With the explosion of video sharing and viral videos, there are a variety of video marketing ideas available but not all are applicable to every type of business. The following ideas discuss developing content for businesses that sell products and to some extent can be modified to work for some services.

1) Product Demonstrations

Product demo videos usually are made to demonstrate how your product works ( the step-by-step instructions) and highlights the features that differentiate your product from that of your competitors. However, you should make sure that you weave in the benefits of your product on your video script. Software screen captures, such as those taken by Camtasia or Screenflow, or a high impact demo by a presenter are all excellent ways of showing how your product or service works. In business to consumer marketing, these would be targeted at buyers of larger ticket items who want additional, detailed information about your product.

A popular example of this type of video is Blendtec’s blender ad campaign on YouTube.

2) Product Presentations

Product (or service) presentation videos are usually beneficial early in the buying cycle. Product or service presentations focus on benefits of your product from your customer’s perspective. This type of video should speak clearly to the specific reasons why your product solves a specific business or personal problem. They are used to help your customers and prospects showcase the benefits of your products and services, provide your customer your unique selling proposition and help differentiate your product from those of your competitors.

3) Product Reviews

Ideally, your business would benefit by product reviews that are provided by a trusted third party. However, customer product reviews can really work as well. Using a variety of search terms on Google, or another search engine, you can find third party video reviews from sites like YouTube, Facebook and various business portals. Only link to these sites if they provide credible video content about your product or service. You can also partner or joint venture with trusted third parties to create video product reviews for your own products.

4) Visual Stories

Quickly rising in popularity, visual stories employ illustrations, animations, Flash animations and motion graphics with a voice-over to explain complex products or services in a simple and compelling manner. These type of videos are developed to give additional information to customers who have already decided to purchase from you but need additional detail to finalize their decision. These types of interactive ads tend to be more expensive and are therefore appropriate for companies with larger marketing budgets.

When it comes to corporate video productions, getting the best is what makes the difference between mediocrity and excellence in the finished product delivery and reaching the right target audience in the right tone of messaging.

For your company’s corporate video productions need, choose an agency that promises and delivers what it claims to do and always double-check their reliability. For, a quality product delivered late is not beneficial to anyone and where corporate video productions are counted upon as reflecting the ethos and foundation of a company, any slackness will be equated with lack of professionalism. Thus, take an in-depth look at the entire set-up of the video production agency that offers to do your corporate video productions and check samples, customer feedback reports and any awards/accreditations that hold up the reputation it claims to have.

Corporate video productions are usually aimed at sending across company messages within the framework of its employees, but can be intended for purposes beyond simple information of policy matters and range from training videos to infomercials or motivational messages. Thus, getting the right agency for corporate video productions is a matter of not only getting an experienced hand at creative visual presentation accompanied by audio back-up and well-recognized, easy to relate to concepts. Corporate video productions and related services are specialized professional needs that need to be attended to with right research and marketability of the product/event/ message to have the right impact.

A company that can show you results and a proven track record of TV station-quality studio equipment and services to match the company message in the right tone and quality is the one to entrust your corporate video productions needs to as it can set a quality benchmark for the whole industry. Then be it high-profile clients or an entrepreneur seeking to increase industry presence, all clients should be given equal high and consistent level of services in this most powerful medium of video in today’s world to inform, educate, train, persuade, entertain and captivate audiences effectively. Corporate video productions developed creatively and presented attractively are sure to appeal to a wide spectrum of companies young and old, big and small, traditional and entrepreneurial in a valuable and meaningful manner.

An advertisement agency that develops corporate video productions across industry verticals and gives you a balanced and varied choice of different video and computer equipment sales and support along with web design and hosting, is one of the most important ingredients when selecting the corporate video productions company of your choice. This includes also checking for deliverability of the corporate video productions company deal for specialty services extendable to other sectors such as an effective and efficient sales, training and corporate DVD and Videos, TV commercials, DVD and Video duplication and film to DVD and Video conversion.

An established agency dealing with fine tuning and not simply developing and marketing the corporate video productions for you will give adequate leverage to the high standards permeation to its full range of services; therefore, choose one committed to excellence.

Feel like your current marketing strategy isn’t giving you the ROI you had hoped for? Perhaps your marketing collateral seems to have lost it’s luster, and you think it’s time to move on to something new. You’re aware that a re-branding campaign can be a very time consuming, and budget devouring prospect but you’re running out of ideas. There may be one you haven’t considered till now… at least, not seriously.

