Legal Marketing Videos at Wolf Greenfield
Last week we shot a series of marketing videos for Wolf Greenfield, a prestigious intellectual property law firm in Boston. Wolf Greenfield was one of our first law firm clients, and it was great to see everyone again.
We shot simple talking head recruiting pitches for the client’s website to attract scientists to a career in IP law. Associates, shareholders, and technical specialists at the firm prepared pitches that were so convincing that the SVG crew almost applied to law school. Luckily we think we will stay within the legal video marketing business so the court rooms and patent offices are safe for the time being.
Attorneys Practicing Their Lines
What made the shoot so successful was that the client was very well prepared. Each interviewee prepared a short one-minute pitch which they practiced with their marketing team. Everyone knew his or her “lines” which meant that not only was the shoot fast and efficient, but it was fun even for the most screen-shy people. Preparation also allowed each participant’s personality to shine through because they didn’t stumble to find the words. A well-prepared client gets the best videos.
If you are nervous about appearing on screen or getting the best value for your video content investment, you can talk to SVG. We help prepare clients for their screen debut.
SVG’s Strategic Partner, CRM Boston, Introduce Sugar CRM!
Skillman Video Group’s partnership with CRM Boston just got stronger! CRM Boston has become a partner of Sugar CRM, the world’s leading provider of open source customer relationship management (CRM) / sales force automation software.
The addition of Sugarcrm adds a new dimension to SVG’s mix. Web leads created by our Social Video Marketing service are automatically sent to Sugarcrm’s leads module. Leads are then put into a process for sales people to take them through “opportunity” and “campaign management”, and ultimate “closing”. Automated sales and marketing workflow are part of the process, along with analytics to measure SEO and campaign effectiveness.
Over 7,000 customers and more than half a million users rely on SugarCRM to execute marketing programs, grow sales, retain customers and create custom business applications. CRM Boston has been delivering CRM and sales force automation solutions for over 15 years, effectively helping clients from many industries bring their strategic programs to higher levels. They do this by focusing first on process, and then bring in Sugarcrm technology to help both develop and drive processes that significantly impact client businesses. Their consulting team and Skillman Video Group come together to deliver solutions that significantly impact areas such as sales and marketing, customer service and operations.
See more about our strategic partner, CRM Boston and Sugar CRM at: www.crmboston.com
Tracking ROI (Return on Investment): Digital Video Advertisement vs. Video Marketing
At Skillman Video Group we always try to stay on top of the latest trends in online video and media. One of the trends we have seen many advertisers and major players in the digital video arena use is a term called “Digital Video Advertising” or DVA. DVA is an industry term for traditional “TV” advertisements/commercials tacked onto the beginning of web videos. With the emergence of websites like Hulu, which allows audiences to watch television shows for free, advertisers realize that they must try and reach those online audiences. Most recently, Break Media and Advertiser Perceptions inc. teamed up and conducted a study focusing on the use of Digital Video Advertising (DVA). However the overall finding of this study shows that ad agencies and their clients have had very little success with using DVA and have cut their budgets drastically in 2011.
An important section to pay attention to in the study is the part highlighting the reasons why advertisers are weary to spend more of their budget on DVA. The number one identified problem is that it is difficult for advertisers to track ROI (Return on Investment). Although their commercials may air during an online video, they have no way of knowing if people are watching or paying attention and the impact it is having. Overall 41% of advertisers claim bad ROI measurement as the biggest issue with DVA and the reason why they are reluctant to utilize the practice more often. Why is this? Because traditional TV and radio methodologies for advertising do not work as well in this new world of online video marketing.
At Skillman Video Group the focus is online video marketing as opposed to creating a traditional “TV” commercial using DVA. The use of video on the web has blown open the world of possibilities for marketing and advertising and traditional TV and radio ads are no longer giving businesses the return on investment they once did. For one, online video marketing allows businesses and service providers an opportunity to express who they are and what they do over a 2 – 3 minutes as opposed to 15-30 seconds. Another big difference between DVA and video marketing is that with Google Analytics, we can track almost immediately how well an online video is doing. We can know important statistics such as how many people are viewing a video and how long they are watching it for. Another important distinction is that people willingly choose to watch these marketing videos as opposed to DVA where they are forced to sit through a commercial and may or may not pay attention. So in this regard ROI can be analyzed and companies can know that they are getting results and people are viewing these videos to learn about their product/service! Give Skillman Video Group today to learn how video marketing can help your business grow in 2011!
