The Video Marketing Blog

Whatever Happened to Video Blogging?

Video blogging can be a good tool. It can also be a waste of your time. If you’re thinking about video blogging, it’s a good idea to start by understanding why most bloggers don’t video blog BEFORE you turn on your camera and start recording.

Some history. Until about a year ago, business video blogging was a very hot topic. Bloggers were excited about what video blogging could do for their blogs. Business owners were looking at it as a way to grow their businesses. People attended presentations and read blog posts about it, and dreamed about using a video blog to reach out and make a connection the way they couldn’t with text alone. It seemed that video blogging was poised to become as big as text blogging. All you needed was a webcam and something to talk about.  

And then… video blogging went nowhere. Yes, a few people found success. Yes, some people continue to do it. And yes, there are very good applications for it (more on that later). But for the most part, video blogging just never took.

What happened? One reason is that it’s really hard for most people to turn on that webcam and not be nervous. Through the experiences of making video blogs and watching video blogs, people learned:  

• A video camera is VERY good at communicating nervousness
• And shyness
• And discomfort with public speaking
• It causes much less anxiety to type a blog post than to make a video blog entry

Another reason is that it's not easy to make a good video blog. It takes time to organize your presentation, and then it takes more time to shoot it and upload it. You can write a text blog anywhere, but you need a quiet place to shoot a video. It’s just easier for most people to write a blog than shoot a video.

When does video blogging work?

• It works if you break away from showing a person talking to the camera, and show us something we want to see. Video blogging is very successful if it does something text can’t, like demonstrating something your viewers want to understand. Like showing us how something works, or how to do something.(Here’s our video blog on why you need a microphone for your video blog.)
• It works if you’re enough of a presence in your community or company so people will watch your video just to see you. They don’t care about your presentation skills, or about whether you’re nervous. They just want to watch you.
• It works if you find a way to connect on a level that’s deeper than the content you’re providing. You can be entertaining, or sweet, or inspirational, or motivational. If you have a personality that connects with people AND that personality comes through on video, then a video blog works. (Below are some examples of video blogs from people who are able to make that connection.) 

So – should you video blog? If your business has something to show and demonstrate, go for it. Your video blog entries will be very successful.

If, on the other hand, you're not a celebrity, and you don’t have great video presentation skills OR the time to develop them, then you might want to re-think the time investment a video blog requires. 

 

Here are two examples of video blogs that work. First - Frank Damelio, founder of TargetIntellect. Second, the famous Gary Vaynerchuk

 

4 Video Hosting Options for Small Businesses

The world of free or low-cost video hosting for small businesses has changed drastically over the past few years. Options used to be pretty limited: you could create an .swf file and host it yourself, or you could use a free hosting service like YouTube, Vimeo, or Blip TV.  But those options had issues. The quality of YouTube sucked. Vimeo had good video quality but was (and is) hostile to business. Blip TV wanted ‘series’ video, whatever that meant. An .swf file on your own server was a good solution, because there were no simple, high-quality, affordable hosting sites that were friendly to – and specifically for – business video hosting.

Wow, have things changed.

Now there are many more hosting options to choose from. And within each one are more and more cool features, like detailed analytics. Here's  another crucial point: iPhones and iPads won’t play swf files, but they happily play YouTube videos. Many other hosting services now offer this feature as well. 

There is no longer any reason to host your own video, because video is now easy to host externally at low or no cost. And there are good reasons not to host your own – like analytics. So from now on, use a hosting site for your videos. If you’ve got swf files on your website, think about whether you want to leave them there, or re-code and upload to a hosting site.

Where should you host your business videos?

Here are four good video hosting solutions for small businesses. (Feel free to add your favorites in the comments section.)

