Video

3 Video Marketing Lessons from 100 Big Cats

Amy Peveto — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:05:44 +0000

3 Video Marketing Lessons from 100 Big Cats

Amy Peveto Tue, 07/29/2014 - 8:05am

In 2006 Florida-based nonprofit Big Cat Rescue created a YouTube channel and uploaded their first video. Since then the staff has uploaded hundreds of videos dedicated to educating viewers about big cats. Here’s three lessons their videos can teach you about your video marketing strategy.

Lesson 1: Mix it up

BCR posts one video per week, with each falling into a variety of categories:

Silly (“Do Big Cats Like Catnip?”)
Educational (“Do Big Cats Purr?”)
Species spotlights (Sand Cats, Tigers, Cougars)
Day-to-day sanctuary activity (Feeding, medical care, donation usage)
Abuse prevention (Rescue and conservation)

Videos are short and focused on a single topic, making them easier to produce and allowing the sanctuary to spread videos out over a longer period of time.

Lesson 2: Always be prepared

Make sure all personnel and props are in place and ready to go prior to beginning shooting.
Have a phone or camera on hand at all times to grab interesting footage or photos.
Plan in advance each video you want to create, and consider scripting and storyboarding for maximum efficiency.

Lesson 3: Tell a great story

Big Cat Rescue has clearly learned the lesson that all nonprofits must: your cause is not your story.

Instead of focusing on their cause — the constant need for funds — the staff instead concentrates on telling stories about specific cats’ histories and lives.

So when I finally decide to donate, I don’t think of it as donating to keep the sanctuary stocked with toilet paper or chicken wire — I think of it as helping save Joseph or Divinity or Pharaoh.

Lessons worth learning

Whether you’re old hat or just dipping your toe into the world of video marketing, there’s a lot to learn from Big Cat Rescue and other organizations who are doing it well.

Your product or service is likely different than rescuing exotic animals, but that doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate similar tactics in your video marketing.

Are you taking notes?

Other great marketing campaigns

[Image: Big Cat Rescue]

What Everybody Ought to Know About Video Marketing

Jennifer Edwards — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 15:36:09 +0000

What Everybody Ought to Know About Video Marketing

Jennifer Edwards Wed, 02/19/2014 - 9:36am

Businesses are no longer restricted by traditional marketing techniques. The world wide web has opened multiple possibilities in marketing, and video marketing is proving to be one of the most effective ones yet. Contrary to popular belief, video marketing is not just simply throwing a few videos on YouTube. It requires work. Thankfully, there are ways you can optimize your video marketing to ensure its full potential.

The benefits of video marketing

The Internet provides companies with one of the easiest ways to connect with a mass audience. Not only is most of the US population on the Internet, but in 2012, more than 21 billion videos were watched.

Also, video marketing is effective and can be a low cost marketing tool. You are able to pass on your marketing message through a variety of mediums, providing multiple ways for your target audience to see your content. Video marketing utilizes images and sound, making it easier for the audience to understand the idea and increase their time spent on your page.

With new video apps coming out all the time, the possibilities of video marketing are endless. Applications such as Vine, Snapchat, and Instagram provide businesses with creative and effective ways to reach their audience. These video applications provide a fast and easy way to upload videos.

Become more search friendly

When developing your video marketing, remember it is not simply uploading videos to YouTube or other video platforms. In order to assure full optimization of your videos, it is important you add key information for SEO.

Don’t focus on what is flashy by dressing up your words when attaching keywords and descriptions to your content, but rather what people are more likely to search for. By using Google’s Adwords Planner, you can identify some words for which you would like to rank in your industry. This will make sure your tags and meta descriptions are relevant and search friendly.

Embedded videos can boost search rankings

To further optimize the search results for your video content, upload your content on multiple platforms. First, upload your video to YouTube and other distribution sites, but alter the title a little for each platform. Then embed the video into your site, thus providing multiple sites where your video can be viewed.

This will ensure you are taking advantage of your SEO, and not restricting its variability. Furthermore, pages with embedded videos can potentially show up higher in search results, allowing your content to stand out more.

Don’t aim to go viral

When utilizing video marketing, do not create the content with the mindset of going “viral.” The majority of content that has gone viral did so by accident. Content generally goes viral because it evoked emotions from the user, influencing them to share it.

However, attempting to create content solely for shares and clicks might leave you short handed. Simply fluffing up the title or description of a video to attract viewers can be identified as being phony, thus potentially leaving the company looking desperate and in poor reputation.

