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Welcome to our digital marketing blog. Here you will find free advice discussing all the tips and tricks you need to make and promote the very best online content.

From practicalities on set to the latest digital marketing trends, we’ve learned—sometimes the hard way—what does and doesn’t work. Here we hope to impart the methods and techniques we’ve come to know and love.

Jan 22
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How Long Should My Video Be?

By Digital Marketing, Video Production Advice

A Guide to Viewer Retention

Getting the length (or duration) of your promotional video or video marketing content right is essential to ensuring your target audience actually watch your video in its entirety. Pretty much every time we click play on online video we cast a quick glance to the bottom right of the video window to see what the duration of the video is.

The Importance of the Start

If we’re not fully engaged right from the start and the duration is above 2 minutes there’s a strong chance we will click away before watching just over half of the video. Depending on your product and target demographic this critical window of initial engagement time can get shorter – If you’re targeting under 25’s you’d better get the first 10 seconds of your video marketing bang on or your dead in the water.

Before we look at the figures its worth mentioning that there are several problems caused by viewers not watching a promotional video right to the end.

Firstly we don’t want them to miss any of our key product or service selling points. If a viewer stops half way through they may be missing the piece of information that’s critical to their own purchase decision making process.

Secondly, we don’t want the viewer to miss seeing the CTA- which many videos have as their closing message.

Finally, google ranks sites with videos that have high levels of “completed plays” higher than those with high video click away rates. So if everyone only watched less than half of our video Google will rank it lower in relevant search listings.

The Statistics

viewer-rention-stats

So lets look at the stats to see how the length of your promotional video impacts on the average amount of your video that actually gets viewed.

It’s not going to be a massive revelation to most people that shorter videos achieve many more “completed plays” than longer ones. We all lead busy lives and if you’re selling B2B then time is always critical so mainlining your message quickly is the most effective way of ensuring that your entire message is received. If your promotional video is under 2 minutes then nearly 55% of every person who hits play will watch the entire video (this sounds low but its actually a good benchmark to aim for).

If you’re video runs a little longer there is a drop off in these completion stats but its interesting to note that there is not much variation in completed plays whether your video is 3 minutes or 10 minutes in length. Videos with durations between 3 and 10 mins achieve an average of 37% completed plays. So if you’re video is going to be over 2 minutes, don’t worry if it ends up being 4 or 5 mins as the stats over the 2 min mark are similar.

However if you need to present a much longer video of over 10 minutes then the drop off rate is steep with an average of just 27% of viewers reaching the final frame of your video.

Obviously some video productions require a longer duration due to the nature of the content and the messaging required. If this is the case then load the key information in the early part of your video to ensure you deliver your key messages before the viewer can click away. A good idea is to have a CTA that appears either throughout the video (in the form of voiceover or text) or to keep repeating the CTA at intervals throughout the video.

Structure

Think about your video in the way a newsreader would present the news. Start with the main headlines in brief. This ensures you deliver a quick overview of your key values and selling points from the outset.

You can elaborate on the detail of these key points in the remainder of your video knowing that you’ve delivered punch and impact at the start. This will not only help encourage viewer completed plays but will ensure that you have delivered the guts of your message to any viewers who do click away.

So what can we takeaway from these stats. Well obviously the main point is to be brief. Shorter promotional videos engage viewers and keep them watching. If you’re video marketing content is under 1 minute then it will achieve more than 200% the amount of completed plays than a 10 minute+ version would. Impact is key so strong messages clearly and quickly delivered will produce a powerful video marketing asset and help drive those sales.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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Colour Grading advice from experienced video editing company

By Video Production Advice

An Overview of Colour Correction and Grading

As a busy video editing company we know that adding an extra touch of production quality and polish to your promotional video can make all the difference and any advantage you can gain over your competitors should be considered when producing video marketing. By tweaking the colours of the footage shot for your final video you can produce images and footage that are much more visually appealing and that have an enhanced cinematic look to instantly grab the viewers’ attention.

Why Use Colour Grading?

But “why bother?” you may ask, “if my video works then why should I spend any more time and budget messing around with the colours?”. Well, as previously mentioned in other articles, viewers make a snap judgement call on your brand, product or service within the first few seconds of any promotional video. So presenting something that borrows a few tricks from the big screen communicates a message of high quality and professionalism right from the get go.

