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

 

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.

 

 

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)

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.

Looking for a Speaker? Look for Website Video

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend who's involved in running a regional professional organization. His organization hired a speaker based on that speaker's impressive-looking website, testimonial text quotes, and lengthy list of organizations to which he'd presented. Sounds like a good vetting practice -  except that the reason this organization was looking for a speaker was not because he had spoken to other organizations, or because those organizations liked him, or because he had a great-looking website.

All they wanted was an excellent speaker. Unfortunately, said my friend, "You cannot believe how bad he was."

So how is an organization supposed to know if a speaker will be as good as he or she promises? Take a look at this video, of sales expert Peter Dennis of PMD Sales Training and Consulting. If you were looking to hire someone to speak about sales to your organization, Peter's video would give you very good idea of what you'd get if you brought him in.

The speaker's website will help you understand if his or her material is what you're looking for. But that's not enough information. You also need to see the person in action, so you can tell if the presentation is dynamic or a snore, and if the tone is appropriate for your organization. Video allows you to see exactly what you're buying before you buy it. Without video, you're taking a risk that all your assumptions about the speaker may very well be nothing more than marketing hype.

So - if you're looking to book a speaker, look for video on your candidates' websites, and hire only after you've seen what you're buying.

If you're a speaker or presenter, videotape your next presentation and place some good, representative clips on your website. (And make them very easy to find.) Those clips will help you book engagements with groups that are a good match for what you do. Your audiences will be more enthusiastic and receptive, and you'll avoid unhappy audiences who thought they were getting something else.

 

Don’t Make These Mistakes With Your Website Video

There's a local tech company that paid their video production company (one of our competitors) to create four videos explaining features of their product. The videos are beautiful and the company was very pleased with them. So the company sent the videos to their website people with these instructions: "Put them on our website."

 

What happened?

Mistake #1: The website people made the videos difficult to find. They put a small text link on the home page: "Click here to view videos." Then they connected that link to a page that starts with text about the product, with no mention of videos. The text explains the same features the videos discuss, and there's enough text so that the videos are now ‘below the fold' - a visitor has to scroll down to find them.

Mistake #2: The videos are framed incorrectly. The website people don't know anything about hosting video, so they subscribed to an online hosting company, uploaded the video, and then took the embed code to place video on the page. But they screwed up when they uploaded the video. They must have known it, because they used different upload settings for each video. The result is that one is squashed into a 4x3 frame, though the videos are all 16x9. Another video has the correct aspect ratio but achieves it by placing big black bars on the top and bottom of the frame, making the video very small. The other two are even messier - stretched, squashed, and black bars. And though the videos have been up for almost a year, no one in the company seems to understand that they don't look right. Or maybe they haven't looked at them, but just assumed that "we have video on our website."

Mistake #3: The videos are all very small. They look like postage stamps. They're too small to see much of the product detail, or to read the text that's in the video. And the viewer certainly isn't noticing the gorgeous video the company paid a lot of money for.

Mistake #4: The videos are placed all on one page. They're stacked, one underneath the other. As though videos are set pieces that can't stand on their own, when in fact they're most effective on their own, one to a page. With four stacked on a page, the viewer sees a swarm of videos, randomly picks one, and ignores the rest.

Mistake #5: The videos were placed and forgotten. The company paid good money to make good videos, and assumed that was enough - that somehow those videos would do the job just because they're good videos.

What should have happened?

The process went wrong all the way back at the beginning, when the company had an idea: Let's make some videos. WRONG starting point.

The right place to start is with a question: How can we use video to market our product?

The answer to that question is:

First, make a video or a series of videos that communicate the right message to the right audience. This means that before you start production, you have to understand the audience(s) you're trying to reach, and the individual messages you want your audience(s) to receive.

Second, understand how you will connect the right audience with the right video(s). How will you make them easy to find? How will you make them easy and fun to watch? How will you focus the viewer's attention on the one single message in each video?

Third, how will you understand whether the videos are doing what you want them to do? What will you measure? Videos are communication tools. To know if they're doing the job you created them to do, you have to check up on them. You have to understand what you're asking them to do, and how you'll know if they're doing their job.

The mistake too many companies make is in assuming that all they have to do is make video that shows off their product and place that video on their website somewhere. And then Bingo! Magic will happen.

In reality, video absolutely can work magic for your company. And it will, IF you understand the rules of video marketing.

Video Best Practices: What Should You Wear?

Among the projects we're working on right now are two that are similar. In each, we're filming a business man giving a presentation. Each presentation will then be broken up into several short clips for posting to YouTube and to the respective websites.