By focusing on what your target audience is looking for, you will be able to better create and optimize your video marketing. However, this must connect with content that is sharable and influence clicks. Focus on your message, while forming to your audience’s needs. The content will be relevant and credible, rather than misleading.

[Image Credit: codenamecueball]

Submitted by Melody Mendoza on Fri, 02/28/2014 - 1:53am

Great blog. It may seem like a short video can be done quick, but if you want it to be effective, then it has to be strategic. We just filmed a video that was supposed to be short today. Once my team heard the idea, it became strategic and it's coming along well. It has a more effective message and is a lot better than it originated as.

Submitted by Jennifer Edwards on Fri, 02/28/2014 - 11:16am

That's great to hear Melody. It is so important to create a strategic plan for your video to ensure you are optimizing your message and reaching your target audience effectively. Thank you for reading and commenting! Good luck with the video!

Creating Video: In-House vs. Outsourcing

Amy Peveto — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 14:11:17 +0000

Creating Video: In-House vs. Outsourcing

Amy Peveto Wed, 10/02/2013 - 9:11am

At this point I believe the question of whether or not video is valuable to businesses has been answered (spoilers: it is). Now companies must decide how that content should be created: in-house by existing employees, or outsourced to a professional.

Creating video in-house

Pros

You’re in control - You get to decide everything, from script to shots. You can make your video exactly the way you want it, with no influence from a third party.
It’s less expensive (possibly) - Professional videographers charge hundreds of dollars per day for their services. Going the DIY route can save you some cash — although you might end up having to invest it in your own video equipment.

Cons

It’s time-consuming - Creating a quality video requires a lot of time. Whatever amount you were thinking you’d spend, double it.
There’s a learning curve - If you’ve never written a script, worked a nice video camera, tried to get people to memorize lines, filmed, or edited, there’s a lot of knowledge you need to cram in. You’ll learn as you go, but time and budget drain faster than you’d think.

Outsourcing video creation

Pros

Work with an expert - No need to fumble through on your own when a professional already knows what to do.
Less nitty-gritty, more management - The professional handles details while you oversee the project and keep it on time and budget.

Cons

Loss of control - Hiring a professional means giving absolute control of the project. You’re still in charge, but you’re not the only one.
More expensive (possibly) - Hiring a professional means paying him or her, but it also means you don’t have to invest in your own equipment.

Go with your goals

As you can see from the lists above, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to this question — instead, it’s about finding the right answer for you.

Think about your end goal. Do you want a simple video for your website’s homepage, a television commercial, a quick “talking head” piece from the CEO, or a sleek tour of your new offices?

Knowing what kind of video you want to create can help you decide whether to tackle the project in-house, or find a professional resource with whom to partner.

One critical caveat

A great video is the result of extensive planning, and involves managing budgets, expectations, experience levels, and egos. It’s a balancing act of the highest order.

Your video content should reflect well on the company, showcasing its value and professionalism, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that you have to spend thousands of dollars on a 30-second testimonial — you don’t have to use a mallet to kill a mosquito when a quick swat will suffice.

That said, skimping on video planning and quality can come back to haunt you, so in my opinion you should err on the side of over-planning and overspending.

What’s been your experience with video creation? Got any more pros or cons to share? Leave ‘em in the comments!

Benefits of Video Scripting & Storyboarding

Amy Peveto — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:02:34 +0000

Benefits of Video Scripting & Storyboarding

Amy Peveto Tue, 02/05/2013 - 10:02am

I’ve spent the last couple months coordinating video series for several of our clients, and it’s been a roller coaster ride to say the least. But we’re rockin’ and rollin’ now, and it’s all thanks to scripts and storyboards.

Film 101

Walk into any film studio in the world and you’re guaranteed to spot at least one set of storyboards, or visual depictions of the settings and actions described in a film’s script. Storyboards give directors, animators and illustrators, and camera operators a way to see how a film will look when finished, as well as plan shooting schedules and set and actor needs.

Completed films aren’t always shot-for-shot exactly the same as their storyboards, but they enable those working on the project to better plan and execute that project — resulting in a film that closely mirrors the ideal they imagined.

Why this matters to you

Even the biggest businesses don’t have the budget to spend on a company-produced video that professional film studios do; but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t dedicate an appropriate amount of time to planning your 30-second testimonial or full-length product feature.