In the movie world this process is known as grading or colour correction. But at its most basic form, it’s simply adjusting the colours of the footage to produce the most beautiful image we can.

Now I should add here that this is not an expert in-depth tutorial for editors and movie makers but simply a quick look into grading and what it can add to a corporate video production.

We usually find that we end up doing a little colour correction for one of the following 2 reasons.

Firstly, as mentioned above, to enhance the production feel of the overall film.

And secondly, to correct any ugly or unpleasant colours or lighting that certain shooting conditions create.

Depending on the camera you are using you’ll have a different look and feel to the footage you shot. This look and feel will dictate what is required in post to produce a better looking final image.

Another factor will be whether you are shooting “on the fly”, which can be something that is required at live events. When shooting on the fly you have less control of existing lighting conditions, subject and composition so the grading part of the post production tends to involve fixing the image rather than enhancing it.

However if you’re in a studio or location where you have full control over lighting and subject then you should be able to generate good looking footage that can then be enhanced further in post.

Focus on Skin Tones

Every video editing company will tell you that as a rule, one of the key things to achieve when grading is to create realistic and beautiful skin tones. We like to add some other tweaks to footage to enhance the high end feel but aiming at getting the skin tone right is a good starting point.

From there we may want to enhance the contrast, adjust the blacks in the image, add balance or push complimentary colours into the light and dark areas of the images.

Here’s a couple of examples of what can be achieved:

video editing company

Firstly we have some footage shot “on the fly” at one of our clients’ event launches. We had no control over lighting and the product on show was LED screen based so this in itself created quite an unpleasant blue light cast. The footage that we shot felt too cold (due to the products LED pixels which tend to emit a blue-ish hue). It also felt very heavy in the dark areas and generally didn’t fill us with warmth about the brand or product portrayed.

We were able to correct the footage using simple controls found in even basic editing software. The alterations we made were as follows:

Reduced the white areas strength to subdue the unpleasant light created by the product (LED screen)

Slightly lifted the dark areas of the image to stop it feeling too heavy acheter viagra naturel.

We added a little saturation to the colours.

Then we pushed yellow/red into the light and mid tone areas of the image, and pushed blue into the darer areas of the image.

A good tip is that if you push one colour into the light areas then you achieve a pleasant result by pushing the colour at the opposite end of the colour wheel into the corresponding dark areas (or visa versa). This doesn’t always work but in general these opposites in the light/dark areas compliment each other and produce a nice looking image.

The final result was that we had warmed up the image a great deal and created a balance to the image overall.

video editing company

In this image we were shooting on a high end camera which allows us to control the colour grading in the final image very tightly. The footage itself is shot using a log format which although when initially viewed looks flat and not very appealing, contains all the colour information we need to grade the shot in a variety of ways. This gives us much more control on colours and the final look of the image and allows us to present more dramatic and cinematic looks to the final film.

Now all this may seem very superficial if your producing corporate video or video marketing and we agree that no video should place style over substance. However, our 15 years experience as a video editing company has taught us that customers opinions are impacted upon by the initial visual judgements they make when encountering your brand. So by adding a little grading or colour correction to your video marketing ensures that you present a film that maximises its potential to achieve a positive instant reaction from new customers.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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What does it take to be a good Video Producer?

By Video Production Advice

An Overview of What The Role of Video Producer Entails

Whether you are producing your video marketing or corporate videos in house or outsourcing to an agency finding a good video producer is key. If you’re working solely internally then you’ll need to delegate the role to a colleague or maybe assume the role yourself. If you’re outsourcing you’ll need to know how to identify a good candidate or agency to handle your video production brief. To help you in this process here’s an overview of what a good video producer will bring to the table and some notes on what the role entails.

What a Good Producer Does

Essentially a video producer will anchor the whole project form brief and conception to realisation and delivery. They will have hands on knowledge of every part of the process. When this is done effectively it ensures that the key messages within the original brief are maintained and delivered in a way that accurately reflects the vision and desired target viewer.

There can be lots of elements within the overall video production that will all individually contribute (or detract from) the projects success. Each one of these elements—no matter how small—can massively impact the final video so the producer should be holding the reins at every step to maintain the cohesion of the project and the message delivered.

So here’s some key points to keep in mind whether your assuming the role of video producer yourself or looking for a good external video producer.

Be the Customer and the Brand

Getting under the skin of the targeted final viewer is really important at an early stage. It should help the producer make informed calls on style, direction and tone of the video, and also steer the creative. Producing a video that engages and connects is the ultimate goal so understanding what factors will achieve this connection from the outset are key.

