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What’s your #purplecow?

What’s your #purplecow?

Web Video Marketing for your Business

Imagine going out into the countryside with family or friends and you drive past a field of cows. You might comment, “Oh, look! There’s some cows over there”, but then you’ll drive on by. The cows were interesting for a moment, but they were soon forgotten.

Imagine though that this day, you drive past the field of cows and you notice that in the middle of the herd of brown cows was a purple cow**. This day you wouldn’t drive on by. Instead, you would stop the car, everyone would get out and start tweeting, facebooking and +1ing, they would take photos and post them online. Before long #purplecow would be trending worldwide.

The problem is wherever you go in business today there are plenty of fields of brown cows. Just like the story of the first car journey as you browse online you will see some ‘interesting for a moment’ things, but you’ve soon forgotten them.

For your own business you know that marketing is important, particularly online, but how can you be distinctive? How you can stop being seen as just another brown cow? Is it possible that you have a purple cow in your business just waiting to be discovered?

A couple of weeks ago a purple cow ran past our front door. It wasn’t there for long, blink and you would have missed it, but it was so remarkable that thousands of people stood outside with us and watched and cheered as an aluminium alloy stick with a flame on top was carried past.

The Olympic Torch Relay has captured attention in the UK for the last two months as millions of people across the nation have come out to line the streets to see it go by. The truth though is that the people didn’t come out to see a stick, they had come to witness a story and watch mostly ordinary people being part of it.

Everybody loves a good story and a story told well goes beyond communicating facts to engaging and influencing us at an emotional level. But whilst you may feel that what your business does is pretty unremarkable just like that field of brown cows, the truth is we all have a purple cow story we can tell.

You may have a particular product that solves a problem in a unique way. Or maybe you run a service-based business that provides extra special service. I’m sure if you think about it for a while there are all manner of things that you do that you can turn from being brown to purple, but how can you do that effectively?

You need to tell a story. In today’s busy and competitive online world, video is perfect for story-telling and is one of the best investments you can make for marketing your business.

Here’s why…

  • A video on your website helps to differentiate what you do from your competitors. It helps to show off your purple cow.
  • Video is more effective at engaging visitors to your website. Web marketers talk about the 8-second rule which is the length of time you have to convince a visitor to stay on your site before they click away. Video helps you to do that as people are more likely to watch a 30-60 second video than spend a few seconds reading and scanning a web page.
  • Video is an excellent way for your customers to get to know you and understand how you can help them. Video helps to give your website and your business personality. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Online video helps you to show that.
  • Online video when optimised correctly gives you a far higher chance than text of helping your site rank well in search engines. Getting a first-page Google result is harder than ever, but as more of page 1 has been given over to “blended” search results – displaying videos and images towards the top of the page – you have an opportunity using video to be there.
  • After Google, YouTube is now the world’s second largest search engine. The only way to be seen on YouTube is through video.

Video isn’t just a passing trend.Video is here to stay. Video can help you to harness the power of story-telling in your business marketing.

#browncow or #purplecow. Which will you choose?

**Adapted from “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable” by Seth Godin.

Cracking Media work with businesses and organisations to help promote their products and services online through video. You can see some samples here.

If you would like some help finding your purple cow or to discuss ideas for marketing your business using online video, please email info@crackingmedia.com or give us a call on 01202 532522.

Responses to What’s your #purplecow? Web Video Marketing for your Business George Rashbrook says: That’s a great article, Peter. It really illustrates the importance of standing out from the crowd in the competitive business arena. Thanks for sharing it! Reply Peter Lunn says: Thanks for your feedback George. I hope it encourages business owners to look for the purple cow in their business and maybe even find two or three of them – who knows! All the best to you and your business. Reply

Very Simple Video Checklist

Very Simple Video Checklist

plan-for-business-videoMaking a simple promotional video presentation requires much care and attention. Here’s a very simple video checklist for the making of a video for your business that makes up the basis of most of our video projects.

This list is then tailored to suit the individual requirements of different projects.

