Over the years, we’ve certainly had challenges and always enjoy figuring out a way to engage viewers. For example, 522 collaborated with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries to develop a series of training videos focusing on key safety issues. But, these weren’t your “everyday” training videos. We were tasked with developing a series of training videos that would resonate with scrapyard truck drivers – an audience not used to absorbing training content on a regular basis.

In order to reach the audience, we created a character called “Dave.” This character had a surly disposition and his unique personality really hit home with viewers. The character proved to be a key asset in breaking down communication barriers between safety managers and truck drivers. The project garnered several thousands of views as part of a dedicated safety microsite. The series still plays on and provides helpful tips for truck drivers across the country. Recently, 522 captured a national Telly award for one of the episodes.

A few days ago, I came across a series developed by BankRate.com. As you might guess, financial terms and processes can be a little dry. A discussion around interest rates and mortgage loans doesn’t excite me too much, that’s for sure. However, BankRate.com has capitalized on the YouTube viral success of hotforwords.com and used the very attractive Marina Orlova to get their messages across. In some ways, it is difficult to just have audiences click the “play” button when they know the subject isn’t too exciting. In this scenario, the audience at least will be encouraged to check out the video content – just from viewing the thumbnail.

We’ll have to wait and see how this series unfolds and if the audience responds. In any event, I applaud BankRate.com for taking a risk and really making an effort to reach the audience. Checkout one of the episodes below.

1. Right before the movie starts, your spot airs. Think about it, you have a captive audience. They’ve turned off their cell phones, are halfway through their first tub of popcorn, and are all facing the same direction. If your target market is 18-30 year olds with disposable income, the movie theater is your crowd. Marketing your local business with a really nicely produced commercial in this venue has great potential.  Perhaps it’s a better investment than that fragmented population you are trying to reach with late night cable?
2. TV screens are popping up everywhere. The airport, the mall, your pediatrician’s office, and even your dentist’s ceiling are sporting high-def screens. This creates a huge opportunity for advertising to the captive audience. If you really know your demographic, you can get their attention with your message. Again, make sure your message is produced well. No cliché “local commercial” fuzzy focus sixty second spots, please.
3. We have a video, but how do we make it viral? Your message has to be so compelling, that people want to share it. One of the earliest viral videos was created by Long John Silvers. More recently, Reebok is vying for your attention with their new clothing line. Well, not really. This one is rated PG-13. We have ABC News to thank for the strategic blurring. So whether you want to lean towards the shocking variety of promotion or the funny kind, creating a viral video that takes on a life of its own as people share it starts with a compelling message. It’s important to make sure the production value matches the message. If you want your audience to think they are watching a spy cam, edit accordingly.
4. Including video in your email marketing can double your open rates. Your email marketing video should blatantly elicit a response in order to be effective. Email is reappearing in the marketing world as a viable means by which to reach your customers with information and updates they expect from you. Make sure your production quality is up to snuff. Videos should be packed with information and position you as the expert in your field.
5. Content marketing is growing more important as consumers seek to educate themselves before they go shopping. Home Depot’s how-to series found on their website is a perfect example of a means by which to position yourself as an expert in your field. By focusing on solving your customers’ dilemmas, and then immediately associating yourself with that solution, you secure long term loyal customers. People are visiting your website to see if you can help them with their problem. Make it clear through your videos that you can.

Ultimately, video content is so much more than a web video or television commercial. Reuse, repurpose or reinvent how you use your videos and make an impact with your customers.

Why Video?

People are highly visual creatures, meaning we want to be shown, not told, as the old writer’s adage goes. A text-driven front page goes against our very nature, but visual content plays directly to what we want. A video is a great way to present the same information you would normally have on your pages, but with a more direct connection to your visitors. Of course, you need the right video to be successful, so let’s look at what works and what falls short of the mark.

The Video Subjects

An obvious answer to what kind of video to post on your home page is one that describes what your business does. If the main goal of your business is to sell a specific product or service, why not feature a video about that on your home page? In addition, testimonial videos can be an excellent way to command attention.

Engagement, Separation, and Integrity

Whatever subject you choose, it’s important to focus on three main concepts: engagement, separation, and integrity. Your video has to have either entertaining or educational content to be appealing to viewers and you must clearly demonstrate what separates your company from others in your area of business. Also, you will need to prove your integrity by showing factual proof of the benefits your company offers. Remember to add a call-to-action at the end of the video that clearly directs visitors to another part of your site to learn more.

Problems to Avoid

While a good video can keep visitors from bouncing away, there are some precautions you need to take to make sure it doesn’t have the opposite effect. The length of the video needs to be relatively short as many people may shy away from the time investment needed to watch a longer clip. In addition, double and triple-check to make sure your video doesn’t autoplay when the page is loaded. This is extremely annoying and can send your visitors running as fast as they can. Give them the freedom to choose to play the video if they so desire.

