Here are a few tips for preparing a web video series.

guidelines for creating a web video series

• Find the right theme
  As the first step towards creating a video series, your theme should fit your audience and your business. Some possibilities include how-to videos, tips and tricks and interviews. For example, Whole Foods has created a number of video series aimed squarely at their target audience of food-conscious shoppers. In Urban Eco, they share simple ideas to enhance your home such as how you can grow your own herbs, while in Grow they show how people across the U.S. are taking food production into their own hands.

  Episode 6 of Grow:

  
  
  

• Strive to engage
  You don’t need to go viral with your web video episodes like Zach Galifianakis’ Funny or Die series, Between Two Ferns has (definitely one of the best loved web series since its debut in 2008). You do need create something memorable and exciting to build a fan base. One great example is Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV series. With 1,000 episodes running over 5 years until 2011, it made wine more accessible with a no-nonsense presentation style that made winelibrary.com one of the largest online retailers and catapulted Vaynerchuk to internet fame.

  The final episode of Wine Library TV:

  
  
  

• Set viewer expectations with your first episode
  The first video in your series will set audience expectations for future installments in terms of video length, format, style etc. While you can change things up as you go, think of that first video as a template for the episodes to follow.
• Create a regular schedule
  Figure out how you’re going to handle script writing, production and editing in advance. Working with a video production company can be a major help.

  Exactly like blog posts, episodes in your web video series need to be created and uploaded regularly, or at least when you say you will. Choose a frequency that makes sense for your topic and your team, which most likely will be weekly or monthly. Less often than once a month and you can lose viewers. No matter what you decide, stick to your schedule to build a devoted fan base.

  It can be helpful to create an editorial calendar with topic ideas for your series. Include the calendar on your website so viewers know what’s coming next, or encourage them to sign up for email notifications when new videos are released.

• Make a web page for your series
  Create a landing page with links to all the videos in the series, along with the episode title and a short description. This will help viewers quickly find the content they want to watch. Include future topics from your editorial calendar here too. Then on each individual video page, provide a link back to the landing page with the full list of episodes.

  As an example, take a look at Daisy Whitney’s New Media Minute landing page where she posted weekly about online video until earlier this year:
  

• Include your logo and web address
  Make sure your company logo is at the start and end of your videos, along with your website address and a link back to your website. That way, if other websites embed your video from YouTube, new viewers will be able to find you. At the end of each video, remind your fans to check out the next episode and include a preview if possible.
• Optimize your content
  Give your video series a consistent title that’s easy to spell, and be sure to optimize your video descriptions and tags for video SEO. Don’t be misleading in your tags, or too generic; otherwise your videos could be considered spam. Include sharing options too to encourage viewers to spread the word.

Follow the tips above and you will be able to build a fan base that will return each month eager to watch your next video installment.

10 Ways To Be a Customer Service Champion with Social Video

1. Give your customers a voice – Zappos allows customers to submit videos to the company’s customer-reserved YouTube channel – where customers can share a testimonial and “tell the world their Zappos story.” 
   
   
2. Chat live with a customer specialist – Lands’ End’s site features the ability to do live video chat with customer care specialists.
3. Help them with how-to’s, tutorials, and DIYs – Crutchfield Electronics has a vast “learning center” featuring videos of their customer specialists answering questions about products. They are very good about creating customer-centric conversations with their videos.  Keep in mind, they don’t have to be videos specifically about your products. They can also be about regular lifestyle activities you know your customers do.  (Check out my earlier article on tips for “how-to” product videos.)
4. Go beyond an initial apology – FedEx did a customer apology videoafter a video of a FedEx guy throwing a computer monitor over a residential gate went viral, but they never did a follow-up showing improved customer care. On the other hand, Domino’s Pizza went above and beyond with a “turnaround video,” and an ongoing series of videos featuring them engaging with real customers.
   
   
5. Automate monitoring of video results – It seriously amazes me how easy it is to monitor videos trending about your brand, yet some brands act like it doesn’t exist! That is how United Airlines behaved for a long time with the “United Breaks Guitars” viral video until it seriously affected their stock value. A very simple way to keep on top of trending videos is to go to Google Alerts, and set up a search query for all of your brand-related keywords.  Include both video-only results and general results with the word “video” in your search term.
6. Measure audience engagement to your newly released videos – Pay attention to how general audiences and targeted customers are talking about your product and your brand after a video launch.  Monitor the original video’s location (either on your website or a video sharing site like YouTube), as well as on influential social media networks and blog sites.
7. Video FAQs – This should be a no-brainer. Have a friendly-sounding and easy-to-understand spokesperson address and answer all of the common questions your customers ask, and put them to a video.
8. Test out video playback – A lot of businesses fail to do user testing with their online video experience.  You need to be testing your video across multiple devices (web, browser, OS, tablet, smartphone), codecs (HTML5 or Flash), and bandwidth capabilities (broadband or cellular). You would naturally test out your products in many possible uses before putting them on market, right? It makes just as much sense to test to make sure your customers have a seamless online video user experience.
9. Have real customer testimonials – They work not just because they’re advocating the brand and the product, but because shoppers can relate better to a video featuring someone like them. I definitely recommend curating videos that are already available online. The Edelman 2012 Trust Barometer report found that consumer-generated video testimonials are often considered to be more trustworthy and persuasive than other professionally-generated, brand-owned videos.  Here’s a great example of the surprise “video thank you” with Domino’s Pizza’s Ramon DeLeon:

Always look to empower and incentivize customers to make and share videos!