Equally understanding the culture and values of the brand you are representing is another big element in many of the initial decisions that the video producer will need to take.

Video producer

Manage the Schedule

Your promotional video may only take a week to produce or it may take a year. Many projects require filming that is sometimes spread over weeks or months so having a foot on the timings from the outset is also very useful. A clear schedule should be produced showing pre-production (ie all the stuff that happens before filming takes place, shooting and post-production (editing etc). This schedule should be communicated to everyone involved in the project an updated often online paypal viagra.

Knowledge is Power

Having a good understanding of any—and all—of the elements within your project will do 2 very useful things:

Save You Time and Money

As a video producer I personally want to have a good technical and artistic grasp on everything from lighting to sound, animation to casting and scripting to mastering. One of the main reasons to do this is to accurately manage the costs. People can get very exited when producing video and knowing exactly what the right tools each step of the project are will prevent you from overspending.

Everyone likes to work with the latest kit and best toys. Ask a camera operator which camera they would suggest for a job and you can put good money on them advising a camera that sits in the higher end of the budget scale than the cheapest option!

A good producer will know what is the most suitable tool for all stages of the production from choice of camera to lighting spec. The cost saving that can be achieved here can be significant. Remember, higher spec kit wont always increase final viewer engagement.

Video producer

 Be Clear

Communication within a video production is critical. It falls to the video producer to ensure that this communication happens, that it is clear, and that it is communicated to everyone within the production. If your project is a large one then there will me many areas that require agreement and understanding on an ongoing basis whether this be agreeing scripts or storyboards, managing shoot logistics, or handling the post-production workflow.

Creating an effective communication channel from the start of any project is key.

Review the Costs at Every Stage

This is a no-brainer but again it’s easy to get carried away and lose sight of small items that can impact on final budgets. Your initial costs may include a few floating elements as occasionally there will be items within the production that can’t be nailed down at briefing stage. A good producer will ensure that the potential spread of these floating costs is clear so that top and bottom end budgets can be agreed. Revisiting the costs throughout the production process is also useful to ensure value is being delivered at every stage.

If you’re using an agency make sure you confirm that the costs provided are all inclusive and that items such as buy-out, multi format delivery and usage are included.

Step Back When Reviewing

Having a close eye on all elements of the production is not without its drawbacks. One of the most common problems a video producer faces is getting too close to the project and losing their creative judgment and objective appraisal.

Its important that the producer takes a step back from the production at regular intervals to provide a clearer overview of how the production is shaping up. Trying to do this “on the hoof” whilst the production is ongoing can be challenging so its wise to allow some time and space to periodically review the project.

At the end of the day the person who produces your promotional video or video marketing must perform the challenging feat of being both subject expert and end consumer while at the same time bringing a wealth of knowledge about the actual video production process.

It’s by no means a walk in the park but knowing what the role requires before you start production means you can select the right person for the role who will deliver video production that meets any brief perfectly.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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Video Production Costs

By Corporate Video Production, Video Production Explained

A guide to video production costs

Its rare to see a price list on a video production company’s website and to be honest you should be wary of any company offering “off the shelf” prices and packages for video production. Every brief is different and the type of production required (and therefore budget) can vary widely. However to provide some transparency and insight into budgeting for your promotional video here are some common video production costs.

Not all the items below are required on every project and some of them have wider cost ranges than others depending on what your requirements are.

You can also pay a lot more or a lot less for most of the crew and personal costs shown here. This is usually based upon the experience that the brief demands for each crew member.

So here’s some common elements that you may require in your production and a guide on costs. These are based on a very common brief that we often get for producing a corporate video which requires location filming of simple action or actuality footage, some talking head interview shots and possibly a voiceover and/or model requirement.

Pre-Production Costs

This includes the services of your producer in providing project management, scripting, project logistics and scheduling. This particular element does differ but as a rule budget allow roughly 10% of the overall production costs for Pre-production

Cast

Good models, actors and voiceover talent will cost between £150 – £300 per day including usage buyout. You can certainly pay more (depending on talent required and their current demand) but if you’re paying less there’s usually a trade off in terms of talent and commitment.

Video Production Costs

Crew Per 10 Hour Shoot Day

Director – £400 per day and upwards depending on experience.

