Chicago Video Production

What makes your business special? If a person visits your company’s website, how long would it take them to figure that out? What if your company isn’t special? Unless you have a monopoly in your industry, chances are you have competition whose work is similar to yours. Whether or not your competition is better than you is irrelevant, as long as you can find a way to separate your business from the rest. Differentiation should be the goal for practically every business.

One way to make your business stand out is to produce a corporate overview video. A short movie that explains who you are and what you do. It’s a great way to seperate yourself from that other shop down the street, especially if they haven’t made their own video yet. Not to mention a video’s impact on SEO. If your site has video and your competitor’s site doesn’t, chances are you’ll be higher than him on Google. So who do you want to be, the trend setter or the trend follower?

Below is a pretty good video for Chicago DMC, a destination management company. The video is flashy, edited well, and moves faster than some action movies. However, the video can be made more personalized. The video mentions the company’s “experts” but never introduces the viewer to them. There are some bold claims made in the video, promises about affordability and service guarantees, but the piece relies on these key words and carefully placed imagery to engage the viewer. There’s no doubt that this approach will work, but the video isn’t perfect yet. It still needs that human element.

Below is another overview video that can use some improvements. Sod Solutions, a company that sells and produces turfgrass (EXCITING!), created a video that explains the company’s philosophy and methods of operation. Like the previous video, this one only consists of a narration over video and images. However, Sod Solutions’ overview actually introduces viewers to some of the company’s employees and describes their background. It also doesn’t rely on stock footage and photos to fill up the video, but actual footage filmed on the job and within the industry. It isn’t as flashy, but it gives an accurate and detailed description of the company.

The last video is the best of the lot. Alteva is a Philadelphia-based information technology shop that develops networks for businesses and technology products. The video is easy to watch, introduces viewers to company employees, demonstrates some products, and doesn’t rely on any stock footage to fill the gaps. Who ever put that video together is a real pro.

Obviously, the more detailed a video is the costlier it will be to produce. However, practically any video is better than no video. As long as the content is honest, thorough, concise, and pleasant to watch, potential customers will value your company’s efforts to introduce them to your business. If you want Video One to produce your company’s overview video, mention this blog and we’ll take 10% off editing fees. And make sure to check out the overview video we did for Connor Floors, the biggest name in basketball… flooring.

A great way to establish trust between your business and potential clients is to answer as many questions about your business as possible. If you can answer a customer’s question before they even ask it, then they will recognize your awareness of client needs. A lot of websites for products and services have FAQ pages which list frequently asked questions. These are often helpful, but text FAQs are gradually becoming outdated. It’s time more people used video. It’s time more people were like Roger Rombro.

Rombro’s video isn’t particularly exciting. But by using multiple camera angles and changing imagery, it’s easy to watch. It lets Rombro tell a personal story about his life and business, which creates an immediate relationship with his viewers. If that’s not enough, the video’s information box actually says he made the videos “to build trust with prospective clients visiting his website.”

But how do you figure out what questions customers have for you? Well, the best way is just to listen. And with the Internet, listening is easier than ever. People can create a profile on Formspring.com, a social network where anonymous and public users can ask people questions. Likewise, businesses can also get questions sent to their email, Facebook, or Twitter. Below, vlogger Dan Brown reads questions sent to him over the Internet. He acknowledges who sent him the question and then replies to it. Can it get more personal than that?

Brown’s video walks a tight rope of helpfulness and annoyance. He is eccentric, wild eyed, and his hair is unkempt. Perhaps this is natural for people from Nebraska. All in all, it’s kind of exciting and easy to watch. And the truth is, practically any FAQ can be watchable, if done right.

Below is a FAQ video for Ambit Energy, a natural gas provider. The video is a large, monotonous, talking head. However, since they’re less than a minute long, it ends almost as quickly as it begins and people walk away knowing a little bit more about Ambit Energy, whether they want to or not.

A great way to earn people’s trust and business is to demonstrate how you do your job. In some cases, that would mean showing off where you do your job. By bringing a camera crew to your office, studio, or factory, you can produce an interesting facility tour in a relatively short period of time.

Below is a tour of West Chicago’s AMS Performance Shop, an after market car parts business.

The video is clean, well-edited, engaging, and has an x-factor (probably from the guide’s tattoos). Although the tour goes through the entire shop and introduces viewers to the shop’s employees, it didn’t seem like it was an intrusive shoot by any means. People kept working while the camera were rolling, which is usually the point of a facility tour.

Although practically anyone can make a facility video, a good one requires a certain amount of finesse. Some businesses who do it themselves tend to think it only takes a camera and a tour guide, but this often has catastrophic results. For example, check out the tour of Cincinnati’s Speedpro Imaging North Studio, which specializes in high quality printing.

Notice how grainy and shaky the camera is. It looks like the whole thing was filmed with a 8 year old digital camera. There’s no editing, no polish, no charisma. Maybe that’s what we’ve come to expect from Cincinnati, but Speedpro has better videos right on their website.

What if you want to do a facility tour but don’t have the means or funding for a full video. My Media Resource, a video production company in Troy, Michigan created a pretty nice tour entirely with photos. Although this is approach is a bit unexpected for a video production company, the product works well because their facility is so nice.

So whether you own a day care, a country club, or an ten story department store, consider making a facility tour for your potential customers. People will be more inclined to work with you when they see how your business operates. Be careful though, a cheap looking tour might send the wrong message to viewers about your business.

If you want Video One to help make your facility tour, mention this blog post and we’ll take 10% off the cost of editing!

Thanks to the wonders of the English language, video success stories could mean two things. Either success stories about video or success stories told with video. Today we will address both.

If you’ve ever had a conversation with anyone, you’ll know that people like talking about their accomplishments. Occasionally, hearing another’s success story isn’t as annoying and condescending as you would think. Sometimes, these success are actually interesting and helpful. Some might say that success breeds success. But before you go mate with a wealthy entrepreneur, see what Richard Sexton did with Google Ad-Words to boost his bottom line by 50%.

Video can be used to tell a success story about video. It’s like a dream within a dream, about video. Here is a video about OhVeryNice’s from building model airplanes to making a bunch of money with YouTube. It’s about to get pretentious up in this blog…

Let’s be honest, video success stories aren’t the most exciting things on YouTube. At best, OhVeryNice’s is somewhat interesting, but mostly because he can talk so quickly. And yet, sitting through these videos is neither a challenge nor a bore. In fact, I learned something from OhVeryNice (the importance of trend and market research before pursuing a business venture).

If you have an inspiration business story, consider filming it and uploading the video to YouTube. Not only could it inspire people to reevaluate their own business, it might get noticed by someone who wants to do business with you. They say that lonely venture capitalists explore the Internet at night for investment opportunities.

Do any Chicago businesses have a web or video-related success story they want to share? Please only Chicago people, we don’t want any more comments from anyone in Cincinnati. Yeah we went there! Not literally, though. At least I’ve never been to Cincinnati. Can’t speak for my coworkers.