Pro Web Video - Online Blog

Are your staff the stars of your web video marketing?

Brett Sidaway — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:35:53 +0000

Creating effective web video marketing is the Holy Grail for marketers and businesses. They read that video can boost Search Engine Rankings, and build customer engagement. They are regularly told professional online video will help with their social media activity and that customer’s are expecting see video on websites. And yet most businesses still hold back, perhaps uncertain where to begin. Maybe the answer lies close at hand – could your team be the springboard for your success?

Let’s look at the thought behind this idea.

Firstly, most customers will not want to sit through a ‘Corporate video’ where some faceless individual (or even worse, the MD) extols the virtues of the company. People buy from people and web video can help them get to know the people behind the organisation – positioning it as a brand powered by individuals, not just another business trying to part them from their money.

Secondly, one way to give your company a competitive edge is to position the company as authoritative or expert. Logically and emotionally, the company as an entity cannot be an expert but the people working for it can be. Leverage their expertise and knowledge and create very specific videos that show the specific skills of the individuals: demonstrate, for example, how your dispatch team makes sure your customer receives their goods in excellent condition.

Thirdly, use their expert knowledge to create videos that add value for your customers. OK, they have bought your latest product – now tell them where they can view a video showing them how to look after it, or ensure it lasts even longer or functions better. If you sell two or three similar products, get one of your team to talk through and even demonstrate the differences between the products. Yes, you can write all this down (and you’ll probably have a web page to back up the video) but think how powerful a tool this video will be: it makes things clearer for the customer and its something they can share with friends and family.

Staff are of course always reluctant to be photographed let alone become the stars of company.tv but if they are made to understand the value to the business, and the fact they you have asked them because of their expertise and dedication, it may persuade them to appear in front of the camera.

Remember to watch this space as we will be releasing a range of online video marketing blogs over the coming months. Our readers can also find our Pro Web Video Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ProWebVideoOnline. For all the latest goings on, you can keep up-to-date with Pro Web Video on Twitter https://twitter.com/ProWebVideos. And we also now have an Pro Web Video YouTube page live at http://www.youtube.com/ProWebVideoOnline.

How to budget for your web video production

Brett Sidaway — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:47:18 +0000

It’s clear that online video is booming and that more companies are hoping to include web video production as part of their overall marketing mix. However, smaller and medium sized businesses are often confused about costs and how to budget for the video.

As with all business spending, you need to justify it’s spend by expecting a return on that investment. Things become a little more difficult as measures of ‘success’ will vary not just from company to company but from campaign to campaign. For all smaller and medium companies the end result must be more sales, but that may come through increased brand recognition that web video production brings. A measure of success may be the shares or engagement the video brings, or the new Followers or Fans that sign up to your social media marketing activity. These numbers will help you measure your ROI.

Budgeting will also be dependent on your overall marketing mix. Web video production is not an either/or with traditional marketing activities such as print or advertising. Not only does in need to part of the mix, it needs to support your overall marketing activity. But adding online video to the mix means looking at all the traditional areas of marketing expenditure and asking searching questions about the effectiveness of more traditional, but less measurable activities.

Talk to professional companies about costs – talk is still free, after all. Talk about your aims and overall marketing budget and activity. If the professionals cannot achieve your aims with the money available, they will soon tell you. But many companies are pleasantly surprised at the low entry costs for effective video production and what can be achieved. Additionally, it’s not necessary to have every piece of online video professionally produced. Many shorter, simpler videos can be created on low cost equipment – even smart phones. Of course, we believe you should seek professional help but that help can identify what can be done ‘in-house’ as much as what needs to be done externally. Experienced web video production companies can help you to achieve greater effectiveness, through content and distribution, but won’t be precious about any DIY-type production.

5 quick tips for effective web video production

Brett Sidaway — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 09:50:10 +0000

We want you to make 2013 the year you finally make plans for online video production a reality.

How to make the most of your video prodction

Here are 5 quick to help you make the most of your first production!

Create a strong narrative to carry the video. No matter how short or long your video, its needs to have a clear flow of information for A-B which will help keep people watching. And make viewers aware of the flow, so you might say at the beginning ‘In this video we will X, then Y, then Z’ – this already gives people a series of signposts to guide them through the video.

Make the video engaging. Use the best person in the company to deliver the key messages in the video – or use an outside person if that is most effective. Make the content easy to consume, and use language that your customers understand.

Solve a specific problem. Consumers look to the internet, and especially online video to solve a problem – where do I source / how do I make this work / what’s the best way to look after X? They DON’T want to be sold to, but they will buy if you are solving their problems. Concentrate your web video production on shorter, focussed video rather than a self-aggrandising ‘corporate video’.