Corporate video production deserves a second look. A creatively produced corporate video can place a new spin on, and even compliment, existing marketing collateral. What’s more, it can be targeted to capture the attention of a very specific audience, or broadened to a much wider demographic, depending on the need. Though there are countless ways in which corporate video production can be employed, here are a few worth considering:

Corporate Image Building- Consumers form opinions about companies every day for any number of reasons, ranging from personal experience to word of mouth to positive (and negative) media. With Video, you have a powerful tool at your disposal to help influence those opinions in a direction that is favorable to your core values, as well as your bottom line. It puts you in the driver’s seat. Corporate video production is a dynamic tool that has been shown to produce up to +70% retention rate over print and radio.

Brand Films and Storytelling- Every organization has a story to tell, and corporate video production is an excellent vehicle to get that story across. People identify with the struggle involved with building something from nothing more than an idea. Your History, product development, or impact on your given market are all things that your target audience will be interested in. This approach gives you many minutes of creative, uninterrupted videologue, designed to win-over your audience to your brand identity, core values, and culture of excellence.

Investor Presentations – Put an innovative spin on your communications to investors that is suitable for formal presentation venues, meetings, or web publications. Don’t bore your investors to tears will more of the same old graphs and pie charts, accompanied by the drone of industry monologue (the same ones, by the way, your competitors might be using.) These people are giving their time, attention, and most importantly their capital resources in return for assurance that they are backing the right business plan. A professionally crafted video presentation can leave an indelible mark in the minds of your investors, and help keep then on your team for the long haul.

Customer Testimonials- Your prospective customers are sizing you up, looking for a product, and a company behind the product, that they can trust. A very affective approach to winning new customers has been letting people who have already been through that process tell their story, and what lead them to the decision to choose you. Even better, let them tell your prospects why they are convinced they made the right choice!

Putting video on your website is a very important piece of your marketing. Used correctly, it will get people to stay at your website longer, they will make more inquires, and they will get to know you.

Used incorrectly, your video will chase your visitors away faster than a New York Second…..

To place video effectively, on your website, follow these Ten Rules: Rule #1 – Avoid having your video start automatically when visitors arrive to your website. Along with having different models of computers and speakers, your visitors may have their audio setting at full volume, may already have their speakers in use, or may not even have speakers at all. Customers may very well leave your website if it starts blaring noise as soon as they arrive. It’s much more difficult to look around to try and figure out how to turn off your audio than it is to simply leave the website or hit the back button.

Rule #2 – Make sure it looks professional! Make sure your video both look and sound good, otherwise you will appear to be an amateur. The good news is, for about £100.00 you can purchase a decent camera. Even the least expensive digital still cameras have the ability to film movies surprisingly well. Also, always dress the part.

Rule #3 – Keep promotional videos short and lots of camera angle changes! The place for long audio messages online is almost never the main page of a website. Your messages will be most effective if kept concise, direct, and easy to interpret. This can be what makes or breaks the video message. A good length for your video is between 30 and 90 seconds. Keep in mind, commercials are only 30 seconds long and manage to convey their messages clearly; use them as a model when making your video. Also, the goal of Hollywood is to change camera angles every 7 seconds.

Rule #4 – Prepare yourself by shooting tons of videos! It helps to practice out loud after writing a complete word for word script and then change it as necessary. People will know if you are just “winging” it. Prior to recording your script, be sure to have other people listen to it and offer their criticism. Then remove unnecessary words; reduce the length and change wording to better convey your message.

Rule #5 -Smile! Always smile and appear friendly on your video. Most people find those who enjoy what they’re doing much more enjoyable to do business with. Be sure to convey your passion for your loan business to the viewer. Body language is also much more of a factor on video than voice.

Rule #6 – Avoid putting too much video up on your site. People will not choose a play button at all, if there are too many to choose from. Visitors are more likely to watch your message if you limit the number of video buttons on your site. It’s usually sufficient to have a properly done single play and pause button to get your point across.

Rule #7 – Allow them to see your personality – let it shine. You are making a video in order to let people get to know you. Believe it or not, they want to learn about who you are. Television is filled with reality TV shows. American viewers are intrigued by other people’s lives. Let them get to know you, your family and your pets. Your Voice should also have a Cadence to it or a natural rhythm.