Camera Operator/DOP/Sound engineer- £350 per day and upwards depending on experience.

Equipment

Camera Kit per shoot day (this kit should include camera, tripod, lens, monitor and cables etc)

£250-£350 per day for a camera kit that will give you a basic corporate look (such as a Canon C300)

£750 – £900 per day for a camera that will give you a stunning cinematic look (such as a RED Epic)

Sound

Radio microphones £50 per day

Video Production Costs

Lights

Basic interview lighting kit including 3 x heads with stands (1x 150w, 2x 300w) £40-£70 per day

Location

Studio hire (small studio – talking heads size) £500 per day

Location agency (real location/set hired through location agency for special requirements) £1000 per day and upwards

Post Production Costs– Editing, Animation, Mastering etc

The amount of time you need to edit your project depends on the amount of material shot and the complexity of the requirements but as a guide editing should come in at £350-£400 per day (this should include editor and edit suite but not Director who can sometimes be required to sit in the edit).

So there you have it. Depending on your project you may need some (or many) other elements or you may only require a couple of the items in this list.

Hopefully this gives you some advance steer on where you Video Production Costs may need to be to achieve the type of video production you require.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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Should You Hire a Marketing Expert?

By Digital Marketing

Marketing Experts from a Business Owner’s Point of View

There are a myriad of different marketing experts available to businesses today. A quick glance online will find every Tom, Dick and Harriet offering their services as a “marketing expert” or “consultant” and even traditional graphic design agencies now present themselves as “marketing solution agencies” such is the power and demand for this service and expertise. But often business owners (and I’m talking about myself here) are reluctant to hire external marketing experts. There’s often a believe that much of the skill base required can be found (or developed) in themselves, or internally within their organisation.

My Experience

Personally I had the view for many years that “no one knew my business or customers as well as me” and “if I can grow a business form scratch I can certainly keep it growing”. However sadly, I was wrong.

Now I need to be clear at this stage that I have nothing to gain for banging the drum of any particular approach (whether you do this internally or engage the services of an external expert). This is simply an unbiased view based on what happened to my business when I hired an external marketing consultant.

As a business owner, director or manager there will always be a certain level of creativity, drive, and ambition that has been required in getting to where we are today. As a business owner myself these attributes can sometimes manifest themselves as a “can do” or ” anything is possible” attitude. These are strong (and essential) traits that are essential to success but they can also sometime generate a barrier to seeking external expertise for specific tasks.

Now let’s be honest. Anyone could spend time researching, developing and realising the best way to market their business. Successful marketing is not some dark art, or something that only a gifted few can bestow. Given time we could all become half decent marketeers and develop an effective campaign. But this is time spent not doing the actual things that make the business money. It’s time that we should be spending focusing on the core of our businesses and spending it on marketing would pull us away from the many of the day to day essentials.

So hiring an external marketing expert is worth considering. Its something that we have done successfully over the past year and we have seen significant benefits and our business has grown as a direct result.

growth

Finding & Hiring External Consultants

We’ve learned a lot about the process of finding and hiring external marketing consultants so here’s a summary of what has worked for us:

Marketing experts come in many forms but the majority focus currently on digital marketing rather than traditional media.

Digital marketing experts can be useful to help you plan and deliver a google PPC campaign, increase natural traffic to your website (SEO), make your website a better user experience, identify new opportunities and a whole host of other areas.

Now not all digital marketing experts are created equal and many will specialise in one or two of these services. Some will also specialise in specific sectors. It’s also worth mentioning that some will specialise in billing you way too much so by all means don’t get into bed with the first one you come across.

The key is to shop around and talk to lots of people before making a decision.

You’ll probably have an inbox that’s constantly bombarded with emails from companies and individuals promising you the world if you pay them for their marketing advice so selecting the right person or organisation for you can be a challenge.

Here’s a few other things that you should keep in mind:

Decide exactly what you want to achieve

Having a goal or firm idea of what you want your forthcoming marketing activity to do is critical to finding the right person to help you achieve that goal.

Don’t rush

Again, as a business owner I’m impatient, I want to drive things forward and push projects into realisation pas viagra. But allowing time to do your research is key.

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Talk to lots of marketing experts

This will give you a feel for who you think can understand you and your clients. Have a look at their track record but also allow yourself to be guided by your gut a little. You will need someone who you can work with so understanding and empathy is pretty important.