One of the single best ways companies today can benefit from the opportunities in online video is to promote the video content that their customers are already doing, and make them the stars.

“Rather than trying to be the one generating all the video and other content about your business, all the time, instead stimulate your existing customers so they will comment about you in their own Facebook pages, Tweets, reviews, and blogs, and for that matter in their more private phone calls, emails, text messages, and even face-to-face conversations.  They have the experience with your brand, but they need some motivation, content, and guidance.  We call it ‘identifying & arming customer advocates.’ It’s part database marketing, part PR, part promotions, and part relationship marketing.  Its time has come.”

- Doug Pruden, Customer Experience Partners

toothpaste for dinner.com

With easy-to-use digital video cameras and editing software readily available, why do we still need video production companies? After all, they’re expensive, and if the footage is for the web it doesn’t need to be cinema quality. Someone in the marketing department can just shoot it, right?

Just because they can, doesn’t mean they should. Here are 7 reasons why calling in the pros is worthwhile.

Reasons to hire a video production company

1. Rising viewer expectations
   According to comScore’s 2012 US Digital Future In Focus report, 105.1 million Americans watch videos online each day, up 43% from 73.7 million in 2010. The average viewer watches 239 videos per month with length and file sizes increasing. As more television viewers migrate to the web or plug their computers into their TVs, they’re coming to expect higher quality online video. With standards rising, shooting better quality video now can help ensure the longevity and value of your video strategy and assets.
   
2. More sophisticated viewing devices
   Consumers are increasingly using mobile devices to view content when and where they want.  Those mobile devices are becoming ever more advanced. The new iPad 3, for example, features a 2048 x 1536 resolution display, quad-core graphics processing and 3.1 million pixels in a 9.7-inch space. That’s a million more than an HDTV. More sophisticated equipment, combined with fast data networks, means that mobile video quality looks spectacular. Unfortunately, homemade video looks, well, homemade. 

   

3. Better user experience
   A well-lit, tightly-edited video is usually more appealing to watch than a homemade clip. Audio in particular has to be good. You might be able to squeak by with so-so quality visuals, but if the sound is poor quality or hard to hear, viewers will go for the ‘x’ button. With thousands of videos uploaded every second – by Hollywood studios, amateurs and everyone in between – making the viewing experience as easy on the eyes and ears as possible should be a main priority.
4. Competitors are doing it
   According to eMarketer, Custom Content Council and ContentWise found 52% of North American companies used video for content marketing in 2011.  This is sharply up from 2009 when it accounted for only 37% of North American marketers’ content investment. 

   

   In addition, over half (54%) of North American companies planned to invest more in video content in 2012 over last year.

   

   With so many brands getting deeper into video, your footage must at minimum be comparable in terms of content and production values to attract and convert prospects.

5. Brand reputation enhancement
   Like your website, your email marketing and your printed materials, the video that your company produces is representative of your brand. It can take a lot of time to plan, script, shoot and edit a video. Make sure your clips look and sound professional to protect and enhance your brand reputation and show consumers that you care.  (Read my recent interview with Vat19 to learn how their quality video strategy helped increase their brand value with their shoppers.)
6. More compelling content
   Production values can enhance or detract from the core content of a video. A production company doesn’t just make the end product look good. They also help craft the content of your video to ensure it is focused, informative and impactful. Better content translates into higher conversion.
7. Decreasing costs
   Well done video need not cost the earth. The days of paying six figures for a few minutes of video are waning. For example, the viral video from the Dollar Shave Club launch last month only cost CEO Mike Dubin $4500. Before beginning your hunt for a video production company, prepare a brief outline of what you’re looking for. Shop the brief around to at least four businesses to compare pricing. To get the best pricing, aim to build a long term relationship with your chosen video production company, and plan to shoot a number of videos at the same time.

To wrap up, let’s compare two Miley Cyrus videos (thanks to Steve Sammartino for this example). The first is a homemade video of Cyrus leaving Twitter:

The second is a music video of Miley Cyrus performing Party In The U.S.A.:

When compared side-by-side like this, it’s easy to see how much value professional video production adds to her work.

In this article, I delve into why customer service is so important in the social media era, and how you can get a leg up on your competitors by integrating online video into the entire customer service experience.

Why customers are demanding better customer service

A good number of business analysts and authors have attributed the increased demand for better customer service due to the rise of the ‘connected consumer.’ Consumers are more connected to resources, peers, and thought leaders – largely in part to social technologies that have improved our ability to retrieve, process, and share content with others quickly.  Consumers also expect and demand that they be engaged directly (person-to-person) and genuinely via social media. It is no longer ok for companies to just post messages on Facebook and Twitter; they must respond and interact to their fans and followers.

With the rise of YouTube and user-generated video, consumers are now media producers as well who can share their experiences and commentary unfiltered, across multiple channels.  Consumers feel empowered when they create this content.  They start to feel that they deserve to be treated as VIP customers. As consumers are rewarded for their evangelism, they become thought leaders giving them even more influence over their peers.

