Here is a quick app showing you how to create your scripts and offers the script template download. Comment below if you have any questions.
I was going through a demo with a new client yesterday and we had some spare time after the session so I went a bit more in depth into our V2 area over at my.visiblegains.com, of which you can create a free account! For the demo I wanted to create an application from scratch about the snow storm we just had yesterday. I used my webcam to introduce myself, found a couple of pictures I took of the snow and recorded a brief video saying thanks for watching. It was great, completed it in a demo and all of it was under 10 minutes to turn images into a quick video. Here is the final:
Here is a break down of the files, it’s a quick video, then three images of the snow with some voiceover I recorded using my laptop mic right into the builder and then a quick video saying “thanks.”
Yes I know I work for the company and I’ve been working with this tool but the fact that this was so easy and quick really blew me away, and it seems to be doing the same for the people I demo for. Again you can check it out here: my.visiblegains.com
For one reason or another, you don’t have the right video footage to tell the story. How do you overcome such a hurdle? Easy, use images.
I know what you’re probably thinking… “If I wanted to create a boring PowerPoint presentation, I would have done just that, I want to make a video.”
Well, the use of still images with a common technique called the Ken Burns effect is capable of creating a pretty engaging video. Named after documentary film producer and director Ken Burns, the Ken Burns effect is the technique of slowly zooming into or panning over an image to create a video like experience. This technique is best used to emphasize specific segments of an image and can really help communicate the story you’re trying to tell.
Watch this short example taken from a Ken Burns documentary, The National Parks. It’s a nice blend of both video and imagery.
So, the next time you’re stuck without any video footage, find some images and add a little Ken Burns. You may be surprised with the outcome.
P.S. – In the latest release of our product, we’ve included the ‘Ken Burns’ effect with all image elements. Very cool, check it out!
If you’re looking to waste time and annoy your talent and boss on your next video shoot then follow this very easy step to achieve that goal. Rookie mistakes are always a killer.
Today I was watching a tutorial on Yahoo Pipes for an upcoming project. The tutorial was great and was very educational, however the related video area was not as flattering. When you use free platforms like Yahoo, YouTube or Vimeo, you’re subjected to the way they want to treat it. Like this example where I was offered a video tutorial on having sex in a car. Get Control Over Your Video!
Everyone is trying to get video on their site and I’m sure you are too. You may be finding it difficult to find someone to sit in front of that camera, but don’t lose hope. There are also great ways to create video without needing someone on screen. Screen Casts are a great way to create video. You can make a product demo, you can feature a slideshow, and you can make it look beautiful. In this video I cover the basics from getting your idea down, your approach, recording, basic editing, and exporting your engaging, person free video.
Your customers and prospects love to learn from each other. Getting clients to talk about their experience – both what worked and what failed – is very valuable in helping to create good thought leadership content and building trust. That is why I suggest you think first about the information the visitor or viewer wants to learn when creating a video “customer testimonial”. Think of it not as a testimonial, but as sharing an experience. That will set the stage for compelling content. This is especially valuable when the customer shares their story on video – it is authentic and the words are their words.
At Constant Contact, they are arming many people with Flip cameras to capture customer success stories. This content is proving very valuable and a great way to get prospects to engage with Constant Contact. Here from Judy Gern, Director of Conversion Marketing at Constant Contact during a panel discussion we co-sponsored in the Boston area last spring
Some thoughts on creating the video customer testimonials:
1. Remember your audience - Remember the prime goal of a customer testimonial is to share learning’s with your audience, not to promote how wonderful you and your company are. Sharing valuable content will naturally build trust.
2. Authentic - Don’t worry about polishing up the video. Your client will naturally be authentic. They are not actors, so they should be themselves, which makes them genuine.
3. On Camera – In general, they should be on on camera, not you. I find that interview style works well and is more comfortable for most people who you will interview. Often sitting across from each other works well.
3. Good Questions - Think of questions that describe the challenge they faced, why it was important to them, how they looked at the opportunity, results or failure, what they learned and what they acheived.
