We’ve just filmed and produced a fantastic new business profile video for our client Jeremy Colson. The short video showcases his bathroom design and installation service, features a client testimonial, and introduces his new kitchen design service.
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The world’s largest companies are harnessing the power of video to generate sales and create a connection with their customers and audience. You’ve seen the Super Bowl adverts, the high-tech billboards around town, and you’ve all “liked” or “tweeted” about the Old Spice guy to your friends or colleagues.
You’re probably thinking, “that’s great, but they have marketing budgets in the millions and probably one of the best creative agencies in town working with them!” Sure they do! But, that’s no reason your small business can’t get in to the action! The cost of video equipment has drastically decreased in the last few years and there’s an array of consumer software available with a relatively small learning curve.
Earlier this month, Lee Smallwood, Steve Trister, and Nick Francis put on a workshop with Citigate Dewe Rogerson for Social Media Week London; we’ve put together some of their best tips (along with some of our own we’ve learned along the way) to help you get started:
You don’t need to spend $58,000 on the latest RED EPIC-M package to start filming video for your small business. Did you know that your latest Apple iPhone can shoot 1080p HD video or that you can pick up a Flip Mino HD camcorder for less than the cost of a designer shirt! With a mini-tripod, these devices will get you the best results for your money.
If your looking to achieve more out of video, you should look into DSLR cameras for video. There are now lots of prosumer DSLR cameras that also record 1080p HD video, but also allow you to play with depth-of-field (with different lenses), different frame rates, and integrate with other camera accessories to create top-notch videos. There’s a much larger learning curve, but there’s lots of great resources online to help you along the way.
A third option is to get a handheld camcorder (like you used to take on your beach holidays). We’re not going to go into detail on this one, but feel free to research online to find what’s best for you.
The last thing you want to do is bore your audience! If your personality doesn’t shine through in the video, you’re going to lose them before you even get a chance to win them. If your video is too long, they’ll lose interested, but if it’s too short, they may not get the point.
Have you ever seen a corporate training video? You want to avoid those kind of videos like the plague. You need to let your personality shine through and tell your small business story in a way that makes people truly understand and feel connected to what you’re saying. If you want to see what communicating effectively looks like, check out Performance Dynamite, but remember what’s right for Steve’s business may not be right for your business. Try to figure out what the tone of your company is and continue to use that tone throughout your videos.
What’s the point of your video? What’s the point of this blog article? In today’s day and age, people don’t have time to watch a 10 minute video about why they should buy your product or service. Try to stick to between 60 and 90 seconds for your video. If you can’t get your message across in that amount of time, you should re-think the message or split it into more than one video so your audience doesn’t get bored too quickly with your content.
Come up with original content that’s related to your business and keep “viral” in mind. Old Spice used to be an “old man’s scent”, but now it’s the No. 1 men’s body wash. What happened? Old Spice came up with a video campaign that spread through the internet like wildfire. Did their product change? No. Did they push deal or promotions? No. They simply presented some entertaining content that went viral. Don’t just shoot your video and post it on your website. YouTube is the world’s largest source for online video, so get your video online, comment on other videos, spread the word on Twitter and other social networks, and push your videos viral to get the best results.
If you’re using a Mac, give Apple iMovie a shot. If you’re using a Windows machine, give Windows Movie Maker a shot. If you search online for “iMovie tutorials” or “Windows Movie Maker tutorials” you should be able to get some good tips on how to edit your videos. If you’re looking for professional solutions, you can take a look at Apple Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premier Pro, but get ready to be sticker shocked!
There’s nothing that makes a video look and sound amateur than poor lighting and audio. Make sure your videos are well lit by using as much natural light as possible, but avoiding any harsh direct sun light. If you’re not able to get enough natural light, try a simple three light setup. The audio from your iPhone or even your DSLR is not great at best. Upgrade to an external microphone like the RODE VideoMic for better audio from your DSLR.
Your awesome small business video just finished playing. What does that mean for your audience? Close the window and go away? If you don’t have a clear ‘call to action’ at the end of (or during) your video, chances of your video going viral is limited at best. Ask your audience to “tweet”, “like”, “subscribe”, “comment” or some other action. If you ask, the chances of someone actually doing it increase exponentially. Try this on your next video and see if makes a difference, but remember the tips from ‘Personality and Story’ above to sound authentic when you do it.
Without going in to details — use Google+. Sign up now and create your own profile, as well as one for your business. By posting your videos on Google+, it’s been rumoured in the SEO world that this increases your indexing speed and with an major update Google included on their search engine, your fresh content could help boost your rankings ever so slightly.
You’ve either got it or you don’t. It may be your company, but maybe your not the best person to appear on video. Find someone in your organisation that feels confident to be on camera and is passionate about your business as much as you are. This will help your videos feel more natural and appealing to audiences.
I hope you enjoyed this article and welcome your comments below. Are you using video for your small business? Let us know and share your video links too!
Image Credit: unten44
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Ben Goldsmith wrote a great article for Workspace Group this week after an event by Business Doctors at Clerkenwell Workshops‘s clubworkspace. It’s a great quick-read to get your mind thinking about what you can be doing for your small business.
It’s important, small business or not, to plan what you’re going to do and answer some basic questions. Without these answers, on paper or in your head, you could head on to the wrong track and your small business could derail faster than you think!
Whether you’re pre-start or have been going years, you need to go back to your roots. This process will clear your vision and you’ll be able to see what your business is all about. Answer these questions: What are your core values? Why did you start your business? How did you first begin? What do you want your staff to think of you? How do you relate to them?