Social video is ideal for the new customer service

Meeting increased customer service expectations means you can’t just rely on phone, email, or other forms of traditional media. It’s not even an issue with how much staff you have available, or how much money or resources you have. The bottom line is your consumers have migrated to social media and they expect you to not only be engaged on social media with content, but also with customer service.

Global marketing information services company JD Powers and Associates recently published a report titled, “Beyond Satisfaction: J.D. Power 2012 Customer Service Champions — Brands That Deliver Service Excellence to Maximize Business Results.” Their report was based on customer feedback, opinions and perceptions of more than 800 companies in more than 20 industries. Here are the reasons the JD Powers study gives for why social video is ideal for today’s customer service expectations:

• Online video makes for a compelling presentation.
• It lends itself to a fast and easy-to-understand process.
• It showcases responsive and concerned people, usually associated with the product and the brand that is selling directly to the consumer.
• It is more cost-effective than supporting phone-only call-center support centers. With modern online video technology, customer specialists can do video, audio, and chat at the same time, and be able to work remotely. (For more on this, check out this blog post from AVAD Technologies, “Why Home Based Call Center Agents Save Money & Increase Sales.”)

Here are some more advantages for using online video in customer care that we have mentioned before here on the Video-Commerce.org Blog:

• Video provides the closest experience to actual face-to-face communication which customers still consider to be the most persuasive medium of communication
• Video allows for better understanding and retention. It incorporates visuals, audio, and text – both in on-page descriptions and in-video with closed captions.
• Video provides more emotional resonance which in itself is often a major factor contributing to increased attention and engagement.
• Video can be live or recorded. It can be done live via video chat (which has its own kind of energy), or recorded and archived for retrieval and on-demand viewing.
• Video increases SEO. The highly relevant and valuable content of customer care videos will increase the likelihood of consumers sharing videos with their networks, increasing your search visibility and reach.

It’s time to face social video reality

If you’re not incorporating customer service into your social video campaigns or other video activities, then you’re not really being “social.” You’re also not being as helpful or as influential with your customers as you can be.

Coming up next week… Social Video Tips for Being a Customer Service Champion!

I’ll give you over 20 strategies (yes, you heard that right!) on what you can do today to be a customer service champion with social video.

Although your finished videos might be doing a good job for you in terms of driving traffic and boosting conversions on their own, shouldn’t you be getting a bit more mileage out of those costly assets?

Reimagining your video content

Here are 9 ways to repurpose or reimagine your video content to attract more attention and extend its value:

1. Transcripts
   One of the very first things you should do with your videos is transcribe them and add the transcripts to the website pages where your videos appear. Copy around your video can help improve video SEO. Upload the transcripts to your videos on YouTube too; Google is increasing the weight videos have in indexing, so this is a must to grab more eyeballs. For tips on how to prepare a YouTube video transcript file, visit YouTube’s website.
2. Articles, blog posts and ebooks
   Use some of the longer transcripts from your videos as a source for blog posts and articles. If you’re producing a series of video tutorials on a particular topic, compile all of the transcripts. With a little editing and formatting, you’ll have an ebook.
3. Bloopers and outtakes
   While they may not be appropriate for every company, video bloopers and outtakes can help humanize your brand and create a closer bond with your customer base. Retailers heavily into video, such as Zappos or Vat19 (check out my interview with Vat19 founder Jamie Salvatori), use secondary YouTube channels to offer this kind of additional content, reserving their main channel for straight-up product video. Multiple channels help viewers know what to expect when they arrive and offer them a choice in what they want to watch and subscribe to. Outtakes from Vat19:

   
   
   

4. ‘Making of’ or behind-the-scenes video
   Musicians and moviemakers have been doing it for years: giving eager fans a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes on a film shoot. The next time you’re shooting a video, consider taking extra footage of the location, rigs, sets and direction to put together your own ‘making of’ video. Here’s the behind-the-scenes video of “Joy Ride” for the Nikon D800:

   
   
   

5. Podcasts
   Video-editing software has the ability to export just the audio of any video. If the audio from your videos makes sense on its own without the visual component, consider publishing it standalone on iTunes and other podcast sites. The kinds of content that might work well include presentations, speeches and interviews.
6. Web images
   A lot of web video is shot at 30 frames or pictures per second. For a clip that’s a few minutes in length, you can have a truckload of potential images to re-use. Choose the best images for your favorite photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Pinterest. Repurpose others for your blog, website, Facebook fan page and Twitter profile.
7. Slide presentations
   Depending on the types of video you’ve got, consider taking content from a few of your videos, and creating a PowerPoint presentation to upload to SlideShare.
8. Video series
   If you have some lengthy clips (upwards of a few minutes long), think about whether you can chop them up into smaller chunks for different video ads, web pages or blog posts.
9. Viewer comments
   Reading through the comments on your videos can help you understand the questions viewers have about your products or brand. You can then use some of these as the basis for new video content. Ok, so not exactly a true repurposing, but still part of the content creation cycle.

Each time you are planning to create a new video, think about all the different ways you could reimagine it for other formats and platforms in advance. Build those ideas into the creation process and your content plan to extend your marketing budget, offer a richer experience to your customers and generate creative to use in social media.

