10 Amazing Tips For Your First (or Next) Company Video

What Makes a Good Company Video?

A video is for your customers. Let them get to know you, hear you, build a connection and relationship with you. Let’s face it, there are lot of options customers can choose from. They want a company they can trust, one that offers value, one they feel good about. If that’s you, show your customer with a video.

You spend a lot of money to get the customer to your website. With video, you can directly influence their decision to choose you over your competition. It’s not a major capital expense, it’s just the smart thing to do. Think about how much money you’ve wasted on other things? Your video becomes an asset and plays over and over when your customers want to watch it.

Why Video is Important

• Videos increase people’s understanding of your product or service by 74%.
• YouTube is the #2 Search Engine in the World.
• 1/3 of all online activity is spent watching videos.
• Half of ALL users watch a business related video on YouTube once a week – That’s 50%!
• Website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retailers stores after watching a video.
• Real Estate videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without videos.
• 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• 80% of your online visitors will watch a video, while only 20% will actually read the content in its entirety.
• Your website is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of a search engine results page if it includes video.

These stats are courtesy of Digital Sherpa and describe the importance of video and its potential for your business.

53% of Small Businesses plan to increase their use of online video. This figure is from 2013. The chart from eMarketer shows where SMB’s plan to improve their content marketing.

Video ties for third in this category and can be effectively integrated with a majority of those efforts. You will start to see video on the rise in:

• Social Media Posts
• Blogs
• Articles
• Websites
• Tutorials & Guides

…and much more.

A few common types of videos you should really consider:

Corporate Profile Video – I would recommend you use corporate videos to tell your customer(s) about your company and the services you offer. Let them know you’re a great organization that cares about their future and their business.

Explainer Videos – Do you have a product or service you want to simplify in 30-60 seconds? Explainer videos simply explain what your product or service is all about and how it can solve their problems. Focus on the features and benefits of your product/service.

Testimonials – People love hearing other success stories. If you have clients willing to get on camera, testimonial videos can really help your potential customers connect further with your brand and make a quicker decision to hire your firm.

Now, to our tips…

Top 10 Tips For Your Company Video

These apply whether you want to do it yourself or hire a freelancer or a firm or whoever. I am basing them on the 3 types of videos mentioned above.

1. Good lighting – Shadows, cluttered backgrounds, open blinds could make the user lose interest. If this is a tutorial on youtube, then it may be acceptable. However, if your client does a video and sends it to you, you won’t have control.
2. Sound quality – Customers usually don’t know what sound quality is…until they hear bad quality.
3. Dress appropriately – Dress how you would with your clients. Plain clothes are not bad idea if that is who you are.
4. Don’t improvise – Plan what you are going to say ahead of time, write a script or hire someone to write it for you. Don’t risk losing clients and losing value (unless you’re an authority figure). A good script will keep your audience’s attention, and will keep your video concise.
5. Length – Keep it at 60-70 seconds. Longer company videos will lose your customers attention.
6. Get to the point – Don’t talk about when you were founded or how many awards you have won. Don’t do any boasting at all, in fact. Talk about what your company solves for the customer. While your awards and experience are important, they are not for a 60 second company video.
7. Back up your claims with proof – Make it more powerful by providing direct proof or an example of what you’re talking about. We make awesome websites with responsive design — click here for examples of our work. See what I did there?
8. Location – It is usually best to stick to a single location. If you are outdoors, make sure the weather is good. If in your office, make sure there are no distractions.
9. Engage with your audience – Staring straight into the camera can be intimidating. Use imaginary friends to ease the tension. Talk to a friend who is just beside the camera. Or have 2 people in the video, as if you have an interviewer.
10. End with your call to action (CTA) – tell your audience what exactly you want them to do. You don’t have to ask them to buy – you can always use credits – but doing both is fine as well.

What Does It Cost?

It varies based on a few factors which I will briefly list out:

1. Do you need someone to write the script for you?
2. Do you need a voice over or any actors for the video?
3. How long will the video be? 30, 60, 90 seconds or more?
4. How much editing time is required?
5. Additional hours or people required will add to the cost.

For a professional video that will help your company, expect to pay $2,500-$5,000. That’s reasonable for a professional edited video that you can use and leverage for huge profits if you market it right and understand why this is valuable. Can you get it done cheaper, yes, you always can find cheaper prices. Sometimes it’s worth paying for quality and experience.

The key is leverage for profits. Use your video to your advantage in email campaigns, YouTube, Social Media, blogs, newsletters, your email signature or any other marketing channels you already use. This develops a whole new level of trust, authority and can be that advantage you need for a prospect to choose you over your competitors.

Do It Right

Please do not create one of those videos you see with random music and spanning your website with random text just because your SEO company told you they would do a free video or cheap video. Those videos provide no credibility, and often will cost your company its credibility with customers who are unfamiliar with your brand. We caution you not to do these unless you have your reasons – I don’t think it will help with SEO. You may be doing it just to get backlinks, but be cautious – gaming search engines is never a good idea. Building backlinks for the sake of backlinks instead of providing real value can easily backfire. (Read more about SEO here on our website.)

Can Custom Creatives Help?

Of course we can. Our rates are approximately $2,500-$3,500 for a 60 second corporate video where our client has the script, location set, people or actors available. We just need a setting with good lighting, no interruptions (phones ringing, video bombs, etc). If you need music, you can supply us with the tunes or if we have something royalty free then we are happy to assist. Additional hours for shooting or editing is billed at $150 per hour with your prior approval. We will deliver the video as an MP4 and send you a demo for approval on our YouTube or Vimeo account. We do use all the videos for our marketing material and in our portfolio to give you more exposure and us to win more business and market each other’s services.

Currently, we service our local area, up to 45 miles around Agoura Hills, CA. If we are required to travel for our clients (which we often do), the client will be responsible for travel hours (one way only, we split the hours with you), meals, parking expenses and transportation. All our videographers are contractors in our network. We bring the talent to the table and plan the project for a smoother process. We are professional, but we also like to have fun. So be prepared to work hard and efficiently, and have fun when it is over. There will be some outtakes, but don’t you worry, our team will coach you through.

Need help prepping for your next video and connecting to your audience?

REQUEST A CALL BACK or call us NOW: 877-865-1267

Author: Rahul Alim

Custom Creatives was established to serve as your full-service one-stop Digital Marketing Company, offering graphic design, web design and web development agency, catering to businesses of all sizes. Custom Creatives has designed and deployed over 100,000 banner ads, as well as thousands of websites and landing pages and print collateral for small businesses and large international corporations. Providing exceptional quality services and products with a high return on investment is at the heart of everything we do.