Before the presentations, we were asked what each speaker should wear: suit jacket with shirt and tie; jacket and shirt but no tie; shirt and tie without a jacket; or an open-collared shirt. In both cases, as in all projects like this, our answer was the same: Who's your audience and what is the image you need to project to them - before you even start speaking?

 

Case #1 - A Technical Speaker

In the first case, the company provides training to technical people. All-day seminars are conducted in person at hotels and conference centers. The people who attend the presentation generally wear jeans or khakis and polo shirts or open-collared shirts. The presenter never wears a tie or jacket because it's important that the people in the audience feel as though he is a tech person like them.

The target audience for this set of videos is the same set of people who would attend the training. In this case, the best choice is an open-collared shirt or a branded polo shirt. A tie, or a jacket and tie, would identify him as not-a-tech-person, which would undermine the message he wants the videos to send - that he's a good fit for delivering the technical training his audience needs.

Case #2 - A CEO

In the second case, the CEO of a small start-up is giving a presentation about his company's product - a complex machine that saves time and money in large manufacturing plants. The audience for this series of videos will primarily be high-level managers and CEOs of mid-sized and larger companies, particularly in the Midwest.  

Though this CEO mostly wears an open-collared shirt to work, our advice was to wear a suit and tie for the filming. Manufacturing executives at the level he's aiming for - and especially in the Midwest - tend to be conservative. To connect with them as a CEO he needs to project an image of being a CEO who is successful - as they identify success. It doesn't matter that he's completely confident and successful as a CEO in khakis. What matters is the judgment his audience will make about him even before he begins to speak.  

What about women?

Women's wardrobe choices are far more varied than men's, but the rules are the same: dress so that what you're wearing conveys the right image to your target audience.

But, while the rules for clothing are the same, women have much more to worry about than men because their hairstyles are more varied, and they tend to wear more jewelry. And both hairstyle and jewelry will contribute to the visial impression that's created.

So choose your jewelry carefully. If your target audience is conservative, simple jewelry usually works best. If you want to project an image of being fashionable, you can wear more and more interesting jewelry.  

Hair also makes a statement. If you use color or highlights and it's been several weeks since your last salon visit, make an appointment for a few days before your shoot. And if at all possible, give yourself extra time before the shoot so that if it's a bad hair day, you can re-do your hairstyle. Not only will you look better - you'll feel much more confident, and that confidence will come across on video.

Whether you're a man or a woman, it's important to plan how you'll look on video very carefully. Get inside the heads of those in your target audience and look at yourself through their eyes. What assumptions do you want them to make about you based on your appearance? Because, before you even start to speak, your viewers will make a judgment about you. And it's your job to make sure that they arrive at the correct judgment.

 

Make your video assets perform like arrows

Company  X makes complicated and expensive software. Company X is having a tough time communicating what their product does because it's so very complicated. So they decided they'd make a three-minute video - to explain exactly what Software X does, and to talk about its benefits. They plan to use this video on their website home page, at trade shows, in presentations to end users, and in presentations to upper management.

What's wrong with this picture?

Simple - one video is not what Company X needs. If they go ahead with their plan, that one video will be packed with many different messages for all its different audiences. And none of those audiences will be able to absorb their message, because the background noise - everybody else's message - will be too distracting. Making that one video will be a complete waste of Company X's money and time.

What's the lesson for your company?

If you sell a complex product or service, and you want to use video to explain its benefits, think about who you're trying to connect with.

• Is it upper management? They'll need a clear statement of the problem you solve from their perspective and in language they understand. This usually means information on how your product will save them money. Add animated charts and graphs - because this is the language they speak. And don't show product details, because they don't care about details, and they really don't care about the product. What they care about is how much money your product can save them.
• The end users, on the other hand, don't care about ROI. They want to know how the software makes their jobs easier. And they'd also like to see cool features they'll have fun using. Skip the analysis, skip the charts and graphs. Show the product in action, and focus on aspects that will get them excited.
• For a trade show, where audio is a bad idea, you'll need to produce a looping dvd with visuals only.  The primary audience at your trade show will tell you what to emphasize - ROI, features and benefits, or a combination of both.
• Plant managers? Engineers? The accounting department? The nurses? They all need a different message, delivered in a different way.

Whatever you do, don't start with how to jam as many messages as possible into one single video. That's a recipe for creating junk. Instead, use your video assets like arrows - aim one video at one single target. This way you'll hit your targets, because you'll be telling each one of your audiences the exact story they need to hear about your product - so they can understand what it will do for them and how it will help them.

Will your website video get stale?

Had a great conversation with sales guru Peter Dennis this week about what video can do for websites. Peter asked a terrific question: does video on a website get stale?