Coming of age: Social video initiatives realizing ROI expectations

Social Video ROI has come into prevalence now. I base that claim off of two key survey results from Social Media Examiner’s 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report:

• Video marketing holds the top spot for future plans: A significant 76% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2012.
• ROI has become a top-priority. The number-one question marketers want answered is how to track the ROI of social media. (It can be presumed that ROI expectation applies just as much to video as any other media or social channel, if not more so.)

The overlooked challenges with measuring the ROI of social video

One of the most overlooked challenges with measuring the ROI of social video is how to align the engagement data provided by social video KPIs with the real-world economic objectives of sustainability and profitability. The problem is that too many marketers involved in social video simply ignore these objectives. They think that being a part of the community and engaging with others online is enough.  They are quick to dismiss the benefits of having the qualifiable and quantifiable outcomes that ROI can provide.

One notable thought leader in the social video arena that I talked with recently about this issue is Kevin Nalty. Kevin is a popular YouTube Partner and author of Beyond Viral: How to Attract Customers, Promote Your Brand, and Make Money with Online Video. He is also the Consumer Product Director of Psychiatry Consumer Marketing at Janssen-Cilag (Johnson & Johnson). He has a strong grasp on the business side of marketing initiatives, especially with online video. Kevin stressed to me that that while he believes it’s true that ROI’s connotation has evolved, he thinks social video still has to meet the traditional standard of ROI for it to be a sustainable business practice – no matter what the size of the enterprise may be:

“On the ROI front, the technical difference between “return on investment” is usually a quantified financial return (the revenue divided by the cost). So the statement that if it “betters our lives, it has ROI” doesn’t quite make sense to me as a business guy. For instance as a marketer, I can create a lot of entertaining or educating web content to support my target customers. But that’s not directly tied to revenue… it’s goodwill or indirect marketing. Hopefully that content does help people, but if that was my only goal then I would not likely succeed measuring it from an ROI perspective.”

Kevin also stressed that for people who work in mid-to-large size enterprises, measuring ROI by standards that all departments can agree on can also be especially challenging.

“My initial thought/concern is that these various pieces are often executed (at least with larger companies) by different departments that measure success quite differently.” says Kevin. “As an example, I’m guessing most PR folks (who often engage in the “top-of-funnel” activities) don’t know or care about CRM.”

Kevin also explains that the biggest and most challenging ROI opportunity he has found with social video is that it allows itself to be well-integrated into both top-funnel activities (such as marketing and PR with reach and awareness), and also mid-to-end funnel activities (such as customer service and sales).  The main challenge is that a single social video initiative for a larger enterprise can require different measurements of business success based on which departments you need to get “buy-in” from.

Social video ROI doesn’t end with the sale

Lee Odden, social media expert and CEO of TopRankMarketing, recently shared with me his view on social video ROI. He thought that in order to realize the true value of social video ROI, it needs to be measured not only across the buying cycle, but also across a customer’s entire lifecycle. This includes monetary purchases with a hard economic value, and also activities that lend themselves to those things over time through relationship building — including consumer advocacy, contributions, and collaborations with others.  In the video below, you can hear some of Odden’s own impressions and advice for ROI strategies with social video.

Conclusion: It’s time to get serious with measuring ROI in your social video

As “social” becomes more essential to business activity, ROI becomes even more essential to make your social video initiatives sustainable and profitable. It’s fine for some organizations to experiment with social video at first without measuring the hard benefits, but you always need to be thinking about relevant business outcomes. “Social” helps you build customer relationships, but ultimately it’s the ROI that gives your social video program the focus it needs to achieve success.

Jamie Salvatori, Vat19.com

I recently spoke with Jamie Salvatori, founder and owner of Vat19, about his company’s comprehensive video program. Vat19 is an established e-commerce retailer that sells unique and unusual gift items.

In this interview, Jamie talks about Vat19’s approach to video and shares his tips on building a successful video program.

Enjoy!

INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE SALVATORI

Amanda Dhalla: Please tell our readers a little about Vat19. What types of products do you sell?

Jamie Salvatori: Vat19 is an online gift store, and we try to find unique items that are fun and functional. We sell a wide variety of products, among the most popular are our oversize gummy items: our five-pound gummy bear, three-pound gummy worm and various others. We have a mug that turns every drink into a Slushee and a putty called Magnetic Thinking Putty with embedded magnets that is really cool. Essentially, we offer a wide variety of gifts for those that are very hard to shop for, 413 master products in all.

Amanda Dhalla: I read on Practical eCommerce a few months back that you create videos for every product that you sell – is it true? How many products?

Vat19 video studio

Jamie Salvatori: We are trying to create a video for every product that we sell but haven’t quite reached that goal. Right now, we probably have just over 400 videos. Since there are products that we’ve had to retire over the years, about 60 of our 413 products don’t have videos yet. We won’t hit that this year because it takes a long time to make these videos. Our goal is to create about 100 videos a year, but since we probably add 100 products to the website each year, we’re a little behind.

Sometimes I think that we have this e-commerce website just so we can make videos all day long. We started out as a video production company for hire, making local commercials and employee training videos for the St. Louis area. Those videos were so boring; it’s just so much fun that we can now be in full creative control.