Rule #8 – Make sure your video actually has a point! While this may sound redundant, people often put video on their website for no other reason than simply because they can. If there’s not much of a point to your video, it won’t make any difference to anyone how fancy it is. Your video must have a well-defined purpose.

Rule #9 – Instruct people to view your video! Simply having a play button available on your website isn’t going to be sufficient. Let people know what to expect – what’s it about, how long is it, what can they expect to hear – and, obviously, where to click to start it playing. People need to be given instructions online, so it’s a mistake to assume they will figure out on their own that they need to watch your video. It can also be helpful if you let the audience know how long the message is, because people will be more likely to listen if they know how long it is. Sometimes, as research has shown, people will not click on a play button to a video message for fear that it may be too long. Let your visitors know if it’s a long message so they will be prepared for it.

Rule #10 – Perform a test run on your video! Don’t assume that simply putting video up on your website will increase sales. Test it out, get opinions from your visitors, friends, and family, and then do split testing. With your video, figure out if there is an increase in conversions. You’ll never know if your video messages are helping or hurting your website without a measurement of your results both before and after its addition.

It seems like about everybody can be a major movie maker thanks to the software that is so freely available on computers these days. But it does take a little bit of savvy to really hit it big online, even with the advent of YouTube and such.

Like other things online, it takes some effort to break through all the clutter. You need to do more than just post a video. You need to sell it, to get people to pay attention.

1. Use free services, instead of fee services

YouTube and its brethren are all over the place. There’s a good chance you already have a Facebook and Twitter account. Use these to promote yourself. If you’ve just uploaded a new video, post a link to your Facebook account and tweet about it on Twitter.

2. Provide something worthwhile

Like getting an article noticed online, you have to appeal to your audience. By using these simple tips you can quickly increase the view count on your online videos.

Be clear and instructional in your video style, whether it is a straight interview or a narrative. If possible, create a widescreen format video in MP4 format. This is the standard of internet video these days, and has efficient compression to keep your files smaller.

3. Don’t forget to include a link to your own website

It’s all too easy to overlook this step, but it’s so important for generating interest. Remember to put in the link to your own web site. For real, it isn’t rocket science, is it?

This is something you can easily observe for yourself. We have all been tempted into buying products or services by watching a compelling and informative sales video which also appeals to the emotions.

Of late, video marketing is getting very popular with a lot of online businesses who are reaping profits from this form of marketing. Video Marketing is the best way possible to build a relationship with your customer in a short time.

Small businesses are increasingly realising that they also need to use video to keep up with their bigger competitors. You too can create a video. You don’t have to be a popular movie director or actor to know how to design and create an effective marketing video.

With a little imagination and some creativity you can create a very attractive video. These days technology is growing at a very rapid pace and it is quite easy to create a video and upload it on video media sites.

Yet it’s important that you make the right sort of video. You don’t want to make some substandard video just for the sake of it. There are so many things you can do in your video, such as highlight your company, the products or service you offer, introduce yourself and your employees, etc. It’s a good idea to keep it brief.

You have about three seconds to get your visitor’s attention, so make sure you don’t go on too long. People have short attention spans, so don’t make your video too long. Hopefully, your video will be engaging enough that the viewer will watch it through to the end and follow your call to action. If they do, the risk is that they will not want to click through and visit your site, let alone glance at your next video.

Customers don’t want to know your life history, so make sure you keep your video as short as possible, preferably under 3 minutes. Focus on the benefits to the customer.

It may have come to your attention that video marketing is replacing the long form sales copy on websites? Gone are the days when companies rely on sales letters or text alone to convince people to buy their products or service.

You may consider combining some regular text sales copy with your video. It is however an optional choice to combine a sales letter with a video.

It is always better to try something new and innovative in your videos. No doubt you will have come across one of the most popular sites in the word, YouTube. Although there are many video sharing sites, YouTube is one of the easiest to use to host your video and link back to your site.

YouTube is visited by millions of viewers each day, and is a search engine in its own right. If you upload your video here, it can take your business and web traffic to new heights.

There is one tool that you really need to take advantage of in this fast moving internet environment, and that is video marketing.

Who Is Your Target Audience?

