http://youtu.be/WOj0X8V4wyQ

The ONE Video Your Business ABSOLUTELY NEEDS

Many people think that the one video they need to have for their business is a video on their main page.  I don’t think so.  The most valuable video you need to have is your story video.  Your story video should be on your ABOUT page

Why an About page video is so powerful:

• When someone goes to your ABOUT page, they have a mental ‘buy in’ to who you are. New visitors want to know more about you than your business.  They have taken the action to learn more about your, so reward them with an powerfully engaging video.
• The ABOUT page is the second most visited page on your site. (Check your stats and you will be amazed.)
• People connect to your story.  People buy from people and they want to know the story behind what you do.

Your story video tells why you are in business and what drove you to create the value that you give to others.  It is your passion and your past melded together into a wonderful story that connects potential customers to you.

When potential customers take the time to visit your About page and you blow them away with a powerful story, you will have a customer for life.

What do people want to see on your story video:

• Tell them about your struggles and why that drove you into your business.
• Tell them about the passion you have for your business.
• Tell them a funny story about how you got started.
• Tell them the person who inspired you to go into business.
• Tell them about your values and why it is important to you and your business.

This video should be between 2-5 minutes, but it can be longer if it is really engaging.  Have some employees watch it to see what they think about the length.  This will help them buy into your story and hopefully, they will be one of your biggest cheerleaders.

Creating a ‘Documentary Style’ Story Video

A documentary style video adds interest and keeps the ‘feel’ of the story moving forward.  It is a powerful way of telling a story that goes beyond the story and into emotions of people who are watching.  It is not hard to do, if you know some basic editing.

First, you want a good quality video.  Keep in mind, this will take some editing, but most computers have the needed tools to do this.  If you are not comfortable doing this for yourself, contact my business page and let’s set something up for you.

Quick Tips to get started:

• You want the words to be powerful: script it.
• You want the images to be engaging: photos and video should use good angles and lighting.
• You want the background to be accentuating: tell your story with your surroundings.
• You want the sound track to be relevant: audio should be clear with light music to accent the tone and feel of the video.

When creating a documentary style video, your first, ‘main’ shot, should be you talking directly into the camera.  This should be the ‘complete story.’  You may shoot it in one, two or three sections: just keep the story moving forward.

I suggest writing a script, but do the video recording from memory.  You don’t want it word for word from your script.  You know your story.  The script is just a guideline to make sure you include all that you want to include about your story.  You want to talk to the camera like you are talking to a friend.

Then, you want to create a ‘B-roll.’  These are the videos and images that will go ‘on top of’ your main video.  You may want a second camera to video you from the side while the main video is being recorded.  You may want shots of you walking in a park, talking to people in your business, doing work at your desk…whatever is relevant to your story.  (If you want to be fancy, you can create a storyboard based on your script and note video shots you want to include in your video.)

For example: Let’s say you are talking about how family is important to you.  You are talking from your business office, and as you continue to talk, an image of you pushing one of your children on a swing fades onto the screen.  The audio of you talking continues.  Maybe, you want to be simpler and just show a picture from your desk is focused on showing you and your family.

I think that is a good quick understanding of how you can create your story video in a documentary style.  If you want to know more, there are plenty of videos that can give you tips.  I found some tips from another video professional here.   Caution: if you do this video for yourself, make sure to get some feedback from people who will be honest with you.  A poorly done video could hurt your business.

There are some training courses online you can pay for, but honestly it would be a better use of your money to pay for someone to help you create your documentary story.  It will be more professional and save you a bunch of headaches.  You can hire a college video student or you can hire a professional video company.  Also, I have some basic video marketing training on a playlist.

I hope this helps.

If you create a story video, share it with me.  If you have basic questions about creating your own video, ask me on on Youtube or GooglePlus.  If enough people respond, we may create a training just for you!