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Post-Production Stage 3 (Editing)

In this week’s installment of producing a promotional video, we will go over the techniques of editing the photos, the optional video clips and creating a slideshow promotional video. If you haven’t read the previous posts of this serialized tutorial, please read blog posts dated March 16, 2020, Video Marketing for Small Business, March 22, 2020, Pre-Production and March 29,2020 Production (Shooting Images).

The shooting is complete, and you’ve got some great images. Now the trick is assembling your shots into a coherent message that will bring you more customers. In this segment, we will explain how to take all the hard work you’ve done and mold it into a great promotional slideshow video.

Editing your commercial can seem like a daunting task when you begin. With tons of footage and a simple script, the first step is to organize your clips. If you’re using a removable media based camera, you can copy the files onto your computer, watch each image, and rename the files. Remember to use the shot log as a reference to help speed up the process.

Give the names of the images that represent the shots so that you can find them easily when you’re editing. Also, note the best shots as you review them. You may find that what you thought was your best take during shooting might have a customer looking directly into the lens or a bump in your camera move. Remember to choose the shots that best represent your business or product.

Many commercials have a narrator giving information that re-enforces the visual message that your footage and graphics are conveying. This narration is called a Voice-over or V.O. Whether you’re doing the voice-over yourself, using a local personality, or an online voice-over service, It’s important that the tone of your voice-over matches the commercial. You don’t want a monster truck voice-over on a relaxing spa commercial.

When it comes to choosing music, you’ll need to make sure to secure the rights to whatever you choose. Using popular music in a promotional video without it is illegal and could potentially put you at risk for big trouble, followed by big fines.

Finally, be sure to select music that matches the mood and tone of the spot you’ve created. This becomes even more important if the spot doesn’t contain a voice-over and relies solely on music. Once you’ve got your voice-over and music ready, you can finally start editing the footage.

Typically, you can create the initial cut using your footage, and then add any supporting graphics that you need. Remember that with local commercials, the viewer needs to know where the business is, and how to contact them, so be sure to include information such as the address, phone number, and website in your spot.

Once the footage and graphics are looking good, you can easily create many sound effects on your own. The real trick is balancing the voice over, music and so they don’t interfere with each other. When in doubt, just make sure that the message of the commercial isn’t getting trampled on by guitars and swoosh sounds. So, you’ve got the perfect blend of footage, graphics, and the concept you thought up is now a tangible piece of finished work.

After reading this information you may feel that you don’t have the skills necessary to edit. Do not fret, with modern computer technology there are apps and programs that do the editing for you and give you the recommended editors to make this easy for the non-photographer/videographer.

Starting with editing your images with Photolemur – https://photolemur.com
One-button automatic photo utility for Mac and Windows that perfect your photos using artificial intelligence, smart tech and a bit of magic. Estimated cost $30.00
Youtube: https://youtu.be/4gg2_GL5SDE        Video 59 seconds                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The online video editor is Animoto – Animoto.com

You can create impressive videos in minutes with this drag-and-drop video maker. No video editing experience necessary. Free trial.
Youtube https://youtu.be/s2Sl4Xb8qzU                    Video 27 seconds

Good luck with this project and if you have any marketing questions, please feel free to contact me at Keystone Business Brokers.
                                                  Nick Santarone, Marketing Director, nick@kbizbrokers.com

Production Stage 2 (Shooting)
In this week’s installment of producing a promotional video, we will go over the techniques of shooting the photos and the optional video clips. If you haven’t read the previous posts of this serialized tutorial, please read blog posts dated March 16, 2020, Video Marketing for Small Business and March 22, 2020, Pre-Production.

Production Stage 1.
As I stated in a previous post this is a simplified way for an entrepreneur with little or no photographic or video background to create a promotional video. You can use your smart-phone to shoot images and video clips. My first recommendation is that you take a lot of images so that when you start editing you have a very large selection of photos to choose from. Try taking shots from different angles and distances. Today, with digital technology you can take ten images for each picture needed. In the post-production phase, it’s better to have an abundance of images to choose from.

Establishing Shot
The first picture in your photo essay is the establishing shot which is a wide-angle view of the subject that sets the scene. An example would be the front of a retail establishment with distinctive identifying features. For you Seinfeld Show fans you may remember at the beginning of each episode the first image you saw was either the front of the coffee shop or the apartment house where Jerry lived. This told the viewers where the first scene was going to take place.

The body of your offer
Show the products or services that you are offering the prospective customer. Consumers relate to realistic photographs. This is where you will insert a persuasive text which we will cover next week in stage 3. You should have many visuals that will draw and maintain attention.

Closing Shot
This is the last shot in your gallery of photos and should be strong enough to support your comments to close the deal.
When shooting take a variety of pictures wide-angle, medium distance, close-ups, and action shots.