Don’t be scared it’ll cost £000s

We have marketing consultants who work for us on a short term basis for fees in the low £100s. Many marketing consultants can negotiate individual packages to suit you so don’t be put of by thinking that you’ll need to spend truckloads just to get anywhere.

Be open to new ideas

The worst thing you could do was pay an expert for insight and advice only to ignore it all because it’s suggesting something that’s new or untried for your business. Trust in their research and expertise

Hiring a digital marketing expert was one of the better moves I’ve made in my 16 years of running a business and allows me to focus on the core whilst still driving the brand out to new customers and opportunities in ways that are innovative and accurate.

So there you are, take it or leave it. As mentioned I’m not here to sell you anything. I’m simply sharing our experience in the hope that it may be useful in driving your own business forward.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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How To Shoot Your Own Training Video

By Video Production Advice

Getting Great Talking Head Shots on a Budget

There are many occasions when a company or business may need a small video clip but simply don’t have the budget for an external production agency to produce it. This is especially true when creating training video. In these cases the video can sometimes be successfully produced in house by company staff members. Many companies have access to a reasonable quality camcorder but often we see some basic mistakes made that could easily be avoided. Let’s take a standard brief or common requirement that companies often shoot in house and highlight a few areas to look out for.

Training video

“The company needs some very short talking head/interview shots for use as an online training video There’s no budget for an external agency so this will be shot in house using an available camera and edited by the companies own creative department.”

Here’s what to watch out for.

Lighting

Lighting is vital to film. It can be the difference between making a piece look flat and lifeless or rich, engaging and beautiful. But it’s also easy to run into trouble if you don’t know what to look for. If you’re shooting in house video there’s a strong chance that you will only be using natural lighting rather than film lighting.

Whether you’re indoors or outdoors the key is to position your camera between the subject and the light source. The subject should roughly be facing the light source and the camera should have its back to the light source.

If you’re shooting indoors then you can either do one of two things. Use natural daylight from a window, or go with the internal lighting of the building. Avoid having a light directly above your subject as this will never flatter them. Instead look for areas of the building where the light source is to the front or roughly 45 degrees from the subject.

If outdoors never shoot with the suns position behind the subject. If you’re fairly new to using the camcorder and are shooting using the “auto” mode then shooting into the light source will make the subject appear very dark as the camera compensates for the bright light behind.

Ideally you’ll want to set the exposure first but if you’re a complete beginner then you may prefer to shoot on auto so getting the positioning right is important.

training video

Sound

If you’re shooting using whatever camcorder you can get your hands on then there’s also a good chance you will be using the top mounted camera mic. These mics are never going to be as good as a clip, boom or handheld microphones but there are a few things that can help you here.

Firstly camera mics are very sensitive. They can hear a lot more than we can and they don’t have a brain to filter the noise or focus on what they want so if you’re shooting an interview in a busy office the mic will pick up everything!

Try to find somewhere quiet. Turn the air con of if possible, and close any windows to minimize background noise.

If outdoors be aware of the wind. Even a gentle breeze can cause wind rustle on the mic so try to find somewhere with a wind break.

Then position the camera close to the subject. To do this ensure that the camera is zoomed out as far as possible. Then physically move the camera and tripod until you get a nice head and shoulders shot. What your doing here is essentially moving the mic closer to the subject so that you can record a nice clean interview and help minimize any unwanted noises.

Time

There’s a good saying in film production that goes – You can have it good, fast or cheap…..pick two.

You’re probably shooting in house to save budget and it goes without saying that you want the film to be good. So the sacrifice production wise would be the time element acheter du vrai viagra. So allow plenty of time to setup, shoot and even re-shoot the interviews you need. Even a short interview can take time and the more you can allow, the better your results will be.

training video

B-Roll

Rarely do employees or even board members deliver a word perfect sound bite that fits into you’re desired running time straight off the bat so some editing is always required. However if you’re cutting together like for like shots from an interview its handy to have additional footage to cut over the top so that your transition from clip to clip appears smooth.

Allow time to shoot some “cutaway” or “B Roll” footage. This is footage that you shoot for the purpose of editing and is always vital to training video as a way of illustrating what the subject may be saying.

If you have the time you could also shoot parts of the interview twice and shoot an alternative wide or close up shot to use as a cutaway in the edit.

