Several years ago, I took my daughter to the opening of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Fifteen minutes into the film the audio started to crack and skip (No fault to the film maker) due to some malfunction in the theater. The movie itself was beautifully displayed on the screen, but the sound was so horrible that we finally left the movie and asked for a refund. It made me realize that sound is not just one of the many components to a video, but probably the most important component to get right to keep your audience’s attention.

I asked several colleagues about the critical components of a self produced video production and rank them in priority of what is critical to making a successful video. Audio was consistently ranked number one with lighting number two. It’s clear that audio can make or break your production. The reality is that most self produced videos ignore audio completely – just look at 95% of YouTube videos.
Webcam microphones just do not cut it for sound quality. If self produced video makers would spend $35 at Radio Shack for a simple PC microphone, the production value would increase dramatically. The key being – getting the microphone as close to the sound source as possible.

Even some corporate self produced videos forget about sound. I was at a large tech company waiting in the lobby and noticed a Sr. Vice President being filmed by a small consumer hand held camera without lights, tripod and a microphone. I can imagine the audio sounded awful and only amplified the fact of a shaky camera and poor lighting. How long would you watch a video with poor sound?

Another example of poor use of audio is when companies use Captivate or Camtasia for screen recording “how to” videos. Captivate and Camtasia do a great job, but cannot make the audio any better than the microphone that is used.

On your next self produced video production, invest in a good microphone. $400 can purchase a decent wireless microphone that can handle most self produced videos. If you don’t have a $400, there are several good USB microphones that are good enough for a video blog or screen recording for under $200.

In a future post I will talk about setting up an echo free room on a budget to make your audio even better.

What makes an interesting customer testimonial video? While working on a marketing/lead generation project when I was at SmartForce, we hired a company called Mind Blazer to produce customer testimonial videos. They had a unique list to help their customers think about video subject matter that would be interesting. Here is their list from 2002:

Video Opportunity Identifier List

1. Most technically sophisticated customer
2. Most famous / well known customer
3. Customer in the most interesting and/or remote location
4. Most peculiar customer
5. Any customers with celebrity tie ins
6. Most impressive facility (technology)
7. Most historical customer
8. Longest running customer relationship
9. Recent big win
10. Strongest ROI
11. Most nimble customer
12. Biggest challenge your customer ever faced
13. Most humorous or unique customer story

The lesson here is to make the subject matter interesting and unique. Something you would want to watch.

According to comScore, US Internet users viewed 14.8 billion online videos in January, with YouTube alone scoring over 100 million unique viewers in that same period.(http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2741)

Do videos work in email campaigns and will people click to view your video? The answer appears to be Yes. However, there are 3 guidelines we use when developing video for email campaigns.

(1) Create short focused videos.
Too often companies try to solve all of their customer’s pain points in what I call the 14 minute corporate DVD. Sales and marketing videos should be short, narrowly focused and only address one or two points. Most customers will not endure through a video that does not address their needs and wants in the first 20 seconds. Create several short videos rather than a single long video.

Think of videos in two parts:

Part 1. Movie Trailer – This is your 60-90 second elevator pitch. Don’t answer all your customer’s questions, but create interest to a call to action. A Hollywood movie trailer gives just enough information to create interest and to get you to purchase a movie ticket. So should your elevator pitch videos. Create interest and lead them to the next step.

Here are links to sample elevator pitch videos we produced for our clients:

Part 2. 2-3 minute videos – This is a focused video that typically focuses on the following:

• One or two key customer pain points
• Provides information on typical customer objections
• Shows a key feature that solves a problem
• Highlights customer testimonials
• Focuses/Creates emotion on what happens if prospect does not buy your product or service

Here is a link to a sample 2-3minute video we produced for DigitalBridge:

(2) Include a Screen Grab to Improve Video Click Rates.

Screen grabs should give visual clues to the video content. They should be visually compelling enough to get your audience to click to view the video. Below our some sample screen grabs we have used fo our clients projects. (The bottom two link to their respective videos)

Screen grabs are definitely more enticing that a text link like this one below:

http://www.xcelusstudios.com/video.htm?cat=1+vid=0 (Xcelus Marketing Video)

(3) Reference Video in Your Subject Line

Three subject line examples:

• “Video Exclusive! Days 1 to 3 of Fashion Week” Saks Fifth Avenue, Feb. 4, 2008
• “The well-traveled tote (see video)” J.Crew, Feb. 13, 2008
• “RLTV Presents: Cape Lodge, An RL Home Video” Ralph Lauren, Feb. 18, 2008

Some campaigns are claiming 20% to 300% improved click rates with video referenced in the email message.