If you have any marketing questions, please feel free to contact me at Keystone Business Brokers.
Nick Santarone, Marketing Director, nick@kbizbrokers.com

Next week’s topic is post-production (Stage 3)

This is a link to a video that was produced for a local restaurant by my advertising students at Penn State University, Abington PA.                           https://vimeo.com/100336918

The Pre-Production Stage 1
In this week’s installment of creating a promotional video (commercial), I will cover the first of the three steps of video production. This tutorial will take the stages of production using simple tools such as a smart-phone camera and your business computer. The three Stages of Production are 1. Pre-Production (Planning), 2. Production (Shooting Video), 3. Post-production (Editing).This week I will cover stage 1.
These videos will consist primarily of photos and possibly some short video clips.

Pre-Production — The planning stage of your shoot occurs before the camera starts rolling. By creating a plan, and figuring out the budget ahead of time, your video will be free of unnecessary worry.

Define Goals (Strategy) — Goals are general statements about the direction that you would like to take your business. Example: 1. Expanding into a new market, 2. Reaching a new customer base, 3. New product or service.
You can use these general goals, supported by specific objectives, as a platform for creating a marketing action plan that targets the growth of the business.

Objectives (Tactics) — Once your goals are set, refine them with measurable, concretely defined objectives. These are the steps that you will take to meet your goals.
Example: Each goal should have a set of associated objectives that allow you to logically and effectively work toward the growth you need.

Audience (Target Market) — In advertising, a target audience, is a specific group of people within the target market at which a product or marketing message of a product is aimed. The target market and the marketing mix variables consist of Product, Place (distribution), Promotion, Price. These are the four elements of a marketing mix strategy that determine the success of a product in the marketplace,

Outline (Pre-script) — Break it into transitions. Prepare an outline of the points you want to make. If you’re promoting a business, your outline may consist of identifying the mission, background, products or services provided, how you can help solve your audience’s problems or meet their needs, testimonials from satisfied customers, costs, distinctions between your products and the competition, and any other factors that will convince your target audience to patronize your company.

Goals and Objectives —Describe what you expect the ad campaign to accomplish. Be specific and tailor statements to the focus of the campaign. For a sales ad campaign, set a goal of increasing sales by 10 percent within six months.

Script — Make sure your commercial’s script times out to 30 to 50 seconds (interest wanes at 54 seconds). Use short sentences that grab your potential customer’s attention. You’ve got a very limited time frame to capture your audience and you need to get your message across quickly. Don’t get wrapped up in long sentences. Keep them short and punchy. Your audio should also tell the customer what your advertising confirming what they are viewing.

Storyboard & Shot-list — I have combined both the storyboard and shot-list into one form. The storyboard follows the chronology of the script in a pictorial form. It helps you visualize the sequences of your video. You can use pencil sketches in the form when creating the chronology.
The shot-list is under the sketch boxes on the form. The shots are determined by what action is happening within a given scene and how to best capture that action.

You can download the forms previously listed in this blog from Dropbox. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p62v52g4pf31y0s/AADlql9m66CnvWoUxyzAsEeIa?dl=0

If you have any marketing questions, please feel free to contact me at Keystone Business Brokers.
Nick Santarone, Marketing Director nick@kbizbrokers.com

Next week’s blog will discuss stage 2 producing the video.

Video Marketing for Small Business
The internet has democratized advertising strategy making it cost-effective. In the past, only large companies could afford the huge expenditures charged by advertising agencies and mass media such as television commercials and print ads. Today, small business has access to digital marketing on their websites and through the many social media sites.

Approximately 90% of individuals have internet access and most people are computer literate. If you’re a B2B marketer it’s safe to assume that practically all of your viewers have computer skills. The best way to engage your customers is to tell your story by using an entertaining video.
Videos also can be used for presentations to clients, trade shows, training, and direct email marketing. Your viewers can watch your videos 24-7. Marketing research has shown that consumers are more likely to make purchases after viewing a recording as opposed to print ads.

There are various levels of producing promotional videos, ranging from a simple slide show to a full-blown commercial using actors. During the next few weeks, I will go through the process of creating a business video using very basic methods that most people have the skills to produce.

If you have any marketing questions, please feel free to contact me at Keystone Business Brokers.
Nick Santarone, Marketing Director,  nick@kbizbrokers.com

“5 Steps To LinkedIn Advertising Greatness.”

Yesterday, I viewed an excellent Youtube video on LinkedIn Advertising. This blog post is a brief synopsis of the video-cast. Below, please find the link to the YouTube video.
Presenter: John Linka with Ignite Visibility
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/-cfMv5hGZYk

Thinking about advertising on LinkedIn, but you have no idea if it’s good or not for your business.

LinkedIn advertising is a great place to be. LinkedIn is used for personal branding, posting, and getting exposure, but also the advertising can be great as well, but you need to know how to use it.

There is a benefit to advertising on LinkedIn. It’s important to know that over 75% of the population on LinkedIn makes $50,000 a year or more. LinkedIn has an excellent demographic with amazing targeting abilities.