Scripting and storyboarding are essential to any size video project. Both of these items need to be complete before you even touch a camera, or you risk losing both your sanity and control of the project.

An example of poor planning

Imagine an employee of a home alarm system company who is tasked with creating a video that shows customers step-by-step how to silence their alarm system.

It’s easy to dive right in, but here are just a few things the employee needs to consider:

What does the alarm pad look like? Is it the same in every home?
What does the alarm sound like?
Where is the alarm pad located? Is it in the same place in every home?
How long does the owner have to disarm the system?
Do we have a place to film?
Should we film a person just from the front, laying out the steps, or do we need to demonstrate each step?
What should our video introduction say? Do we need to have a title slide with a logo, etc.?

If these items aren’t scripted and storyboarded prior to filming, it’s extremely easy to end up with a five-minute video in which shots are confusing or inconsistent, and an employee rambles, stumbles through instructions, or leaves out an important detail.

Without a plan, employees involved in creating the video will spend more time trying to figure out words and shots than actually getting the project done — it will blow the budget, delay the deadline, and frustrate everyone. Plus you end up with a less than scintillating video.

Plan first, plan well

Scripts come first (otherwise you have nothing to storyboard). Once you’ve settled on a topic, find an expert in your company who knows everything there is to know about it — in the case of “Silencing Your Home Alarm,” you could ask a technician who installs ten systems a day and knows it backwards and forwards.

Then have them walk you through every aspect of silencing the alarm. This is where little details—like different locations a system could be, or locations and colors of buttons and descriptions of sounds—are important. You may not mention them all in the video, but the more information you have, the easier it is to script and storyboard.

Once you’ve got a solid script, it’s time to sketch out what video shots match the script.

For example, a section of the script that says, “The green button is located on the top right of your alarm pad. Press that button and hold for three seconds” might be accompanied by a storyboard that looks like this:

Your storyboards don’t need to be perfect (as you can see, the stuff I draw is less Renoir and more elementary school art class) — it just needs to convey things like what the script says, where people are standing, what the camera is looking at, what’s in the background, etc.

Pro tip: I’ve found that 5x8 notepads work great for storyboarding; you can add, remove, or reorder slides at any time, plus you can put the script on the back side of your board.

Ready, set, film!

The power of video is undeniable: internet users are 64-85% more likely to buy after watching a product video, and are less likely to return purchases.

Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Take the time to script and storyboard your videos (or work cooperatively with a professional who’s creating those things for you), and I guarantee that the entire process will be less painful and more profitable.

The Value of Video (Part I)

Amy Peveto — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:58:42 +0000

The Value of Video (Part I)

Amy Peveto Wed, 10/17/2012 - 9:58am

When done properly, video can be a powerful tool for your business; done wrong, or even “just okay,” it can turn customers off faster than a lightswitch. In the first of this two-part series we’ll show you how to make video work for, not against, you.

Where this video went wrong

This video has a great message and imparts some valuable information; unfortunately, it gets lost in translation.

Distractions everywhere

So much to look at! I only have a few seconds to catch your attention, and the goal is to have you focus on what I’m saying, not trying to figure out what all the stuff behind me is (I saw you eyeballing that African drum).

Filming needs to happen in a non-cluttered environment so that prospects can focus on your message, not what’s behind you. Select your location accordingly.

Where’s the camera?

One of the drawbacks of recording on your own (in my case using my Mac’s built-in camera) is that you’re never quite sure where to focus. I wanted to appear as if I am making direct eye contact, but it’s not always easy to know where to look — plus I had to peek at my notes a couple times. The effect is a little alienating.

Work with a professional videographer to coordinate filming; this will ensure you’re centered in the frame properly, focusing where you’re supposed to, and maximizing your video’s effectiveness.

Audio/visual issues

The biggest issue with this video is its overall quality. The audio is okay, but the lighting and quality leaves much to be desired. And the lack of polish is emphasized by my mentioning its importance in the video itself.

Does that de-cluttered location you’ve selected have good lighting? Is there enough insulation in the room so that you don’t sound like you’re in an echo chamber?

Professional videographers are more expensive, but they have access to high-definition cameras, supplemental lighting, and the expertise to help you craft the best video possible.

Stay tuned

Later this year we’re going to re-shoot this video, incorporating the tips discussed here. We want you to see the difference a little more time and money makes, as well as how a nicely-produced video can build engagement, boost your brand, and improve your SEO.