Follow these simple rules and even a complete beginner should be able to generate footage to suit a basic training video  brief.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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How To Conduct Great Interviews for Corporate Training Videos

By Video Production Advice

A Guide For The Interviewer

A big part of producing corporate training videos (or even video marketing and corporate video) involves shooting interviews or talking head type shots. Getting the picture, sound and general technical stuff right is one thing (which we’ve covered in other articles). However, someone has to conduct the actual interview and elicit the best responses for use in the final edit. This is by no means a walk in the park but getting the best content will ensure that your final film reaches its full potential. So here are some thoughts and tips from the angle of the interviewer and how to get the best our of your subject.

Research

Firstly, prior to shooting do your research. This sounds like a no brainer but you’ll need to be sharp during the interview so that you don’t lose the energy. Most people aren’t naturally keen on going in front of camera so if you’ve worked hard to get them into the flow you don’t want to lose them by dithering over your questions.

Know What You Want

You should also have a very clear idea about the kind of responses you are looking for. Shooting interviews for Video marketing or corporate training videos is very different from press or news interviews in that you’ll probably be working to a brief with some pretty clear goals in terms of what you need to convey.

We often start with a “perfect world” list of answers that we wish to elicit, then work backwards from there and develop our questions and talking points based on the answers we want.

corporate training videos

Warm Up Your Subject

Before starting the interview warm your subject up a little (especially if this is the first time you’ve met). Some chit chat goes a long way to helping them feel relaxed and gives you a better chance of capturing a natural feeling interview. A good tip here is to give them something about yourself. Try to find some common ground and volunteer up some personal information about yourself to try to establish a bond of trust.

Before rolling the camera also talk them through how the interview will run, ie where you want them to look (into camera or off camera to interviewer), give them a feel for the length of answer, and reassure them that there are “no wrong answers”.

Also suggest to them that it’s useful for them to give you some of your question back in their answer. This usually helps in the edit as often the interviewers voice is not required.

Make sure they are comfy if they are sat, and that their clothing is not riding up in any strange ways around their shoulders in the chair that you have provided.

Throwaway Question

Once you’re rolling always assume that you’re first question is going to be a throwaway. People often need a little time to find their flow so don’t go in with your big guns first. Your first questions can even be an extension of your pre-shoot chit chat.

If you have some quite specific comments you are looking for don’t be afraid to tell them. It’s sometimes easier for a subject if you give them a pointer of how to start their response.

Within your question list have the same key questions phrased in 2 different ways and ask that same question twice. It’s a great way of getting a second bite at some of the key points and you should have already primed them not to worry if they feel like they are repeating themselves. The 2 responses can always be edited together to form the best single delivery.

Ask open-ended questions and leave questions hanging a little for them to fill in. You’re certainly not looking for “yes” or “no” answers so give them the opportunity to get descriptive.

corporate training videos

Get Personal

When wording your question try to give them something to work from and don’t be afraid to get personal. Asking people how they feel about something often produces great soundbites that give the answers a more powerful emotional element. This goes a long way to creating compelling corporate training videos or video marketing in general.

Be quiet. In a normal conversation you’d tend to make noises of agreement to show who you’re talking to that you’re interested. However you don’t really want these sounds on mic during an interview so maintaining a facial expression of interest along with eye contact goes a long way to helping the subject feel like you want to hear what they are saying.

Finally ask good follow up questions to their answers, it shows that you have been paying attention and can lead to good additional information if they have only brushed over a subject initially.

At the end of the day people generally love talking and telling stories. But they also generally dislike being filmed. So if you can engage them as an interviewer to such a degree that they forget about the camera then you’ll generate some fantastic material for your corporate training videos.

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To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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Why is digital video marketing for business so powerful?

By Digital Marketing

Digital Video Marketing.

Video for business has grown into a crucial part of any company’s tool kit. Video marketing adds an extra layer of excitement to any marketing campaign and engages the customer or viewer on their own terms and often, in their own homes. But why has video for business become so powerful and persuasive. To examine this we need to look at the different generations that form the internet age and why they have been the ones who have driven this movement.

Customer Driven

Its quite a bold statement but we should accept that the strength of digital video marketing stems form the fact that the viewers (or customers) have a key part to play in the conversation and have essentially dictated the terms of how they would like to engage with us as businesses or organisations.

