It’s Dave Ramsey Week here at T60. We’re talking EntreLeadership, marketing, video production… and today we’ll focus on the type of video every business should be doing, but few are… employee videos.

Not too long ago, Amy Lorton was writing at the EntreLeadership blog about the “10 Ways to Heat Up Your Business Right Now.” Good stuff as usual, but there’s one area she mentioned that immediately made me think about employee videos.

Brag on them: Everyone, and we mean everyone, from a CEO of a Fortune 500 company to your mailroom clerk, longs for recognition. Let them know they matter and they’re doing a great job.

We’re using some Dave Ramsey material for inspiration this week. His EntreLeadership website is filled will all sorts of useful business content, and today’s highlight can help with selecting a video production company.

The post is 4 Elements for Choosing the Ultimate Vendors, and all four can be used for finding the right video pros for your company.

• Integrity. Look at the production company’s client list. Are they attracting businesses you recognize? Ask them for a more specific client list of repeat customers. Not every customer is going to be a repeat customer with video, but if they have a stable of repeat clients they’re probably a trustworthy company that’s doing right by their customers.

We’re kicking off a special Dave Ramsey Week here at the T60 blog that will culminate on Thursday with a blog post about our trip to Nashville to meet the man himself and do our debt-free scream on his radio show. For now, however, we’ll stick to video, marketing and what we can all learn from Dave and his EntreLeadership team.

If you’re not familiar with EntreLeadership, I’ll let Dave explain it to you (VIDEO). He recently re-did the EntreLeadership website and I love it. I subscribe to the free portion of the site, and it offers a wealth of valuable material on operating a business.… Read More

We’re all looking for social media content these days, right? We’d all like more “likes” and “follows” and “+1’s” and are looking for ways to get them. So… consider me impressed by how my chiropractor is getting them.

Knecht Chiropractic has a raffle for a new mountain bike going on right now to increase its number of followers on Facebook and Twitter. You get one raffle ticket for showing up at your appointment on-time, three tickets for “liking” them on Facebook or Twitter, et cetera.

I know, nothing revolutionary. Lots of companies do that sort of thing. Here’s the part I loved though.… Read More

You’d be hard pressed to find a professional video producer, like myself, who will advocate for businesses to create their own video content, but I do and for good reason.

Well, I guess I ought to qualify that. I do advocate for businesses to create their own videos, but only in certain circumstances.

Established companies need a video budget

If you work for an established company or brand, suck it up and hire a pro to produce your video content. An established business should have some sort of marketing budget to work with every year. Make sure video production is part of that budget.… Read More

I love that big brands are catching on to the power of video marketing, but even the biggest of brands have the occasional misstep.

There’s a lot to praise with American Airlines. The company has been churning out quality videos for years, and they’re responsible for one of my favorites. I also love a current series.. sort of.

Behind-the-scenes video marketing

American Airline’s YouTube channel features a whole playlist of behind-the-scenes videos. This is something I highly recommend for businesses. If you’re looking for video content ideas, this is one of the easiest and most interesting series you can produce.… Read More

Employee videos are a pet cause of mine. I’m a big believer that some of your best sales people don’t work in your sales office. They’re the ones who are answering your phones, working in HR, managing the assembly line, and et cetera.

That’s why I love a new marketing campaign Budweiser is introducing… Track Your Bud. The idea is for customers to go online to the website and enter their Bud’s “Born On Date” information, then see where and how that specific beer was made.

Employee videos are the key component

The best part is for me is that when you do it, you get a series of short videos featuring Bud’s regional brewmasters who walk you through the brewing process and what makes Budweiser unique.… Read More

WOW… what a crazy week we had last week. Not only has business been picking up, but we had two huge events take place. The most relevant for everyone here was Content Jam. Andy Crestodina and everyone at Orbit Media Studios put on a day-long series of seminars on content marketing and it was awesome.

The second event was the USC-Notre Dame Weekender… and yours-truly was the Weekender Chairman for the USC Alumni Club of Chicago. Thousands of Trojans from all over the country descended on Chicago to get ready for the football game in South Bend. And while the game didn’t turn out very well, everyone seemed to have a great time here in the city… but man… am I pooped!… Read More

Storytelling is a pretty big buzz word these days around PR and marketing. Here at T60 it’s more than a trendy topic… it’s what we do and what we’re passionate about. Always have been, always will be.

The question is… why? Why do we love it so much and why is storytelling so en vogue when it comes to all the different types of marketing videos (updated 7/14/14) you can produce?

Why storytelling?

Storytelling can do a lot for a business. It holds important attributes that make it a terrific way to communicate. Here’s our top five reasons why storytelling is more than a buzz word…

• it’s a great way to sell stuff without sounding like you’re trying to sell stuff
• by incorporating information into a compelling story, you capture the audience’s attention and make them more receptive to your messages
• storytelling helps viewers retain the information
• after people watch something they really enjoy, they tell other people about it
• storytelling is a natural for the social media world.

Event videos are quickly becoming one of the most popular corporate videos being produced today and for good reason. Thanks to social media, they’re easy content to share and frequently clicked.

We’ve been doing a bunch of event videos over the last year… many of them for ChicagoAMA… but I saw one the other day that caught my eye. It’s a great example of what to do and what not to do all rolled into one. The event is Evanston Mashup (VIDEO). It’s essentially a networking event for Evanston-based businesses.

The good and the bad

Here’s what I liked…

• they used video.