While there are many sites on which you can host your company videos, two of the most commonly used are YouTube and Vimeo. So which is the best one for you?

Well it is not for me to say what is best for your particular business but I can highlight a few points which might be important to your thinking.

Key things to consider:

YouTube is free but as a business, to use Vimeo, you need to have a business account which comes with a small fee. As all my readers are in business I think we need to look at the following key points on that basis.

• Vimeo has a smaller audience than YouTube. Is that important to you?
• As you enter both sites, Vimeo has a distinctly more professional look and feel.
• Vimeo has no adverts.
• Vimeo allows you to pick literally any frame from the video as the placeholder. YouTube offers only three random choices.

• Vimeo does not tend to have any inappropriate videos presented alongside the video you are watching
• Vimeo videos are not thought to be ranked as highly as YouTube videos in internet searches.
• Vimeo does not currently allow you to upload a transcript or caption file like you can on YouTube.
• YouTube is considered the second most used search engine on the web so gets a lot of traffic and more people are likely to find your videos.
• YouTube displays other videos when your video finishes. These could sometimes be inappropriate to your viewers or maybe worse, they could be your competitor’s videos.
• YouTube and Vimeo both offer a whole range of very similar tools such as being able to add enhancements, view analytics, tailor the video player, embed and share your videos. They are both good but just approach the options slightly differently so for those elements it will really come down to which approach you prefer.

• Vimeo has a more extensive set of options for managing your videos such as Portfolios, Channels and Albums allowing you to adjust privacy settings and add branding and descriptions to them.

My personal conclusion:

YouTube does a great job for most companies and I really don’t think you could be without it if you are keen for your video to be found through internet searches.

YouTube is free so it is almost a no brainer. However, you will have to accept some consequences. Most importantly your video will sit within a massive database of videos from all corners of the world across all sorts of topics. Not all of them will be of the quality of yours!

If you are a company interested in projecting a professional brand presence then YouTube might sometimes give you palpitations like when the end frame of your video promotes the latest teenage prank or the hottest new gangster rap video or worse still, a video belonging to your competitor.

As a business, the monthly fee on Vimeo shouldn’t really be an issue. In return for the fee you really do get a lot of excellent benefits.

I find the general look and feel of Vimeo much cleaner and more professional. The video content presented on Vimeo is also typically of a higher standard. You have much greater control over how you organise and present your videos all of which helps you maintain brand control.

For me I have ended up using both products for specific reasons. I use YouTube for search ranking and for any video that needs captioning (also helps with SEO) but I use Vimeo to provide me with a more controllable visual presence for my videos when I provide clients with links to view a video or specific album.

Good luck with your search.

Let me know if you use YouTube or Vimeo and which you prefer and why?

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Provide answers. Many people search the internet for answers to their questions – solutions to their problems. Providing the answers they’re looking for can help build your reputation. ‘How to’ and training videos show up well in Google searches, so think about how you can use them for your business. What tips or advice can you give to viewers? Can you create a short video demonstrating how to use your product or service?

DIY or not? While can you can have videos professionally produced, you can easily create your own. If you take the DIY route, carefully consider the impact it could have on your brand. You need to make sure you create the best video you can, or it could reflect badly on your brand. If you’re known for giving out quick tips, then a poorer quality video is fine; if you’re working on building up a quality reputation, you need to make the investment that you can afford, to create the right impression.

Hosting. Where do you put your video? Obviously they need to appear on your website and there are hosting sites you can use for storing them. YouTube and Vimeo are the two main sites I recommend for hosting (others are available!) The one you use depends on what you need, the number of videos you want to host, how long they are and a number of other criteria. Even if you self-host your videos, you should also consider using a site such as YouTube or Vimeo, for SEO (search engine optimisation) reasons, to help build up your online presence. I’ll write another blog about the differences between YouTube and Vimeo.

SEO. Make sure you optimise your videos so that they can be easily found by the search engines. Include keywords (phrases that people search for, which are usually based around their problem) in the title of the video, the description and tags. If your videos are training tips on how to use your products, and your customers know where to find them, then you don’t need to worry about this too much. However, optimisation is vital if you’re using your videos for sales or to drive traffic and visitors to your website.

Click here to read my blog post about optimising your videos.

How will you use videos to create an online presence for your business?

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YouTube is the second busiest search engine in use today. It’s where a lot of people now go to find answers to their questions.

If you’re putting your videos onto YouTube, you need to make it easy for as many people as possible to find them. Here are a few tips to help you help searchers find your YouTube video.