Amanda Dhalla: I also noticed that you have not just one, but two channels on YouTube. Tell our readers about the second channel.

Jamie Salvatori: Anything that’s related goes on the second channel with the primary channel dedicated to the product videos:

• It’s becoming somewhat of a common practice on YouTube to show ‘making of’ or blooper-type videos. We decided that we had some cool bloopers that we could show so we included them in the second channel.
• We have a video newsletter talking about what’s new that also goes on the second channel.  We’ve done 6 episodes so far that are pretty simple, essentially just me just talking to the camera explaining the new products that we’ve added to the site, the new videos etc.
• And for BuckyBalls, we made a regular video and some additional videos showing how to make the products shown in the regular video. Those additional videos are on the second channel.

Amanda Dhalla: Your videos are really different from most retailers – very creative and very entertaining. Why did you decide to make that style of video?

Jamie Salvatori: We wanted to do something that was fun. I said earlier that we started out as a video production company for hire. Most of the time, clients wanted boring video completely devoid of creativity. Just a talking head. At Vat19 we wanted to have fun videos, because I truly believe that if you can make someone laugh you can sell them something. We’ve all had that experience in a store, where the salesperson is funny, entertaining and informative and you want to buy from them. The Das Beer Boot music video is definitely one of my favorites.

Amanda Dhalla: How long did it take to put together from start to finish?

Jamie Salvatori: We came up with the concept of a guy eating all this food from the glass, and in about a week’s time the team came up with the German character. In another week they had the song completed, and it took about 3 weeks from there to finish the video. All together it was about 1.5 months from start to finish. You can’t find the stuff that guy’s wearing at JCPenney, and we did some custom work on the lederhosen. Plus, I had to go to Sam’s Club and buy 100 eggs.

Amanda Dhalla: Do you make your videos yourselves, or do you use an outside video production company?

Jamie Salvatori: We do them ourselves. Including myself, there are four of us. Almost the whole team is in the Parking Ticket Booklets video.

If we had had to hire an outside team, so many people would be involved that a weird concept like that would never have been made. In my experience, in those situations you try to consensus build. The safest idea makes it through, not the best idea. The safest idea is the lowest common denominator idea. We want to do what we want to do and fortunately can just go out and get it done. I mean in this case, we had to go to a couple of different parking lots and we’re posing with the cars. It’s out there.

Amanda Dhalla: How important is video to Vat19’s marketing and merchandising efforts?

Jamie Salvatori: It’s essential to our marketing and merchandising. Marketing is all about differentiating yourself from your competitors. Other people are selling the same products that we are so we NEED to be different. There are many ways you can do that – through service, shipping etc. Video is a key way that we do it. In a video, you can really show people what they are going to get, and so we have an extremely low return rate.

Amanda Dhalla: How about video SEO: crucial or nice-to-have?

Jamie Salvatori: Your video tags and description allow your video to show up in the search results of major video platforms like YouTube. You want your video to be relevant to what the person has searched for. It can be tempting to tag your video with something that is popular, but you should be accurate about what the content is about. So I think video SEO is crucial because that’s how people find your content. Also, make sure that your videos have a unique tag that is common to all your videos so that the next one starts playing automatically.

Amanda Dhalla: How do you measure success – what are the key metrics you track?

Jamie Salvatori: Since we’re an online store, for us success is how many orders we get. The number of subscribers and views give you an idea of how many people are enjoying your videos, but they can’t be goals in themselves. You can look at your Google Analytics to see how well video is driving traffic to your site. Subscribers can give you an idea if you’re moving in the right direction, but you have to have sales.

Amanda Dhalla: Have you done any A/B testing with your videos? Can you give some examples of the types of testing that you do and their impact on the bottom line?

Jamie Salvatori: We’ve never done a true A/B test, but what I can tell you is that we often have products for sale without videos at the start.  I’ve always seen an increase in the conversion rate when we’ve added the product video afterwards.

As I mentioned earlier, we added video to our newsletters this year. When we changed to a video format our email click through nearly doubled from 2,000-2,800 to 4,000-4,500. People see the image in the email that looks like a video and just have to click on it. And the video plays on our website, not within YouTube, which is important.

E-newsletter without video:

E-newsletter with video:

Amanda Dhalla: How important is video quality to success? Is just having video enough to generate sales?

Jamie Salvatori: Just like grammatically incorrect copy, crappy video can harm your brand. If your lighting and sound are terrible, it looks like you didn’t put in any effort. What does that say about your company? Would you buy from a company that doesn’t care?

Quality doesn’t come from using a fancy camera and microphone anyway, but from the content of the video itself. You need to ask yourself whether you really need a celebrity, or if you would get more bang for your buck by being more creative. Look at the number of products that you sell and your margins, and invest your time and energy in defining the concept of your videos. Where can your creativity show through? That’s where quality really comes into play.

Everything begins with the script. You wouldn’t start building a house by buying a bunch of nice materials. You need a plan, a concept. If you don’t know what you’re doing there, then your video is going to suck. So if you can’t do it, then find someone who can. Don’t start with the lighting. Start with what you are trying to accomplish. Before you start the camera rolling, you should know in your mind what the final video will look like. Unfortunately, a lot of the tips out there are about doing the same thing: putting a person in front of a white background. If you haven’t come up with your script, plan and concept yet, don’t buy any fancy equipment. Know what the finished product is going to look like in advance.

