Marketing With Video

Marketing with video has become the prime focus for many marketing companies and company owners who need to market their small businesses. Many people have heard about the power of video and are convinced that it is the option for them. They have seen the statistics, read about the success stories and so want to do the same for their business. The problem is that most people know very little about video, how to use it and and how to make a success of it.
The result is either blindly doing it themselves with little to no experience in either marketing or video productions or they approach a big expensive video production company and hope to leave it in their hands.
Neither of these approaches are the best idea. Firstly video production companies are mostly not marketing companies and the DIY route is fraught with peril.

It is therefor important to have at least a basic understanding of video production and a basic understanding of marketing. This information is however hard to come by in a format that is easily digestible and easy to implement. That was until now. Absolutely AV video productions in Johannesburg has started to put together a series of eBooks to help small businesses to understand, and to begin using, video for their marketing.

While most video training will go straight to the technical details to be more educational, the amount of information can be very intimidating for most people. What is more import than having tons of technical learning is rather to have an overall understanding of video and how it is best used for marketing your business. This way if you use a video production company in Johannesburg or anywhere else in the world you will at least have enough understanding of the process and, more importantly, the road map to be sure that you make a success of it.

In the same way that you don't need to be able to fly a plane to make use of the airline services more effectively, knowing how it all works, in a way that affects you, will potentially make or break your success in arriving at the final destination.
In this vein, video productions require expertise just like flying an airplane but you don't need to have those skills. You do however need to know how to avoid being overcharged, being misdirected and spending on wasteful video productions and marketing that delivers no returns. Video marketing is not something that should be seen as a throw-away. As much as there are no guarantees in any form of marketing, knowing some basics and having inside knowledge of how the professionals have had success with it, can help you save a lot of money and dramatically improve your chances of success. Return on investment is what it is all about.

Effective marketing becomes self funding because of the impact on your bottom line. Gone are the days when business could see advertising as a tax write-off . Now adverting, and especially combined with the additional expense of video, needs to provide effective measurable results which not only improve your branding but actually bring new clients and make your business more money. The video production company is part of the overall solution.

One of the key take-aways of the eBook is that the video used has to fit the desired result. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that any video will do as long as it promotes the company. This is very misguided as the vast majority of people simply do not care about your company or what you have to say.They are interested in what they can gain from using your companies products or services. So it is very important that the video not only speaks to the needs and wants of the viewer but that there is a call to action which gets potential buyers to follow through with some some sort of action which could be a purchase or simply some sort of activity that will begin communication between this person and your company. The belief that the video by just being a video is good enough is simply ridiculous. For marketing to be effective it must reach the right people and show those people why using your product or service is not only in their best interest but is in fact a no-brainer.
The belief that simply pumping out a message over and over will bring more sales, is as old as it is pointless. Effective marketing brings result.

The eBook is available for free by contacting Absolutely AV on info@abav.co.za

Advertising With Video Production Companies in Johannesburg.

For all the types of on line marketing, there is the use of video to boost viewers and attract buyers. With the amount of on line marketing focusing on "free marketing" some have lost sight of the fact that paid for advertising still works.

While social media really does some amazing things to bring in an audience, advertising goes straight to it. The social media and other forms of on line marketing are essentially creating an audience of some kind. This audience is then targeted for sales. There are, however, a large section of your potential buyers/clients who will not become part of your audience. These people can simply be advertised to. It has been seen by many that advertising is "old school" and ineffective. This is not the case. If done wisely can be the most effective way of getting sales.

It is important to remember that it is the ROI (return on investment) that counts. If you spend $1000 on advertising and get $10 000 in sales with a profit margin of 20% Then your profit is $1000 after the advertising costs are factored in. If you spend three weeks doing a social media campaign which results in $10 000 sales your profit is $2 000 but you have to factor in time spent. If over the three weeks you spend 100 hours working on the campaign then the difference of $1 000 is at a rate of $10 per hour. Is it worth working for $10 an hour?

