Dave Ramsey has been getting a lot of play here lately. It’s well-deserved. Talking about my family’s journey to debt freedom, what a good job he and his team does creating marketing videos… and today… his latest EntreLeadership newsletter focused on content marketing. It immediately made me think about video content.

Dave’s social media director Steve NeSmith discusses some of the basics, and one of them I think is particularly relevant.

Steve NeSmith says…

“What I’ve learned is that the most powerful content is timely and relevant, with an emphasis on timely. Connect it to something that’s going on in the world, an industry or your community—something that’s front-of-mind with your audience.… Read More

On Tuesday, I wrote the blog post I’ve been waiting to write for four years. The story of my family’s journey to debt freedom. The way we got their was by following Dave Ramsey’s baby steps. Dave’s a guy we can all learn a lot from in life… and business. He started his brand as a financial counselor, but take a look now and you’d swear he’s a media company… because he is.

Media company case study

On the surface you might be thinking sure he’s a media company, he’s a syndicated radio personality. True. He also just launched a website channel, YouTube channel and an iPhone app for his radio show that rivals any television network.… Read More

If you’re producing online videos, chances are you’re doing some content marketing to go along with them. I hope you are anyway. Well, if so, here’s an important tip. Make sure you have a quality email list.

We all know there are different theories on lists. Quantity versus quality… which would you rather have? Clearly, I fall on the quality side, and that belief was confirmed last week.

Why?

I received some spam. Shocker… I know. We all get it. Have you ever received spam from one of your competitors?

Yup. A video company sent me a fake-personalized email telling me how video can help my website.… Read More

Video production is what I do, but if you ask me what I am I would quickly respond… I’m a storyteller. Today, I’m treating you to a story that has nothing to do with video, but it might be my most heart-felt post to date. It’s a journey Mrs. G and I started four years ago when we got engaged, and it took an exciting turn at the end of last week.

WE’RE DEBT FREE!

Okay, we’re not totally debt free. We still have to pay-off our mortgage, but other than that we have no more debts and it feels awesome.… Read More

Is “good enough” really good enough for your company? I hope not, but I feel like it might be when it comes to many businesses’ corporate video.

I try to feature the good and the bad of those videos here. Either way, they provide some valuable lessons for anyone producing video content. Finding the bad ones, unfortunately, is pretty easy. That prompts a question for me.

Where’s the pride?

I find it hard to believe the leaders at many of these businesses look at their videos and think, “Great! We nailed that one. This video makes our company look awesome.” That just can’t be happening.… Read More

I’ve been a big fan of Half Price Books for a while. I used to buy a lot of books there (pre-Kindle), and recently Mrs. G and I have sold a TON of books to them. I caught one of their marketing videos the other day and it spurred a couple of thoughts.

Getting attention for something new

First, video is a great way to launch a new product or in this case… a new store location. Half Price Books posted this video in July about its new Austin, TX location and it has over 1,100 views. Now, in an age when everyone is looking for the next million-view viral video, that might not seem like much.… Read More

I found a company producing a ton of video content. The videos are well-produced, tell pretty good stories and are posted on a frequent basis. The only problem is something marketers, PR pros and business leaders need to know about.

If nobody sees your videos, they’ll never matter.

Video content case study

I discovered Schneider Electric recently. It’s a company producing green energy solutions. They have a pretty impressive rundown of videos and by all accounts, they’re doing things right. The company is producing lots of videos, they’re featured prominently at the website and they’re being shared via social media.

Nicely done.… Read More

Companies have some tough choices as they produce their corporate videos. One of them is whether to script and storyboard things in advance or take a more organic approach to production.

The recruiting video I found from First Midwest Bank is a prime example of what can happen when you plan things in advance. First, let me say I’m thrilled to see the bank’s leaders are producing a recruiting video. Business leaders who are serious about recruiting top talent NEED to show recruits what the company is all about, and video is a terrific way to do it.

Second, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with the video.… Read More

Ending the week on a high note with Hightail. I blogged about the file sharing company not too long ago when they produced a video about its name change from YouSendIt to Hightail. Today, they follow that video with a traditional testimonial.

It isn’t revolutionary by any means, but it’s a great example of solid video content. It’s also something every business leader can learn from.

Why testimonials work

Testimonials are nothing new. They’ve been around and used for marketing purposes for… well… probably forever. Here’s what I love about testimonial videos.

1. you have the option of making them in a way that’s marketing without sounding like marketing… although the Hightail example is a little more overt.

The cutting room floor… where good ideas go to die. Actually, that phrase should be left on the cutting room floor because there really is no more cutting room floor, so you better not be leaving your good ideas there.

Huh? Okay, a brief history if you’re not up on the origins of that phrase.

The actual cutting room floor

It all goes back to film editing. The editor would have to splice the raw film that was shot into a finished movie, newsreel, etc. That process would result in all sorts of good material that didn’t make it into the finished film literally being left on the floor of the editing room.… Read More