The consumer marketplace has spoken: It likes videos, and it likes to view them online. And therein lies an opportunity for small-business owners of all types, everywhere, to reach potential customers.
Just about any type of business can create a video about its products and services. The possibilities are endless, and high-quality videos are within the financial reach of more small businesses than ever before.
Your best bet at getting a Hollywood-quality video is to use a professional business video production company. A good place to locate one is ProductionHub.com, a free service with a regional guide and other features to help you find a production company to fit your needs.
Here are some tips on making videos:
Educate yourself: “Marketing with Film and Video,” by veteran filmmaker Barry Casson, is loaded with tips. Visit www.speakfilm.com for details. Work.com has more than 1,500 how-to guides, with several on producing and using business and promotional videos. Visit the site and put “business video” in the search box.
Make a plan: As Casson says, “All the pros use this technique, and you should too.” Plan every detail from start to finish – from staging your interviews before they are shot to “storyboarding” the entire show. That means sketching out, box by box, how each scene will look, and determining what you need to make it happen.
Beware of bandwidth: If you’ll be running the video on your Web site, make sure you have enough bandwidth through your Internet service provider.
Keep it short: Attention spans are short, so make sure you “show” as much as you can, and don’t just “tell.”
Keep it focused: Give your video a specific purpose. If it’s intended to sell, then stick to that. If you want to profile your company, do that. But don’t try to do everything at once.
These resources can help:
* Find professional freelance help for writing scripts at MediaBistro.com or Guru.com.
* Pinnacle Systems, at www.pinnaclesys.com, offers software and other products to help you produce, edit and archive videos. Macintosh computers come with a program called iMovie, and Windows Movie Maker is available as a download from Microsoft.com.
* For a free platform to share your video, consider YouTube. Other similar sites include MySpace and Google Video.
* The Electronic Retailing Association is a membership group of businesses that use direct-response electronic marketing, including videos. Visit www.retailing.org.
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at editor@business.com.
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