If you’ve released any video on your website or on YouTube, you’ve undoubtedly had your management ask you “Did it work? Was it worth it?” After you get that question, you are probably spending time in your video platform’s analytics system to see how you can measure success. If you follow YouTube Insight, for example, you might put together a presentation for your CEO around demographics of your audience, the “hot spots” in your video, how many comments, etc. If you look across the various video platforms on the web, they all pretty much do the same thing, albeit under different brand names and trademarks. A lot of them look sexy but…
If your campaign is 100% driven towards awareness and buzz, then measuring your viral video using heat maps, audience demographics, view counts and comment streams might work for you. However, if you are like most businesses, you need to focus on the goal of your video. Business videos typically have one of the following goals:
The good news is that the measurement for #2-5 are pretty well known by B2B marketers and it has absolutely nothing to do with video analytics.
Whether you are using Salesforce.com, Eloqua, Marketo, Hubspot, Google Analytics, or another customer tracking system, they all have standard funnel reports where you can see website visitors -> leads -> customers. Your job as a marketer is to correlate the leads and customers with the content they consumed to get them to that point. You likely have reports where you can see if prospect X attended a webinar or prospect Y downloaded an eBook. If there is a large correlation of prospects downloading the eBook and then becoming customers, you can justify success of the eBook. Do the same with video: If you see a better conversion rate on people watching the video and eventually becoming customers, it is pretty easy to justify that the video worked.
Videos are unique because they are often embedded in other content, and rarely stand out on their own. Separating video views from pageviews is often hard to do. Luckily, there are techniques such as using virtual pageviews in Google Analytics that allow you track video views and use them in your funnel reports. Most of the marketing automation systems mentioned above have Javascript API’s where you can do the same thing. Note: In future blog posts, I will do more detailed tutorials on exactly how to do it for each system mentioned.
If you have videos on your site, add a little Javascript to them so you can track them as part of your funnel. If you’re still looking to make your first video, have confidence that it is not the black art that most video platforms make it out to be. Keep it simple and always remember to throw away the beautiful videos that don’t work and keep the ugly ones that do.
Disclaimer: We at VisibleGains believe that every marketer eventually needs to understand detailed video analytics as well as they understand web analytics. Our product offers much more detailed analytics than video views. However, they are usually not necessary until you are tuning and optimizing your video content. If you are a rabid A/B tester, then you might want to dig into advanced video analytics after you make a few videos, but we suggest that you keep it simple early on.
Photo Credit: Andrew Magill
Creating effective business video is something that people learn how to do in stages and our advice on the relevant “3 quick ways” varies accordingly. Choose a path through the interactive video below to see what 3 Quick Things might work for you…
Depending on your choices, this will take between 45 and 90 seconds…
While the 3 things you were offered in the interactive video above varied by your experience level, the following things to watch our for apply in all cases:
Where are you in the pool and what have you been doing?
Capturing a video interview with a client, partner, or industry guru is the foundation for valuable content. A couple of important tips when capturing the interview:
1. Prepare your questions - Think about what you want to communicate, so you can ask questions that get you the right content. Write down your questions and make sure you have a few open ended questions – you will often be pleasantly surprised with gems of an answer.
2. Identify themselves – Ask them to share their name, company and role. This is always a good lead into any final piece.
3. Easy Question - Ask one or two easy questions to get things started and flowing.
4. Be Quiet - When the interviewee is talking, be quiet. It is okay to nod, but you want the sound only to have their voice. Much easier for using this later on.
5. Discussion or Interview - You need to decide upfront if this is a discussion or interview. As an interview, you are trying to ask questions and get answers. Those answers will be what you use in your video. You will not be on camera or heard on the sound track.
6. Microphone – It often helps to put a microphone on your subject. Good sound is very important in making a video engaging.
7. Authorization - Ask them on camera if it is okay for you to post this online. You want to get clearance to use the content. For more information on authorization, watch this clip featuring David Meerman Scott sharing recording tips.
