All posts by Ron Harper

IF I COULD JUST GET IN FRONT OF…

Uncategorized, Video As Content, You Tube for Business, , , , ,

I heard it again today: “If I could only get in front of ( such and so) I know I can close business. Folks who are having a tough time getting to the decision maker say this a lot. One of my clients told me that one thought was the entire idea behind the video I shot for him.

It was actually a brilliant move, because his company, with many larger competitors, is doing quite well.

You may have a great product or service, but if you can’t get anyone to listen to you, how much will you sell?

Video – whether it’s on a website, in a blog, or just an upload to YouTube that you can share by email or social media – is one of the best ways to **get in front of** those difficult prospects. The key is the content. No one wants to watch a sales presentation, but they will listen and watch someone who understands their problems and proposes solutions.

The client mentioned above wanted to show off his factory. There was no direct sales pitch in it, but because we were able to show the process of how the products were made, the client was able to allow his prospects to feel like they were in the factory instead of hundreds of miles away.

Who do YOU want to get in front of?

–that’s a wrap.

Three Deadly Mistakes Videos Make When Selling A Service

DIY ?, Uncategorized, Video As Content, , ,

I’m in marketing and advertising. I’ve been doing it for the past thirty years. And I’m a sucker for a good headline.

Yeah, I’ll click on your blog post and skim it to see if there’s any new information. I’ve kept track, and actually only 8% of the time will I find something new, compelling or share-worthy. And when there’s a great headline that announces “More To Come – just click on the video”… my itchy trigger finger goes to work on my mouse. Unfortunately, I usually soon run into a roadblock or two.

It’s always a video for someone selling a service. They’re usually so passionate about what they do (and for the most part, that’s a good thing) but in reaching for that compelling factor and trying to build suspense for the point where they turn you from a viewer into a customer, you’re going to find one or all of the following deadly mistakes:

1. Poor Audio – What part of **Don’t stand across the room and think your camera’s microphone is sufficient** do they not understand? It’s hard to listen to someone trying to convince me of something when they’re talking from the bottom of an echo-y barrel.

2. Too Long – After I click on a video, I watch the timeline to see how long the thing is. THIRTY MINUTES?? Nope, I won’t be staying around. Why not break it up into manageable chunks? With three or four videos, you can break them into chapters and provide a description of each chapter. That will help not only your viewers decide what to watch, but also your search engine optimization for those videos.

3. Death By Powerpoint – I’m watching a video. I don’t necessarily want to read. Honestly – is there really anything THAT compelling on those slides? Why not strip the audio out of it, make it downloadable to someone’s iPod, and offer to send them a link to the slides. Hey! And now you’ve harvested email addresses for future marketing!

Marketers and business coaches are especially guilty of these. Watch for these deadly mistakes next time you click on a How To or an explainer video. And if you find anything like that on your own site, give me a shout and I’ll show you hot to fix it.

–that’s a wrap.

How To

Video As Content, You Tube for Business, , , , ,

I’m really amazed at the number of videos out there that are not taking advantage of the words and phrases folks are searching for. If you want your video, and ultimately your website, to be found by people who are searching for what you do, then use one of the most powerful phrases in search engines: “How To…”

Whether you are creating new products and services, or updating existing ones, make it easy for your customers by showing them How To… select the proper (fill in the blank), How To Use… (your product) Correctly, How To Troubleshoot….(what they currently have). The list is endless, literally. Then, be sure you have that magic phrase in your title, in your tags, and (if you’re embedding the video on a separate page) in your page title.

If people buy from people they trust, you can turn yourself into a ally with compelling and credible “How To” videos. Just remember to keep it simple, use numbered steps when possible, and aim for a recap at the end of your video that wraps everything up neatly. Studies have shown that it takes just three videos for a website to raise their credibility score to Expert by their viewers.

— That’s a wrap.

Advertising Or Engagement?

Video As Content, You Tube for Business, , , ,

Last week I was talking with a small business owner when the subject of videos for websites came up.
“We’ve talked about doing some videos, but we don’t need to do any advertising”, she said.

Website visitors and customers already understand what advertising is and what it isn’t. Unfortunately, most businesses do not. For example: some fervently believe that their website is advertising, and they pay for it out of their advertising budget. But even Amazon – one of the largest e-commerce websites isn’t advertising, for they also inform and entertain as well as sell. This is engagement.

