Posted by Catie Foertsch on Thu, Jul 01, 2010 @ 10:59 AM
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.
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Wed, Feb 10, 2010 @ 07:55 AM
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.
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 @ 10:19 AM
(This is a true story. Names and other details have been changed, but the story is real.)
Company A is an office supply company. One day, Company A's owner - let's call him Bob - had a great idea. "We'll make a video to promote the company," Bob said. "And we'll make it a funny video! We'll put it on a dvd, we'll make a bunch of copies, and we'll hand them out to potential customers. People will love it! We'll put it on YouTube and it'll go viral!"
 |
So Bob found a video producer named Tony. Bob had a general idea of what he wanted, and he and Tony wrote a script. The video would be a funny little play about a business that buys all their supplies at the local office supply store, only they always get inferior products. The shredder dumps paper all over a worker's desk. The ink doesn't work in the printers. The furniture is too hard to put together, or else it breaks. |
The punch line is that if that company had bought its office supplies at Company A, none of that bad stuff would have happened. And Bob, because he's the owner, gets to be the one who says the punch line at the end of the video. He knows how to give just the right sympathetic smile to make the point.
It's a complex play, so Bob rents a vacant set of offices for a week, for the shoot. As actors they use Bob's people, so his company stops doing business for the week of the shoot. They need many, many takes to make sure they get the right shot. And there are technical challenges - how do you have a chair break when someone sits on it? How do you rig a pen so it spills ink all over someone's hands? It takes time, but they work these challenges out.
They shoot the video, it takes three months to edit, and it looks great. Bob is thrilled. He orders 500 dvds. He pays a design firm to make a beautiful dvd label and insert. The project is costing a boatload of money, but Bob isn't worried - he just knows that three or four or five times the money he spends will come back to him in profit on increased sales.
The dvds are made, and Bob gives them to his three salespeople. "Hand them out to everyone," he says. So the sales people do. Bob posts the video on YouTube. And then... nothing happens. Bob waits, and waits, but the phone doesn't ring. People don't call to tell Bob how great his video is. Sales don't go up. There are only 27 views on YouTube, and that number doesn't budge. But that's OK - obviously the word hasn't gotten out yet. Bob tells his salespeople to hand out more dvds. Bob instructs his salespeople to tell prospects to go to YouTube and watch the video. Again, Bob waits. Again, nothing happens.
Two years later, Bob is still talking about what a great video he made. How much fun the process was, how ingenious he and Tony were to figure out how to get that chair to break when Sue sat on it. How the design firm nailed the dvd insert. How the whole experience really helped him understand video production.
What Bob doesn't talk about, or let himself think about, is the video's complete lack of impact. Except, of course, for the impact to his bottom line, which was a doozy.
There are many things you can learn from Bob's adventure, but I'm going to mention just one: if you have an idea for a video and you're in love with it, if you're dreaming about how it's going to go viral and your sales are going to shoot through the roof, then you should ask someone to dump a bucket of cold water on your head. Because you don't understand how to use video to market your business and you're about to make a very big and very expensive mistake.
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Mon, Sep 28, 2009 @ 07:56 AM
Sometimes businesses have complex ideas they need to explain clearly in order to sell their products and services. This can present a challenge, as website visitors may not stick around long enough to read and understand a lengthy text description of a product or service. Luckily, people love to click on video. Here's one example of a video that clearly communicates a complex concept in a fun and upbeat way:
One option, of course, is a ‘talking head,' or a head and shoulders shot of a person explaining the idea. You could also use a person's full body, which would give a more dynamic feel, though you'd sacrifice the viewer's ability to clearly see the speaker's face. Remember, website video is generally small, so a full body means a very small face. Why is this important? Quite simply, because we feel more comfortable if we can see someone's face. Of course, you can supplement video of a talking person with illustrations of what the person is talking about - photos, graphics, text, etc.
But in this case, the people at Successimo felt (and we agreed) that something that was more lively and less ordinary would keep viewers' attention longer, which would enable the whole concept to be understood and absorbed.
A video of this type is called 'kinetic typography' (KT) because it's primarily moving type. Sometimes KT videos are made without a voice-over, but in this case we felt that the narration added another layer of understanding. And, hiring a voice artist who does a great job conveying enthusiasm was key.
If you've got a complex idea to explain, consider using a KT video. They're easy to make, relatively inexpensive (depending on length), and they do a good job of keeping your viewers' attention until your concept is explained.
