Recently, Suraj Shah of TotalMarketingControl.com asked me a few questions about leveraging pre-filmed video content.
For several years, you have been producing online video content for clients. In your experience, what has been the number one reason that clients want video content for their websites?
Videos for business or personal use should never be underestimated. There are endless possibilities for the application of video. Think about this: A picture is worth a thousand words. How many pictures can you get from a 3 minute video? 10? 100? More?
It comes down to what you want to portray to your viewers. A lot of clients use video content on their websites for many different reasons such as education, promotion, testimonials, training… The list goes on. For the most part, the video content is used for education. People film events or interviews to pass on value to their readers. Yes they get paid for providing that value but there are many who go above and beyond the level of value that most people need, and I think that’s fantastic!
For educational videos, what is the process involved in producing a video that meets the client’s requirements?
Most clients require only basic editing. Every editor has their own style of editing. Here is mine:
- Assess the video and the style of presentation
- Crop the start and end sections to clean the video up a bit
- Adjust the colour, temperature, and exposure on the video to make it a better viewing experience
- Insert transitions to fade in and fade out
- Insert images/title screens at the start and credits at the end.
- Insert the slides related to the video (most people miss this out and they think that it will do but the viewer appreciates it much more if the slides are incorporated into the video)
- Adjust the sound quality
- Render the video into the format best suited for the client’s website.
In your opinion, what can the client do to make the process smoother and quicker?
The main points are for the client to have a clear vision in their head about the end result that they want. If they know that, and can be flexible on it, then it’s easier for editors like myself to get creative with it.
Providing the correct slides for insertion, providing music which they want incorporated rather than trying to figure out what they want and trying to source it, and providing pictures and exact text for the titles and credits really helps.
As long as the client knows the process and a clear line of communication can be established, an hour long video can be edited, created and up on their server for use on their website within a day.
How else can a client use video on their website, and why?
In terms of other uses, the list is endless. Just a few examples are:
- Testimonials
- Educational/Training videos
- Promotional videos
- Process videos (showing the production of items step by step)
- Catalogues
- Showcases
- … any many more
The best form of video for the marketing of your business, in my opinion, has to be testimonials! If you can get 4 to 5 testimonials up on your site with positive feedback about the product or service, then your sales will increase immensely. Nothing comes close to positive word-of-mouth advertising and with videos you can put a face to the voice and see that it is a REAL person providing the testimonial.
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I worked with Sawan to get my seminars filmed and onto DVD so I could sell them to my clients. He provided a good professional service, with his own opinions and advise. The best thing I liked about working with Sawan is his initiative and proactiveness. This allowed me to continue with my preparations and focus on delivery of the event, while he managed everything audiovisual. I wouldn't hesitate to choose Sawan again for any of my big projects.