Although you may have paid out less money, the cost in time is important. This is where many people see the difference. Yes you will need the money to start off with, but the difference can be spectacular. There are many who sell on line products who see a 3 to 1 return (ROI). Places like Facebook have shown many on line sellers this kind of return. They invest around $30 000 in adverts and get $90 000 in sales. If you only have a profit margin of 20% then this will not work. That is because 20% of $90 000 is $18 000. So spending $30 000 on advertising means you lost $12 000 after doing all the sales. However many sales on line have an almost 100% profit margin because they are electronic products. These are things like training programs and information. They can be duplicated with no extra cost. The only thing used up is band width which is cheap for most people.

In this way, although going the free route could bring you sales, if you advertised instead you could focus on the sales. The ROI is lower but the time spent is less. It comes down to what you value most.
What is important is to keep in mind that advertising still works. What is also important is to keep in mind that there are production costs to be added to the advertising costs. Going the advertising route and not paying for an advert or commercial to be made is a bit strange. You are going the route of spending money, over that of time, so D.I.Y. is not the most brilliant choice. Advertising is more expensive so needs to be more effective. The quality of the commercial can affect the response rate to it. With all the money spent on the advertising, it makes sense to use a professional video production company to make the video. The cost factor is minimal in big advertising budgets. A good quality advert or commercial can cost as low as $1000 or $2000 if you find the right company. There are video production companies who charge over $10 000 and even $100 000 for a commercial but they are not needed in this case. Unless you are trying to launch a new soda drink into the market, these are an over-kill.

Most targeted advertising just need to be good, not the best. This is where most corporate video production companies come in. They may not be winning awards for their production work but that is not what matters. What matters is the quality of work they can supply. At this point it is also good to mention that a good voice over artist can go along way to making your video pop.
It is important to remember though, that video production companies are not marketing companies.

The marketing companies or online marketing companies come up with the concept for the advertising campaign and the video production companies create the advert. Some marketing companies even work out the best platform, and repetition rate etc, for the most effective use of the advert. The marketing company however ads more cost of investment. That means lower ROI. Or does it? If your advertising is not effective it may cost you more than you get back. Using a marketing company, can in many cases, not only improve your chances of being effective with your marketing campaign but can often help it not to be a total failure. Many people are working on the idea that all advertising campaigns are effective and its just about being the most effective.This is not always the case.Many advertising campaigns fall flat and have next to no return.This can result in all the advertising spend resulting in just about no return.That is just like throwing the money away.

Unless you don't have any money to invest in a proper marketing campaign it helps to get the experts in. At the same time it is also important to remember that even the experts get it wrong sometimes. There have been advertising companies who have got it spectacularly wrong at times. These campaigns have not only not resulted in more sales but have damaged the brand in the process. There are some well known soda commercials that come to mind. Some companies have even been boycotted after a marketing campaign. These spectacular failures by marketing companies are not the norm though. The marketing companies would not be in business for long if their campaigns were always failing.

So where to begin? First figure out how much you can spend and comfortably effort to lose without any return. Advertising. although not as addictive is still a gamble but in the case of business a very necessary one.
Then if your budget affords, chose a marketing and branding company. If that is not in the budget find the best video production company you can afford. If that is not in the budget, begin a campaign of prayer. If that doesn't suit you just go with wishful thinking. Jokes aside. Marketing is serious business and should have have the money spent on it.

If you seriously want to market your business you need to get over the idea that it is cheap and easy.
The most successful businesses have the best marketing campaigns. It's a simple as that. So you need to choose. Is it a risk worth taking? Only you can decide that.