5 Steps to a Killer Landing Page [Video]

Amy Peveto — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:39:33 +0000

5 Steps to a Killer Landing Page [Video]

Amy Peveto Mon, 02/27/2012 - 9:39am

Your website’s landing pages can be your first (and only) chance of making a good impression. This video covers the five elements your landing page needs to catch the visitor’s attention and convince him or her to convert.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is any page on your website that allows you to collect relevant information from people interested in your content. The goal of a landing page is to entice visitors to complete the accompanying form, thereby providing you with valuable information—like their name and email—in exchange for your helpful content.

The 5 elements

Title

What is the offer? Make your title descriptive and exclusive.

Description

Use the description to answer the visitor’s question, “What in it for me?” Tell them who the offer is for, what it is, and why they should take advantage. Remember to keep it short and sweet — Internet readers skim text rapidly, so bullet points work well.

Image

Add an image to your page. Give the reader an idea of what they’ll get by including a screenshot, cover page image, or product shot.

Form

Arguably the most important element of the page. Collect enough information to be useful to your sales team, but keep it short as well. If your form is too long or asks for too much personal information, fewer people will fill it out. Make only necessary information required, and give visitors the option to enter other information if they wish.

A study conducted by Dan Zarrella shows that labeling a landing page’s submission button "Submit" can lower conversion rates. Top-performing variations include “Click here” and “Go,” but feel free to experiment with different labels.

Sharing options

Lastly, make it easy for visitors to email the landing page to a friend, or share it via their social media profiles. Keep the sharing options simple to avoid cluttering the page.

A word of caution

Landing pages are important, but don’t let them become your only focus; don’t forget that the content or products behind those pages are just as important as the page itself.

Want advice about video? Tell a story.

Mark Figart — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:48:36 +0000

Want advice about video? Tell a story.

Mark Figart Tue, 01/24/2012 - 9:48am

After a recent insightful conversation with Stephen Mick of Proof Creative in Austin, I felt like I had to capture his advice in a post. I'm positioning it as advice to digital agencies, but anyone should be able to extract value from it. My apologies to Stephen in advance if I've misrepresented anything he intended to say.

Stephen asks himself the following questions as he approaches a video project. (These are my comments below each of the questions, not Stephen's. I'm sure he has a lot more and better things to say about each of these than what I've mustered below.)

1. Is there a story to tell?

It's hard to make a good video if you have no story to tell. So identify your client's story first.

2. How can we use video in a way to tell that story?

Okay, you have a story. Now what are the possibilities for using video to tell the story? I'm not a video expert, but this sounds like a great opportunity to exercise your creative muscles.

3. Is the client open to telling the story?

You're inevitably going to find some clients who are not comfortable telling their own stories. Hopefully you can wield some influence over them, but ultimately I think you have to be prepared to walk away when the client can't believe in your vision. The web doesn't need more bad videos.

The bigger picture

What made this advice hit home for me is its relevance beyond video. Substitute the word "content" for "video" and you have some pretty good insight into what makes for great content strategy.

As a digital agency, it's sometimes easy to get caught up in the details of design, development, and integration. But if we're not telling a story, is it all really worth the effort?

[Image: emitea]

Submitted by Adrienne on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 12:12pm

You definitely want people to be able to relate to you or what you are presenting. If you can put yourself in your customers/clients shoes then I think your video will come across as intended. At least that's my take on this Amy!

I see we have the same conversation going over at my place too! I love that, everyone needs to start implementing more videos.

Submitted by Amy Peveto on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 12:16pm

I've seen a lot of video-related and storytelling-related articles recently — this post itself was written by Mark, Digett's founder/president.

Hopefully this sudden surge of posts about video and storytelling is an indicator of where marketing is going over the next year!

"Is Anybody Reading This?" Writing Content for the Web [Webinar Recording]

Amy Peveto — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:07:44 +0000

"Is Anybody Reading This?" Writing Content for the Web [Webinar Recording]

Amy Peveto Thu, 12/15/2011 - 2:07pm

Thank you again to everyone who joined us for the Writing Content for the Web webinar. If you want to see it again, or if you missed it the first time around, check out the slides and transcript available below. And let us know what you think in the comments!

Slides

Is Anybody Reading This? Writing Content for the Web from Mark Figart

Transcript

Due to an issue with an audio card, we were unable to obtain a high-quality recording of this webinar. However, please feel free to download the transcript [PDF].