Different Uses for Product Videos in your Social Media & Video Marketing Campaigns
As you work to create informative and engaging content for your social media assets, product videos are a powerful tool to leverage within your Social Media and Video Marketing campaigns. As we have mentioned before, videos can not only help bring people to your site through Social Media channels and optimization, but can also convert those viewers into viable business prospects through the video conversion point. There are various types of product videos which can be created. However, to be successful, a product video should be:
1. Engaging – In addition to being informational, product videos should be memorable - If the viewer does not remember it, what’s the point?
2. On-brand – Must be consistent with the product’s brand attributes and brand marketing messages
3. Quality – If the product video is not well produced it will weaken your brand and turn people away from your product as opposed to peaking their interest.
4. Positioned – Has your video been optimized on your site to attract viewers and leverage the power of Search Engine Optimization? Has it been placed and tagged appropriately on the Social Media sites, such as YouTube, with keywords people are actually searching for?
SVG crew setting up a shot for a product video produced for HolliBalance Well-being Center.
To be effective at achieving the above four points, you need to know your audience, since different approaches will be more appropriate for different target groups. Consumer products need a different approach from B2B product videos for example. It is also important, when producing a product video to keep in mind what the end use of the video will be. What may be successful on a Social Media platform may not be as successful at a trade show or for your business’s home page. The Producers at Skillman Video Group will be able to guide you into the appropriate video type for your target audience and target platform (Social Media, DVD, email marketing campaign etc). The point is that product videos have a myriad of uses to increase awareness in the marketplace and thereby increasing business. Call today to schedule a free consultation!
Professional Video Production – Why Quality Matters and Why There is a Difference
One of the things about producing professional videos for corporate clients is that you need to always try to do what’s best for the client – even when this means that you might need to push and pull on what people want vs what they really need and what they can pay for. Sometime a client needs to be pushed to do a little more with their video – always with the understanding that you get what you pay for so it is worth making the investment to do it well. It can be delicate when working with clients but that’s the nuance involved when you hire a professional video producer – they know that the goal is to produce the best video that presents the business in the best possible light and to use your best people, stories and resources to make that happen.
When we sit down with an existing client or a new client we always stress that quality is the most important factor in moving forward on a project, can we execute on the the client’s vision, is that visiion realistic and can it be done on time and on budget? One of the problems that we see with video today is that not all of it is done well. Try to approach it this way. You wouldn’t put a bad commercial on TV would you? One that didn’t look professional, or one that was lit poorly or was edited badly or had bad audio? You would be insane to “broadcast” that to the world, never mind put it on your website to reach the prospects who are already interested in your business. It would show them that you don’t care about quality and that your business does things quickly and doesn’t pay attention to detail.
When you hire a professional video production company to produce a business video or corporate video you get the difference of quality, both in the planning and pre-preprodcution down to the lighting, audio and editing. When people see a high quality video on your website, then they see that you do care about quality and that your business does things carefully and does pay attention to detail. There is a difference – Hire the video production professionals at Skillman Video Group today.
The Video Marketing Challenge
At Skillman Video Group we love to create professional videos for our clients and we have developed a new service that helps clients market these videos called Social Video Marketing. Social Video Marketing combines high quality video, with social media marketing and SEO to provide an ongoing video marketing service. The difference being that instead of just having a great video on the website, the client has a video that is optimized for social media and is part of an ongoing video channel that tells the story of company’s products and services while helping to drive leads for new prospective customers.
There are always challenges to launching something new or promoting new ideas. In order to promote Social Video Marketing we have decided to put forth a challenge for ourselves. We decided to put our money where our video marketing “mouths” are so to speak and develop a strategy to improve our positioning on the competitive term “video marketing.”