1. YouTube Video title – include juicy keywords that people are searching for. Including the word ‘video’ is always a good idea and keep your title to 12 words or less.
2. Tags – you can include tags in your YouTube videos. Make sure they are relevant to the content of your video and what people are searching for. Include at least 5 tags with each video.
3. Video description – tell searchers why they should watch your video by writing an attention grabbing description. The description is what shows up in the list of search results, so you need to encourage people to click on your video instead of someone else’s. Put the most relevant information first, as only about the first 100 characters appear in YouTube searches.
4. Use your YouTube videos as an SEO (search engine optimisation) tool by creating links back to your website. The more back links your website has, the higher it will appear in searches.
5. YouTube likes videos with interaction. Encourage your colleagues and clients to ‘like’ and share your videos, as this will give your YouTube videos high rankings in searches.
6. Create a YouTube channel for all your videos. Make sure your page reflects your company brand, with your logo and colours. Add some information about your business and a link to your website and social media pages.

Well produced videos are a great way to promote your business. Store them on YouTube so that prospective clients can find them and get to know more about what you do and how you can help them.

How do you use videos to promote your business?

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• Adding a video to your website makes your site 6 times more likely to convert someone who is ‘just browsing’ into a paying customer.

• 20% of web visitors will sit and read the majority of the text on a website, but 80% will sit and watch the same content when it’s presented in the form of a video.

• A company web site is 50 times more likely to be ranked on the front page of Google if it contains video.
• Retail site visitors who watch a video stay 2 minutes longer on a site on average and are 64% more likely to buy than other visitors.*

How can you see what effect a video has on your website and your business?

What visitors do on your website can be tracked through programs like Google Analytics. It tells you which pages are visited the most, how long a visitor is on a particular page and how often (or how much of) your video is viewed. Sites like YouTube and Vimeo also give you quick ways to see how many people access your video over a period of time, so you can measure your video ROI. By understanding how your prospective customers react to your video and then behave on other pages on your website, you can continue to develop your marketing and make it more effective.

Are you using videos on your website yet? How do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing?

* Source: http://www.buzzom.com/2011/07/why-use-video-marketing/

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You could use written testimonials, but I believe that filmed ones are much more powerful and have more impact. Why? There are a number of reasons.

1. If your clients have taken the time to think about what they want to say to camera, you know that they mean it. If they’ve taken time out of their busy day to be filmed, you know that they are happy working with you and want to tell other people about you. Just writing down some nice words about you would be easy to do and doesn’t take much time.  A video testimonial will be far more authentic to the viewer because you can’t change what someone says to camera, as easily as you can change words that are written down. You can write a testimonial yourself and put your client’s name to it. On camera, if they don’t want to say something they won’t and if they say something they don’t believe it will not come across as authentic.
2. Video testimonials are far more engaging than written ones. This is because they appeal to more of your senses. With a written testimonial, you have to rely on just the words and how the reader interprets them. With a video, you have far more than just the words with which to get your message across.  You need to think about both the visual and audible aspects of your video and what you are trying to achieve from them.

 Visual and audio impact in one go

With video testimonials you can use both text and images to create a visual representation of what’s being said. Changing what’s on screen will hold your viewers’ attentions for longer. Show different people within your office, to allow viewers to get a feel for your business and what goes on there. Show viewers how your product works.

Asking one of your clients to talk to camera about your business allows your viewers to hear exactly ‘how’ they think of your business, as well as ‘what’ they think of it. Their enthusiasm will come across so much better than through written words. If they really love working with you, it will come across in what they say, not just from what they say but their tone of voice too.  Using music in your videos helps create tempo and emotions and reaches the more auditory of your viewers.

Click here to watch a client testimonial we’ve filmed to see how we used all these different techniques to reach more of your senses and create a really engaging film and let me know what you think about it.

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As we near the end of 2012, now is the time to plan your marketing for 2013 and in particular, how you’re going to use videos as part of the mix.

Here are some tips to help you create your plan.

• Key dates – what special events will take place next year? Will your business have a birthday or anniversary to celebrate? If so, put the dates into your diary now and think about how you can use videos to promote the events in advance; and how you can use a camera on the day. Perhaps you can ask some of your clients for testimonials as they enjoy a glass of bubbly to celebrate your success!
• Top tips – what advise can you give away to clients and prospects? If you look at what people need to know about what you do, you can plan to film a ‘tip’ each month. It could coincide with publishing your newsletter or blog. Should I be filming myself telling you this, instead of asking you to read it?!
• Industry news – certain businesses need to do things at certain times of the year. If you recruit graduates, you might need a really good recruitment video to attract the cream of the crop. Think about when you’ll need to do this next year, so you can plan it into your schedule and get it done in plenty of time.
• Client testimonials – think about specific products or services you want to promote. Then ask a client to give you a testimonial for each one, saying why they work with you and what benefits they get.