If your website is nothing more than an online brochure for your business, then you’re losing the battle.

Business coaches advise that it costs more to get a new customer than to keep a customer. If you can convince an existing customer to buy more, your profit margin is higher. You can do that through engagement. Actually, you can also qualify and close more new customers that way. And there’s part of the difference.

While advertising implies a direct offer, engagement is more about establishing and building a relationship – one that, over time, will lead to sales, brand loyalty,  and a perception of expertise in the marketplace.

Video is the quickest and the most affordable vehicle to drive engagement.  Video for websites should not be advertising. People don’t search for commercials. Your visitors want to be engaged. Those businesses that provide that engagement will win. I hope you’ll be one of them.

–that’s a wrap.

Find Me On Thumbtack

Uncategorized

Looking for a local expert? Give Thumbtack a try.
Did you know you can get custom quotes for just about anything in only a few hours? They have a nice “explainer” video when you click on “How It Works” at the top of the page.
I’m listed there for business video professionals. If you have a service, maybe you should sign up too.

How To Make You Tube Work For You

Behind The Scenes, DIY ?, Uncategorized, , , ,

Many businesses who use videos don’t have the time or the tools to host their videos on their own server, so they opt for loading their productions on You Tube and using the embed code. If you really don’t have any other options, it’s still better to have something on You Tube than nothing at all. So here’s a list of tips and tricks. The more of them you can accomplish, the better off you will be in placing your content where the search engines will find and display it.

GIVE YOUR VIDEO A GOOD TITLE. Use keywords. Make it compelling. No one will watch, nor will they search for “October video.mp4” But they will watch “How I Saved Money and Solved My ——- Problem In Three Steps.” Get the picture?

PAY ATTENTION TO THE DESCRIPTION FIELD. The very first thing should be http:// and your website. Not just your homepage, but a page that gets the viewer closer to doing business with you.

UPLOAD A TRANSCRIPT / CREATE CAPTIONS This is a relatively new feature, but it is possible now to upload a transcript of your video to You Tube. There is also a feature that will let you create captions so the video can be watched, instead of heard. There is an entire list of best practices for these actions themselves, so ask for help, or search for tutorials. Big hint: don’t use WORD to create your files. Use WORDPAD so you can save them as .txt files without all the format encoding. Or, if you understand video time code, create a .srt file and you’re able to more precisely control your captions. The ability for the search engines to read videos due to transcripts is really a game changer.

CREATE A NEW PAGE FOR JUST THE VIDEO If you can whip up a single page on your site, and embed the video, surrounded by keywords and phrases that would be great. Then you can put THAT URL into the You Tube description field. If you have one video optimized for a key phrase, and a different video optimized for a different key phrase, you have increased your chances of being on top of a search and having that search lead back to you.

TELL EVERYONE. Put the You Tube Share code on every social network you can. Your promotion needs to run like a good ad campaign. Maybe not everywhere all at once, and maybe some places more than once. But get it out there and create some talk. Ask folks to share. Ask for comments. Ask for subscribers.

BRANDING. FYI, as part of it’s newly launched “In Video Programming”, you can upload an image that You Tube will use as a “bug” in the corner of your videos. You can also pick which corner of the video it appears in, and for how long. There is also a seldom used workaround for the You Tube embed code that removes You Tube branding.

Some folks don’t want to be associated with You Tube because of its “pedestrian” image. But You Tube is the second largest search engine. It’s a great place to put your videos. And by following some simple steps, it can be another tool in your arsenal for getting noticed.
–That’s a wrap.

Friends With Content

Video As Content, Who Uses Video, , ,

Ok, now you’ve got a video on your website. And maybe you’ve even put out the link on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and all those other social media sites. You’re patting yourself on the back for being such a savvy marketer.
As they say in those infomercials, “But Wait There’s More!”
You have another venue open to you: Blogs That Are Not Yours. When someone you’d like to reach is searching for what you provide, what other sources of information can they find? Tap into those content networks, and you’ve struck a potential goldmine of marketing power.
That is a primary reason not to produce a video that is a commercial. People don’t search for commercials, and they certainly don’t share them either. When you’re offering content that answers a question or addresses a need, your videos are more likely to be watched, shared, AND published on Someone Else’s Blog. It’s ok to ask the Blog owner to post or write about your video. Just remember to do your homework and only contact those blogs that legitimately relate to the info in your video.
Find new customers. Make new friends. Open new channels of distribution for your videos. That will put you a step ahead of your competition.
That’s a wrap