1. YouTube – how funny is it that YouTube has become one of the most used free hosting services for small businesses? The visual quality YouTube delivers is very good (which is remarkable given  how crappy it used to be). You can upload hi-def video and viewers can play it back full-screen and it looks great. YouTube is still totally free, and makes it very easy to share your videos – on Facebook and a bunch of other sites. YouTube has never been hostile to business (like Vimeo) or confusing (like Blip TV – what is that series thing?) One limitation is that YouTube videos must be less than ten minutes long, which means it’s not a good solution for hosting longer webinar videos.
2. Brightcove - the 900 lb gorilla of video hosting, Brightcove’s client list includes big companies like Fox Entertainment and General Motors. But Brightcove also has affordable hosting for small businesses too ($99/month). They’ve got good analytics, i-device capability, and the newest thing in video delivery: bandwidth detection technology. You upload a high-quality video, and Brightcove creates six versions of various lesser qualities. It then detects a viewer’s bandwidth, and delivers the version that matches the best possible quality given that particular download speed. If you're hosting multiple videos, and your small business is large enough to afford $99/month, Brightcove is a good solution.
3. Wistia – delivers very cool analytics such as the ‘video heatmap’ of individual viewer interest over the length of the video, and charts of aggregate viewership over time. It’s easy to use, and supports i-devices. You can use it for video and also for webinars. The low-price package, which is fine for most small businesses, is $39/month. 
4. Screencast - a good solution for hosting webinars as well as video. Maintains the video format and size you upload – so quality isn’t lost through re-encoding. And length is not an issue like it is on YouTube. No i-device support, though, and analytics are limited to number of views. You can use this service for free or pay $9.95/month for more storage and bandwidth, plus the ability to brand your on-site pages.

Now that the market has figured out that small businesses need AND will pay for video hosting, look for more and more options that combine low cost with features like bandwidth detection, delivery across all devices, and detailed analytics.  

So say goodbye to hosting your own video as .swf files. Say hello to high-quality, affordable video hosting that's specifically designed for the needs of small businesses.  

6 Ways to Get More Bang From Your Video Investment

Whether you make your video assets yourself or hire a production company, they're costing you. It just doesn't make sense to park them on your website and hope people find them. Better to let them out of their cage so they can work even harder for you.  

Here are six ways to do just that:

1. Use social media to get people to watch them (put them on YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn, and send people to them via Twitter).
2. Include image and text links to your videos in your email newsletters and updates.
3. Use video during your sales process by sending links to specific, appropriate videos to individual prospects.
4. Embed a video in your in-person sales presentations. Everyone likes a video, and starting your Powerpoint slide show with video is a great way to put people in a receptive mood.
5. Include them in marketing packages you offer for free in exchange for contact information.
6. Re-purpose the content by using chunks in new videos.

These six ideas are designed to get you thinking about all the different ways you can make your video assets work for you. Placing your videos on your website is just one way- and if that's the only way you're using video right now, then you're not getting your money's worth. So let those videos out of their cage! Send them out into the world and you'll see your ROI soar.

 

 

Four Top Questions to Ask Before You Invest in Video

If you're thinking about using video to market your business, good for you. Video's interactivity and rich content are very effective for engaging, communicating and connecting. But before you invest time or money (or both), it makes sense to be sure you aren't just making video for the sake of having video on your site. You want your video assets to work hard for you and justify your investment, don't you?

Here are the top four questions to ask before you begin shooting. Consider them thoughtfully, and you'll have the answer to the really big question: what kind of video should you make?

1. What do you want your video (or videos) to do for you? This forces you to get beyond the very general "We just want to have video on our site" and define your goals. Be as specific as possible. Here are a few examples:

• streamline our customer service process
• introduce our key people
• inject humor into the early stages of our sales process
• move people through our sales funnel
• demonstrate how our product works
• provide different ways for visitors to understand who we are and what we do
• provide in-depth learning experiences

2. Who are your audiences and how do they learn? Who will watch the videos you'll make? This question will help you define what style of video to make. If you're connecting with 19-year-old males, you'll make a different kind of video than you would for new mothers or retired golfers.