The rise of video marketing is not a product of a forward thinking cool marketing agency or the child of a heavy weight corporation. Instead it’s a truly customer led format that lives or dies based on their demands. It’s here that its power essentially stems from.

digital video marketing

History of Video Marketing

Online video took a long time to arrive in its current format. The initial incarnation of the web as we know it wasn’t able to deliver video in the way that matched our appetite for it. Viewers wanted quick, easily accessible bite-size information delivered in videos that were of high quality.

The web simply wasn’t upto this. Digital video marketing couldn’t be delivered to mass audiences due to restrictive bandwidth and data charges that made streaming far too expensive for most companies. However the advent of dedicated video delivery sites such as youtube changed this forever.

The poor user experiences that we’d previously had with online video are now a thing of the past and the days of waiting an hour to stream the spiderman trailer at a screen resolution the size of a postage stamp are thankfully long gone.

Give It Time

However what’s interesting is that users didn’t abandon their desire to frequently watch online video during these early teething troubles. No one was put off to such a degree that the medium was dead in the water and we were prepared to give it time. Our desire to consume information via web video was so strong that we waited and waited until finally it was fit for purpose, and then, we jumped in head first.

Many internet and social media users are from the original TV generation and recent users are born with an ability to quickly and efficiently consume, interpret, filter and judge video content in a matter of seconds.

digital video marketing

Customer Engagement

Today users will either engage with video content or switch off very quickly and it’s this personal selection that makes the bond with what they DO decide to watch a powerful one. The online video experience seems like the most natural way to watch content and the advances in streaming to tablets and phones only strengthen our belief in the medium.

It’s this belief that makes video for business the perfect way to engage in conversation with customers. I use the word conversation because the viewing experience is anything but passive and the viewer has made several decisions before watching your video content that help us understand why the medium has such power.

The business world is now in a fully fledged romance with online video and it will be interesting to observe where we go from here. One thing is certain and that is that the future of online video for business looks bright and mutually rewarding for both business and customer.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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The Power of Music in Video

By Video Production Advice

How to Make the Most of Music

When producing marketing video for website and social media use getting the soundtrack right  is a critical part of how powerful the final film will be. Music can drive our emotions in such a way that it can multiply the power of your video’s message and engage the viewer in a much more emotional way. Let’s face it, people can talk passionately about music more than any other art form or medium out there. How many times have you got involved in a “top 5 albums ever!!” debate with friends? Or passionately argued why music today “isn’t as good as it used to be”? Because music forms the soundtrack that wraps around the sights, experiences and emotions of our lives we are connected to it in a way that’s very powerful.

So if we get the music right when producing marketing video for website and social media viewing we effectively amplify the power of every other single element within the film. Music can drive excitement, drama, suspense, tenderness and many other of the common messages that we may need to convey when producing video for businesses and organizations.

Powerful use of music

There are a few really useful tips when it comes how you use your chosen music within your video marketing production that we apply to a lot of the work we produce. These are: 

Don’t be afraid to use dramatic music.

Big powerful scores can really lift a production to a higher level and are not the sole reserve of Hollywood epics.

marketing video for website

Use 2 or even 3 pieces of music within your film. Changing the music within the film will do 2 great things.

It will make the film feel shorter (this is a great way to maintain viewer engagement). When producing marketing video for website and social media viewing we know that our potential customers attention spans are short. Therefore using this trick prevents the films from “dragging” and keeps our viewer for longer.

And it will allow you to change the tone/message/scenes as the film unfolds (useful when the brief requires you to convey multiple messages)

Balance your vocals.

In many cases we want the music to feel full and powerful throughout the film. However we don’t want it to make the vocals or voiceover in-audible. So always use a limiter type tool on your vocals to ensure they sore above the background music (a limiter works by pushing up all the quiet parts of the vocal while limiting the volume increase on the louder parts to generate an even level throughout).

Edit the music to fit your needs.

Rather than simply fading down the music at the end see if you can edit the track by removing a bar here and there so that the rises and falls within the track match your footage. This is tricky if your are using a vocal track but if your using an instrumental and you can tap you foot to a rhythm then it should be achievable.

marketing video for website

Avoid using dance music.

Its lazy, obvious and we’ve seen it too many times!

Sourcing your music

When sourcing music for our films there are several options that we could go down depending on budget and desired response. In some cases we can have music specially composed for our video, or we could use one of the fantastic music licensing sites (such as premiumbeat) which offer a huge choice of music for all moods that we can license for a one off fee.