In six months we believe that we can gain a top-ten organic position in Google on the term video marketing (no quotes – just to clarify.) Not an easy challenge by any means, but we believe that with the techniques that we have developed for Social Video Marketing, we have a pretty good shot. Over that time frame we will keep you updated through blog posts and video and social media.
SVG Announces New Service – Social Video Marketing!
Skillman Video Group is pleased to announce a new service, Social Video Marketing (SVM). This service represents a new approach and methodology to marketing professional quality video through search engines and social media. Click the thumbnail to download the case study.
Social Video Marketing (SVM) not only enables a business or organization to sell or market a product or service in the most compelling and effective medium possible – video – but also to reach out to prospects utilizing the latest Internet Marketing techniques. This is achieved by optimizing the video and respective areas of a website, that can drive traffic from other websites and social media sites. The goal of this process is two fold: 1) to drive traffic to a company’s site through SEO, Social Media and strategic linking and 2) once on the site, to present enough engaging and informative video content that it will convert “casual” web visitors to viable business prospects. At Skillman Video Group we call that the “video conversion point”.
“Not only do we do social video marketing for our clients but we do it for ourselves and have experienced dramatic results and increased our traffic 150% over a three month time frame.” – Christina Skillman, Principle Skillman Video Group.
Skillman Video Group has implemented these principles and methodology for their own corporate website www.skillmanvideogroup.com and has increased traffic ten-fold. Please download our case study that analyzes the methodology used and outlines considerations for an organization exploring corporate video.
Social Video Marketing and Sales Force Automation
Last week, Boston video producer and Principal of Skillman Video Group, Christina Skillman, along with our technology Partner Neil Saviano of CRM Boston, met with the management team of Capital Services and Supplies Inc (CSS) in Washington DC. Over the two-day meeting we discussed their current marketing and sales strategies along with new technologies available for increasing sales through Video, SEO and Internet Marketing.
Capital Services & Supplies HQ in Washington DC!
For any marketing program, it is essential to have a consistent message. Deciding on what this central message should be will not only help in the production of a marketing video, but in every aspect of a marketing program from the outside sales staff to print ads, catalogues, and the web. It is what we call your “brand”. We began our meeting at CSS by asking seemingly simple questions like “who are you?”, “what do you do”? and “what do you do that is different from your competitors?” Through this discovery process we can determine what their best strengths are and how to best use video and the Internet to market their services to potential customers.
We next discussed logistics for shooting the video (style, location, content etc). There are a lot of details that need to be taken into consideration when producing a professional marketing video, and we had to be sure every “t” was crossed and “i” dotted before we left! After we had a firm grasp on the marketing video, we next discussed the new marketing opportunities available to them through the Internet. Internet Marketing works in two ways. 1) Through SVG’s SEO services we can help bring people to your site and then 2) once they are on your site – how do we convert those visitors into viable leads? At SVG we call that the “video conversion point”. The content on your site HAS to be of sufficient quality to draw them in immediately and impel them to pick up the phone and call!
Going out to lunch on the last day on Capital Hill!
The two day meeting was concluded by Neil Saviano giving a presentation about their integrated call center and the ability to integrate video within their current sales processes and CRM software. By the end of the process Capital Services and Supplies Inc should have a complete and total integrated marketing solution that includes sales force automation, video and Internet Marketing. By utilizing all the technology that is available to them, Capital Services and Supplies will be differentiating themselves from their competitors and thus increasing their visibility in the marketplace. Call today to see what Skillman Video Group and our technology partners can do for you!
Utilizing Video & Social Media in a Political Campaign
It’s clear that here, at Skillman Video Group, we believe using video is the most effective way to market your company online. We also believe that online video is a necessary component to an effective political campaign. Video provides a platform that is both personal and visually stimulating. Online video allows you to present yourself to your constituency in a way that is far more personal than signs and posters and allows you to become more than merely a name or political party. With an effective online video, voters hear you, see you, and get to know you in real time and in living color. You are provided a forum to speak to your base directly and communicate in a way with which the written word cannot contend. Online video also provides an affordable alternative to television advertising as video on the web allows you to deliver your message to a wide audience without paying for airtime. Think of the possibilities! The Internet is also a much more flexible media outlet than television and allows for many different styles of video. One could post videos of campaign speeches, interviews or fund raising events. All of these videos have a much lower production costs than a television ad, yet, still provide effective marketing.