3. What is the message you want to deliver to your audience(s)? If you make them correctly, videos are like arrows. They deliver a specific message to a particular target. Figure out what message you need to send. If you have more than one audience, don't use the same video for all of them. Instead, create different versions of your message so that each group sees and hears exactly what they care about.

4. How will you measure success? It's not a good idea to invest in assets and then leave them alone because you trust (or hope) that they're doing what you want them to do. Better to know how you define success so you can determine if they're working. If they are, great. You've figured out what works, and you can continue to create video assets that do the job. If you find that they aren't doing what you want them to do - understand why not, and then try something different. The goal is to create assets that achieve your goals and contribute to your success. You won't know if that's happening unless you measure and analyze.

Take the time to answer these four questions before you begin production, and you'll have the information you need to make video assets that are powerful and effective communication tools. They'll work hard for you, and they'll do the job you made them to do.

The Dos and Don'ts of Video Testimonials

Done correctly, a video testimonial is a very valuable sales tool for your company. Here's a list of do's and don'ts to help you create knockout video testimonials.

First, the Dos:

1. Broaden your vision. If you create a video testimonial that's a quick, simple statement about your business, or one that provides generalities instead of specifics, it won't do you much good. It won't give your prospects and leads the information they need to know if you're a good fit for them. So instead of a short, general testimonial, create a video testimonial that functions as a case study.

2. Create a structure for your case study before you start to film. Watch one of our testimonial/case studies to see how we put them together. Of course, you can use any structure you want, but remember that the goal is to lead your viewers through the progression that will help them see that you're a great solution for their problem. The formula we like to use is:

•  Name, company name, who are your customers? 
•  What were your problems/challenges?
•  Why did you choose our company?
•  How have we helped to solve your problems?

3. Give your subject the questions beforehand, so they can think about their answers. They'll appreciate your thoroughness, and they'll be less nervous because they know what to expect.

4. Be ruthless when you edit. If your customer likes to talk, you may wind up with half an hour of tape - or more. But your video testimonial must be much, much shorter -four minutes long is a good target. So you'll have to cut out a lot of material. Start with just 30 seconds of the customer telling about their business, and devote the rest of the case study to your main topics -problems and challenges, why they chose your company, and how you solved their problem. Remember that they'll naturally talk about their company a lot - but that's not the point of the testimonial/case study. Don't feel guilty about only using what you need. 

5. Construct a Case Study page on your website, and put your testimonial there. Use text to make the same points the video does - to give the search engines something to chew on and to give the same information to those who might not want to watch a video. You can also elaborate on things your testimonial subject touches on, if you want to give more detail.

6. Find other uses for extra material from the raw video. You'll probably get a lot more material than you can use in your case study. Don't pitch the rest - go through it and extract chunks you can use in a blog post, or in an email newsletter. Or posted on YouTube.

Now, the Don'ts:

1. Don't settle for general statements or short answers. If your happy customer is a little nervous about being videotaped, he or she may give you answers that are very short. But that won't give you enough to work with to construct your case study. So if you find that you're not getting much material from the person you're filming, change the questions you're asking. For example, instead of asking "Who are your customers?" you might say, "Tell me about your customers. Who are they? What are they like? What do they expect from you?" You might even try just having a conversation with them, to help them loosen up, and then working your questions into the conversation.

2. Don't give in to the temptation to make the edited version too long. You may get 30 minutes or more of absolutely excellent material and it may kill you to have to edit it down to four minutes. But remember - people don't watch long videos on the web. No matter how good they are, your viewership will drop off. So keep it short. And use some of that material in other places (see number 6, above)

3. Don't park your finished testimonial on your website and forget about it. Editing your raw tape into a finished testimonial case study is just the beginning. Now you have to use it to connect with many leads and prospects as possible. So put it up on YouTube. Use it on a landing page and write about it in an email newsletter. Send a link to relevant prospects.

Video testimonials are an excellent tool to connect with potential customers. And happy customers are generally willing to help by allowing you to film them. Using these dos and don'ts will help you create knockout marketing and sales assets that speak directly to your leads and prospects, and will help you turn them into customers.

