Having a plan for your corporate video production is smart. Sticking with that plan… might be overrated.

I love clients who have it all figured out. This is what we’re going to shoot and when we’re going to shoot it. This is who we’re going to interview and what they’re going to say. I love that commitment to preparation.

The clients I love even more are the ones who make those plans, but are always ready to adjust when things don’t work out the way they were planned.

Corporate video production and Murphy

We have a client like that. Getting a spreadsheet filled with shoot times. Having three scripts for three videos that have been written in advance by the client. Come on… that’s pretty impressive.

Even more impressive is the client’s attitude. I believe she once said something to the extent of, “But I’m good with whatever happens.”

That’s my message for you today. Your production plan isn’t going to go as planned. Weather? Murphy’s law? Something else? Maybe… video shoots are unpredictable.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare. Having a solid game plan often makes the adjustment easier, but the willingness to change on the fly can often make or break your video in the end.

Don’t Panic, this should be fun

It can sound a little scary. Coordinating schedules, getting everything set-up, making sure all the moving parts are working toward your goal for the video. Doing all of that and knowing it could change on a dime. You know what though? That’s usually when things get really good, so go with the flow.

Producing a video is fun. It’s exciting, and when you complete the video… quite satisfying. You can even minimize all of that planning by hiring a video pro to take care of it for you.

Don’t be afraid of last minute changes. That spontaneity can lead to great moments. Let them happen.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

I received a video email yesterday worth noting. That’s because it’s the second time I’ve received the video, and I think that’s a good thing.

The email came from Act|On. I actually blogged about the video the first time I received it because it’s a good example of an effective testimonial. The company is all about automated marketing, so no doubt the email I received then and yesterday was actually a planned attack that’s been in the works ever since I entered the company’s system.

Sending the same video email twice

At first, you might think sending the same video twice is a bad idea, but here’s why it’s a great idea. Just because you send an email video doesn’t mean everyone is going to see it.

I know, that’s kind of crazy for me to write. After all, we produce marketing videos. I should be telling you how many people do watch them. And while that’s true, the other part of that is no campaign gets a 100% click rate.

The reality is that if you’re cracking 40% with your open rate, you’re a rock star email marketer. Even if you are, that means 60% still aren’t opening your emails. Those who do open are likely to click that video if it’s relevant to them, but there are certainly those who will still pass it up.

Have a video strategy

What that brings me to is your video strategy. I know too many business leaders who create a video, share it once via email and/or social media and that’s it. A successful video campaign takes more than that. It takes a real plan.

When the video first comes out, you need to post it multiple times during the week on social media… and at different times of day. Do the same thing a few of months later. Do it again a year after its original release.

Do something similar with email. Send out that first email, but take a page from Act|On and send it again. The company’s first email I received months ago was dubbed as the case study of a business using marketing automation. The one I got yesterday had the subject line, “Stack your sales pipeline with more leads.”  Recipients who didn’t watch the first time might decide to hit play this time around. They are still potential audience member, so give them another chance to watch.

You spend time and money producing your marketing videos, but that’s just phase one. Phase two is making sure it gets seen.

–Tony Gnau

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to touch on some pretty basic themes. Themes we all know, but important ones that bear reminding… especially when it comes to corporate video production.

Evening with an expert

The first one comes via Justin Massa at Food Genius. He was one of the speakers last week at ChicagoAMA’s “Evening with an Expert.” The topic for the evening was the Age of Agile Marketing and Justin related his speech to the theme by talking about what he and Food Genius do… deliver Big Data to the food industry.  

A lot of what he talked about was how to use Big Data to help guide the marketing decisions businesses need to make in our ever-changing world. One of his takeaways in particular caught my attention because it’s just as relevant to video as it is to Big Data.

Justin said, “Know who you are.” I don’t care whether we’re talking about Big Data or video, that’s an important point.

How it applies to corporate video production

Your videos should mirror the type of business you have. What’s your company culture like? That’s the guiding light for your videos.

If you have a strong and traditional business, that’s how your videos should look and feel. If your team comes to work everyday wearing jeans, t-shirts and flip-flops, your videos should reflect that loose vibe. Knowing who you are will set the tone for everything from the shooting style to the music bed the plays under the video.