With the right video, what should happen is that your visitors should be engaged from the first seconds when they first come to your site. The video will serve as a short introduction to your business and encourage further exploration of your site. In no time, your bounce rate should go down to more manageable levels and you should see a dramatic increase in page views per visit. Creating a dynamic and professional video is just an example of one way you can reduce your bounce rate and you should also look to your overall website design and ease of use to find other areas where improvements can be made.

About the author

Nick Beske is the founder of Point Click Productions, an Orange County web design company specializing in intelligent web design, search engine optimization, analytics review and more. To learn more about Point Click Productions, visit http://www.pointclickproductions.com/.

During our recent website redesign, we really placed a priority on identifying a new video hosting platform. We wanted to select a partner that was the right fit for us and our client base. Here is a rundown of some of the major factors involved in our most recent decision process:

• Compatibility -  We have about 10-15% of our website visitors view our site on a mobile device. So, it was important to have a platform compatible across the different operating systems and browsers.
• Limited programming – We like to maintain a focus on design and content. Although we do all of our own web development, we really wanted to have a partner that was responsible for the technology behind our video hosting solution. I think it is not only important to have a solution that works today, but to have a video hosting platform that is constantly adapting to the changes on the web.
• Scaleable – If you just have a requirement to host a couple of videos and need limited bandwidth, the solutions are almost infinite. You can elect to host the content yourself or turn to YouTube, Vimeo or a selection of others. YouTube is great for building a channel, but this is just one way to distribute content. It was important for us to have a host that was scaleable and could grow along with our content.
• Styling/Skinning – We value our corporate brand and wanted to have a video player that could comfortably fit within our design. We wanted the player to have controls that were customizable and would match our color scheme. We also were looking for a way to easily style the player without having to do a lot of custom programming.
• Analytics – Perhaps the most important aspect to consider with video content is the analytics. After all, if you invest in web videos, you also want to understand the type of return you are getting. We were looking for analytics beyond the traditional “views” and were hoping to find a solution where we could see a combination of YouTube and other views in one place.
• Lightbox – I’ve always liked the functionality and user experience of a lightbox. I feel the lightbox approach works really well with video and ensures the viewer is locked in with the content.  Although this approach works well, it can be very cumbersome to implement across all major browsers and operating systems. By using javascript, Flash and other fallback code, it can be difficult to troubleshoot all of the different combinations. At the end of the day, we wanted solid lightbox functionality that we could trust and use to showcase our portfolio of videos.
• Sharing – One of the most powerful aspects of video is its “viral” nature. People want to share video more than any other type of content. Therefore, it was really important for us to have sharing options available….especially if we weren’t going to solely rely upon YouTube as the host.
• Cost – As with most business decisions, it is important to factor the cost. But, cost is not merely monetary, it also involves time and resources. We had a monthly budget of less than $500 and focused on solutions in this price range.
• Content management – We build a lot of websites using open source content management systems (i.e., WordPress, Drupal) and were hoping to find a way to manage our video content effectively. We explored plug-ins for our CMS and other tools providing video content management. The tagging and sorting features available with Vidyard allows us to grow the amount of content without increasing the management workload. Although the video management isn’t integrated into our CMS, the application’s interface provides all of the functionality we need to grow (only downside is logging into another application to manage).

Other features we didn’t really consider, but that may be important to you:

• Playlists – Due to the nature of our content, we don’t really have a need for playlists on our own corporate website. However, we had a chance to evaluate this functionality and can recommend this to our customers.
• Encoding/Uploading – As a video production company, we often encode our own videos and client videos in a variety of formats. So, we have a good understanding of the various attributes involved when encoding video designed for the web. However, finding a solution with this built-in capability was an added bonus.

