How a small business can make video blogs

We work with a lot of small businesses that are trying to compete with much larger companies. One fantastic benefit of video is that it levels the playing field. Video is no longer only for the fortune 500. Producing a video often costs much less than producing a 4-color brochure. The cost of producing videos has come down drastically over the last few years.

We are often asked how much does a video cost and how can our small business use it effectively.

Video can be used to:
1. Help a relatively small company look like a much larger national or international firm.
2. Create an image for your company as people helping people, perhaps through excellent customer service.
3. Help your sales people by presenting a constant message every time for every viewer.
4. Show your product or service in action, something that brochures can’t do.
5. Explain a complex process or technical product where the inner working are hidden from view.

The focus of today’s blog is “How can a small business make video blogs?”

First, let’s talk about what you can do with a video blog.
With a video blog you can:
1. Demonstrate how a new product works and the benefits of it instead of just describing it with text.
2. Post happy client stories, instead of the regular text quotes you see on most websites.
3. Educate clients on topics that they may deem useful.
4. Create videos to promote events or charity functions you host or attend as a business.

There are a few ways to make them. The obvious is to film them yourselves, if you have the equipment and are savvy with editing and uploading. Keep in mind that you should have good lighting and a microphone, other then what is on the camera, to ensure quality audio.

The second option is to have a professional video company produce them for you.
We have one client that has us come in every six months to record their video blogs. We record approximately 18-20 video blogs within a 2 hour period. They send out the video blogs bi-monthly, mixed in with text blogs. Not only does it give the followers something fresh to view, our client also transcribes the video blog. This way it can also be read if the follower chooses. But more importantly, the transcription can be used as a search tool.

I encourage you to try using video on your blog today.

Please share any creative ways you incorporated video into your blog?

Know anyone who does video well?

Share it with us in the comment area.