Video Production
TrendStrategics.com (Topeka Kansas) services includes video production for your Website, YouTube or Television
The use of video on your website is one of the most personable ways to connect with your audience.
Technology has made it easy for most anyone to “shoot” some video and post to Youtube or Vimeo. Long gone are the days when you had to have big and bulky expensive equipment to capture motion. Today, anyone with a mobile phone can hit a record button and upload to one of these popular video sites.
With a video you can introduce yourself, your company , your offerings and show off your brand all in one easy step. A video can give people insight into who you are and provide information allowingthem to make an informed decision about whether or not they want to do business with you.
Videos can be serious, whimsical, informative, vague, whatever you want to project. You can show how to use your product or show you doing your service. A video has the ability to allow people to replace their situation with your remedy.
Just the facts Ma’am!
We can get as creative and abstract as you want or keep it meat and potatoes “The facts Ma’am, Just the facts”. You can highlight your facilities, front end, back end, employees and on and on. You can have a whole video series on how to or about you or about your company or keep it to a bare minimum and only show what you want. That is the beauty of video today. You don’t need Hollywood skills in order to get positive results. That said, you do need to present yourself as having credibility. Humor works well and helps get people into a lighter frame of mind, which in turn loosens their inhibitions and purse strings.
If you are a small company seeing your products being used or your service being rendered really helps alleviate any doubt about the legitimacy of your business. If you are an individual who has something to say and don’t want to start a blog or type your article, then a video is a quick and relatively easy way to get your story out. Again, people tend to view an ad and visualize themselves as the recipient or user of your product or service and analyze whether they think what you offer will benefit them.
What is the power of Testimonials?
One of the most powerful tools in marketing is testimonials. These let people know that others have been satisfied and they will have more faith in your ability to give them what they want. It offers credibility. And even moreso if you have a well known spokesperson. If you use a respected local television talent to tell about their experience with your company, you have built in or automatic credibility. Or you can shoot short video clips of satisfied customers and put a few together into a montage to offset fear and gain trust.
You can also use image clips of these testimonials on your website and printed materials. Don’t forget to get a release from them prior to publicizing and of these with their images being used.
How Long Should My Video be?
Way too many videos on the web are so long that the user experience is spoiled. These include way too long intros, long introductions and lack of direction in what you are trying to convey or trying to convey too many points. Instead, bring home one point per video and make multiple videos that are dispersed in a pre-set timeline. It is the videographers job to make the video fluid and tell the story you want told. And to do it in a concise and to the point manner. I bet you have said that your time is valuable, well so is your prospects. Respect their time by not beating around the bush. There are strategies people use to get people committed based on the time they have invested, but to me that is annoying and disrespectful and personally, I have clicked off lots of videos that grind away with useless information and don’t get to the point or promise that they will get there, but never seem to do. Respecting others time is key.
What are the exceptions to short videos?
There are instances such as instructional videos where time isn’t as much a factor. If it takes 35 minutes to tell someone about something that is fine as long as your narrative is to the point and you aren’t going around in circles. Obviously training videos are on the same level as instructional videos. But if you have a product launch, you may want to be a bit vague to involve the user and get their interest and attention. These types of videos are designed to bring in more questions than answers. That way, you lead the viewer to your website where they are met by a landing page or one of those fancy popups that are so popular these days. They are designed to harvest email addresses and phone numbers so you can market to them more directly. Such tactics are commonly called click bait. Promising something, but not really delivering until your target provides something before they get something. Generally the marketer is wanting to get contact information to market further to that person until either their marketing efforts are exhausted or the person interacts with you to the point of sale.
Is Humor in Video good?
One of the most appealing types of video messaging is by incorporating humor. Be careful, lots of companies have mis-steped here. Keep humor relevant to your cause. Vague or unrelated humor does you absolutely no good in conversion. How many commercials have you seen where you have chuckled or laughed and enjoyed and then asked yourself “what was that commercial about?” or “what was being adverstised”? If it’s catchy and relevant then give it a try. One of the beauties of on-line marketing is the ability to spin on a dime. If a video (or any other form of digital marketing) bombs out (you are monitoring your metrics?) then you stop showing that one and replace it with your backup. (You do have a plan B right?). In fact, you should have plan B, C, D and E ready to go “in the can”. Meaning it has been videographed, edited and ready for publication.
Is it necessary to have a Video Intro?