Staying true to who you are can often be the first step to a successful video project.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

 

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There was another interesting event put on last night by the American Marketing Association’s Chicago chapter (ChicagoAMA). “Evening with an Expert” was focused on the Age of Agile Marketing, marketing strategies and tactics that allow you to quickly respond to change.

At the start, I was thinking to myself… I don’t like the sound of this. Video production isn’t traditionally thought of as an “agile” marketing tactic.

Agile marketing and video can work well together

The truth is that’s not the case. The more I listened, the more I thought about how agile video really can be. After all, I come from TV news. Talk about needing to be agile. TV news is all about video storytelling on the run. It’s video storytelling at a quick pace. Yes, video storytelling can be done quickly… and done well.

It’s possible because video is highly agile. I can shoot and edit a story and have it to a business owner in a matter of hours. Want to produce, then make some tweaks after testing? That’s easy with video as well.

On the other hand… some companies… are about as agile as a super tanker.

I could blog and blog and blog about the video approval process and how slow it is with some businesses… and there’s a lesson there.

Don’t sweat the details

In a world of agile marketing, being able to get your video out and seen is critically important. The more you hem and haw over all the details found in a video, the more slowly it reaches your audience.

Now, I’m not saying for one second that you shouldn’t pay attention to details. You should. But, you should also avoid being crippled by those details. An important thing to keep in mind is that viewers aren’t focusing on the details in the same way you do. They’re just… well… watching and hopefully enjoying. They’re not scrutinizing every little detail.

You might be obsessed about a particular 3-second shot that appears in your video. Can we cut it short by second? Can you extend it second? Should we eliminate the shot all together?

They all might be relevant questions, but more than likely, whatever decision is made won’t matter to the viewer. Essentially, all you’ve done is sink a lot of time into a decision that isn’t going to impact the overall viewing experience.

You want a good video. You want one that looks good, sounds good, and above all else, tells a good story. Just remember, a tactic like video is only going to be as agile as your company will allow it.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

 

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. More people will pay attention and respond or share.”

I think that’s an important one to always keep in mind. On the surface, it might seem difficult to do with video. If something happens in the news, it’s easy to respond with a simple blog or social media post. It’s a little more complicated producing a quality video. Or is it?

Dave Ramsey Inspired T60 video content tip

Think about your business and how certain current events might impact your audience. Maybe it’s certain weather events. Maybe it’s good or bad fluctuations in the market. How about holidays? My point is most businesses are impacted by current events we can count on. Focus some of your video content on those subjects.

The videos might just talk about general themes, but you can use your social media post to focus them on current events.

Consider a PR firm… maybe they create a video highlighting the firm’s philosophy on crisis management. Then, when something damaging happens to a company that’s widely publicized… they can send out a social media post like, “Can you believe what happened to Company X? Hope they had a plan for crisis management. VIDEO LINK”

That’s just one example. If you think hard about your own business, I’m sure you can find current event situations that make sense for you. Keep them in mind when you’re planning your video content.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

 

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. Having said that… take a look at his Dave Ramsey YouTube channel, not the show’s channel, the one for his personal brand. You’ll find he’s been operating a media company for years.

Videos educating people about the dangers of debt… they’re there. Videos to help launch his books… there too. Videos highlighting tools people can use to get out of debt… you bet.

Dave uses video the way all businesses should. He uses it to provide valuable content to consumers. It’s a good balance of education and promotion. He’s a media company, and he gets it.

Now, for sure, Dave Ramsey is not your run of the mill small business owner. He’s grown his company into a multi-million dollar empire. He has his own video staff. He’s dedicated a lot of time and money to creating good video content, but so can you.

It doesn’t take a gazillion dollars

Your video content might never get to that level. You might not be able to devote tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars to the effort. You can, however, use video to help promote your company… your brand.

Pick a budget and talk with a professional storyteller about how you can maximize that effort. I meet a lot of small business owners who focus on creating an awesome 5-minute video. Instead, I frequently recommend creating five 1-minute videos for the same price. You get more content for the same budget. Commit to doing it once a year, then develop a social media strategy to distribute the videos. You’ll look back a few years from now and smile at all those videos racking up views.

