Video Marketing From the Front Lines
http://www.seo-marketing-articles.com/articles/4535/1/Video-Marketing-From-the-Front-Lines/Page1.html
William Randall
William Randall of DIY Video Marketing helps you turn customers into fans using online video. He offers courses on producing your own videos and web video production for select clients. By William Randall
Published on 12/4/2009
Doing online video marketing for your business means learning a whole new language All of a sudden you have to learn how to use a camera, lights, sound, editing
Doing online video marketing for your business means learning a whole new language. All of a sudden you have to learn how to use a camera, lights, sound, editing... better just to hire some frustrated Tarantino off Craigslist, right?
Fortunately your audience already knows the language... even if they don't realize it!
Today I'll show you a simple way to do video marketing in this language. It will send a subtle but powerful message to your audience. They won't even realize what you're doing. Best of all, this method sets aside all the technical stuff. You won't need lights, microphones, or even a storyboard. So you can just get a video out to your customers.
All you need is a crappy camera. The crappier the better! Think Flip Mino, the video on your digital point-and-shoot camera, maybe even a dreaded Webcam. You just want a cheap-looking, grainy image. It seems counterintuitive, but it works for our purposes.
This next part you've seen dozens of times. Set up the camera and talk into it. Tell me something useful, funny, vibrant. Whatever you do, make sure there's energy in your voice and face. Video shows personality radiating from the screen more than anything.
By now you're surely wondering, how does this differ from the thousands of video blog posts you've seen with someone talking until you doze off?
With its urgency.
Urgency is the key secret. Have you ever seen newsreel footage from a war zone? The shaky image, the bad lighting, the rushed feel. They're not images you would frame for your living room. No, they're an urgent message that just can't wait. People spend hours looking at these images just trying to figure out what's actually happening out on the front lines.
So, match the urgency of your message with the urgency of your image.
And the camera will help you out. The video from these crappy cameras-- grainy, bad color, bad lighting, bad sound-- feel like that newsreel footage. And even if we know they're not, tens of thousands of hours of television footage have conditioned us to believe in our gut that they're true!
So if the new version of your signature software pack has just been finished, fire up the Web cam. Tell me all about it. You can't wait, of course, so there's no screen captures. And you look like death warmed over-- you've been up all night finishing this software!
Your viewers can almost smell the coffee. And they feel incredibly bonded to you-- it's like they were there with you, writing the last few lines of code. So of course they want to be there for the big launch. Of course they want to share in the experience with you.
So craft a message you just can't wait to get to your audience. Shoot it cheap and watch how people respond. This is not the kind of video marketing that gets you 17,000 views on YouTube. It is the kind of video marketing that gets the 1700 people reading your blog to feel like your pals. And to feel like they're a part of something big.
Fortunately your audience already knows the language... even if they don't realize it!
Today I'll show you a simple way to do video marketing in this language. It will send a subtle but powerful message to your audience. They won't even realize what you're doing. Best of all, this method sets aside all the technical stuff. You won't need lights, microphones, or even a storyboard. So you can just get a video out to your customers.
All you need is a crappy camera. The crappier the better! Think Flip Mino, the video on your digital point-and-shoot camera, maybe even a dreaded Webcam. You just want a cheap-looking, grainy image. It seems counterintuitive, but it works for our purposes.
This next part you've seen dozens of times. Set up the camera and talk into it. Tell me something useful, funny, vibrant. Whatever you do, make sure there's energy in your voice and face. Video shows personality radiating from the screen more than anything.
By now you're surely wondering, how does this differ from the thousands of video blog posts you've seen with someone talking until you doze off?
With its urgency.
Urgency is the key secret. Have you ever seen newsreel footage from a war zone? The shaky image, the bad lighting, the rushed feel. They're not images you would frame for your living room. No, they're an urgent message that just can't wait. People spend hours looking at these images just trying to figure out what's actually happening out on the front lines.
So, match the urgency of your message with the urgency of your image.
And the camera will help you out. The video from these crappy cameras-- grainy, bad color, bad lighting, bad sound-- feel like that newsreel footage. And even if we know they're not, tens of thousands of hours of television footage have conditioned us to believe in our gut that they're true!
So if the new version of your signature software pack has just been finished, fire up the Web cam. Tell me all about it. You can't wait, of course, so there's no screen captures. And you look like death warmed over-- you've been up all night finishing this software!
Your viewers can almost smell the coffee. And they feel incredibly bonded to you-- it's like they were there with you, writing the last few lines of code. So of course they want to be there for the big launch. Of course they want to share in the experience with you.
So craft a message you just can't wait to get to your audience. Shoot it cheap and watch how people respond. This is not the kind of video marketing that gets you 17,000 views on YouTube. It is the kind of video marketing that gets the 1700 people reading your blog to feel like your pals. And to feel like they're a part of something big.