Video: The Biotech Sales Barrier Solution

If you're a biotech company, you have a big barrier standing squarely at the top of your sales funnel. No one gets through your funnel until you find a way to get them around this barrier.

The barrier is a clear understanding of what your product/process/machine does, how it works, and why it's valuable to your leads and prospects. The barrier is there because the biotech industry creates products that are unfamiliar, and very complex.

The problem

The traditional way of getting people around the barrier and through the funnel is a sales presentation, using a multitude of PowerPoint slides with charts, graphs, and lots of text. Your product is complex, and explaining how it works and how your leads can be sure it's effective requires a lot of information. So - armed with your PowerPoint presentation, you present.

The problem is that you're presenting information to your audience, and asking them to draw the right conclusions from all that information. But the more information you present, the more bogged down they get and the less likely that they'll be able (or willing) to extract your core message.

The solution

To fix the problem and get your leads and prospects around the barrier, you need to start with your product's story, in a format that makes it very easy to absorb.

How do you do that?

Start your sales presentations with a short video that explains, simply and clearly, what your product does and why it's valuable to your audience. Then, when you begin your presentation, your audience will already have an understanding of your product's relevance. All your charts and graphs will now make sense. Your sales presentations will be much more productive, because you will be presenting to engaged audiences that no longer have to do the mental work of figuring out if your product is relevant to them.

Rapid Micro Biosystems is a great example of a biotech company that is successfully using video to accelerate their sales process. We created three videos for them, each targeting a specific audience. They show one of these videos before launching into their sales presentations because ""it captures the essence of the value proposition in five minutes," said Deborah Brusini, Chief Commercial Officer. Prospects "get what it does and why it's important" immediately, which means that those prospects are much more engaged in the presentation that follows, because they understand - before the presentation even begins - how the Rapid Micro Biosystems machine can solve their problems.

Watch one of the Rapid Micro Biosystems videos (below). Read the Rapid Micro Biosystems case study to see how video has improved the RMB sales process. And think about how video can accelerate your sales process - by getting your leads and prospects around the understanding barrier and through your sales funnel faster.

 

Video Testimonials Work Best as Case Studies

We've been working with Grafton Suburban Credit Union for a while now, to create videos for their lobby TV screen and to help them understand how to use video on the web. Recently we asked CEO Ed Lopes if he'd do a video case study for us. We could have asked for a straight testimonial. But, by making the video about the credit union, its challenges, and how we provided solutions for those challenges, we're creating a video asset that is MUCH more helpful as a sales tool than a plain vanilla testimonial could ever be. Here's a brief clip that's not in the final case study. In this clip, Ed talks about when "the light went off" about using video at the credit union.

How to create a video case study 

When you're working with a happy client to create a video case study, it's important to get a few details about their business so that similar businesses can identify. Then, after the 'who we are and what we do and who's our customer' section, you can ask about the challenges they face that are directly related to your product. After that, ask them to discuss the solution you provided and how that's been working for them. With some products, it's possible to measure success, so if possible ask if they can quantify how your product has been helping them.

Then, edit the video to create the case study. You want your case study to be short - about four minutes max - and you'll have extra video you can also use, like we're using Ed's video clip in a blog post.  

Why do video case studies work?  

Video case studies work as sales tools because they allow your prospects to see your product or service through the eyes of a business that's similar to theirs or that's facing similar challenges. While it's easy for you to say you solve a particular problem, it's a LOT more convincing if one of your customers talks about the solution you provided.

How to use a video case study 

Place your video case study on a dedicated page on your website, and add a text discussion. Your sales force can now use that page as a powerful sales tool. You might also think about placing the video case study on a landing page, and then using it in your lead generation program.

Bottom line 

Testimonial marketing is effective because people trust the authentic voice of a customer, and like to buy a product or service that's worked for someone else. Using a video case study is much more powerful than a straight testimonial, because it also gives information that's directly related to the problem your lead or prospect is experiencing.