Video marketing for small business

Big companies have clearly seen the benefits of video marketing online and understand how much more affordable and effective it is compared to past expensive broadcast advertising. Small businesses are however less convinced. The sad thing is that online marketing should actually be benefiting small businesses due to its low cost and accessibility. Small businesses though are always tighter with their spend. This is totally understandable because they have less to spend and less ability to take risks. The small companies that do see the enormous benefits have taken up the challenge and seen huge benefits. For many people advertising is seen as a one to one exchange where all the money that is spent must be immediately visible as a return and therefore if no immediate returns are seen it seems to them to be a loss and a waste of time. Many small businesses pour good money after bad into low quality traditional advertising such as print media or phone books. The returns are minimal to say the least but they stick with it because they know it well and are comfortable with it.
When a good video campaign is put together by skilled people in a video production company the returns can be fantastic but because it is new territory for small businesses they often shy away from it.

Video production companies are in many cases also part of the problem because of their inability to distinguish between large and small companies. The expectations and the disposable funds are not the same. Large companies expect the videos to be very high end requiring expensive equipment and expertise while small businesses do not have the same expectations and have much less to spend.
Some might argue that video companies should not differentiate between big and small companies and treat everyone the same. This is a confused and short sighted approach. Any wealthy businessperson may well buy an expensive imported car while a small business owner may be more likely buy a smaller, more affordable car. Does this mean the two people are being treated differently? Clearly not. The same should apply to video productions. Smaller companies should have more affordable video productions available to them. This does not mean they should accept inferior quality but rather a service which best suites their budget.

It has been assumed by many that the only way to get a cheaper video made is by using a student or a new comer to the industry. While this thinking greatly benefits the students and newcomers by the lessons they learn, they are learning their lessons at the clients expense and the expense may be great when loss of business is factored in.
There also many dangers involved with low skilled videographers. Many don't have the basic understanding of copyrights and privacy laws. This lack of knowledge can have very costly results in the form of legal action and danger to individuals. The professional small business should really be looking at professional corporate video production companies to create the video that they need for their online marketing. There are more and more skilled video production companies who are beginning to offer affordable video productions that can greatly benefit small businesses. With many services in a free market, competition drives prices down making it possible for small businesses to take advantage of these services.

There are some important factors to keep in mind though when using these more affordable high quality video production services.

The first and most important thing to keep in mind is that video marketing is not SEO. SEO which means Search Engine Optimisation, is a completely different field. While video can play a major part in the Seo work, it in its self is not SEO. The very skilled SEO experts know that video is an intrinsic part of a good SEO strategy but they also know that video cannot stand alone. If you were to put your fantastic video onto YouTube and just wait and watch if anyone will see it, you are in for a mountain of disappointment.
Videos need to be promoted just like any piece of content. If you created a typed piece of marketing material, you wouldn't assume that it would promote its self.You would know that you need to pay a publisher of some kind to promote it. A print add needs to be printed in a publication that is distributed. The same applies to video.

Different videos have different purposes. An "About us" video is great for your website and YouTube but it can not be used for social media. Videos need to be tailored to each format. There are also different price tags for different types of videos. There is no "one fits all" video. Corporate video production Johannesburg companies are often asked for a quote on a corporate marketing video of a few minutes, as if video is sold by minute like meat is sold per pound or kilogram. This is not the case with video. A video of a person speaking in one place is very different to moving graphics, aerial video footage or even a heavy edit for effect. No video can be quoted as a fixed generic amount.Each video, with its own complexities will have a different price. Many small business owners make the mistake of wanting a TV style advert for their business. The advert on TV often costs hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars or rand to produce. Small businesses don't need these adverts. Also many small video production companies in Johannesburg can produce much more appropriate videos at a lower cost.

Its not a once off. Videos are often seen like websites, where once it is all done nicely it is a "set and forget" situation.This may work for a reasonably long while for websites but it does not work on videos. With social media becoming so pervasive in the marketing of all sizes of business,  it has affected the need for high volumes of content. With video becoming more and more important to social media, video has become a high turn over piece of content. Video productions put together by video production companies in Johannesburg were mostly seen as a low turn over high price type of marketing material. This has changed and video production companies have seen the importance of responding to the demand.The growth in demand for high turn over low price content may eventually over take the high priced video productions. This reluctant acceptance of this change will completely change the playing field of video production and the field of marketing.