Online video has become a necessity in business. It is a powerful marketing tool that elevates your brand,

builds desire for your product or service among viewers and drives traffic to your site. But what is needed to

produce a video that works hard for your company to increase web traffic and sales?

Producing a quality video as cost effectively as possible can be a tremendous challenge for most business
owners. There are important choices that are frequently made which weigh content and production quality
against cost. Guess which one wins out most? Well, it’s not quality and that is a huge problem. Why?
Because, when you sacrifice the content, the message or the production quality, you not only risk the true
benefits of online video, you may repel prospective clients!

If price is the most important consideration, then you might go with a friend or relative who can shoot the
video for free. Your pocketbook may thank you initially, but the likelihood that your video will drive traffic or
sales becomes very small. so your long-term financial goals may suffer from this short-term thinking.

As a professional video production house, I rarely hear price as the main requirement upfront. Usually
there are marketing objectives that are brought out first. But this becomes the sticking point later in the
conversation because video looks “so easy” to produce that it seems anyone could do it.

Industry standards suggest it takes 10-15 hours to produce one minute of video. Surprised to hear that? But
that is what it takes.

Here’s a peak behind-the-scenes of professional video production so that you have a better working
knowledge of what it takes to make a quality video that will deliver your marketing objectives.

1. The producer and director meet to discuss 2-3 concepts for a 3-minute video that will be used on the
client’s website as well as for sales: The client’s objective is to cram a 20-minute presentation into this 3-
minute video. This first meeting will likely take 2 hours to complete. [2]

2. The director and producer set up a pre-production meeting with the client to present the concepts and
select one. At this point the “cast” is also chosen. This usually takes about an hour. [1]

3. Producer meets with the writer to share the concept and client content for the video which takes about
two hours.[2]

4. The writer works on the script for 4-6 hours and shares it with the producer who requests changes. Once
a draft is complete, they meet with the client who provides feedback and request additional changes which
can take another few of hours to gain final approval. [4-7]

5. The producer sets up the shoot day and contacts additional staff such as the makeup artist, camera
operator and the location. [1]

6. Details for the shoot day are shored up including final staffing, location details and shot logs (camera
angles, b-roll and others), equipments lists, as well as a call sheet, which is a list of on-site responsibilities.
All of these details take another 4 hours. [4]

7. The producer confers with the client to communicate the pre-production plan which is another hour. [1]

8. On the day of the shoot, the staff arrives 2-3 hours prior to the start of filming. Set up gets underway
including lighting and audio checks. The “cast” arrives one hour prior to the start time with another round of
lighting and sound checks with talent in place.[2-3]

9. Recording begins and for 3-minutes can take three to four hours with several takes for each segment and

11. A few days later, the director and producer meet with the editor, load the footage to the editing suite and
provide recorded time/code shot logs. The editor begins reviewing the 3 hours of footage and any additional
graphics and logos to be included in the video. The producer is brought in to review the work and check
for accuracy, start working with music and any other video that might be added to the project and all of this
takes about 9-12 hours. Clients will be shown three weeks of the shoot. [9-12]

12. The client is shown the rough cut and requests changes as needed which often requires a one-two-hour
meeting. [1-2]

13. Once the next steps are agreed upon, the editor starts making the changes which can take an additional
4- 6 or more hours to complete this phase of editing. [4-6]

14. The final video is prepared for delivery and presented to the client for approval or any final changes.
Sometimes changes can take two – three rounds to gain final client approval. [1 -3 hours]

15. Then the editor creates the video in a variety of formats for its different uses such as DVD for TV, DVD
for computer, and a You Tube online format. This requires an additional 3 hours for transcoding, creating
the formats and loading on You Tube. [1-3}

Add all that up and you’ll see that It can takes as much as 45 hours (or more) to create a 3-minute
professional-quality video. Next time you can an estimate for a video, you‘ll have a much better
understanding of what it really talks to make a great video and feel better about the value of the extensive
work involved.

