Video Travel Blog: Burlington, VT and Lake Champlain
Burlington, Vermont offers a unique mix of cosmopolitan flair, country living, and stunning views of Lake Champlain
I have been traveling to Burlington Vermont and the Lake Champlain region for about 20 years, and it is one of my favorite travel destinations in New England. If you have never been to Burlington, Vermont or if you just haven’t been there for a while, consider spending your next get-a-way weekend in Burlington – I know you’ll love it.
If you like a mix of cosmopolitan flair, country living, and stunning views , then Burlington, Vermont and Lake Champlain might just be the place for you.
Take a look at my latest video travel blog which I put together for you during a recent client visit. Enjoy.
If you enjoyed this travel video blog please click the “Like” button. Thank you.
Video Travel Blog: Breathtaking Views From The Summit House, Hadley, Massachusetts
I thought I post something a little different this week. In fact, today I decided to visit one of my favorite places in Western Massachusetts. The Summit House at Skinner State Park at the western end of the Holyoke Range. The view from the Summit House over the Connecticut River Valley is simply breathtaking. You can enjoy spectacular views of the New England landscape. From the farm fields to the mountains of four states, the sights are amazing for a mountain of a mere 942 feet.
If you enjoyed this travel video blog please click the “Like” button. Thank you.
Turn Your Powerpoint Presentations Into An Attention Grabbing Multimedia Presentation
Don’t get me wrong, PowerPoint presentations still a have a valuable place in sales and marketing. However, increasingly in 2011, we are receiving requests by clients who wish to turn their PowerPoint presentations into multimedia video presentations. They are looking to achieve a higher degree of viewer engagement though attention grabbing animation and an aesthetically pleasing presentation. At the same time, the presentation has to be matched to the client’s corporate vision and image. The most common types of requests are from companies that sell technical products and services, consulting firms looking to convey innovative concepts and ideas as well as start-up websites who require a multimedia presentation to help new web visitors navigate their new websites. Well produced multimedia video presentations will have a positive impact on your online marketing and increase sales. Let’s dive into some specifics:
How to plan a multimedia video production:
Highlight The People Behind Your Products And Services
Creating better video content through focus on human-interest stories
Today, I’d like to highlight an area which is certainly nothing new but can sometimes be overlooked. I have observed that some of the most effective video productions focus on the people who create, produce, and use your products or services. In other words, videos which tell a compelling, heartwarming, inspiring, or humorous story about the products or services being offered. The focus is on how the service has helped someone or made the lives of a group of people a little easier.
For example, we have done work with several non-profit organizations over the years and the most powerful way to convey the value of the featured organization are testimonials and interviews. It’s important to spend plenty of time with the employees of the organization and the individuals who have benefited from participating in a given organization’s service offerings. Get to know the staff and clients before even creating a script or storyboard and develop a real sense of who the people are that are behind the organization, find out what drives them to come to work every day. We have found over and over again, that most employees are contributing to their companies and organizations in ways that go above and beyond their job descriptions. The dedication and passion carries over to their interactions with clients, vendors, and colleagues which in turn results in a positive client experience.
Once you have developed an understanding for that sense of passionate commitment which your clients have expressed, then it is critical to translate that message into your script and storyboard development. The emphasis on the stories of the people behind the products will lead to a higher level of video viewer engagement. People buy from people, and videos that emphasize relationships instead of costs and discounts will result in superior video content.
If you found this post interesting or useful, please click the “Like” button, thank you.
Three Reasons To Add Video To Your Company Blog
Blogging is one of the most effective ways to highlight your expertise and engage customers, prospects, and peers. Additionally, it is helpful in widening your search engine footprint and online marketing efforts.
As I commented in previous posts, blogging is similar to other social media activities in regards to choosing a non-sales approach. Most people who read blogs and participate in social media activities do NOT like being sold, therefore, I would not use the blogosphere for direct sales presentations. Instead provide your readers with valuable and useful content – nothing new for the folks that have been blogging for some time.
How can video help your blog?
1. How-to videos
Some of the most watched videos are how-to videos. Tips on how to use your services and products are very helpful to customers and prospects. 30-60 second video clips of how to assemble a furniture piece or how to navigate your company website would be very useful content. In the event your customer needs to contact your support staff, a brief video which explains how to engage your company’s service department would result in a positive customer experience . If you are an IT company, you could have a technician demonstrate how to reboot computer hardware after a power failure. If you are a social media consultant then you could provide your audience with a visual tour of how to best use the privacy settings on your Facebook or LinkedIn account. Obviously, the topics are of endless variety depending on your business. Readers of your blog will become familiar with your experience and knowledge which could of course lead to business opportunities down the road.
2. Expressing your passion with video Read the rest of this entry »
Why Should You Upload Your Company Video To Facebook?
This post is a follow up to my recent post entitled “Post Your Video On Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube; Your Online Marketing Depends On It“. Below I will focus on Facebook and video marketing.
People spent most of their time on social media sites more than on any other area on the Internet. With over 500 million Facebook users, Facebook is leading the social media activity. A recent Webtrends research report states that social media has become the number one activity on the Internet. Major brands such a Starbucks and Coca Cola have 10 times the number of fans than they receive in monthly visitors to their corporate website – this is a significant shift of where people spend their time. For example: Starbucks has 19,800,000 fans on Facebook and 1,800,000 monthly visitors to their website. The study also shows that 76% of “Fans” visit Facebook daily.