Usually, businesses that decide they're ready for video on their site want to jump right into production. They feel a sense of urgency - maybe their competitor has a video-rich site and they've decided they need to keep up. Or maybe they've visited a site, clicked on a video, and suddenly they got it - that most people do the exact same thing. Most people see a video, click on it, and watch it. And that company wants the same thing happening on their site. Now.

But before the rush to production, it makes sense to stop and ask good questions. To Peter's point, a very good question to ask is, What can we do about our video getting stale?

Unfortunately, just like your other website content, video content will eventually get stale. If you're lucky, your video production is ramped up to constantly generate new video, in which case shelf-life isn't an issue for you. When something feels a little dated, you'll just replace it with fresh video. If, like most businesses, that's not your situation, then a smart thing to do is to create video content that has the longest possible shelf-life.

Some things to think about:

• Specific dates. We've all been to websites with a ‘Current Events' link, clicked on it, and been directed to a page where the latest event was a year old or even older. That kind of experience tells you something about the company - they're short on resources and can't keep their website updated, their website is an afterthought, or they're disorganized and lose track of things. Whatever you take from the experience, it's never a positive, trust-inspiring message. If you create a video that names a specific date, either in the video itself or in the video's text, be aware that after that date is past your video may feel stale, not because of its content but because of that date. You can get around this by not mentioning a date, and not putting a date in the video's text. Title your video "Sales Seminar, Dallas, Texas" instead of "Sales Seminar, Dallas, Texas June 2006"
• Specific types of video. Brief clips from seminars and presentations are a great way to show you and your people in real life. These tend to have a long shelf life as long as the content stays relevant to your business. Again, for your presentation, dress timelessly. And while your barber may think that gelled spikes would be a good look for you, you might want to consider a haircut that's less fashionable and more ordinary (at least until after your seminar).
• Customer testimonials/case studies also hold up well, if your business doesn't outgrow the content. For example, the customer testimonial that features the three-employee business you helped grow into a six-employee business will stay relevant as long as this is the market you continue to serve. If, however, your business grows and changes, and you now only work with firms with 50+ employees, that testimonial is very, very stale.
• Fashion. In videos with real people in them, try to dress the people in timeless clothing. As every woman knows, fashion constantly changes. On video, wearing clothes that are fashionable may make you look great today, but six months or a year from now you'll look dated. Depending on how fashionably you were dressed, you may even look silly.

 

The thing to do when you're planning your video content is to understand that it's unrealistic to make video once and then keep that video content forever. A better approach is to be aware of the stale factor, and to plan your content so that you're not making videos that have a short shelf-life.

Nonprofit video lessons: Seth Godin talks to social entrepreneurs

This video is an excerpt from Seth Godin's talk to the first Acumen Fund Student Leaders Workshop. It's a great example of a nonprofit using video to spread its story. Two points, one about the video itself and one about the content, but first watch the video:

About the video: if your nonprofit is thinking about making its own videos, do what Acumen did. Use an external microphone so the sound is good. And don't post the whole presentation - edit it. This one is shorter than the original talk, and rightly so - people are FAR less likely to watch an unedited, 30-minute or 45-minute talk even if it is Seth Godin. And they won't spread it, because asking your friends to watch a 45-minute video presentation is like asking them if you can come and visit for three weeks. It will make them cringe. In this case, the edited version is seven minutes. AND it has a cool-looking opening, which adds a layer of professionalism and gives weight and credibility to whatever follows. So you should also invest in, or create, a cool, professional opening you can use over and over .

Second, the content: finding stories of optimism and hope, putting those stories on video and getting them to spread is a great way for all nonprofits to grow their volunteer and donor communities, even in these tough economic times. ESPECIALLY in these tough times.

In this case, the story is a perfect antidote to the hangover we're all suffering from decades of rampant greed. Here we have young people, all talented enough to start their own companies and make bazillions of dollars for themselves, but instead they want to start companies that help the world's poor. These are young people who will live incredibly rich lives because they get something that all those financial company CEOs who made tons of money and spent it on solid gold shower fixtures didn't: a rich life is not about how much money you accumulate and how much stuff you buy. It's about creating a lasting impact, changing people's lives for the better, and meeting and working with really interesting people.

The story told in this video is also about the reality of change: significant, lasting change does not come from within the big machine. In order to be a change agent, you must exist outside the status quo. That takes courage, an adventurous spirit, and the ability to fail over and over and over without giving up.

I don't know about you, but I find this video incredibly inspiring. It gives me hope for our future in a time when it's often hard to find reason for hope.

What's your reaction?