Amanda Dhalla: Any final words of advice for our readers just starting out developing their video programs?

Jamie Salvatori: My number one tip: Go out and educate yourself in what’s involved in creating a video. Even if it’s not something that you’re going to be doing yourself, you’ll know the skillsets involved and the roles so you can effectively manage the program. Get proper training.

Just because you can go and make a video, doesn’t mean that you should. Like web programming, video is a skill that you need to learn, though the barrier to entry is a little lower. Don’t put up something that looks awful. If you’re trying to sell a nice product, you need a nice product image and a nice video. Why would you put up a bad video? Get yourself trained or find someone who is trained. I can’t stress that enough or you’ll be insulting the viewer.

Kevin Edwards, Video Aptitude

I recently had the opportunity to interview Kevin Edwards, Co-Founder of Video Aptitude based in San Francisco and Los Angeles. With video becoming an increasingly important component of product marketing and merchandising, we got together to talk about video strategy and considerations for online retailers just getting into video.

Enjoy!

INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN EDWARDS

Amanda Dhalla: Please tell our readers a little bit about yourself, Kevin.

Kevin Edwards: I’ve been involved in video production and editing for 15 years. It started out more as a hobby, for my personal enjoyment. I consulted and founded 3 other technology start-ups and then found an opportunity to leverage my video experience and turn it into something valuable.

Amanda Dhalla: How important is goal setting to a retailer putting together a video program?

Kevin Edwards: Extremely. Strategy, coupled with goal setting, is the foundation of a successful video program. Strategy tells you what should be said, how it should be said, where it should be said, etc. Goals tell you how to get a positive outcome. Just throwing videos up on your site can be damaging and lead to negative results.

Amanda Dhalla: What types of video – product, how-to, behind-the-scenes etc. – should retailers consider when starting out to build a video program?

Kevin Edwards: Retailers should consider any type of video that may help them achieve their goals.

I noticed that you wrote a blog post a few weeks back about how luxury brands are using video to engage customers. What was really interesting about that post were the differing approaches taken by two high-end retailers: Barneys New York CO-OP and Louis Vuitton. Louis Vuitton set out to build loyalty and brand reputation by showing fine craftsmanship. On the other hand, Barney’s put together unscripted e-commerce videos where the models are talking, rather than really showing the clothes. I recall one particular model talking about how she grew up in the most obese county in America as she was wearing a $780 dress. This is an interesting approach focused on conversion and I’m curious to see how well it will work for them and whether it will positively impact their sales.

As another example, we recently did a shoot for The Container Store that was very customer-focused. In the videos, customers talk about how they use Container Store products in their own personal ways. One customer speaks about using a shoe rack to store her daughter’s barrettes, hair ties, and brushes. Showing the products in a non-traditional way adds value to them by creating multiple selling points. Products became more valuable and customers became more part of the brand. This type of video fits well with the image of The Container Store.

Amanda Dhalla: How much video should a retailer expect to make and how often?

Kevin Edwards: How much a video content a retailer can expect to make will depend on a variety of items such as their approach, script and how often they’re able to shoot. Straight product videos against a blown out background or green screen will move more quickly than shooting on location.

However, in either case, there are efficiencies that can be built into the process to save time, such as having all the products you want to shoot with you. Knowing exactly what’s going to be said about each product and having talent that can easily flow through the product videos smoothly can also help to speed up video production.

Amanda Dhalla: What methods do you suggest to supplement in-house content?

Kevin Edwards: There are a lot of ways to supplement your in-house content. For example, Tide recently put up a contest to attract user-generated video. Unfortunately, they required users to do too much.

In general, user-generated video content doesn’t allow you control over content, and if you’re trying to curate a video library with a consistent theme, this can be difficult. It’s also more difficult to build a strategy around user-generated content; so you need to think it through. If you’re already producing content and spending hours trying to find the right supplementary content, you may find that the time spent on supplementary content can be used to diversify your current video library in ways that directly support your strategy.

Amanda Dhalla: How do you determine the right delivery method for your audience, scripted or unscripted?

Kevin Edwards: This goes back to strategy building and the angle you want to take with your videos. I prefer a more unscripted approach as it tends to work really well. But if products are technical, some loose scripting is helpful unless you’re working with an expert who can talk with ease about the products. Having certain lines that you need to include in the product video can work well too. For those lines, a teleprompter is helpful to keep you on schedule and ensure your talent is happy.

Amanda Dhalla: Does it matter whether you use a staff member or an outside professional as your on-screen talent?

Kevin Edwards: The focus should be on what best resonates with customers based on your strategy and goals. Someone who works for you can be that expert who can talk about the products. They might also simply be a good fit even if they aren’t that ‘expert.’ You may also need an outside expert or an actor. Again, the focus is to accomplish what was set out in the initial strategy. At Video Aptitude we use a deep pool of experts and actors while remaining very open to working with the staff of our clients to achieve the goals set out in our initial strategy.

Amanda Dhalla: Where should you shoot that will best resonate with customers?

