchable tag words. The best way to do this is to look at your script. Read your script word by word. Ask yourself, “does this word accurately describe the product or service that I am selling?” Make a list of all the words that stand out in your script. Then think about your customers. What would they search for when trying to find a company like you? Write all of these words down & then highlight the top 10. These will be the first words you use when putting in tags. If the particular site your using allows more, then you can go down your list, prioritizing the remaining words. The best idea is to type these words into a word processing program & copy & past them into tag boxes. This will save you time & ensure you don’t have typos in your tag words.
4. Create a detailed, yet short & to the point description. Ok, that sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? Think elevator pitch. What is the main idea you want to get across in your video? If you are selling widgets (why is it always about widgets?), and you create a video about how YOUR widget can save consumers over $1000 per month, your description wouldn’t be “Our widgets are made from the finest titanium in the world. You can’t find a better widget out there.” That’s great, it’s accurate, it’s short & to the point. But does it describe your video? Try something a little more catchy & descriptive of the video you are asking people to watch. “300 iced Lattes. That’s what you can buy when you save $1000 each month using OUR widgets! Watch this video to find out how!” You may also want to put a link to the video on your website in your description.
5. When putting your video on your site, there are pros & cons of using an embedded YouTube video. Pro: you can easily track viewers, likes, comments, etc. Con: The quality isn’t as good and it isn’t branded for YOUR company. There are free and inexpensive video players that you can put directly on your site that play awesome video. There are even video sharing options available with many of these players. Talk with your web guy/gal before you make a decision & make sure you look at all of your options.
6. Now you’re ready to upload! Of course, you want to hit the major players – YouTube, Facebook, a link on Twitter…..but there are many other sites out there that can give you some amazing exposure. TubeMogule.com has a great way to upload to multiple sites at once, including YouTube. With just one upload, description & set of tags, you can have your video on a variety of sites in just the matter of minutes. Do a search for your type of product or service and add “videos” to the end. You may have to go to page 2 and/0r 3, but you will see some of the sites where your competition has uploaded videos. This will give you an idea of sites to use. If you have lots of time and want to get your video everywhere, try searching “video sharing sites” and see what you can come up with!
7. You’re not done yet! Now you have to promote your video. First, decide which video you want to promote – your YouTube video, the one directly on your website, or another video online. Read the Pro & Con in #5 to help make this decision. To promote your video, make sure you include it in each of the following: your E-newsletter, paper newsletter, blog, podcast, Facebook page, Twitter, Linked-In and any other methods you have of marketing yourself or your business. Also, search the internet for related content. Many bloggers are looking for relevant content and your video might just make their next post! Comment on blogs and include a link to your video. Go onto forums and get a conversation going about your video. Tell your friends to tell their friends & start the ball rolling!
The one complaint I hear most often from conference & trade show planners is the lack of commitment. In this economy (man I am tired of that phrase!)…..let’s try that again. With spending currently down, many companies are cutting back on sponsorship levels and attendance at conferences & trade shows. How can you keep these numbers up without breaking the bank? I would love to hear feedback on other ways conference planners are keeping attendance up and pulling in the money they need to run the show, but since this is a VIDEO MARKETING blog, I will give you some ways to use VIDEO to accomplish these goals.
SPONSORS
What is the first thing a sponsor asks before writing the big check? What kind of visibility will I have and will will my ROI be? Answer these questions in a targeted VIDEO featuring current & past sponsors. Ask the questions “How many years have you sponsored this event? Why do you keep coming back as a sponsor? What kind of ROI have you seen? Can you give specific examples of ways that you have benefitted by being a sponsor of this event?” Their responses will go a long way to convince other potential sponsors of the benefits of supporting your event.
You can use VIDEO in a smiliar way to attract exhibitors to your event. But instead of interviewing the sponsors, talk to other exhibitors. Ask them similar questions “Why do you continue to exhibit at this event? What has your ROI been? What type of people do you meet at this event?”
There’s another great way to use video to attract exhibitors. Offer it as an add-on to their booth! Many exhibitors don’t know what to do to jazz up their booth. Team up with a production company such as E Video Productions and offer a video display at their booth! The production company will work with your exhibitor to create an eye-catching video that will help attract & inform attendees at their booth.This can also be a way for you to increase revenue at your event as most production companies would be happy for you to resell their services at a profit or give you a percentage of their profits on each booth video.
This is my favorite target audicence when using video at conferences & trade shows. There are so many ways to use video to increase attendance!
1. Pre-show marketing: Produce a promotional video or television commercial to generate a buzz before your event. Use this video everywhere you can – TV, your website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, other video sharing sites, your in-house system, other trade shows where you market your show, on an iPhone during sales meetings, the sky’s the limit!
2. Use video to entertain at your event. Many production companies can help you come up with a creative concept to wow your audience & generate a buzz for future events. These concept videos can be humorous, emotional, informative, educational or just plain silly. They can highlight key speakers or awards recipients or preview a big event coming up in your company. They can even be created at the conference as a team-building exercise! This is one of our favorite types of videos to create – and a must-have at any conference or trade-show!
