My last blog of 2011 was about the #1 thing that you need to do for 2012. You can read it here, but I wrote that you need to be doing video. And lots of it. And of course you took my blog to heart and you’ve been doing lots of video, right?
Oh, ok. So you haven’t quite got around to it? Well, there’s no time like the present. And the first question you probably have in your mind is… what the heck am I going to video? Well, here is your top 10 list of videos to create, in no certain order because you need to do them all.
1. Employee features – One of the biggest pieces of advice I give my clients is that they need to make a personal connection with their customers. What better way to do that than to let them get to know your employees better? Does one of your employees play the banjo? Maybe one of them has skydiving as their hobby. Video them doing what it is they do and pretty soon customers will walk in the door saying things like “So where is that young lady who does the skydiving?”
2. Expert interviews – Find experts that know more than you do and interview them. Your customers will then get expert advice they need, and you’ll be the one who builds the goodwill for bringing it to them. Heck, you’ll probably learn something too.
3. How-tos – This one is easy. Do you run a garden center? Make videos about how to plant things. Do you cut hair? Make videos about how to take care of your hair. Do you sell carpet? Make videos about how to clean up spills. Make as many of these as you can because the possibilities are endless.
4. Company events – If you have a business after hours for your local chamber, create a 3-minute video of who was there and what happened. Chances are some folks couldn’t make it but would like to see who was there.
5. Customer submissions – This stuff is liquid gold! Ask your customers to submit videos to participate in a contest of some kind. Best halloween contest. Best office karaoke song. Best new product idea. Anything. People are basically vain and love to watch themselves. You’ll get more mileage from this than a set of Michelin tires.
6. Customer testimonials – You have good customers who love you. You know who they are. And I just bet they would be willing to do a video where they talk about how great you are, because again, they love you. Find them. Record them. Then give them something nice for being a good customer. Everybody wins.
7. New product releases – Do you have a new line of shoes coming out? Or a new service? Videotape your most passionate and well-spoken employee talking about it.
8. Local partnerships – Do you help sponsor the local Relay for Life? Make a video of the event and post it on your website. Again, more goodwill to be had.
9. Spoofs – This is probably the most fun type of video to make, but also the most difficult because it requires a great deal of thought and creativity, and timeliness. Capitalize on current popular commercials running on TV by making a spoof of them and frame it along the lines of your business. Remember the series of commercials that Dos Equis has called “The Most Interesting Man In the World”? Here is one of my customers who sells tanning salon supplies and equipment spoofing that Dos Equis commercial. Simply brilliant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOCReah83tc&feature=channel&list=UL
10. Behind the velvet rope – Perhaps my favorite videos to make are ‘behind the velvet rope’. These are videos that show things inside your company that nobody sees. Perhaps you own an ice cream parlor and could show how you make the ice cream. Maybe you own a zoo and could show what it is like when you brush the lion’s teeth. Or maybe you run a car dealership and could show everything you do to prepare a car for someone who just bought it. Anything that you can show that is something nobody ever sees is golden. Everyone wants to feel special. And everyone loves to watch videos of things they never have seen before. You have some things like this in your business, so grab that video camera and start filming my friends!
It’s easier than you think.