While the average small business may not have more than a few hundred or a few thousand fans, your online marketing strategy certainly should include acquiring Facebook fans and exploring ways to engage those fans with your company and your brand.
Video and video links are among the most effective marketing strategies to engage your fan base. If you post your video blog, footage of a company event, customer testimonials, or a product introduction, you will find that users generally share or comment on your video content with much higher frequency than other content. However, as I mentioned is previous posts, Facebook users typically do not like being sold when they engage with your fan page. They might expect it at a corporate website such as a car manufacturer or clothing store – but it is a big “turn-off” on a company Facebook fan page. Therefore, you must offer something of value to your fan base and avoid direct sales pitches. Nevertheless, use video and Facebook to help accomplish your business goals.
If you found this post interesting or useful, please click the “Like” button, thank you.
Do You Live Under The Illusion That You Can Control Your Customers’ Behavior?
If you are a business owner, sales person, or marketer, have you ever received a call or a sales lead which unexpectedly led to a very large order worth a lot of money to your company? In fact, it surprised you, and you almost felt a little guilty like you were getting away with something but you were delighted nevertheless. Chances are, if you’ve been in business for a while, you have experienced a similar scenario.
On the other hand, have you ever found yourself laboring for endless hours on a proposal for a small project with relatively modest potential sales revenue? You traveled to the potential client’s business location, spent much time on follow up communication via email and phone, and even offered the prospect a discount; only to watch the client choose a competitive bid? I intuit you experienced this business situation also; that experience was probably accompanied by some frustration.
After almost 20 years of entrepreneurial sales and marketing experience, I can most certainly relate to both scenarios. However, the emotional pendulum does not swing quite as widely between joyous disbelief and frustration any longer, although a sales or marketing situations may still baffle me from time to time.
Let me offer some thoughts and a brief hypothesis as to why you might experience the above sales and business situations. Here we go…
You do not control your customers’ behavior! Read the rest of this entry »
Post Your Video On Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube; Your Online Marketing Depends On It
Social Media Examiner, an online guide to the social media industry just released their annual report entitled “State of Social Media Marketing Industry”. The report covered the most popular social media marketing channels, however, I will focus this blog post and my review on how online marketers will use online video in combination with social media in 2011. The analysis of the current state of social media included more than 3300 marketers.
The report highlights the increasing importance of online video for businesses, in fact, 77% of marketers have plans to increase their video marketing in 2011. This percentage increases to 82% for businesses with 1000 employees or more. Another top area of focus for businesses in 2011 in social media – a remarkable 92% of marketers use Facebook and 72% of them plan on increasing their activity. In a 2009 study, only 77% of businesses were using Facebook – the increase over the past two years is probably attributable to Facebook’s effort to becoming friendlier to business marketers. LinkedIn has also become an increasingly important marketing channel for business as well, 61% will increase their use of LinkedIn (71% of B2B vs. 51% of B2C). Incidentally, MySpace appears to be out of the race as 81% of respondents do not have any plans to use that social media platform for business marketing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Why SEO Companies Need To Consider SEO For Video
Most SEO companies do not offer video marketing for their clients
As I observe the video marketing landscape, I have come across some very talented web marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) companies. My chats and meetings with them have been filled with thought provoking ideas and strategies. However, most do not offer video marketing or video SEO.
Video SEO and marketing can be quite beneficial to clients who just invested in an online video production. When video SEO is applied, even on a basic level, and the videos begin to show up in Google search results, these videos tend to get a much better CTR (click through rate) then text search results with higher rankings. Once people see a video icon in their search results their behavior changes and the cursor moves to the video thumb, provided of course the video is in fact related to their search query. Some studies suggest that the CTR for video thumbs is 40% better than text based search results. That’s a huge and big opportunity.
Simply uploading a video to YouTube or to your company website is unfortunately not enough if you want to rank your video for specific search terms or phrases. While eTown Videos is not an SEO company we do provide clients with Video SEO assistance and we have found that traffic and conversion rates have increased for our clients, in some cases, quite significantly.
Therefore, if your company uses web videos and you are about to hire a marketing agency, you may want to inquire about their experience with Video SEO.
If you found this post interesting or useful, please click the “Like” button, thank you.
Is Your Website And Your Web Video Ready For A Mobile World?
Why it is important to optimize your site and videos for mobile devices
Consumers are passionate about their mobile devices, in fact, Google’s Jason Spero, Head of Mobile Advertising, reports that 15% of all Google searches are now done on mobile devices. Hubspot, a software marketing firm in Boston, did a study which shows that 80% of business people browse the web and check email from their mobile devices.
What does this mean? It means that consumers are looking for your products and services (cars, restaurants, video production services, clothing, computers, etc) on their mobile devices and the number of consumers doing so quadruples every year. If your website or web video is not mobile ready then you might be missing out on sales opportunities because mobile web visitors will find your site difficult to view and move on to the next search result. Interestingly enough, Google says, that 79% of its largest ad customers do not have their websites optimized for mobile viewing. In my view, that’s not necessarily surprising but it is an opportunity for small and mid-sized companies. Read the rest of this entry »