I spent a couple of hours at the Apple Store on Friday morning waiting for help at the Genius Bar. During that time I watched the customers come and go, and about 50 of them left with iPads.

That’s 50 people in about two hours on a Friday morning. Wow!

The iPad is a great device to show videos. More to the point, it’s a great medium to show your marketing videos. They can turn every employee into a potential sales person. Just give them the file to run your marketing videos on their personal iPad and turn them loose.

This sounds like a good newsletter topic!? Wait… was that just a tease? Why yes… it was a tease! Sign-up for our marketing video newsletter now. We’ll have more on this subject when it drops next week.

–Tony Gnau

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I’m not a big fan of “under-promise, over-deliver.” Obviously, I don’t advocate the opposite, but under-promising to me seems like you’re holding back something from your client from the get-go. It feels little dishonest.

If you know in advance you’re going to deliver something to a client, lay it all out on the line from the beginning. Then once you’ve started, if you come across ways to give them additional value-added service, go for it.

Over-deliver… just don’t under-promise.

–Tony Gnau

If you’re at a small or medium PR/marketing firm, video can be a great value-added service you can supply to clients. You can even do it better than big firms that produce video in-house.

There are lots of terrific storytellers out there, and chances are they would jump at an opportunity to work with you and your firm. I’m speaking from experience here.

However, I stop short in referring to this as a partnership because you don’t have to tie your organization down to just one video producer. PR and marketing pros should maintain relationships with a few video professionals. They all have different styles and price-points, so it’s good to have a few in mind when speaking with clients.

This actually provides you with an advantage over big firms that produce video in-house. Having a choice of producers means being able to pair the right client with the right production team. That’s something a big firm won’t be able to offer.

–Tony Gnau

It sounds so obvious, but a lot of businesses fail to do it… highlight what they do best. If you’re ready to start having videos produced, this is a good place to start.

Many corporate videos get bogged down in the details. Company X shipped this many widgets to Y number of countries. Great… but tell me about the widget!

Isn’t that what you do best… build a good widget? Who came up with the idea? How is it made? How is it going to help me as your potential customer?

Don’t lose focus… show me the widget!

–Tony Gnau

Technology is ever-changing, prices are pretty reasonable, and that’s all good news for those of us that shoot and edit video. It also means content consumers need to be careful.

There’s all sorts of new cameras out there delivering stunning video quality, but there’s more to quality content than pretty pictures. When you pick someone to produce your video, make sure they have a creative heart and not just a technical mind.

You should be looking for the total package… someone who has the technical knowhow, but also the creative spirit needed to put together a video that will connect with the audience.

All flash and no substance isn’t a winning formula.

–Tony Gnau

One of my favorite things about online marketing videos is the opportunity they provide businesses to give customers an insider’s look at the company.

I just watched a video Ford has on its YouTube channel showing people how they test a vehicle for wind noise. From a production value standpoint, the video is okay… nothing special really.

Where it excels is simply giving a guy like me a glimpse behind the curtain. I’m going to be in the market for a car in the next couple years, so I find myself looking at stuff like this.

Online videos are completely changing the way we shop. They give us a whole new perspective that consumers didn’t have even just a few years ago.

Sure, Ford has produced a video sanitized for my viewing, but it’s still information I probably wouldn’t have noticed if not for YouTube.

–Tony Gnau

If you’re looking for someone to produce a company video, don’t search for a corporate video producer. You should look for a corporate storyteller.

Now, some video producers are storytellers, but not all of them. You can find tons of people with the technical expertise to edit together a video, but a storyteller will help make the video relevant to an audience.

How do you know if they’re a storyteller? Look at their work.

Does it hold your attention? Are you curious to see what’s next? Do you connect with the video’s message?

If the answer is yes to one or more of these questions, then you might have found someone who can tell your company’s story.

–Tony Gnau

Jim Collins writes a lot in his book Good To Great about how important it is for companies to “get the right people on the bus.” In short, finding employees who are self-motivated.

That’s something we take seriously at T60. Right now, I shoot and edit most of our video, but T60 is growing so more and more we turn to freelancers to help. These aren’t just any freelancers though, they’re rock stars! Photographers and editors we can trust to create great content for our clients.

I was reminded how talented they are last week when I got the good news that Jeremy Nichols won a pair of Edward R. Murrow Awards.

Jeremy is a news photographer/editor at WISC-TV in Madison, WI.  He has worked for T60 in the past, and I hope he’ll continue to play a part in the company’s growth.

Jeremy just won awards for best use of video, watch Goat Art and you’ll see why, but he didn’t stop there. He’s so motivated that as a photographer/editor, he even won an award for sports reporting. Jeremy shot, wrote, voiced, and edited Good Eye, Tanner.

Any doubt this is the type of person you want creating content?

–Tony Gnau

I’m a big believer in transparency. In government, in business, and yes… in marketing videos. That’s why I’m pretty excited about seeing a new movie coming out this week.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is Morgan Spurlock‘s latest documentary. The concept… produce a movie about product placement and advertising that is paid for by product placement and advertising.

Love it.

Sure, it’s a clever way to focus on the subject, but I love the fact that some companies were apparently willing to jump onboard.

A business that respects an audience’s intelligence is bound to reap rewards.

–Tony Gnau

There are all sorts of videos that can help a company make a sale. Whether you provide a product or a service, a good video highlighting what you do can go a long way to earning new business.

But don’t discount your current customers.

A good video can also be an investment in them. If you don’t think your competitors are trying to lure their business away, you’re kidding yourself. That means its just as important to share your videos with your “faithful” clients as it is with your prospects.

It’s an investment worth making.

–Tony Gnau