In terms of your core purpose: Be sure to answer this (deceptively easy-sounding) question by looking through your customer’s perspective, not your own. What do you want your customer to expect from you? Knowing this will help you deliver.
If you’re pre-startup and are having second thoughts about your business partner, ask yourself why. Is there any longevity in your working relationship? If you’d rather wear your favourite Levis and kick it on a beanbag whilst he’d prefer a Vitra chair and a Saville Row whistle, maybe you should spare yourself some heartache and part ways early on.
It’s important to think about the future — planning ahead is one of the best things you can do for your small business. Small businesses have less resources, less cash, and less employes than their larger counterparts, so it’s especially important to plan ahead to avoid an issues that may arise out of nowhere.
Keep an eye on social, economic and political movements. All of these could effect on the future of your business.
Social media and other technological developments have revolutionised small businesses interaction. Getting left behind could leave you lagging behind your competition. However, if you keep ahead of the curve, you could show a clean pair of heels to the big players in your marketplace.
If there is a change in the law, your business could stand to gain or to suffer. If you know about the legislative reworking before its effect sets in, you can be prepared.
If you don’t keep an eye on your key metrics, whether it’s your sales, your leads, or something else, how can you improve your products, services, or the way you approach your prospective clients. If you understand your prospective customers better, you’ll be able to filter out those that are not worth the time and focus on those that will generate the largest return for your small business.
Do you track who’s buying from you? Do you know what they’re buying? Do you know if your top five customers are buying as much from you now as they were last year? Or perhaps five years ago?
I know it’s annoying to hit your with a load of questions – but knowing the answers could pump-up your turnover.
If you track your customers’ buying trends you will be able to better respond to their buying habits. If certain customers are buying less from you now than they were in 2010, you may be able to find out why, and then satisfy their needs.
Furthermore, it’s stops you from being a busy fool. Why chase a customer who will probably not give you any return business? Better to focus on customer retention, and incubate those brand advocates.
The one thing that sets small companies apart from their big brothers is the personal connection you can have with every part of your business: you know what your customers want, what their problems are, and how you’re able to solve those problems for them. So plan ahead, listen to your customer’s needs, and provide better products and customer service than your competitors can. It’s possible to compete with the big boys, so what’s stopping you?
If you enjoyed this article, share your thoughts and experiences in the comments — and share the article with other small business owners.
Source: Workspace Group Blog
Image Credit: comedy_nose
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We’re really excited to announce that we’re going to be coming live from Social Media Week London starting Monday, 13th February 2012.
We’ll be hitting up all the great events that are relative to small businesses: we’ll be live-tweeting the events, writing some great articles, snapping some shots so you feel like you’re there, and hopefully taking some videos as well. We’ve got an all-access pass for the whole week, so subscribe to our blog and follow us on Twitter or Facebook to get all the latest updates.
Here’s a sneak at some of the events we’ll be attending:
Mind the Gap: Avoiding a Social Media Skills Crisis
This session will explore the digital industry’s seemingly insatiable appetite for social media skills. Recent research from Altimeter Group shows corporations increased their spend on social media talent, on average, by 50% to £180,000. Speakers include: Rebecca Gloyne (Nokia), Charlie Elise Duff (BraveNewTalent), Niall Cook (Sociagility), chaired by Kathryn Corrick.
Supercharging Your Facebook Marketing hosted by Constant Contact
If you’re like most businesses, you already see the value in connecting with your current and potential customers via social media. But the challenge is figuring out what you actually need to do with social media in order to drive real results for your business or organisation. This seminar is the “what, why, and how” of social campaigns: how to drive repeat business and amplify word of mouth by engaging your happy customers, stay top of mind to make it easy for them to share your message, and measure results.
The Future of Sharing supported by Nokia
It has been well documented that online sharing has been exploding (Facebook making up 52.1% of sharing on the web in 2011, Tumblr and Twitter growing their volume of shares by 1299% and 576% respectively), but what has been harder to predict is what the future holds for sharing, and how that will impact consumers and brands alike. As social platforms evolve, and products are developed to be inherently social, questions abound about whether we will all embrace a world of ubiquitous sharing, or come to reject added noise and clutter. Confirmed speakers include Trevor Johnson, Head of Market Development from Facebook, Global Community Editor Mark Jones from Reuters and Michael McClary from Microsoft UK.
We can’t wait to get there! Also, stay tunned for our full blog launch the same week too!
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I’ve spent a good chunk of the day learning about a new campaign from Google andYola called Getting British Businesses Online which makes it dead simple for companies in the United Kingdom that do not have an online presence, to get their business online quickly and best of all for absolutely nothing! The service provides a domain name, an email address, and a basic do-it-yourself website, so your business can take its first steps to getting online.
Think of it as the first car you were given for free by your grandmother — it barely started and sounded like a tractor, but it was one step closer to a faster and newer car; the ‘Getting British Businesses Online’ campaign is exactly that for many UK-based companies that haven’t taken the online plunge quite yet.
“There are 41 million people online in the United Kingdom, yet over 1.5 million small to medium businesses operate without a website”¹
I’ve put together a list of important steps (along with additional resources) that every small to medium business needs to take to get their company online. It’s not a completely exhaustive list and some of the steps will require additional research or help from your twenty-something nephew or niece, but if you have a little patience and time, you should get through it quicker than you think.
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