You've read the news, I'm sure: "Video marketing is the way to go!" Some of the Internet marketers practically shout it from the roof-tops.
"Forget written copy...
everyone wants their information on video!" But is that the truth? Or is it a lame excuse to avoid needing to polish your copy, get the proper word usage, and clean up your spelling? After all, when you're on video, no one knows if you said "there" or "their," and they probably won't catch the mistake if you say "should of" rather than "should have" or "are" instead of "our.
" Writing and polishing copy takes time, while a person with the right equipment can record a video in mere minutes.
I have no problem with videos, IF they are accompanied by the text.
But as a stand-alone marketing method, I believe videos should be avoided.
Why? For one thing, using videos means you're automatically ignoring a large percentage of your possible audience.
People using slow dial up, or people like me who have a satellite Internet connection generally won't bother trying to watch.
Taking a half hour to view an eight-minute start-and-stop video just isn't worth it.
And even if you do take the time, all those starts and stops tend to garble the message.
Next, Internet users are in a hurry, and we're notorious scanners.
We like to scan down a page, catching sub-heads and maybe the first word of several paragraphs before we decide if reading the whole thing is worth our time.
You simply can't scan a video.
You have to sit still for the whole darn thing if you want to know what it offers.
Then, what about retention? If your message is important, don't you think your prospects might want to remember part of it? If you're giving step by step instructions, outlining the reasons why they should sign up for something you offer, or directing them to a web site, they'll have to hurry to try to take notes.
Meanwhile, as they're busily writing notes, they're likely missing the next point you're trying to make.
If they miss something they'll need to re-watch the whole video to pick up what they missed.
How many people want to do that? The fact that few people take good notes while listening is one reason why transcripts from tele-seminars are usually available on line after the event.
Even if people enjoy listening, they won't want to re-listen to 60 minutes of talk in order to pick up some small point they missed.
We've known forever that when a person hears a message he or she will forget half of it within the first few minutes, and most of it by the next day.
Smart marketers offer the transcript so people can go back and review what they heard.
So if you insist on using video, why not hire someone to transcribe your words and make them available with the video? And then why not make it clear that the transcript is available when you send out an email blast about your video? I know - we're back to needing to watch spelling and word usage.
So be sure to hire a transcriptionist who knows "your" from "you're" and "here" from "hear.
" Don't be lazy - take that extra step to bring your message to more people - and in a manner that will help them retain what you said.
"Forget written copy...
everyone wants their information on video!" But is that the truth? Or is it a lame excuse to avoid needing to polish your copy, get the proper word usage, and clean up your spelling? After all, when you're on video, no one knows if you said "there" or "their," and they probably won't catch the mistake if you say "should of" rather than "should have" or "are" instead of "our.
" Writing and polishing copy takes time, while a person with the right equipment can record a video in mere minutes.
I have no problem with videos, IF they are accompanied by the text.
But as a stand-alone marketing method, I believe videos should be avoided.
Why? For one thing, using videos means you're automatically ignoring a large percentage of your possible audience.
People using slow dial up, or people like me who have a satellite Internet connection generally won't bother trying to watch.
Taking a half hour to view an eight-minute start-and-stop video just isn't worth it.
And even if you do take the time, all those starts and stops tend to garble the message.
Next, Internet users are in a hurry, and we're notorious scanners.
We like to scan down a page, catching sub-heads and maybe the first word of several paragraphs before we decide if reading the whole thing is worth our time.
You simply can't scan a video.
You have to sit still for the whole darn thing if you want to know what it offers.
Then, what about retention? If your message is important, don't you think your prospects might want to remember part of it? If you're giving step by step instructions, outlining the reasons why they should sign up for something you offer, or directing them to a web site, they'll have to hurry to try to take notes.
Meanwhile, as they're busily writing notes, they're likely missing the next point you're trying to make.
If they miss something they'll need to re-watch the whole video to pick up what they missed.
How many people want to do that? The fact that few people take good notes while listening is one reason why transcripts from tele-seminars are usually available on line after the event.
Even if people enjoy listening, they won't want to re-listen to 60 minutes of talk in order to pick up some small point they missed.
We've known forever that when a person hears a message he or she will forget half of it within the first few minutes, and most of it by the next day.
Smart marketers offer the transcript so people can go back and review what they heard.
So if you insist on using video, why not hire someone to transcribe your words and make them available with the video? And then why not make it clear that the transcript is available when you send out an email blast about your video? I know - we're back to needing to watch spelling and word usage.
So be sure to hire a transcriptionist who knows "your" from "you're" and "here" from "hear.
" Don't be lazy - take that extra step to bring your message to more people - and in a manner that will help them retain what you said.