Step 1. Sign up for the campaign manager.
The campaign manager will provide you with a dashboard that will give you a look at clicks and interactions of your ads. Also, it will show you the demographics of your advertising audience.

Step 2. Choosing an ad format.
The Ad format is sponsored content that posted it through a LinkedIn business page.

You can use a LinkedIn lead generation form that will pull the information from LinkedIn and be submitted directly to you. This is a seamless and easy process to capture a prospect’s information.

LinkedIn can do video ads through sponsored content allowing you to get way more views on your video content.

The second format is sponsored InMail you can send an InMail to somebody as an advertisement.

Another option is standard text ads so you can have a text ad that shows on the right-hand side of the page on LinkedIn.

Step 3. Ad creation.
If you do not have the correct ad format you’re going to get terrible ROAS (return on ad spend).

Recommendation: You get the attention of your audience and then nurture them through your lead generation process.

LinkedIn gives you the ability to choose your selection criteria. You can choose to select people to advertise by location, the company where they work. Within the specific company, you can advertise to them using their title specifically CMO, director of marketing, and marketing managers.

Step 4. Re-Marketing
Introducing re-marketing as part of LinkedIn that is going to make it a platform that a lot more people are going to be using so definitely give LinkedIn a try don’t quit on it yet. I believe in almost all cases if you put in enough time you can make a channel work for you.

Step 5. Your budget.
LinkedIn has a couple of different ways of budgeting. You can do cost per click, cost per send, and in your mail option cost per impression. Pick the one that’s the best for your business. In most cases, you will be choosing the cost per click or the cost per send.

Interesting stats to think about.
80% of b2b social media marketing leads come from LinkedIn. Also, 92% of b2b marketers use the LinkedIn platform over other platforms.

You can create a great lead generation channel on LinkedIn so keep at it.

Using Focus Groups to Acquire Marketing Research
(a cost-effective research technique)

Many small businesses don’t take advantage of using marketing research techniques to determine the needs and wants of their target market. Before starting a promotional campaign it is wise to get feedback from customers. The focus group is the first step in gathering qualitative data for your research.

Basics of Conducting Focus Groups
Focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas. Focus groups are interviews, led by a moderator with 6-10 people at the same time in the same group. One can get a great deal of information during a focus group session.

Preparing for the Session
1. Identify the major objective of the meeting. 
2. Carefully develop five to six questions.  
3. Plan your session.
  4. Call potential members to invite them to the meeting. Send them a follow-up invitation.  5. About three days before the session, call each member to remind them to attend.

Developing Questions
1. Develop five to six open-ended questions – Session should last one to 1.5 hours — at this time, one can ask at most five or six questions. 
 2. Always first ask yourself what problem or need will be addressed by the information gathered during the session, e.g., examine if a new service or idea will work, further understand how a program is failing, etc. 
 3. Focus groups are basically multiple interviews. Therefore, many of the same guidelines for conducting focus groups are similar to conducting interviews.

Planning the Session
1. Scheduling – Plan meetings to be one to 1.5 hours long. Over lunch seems to be a very good time for others to find time to attend.  
2. Setting and Refreshments – Hold sessions in a conference room. Configure chairs so that all members can see each other. Provide name tags for members, as well. Provide refreshments, especially box lunches if the session is held over lunch.  
3. Ground Rules – All members must participate as much as possible. Implement the following three ground rules: a) keep focused, b) maintain momentum and c) get closure on questions.
  4. Agenda – Consider the following agenda: welcome, review of agenda, review of goal of the meeting, review of ground rules, introductions, questions, and answers, wrap up.
  5. Membership – Focus groups are usually conducted with 6-10 members who have some similar nature, e.g., similar age group, status in a program, etc. Select members who are likely to be participative and reflective. Attempt to select members who don’t know each other.
  6. Plan to record the session with either an audio or audio-video recorder. Involve a co-facilitator who is there to take notes.

Facilitating the Session
1. The major goal of facilitation is collecting useful information to meet the goal of the meeting. 
1. Introduce yourself and the co-facilitator, if used. 2. Explain the means to record the session.
  3.  Carry out the agenda.   4. Carefully word each question.  5. Allow each panel member to carefully record their answers. Facilitate discussion around the answers to each question.  
6. After each question is answered, carefully reflect a summary of what you heard.   7. Ensure even participation. Consider using a round- table approach, including going in one direction around the table, giving each person a minute to answer the question.   8. Closing the session – Thank members for coming, and adjourn the meeting.

Immediately After Session
1. Verify if the recorder worked throughout the session.  
2. Review your written notes clarify any notes that don’t make sense, and ensure pages are numbered.     
3. Write down any observations made during the session. For example, where did the session occur and when, what was the nature of participation in the group? Were there any surprises during the session?

Moderating focus groups YouTube link: https://youtu.be/xjHZsEcSqwo