Good content + social media = media channel.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

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.

After I stopped laughing, I investigated a little further. Not about how video can help, I’m pretty well-versed in that. No, I started looking into the company.

I had never heard of it. The company wasn’t local, and clearly it was running some sort of national spam… I mean… email campaign.

Does this really work? The email was “personalized,” but it was clearly fake. The only reason I even opened the email was because it mentioned video and I had a feeling it was from a competitor.

My other issue is where did they get their email list? I mean, I know I’m just another address on the list, and they could care less that I’m a video company. What’s their open and click rate like?

Online videos + quality list = good campaign

I’ll take a smaller list with more motivated readers any day, but we all know that’s only part of the battle. If you’re getting a good open rate, you also want people to click. Video is an awesome enticement. An image with a play button on it… it just calls people to click.

Send them to a quality video that tells a good story? Your email campaign is on its way to paying off.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

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.

Most of the videos I feature here tend to be borderline, and I offer some expert ways for how they could have been improved. The thing is there are also some real clunkers out there. I don’t even bother highlighting those because I feel like there’s a fine line between being constructive and being mean, but trust me… those bad videos are out there.

So… back to my question, Where’s the pride? First, how does a company end up making a bad video? Second, once it’s done… why release it?

Corporate video gone wrong

The reasons for how a bad video gets made are numerous. Hiring a bad producer, not communicating well with the producer, not hiring a producer at all and attempting a DIY corporate video… and those are just a few. I guess I understand how things can go wrong, but I’d hope someone would have the guts to step-in, say this isn’t working, and figure out a new direction.

The inexcusable mistake I don’t understand is releasing a bad video to the public. It’s just a bad PR move. Even if a company spent a lot of time and money on a failed video, there’s nothing that says it has to be released.

It also doesn’t have to be a total loss. We’ve stepped in to “save” plenty of bad videos in the past. Your nightmare experience might be salvageable by contacting another producer and seeing what they can do with the existing material.

All of that being said, if you produce a bad video, please… don’t upload it to the web. It only makes your company look bad, and I’m guessing that’s the opposite of what you were hoping for at the beginning of the production.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

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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. However, I challenge you to think about it from a more realistic perspective.

That’s more than 1,000 people they enticed to sit and watch a video about the new location. Think those people will check it out? I can only imagine the video moved them in that direction. Now think about the last thing you launched. How would you like a 1,000 person head start letting people know about it? That’s what producing a quality video can do.

Multi-purpose marketing videos

Second, this could also be used as a multi-purpose video. It features a short voice-over at the beginning about the new Austin store, but the bulk of the story really features testimonials about why people like the company. That testimonial core could be used again as a stand-alone marketing video for the entire company, or if they open another store, all that’s needed is a new open with the new store information.

Producing a launch video is a great way to generate some enthusiasm for your new venture and, in the right circumstance, it might even be a good value for your marketing dollars.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.

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. That’s exactly how you want to do it folks.

However, I do have one issue. The videos posted at the company website load soooo slowly. I logged on using three different computers just to do a comparison, and in all three cases many videos took about 30-seconds before they started playing.

That’s a HUGE deal. You know why? People’s patience for online videos starting to load is apparently 2-seconds. 2-seconds!!! That’s according to a study by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Akamai Technologies.

Why your videos might not play

Producing a great video is only part of the process. You also have to figure out how you’re going to host it. There are several platforms, both free and subscription-based. YouTube and Vimeo are the big boys, but you do give-up a bit of control when you use them. The big advantage, certainly with YouTube, is that you get SEO value in return. The videos also load and play quickly.

Now, a bunch of things factor into how well a video plays. The hosting platform, size of the file, speed of the users’ computers, speed of their internet access… etc.

I have no idea why I had a problem with Schneider Electric, and I hope I’m the exception. The key takeaway is to be aware of these issues. Talk about them with your video producer and web manager. Make sure there are as few obstacles as possible for viewers to see your video content.

–Tony Gnau

Tony Gnau is a three-time Emmy-winning journalist. He is also the founder and chief storytelling officer at T60 Productions. T60 has won 11 Telly Awards for its work over the last eight years.