Your friend or family member might make an inexpensive and quickly produced video that you feel is
sufficient. But, will it work on your prospects? Will it cause them to take action and call or email you? Will it
help prospects feel they can trust you?

As you can see, without following these steps, your video will not likely have the professional elements go
required for a quality production to properly represent your company, your product or service and compel
your prospects into action so they become clients or customers.

High Definition is here to stay and it would be hard pressed to find a camera, consumer, professional or pro-sumer that does not come with an HD option. Since older media devices can not handle HD such as DVD players, computer monitors and yeah some are still watching TV through tubes it is tempting to record in standard definition. I personally record everything in high definition even if the project calls for standard, I want my native footage to be of the best quality possible. This allows me the opportunity to re-produce anything I record in HD at a later date. While the media cost may be greater, the long term flexibility is what I am after. Some cameras have a feature that allows the transfer of footage to step down as well as do most editing suites. This provides option and again the flexibility you want. So to answer the question “To HD or Not to HD”?… It is simple

When it comes to a professional presentation through the use of video, there are a number of important factors. Video quality (what you see)  is by far what most people would say and I completely agree. Poor quality video we have all seen on the YOUTUBES’ of the world is not pretty to see. Believe or not however many people will put up with a grainy video and sub par lighting but what they not will sit through is poor sound quality. There is less tolerance for low grade sound. My suggestion, use a set of quality headphones to ensure you are capturing good audio. It does not have to be premium audio, just clear enough. Most cameras can adapt an external mic. Not required but a low cost way to ensure the best sound.

Sound (no pun) off if you have any other ideas. I would love to hear them.

Do you have raving fans? Do you have apostles? My guess is you do. You know, that customer or client who absolutely loves or loved working with you. You solved their problem or need and did it is such a way they tell everyone about you. They may even offer “if you ever need me to tell someone about my experience with, have them call me”. This is the customer you wish you dealt with every day. And wouldn’t it be great to bring your apostle with you on every sales call, show up to your prospects to spread the good word on your behalf. You just want to hire this customer to campaign for you.

Well, it is more possible than you think because I have an easy solution to improve your closing rate and at the same time attract new customers that come to you already hearing how great you are. Now it’s not an easy solution because it will take some thought provoking changes in the way you view your marketing budget and require a slight shift in focus.

I am taking about capturing your raving fans praises on video and delivering it in a variety of places. Here is a quick example of a “life changing” problem that was solved. http://www.vimeo.com/3847967. You heard it straight from people who actually experienced results. This video has totally changed the way my client sells her services. Here is why it worked so well.

1. Most important we picked the raving fans who represent the best.

2. We ensured quality by capturing in the best definition of site and sound.

3. We created a list of questions that provoked problem solution that told a story.

4. We made it available everywhere (Web, DVD, Mobile)

I believe this marketing strategy is proven to shorten your sales cycle and remove some risk factors from your prospect. It provides true value and proves your price is worth it.  I have news for you… your prospective customers don’t care how much you brag about your company and service, they want to buy with little risk.

My last bit of advice is to above all, do it right! You see these dark videos with lousy audio on the web every day. Avoid the temptation to do it cheap. Remember this is your brand!

Feel free to ask any questions or post comments as I welcome your feedback.

Following our last post, we now drill down to the major components in selecting your “raving fans” and making sure they are prepared to go “soapbox” on your behalf. Keep in mind that people in general love to give advice and make suggestions when they had a great experience. Your customers will be no different, but selection is the key. Here are a few things to keep in mind when sending your customers to sell your company using video. Depending where you deliver will depend on length of the video. But technical details are for a later blog. For now here are the beginning steps.

The first step in creating a video customer testimony would be  selecting your biggest fans based this criteria.

• You are sure they will look good on camera and speak passionately about a problem and solution you (or your company) provided.
• They are more than happy to rave about you.
• They may be a client that resembles a few of your key prospects and or industry focus.