Kevin Edwards: This is something we’re currently testing at Video Aptitude. Will your customers convert more if your fishing lures are shot on a dock vs. a studio? What about MMA gear shot in an octagon vs. a studio? What if Zappos shot running shoes at the park and dress shoes in an office? Would that have a positive impact on conversion? I believe that it depends. I personally like shooting at locations that complement the products because it sets you apart from competitors. It’s not easy to shoot on location, you can’t produce as much, it takes more time and energy to get set up and it’s a greater wear on your staff.

However, sometimes it’s very important. We were working with an antique jeweler with hundreds of products. She had a small showroom, but people would travel from all over the country just to see her jewelry. It was important for us to manage customers’ expectations when they walked into the showroom. We wanted to make sure that what the potential customers saw in the video was exactly what they saw when they flew across the country and walked into the showroom. In this case, on location shooting was very necessary.

Amanda Dhalla: Should you use music? How about text overlays?

Kevin Edwards: I like to use music when I’m trying to build a greater emotional connection in a product video. We recently shot some videos for Webber and the first round of music that came up sounded like lounge music. All I kept seeing in my head was a late 80’s version of Chevy Chase in some cheesy blue leisure suit with a cocktail, pointing and winking at people as he walked by them. We needed music that better relayed the notion that, “it’s almost summer, let’s get outside and grill some meat.” We ended up going with a bass, electric guitar riff by Kevin McCloud that worked very well.

We also shot dozens of grilling quick tips. These tips are 7-12 seconds and do not have music. My personal feeling is that if customers are going to be watching several very short videos in one sitting then music can get very annoying very quickly.

Text overlays are helpful when conveying additional information, reiterating a point or outlining steps in a process. If you feel it’s important that your customers know you offer free shipping on all returns, then overlay text might be a good fit during the video rather than using 5 seconds to explain as much.

Amanda Dhalla: What are the main points you should make in product video?

Kevin Edwards: This is really going to depend on the products you’re shooting but I think a good rule of thumb is to address 3-5 key selling points that, when possible, surpass what a 2d image and product description offer. This is your opportunity to essentially sell your products directly to your customers.  Think about what they need to know to get them to convert. For example, if I’m looking at a purse I want to see that there is a place for my keys, wallet, compact, extra hair ties, small makeup bag and my book. Product close ups can’t always address this. I’m going to also want to know what makes this product particularly unique to others. For example, avid runners will have more than one pair of running shoes, so explaining how a particular pair complements other shoes can be extremely helpful.

Amanda Dhalla: What is the right length for a product video?

Kevin Edwards: There is a constant balance between quality content and length. I like to keep most product videos between 30 and 60 seconds, although some may be longer. The best thing that you can do is monitor drop off rates. In production, you can do some add-ons when you’re starting out that can be cut out later, if needed.

Sometimes your customer base needs more information, depending on the product that you sell. In those cases, a video that’s a little longer, say 90 seconds, can work well. But you definitely need to test video length. You could even consider a video series for a complex purchase like a car.

Amanda Dhalla: How important is quality to online video success?

Kevin Edwards: Honestly, when I look at quality I bundle everything together: sound, equipment, lighting, content etc. Ad hoc video definitely has its place and always will. The difference is having a specific video strategy for a specific product vs. rolling out 2,000 skus. With two competing stores, the store with better quality video than its competitor will win out. When quality video is available at zero cost to the consumer, why would they select a brand with inferior video assets?

Over time, we’re going to see the standard go up. Higher quality video is going to become the norm. High quality video is so much better to watch, and better quality ensures the longevity and value of your video assets.

Thad Rueter, Senior Editor for InternetRetailer.com, reported last December that because of the Google’s new algorithm, e-commerce sites with low-quality and unoriginal content would be demoted in search rankings this spring.

“The [Fresh] update was designed to punish what Google views as low-quality web sites, which includes those with unoriginal content, such as retail sites that rely on the same manufacturer product descriptions that many other e-retailers display. It also sought to downgrade sites that web users seemed to find of little value.”

What was especially interesting in the article was that the reported “big winners” in Google’s algorithm update included “sites that feature a lot of video,” which suggested Google gave a special rankings boost to sites with constantly updated video content.

This is both a big opportunity and a big urgency for e-commerce sites. You can’t let your same old video content just “sit” on your site. Not updating your site’s videos and their landing pages can depress a site’s position in Google’s organic search rankings (i.e., demotions). If you aren’t already planning on releasing new video content and having it featured prominently throughout your site, you need to do so now.

Google “Fresh” Video SEO Tips for E-Commerce sites

Having been in the SEO space since 1997 and doing video SEO since 2006, I am glad to see that Google’s social technologies are allowing for more recent and relevant results to appear at the top of search queries. Below I have combined some of the original ideas from the Internet Retailer article with my own experience in the online video and e-commerce industry to create content-related tips for video commerce SEO improvement.