This should be your first consideration. If you need a simple demonstration or training video to show your fellow employees how to use a particular piece of equipment, you can probably do this yourself. Just aim the camera, tell ‘Mike’ to start, and shoot. However, if this is an involved training process and/or it needs to keep people’s interest, you may want to consider having it professionally produced.

How Much Should My Budget Be?

There are some types of videos that just have to be professionally produced. For instance, if you want to produce a promotional video to market your products or services to the public, you definitely want this to be professional, engaging and motivating. This is the case no matter what your ‘delivery mechanism’, be it DVD, CD-ROM or Internet. Our rule of thumb is that if your production needs to look professional and it’s targeted to the public or other businesses, it needs to be professionally produced.

Though the tools to produce video are relatively inexpensive, there is a high skill set that goes into producing a polished production. Similar to when the word processor appeared and some felt that they could become the next Ernest Hemmingway, today, some people believe that they can produce professional videos using the relatively inexpensive tools of the trade available on the market today. However there is a big difference between cameras, editing software, and other hardware that goes into determining the quality of the final product.

For instance, the average person probably won’t be spending £10,000+ for a broadcast quality camera package (camera, lights, lens, audio, etc.) to shoot the video or another £5000-£10,000 for a professional editing system. Plus, the typical person doesn’t have the time or experience to produce a professional video, just as I wouldn’t attempt to tune my car’s engine, even if the equipment was readily available.

So let’s assume that you want to hire a video production company. What do you look for? If you don’t mind, I’d like to fill in some of the answerrs to these questions as we go along:

1. How long has the company been producing video? (Who, us? Claremont Films was established in 2008).
2. Who are some of their clients? (Ours include The Labour Party, Arts Council England, The University of Sunderland, Public Sector and SMEs)
3. Ask for samples of their work. (We happen to have some video production and video editing samples).
4. How quickly can they turn your job around? (Claremont Films has experienced producers who know how to move the process along, provide our clients with as much or as little input as they prefer, and get the job done in a timely, cost-efficient manner).
5. How interested will they be in you after the sale? (Claremont Films is always on hand to answer questions of any kind, whether it’s for your current project, a past project, or of course, future projects).

Across industries, online video has been adopted to accomplish a number of different business goals because it’s proven to save both time and money, precious commodities for any organization.

Here are just a few examples:

• Corporate Overview
• Retail/Online Store Sizzle Reel
• Product Presentations & Demos
• Customer Testimonials
• Executive Profile
• Sales & Lead Generation
• Employee Orientation & Training
• Social Networking
• Video Press Releases
• Customer FAQs
• Email blasts
• Event/Conference/Trade Show Communications

Take advantage of the benefits of video marketing! Here are 5 reasons it’s money well spent:

The more companies experiment with the implementation of the technology, it should be expected that more organizations would take the next step to embrace the deployment of Web video as a means to building competitive advantage. Those organizations that at least begin to learn how to use the technology today will not be caught flat-footed when rivals begin to reap the productivity efficiencies that will come from discovering and using online video in a big way for years to come. So if you haven’t already done so, get started, think big and hit the ground running!

• Image Management

  It’s your show! The way your business appears on-screen is entirely under your control when you use promotional video production. Total control of your message is a rare opportunity. Seize it! You’re in charge of the outcome.

• Convenience

  Who doesn’t hate interruptions? Video is viewed on demand, when your audience wants it. People who watch your marketing video appreciate being in control – and will appreciate you as a result.

• Faster Buying Decision

  Speed up your sales cycle! Major business schools agree that video creates buying decisions. A carefully crafted message delivers the precise information prospects need to know. So, even if the video results in questions, those questions will be explicit and to the point. Get to ‘yes’ quickly!

• Reduced Overhead

  Time and travel can drive up the costs of soliciting new business, even if you land it! A professionally produced marketing video allows you to keep sales costs low without missing any opportunities. It’s actually cheaper to turn your target market into actual customers en masse!

• Novelty

  Market studies on sales video production show that nearly everyone given a DVD will view it at one point or another – even if only out of curiosity. Make that curiosity work for you! Same goes for online video. If you have a video on your website, it increases ‘stickiness’ to your site by more than 40%!

• Retention

  People like visual information. It establishes an emotional connection. Text can be skimmed and it’s boring. Why tell ‘em something when you can show them? Most people receive information via TV or the internet anyway.