1. Start with samples – Look for videos that you like. Something that you’ve made a connection with in the past. Look for what others in your industry are doing. Maybe someone’s presented a concept that’s difficult to describe in an interesting way. When you find something you like, play it a few times with the video off. Listen to the audio only. Listen to what’s being said. How it’s being said. Listen to the cadence. The verbiage. The pacing. Does it work with the visuals?
1. And here’s something a little more difficult – Find videos that you don’t like… and find 3 things that you do like about them. It’s easy to slam videos and say “that looks terrible”, “the music stinks”, or “he makes no sense.” Finding the good in the bad forces you to concentrate on things that do work, and that translates into a better video.
2. Summarize your video’s purpose in three sentences – One of the easiest things to do when writing is to get lost in the weeds. You start writing, and quickly realize you don’t know where you’re going. Summarize what your video is about in three sentences – we call this a log line. Refer to your log line often. Make sure that everything you write relates to that summary, and moves the story along. Identify what the video is about. Set the tone (serious, or funny). Define key elements.
3. Keep it simple – Start with the basics of what you want to cover. Take a step back and focus on a few key points that you want to get out in your script. Make sure that each of these points are well executed. If you try to make your script say too much, it won’t say anything.
4. Start with an Outline – Don’t noodle or spin in circles. Draft an outline so you have a clear understanding of where want your video to go. This will help you organize your thoughts as to how to structure your video, as well as help you discover the best method for placing emphasis on certain subjects.
5. Think of your target audience – As you develop your outline, keep thinking of your audience – about the individuals that will be watching your video. What do they do? What do they care about? Where will they be watching your video? Answering these questions puts you in the frame of mind of the viewer. If they don’t get it, you won’t get them.
6. Choose your vehicle – So you you have a general idea as to what you what your video to cover. Now how’s it going to be told? Do you want a Host to demonstrate how to do things? Would voice-over and motion graphics work better? Interviews? Cater your script to this tone. For example, an on-screen host may need an introduction written in, where that’s not necessary with a VO script.
7. Read your script aloud – No. Not aloud in your head. Out loud. Shut the door. Read it out loud to yourself. Are you painting the right picture? Does it flow well? These are things that you’ll notice when reading. Then read it out loud to someone else. Make sure they can follow you and comprehend the message. And ask them a few strategic questions when you’re done.
8. Wisdom of a crowd - This is a tricky one. Make sure that your writing team is small. Just you and one or two others. Definitely do not exclude anyone, but if more people want to get involved, bring them in during the Outlining phase. Once your digits start pounding away on the keyboard, if there are too many opinions and writing styles, the message can easily get muddy. It’s important to make sure everyone’s on board. And I mean everyone. If there’s someone three steps up the chain that needs to bless the script, get their feedback in an early rough draft round – not the final round.
9. Filter feedback – Opinions are like… well, you know phrase. If you give someone the script, keep in mind they will then feel obligated to provide feedback. And by feedback, 9 times out of 10, that means criticisms. And while it’s certainly helpful to collect feedback, don’t feel obligated to appeal to every suggestion. Take a stand on topics you feel are important. Don’t go Falling Down on anyone that doesn’t see things the way you do, but explain your position (rationally) once, and if they don’t agree, tell them ‘you’ll certainly take that into consideration’ and move on. The harder you fight for something, the harder they’ll push back.
10. Finalize your script before shooting – If you incorporate Talent into your script, this is pretty imperative. You can certainly change and adapt on the fly, but just don’t forget anything. Also (if you have time on the shoot), try alternate takes of a script. This enables you to pacify any resistance regarding a segment of the script that may have a tenuous approval.
11. Think of the visuals – On paper, it’s easy to write about whatever you want. You can describe elaborate sets, or intricate details in a procedure. Just keep in mind that something needs to represent what the script refers to. If you’re writing a script on how to saddle a donkey, you probably want to show a donkey at some point. Or a saddle. And keep in mind how long you’re talking about that donkey. One shot of the donkey won’t do if you’re trying to cover a 3-minute script.

Google Adwords for Video – http://ow.ly/6Qbtj

— Tristan Pelligrino (@tpelligrino) October 7, 2011

A few days ago, Baljeet Singh officially moved the program out of the beta phase and announced the launch of Google AdWords for video. The new program allows businesses of all sizes to immediately reach the 800 million monthly YouTube visitors or the millions of other websites on the Google Display Network.
After reviewing the program in more detail, the interface is very similar to the traditional version of AdWords. Here are a few features to note:

• Targeting – Users have the ability to target their ads towards specific audiences. For example, you can identify geographic locations, specific demographics and set other variables.
• Budgeting – If you’re at all familiar with AdWords, then you are aware of how budgets are defined. With Google AdWords for video, your campaign manager has the ability to set the maximum unit price and monthly budget.
• YouTube – Your video ads are selected from the YouTube network. One of the easiest ways to get started is to simply select a video from your channel.
• Ad Formats – There are four main ad formats to choose from including in-search, in-slate, in-display and in-stream. Users have the ability to have an “automatic” setting or you can choose which formats you feel are best for your campaign.
• Call to action – Similar to a normal text ad, Google allows you to select a destination url when users click on the ad. So, you can create targeted videos and direct viewers to a specific area of your site.

For a closer look into how the program works, checkout Google’s video below.

Recently, I came across a series being developed by Nissan Motor Co. that captures the development of a brand new racing car. The series is scheduled to have new episodes every two weeks and is designed to show the challenges of bringing a brand new model to market.

