Whether you're selling cars, hand sanitizer, miracle kitchen products, or real estate, the gold standard of marketing is to get your story on video. Video is king. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a library shelf full of information. Nothing conveys the drama of your product or service the way moving images can. Add in an attractive spokesperson, an engaging musical soundtrack, and focus on a specific narrative, and you've really got something.
For most small businesses the fear of high production costs prevents any serious interest in video from developing into a finished project. That fear may be unfounded, however. In fact, shooting and exhibiting a marketing video for your business may cost you very close to nothing at all.
"I was actually looking at professional firms initially," says Mike Camelin, sales and marketing director at SunState Aviation in Kissimmee, Fla. Those high costs drove Mike to explore a less traditional production team—students from Valencia Community College. "It was a class project for them so they got school credit," Mike explains. "It filled a need for us."
The finished video is nearly two minutes long, features an attractive spokesperson, B-roll of the flight school's aircraft and instructors in flight, and is far more intriguing than a traditional print ad or tri-fold brochure. Ironically, the video was less expensive to produce than those more traditional marketing vehicles. "The only expense to us was the flight time for the aircraft and the instructors," says Camelin.
Once completed you can feature the video on your business's Web page. You can use it on a YouTube channel, which can drive traffic to your own website. Social networking sites like Facebook can serve the same purpose. You control the content of your video and have the ability to oversee the editing process if you wish. Like commercial videos, you can cut more than one version if you are inclined to, leaving you with a 15 second, 30 second, and 60 second version while using the same footage as a basis for the various cuts.
It's no secret that your younger customers come from a video-based life experience. By exploring this marketing option you can produce high-quality, low-cost marketing pieces that can be seen on home computers, tablets, and even smartphones. Video can provide you with exceptional bang for the buck and result in new customers finding their way to your door.
Did it work for SunState Aviation? "It's a real attention grabber on our homepage," Camelin admits. "We get a lot of comments on it."
SunState Aviation's video can be seen on their homepage or on YouTube.
Jamie Beckett
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