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Fri, Sep 18, 2009 @ 09:05 AM
One spring, several years ago, I had an impulse to plant blueberry bushes. I went to the garden center and bought six big, healthy bushes. I was thrilled at the thought of fresh blueberries just a few feet from my back door. I planted them, gave them lots of water, and waited for the blueberry bounty.
 |
The first year there was some new growth and a few berries, which the birds got before I did. The second year there was little new growth and so few berries that the birds just laughed. In subsequent years, the bushes got smaller, not larger, and stopped producing berries altogether. The leaves started to come in yellow and sick-looking. A few bushes died; the others were dying. |
Then I happened to complain about them to John Nourse of Nourse Farm in Westborough MA. He mentioned the importance of acid soil for growing blueberries. I remembered something about soil pH, but I had been in a hurry to get the bushes in the ground and just trusted that everything would work out. Which it didn't, of course. Blueberries won't do well in neutral or alkaline soil, and no amount of hoping and believing will change that. If you want blueberries, you need acid soil.
Which brings me to video. Specifically, to the video content businesses make for their websites, and the performance they expect. Some businesses are like impulsive blueberry-bush-buyers. They want the results, but they don't take the time to develop a plan. They don't ask important questions, like these:
- What kind of goals do we have for our videos?
- What specific kind of videos should we make to meet those goals?
- What will we measure to know if we're meeting our goals?
- How will we get the right eyeballs to watch our videos?
- How will we get our videos to spread?
They just rush into making video, they pop it up there on the website and on YouTube, or maybe just on YouTube, and then they wait. And wait. They're confused when nothing happens, when nobody says to them, "Great job with the video!" And when nobody says, "I bought your software (or dog jackets or accounting services or you-name-the-product) because of your videos!" So they conclude that while video works for some, it obviously doesn't work for their kind of business.
If you make the decision to invest in video for your business, congratulations. There's no better way to engage people on your website, tell your story, and begin a relationship. But video content isn't enough - just like blueberry bushes aren't enough. You also need to understand what your video content needs in order to bear fruit.
For blueberries - you need acid soil. For video content - you need to start with important questions, and then you need a plan.
(...and fyi, I am in the process of moving my just-barely-alive blueberry bushes to a different part of my garden, where the soil is plenty acid. I've also bought some new bushes, just in case my old ones are too far gone to make it. I have a plan in place to keep the soil as acid as it needs to be, AND I have a plan to keep the birds from gobbling next year's blueberries.)
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Mon, Sep 14, 2009 @ 09:18 AM
Videotaping your presentation or seminar and posting that video on your website is a great idea. But did you know that you can also use video prior to your event as a promotional tool, to make your topic come alive? Check out these two examples:
One reason to use video to promote your presentation is that video allows you to communicate in a different way. Not everyone absorbs information best through text. Video allows you to connect with more people than text alone.
A second reason is that text, no matter how skillfully written, cannot convey 'performance.' Sure, you can write "Bob Smith is a fantastic, world-renowned presenter" but those words really do nothing to convey Bob's style or impact. And they do nothing to convey credibility, because you could write those words about anyone, whether they were a good presenter or not. A short video of Bob, on the other hand, immediately confirms that Bob is the real deal - an excellent communicator, a compelling presenter. (Of course, if Bob were a lousy presenter, sticking with text alone would be a better plan.)
A third reason is that video gives you the opportunity to pitch your presentation directly to each person who watches. And each of the people who watch it will feel that you're talking directly to them. How did you feel, watching Whit Wales* talk about his presentation while he's looking directly at you? If you're like most people, you knew he was talking to a camera lens but you felt a connection anyway.
Video creates a personal experience that cannot be duplicated with text. And people who have that personal experience with you are more likely to feel a connection that will cause them to give more consideration to attending your presentation. And when they do attend, they'll feel like they've already met you.
*Whit Wales is a greater Boston wedding videographer who does brilliant work. Watch a brief clip to see how beautiful a wedding film can be.
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Fri, Aug 21, 2009 @ 09:16 AM
A few years ago, video on websites was a new phenomenon. Most companies preferred to wait and see rather than investing in video, in case it was a passing fad. The few companies that were placing video on their websites were proceeding slowly, creating one single video, posting it on their home page or elsewhere on their site, and that was it. Because video was a novelty.
Things have changed. Video has become a mainstream component of an effective Internet marketing plan. The question for companies now isn't ‘Will you use video on your website?' but rather, ‘What kind of video content will you make?'
To find the answer, start with more questions:
- What do you need to show people? A product? A process? A physical space? A person being an expert? Satisfied customers who bought your product?