Online video is much more dynamic than other forms of campaigning. You can host your video on your website to provide interesting content. However, you can also use a variety of video and social media websites to spread your message even further. By posting your videos on sites like YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Flickr, you are able to spread your content to multiple forums and help your social media profiles become more attractive. The above video was produced for the Brad Williams for State Senate Campaign and was a simple single camera set up with wireless microphone. The video was later edited and compressed for the web and was used both on their web site as well as in their social media campaigns. Productions such as this are very cost effective, but still give campaigns higher visibility to potential voters and give candidates a platform to discuss and debate the issues. By using additional services such as key words and Search engine optimization techniques Skillman Video Group can help make sure that these videos can be found on YouTube and other social media sites. Online video is the optimal way to have you message heard and seen while political campaigning. Call today to set up a free consultation!
Eliminate Your Customer Engagement Gap with Professional Video!
Written by Harry Klein, President
Customer Engagement Strategies, Inc.
www.customerengagement.com
In my consulting practice I define Customer Engagement as: “The degree to which Customer Experiences are equal to or better than the Customer Expectations set by your Brand Promises as delivered by Customer Touch Points.”
Let’s break that down a bit:
• Brands = Promises
• Promises set customer expectations
• Business processes – touch points – are how promises to customers are met, exceeded or not met at all
• Companies enjoy higher levels of customer engagement when they meet or exceed the expectations they set.
When customer experience falls short of brand promises a company has a “Customer Engagement Gap”. Customer Engagement Gaps result in:
• Higher Costs of Sales
• Lower Profits
• Lower Marketing ROI
• Fewer Customer Referrals
• Lower Customer Loyalty, Retention and Life-Time Value
• Higher Customer Turnover
Here are 5 ways that a professional video produced by Skillman Video Group can help you eliminate your Customer Engagement Gap:
1. Set Customer Expectations – Create a brief video for prospects and new customers in which your CEO explains the company’s commitment to them. Tell them how they’ll be treated and what to do if their experience falls short of your promise. This will set your company apart from the pack and gain you extra consideration and loyalty.
2. Start Customer Dialogues – Set your company apart by using video in your CEO’s blog. No need to do video for every posting. but think about the possibility for a monthly video from the CEO in which they addresses customer feedback and what actions the company is taking as a result. Customers will feel that they’re being listened to and that the company is taking action.
3. Provide Technical Support – For companies with highly technical products or services or for companies that supply products that require customer assembly, professional training videos that explain the most challenging parts of the process are extremely useful. Your printed or online instructions can feature alerts and URLs that a video is available that will show you that specific step and walk you through it. Customers will be thrilled that you took the extra effort to help them get off to a good start. That kind of effort generates lots of word-of-mouth marketing.
4. Help Customers Understand the Impact of Current Events – There are circumstances that arise – for example, the financial market collapse – that require a CEO to put customers at ease even if the circumstances were not created by the company. Addressing these issues with a brief video supported by additional documentation can be an effective outreach strategy when your customers are worried, nervous and not sure what current conditions mean to them. Customers will further understand that you’re in this together and for the long haul.
5. Invite customers to submit video testimonials – Video certainly brings passion to the forefront. Ask your best customers if they’ll deliver a written AND video testimonial. Tell them you’ll help them write it and will send the video crew to their place. These videos can help prospects and other customers understand your commitment to them and how other customers work with you to ensure they maximize the value of the relationship.
The above listed videos can serve more than one purpose as many will be suitable to incorporate into your social media marketing efforts. You’ll want to be certain to track how viewers are getting to those videos and what impact they have on site traffic, lead generation, sales, support and customer engagement overall.
To learn more about Customer Engagements, please visit http://www.customerengagement.com
PRODUCER’S NOTES: The Producers at Skillman Video Group are ready and willing to custom design a video program that can meet some or all of those Customer Engagement “touch points”. The Internet Marketing specialists at Skillman Video Group will be able to design a marketing campaign around your videos that includes monthly reports to track your success. Call today to learn more about how video can directly impact your customer retention.