During this stage, you’re organizing everything so that the production phase goes smoothly. Pre-production starts out with identifying the goals and objectives of your video. Your target audience needs to be identified and scrutinized. This is of key importance, as everything from here on out should be done with your specific audience in mind. Are they conservative business people, wild and crazy creative types, or wags? The tone, the pace, the actors, style, language, music, length, and other aspects of the production must be geared to the temperament, attitudes and interests of your intended audience.

You also need to consider how much you are willing to spend on this program. If it’s important and you plan to use this production to generate money for yourself or your company, you should expect to spend some money to do it right. Look at it as an investment. For your first production, you may want to use a professional video production company to produce your video, if it’s really important to get it right.

After you’ve decided on the purpose and goals for your video, identified your target audience, and considered your budget, the next phase of pre-production involves preparing an outline of the points you want to make. If you’re promoting your business, your outline may consist of identifying your mission, background, products or services you provide, how you can help solve your audience’s problems or meet their needs, testimonials from satisfied clients, costs, distinctions between you and your competition, and any other factors that will convince your target audience to patronize your company.

After you prepare your outline, it’s time to go to script. The script is a detailed document that identifies what will be seen and what will be heard and in what order they’ll appear. Draw a real or imaginary line down the middle of a piece of paper. On one side of the page, identify the visuals that will be seen, and on the other side, identify the audio that will be heard for each shot. The more specific, the better. Here’s an example of what your script should look like:

Shot # Audio Visual
1 Music (name the song) Title (Name it)
2 Music Continues Dissolve to wide tracking shot of group of people in a business meeting. Stop on John.
3 John says, “I can’t take these boring meetings any more!” Wide shot of John jumping up, throwing papers in the air. Others at table are in shock

And so on… The script should be as detailed as possible. It should include direction about the shot, whether it’s wide, medium, or a close up. Specify whether it’s a static shot or if dollies, pans, pull outs or other camera moves are involved. The point is that this is the time that decisions need to be made – certainly not on the set when you’re shooting your video. If you wait until you’re in production, people will get impatient and the time will slip away while you’re trying to brainstorm ideas and get agreement on them.

The pre-production stage is also when you hire your actors and crew. Do you want professional actors? Union or non-union? Are you going to have auditions? If so, who will conduct them? Do they know how to conduct one?

Have you identified the video production crew? Have you seen examples of their work? Have they worked together before? Have they produced the type of video production you want before?

Think about how you will feed everyone on the set as well. Who will get the food? Time is money and people work much better and happier if they are fed in a timely fashion.

Will you need a make-up artist? What will people wear? Stripes, herring boned patterns and vivid colors are no-nos, as camera doesn’t like any of this and it will cause moray patterns and other problems on the screen. What’s better earth tones or subdued colors with simple or no patterns

What will the set look like? Are there multiple locations? Have you figured out the backgrounds for each and every shot? Have you decided who is in each shot? Do you need props or furniture? Who will bring them? Make sure that you visit every site where you plan to shoot to make sure that there aren’t any surprises.

I remember shooting a video at a beautiful location, where I was guaranteed that no one would be around to get in the way of our shooting. I dutifully conducted my site survey and everything looked and sounded fine. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear the airplanes flying overhead when we did our site survey. And we didn’t hear the train that came by every hour. Nor did we hear or see the flock of geese when we were scouting the location. But all of these distracting nuisances were present during our video shoot. Fortunately, I had a contingency plan and we had indoor locations identified in advance. Having a plan B is not a bad idea. If you want to be really safe, shoot your video in a studio, so you can be assured of complete control over the location.

Lighting is another consideration. Is the location well lit? Or do you have to supply lighting? If you have windows in the background and the sun is shining in behind the subject that you are shooting, the external lighting will play havoc with your shot. If you encounter this type of shooting situation, you should use gels on the windows to adjust for the color temperature of the light.