Preproduction (before the shoot)

  • Write script and have it approved
  • Make sure shoot locations are available and/or reserved
  • Check all batteries are charged
  • Have equipment available and reserved
  • Make a plan for recording sound
  • Notify actors and presenters being used in the video

Production (shooting Video)

  • Bring all necessary gear to the shoot
  • Use a tripod and make sure it is level
  • Make sure camera settings are correct
  • Make shots as stable as possible when not using a tripod
  • Use headphones when recording audio in camera or to audio recorder
  • Shoot establishing/incidental shots and environment
  • Get wide, medium, and close-up shots of actor/presenter saying their lines
  • Minimise zooming in and out when actor/presenter is talking
  • Keep the subject of each shot in sharp focus
  • Put all batteries on charge after shoot
  • Tidy away all equipment so it is ready for the next job

Post-Production (editing)

  • Create graphics, logos, intro and credits for the finished project
  • Keep footage organized and name appropriately for easy search
  • Make sure audio levels are consistent
  • Use only essential footage/audio in the final edit
  • Make sure any titles included are correct and look professional
  • Watch for flash frames (black frames caused by gaps between clips)
  • Make sure you use standard export settings for finished video

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Now all that’s left to do is decide how you want to distribute your spangly new marketing video…

How Can Video Make Your Business Successful

How Can Video Make Your Business Successful

Ever heard of Old Spice, the T Mobile Flash Mob and the Body Form Advert? If you haven’t then you’re still thinking what has that got to do with business anyway? Well this… do you want to be a business with a personality? Do you want to be a business with a success story? Do you want to reach a target audience in a blink of an eye? If the answer is yes then just ask Body Form, they’ll tell you, video is where it’s at. By responding quickly to a tongue-in-cheek post against them on Facebook they created a marketing wave that reached a global audience, gaining them huge positive public attention and over 4 million views.

Video is Priceless
As the fabulous people at Rafiki Media tell us,

“a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth a thousand pictures”

and, as we all know, a picture may not tell the story we want to tell. Video on the other hand allows you, as a business, to express your personality, your values, your charm and show your consumers the real you! Businesses are often known for their elevator music or their automated messages, however, if you’ve a video with a focus on the human aspect of your company, then you can be sure that you’re reaching out to humanity and not to the computers of the world (they’re not watching but your consumers are).

Are You Bored Yet?
If you are reading this and thinking when can I stop reading then you’re a business in need of a video. Videos that have been successful are videos which tell a story, a story with which people connect and are triggered by emotionally. You can’t do that easily in 250 words, but in 2 minutes 50 seconds (or better still less) of video it is entirely possible, therefore increasing the ability to connect with your customer now or recall your  business in the future. Isn’t that what you want?

Keeping Tabs?
Social Media commentator, Don Power, argues that social media is the new calling card of business and by having a video you’re interacting with the whole social media network. You can post a video on Facebook or tweet it on Twitter and without fail people are more likely to watch a video and retweet/share/repost than a paragraph of text.

Are You Visually Represented? You Should Be…
We’re all visual creatures, if we can’t see something to an extent it doesn’t exist, so if your business isn’t promoting itself through video, then you might have some serious thinking to do. It has been said that though ,YouTube is not officially a search engine it is second only to Google in people using it to search for things, this can only continue to grow as Social Media does!

If you haven’t got to grips with YouTube and video, then our advice would be to start thinking about how you can promote your business through video. After all its free, easy to use and ridiculously accessible! So start thinking about how you’re going to use it… Start video blogging, creating a promotional video, or video real customer testimonials. The opportunities are endless to reach the customers you’re targeting! Whether you’re in the office, out meeting with clients, or even at a networking event, people want to know you and what you are doing as a business, so don’t delay… go ahead and show them.

Your Business in 60 Seconds

Your Business in 60 Seconds Video

This could be a perfect way to get you started in the world online video.

You get the chance to have one of your staff present to camera or provide a voiceover, which is then combined with shots of your business in action. We can also provide a professional presenter and have a voiceover produced based on your script if required.

The final video will be edited to include a combination of high quality stills, HD video, company branding and contact details, in combination with background music.

Your Business in 60 Seconds is a fast effective way to enter the online video world. Youtube is now used as a search engine in it’s own right, which makes it more important then ever before to have an online video that is relevant to your business sector.

 

Why use video for marketing

Why use video for marketing?

By taking advantage of high quality video formats and advanced shooting techniques you are able to use online video efficiently as a promotional tool. With the growing capabilities of handheld devices online video has become one of the most cost effective ways of marketing your business.

By diverting a portion of your marketing budget to online video, your message will be available 24/7 on the web and potentially in the pockets of millions via smartphones and tablets.

You now have capability to reach customers where ever they are.

Mobile device makers are producing devices with ever increasing processing and graphics power which is then connected to improving screen technology. When this is coupled with new faster connection speeds it means video has become truly mobile.

Using relevant Online Promotional Video for your marketing is an extremely cost effective method of giving your website rankings an immediate boost by driving targeted traffic to your site.

Online video is a proven method to build buyer confidence and increased conversion rates.

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