- What questions do you need to answer? What do people ask you, over and over and over? What message do you need to communicate? Trustworthiness? Authority? Credibility? Effectiveness? Great customer service? Friendly people?
- What feelings do you need to generate?
Now, prioritize your answers. Figure out which are the most important. Once you have that list, assign a video to each item. Then look at how you can cost-effectively create video content for as many items on your list as possible. A good idea is to break your list into phases: what content you'll create now, what content you'll create six months from now, etc.
Here's one example:
An accounting firm decides that it needs to show people expertise, trustworthiness, great customer service, friendly and helpful staff. It decides to make the following videos:
- Expertise: a videotaped seminar presented by three of the firm's partners. The raw seminar video will be broken into six to eight small two-to-three-minute videos.
- Trustworthiness: a video of the firm's partners talking about what trustworthiness means and how the firm exemplifies trustworthiness. Also, a video of a customer testimonial/case study that specifically addresses trustworthiness.
- Customer service: two customer testimonials/case studies that address the firm's excellent customer service from the customer's perspective
- Friendly and helpful staff: six short videos for the ‘About Us' page with six staff members. Each video features a staff member talking about the kind of person he or she is, how they look at the world, what they do for fun, what causes they contribute money and time to, etc. While not directly addressing accounting, the videos will help potential customers make connections to staff members as people.
The firm decides to phase production. Phase one will include the seminar and the customer testimonials. Six months from now, they'll move to phase two, and create the staff videos.
If you're ready to create video content for your website, starting with questions about what you want your video content to do will help you understand what kind of video to make. Then, phasing production will help you create your video content in a planned, orderly, and affordable way.
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Mon, Aug 03, 2009 @ 08:30 AM
A new study by PC Magazine on online video use is full of useful but expected statistics and demographics on the growing number of people who watch video online, and are migrating from TV to online sites like YouTube and Hulu. For the most part, the article tells a story we already know, because we're participating: 62 percent of web users now watch online video, and the number keeps on growing. But at end of the article, something caught my eye: "At this point, online video watching outranks social networking use (46 percent), podcast downloading (19 percent), and Twitter usage (11 percent)."
Makes perfect sense. All video requires you to do is click the play button. Social networking, on the other hand, requires much more. You have to join. You have to learn. You have to participate. You have to keep up. You get rewards from social networking, of course - you feel connected to other people, and in this increasingly online world with its increasing real-world isolation, that's no small thing. But it requires continuing effort.
Video, by contrast, gives consistent rewards for very little effort. People click on the play button when they see a video on your site because they always get a small reward - the video starts to play. And very often they get a big reward - it's interesting. It's funny. It gives them good information while making them feel connected to the person onscreen. It gives them something to send to their friends & family.
If you were in a socially-righteous mood, you could argue that social networking is good for people, and they should do it more. I wouldn't disagree - isolation is not healthy, and online social interacting is probably good for that part of the human brain that withers when we're alone too much.
But for businesses that are looking to connect with potential customers, online is where it's happening. And the message is clear: video gives you the best chance - by far - of making that connection because far more people will watch your videos than will find you on Facebook or talk to you on Twitter. Those sites are important for businesses, and will become more and more important, but right now, video on your website is crossing the line from important to vital.
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Thu, Jul 30, 2009 @ 07:43 AM
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.
Posted by Catie Foertsch on Tue, Jul 14, 2009 @ 07:14 AM
What an amazingly interesting world we live in. The launch of the space shuttle Endeavour has been re-scheduled for Wednesday July 15 at 6:03 p.m. EDT. And thanks to NASA and USTREAM (and your tax dollars) you can watch the launch and the entire mission on live web video AND you can embed the live video feed on any website page. (Unfortunately the video plays automatically, which is quite distracting in a blog and which is why I've un-embedded it here.)
In case you miss the Endeavour launch and mission, watch this video of the August 2007 Endeavour launch.
And - we are coming up on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the first time human beings walked on the moon. The launch was on July 20, 1969, and to commemorate the mission, the JFK Library has an awesome website that lets you watch not just the launch but the entire mission in real time, as it unfolded. Go there now and check out the Mission Tracker, photos and videos of John F. Kennedy, 3D views of Apollo 11 on the launch pad, and so much more. Watch an excerpt from Kennedy's speech at Rice University in 1962, announcing his intention to send a man to the moon. (You can also follow the mission on Twitter.) It'll give you a lump in your throat to watch - all over again - as a visionary president and our American determination to succeed put the very first footsteps, and our flag, on the Moon.