(Check out the full Grafton Suburban case study here)

The Role of Video in Lead Generation

Earlier this week I attended a fascinating panel discussion - "Combining SEO and Video to Drive Awareness and Lead Generation Online" - featuring some heavy hitters in the world of online marketing.  A large part of the discussion centered on best practices for using video in lead generation and conversion, and how to measure success. A comment by Judy Gern, Director of Conversion Marketing for Constant Contact, captured the reason businesses need to use video in their lead gen programs:

"People who consume video tend to become customers at a much higher rate."

Goodbye to Viral Video

Joe Chernov, Global Director of Communications & Social Media for Eloqua, noted that there is less emphasis on ‘viral' videos than a few years ago. Gimmicky ideas like young men jumping into jeans, LED lights on sheep, mattress dominoes, etc., have given way to a new understanding of video as a practical, economical communications tool. Now companies are using video for sales, support, PR - all effective applications for video.  "We're seeing a smarter, more sensible use of video," said Chernov.

He noted in particular that video works especially well in press releases - those that include an embedded video receive 500% more views. Because of that remarkable effect, "we try to embed video in every press release," Chernov said.

What Works in Lead Gen

Constant Contact uses video as "an appetizer" for lead generation programs because of its ability to capture people's interest and draw them into the funnel.  The company conducts in-depth studies on performance of various video and key word combinations, and has found that videos with "do it yourself," "instructional," and "how-to" tend to perform the best.

Constant Contact has also found that video works best when it's given freely, before information is asked for, as opposed to holding out the promise of the video to get people to provide their information. "We give value when we ask for information, not after we get information," said Gern.

David Meerman Scott's Sales Funnel

Marketing superstar David Meerman Scott discussed the role of video in his sales funnel. At the top are short viral videos and excerpts from the informational interviews he conducts with his Flip camera - shorter videos that are casually made. Further down the funnel, where people are clearly interested in hiring him and are deciding whether to proceed, he uses video of a keynote speech he delivered previously. The production values are spectacular, he said, and rather than post short clips from the speech, he's posted the whole speech. He's found that at that point in his funnel - "right there when people are deciding to hire me or not" - people are really engaged and tend to watch the whole video.

Short, funny videos and short excerpts of interviews he's shot with his Flip camera work higher up in the funnel, he said, but near the bottom of the funnel the quality of his keynote video is important. "It really makes the difference," he said. "That video has helped me close $250,000 in speaking engagements in one year."

Measuring ROI

In lead gen programs, the number of email addresses gathered is usually the metric against which success is measured. But Meerman Scott disagreed with limiting ROI metrics to the traditional "collecting email addresses or business cards." He suggested that more meaningful metrics include view counts, and knowing through measurement what people do after they view the video.

Another metric for him is simply asking people when they hire him to speak how they made their decision. Often, he said, they tell him they watched his keynote video.

Tim Bradbury, president of New Media at American City Business Journals, suggested that instead of looking to ROI standard metrics, companies start with their expectations and then develop their own metrics to define success. It may be, he said, that the view counts and comments captured by YouTube are enough.

Bottom Line 

It can be easy to think about all the different reasons why video is a communication strategy your company is not quite ready to commit to - change is difficult, how do you figure out how to use video, what you're doing now is working well enough, etc. But if you're standing on the edge of the pool, hesitating to take the plunge into a video commitment, remember why Constant Contact uses video:  

 People who consume video tend to become customers at a much higher rate.

Learn from RedBull - Make Video That's NOT About Your Product

My husband is a glider pilot with the Greater Boston Soaring Club, and so I am in the loop on some really cool videos about gliders and soaring. This video is one of the most breathtaking I've seen - hang onto something, watch it, and then we'll talk about what a bunch of crazy/brilliant Austrian glider pilots and stuntmen have to do with your business:

While you completely get that this is an awesome video - and you may even share it with friends via email or on Facebook or Twitter - what does it have to do with your business?