This May Get Technical

DIY ?, Who Uses Video, , , , ,

Do it yourself video editing can open up a whole new set of problems for those looking for what they think may be an easy way in.
Take for example the newest consumer HD cameras. Many of them use a technology developed jointly by Sony and Panasonic called AVCHD. This is actually a professional MP4 format that was developed for use in Blu-Ray discs. It’s a big problem for do it yourselfers.
You see, AVCHD files take a lot of processing power just to play them back properly. A LOT. And before you even move the clips from your camera to your hard drive, you have to navigate the labrynth file system that comes with shooting in AVCHD.
On laptops, the video clips will look out of synch. You’ll need something with at least quad core processing to play your video. And if you cant play it, how are going to find your edit points?
Be prepared to shell out close to $3000 for an editing system with enough processing power, RAM, and the kind of video card you’ll need to edit with any kind of ease.
Most businesses who want to add video will turn to a professional – for shooting or editing or both. DIY can be fun, and somewhat inexpensive . And as they say, the devil is in the details, so if you’re going to edit professional looking video for your website, make sure you system is up to it.
–That’s a wrap.

Seven Steps To Writing For Reading On Camera

Behind The Scenes, Uncategorized, ,

My friend Rick Dearborn had some great tips on his MARKETVIDPOST blog. I asked his permission to share them with you, and he graciously accepted. Here is Rick’s post:

Most marketers are already good writers. They’re involved in carefully choosing words and crafting marketing messages all day long. But writing a script to be read on camera is a whole different experience that requires a few new skills. Here are a few useful tips that will help you create scripts that area easier to read aloud:

1. READ IT ALOUD. No matter what you’ve written, read it out loud to yourself. See how it flows and feels, and make changes accordingly. Then put it down for a while, and do it again. You will be surprised at the edits that will be needed.

2. CONTRACTIONS. When writing we rarely use contractions, but they’re commonplace in our speach. When writing to be read aloud, contractions are essential. After you write your script, read it over an look for places where contractions make sense. Here is an example that shows what a difference contractionscan make:

Before: “Now you are ready to get started. We are sure you aready know there is a best way to begin. But, if you do not, here is how you can start. You will need to write a draft first and you will need to read it aloud. It is always a good idea to start that way.”

After: “Now you’re ready to get started. We’re sure you already know there’s a best way to begin. But, if you don’t, here’s how you can start. You’ll need to write a draft first, and you’ll need to read it aloud. It’s always a good idea to start that way.”

3. COMMAS. Commas make good gramatical sense, but in most cases they don’t work well when reading aloud. The reason is, when we read aloud we feel we need to pause when we see a comma. The gramatical use of a comma does not necessarily result in the best phrasing when reading aloud. After you write your script, take all the commas out and read it aloud. Where it feels natural to pause, put dashes in instead of commas. Then read aloud again and adjust as necessary.

4. UNDERLINING. If there are particular words you need to emphasis when reading aloud, underline them. But, don’t go crazy with it. Use underlining sparingly, only on the words that are really important. Some techniques recommend single, double, and triple underlining of words all through your script to ensure different levels of emphasis. If you go crazy with underlining, your reading can sound mechanical. It should be natural and real. I recommend using underlining only for the words that really matter.

5. PARAGRAPH PHRASING. Don’t hesitate to break your script up into smaller, shorter paragraphs – it will help you phrase the concepts when reading aloud. I’ts ok to even make a paragraph out of a single sentence.

6. FONT SIZE AND LINE SPACING. It really helps to write the script in a larger than usual font, one that is easy to read aloud. I also recommend greater than normal line spacing. I like 24 point Arial font, with 1.5 to 2.0 line spacing. That gives you a little space to enter hand written underlining or other small changes. (But, don’t get too carried away with hand written edits on your script. They can get hard to read. It’s always better to make them in the computer and print out a new copy, if you can).

7. ALL CAPS. When you write a script in ALL CAPS, you can focus more on the emphasis of the meaning, rather than on the structural, making it easier to read.

That last tip is controversial to some, but I have to say that when I write scripts for myself, I write in all caps. Maybe it has something to do with the teletype copy I used to read. Those machines only had caps, and everyone in radio learnedly to read copy that way. I hope this helps.
— that’s a wrap