What about audio? Audio quality is generally assumed or forgotten about until it goes bad. And when it’s bad, it will be the main focus of everyone’s attention. So you need to make sure people are miced properly. Redundant audio is a good thing to have. For instance, everyone that needs to be heard needs a lavaliere microphone or at least have a shotgun mic aimed at them. So to play it safe, you could have a lavolier mic on the person, capturing the audio on one channel and have a shotgun mic mounted on the camera capturing redundant audio on a separate channel. This way, if something goes wrong and a lavaliere mic cuts out, you can replace the audio with second channel of audio and the shot will be saved. Matching the audio can be difficult, so test your mics before you shoot your video to make sure they have a similar sound or can be ‘tweaked’ during editing

The final matter we’ll discuss is the shooting script. The regular script that everyone is familiar with identifies the sequential or chronological order of your production. However, a shooting script groups the shots according to location. For instance, shots 5, 14, 35, and 95 may take place in the cafeteria. It would take forever and be cost prohibitive to shoot your video in a different location as it sequentially appears in the script. Therefore, all of the cafeteria shots need to be shot at the same time, unless there’s a good reason not to. Grouping your shots will save time, money and patience.

Don’t forget that even though these various shots are in the same location, if they require actors to have different clothes on because they occur later in the video or it’s supposed to be another day for instance, you need to prepare for that too.

These are the major considerations for your pre-production activities. So once everyone has been contacted, told when and where to appear, and everything else has been planned, you’re ready to enter the production phase.

So read on to Video Production – Part II – The Production Stage

Television and video are the most powerful communicative tools in history. Video allows you to communicate your message quickly and effectively, while holding your viewers’ interest.

2. Cost-Effectiveness

Producing a sales video often costs no more to produce than a high-quality 4-color brochure. What’s more, one of video’s major advantages is its ability to give a great deal of information in a short amount of time. A well-scripted, 8 -minute video can give as much information as an entire stack of print materials!

3. Convenience

Video doesn’t infringe on your prospect’s time. He or she can watch at their own pace, wherever and whenever they want–including at home.

4. Video gets results

Using video to promote your products or services will give your company a competitive edge. For example, Soloflex, Inc. offers a free video demonstrating its $1,000 exercise system. Each tape only costs the company $8.00 and nearly half of those who view the video order a system.

5. Image

Using video can help your organization project a positive image. Video can also help your company increase brand visibilty.

6. Standardization

Video presents standardized information for every viewer, every time. This is especially important in training applications, because it allows the viewer to go back over areas they missed. Remember, video never has a “bad day”!

7. Effective Introduction

Video makes a great ice-breaker for sales calls on new prospects. Rather than the salesperson trying to give a mental image of the company, video can do it with pictures, music and exciting special effects. A corporate overview video can also create a friendly, caring image for your company by introducing viewers to upper management and key members of your staff to put a “face with the name”.

8. Attention

With video, you can expect nearly 100% viewership. People will watch your sales video, because it is a unique presentation. Market studies show that nearly everyone given a promotional video will watch the tape in its entirety–out of curiosity, if nothing else.

9. Versatility

The same video can be used at sales meetings, trade shows, point-of-purchase displays, for customer training and as a video brochure.

10. Simplicity

Video is an excellent way to sell a product that has any degree of complexity. Video lends itself particularly well to small, highly-technical products, because it can get “inside” the product to show how small parts work.

11. Vitality

Video can show your product in action, something brochures can’t do. It can bring your product’s features and benefits to life!

12. Resourceful

Video saves travel costs. For companies who do business with distant customers, it’s an ideal medium, because the average sales call costs approximately $600, including travel and lodging. Using a video in lieu of the trip can substantially decrease your cost per customer contact. We can also reproduce the video message in any language in the world.

13. Personable

You may not be able to get every prospect to come and see your facility, but with video, your facility can come to them. Video will take a viewer right inside a manufacturing plant to see the entire production process, including the quality of materials and workmanship that goes into your company’s products. Video also allows them to view your facilities at their convenience–even at night or on the weekends!

14. Preferred Medium

Today’s “visually literate” society gets most of its information from television: 9 out of 10 Brits say that television is their primary news source. Marketers are realizing that video is increasingly becoming the medium of choice.

15. Persuasive

One of the reasons why video is such a powerful medium is because it involves the viewer’s emotions. Even for businesses, buying decisions are often made on an emotional level. The ability to reach a prospect with images and sound can be incredibly persuasive.

16. Time-Saver

Video saves time, because the message can be presented more quickly. A recent study conducted by Pennsylvania University’s Wharton School of Business discovered that video speeded-up buying decisions by 70%.

17. Precision

With video, you have complete control over the message. Viewers are presented with only the information you want them to receive, in the exact order you want them to receive it.