Do you need more ideas on how you can use videos to promote your business? Leave a comment telling me a bit about your business and I’ll send you some advice.

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Client highlighting the problem & solution

Case study videos are a super effective way to promote your business.

Any kind of case study is a great way of demonstrating to prospective clients how you can help them in the same way.

It will show people the type of results they can expect from working with you.

Creating case study video is an even more effective way of spreading your message. A case study video will appeal to those who prefer to hear and see what someone else has to say, while a written case study can only be read so can be limited in its appeal.

An effective case study video needs to be well thought out and planned, to make sure that your client tells you exactly what you need to hear. If they are nervous about being filmed, having a structure will make the experience less of an ordeal for them.

A case study video is not the same as a testimonial video. A case study video is subtly more about the client that it is about you. Referral videos tend to be a series of clients talking about why they think you are good at what you do but a case study video is focused on one client and addresses the initial issue they faced in their business and how the solution (provided by you) is critical to what they do. A case study video will dive a lot deeper.

As an outcome, your prospects will develop empathy with your clients situation and appreciate the solutions you delivered.  Challenges in business are common across many sectors, and reassurance will result from seeing similar issues or challenges in your case study example.  Viewers will benefit from seeing how these challenges are being faced with the solutions you have created.

With that in mind, here are some questions you can ask:

1. What was the problem you were struggling with, that prompted you to get in touch with us?
2. Why did you choose to speak to us, instead of one of our competitors?
3. What did we do for you? How did we solve your issue?
4. What results did we achieve for you?
5. How does that make you feel?
6. Is there anything else you’d like to say?

There are lots of other questions you can ask; these ones are the basics that will help you produce a really effective case study that creates a story that your viewers can easily follow.

What do you do if you don’t get the answer you wanted? Ask the same question in a different way. You can keep doing this until you get the answer you were looking for – and you can edit out the bits you don’t want afterwards! Click here for question ideas.

Have you used video case studies to promote your business? Leave a comment here with a link to your video so we can see it too.

The post How do you create a powerful client case study video? appeared first on Video for Business - Sous Productions.

You could use written testimonials, but I believe that filmed ones are much more powerful. In this blog I’ll tell you why and share with you some tips for creating really powerful and engaging video testimonials.

Why are Video Testimonials Better than Written Ones?

Video testimonials have more impact than written ones. Why? There are a number of reasons.

Firstly, if your clients have taken the time to think about what they want to say to camera, you know that they mean it. If they have taken time out of their busy day to be filmed, you know that they are happy working with you and want to tell other people about you. Just writing down some nice words about you would be easy to do and doesn’t take much time.  A video offers more credibility – the spoken word from the client transpires openness and integrity, and indicates a strong client relationship.  A video testimonial will be far more authentic to the viewer because you can’t change what someone says to camera, as easily as you can change words that are written down. You can write a testimonial yourself and put your client’s name to it. On camera, if they don’t want to say something they won’t and if they say something they don’t believe it will not come across as authentic.

Secondly, video testimonials are far more engaging than written ones. This is because they appeal to more of your senses. With a written testimonial, you have to rely on just the words and how the reader interprets them. With a video, you have far more than just the words with which to get your message across.  You need to think about both the visual and audible aspects of your video and what you are trying to achieve from them.

 Visual

Videos are particularly useful when more complex services, solutions and products are involved.  They can enable you to convey more complex messages quickly and save viewers significant amounts of reading time. This is because they can be multi-layered containing both visual and audible information.  Visually you can mix pictures, video, text and graphics to reinforce key messages. The contrast and colour a video conveys builds a story more effectively than a one-dimensional written case study or white paper.

Videos are also good in people-based businesses as they can convey much more of a feeling for the kinds of people working in organisations, particularly for testimonials.

You can use both text and images to create a visual representation of what’s being said. Changing what’s on screen will hold your viewers’ attentions for longer. Show different people within your office, to allow viewers to get a feel for your business and what goes on there. Show viewers how your product works.