Business is about relationships

Cool videos are like little gifts you give your current customers - and those who may be your future customers. Videos that are not overt commercials, but instead have a more peripheral connection to your product/service, are interesting and worthy of conversation. They provide current/potential customers with a good reason to engage with you and to talk about you, and to share your video, which will introduce your company to more people.

The peripheral product connection for this video is to Red Bull, the energy drink. It's hosted on the Red Bull website, along with lots of other remarkable videos about sports and athletes and music and dance. It's a great place to go and get your daily Wow. (And, of course, your daily reminder that Red Bull is a brand that is associated with really cool activities.)

What about budget?

But wait, you say - are you nuts? We don't have the budget for a multi-cam production, with helicopters, in the Alps!

No problem. The beauty of video is that no matter how small your video production budget, you can make video that's fun to watch, and fun to share. Maybe it's a karaoke music video starring your office staff. Maybe you're a car dealer and you bring in your new puppy and take him for a drive in one of your new cars. Or bring in your 92-year-old grandmother and take her for a drive. Or...

You get the picture. When it comes to making videos that are outside the usual serious and all-business stuff, the possibilities are endless - all you have to do is stop thinking about video as a medium that's only appropriate for communicating seriously about your products and services. Instead, remember that people want to have fun. A fun video that's peripherally related to your product can have a place too. It can be cool in a way your strict product videos can't, and it has a far greater chance of being shared, and talked about. But you have to be willing to step outside that comfortable space where your video production budget is always spent on serious, product/centered videos.

The possibilities are endliess - so step outside your comfort zone, start thinking creatively, have some fun, and share your fun.

(...and if you're interested, take a look at some of the videos made by members of the Greater Boston Soaring Club about their adventures in the sky. They'll give you goose bumps!)

Don't Make This Mistake with Your Trade Show Video

More and more, companies are using video at trade shows. And that's a good thing - video allows you to connect by showing your product or service in addition to talking about it. But sometimes companies make a mistake - they take a video they've created for another purpose (usually their website) and loop it on their booth TV screen.

Now, using a pre-existing video may seem like a good idea. After all, your company has invested in this video and everybody really likes it, so why not use it in the trade show booth?

• First, your website video has sound. But the purpose of a trade show is engagement. If people are listening to, or trying to listen to your video (trade shows tend to be very noisy), they're not engaging with you.
• Second, if your video was created with narration or talking head-style interviews, that sound is critical to your video. You might think that you can use your existing video and just turn down the sound, but that will leave you with moving images that are difficult to understand.
• Third, video that's created for the web is specifically designed to be played in a small format. While some people do choose the full-screen option, most still watch website video in its original player, as it first appears on a web page. So, everything in web video has to be relatively large. But if you take that web video and play it at a trade show, elements that look great at 480 or 640 pixels wide on your website will look giant. And you may be wasting real estate. All those large images may not be the best use of your video space.

Well, you say, we spent a lot of money on our website video and we can't afford to produce another one specifically for our trade shows.  But creating a trade show video shouldn't be expensive, because you already have all the video you'll need. Just eliminate the audio track, rearrange the video so that it tells your story visually, and add the on-screen text that will help to orient the viewer.

And here's another tip, courtesy of Robert Hackenson, VP of Marketing & Sales for TMG Exhibits, a company that specializes in trade show booth design. "At a trade show, you can target your video toward the specific potential prospects attending the show," Hackenson said. "The video should attract them with information about the product or service they're interested in." If the trade shows you exhibit at attract more than one type of attendee - be It end users, high-level management types, homeowners, etc. - create versions of your booth video that speak specifically to them. And again - creating different versions of your video should not be expensive if you perform a relatively minor re-edit of the video you already have.

So - if you absolutely have no budget and must use your website video(s) in your trade show booths, turn the sound down and go ahead. It's better than no video at all. But if at all possible, re-edit your video specifically for your trade shows. You'll give your viewers the best possible chance to connect with the story of your product or service.