**Prospects are 72% more likely to purchase a product or service when video is used. Also, there is a 51% greater understanding of a subject or product through video. (Wharton School of Business National Research Results)

To get round this you have to ask a few unexpected questions, and observe their reactions. It’s not so much right or wrong answers you’re looking for as the reactions, and the degree of knowledge shown.
You don’t want to embarrass a video producer or make anyone feel angry, but there’s nothing wrong with testing the limits of their comfort zone. After all, you’re going to be married to them for the next 3 months.

No single question in isolation will unearth the world beating video producer you’re looking for, but the following 11 questions will open things up, so you can then watch them closely and decide who is the genuine article, capable of producing an effective corporate video for your organisation.

As always, ask your question, then stay silent, watching and listening attentively to their reply.
It’s not just what they say, but the way that they say it!

1 – The Pandering Response: The video production company that gives you lots of pandering attention in the buying stages might be desperate for the work, and so have all the time in the world to give you in order to win. But they give that precious attention that some clients love! Either way, you need to know.

Ask them how busy they are, then watch closely.

2 – The Standard Response: On the other hand, the video production company that only gives you a “standard” amount of attention aren’t necessarily disinterested. They’re just busy. And they’re busy because they have lots of customers who like what they do. Which is a good sign.

Ask them how many quotes a month they do.

3 – The Boilerplate Response: Some video companies send you a 40 page pdf for a tender document (I’ve even seen 80 pages!). But it’s mostly a template, the same one they use for every client, where you get battered with superlatives and posturing, and much dubiously relevant information.

Ask how long their tender docs are.

4 – The Templated Response: To evaluate their video production tender doc for individuality, check how many times your company name is individually used in an individual contextual way. That’ll give you an idea if how much specific thought has gone into your corporate video project, and how much is simply boilerplate to be hashed up for every video client.

Ask how much of the tender is generic and how much is specific to you.

5 – The Recent Work Response:While it’s obviously good sense to ask to see samples of video work similar to your business or from your business sector, it’s good idea to ask to see very recent video work from the last month or two. Then you’ll know what’s bubbling in their pot – or not!

Ask to see recent video production work, any work, from the last month or two.

6 – The 3 Referees Response: A tough series of questions to ask are “show me your last three corporate videos“followed by “can you give me references for these last three videos?”followed by “did you go over budget or time on any of the last three videos?”. Watch reactions closely. It’ll sort out the bluffers from the genuine article.

Will your last three clients provide a reference?

7 – The Pricey Treatment Response: Do you get an expensive treatment (like ad agencies do) or is it basically a video production quote, proposal and samples? If it’s an expensive treatment you can be sure you’ll be paying for it. Which may be okay, if you have a sizeable video production budget and are looking for something particularly special.

Ask how long it took to prepare your presentation

8 – The Added-Value Response: Check if your initial meetings with potential video producers came up with ideas that added value to your corporate video production? Or was the meeting simply someone showing you how they met your spec? Always look for added value early on, as it’s a good indicator that you’ll also get it later on in the production,when it’s needed.

Ask how your ideas could be improved on

9 – The Script Check Response: Watch out for the “you tell us what to say” syndrome. Video production companies that are weak on developing your business message, will always imply the onus of the script development lies with you. Or they’ll brush over this area, and talk about cameras. You do not want this. You want a professional scriptwriting service by a person experienced in your industry or your topic, so make sure they offer this.

Ask how many script development meetings you get, and how much research

10 – The corporate video Response: Ask each potential video producer “how long since they produced a corporate video, a marketing video, a business video?”(not any other kind of video). It’s a simple question, but surprisingly many will respond with a video production they made over a year ago, and not something they did last month.

Ask how long since you last made a corporate video

11 – The Problem Hider Response: Does the video producer look resourceful? Sometimes things can go wrong in the course of a video production (believe it), but a resourceful video producer will solve these issues fairly painlessly. By contrast, a nervy person, a creative effete, or a tense image-obsessed individual will get everyone else worked up the same as they are, if there are unforeseen problems later down the line. The right person will openly admit to problems, while the secret hysteric will feel uncomfortable discussing the subject and want to move on quickly. “We don’t get problems” is not an acceptable answer

Ask what sort of problems they get on corporate video productions like yours