KISS. When Bill Clinton ran for the Presidency, his campaign team developed an acronym for volunteers, supporters and spokesman – Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS). We would never call anyone stupid but if the concept behind it worked for Bill, it can work for you and your video production. More videos, fewer but simple messages that the consumer can take away from their viewing is the way to go.

Ensure the video is well produced. DIY video is useful but a first production may benefit from using an experienced production company as you will also be able to leverage their experience, learn from them about what is most effective and how your video can be used as part of your other marketing activities and maximise your SEO reach.

Now simply follow the tips above and you are on your way to some effective online video marketing!

Tips to creating an effective online video storyboard

Brett Sidaway — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 10:25:49 +0000

Film students will tell you that Alfred Hitchcock – perhaps still the most recognised film director in history – created a storyboard for every scene in every film he ever made. There were no onset surprises – just a recreation on film of the storyboard which Hitch had so painstakingly developed and drawn before a camera was turned on. When creating effective online video, it is a good idea to take a leaf out of the Master’s book.

Once you have established and communicated the business objectives you need to build a storyboard. Your budget will determine how much time goes into this activity, but you can include as many people across the organisation to contribute ideas for the storyboard and online video.

Your storyboard can – but doesn’t have to – include a complete script, but any video plan you create should at least consider all of the following:

What are the key messages?

Decide early on what message you want to communicate, and how these best delivered – formal script, ‘off the cuff’ talking head or an interview situation.

Calls to action in your storyboard

Your call to action will be a key part of the measure of your success so make it simple and clear and demonstrated throughout the video

Is there a ‘concept’ behind the video?

A concept does not have to be high-flown but it is something that holds the video together. It might be based on ‘solving a need’ or it might be based on testimonials; it might be in response to a popular news story or viral video, or it might parody a TV ad or other video.

Do you have a style in mind?

Based on the concept and style, how should the message be delivered? The tone may be serious and authoritative; it may be humorous and friendly. The style will be determined by many factors – your brand values, the people who make up the team, your target audience and the product/ service you are selling.

List of shots by location, speaker and timings

This is the real hard work done by the storyboard and will save time (and costs) during filming – remember, you want no surprises on the day of shooting so consider and plan all aspects as part of your story boarding.

Effective online video marketing is within reach of many businesses but like all marketing it requires planning and imagination.

Research predicts growth for online video consumption

Brett Sidaway — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 09:06:17 +0000

A leading Birmingham video production company this week highlighted figures that predict a massive growth for online video. Pro Web Video urged all businesses to use online video as part of their marketing mix.

The latest research suggests we will all watch 833 days of video every single second by 2016, and much of that video consumption won’t happen on the PC. Instead, we are seeing a huge growth of connected TV traffic, and video consumption on tablets is also skyrocketing.

Online video accounted for more than half of all Internet traffic in 2011, and it’s only going to grow: research from Cisco estimates that we will consume three trillion internet video minutes worldwide per month by 2016. That means that the world will watch the equivalent of 833 days of video every single second! The number of people using online video services will also grow dramatically. Worldwide, 792 million people used online video last year. By 2016, that number will roughly double, to 1.5 billion users.

Cisco also concluded that the world’s data consumption will reach 1.3 zettabytes by 2016. But most intriguing about all that data and the role video is playing, are the devices that are causing it.

There are two major factors for online video’s huge growth potential: Online video is finding its way to the living room TV set, and people are watching more videos on tablets. Cisco’s forecast shows that especially those HD streams to the TV will have a huge impact going forward. The amount of Internet video delivered to TVs already doubled in 2011, and it’s expected to grow sixfold by 2016. By 2016, online video delivered to TVs will make up for six percent of all worldwide consumer internet traffic.

Alexis Belle of Pro Web Video added “Consumers are increasingly expecting to consume video when researching, comparing and buying products and services. We have demonstrated that production costs need not be a bar to creating effective online video.”

More details of the services offered by Pro Web Video can be found on their website at www.prowebvideoonline.co.uk.

Learn the new approach to online video marketing

Brett Sidaway — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:48:12 +0000

The approach to marketing is changing and it’s a topic for debate whether customer’s changing expectations have driven new marketing techniques or vice versa, but whatever the answer businesses need to be aware online video marketing means a while new approach to how your market to customers.

Solving customers problems

The traditional marketing approach was very sales orientated, but customers no longer need to decide between businesses to get the information they are seeking. The website is full of user-created reviews, views and information. Customers are looking to solve their problems and you can use your online video to become part of the answer.