Stay in touch with Digett

We love connecting with new people, and we do our best to share worthy content across several channels. Here are some ways to stay in touch with us:

5 Social Media Mistakes [Webinar Recording]

Amy Peveto — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 05:00:00 +0000

5 Social Media Mistakes [Webinar Recording]

Amy Peveto Wed, 09/14/2011 - 12:00am

Thank you again to everyone who attended our 5 Social Media Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make webinar; your fantastic comments and questions made the webinar a great experience for everyone involved.

Don't worry if you missed the live webinar: the recording turned out great, and we hope that is can continue to be a good resource for you to use to make sure that you're keeping your social media strategy on track.

Recording

Webinar: The 5 Social Media Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make from Digett on Vimeo.

Slides

The 5 Social Media Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make from Mark Figart

Bookmark 'em, share 'em with friends, and thanks again for making it great!

Stay in touch with Digett

The Digett team works hard to keep our blog updated with the latest in the social media, mobile web, marketing strategy, and more. Once per month we send out a digest of our most popular articles; we’d love to share them with you, too. Subscribe to the Digett newsletter.

Drupal Video Tutorials: Advanced Tactics

Amy Peveto — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:00:23 +0000

Drupal Video Tutorials: Advanced Tactics

Amy Peveto Mon, 08/08/2011 - 10:00am

We love using Drupal at Digett because it’s open source, flexible, and has a great community built around it. But as someone who came into web marketing with no knowledge of Drupal, I can understand our clients’ occasional frustration at not being able to immediately take charge of their website and make the updates and changes they want.

It is with this in mind that Digett has created a series of Drupal content management video tutorials. This series covers the most common content management actions in Drupal, and is intended to help Drupal beginners in the management of their websites.

Things to keep in mind

These tutorials were developed with Drupal 6 websites in mind, although many elements may also apply to earlier and later versions of Drupal.
While many Drupal websites function in similar ways, no two sites are exactly alike: some functions described in these tutorials may not be available on your website, your user account may not have the appropriate permissions, or the processes may look just a bit different.
These tutorials are available publicly, both in these blog articles and on Digett’s YouTube page. If you are a Drupal developer or firm, please feel free to share these tutorials with your clients.

Advanced Tactics

Here’s a first taste

Final thoughts

Creating this series of tutorials was well worth the effort, and we encourage you to share them with others. They have been helpful for our clients, and we hope they will also be helpful for yours.

Submitted by swayaminfotech on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 11:55pm

nice video

Submitted by Amy Peveto on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 10:04am

Thank you! I hope you find it helpful.

Video

3 Video Marketing Lessons from 100 Big Cats

Lesson 1: Mix it up

Lesson 2: Always be prepared

Lesson 3: Tell a great story

Lessons worth learning

Other great marketing campaigns

LEAVE A COMMENT

What Everybody Ought to Know About Video Marketing

The benefits of video marketing

Become more search friendly

Embedded videos can boost search rankings

Don’t aim to go viral

Related articles

LEAVE A COMMENT

Creating Video: In-House vs. Outsourcing

Creating video in-house

Pros

Cons

Outsourcing video creation

Pros

Cons

Go with your goals

One critical caveat

More on video creation

LEAVE A COMMENT

Benefits of Video Scripting & Storyboarding

Film 101

Why this matters to you

An example of poor planning

Plan first, plan well

Ready, set, film!

LEAVE A COMMENT

The Value of Video (Part I)

Where this video went wrong

Distractions everywhere

Where’s the camera?

Audio/visual issues

Stay tuned

LEAVE A COMMENT

5 Steps to a Killer Landing Page [Video]

What is a landing page?

The 5 elements

Title

Description

Image

Form

Sharing options

A word of caution

LEAVE A COMMENT

Want advice about video? Tell a story.

1. Is there a story to tell?

2. How can we use video in a way to tell that story?

3. Is the client open to telling the story?

The bigger picture

LEAVE A COMMENT

"Is Anybody Reading This?" Writing Content for the Web [Webinar Recording]

Slides

Transcript

Stay in touch with Digett

LEAVE A COMMENT

5 Social Media Mistakes [Webinar Recording]

Recording

Slides

Stay in touch with Digett

LEAVE A COMMENT

Drupal Video Tutorials: Advanced Tactics

Things to keep in mind

Advanced Tactics

Here’s a first taste

Final thoughts

Related Posts

LEAVE A COMMENT