Companies spend lots of energy on creating very high tech introductions to their videos or video channel. Again, keep it relevant. I have seen many very creative intros that doesn’t speak the same language as their content and has nothing to do with their topic. By language, I do not mean English/Spanish. I mean there is a disconnect between content and intro. An example would be a very explosive intro with loud sounds and things breaking apart or exploding into the atmosphere and then the person comes on camera with a very sort spoken voice and a message about how to hem a garment. Do you see the disconnect? Most people who want to know about hemming wouldn’t get past the intro. So you loose most of your target before your video starts.
Add a Call to Action in your Videos
Most videos forget the main goal which is to monetize their business. These days, you can monetize your videos (which may BE your business) by allowing ads to be played prior to and during your videos. Youtube (owned by Google) will pay the content creator a small amount with each view of the ads watched. And that is certainly a business model in and of itself. But for the most of us, we create videos to advertise our company, product or service. In our videos, don’t forget to include a way for people to get involved with you. Make sure you provide you web link and other contact information in the format that you want people to contact you.
Who owns YouTube?
One of the cool things about YouTube videos is that Google owns YouTube and they are indexing videos into their algorithms and use that data in ranking your website. They use ownership, titles, descriptions and keywords that you place inside the about the video section when you are uploading your video. Done right, this increases your domain authority and helps move you up the search results ladder.
Lots of people and companies use videos to bring awareness to their product and entice them to go to their website in order to get some business done. If a person comes from watching your video, they already know a bit about you and feel more comfortable to continue on to a purchasing decision. You have already shown them the credibility they need to be assured that you are legitimate and that you will most likely deliver on what you say you will.
Use a video to post an about you.
A really creative way to enhance your job application is to have an about you video and include the link on your job application! This will show the interviewer way more than a piece of paper. Adding a video as part of your interview process will give you a much higher ranking in the interviewers eye. Hey, how many of these do you think the interviewer has seen? If you are applying for a job that requires traveling, then this unique method will save both you and the company that is looking at hiring you a great amount of time. In the video you can talk about why you want to work for company “x” or make it generic so you can make it available to multiple companies if you are canvassing a range of options. You should talk about your strengths and how you can be an asset to a company. Great part about this is you can record it over and over and edit it until you like it. Takes the fear and nervousness out of the initial interview, because it becomes the initial interview, or at least the initial contact point. Don’t forget to make this video private, so only those who you invite to it can view.
Embed a Video in your website
If you embed the video that you posted on YouTube or Vimeo (or other video hosting sites), on your site, it will show the visitor that they are in the right place and again, shows credibility.
If the visitor lands on your site organically, the video will be there to view, making it really convenient for them to know more about the subject, whether it be a product you are selling or your service or even a how to video. Plus it sort of rounds out your site with an added feature that may be an integral piece of your marketing strategy.
Think about it, how many videos have you watched on the internet? What brought you to those videos? Did you search “videos” and ask a question or type in a subject? Did you need to watch more than one?
Someone has already made a video on my subject.
If you are writing for a blog, you may be tempted to think that the subject has already been covered. Remember, if you know something about the subject, you can bring a different twist or even one little tidbit of information that you think is common knowledge. It may be common knowledge to you, but it may be brand new to someone else. So don’t sell yourself short.
It’s the same reason that so many singers “cover” a song written by someone else. They bring a completely different flavor to the song. Some people like the original, but other times, the singer who covers a song, does such a great job with it that it becomes theirs! And then years later, everyone thinks the second singer wrote the song! I have seen this many times and was quite surprised when I learned that such and such wasn’t the original performer.
You want a second opinion.
More than likely, you landed on a video, watched it and went on to watch even more videos on the subject you were interested in. You may have got your answer on the first one, but wanted a second opinion. Or maybe you thought there was inaccurate or incomplete information on the first one(s) and you just wanted to get more insight.
If you know about a subject and feel a need to share your knowledge, then by all means do it. Take the steps necessary to get started.
Can you create a video with a cell phone!
The phones today are awesome. There are so many apps to use to get your video made and published. So you can get started there. You can use a selfie stick and walk around or sit/stand and have your camera on a tripod. After awhile, you may want to move up to a dedicated video camera or a higher end DSLR that has video capabilites.
Editing your video in Adobe Premiere
While Adobe Premiere is one of the best programs to use for video editing, there are some free options available to you as well. Blender seems to come up a lot in searches, but there are lots of them. I have only used Premiere, so can’t speak to the user experience with free options.
I want a cool intro to my video, where can I get one?
You can either use Adobe After Effects or go on www.creativelive.com to hire someone to help you.
Video Recap
Keep em short – 3-5 minutes
Relevant
Short to the point intros
Use testimonials
Call to action
Include contact info
TrendStrategics.com offers video services of all types. All you have to do is make contact with us!