Guest blog by Mike Whitmore
President at Fresh Consulting
You know when you should do something that you really need to do, that you’ve heard it would be really helpful to your business, but you just haven’t gotten around to it yet?
You are certain of the importance of video, yet you’ve got some valid excuses:
1. Making a video is a process and is outside your area of expertise.
2. Other priorities of the day take precedence, such as sales meetings.
3. You have no idea where to start, what would the video consist of, or what would the format be.
4. You don’t like how you look on camera, or you want to lose some weight before being on video.
5. How would making a video help your business, or, would it be worth your time?
I had some of those questions myself, but an experience I had with video made me realize how valuable of a tool it could be. I became president of a digital marketing firm in January of 2009. In May, the founders of Biznik held a unique video shoot in Seattle for entrepreneurs. Biznik wanted to capture small business owners on video using HD cameras for a documentary on entrepreneurship called Shine. They utilized a sound stage in Seattle and set up a dozen cameras and crews for filming. They even had a handful of makeup artists to help us not “shine” on film (thank goodness).
A handful of us attended some pre-filming sessions to get us thinking about what we wanted to capture and to practice our on-camera skills. These were helpful sessions, and I recommend you practice, too. Look, talking to a camera lense like it’s a real person you’re conversing with is unnatural. However, getting that on-camera chemistry right will really help your video have impact.
The format was simple. We all chipped in $5 for the refreshments. As there were about 250 of us who were to be filmed, we would do the clips in one take. That’s right — one take to capture the clip that they might use in the movie. While in line, a bunch of us wrote out the questions we wanted the film crew to ask us, and then we rehearsed and perfected the messaging.
After a few weeks, I received my clip, and my firm utilized the footage for the video you may now watch on my blog here. It’s at the top right and runs just under 5 minutes.
Funny enough, only one or two clips taken that night made it into the actual movie, and though I wasn’t one of them, I was not disappointed. The footage I did get was edited by my team and has been an excellent piece of digital content.
Related to the numbered items above, here are some takeaways for you that I learned first-hand.
1. Video Process. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and for professional results, I recommend that you hire professionals. Thanks to the Biznik folks, the finished clip cost me very little to capture and edit to a final piece we could use. I used to say that it cost me all of $5. In reality, it was more due to the practice sessions, my time, final editing by the team, etc., but the return on investment has been immeasurable. It will represent you and your brand, so do it well.
2. Priorities. What if you could be selling 24/7? Doesn’t that sound exciting? Ok, probably not. With video you can, and if you’re on that video, you are the one telling the story when someone is interested enough to click on it. That’s a match made in heaven. Check out Google’s Research on click-through rates for content types, and you’ll see why video marketing needs to be higher on your list of priorities.
3. Video Format. What content should your video contain? That’s really for you to wrestle with, but a great start will be to Start with Why. Why did you start the business? What problem did you see, and how do you solve it? What makes your approach unique? Why would prospects want to work with you? Definitely let your personality shine through. We’ve had several clients engage us in work simply because they felt the got to know us through videos on our website.
4. Looks. Everyone (I repeat, everyone) worries about how they look on film. We worry about our looks a lot more than anyone else does. My advice is to get over it and get on video. Your smile is your best accessory, and with that, your genuine self, telling your story from the heart, will capture and retain the viewer’s attention. Get on video.
5. Value of Time. Without knowing your business, I’m going to guess that prospecting and sales consume some amount of your time. Electronic assets such as video are worth the time because they are created once and reused again and again. Their value perpetuates. Even if your business changes, those electronic assets can often be repurposed to be utilized again.
The Research Shows
From Google Research: “50.5% of US consumers watch video online and they’re spending 45% more time doing it than a year ago — that’s over four and a half hours of online video per month. People in the 18-34 age group spend more time watching online video than they do watching TV – almost 50% more. On YouTube alone, users around the world are watching 4B videos a day, and uploading more than 60 hours of video per minute. That’s a lot of video. And this is set to grow at an unprecedented rate; currently video makes up 40% of all Internet traffic and will exceed 91% by 2014, according to forecasts from Cisco.”
A closing word on value
A couple of years ago, I was presenting a 90-minute keynote for a conference in Washington, D.C. While on the trip, I was out of office, yet the traffic to my online content was high due to my speaking engagement. Speaking engagements meant mass-selling opportunities! While on that trip, I had inquiries for three other speaking opportunities, all from our online videos.
Video marketing can transform your sales efforts and your business. Make it a priority to begin the process today.
Mike Whitmore is Co-Founder and Advisory Board President for Fresh Consulting, a digital media solutions firm providing digital strategy, design and technology solutions. Clients include Boeing, kathy ireland World Wide and Wasatch Advisors. Mike serves on several nonprofit boards and speaks professionally on digital and social media and professional networking and is an Affiliate of Ferrazzi Greenlight. Mike welcomes connections via his blog and on Twitter.