Audible

Asking one of your clients to talk to camera about your business allows your viewers to hear exactly ‘how’ they think of your business, as well as ‘what’ they think of it. Their enthusiasm will come across so much better than through written words. If they really love working with you, it will come across in what they say, not just from what they say but their tone of voice too.  Using music in your videos helps create tempo and emotions and reaches the more auditory of your viewers.  This can add more emphasis to what your clients are saying about you.

Video can help drive brand and awareness – but make sure the tone of the video matches the tone of your brand and is really well produced (a dull or badly produced video is worse than no video at all).

Below you will find three key tips to achieving an effective video testimonial and links to examples.

Obtain a quote for a client testimonial video here

How to … Create Engaging Testimonial Videos
Here are three things you need to consider, to help you create really powerful video testimonials.

1. Where will you film? If you want to film a number of your clients, it can save time and money by bringing them all together at the same time and location. Using one film crew and one location will be considerably more cost effective than sending the crew to see different people in different places. Can you invite a number of your clients to your offices on the same day? You can make an event of it, by putting on a bit of lunch or a free seminar for your clients. If you’re already running an event (such as a seminar or celebration), to which you’ve invited your clients you can combine this with filming.
2. What style do you want? A formal interview style with lighting can give a really professional look – as in the video we created for Wilson Partners. Alternatively, you might prefer a more natural style, which will give a more dynamic feel. This style is better if you want to keep things looking natural and want to get them completed more quickly. Here is an example of interviews performed in a more natural style.
3. Get your questions right. Spend some time in advance, thinking about what questions you’re going to ask your clients. Start with the answer that you want to hear and work out the questions you need to ask, in order to get that answer. Be prepared to not get the answer you’re expecting, so have a number of questions ready, to help you get to your desired answer. You may need to narrow your client’s thinking, so keep asking questions to get them to really focus on what you’d like them to say. You can always edit out any ‘waffle’ later!

If you spend some time planning how, where and why you’re going to film your clients saying great things about your business, you’ll get a much better result that provide you with a really powerful tool for promoting your business.

More top tips on preparing your interview questions

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While we do feel that some of the flash bang whizz could detract from the quality video content, we also recognise that if you want to grab attention, sometimes you have to put it right out there by playing with some of the parameters of the video including colouring of the footage, laying in some effects and selecting the right music.

Adobe After Effects is not a video editing package. As the name suggests, it provides the ability to add effects after the main editing has been done. This does mean that it extends the overall editing time required.

It is not always simple to do either. Some effects may be the result of tuning multiple parameters and as such I guess it is not always apparent just how much time needs to be put in to create the finished results.

Most video productions for companies dont require much if anything in the way of after effects. For most productions it could all be too much of a distratction. Maybe some tweaking to the overall colour, putting in some text and possibly some interesting transitions but much of that can be done quite well in editing software.

Showreels such as our new one below do however provide a great opportunity to lay it on thick and we had great fun doing it. We hope it gives you some indication of what can be done. Hope you enjoy it too!

Sous Productions – Video Production Showreel

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Small Economies

All too often, a good video programme could have been a truly excellent video programme if the script had been handed over to a writer, typically a communications professional, to review, edit and polish.  If needs be, a writer can to take the ‘clean sheet’ approach and compile a script from the very start of the production process. For a relatively small amount of additional investment, is it really worth cutting corners?

The Why?

Top of the writer’s list is to ensure that the script maintains complete objectivity and closely matches what you are looking for. From the outset – what is the programme’s purpose and what do you want to achieve from it. And why?

Little things add up to a great big lot in a script. The writer will ensure that the correct style is chosen to make necessary impact, with tone and accents, light and shade, and in the right places. Humour – in some cases, pinpoint accuracy may be especially important for some programmes . Individuality, to make a distinction from others, is generally a must-have.

In every script, flow is essential from the start, through the middle sections and onward to the ‘finale’. Each section must knit together as seamlessly as possible. Throughout the process, the writer will take care to ensure that the presenter has clear and concise narratives to deliver. And as for the words themselves, a writer will use the ‘goldilocks’ approach – not too many and not too few.

Engaging

Throughout the process, a writer will maintain an external viewpoint – your message must engage the audience and take their perspective. Above all,  the final programme must be enjoyable to listen to as well as to watch. And not be a turn off.

As with most pieces of communications, a video programme should generate an effect – help an audience on to making the next step, support or prompt a particular reaction or change.  The images created by the cameraman and director will achieve a lot. Put the visual material together with a professionally written script and the overall impact has every chance of hitting the target. Bang on.

That’s pretty much it. We look forward to working on your next programme.

Steve Johnson

Communications Consultant, Video Scriptwriter and Journalist

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