3. Full-coverage of your event can go a long way towards increasing attendance at future events! Send each attendee a copy of the DVD and increase their perceived value of your event! Sell copies of the DVD to increase your revenue at the event. Feature key speakers on the DVD as a way to thank them for coming & entice top presenters to future events. A conference DVD is a great keepsake – attendees may pass it around to friends & colleagues, increasing their exposure to your event and generating new attendees for future years.
4. Use footage from this year’s event to create a promotional video for future years! What better way to show the fun & excitement of your event than through video!
I hope this helped you to come up with a few ways to increaase attendance, sponsorships & exhibitors for your next event! We welcome any other ideas you may have – video or non-video. Please feel free to leave a comment with ideas for promoting conferences & trade-shows!
This has nothing to do with Video Marketing or business. But I have to share this story….
I was driving the other day, and thought about our sunflower. The sunflower started as a seed kit from Home Depot. Ryan planted it & watered it. One day, the cup fell over. The stem broke in half. It didn’t completely come apart, but hung there by a tiny piece of stem. We thought about throwing it away, but decided to see what would happen.
The stem never healed. But the plant kept growing. Finally, it got too big for it’s cup & it had to be planted outside. It was still broken! We planted it and expected not to see it in a few days. But it kept getting bigger & bigger!
Now that sunflower stands over 6 1/2 feet tall and is ready to bloom! This made me realize that even when it seems like something is broken beyond repair, all hope isn’t lost. God had a plan for that sunflower & wasn’t about to let a little fall end that plan.
I hope that this story brought a little light to your day. It has helped me hold on to hope when all hope seems lost!
Recently, Kris had a chance to get on the field with Pedro during a bullpen session at a Lakewood Blue Claws game. The video is to follow, but here are some photos I was able to catch during the shoot!
Webmercials are one of our favorite types of videos to produce. Longer in format than a TV commercial, but shorter than a Promotional Video, a Webmercial typically lasts 1-3 minutes and gives a general overview of a company, product or service. A webmercial can be more creative in nature or more straightforward, depending on the client’s needs. Webmercials can be a form of Music Video with visuals of the company set to music:
Webmercials can cover topics ranging from “Welcome to our website” to “here’s how this specific product works.” Webmercials can cost anywhere from $500 on up to $5000 and more, depending again on the needs of the client.
E Video Productions has been producing webmercials since 2004, and is one of the leading producers of Webmercials on the east coast. If you are interested, I wrote an article about this that can be found at: http://evideoproductions.net/webmercials_article.html
While a Webmercial is created primarily for Web use, it can be used in many other circumstances as well – including, but not limited to Trade Shows, Promotional DVDs, in-house TV monitors and even can be easily edited down for a traditional television commercial spot!
Question from LinkedIn:
I have a very small visual communications company, and my biggest issue is time. My preferred spending of time would be mostly on the design and production of projects themselves, while the reality is that a significant portion needs to be spend on networking, promotion, administration, and continued training. However, I an currently focused on finding/creating some simple, time-saving and effective tools for myself that will minimize the admin and promotion time, while I focus on networking that’s fun and low-key so that I connect while also feeling relaxed and social rather than pushy and solely business contact-oriented.
L.J. actually gave some great advice in her question! As far as networking goes, I think it is great to get involved in groups that you enjoy, that lift you up & that make you feel comfortable. However, as far as managing time, VIDEO can help you with that! L.J. says that she spends a significant amount of time doing promotion & continued training. These are two main uses for VIDEO. Let’s look at each individually & how VIDEO can help you manage your time.
1. Promotion – As a video marketing company, this is what I spend most of my time doing! Video covers it all – visuals and audio and even getting your audience involved in the promotional process. With a video, you can have a consistant message at your trade shows, in your waiting are, at client meetings and especially on your website! Your video, while containing the same basic information, can be tailored to fit each individual situation’s needs and dynamics. If you feel like you spend alot of time on the phone explaining a complicated process to prospective clients, direct them to an online video instead! If you feel like you spend alot of time packaging up your many promotional materials to send to an interested party, put them all on a DVD so you only have one thing to mail. If you feel like your prospects spend too much time in your waiting room while you finish up with another client, let them watch a video & they won’t notice the time passing! Video qualifies prospects as well so that you don’t waste your time meeting with and negotiating with someone that doesn’t even need your service afterall. Video can also help you give tours of your facility directly on your website or on DVD – no more need to schedule individual tours that break up the flow of your day. Wow, I think we just saved quite a bit of time by adding VIDEO into your marketing mix!
2. Continued Training – Video is one of the best ways to ensure that your staff gets a consistant message and learns ALL important information necessary to do their job. A video can be archived for later viewing, ensuring that nothing is missed. A video can be done in a very polished & entertaining way, which captures attention much better than a flustered traininer trying to make sure he reads every word off of detailed training instructions. A video can go places the trainees cannot! Imagine being able to bring a class of trainees onto a job site to show them the importance of safety. Your customers might not appreciate 30 newbees tramping around their location, but a small camera crew can get in & out in a day. This footage can be used over & over again to continually train employees of the importance of job site safety. A video can introduce new hires to the key managers, once again going back to saving time – the managers don’t even have to step foot into the training room.
I hope you’re beginning to understand how video can help save you time in your day. It can also streamline processes that may get garbled or confusing from time to time.
For more information on how video can help you better manage your time, please email Darcie from E Video Productions. If you have a business issue you would like addressed in this blog, please comment below or email Darcie.