Secondly you want to organize  a minimum of two maximum three customers/clients to do the boasting, unless you plan to do a series of videos. We will talk about a series in the next blog, for now let’s stick with one video two to three testimonials. A few things to keep in mind when selecting.

• Decide whether or not you want diversity in your testimonials. I am referring  to the diversity of the problem and solution and revenue size of the client, not race etc., unless gender and race serve a specific need.
• If you need three clients ask six, if you need two ask four and so on. Don’t be upset if you are turned down. Most people hate themselves on camera… CEO’s love the camera FYI.
• That brings me to this point… be sure the raving fan has an intimate understanding of your company and the solution you provided.

Telling people how great your company is at providing products and services is “bragging”. When your customer does, it’s proof.

In my previous blog “How can customers market my business” I covered the structure of a customer testimonial as well as one way of doing it. Now we can focus on “The Customer Story” as a series of videos used to engage and accelerate the buying process. You may be paying top dollar for website  visibility to search engines and reaching more potential buyers, but what happens when they find you? Your prospects come to you with a problem looking for a solution and sharing a story or two will help them determine how you can help. ”The Customer Story” does just that.

In last week’s blog I talked about one video with two to three client testimonials. This week we take one customer and one story. This approach does require additional investment dollars, but overall will cement future sales. For this selecting your testimony is absolutely critical. Along with the testimonial, the story itself. It’s really important to have a “Reason or problem”… why did they come to you? They need to have a compelling solution and lastly a savings or better said “how my life is better”. The story should include how their problem was solved and why they would never go to anyone else. Before you get started here are a few things to consider:

• Pre-write the story to provide your customer (testimony) with some framework and guidance (not scripting)
• Prepare your customer with a list of questions prior to the date you are recording
• Location is a critical piece of the puzzle

For a five-minute “Customer Story” video figure one to two hours of on-location recording. Get all you can and get it the first time. It will save you money in the long run.

Last but not least, record the video in the highest quality format (To HD or Not to HD) and this bares repeating… “Video is all about the sound“.

I would like to read your comments or questions as well as experiences so please post!

Ok, to begin this is not a tutorial on how to record an image and key out the green color to replace it with another image.

There are millions of those tutorials on YouTube and other places. No, no this is about when to use or not to use. This is about having a purpose and not being cute. Sure we all want fly like superman flying across a city sky??? This is about the substance behind it using this tool to convey a message.

I will be a hypocrite here for just a second and explain the theory behind Chroma-Key (Green or Blue Screen). As you witness every night via your weather person the process of Chroma-Key is removing a color from an image being still photo or video. The reason we use green or blue  is because it’s the two colors absent from skin tone… unless you are really sick haha. This process is useful when background scenery is unavailable or to providing messages or weather reports. It’s used on TV, it’s all over the movies as we all know. It is the past, present and future of images we see every day.

If you stepped into an elevator and met someone who could potentially be your next client. could you sell them within that space of 30 - 60 seconds?  Do you have an "elevator speech" prepared in your mind that accurately and succintly describes the ultimate value doing business with your company?

Your website videos should be thought of in the same fashion. Viewers now have become comfortable with rich media and almost expect to see video online but still don’t have the patience to watch for very long.

When you decide to display video within your website, here are a few things to consider:

• Keep it to the simple "3" rule.
• Avoid cramming the video with too many details.
• Pick the right person(s) face and or voice to represent.

The ” 3″ rule applies to marketing in general. “3 reasons why, 3 reasons what, 3 solutions provided” etc., etc., etc.  The message must hit 3 points and provide a call to action Using. The “simple 3″ rule is a great way to create your outline and get you started.

Cramming too much information into a short time frame is a sure way to lose your viewer’s attention. Let the website deliver the details, craft the video in a way that engages the viewer on some level and provide a short and sweet message.

Lastly, I can tell you there are many affordable ways to hire professional actors to deliver your message. Choosing the face of your organization is very important. Strong voice and solid camera presence will go a long way.

Here is one example: http://www.vimeo.com/2227989

For more information and tips visit www.brightstreetmedia.com