Access is everything

Old school marketing was very possessive over information, and wanted to keep firm restrictions on who could access marketing and company information, but the new approach is to encourage sharing and online video is ideal for this – it is made for sharing.

Informative not authoritative

Previously companies and brands attempted to establish themselves as authoritative in order to establish a brand differential, but consumers no longer relate to authoritative, top-down approaches. Your web video production will allow you become viewed as informative and user-friendly – and your authority will eventually come from this approach.

Narrow the focus for effectiveness

Previously marketing often took a ‘one size’ fits all approach, and, if video was used, it tended to be a long corporate promotional video. Today’s new approach will see much more focussed, shorter videos that address particular customer needs, not the business wants. These shorter videos fit with our reduced attention spans – although we are consuming more online video it is for shorter spans. These shorter videos are also more likely to be shared and engaged with.

Make video a regular event

Making video part of your new marketing mix will build expectations with your customers, fans and followers so produce and publish them regularly. This means you have to maximise the number of videos for your budget – either by effectively editing and publishing longer, professionally produced content OR by producing some in-house video: production values may be lower but that is not a barrier to success in the new world of social media marketing.

Creating a web video production brief

Brett Sidaway — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:28:47 +0000

Video isn’t going away – quite the contrary and more businesses are adding web to their marketing mix. It’s likely this will involve partnering with a web video production company. The start of this process should include creating a really effective brief – it focuses the businesses’ attention on what you want to achieve with the videos, and provides a level playing field when approaching several potential web video production partners.

Guidelines for your web video production brief

The following should be included in the brief you hand off to the team responsible for creating your next video project. If you can’t provide all of the following categories of information to your production team (with some detail) then you may not be ready to start your project:

Company background

How are you situated in your market? How is your company perceived by your customers? What are your key brand attributes? Why are you different? These questions are all important context that helps your production company understand why online video might be helpful in promoting your company.

Focus of the web video

Do you want to promote a product, a service, your customer support, your entire company, or something else? You can’t promote them all at once so you need to start making decisions now – you may need to plan a series of shorter more focussed web videos, rather than longer more detailed ones. You need to be able to provide sufficient detail about exactly what it is you are promoting. What problems do you solve for your customer? Is your solution unique? How do you differentiate yourself in the marketplace – price, technology, service, selection, experience, etc? You’re not looking at business outcomes here – you are determining the specifics of the subject matter in the video.

Competition

Who is your competition? Do they use video to market themselves? Is it effective? How and why should your video be different (or similar) to their video?

Target audience

Exactly who is it you are trying to reach and why. What are their unique attributes? Have you built personas for your key audience? This is one of the most difficult questions for businesses to answer – not because they don’t know who their audience is but because they are concerned about having too narrow a focus. Fortunately the cost of video production is considerably lower than it was just five years ago so it’s possible to build more tactical video solutions for each audience.

Business goals

What are the specific business goals that you want the video to drive? Views, downloads, traffic, referrals, awareness, clicks, inquiries, shares, links, ‘likes’, calls, sales, etc? You have to be able to identify specific goals otherwise you will never know if your investment was worthwhile. Knowing this will help your video production company to determine the best approach to creating your video.

Timelines and budget

When will the project start and when is the completed video required? Have you allocated a budget for the project? If you have it’s a good idea to communicate the budget and ask the video production companies exactly what they can deliver for that budget. The alternative is hiding the budget and asking everyone to guess at your budget. This forces the video production company to make assumptions about the number of shooting days, locations, actors, number of cameras, type of equipment, amount of motion graphics and all of the other variables that go into the creation of a video. The only way to get a useful comparison is to ask production companies to provide detailed treatments and estimates based on these assumptions.

Birmingham video production can help start-ups

Brett Sidaway — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 09:46:33 +0000

Starting a new business in Birmingham is not easy. Statistics show that Birmingham has less business start-ups than the National average, and a higher failure rate too. Therefore, entrepreneurs need every advantage they can get – and in Birmingham video production can be a very big advantage. For new businesses in Birmingham video production offers several advantages, and we explore some in this blog:

1. Video is for sharing

New URLs are at a distinct disadvantage as Google’s algorithm gives an increased weight to older domains. One way for new businesses to overcome this disadvantage is to encourage sharing of their web content to the max. For any new business in Birmingham, web video production provides an ideal too for sharing. It needs strong shareable content but it is more likely to be shared than copy – and that can help with your SEO.