However, it can get tricky if your client wants to use a “known” piece of popular music. The legal and financial aspect of doing this can be a minefield. And if you client wants to use a track by a worldwide artist such as Bruce Springsteen then they will need a mortgage sized budget.

In most video marketing we work with smaller budgets but that’s not to say that “known” popular music is out of reach. There are some great resources and companies (such as Ricall) who can provide you with some well known tracks (although admittedly mostly from a good few years ago) complete with legal and licensing aspects all taken care of. Its a good option if you need this kind of thing.

Above all, use the music within your film to help drive the message and bring the viewers emotions and senses into play. This will ultimately engage them and drive home the key messages from your brief in a much stronger way. Its the key to producing the most powerful marketing video for website and social media marketing.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 22
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The Promotional Video Is Not Dead!

By Digital Marketing

How Important is Promotional Video Today?

As a busy video marketing agency we’ve noticed that one of the by-products of the perceived power of content marketing and the language that accompanies is that the humble “promotional video” seems to have been left in the dust. Current marketing rhetoric constantly reminds us that “content is king” and that your online marketing video content should be original, and dare I say it, “quirky”. This has created a downward pressure on brands (both large and small) to create video content with the sole aim that it may potentially go “viral”. Unfortunately this pressure can sometimes actually restrict creativity and cloud the basic aim of video marketing.

The Truth About Viral

Let’s face it, we’d all like our video marketing to go “viral” but the truth is that the chances of your video reaching viral levels are pretty much non-existent (although you may not find another digital marketing agency prepared to admit this!). No matter how clever you think it is.

300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and over the course of 12 months only a handful of the videos uploaded will go viral. But this should not deter you from producing video content as a way to market your business or service. You’re potential customers don’t care of your video has 10 or 10 million views, they simply need it to fulfil their own needs and answer some obvious questions.

video marketing agency

The History of Promotional Video

That’s where our friend the good old fashioned “promotional video” comes into play. Over the years promotional video and corporate video had something of an image problem. Anyone who has in the past been tortured by having to sit through a company’s latest promotional VHS offering (usually featuring one of the least charismatic staff members they could possibly find) will know what I’m talking about here.

When VHS was at its height countless companies and organisations hired production companies to produce promotional, marketing and training films which were distributed on VHS to help them deliver there message. For the most part these films were terrible, over long, dull and offered with the choice, many viewers would rather set fire to their socks than sit through them.

So “corporate video” and “promotional video” were previously pretty dirty words to modern marketing experts. However 2 things happened that changed all this. Firstly as the web emerged and slowly increased its bandwidth capabilities we were able to watch video online at ever increasing quality levels. The rise of youtube is testament to how consumers grew their love of this medium and its delivery method and confirmed online video as one of their preferred methods to consume information and entertainment.

The second thing that impacted was the advances made in digital video production which put the power a skill base to produce, direct and edit great video content into the hands of an army of new professionals. This was essentially the birth of the video marketing agency, and produced a new breed of marketing experts who had innovative and creative ideas as to how it could be used to market businesses. We should also add to this that the explosion in social media usage provided additional advantages to businesses such as easy sharable content.

video marketing agency

Promotional Video’s True Objective

But to return to my original point, it would be unrealistic to suggest that the power, budget and opportunity for every single business, large or small to produce potentially viral content is within grasp. It simply isn’t.

But once again the key here is that your customers don’t care if your video goes viral. Both the brand and the customer simply need it to perform one simple task, that is to introduce (or “promote”) the brand efficiently. Any video content that’s primary purpose is to raise awareness of your produce or service is essentially a promotional video. Yes, it’s much cooler to call it video marketing or content marketing but basically its video intended to promote. All that’s different is the language.

So you shouldn’t get too worried about whether to produce inbound marketing, digital marketing, viral marketing or whatever people are calling it this week. Just worry about getting the content right for your customers. You don’t even need to be super creative, incredibly cool or cleverly original with the video you produce. In fact we see many examples of brands trying too hard to produce “cool” video marketing where we’re left wondering exactly what the product–or the point–is?

At the end of the day here’s some cold hard facts.

You sell a product or service.

New customers search for that product or service online.

These customers will be looking for answers to questions

Ensure that whatever kind of promotional video you produce tells them that you supply what they are looking for and answers their questions and you’ve nailed it. And hopefully you’ll see your sales reflect this. Promotional video, video marketing, content marketing have simple aims and simple methods. So stop worrying about the hype and simply give your customers what they need. 

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

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