Now, I know that not all companies have the same budgets as Nissan. However, using this approach can provide a company with a number of advantages over using other marketing methods.

Affordable Cost

One of the advantages of using a web video series is that it can be more cost efficient than a large, big-budget single project. Typically, the biggest cost associated with a video production project is the cost of production (i.e., filming). Depending on the level of quality that is required for the project, the cost can vary significantly. However, if the content is planned effectively, organizations can spread the costs of production across several web video segments. After that, the company can then share the video with prospects and customers in other ways for very little investment. If the video is good, it could be shared with others and eventually go viral.

Library of Content

Another big advantage of using a video series to promote a product is that it allows the company to build an inventory of content. By focusing on shorter web videos, a company can build a library of highly-focused content for their online audience. The video segments can then be sprinkled throughout the organization’s site and supplement other content. Ultimately, the library of web videos helps improve conversions throughout the website.

Build an Audience

One of the advantages of creating a web series is that you can grow your audience over time. By developing a steady stream of web video content, you have the ability to reach out to your audience periodically. Therefore, the pressure to hit a grand slam isn’t so great with the first video.

Refine Your Message

In addition to growing your audience over time, you also have the ability to refine your message with a series. Let’s face it, the world changes every day. Your audience’s perception also changes. So, your messages need to be aligned with your audience. A series allows you to create a blend of content that includes both evergreen and time-sensitive videos.

Entertainment Value

In today’s society, people are bombarded with advertisements from every direction. They see ads when they turn on the TV, hear them on the radio and see them on billboards. Many people are even starting to receive advertisements via text message on their phones. Because of this, many people tune out advertisements because they are so used to them. By creating a web video series, you can actually make something that has a high entertainment value. If you entertain your prospects before hitting them with pure advertising, they will usually be much more receptive to the message. This gives you a better chance of being able to reach people instead of just sending your ads out to fail from the beginning.

Summary

Ultimately, a web video series gives you the opportunity to reach your audience on a consistent basis. You can build an inventory of content for your website, grow your audience over time and entertain your potential customers…..all at an affordable cost.

And, if you haven’t checked out the DeltaWing, take a look at the video below.

“To launch the high quality TV channel, TNT in Belgium, we placed a big red push button on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text Push to add drama invited people to use the button. And then we waited…”

I actually found out about this video via a friend on Twitter. When I see someone make a post/tweet that has something along the lines of “This is hilarious” along with a video link, I”m usually curious and get excited to watch it. This is definitely one I am glad I clicked on.

From the beginning I was intrigued. Very dramatic, intense music over simple text made me extremely curious about what I was going to see. After the text, a few shots of a button with a sign that said Push Here for Drama were shown. The button was inspected by people that surrounded the area. The crowd grew increasingly interested in what would happen if the button was pushed. The build-up was perfect. You couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen. Once the first person pushed the button, the music stopped and sirens went off. I knew the video was going to be awesome.

Well, that’s it from me. I won’t go into detail about what happened (check out the video below), but it kept my interest the entire time (all 140 seconds or so). The video was a perfect combination of action and people’s reactions. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud in my office.

So sit back, watch, learn and get inspired. Make sure to be on the lookout for other inspiring video content through social media and set out to shoot something creative of your own!

That video has now had over 2,000 hits and the couple say that it is mentioned by many customers who come to their store. You might say, “Just 2,000 hits?”

The Soap Dispensary is a boutique store that sells refillable soap dispensers and eco-friendly soaps and cleaners. A promotional video on soap, even eco-friendly soap is not high on most people’s must watch lists.

The point to focus on here is that a website video for a small specialized business got 2,000 hits. That is a possible 2,000 customers. Do you know of any business that would not like to quickly reach 2,000?

Web video marketing is proving in this case and many others to have real value for businesses small and large. If you are looking to incorporate web videos into your marketing strategy, contact us.

In an article posted on AG Beat last week, Tom Crichton, vice president of Distilled, said that companies already doing video marketing and those that start now are ahead of the curve. Then he added the caveat. “I think by the end of 2012, if you’re not doing video, you’ll be behind the curve.”

The same article cites statistics from comScore that show 84 percent of the Internet audience in the U.S. watched video online in January. That report also noted that online video viewers are watching for more hours and that the market is receptive to marketing videos. Those numbers should give plenty of incentive for those still testing the waters. Go ahead and take the plunge into video marketing with enthusiasm.

Now, a word to the wise. Just as you wouldn’t dive into the lake if you didn’t know how to swim, you should not make reckless moves when you launch a video marketing project. Quality counts. There is a discerning audience out there and it is not going to be impressed or moved by poorly executed marketing videos. The more time online audiences spend with video, the more demand for high-quality production. As with just about any other market opportunity, you need to focus on differentiating your business.