2. Video is exciting

As a new business you need to generate interest, and good online video can do this on your behalf. There is no need to think you need an old school website – the look of the website is less important than its content and effectiveness for SEO. Keep development costs low by using a free WordPress template and put your investment in to some effective video production.

3. Video can help you get to #1 in Google

Because more people are consuming video online, Google has changed the way it ranks websites to reflect this - try searching on a keyword (try one of your businesses own) and see if video appears high in the search engine results. For new start-ups this is great news. For new start-ups in Birmingham, video production companies can offer expert advice on how the content, tagging, describing and sharing of your video can help you achieve great search engine rankings, often much sooner than with traditional SEO.

4. Video is for watching

Let’s not forget that video can have a really positive effective on the success of your business. People love watching video, and you can achieve sales, brand building and successful new product/service launch with effective video – it can deliver key messages in short, watchable chunks. It can give you a competitive advantage even if you are the new boy in the sector.

Hopefully this has inspired you to develop some effective web video for your start-up.

Does sharing of online video outrank traditional SEO?

Brett Sidaway — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:59:29 +0000

Google’s director of product management on search, Sagmar Kamdar has recently stressed that social signals are an increasingly weighted factor in search results. Google’s social technologies are also allowing for more recent and relevant online video to appear at the top of search queries.

This is an important breakthrough for business and especially for small businesses because it presents a level playing field for organisations. Rather than chasing Google’s latest algorithm changes, companies can start to concentrate on developing effective online video. What does effective constitute?

Content - develop compelling content that people (not customers, not consumers) will want to share. What makes them want to share your video? It will be something that will in add value
Description – the basic rules of SEO still apply. All online video needs to be tagged and described in line with your keywords
Visibility – use EVERY opportunity to share your online video. Your website is an obvious choice, but creating a YouTube channel is free and can be very effective. Don’t forget you’re Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts. Go the extra mile and search for related 3rd party blogs and forums as an ideal way to share.

Online video effectiveness for SMEs

There is another reason why these changes to taking account of ‘social signals’ is good news for small businesses – the effectiveness of online video is not dependant on the amount of money spent on it. Production costs are reducing as the ‘hardware’ becomes cheaper. Companies are even making effective videos on iPhones and Smart Phones. Mixing DIY production with professional web video production seems to be a wise strategy for companies about to embark on their web video marketing.

For small businesses budgets can be kept low, but imagination needs to be high – and the time and effort to share and promote the video needs to taken into account. Conceiving, producing and sharing videos can bring an organisation together. The best online videos reflect the brand but are a long way from the traditional corporate video beloved of Boards of Directors. Involving the whole team, assigning roles and encouraging ideas will increase the effectiveness of the video. Most employees will have Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, so encourage them to share your videos with their networks.

Shares of videos matter in Google rankings. That’s why for video SEO, rather than chasing search engine algorithms, dedicate more time to providing interesting and relevant videos in a good user experience that makes people want to share and vote on. Make sure company website videos are shareable through social widgets for Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest.

Do you know the difference between corporate video and online video?

Brett Sidaway — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 15:09:27 +0000

The growth on online video as a marketing tool has encouraged many different organisations to engage the services of professional web video production companies to produce their video. It has also encouraged many organisations to move into this market and this has caused some confusion.

There are plenty of companies offering their services as producers of online video, but a closer examination produces a clearer picture. Many of the organisations have a proud history of corporate videos, but businesses need to understand that online video is far removed from the traditional concept of corporate video. In fact, it might be termed anti-corporate video.

So what’s the difference?

The traditional corporate video was rarely an integral part of any company’s marketing strategy. They were used for background information, or used internally for training. They were wheeled out for awards ceremonies, or they satisfied the ego of a board of directors. They required a strong set of skills to produce a watchable corporate video. However, they are a completely different set of skills to those required to create effective online video as part of a marketing strategy.

The best online video needs to avoid all the clichés of the corporate world. It needs to be driven by the individuals in a company, not the company itself. The best video avoids sales all together. Unlike a corporate video, it builds brand by sharing information, not through sales-driven communications.

There is another major difference between the skills involved in making the corporate video and those for web video. Once a corporate video was produced, that was the end of the story as far as the creative team was concerned. With online video marketing, the story is only half way through. The new wave of professionals will help companies maximise the effectiveness of the video as a marketing tool. There are a whole new set of skills required to do this which come into play from the beginning; they are important when planning and strategising from the outset.

So if you are a business looking to use the latest marketing tool, look for companies with direct sector experience. Those with previous experience in the world of TV advertising or corporate video need to apply.