How to video promote your business successfully
July 23rd, 2008You should use video as a promotion-tool to draw attention to what you have to offer as well as generate traffic for your website.
In order to promote successfully you have to make sure that you do it right.
The key to your video-promotion-success is to create value. It is your approach to video-promotion that makes the difference. Don’t try to trick your viewers.
If you honestly believe in what you have to offer show it to them. Let them know how they can benefit from your service, your website, your business or by simply listening to your advice.
Be precise and to the point. You do not have to hide a valuable offer. People will gladly listen to you if they can see that your intentions are honest.
Writing successful articles for online or offline use you need to be able to express yourself coherently in writing. If you can manage that, plus you have it in you to create some form of value for your targeted readers there is a good chance for success. There is not much technique involved. All you need is a good command over the language you use and a feeling for well written text.
Creating a video is different
Again you have to be able to express yourself coherently, this time spoken, and you need to have a feeling for how to address your viewers.
In a written article or a blog post you need to choose the right words. Recording a video message you need to choose the right words but also make sure you use the right tone of voice.
Posting a video you do not only communicate with words and your voice. Most of the communication will take place without you or your viewers even noticing it. You communicate with your body. Subconsciously your views will notice whether you are secure or afraid, if you feel good about presenting yourself and your offer or if you really try to hide behind a mask. They will get a feeling for whether you are honest or not.
All of this will take place before you have even spoken the first words.
The challenge in posting a quality promotion-video is to have a message worth communicating, finding the right words and tone of voice, mastering your body language and the video-recording-techniques.
This article, being the first of a series, will cover the basic aspect of how to record a qualitative promotion-video. The following texts will cover topics such as body language for speaking in front of a camera, oral presentation techniques as well as which hardware to use.
Video length
The basic principle for an online-promotion-video is to keep it short and to the point. Remember that you are not producing a movie! Your audience will choose to listen to someone else if you take too long to explain yourself.
Your viewers are listening to you to get value. So give it to them. Start your video message with what the benefit for the viewers will be if they decide to invest 2 minutes of their lifetime listening to you.
An appropriate length for a promotional video might range from only seconds to two or even five minutes. My experience is that, really keeping your message alive and to the point, you will have a hard time coming up with more than 5 minutes of quality content.
Location and Setting
The location and setting of your video are important.
Is a specific surrounding necessary to show the viewer who you are, what you do etc.? In that case choose your location carefully. Your viewers only see what is in the picture. So make sure what they get are the highlights.
Imagine your camera to be a gigantic scissor. What you do when filming is cutting a piece out of reality and later present it out of context. What picture of your reality is it that you would like to share?
In most cases the best choice will be to use a static set for you video like your office table in front of a window with trees outside, a nice garden, a coloured wall or simply your office table in front of a wall.
Lighting
To come up with good lighting results is not so hard.
Again remember that this is not Hollywood! One way to get great lighting is to use sunlight. Sunlight, for filming as well as photography, is best in the morning when the sun is still low and therefore causes less shadow in your face.
Shooting your video indoors use a strong lamp with a softbox. The softbox will make the artificial lighting situation look more natural. Place the light on a tripod stand a good bit over your head and not to close to you. Keep some feet distance.
To reduce the shadows under your nose and around your eyes place a reflector in about a 45 degrees angle right in front of you. You can improvise. Use a white polystyrene board or anything else reflecting the light back to your head as a reflector.
Camera and Sound-Equipment
For what you are about to tape a standard camcorder will do. Do not trust the built in microphone. You will get a lot better results using an external microphone. I will try to cover the different kinds in a later post. For now just make sure your microphone was built to record voice.
Practice your Speech
The most important part of your video are you.
You have to be convincing and eloquent. Carefully prepare your speech. Start with the benefit for your viewer. Then list one argument after the other. End one thought before you start the next argument.
Once you have your notes written down practice your speech in front of a mirror. Pay attention to your body language. Do not hide your hands in your pockets or behind your back. Do never poke your nose when you are about to be seen by what could end up to be millions of viewers!
Keep both feed solid on the ground. By shifting your bodyweight from one leg to the other you will appear insecure.
Also record your voice when practising your speech. Check whether you sound fluent and do not be afraid to critique yourself. This is your chance to improve your presentation techniques.
You will most likely have to record your video clip several times to perfect the result. Experiment with different settings, locations, with the way you place yourself in the picture and the lighting. Examine the result you get and chose what works best for you and what you are comfortable with.
The good thing is, it very unlikely that your viewers will give you negative feedback. So there is no need to be afraid.
The bad news, though, is that your audience will turn their back on you if they don’t like what they see.
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