• Be Unique. Don’t rely on product videos and manufacturer descriptions. Create your own unique videos with original content.
• Be Fresh. Don’t repeat the same thing that has already been done. Change up your home page to feature your latest videos and create videos for your product category pages.
• Be recent. Get fresh videos onto your site quickly. Respond to online conversations around your products in video and do so promptly.  On a larger scale, you can create videos about topics in mainstream media that relate to your products, brand, or consumer lifestyle.
• Listen. Pay attention to what people are saying in the news and in online conversations on social media channels, search queries, and directly in contact forms, emails, and consumer surveys.  Pay attention to topics around your products, your brand, your competitors, and even your consumers’ lifestyles.   You can use this highly relevant information in your videos.
• Monitor. Keep an eye on what consumers are searching for on your website and adjust your videos accordingly.  If your search queries and page analytics show that people are most interested in a certain product or line, feature new and related videos around that product more prominently on your site (including on the home page).
• Respond. Organize your feedback from consumers and create video content that responds to their search queries on products.  You can also create video responses to more general items like FAQs and mainstream media topics that are related to consumer needs.
• Encourage. Encourage text conversations and reviews around your existing videos, and promote those conversations around your videos on your own web pages. The easiest way to do this is by having a comments section on your video landing pages, and including social video widgets for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest sharing.
• Promote. Make your own customers the stars! Many SEO experts say featuring user-generated videos is a great way to provide fresh content for Google’s search algorithm. You should try to feature consumer-generated product video reviews and testimonials along with your own brand-generated videos and in-house videos on your related product web pages. Consumers will be more likely to link from their own blog sites and social media sites to your video pages which will boost your link popularity and SEO as a result.
• Test. Test your own pages to make sure pages upload properly. Google penalizes sites that have content that causes pages to load slowly. Sometimes videos that are poorly coded or having server issues can cause slow loading time.
• Rotate. Add video user reviews to existing content and rotate new reviews in regularly.
• Be social! As Internet Retailer’s Thad Rueter says, “SEO is social media, and vice versa.” You should duplicate your website video SEO efforts on your social media sites. I recommend regularly writing blog posts that feature new video content that you can post to your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and other social media channels. Take it from the experience of Ellen Burgan, Internet Marketing Manager for Drs. Fosters & Smith:

“A strong social presence, one that demonstrates a loyalty among consumers that can translate into links, is another sign of good content, and therefore another way to earn the good graces of Google.”

Why should retail and e-commerce brands use consumer-generated video testimonials? Justin and I came up with 5 good reasons that can help make the case for you and the decision makers at your company:

5 reasons why consumer video testimonials are great for e-commerce

1.) Gets consumers’ attention quickly through an emotional connection

Research studies from web usability specialists have revealed that the average new website visitor spends 5-10 seconds on a website. “The money you invest to draw visitors to your site, through SEO, SEM, blog posting, or any other tactic, isn’t well spent unless you are sure you can win over your visitors within those ten seconds,” says Justin. That means you have to craft a competitive strategy for quickly establishing the credibility of your site and the character of your company in an emotionally compelling way.  This can be accomplished by placing a testimonial video right on your home page.

“It’s common knowledge that most brands thrive by establishing some kind of emotional connection with their customers, and the most powerful way for a brand to establish that emotional connection is to encourage customers to interact with their peers,” says Justin.

He explained that when consumers see a video testimonial placed on the home page of a brand’s website or social media page, they feel like they’re being greeted by someone they know and trust.

2.) Builds trust with consumers

Recent major business reports have shown a huge decline in customer loyalty with big brands.  In contrast, there has also been a huge increase in trust for social media sources coming from customer peers.

Consumers are more likely to trust brands that directly engage with them on social media sites, especially with online video. When someone can actually see and hear a person who has characteristics and consumer experiences similar to the viewer, they are more likely to believe that testimonial to be authentic and thus be more responsive and loyal.

Of course, a video by its very medium of communication is already a more trustworthy model than just text or even an accompanying photo.

3) Peers are more influential than brands

“If Yelp taught us anything, it is the power that individuals can have in persuading their peers,” says Justin. “That power is amplified with video testimonials, where would-be customers can actually see and hear the inside scoop from like-minded individuals. Even in our celebrity-obsessed culture, the best spokesperson for a new business might very well be, literally, the girl next door.”

As I reported earlier here at Video-Commerce.org, peer influence with the Millennial generation plays a greater role in purchase decisions than with any previous generation, and they are also more apt to engage with their peers via online video.

4) Lower production costs

Unlike a slick ad campaign, most consumer-generated videos are poorly lit, grainy and have that fun, next-door-neighbor vibe to them. The content, not the resolution, is what makes these videos noteworthy. Having your own consumers produce their own testimonials saves you from having to spend the time, money, staff, and other business resources around producing every video yourself.  It also frees you up for other marketing activities and strategy planning.

5) Helps build your social media fan base

Justin explained a proven social video marketing tactic is for brands to place consumer video testimonials right on their own Facebook page and other social media sites. “Testimonial videos placed on a brand’s Facebook page have proven to generate lots of word-of-mouth buzz through additional views and comments,” says Justin. By featuring your own customers and fans as the “stars” of your videos, they are more likely to increase their word-of-mouth marketing on your behalf, and become evangelists for your brand.

The verdict: consumer-generated video testimonials are smart for business!

Using consumer-generated video testimonials on your site and social media channels is an ideal strategy for brands looking to build better customer relationships while saving on content production costs.  You can empower your own customers to be your best marketers by integrating their testimonials into your site, social media channels, and into professional user-generated video platforms like VideoGenie.