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How to Create a Successful Marketing Video For Your Business

When it comes to creating videos for a small business, I typically find there are a couple of common thoughts going through the minds of most company owners.

1) Is video marketing really going to produce the results I want for my business?

2) How much time and money am I going to have to invest into creating a marketing video?

These are both very good questions and before getting into something like video marketing, you as a business owner should have a thorough understanding of exactly what you are going to get out of the process.

These uncertainties also boil down to a series of sub-questions. For instance:

  • How much money is this going to cost me?
  • Will I have to appear on camera?
  • How do I know I’m not getting ripped off?
  • How much time will this take and how much of my day is going to be interrupted?
  • Will anybody actually watch my marketing video?

With all of this in mind, it’s no wonder that just about anybody would have to think twice before deciding to go forth with something as uncertain as video marketing! What it also means is that you should be as informed as possible about the video production process and know what competencies to look for when hiring a video marketer.

Here are a few things to consider.

First, successful video marketing is about a lot more than just putting together a nice flashy final product. In fact, having something that looks nice and flashy shouldn’t even be one of your primary concerns. Yes, having a professional looking final product is important but there are certainly other things you should be more concerned about. After all, if you have the absolute best looking video in the world but nobody watches it past the first ten seconds, how much value is it really delivering?

An excellent marketing video follows this process:

1) The video marketer(s) learn everything they can about your company.
2) The highly engaging script for the video is written.
3) The actual marketing video is created using visuals, voice-overs, animations and/or live footage.

Here is a summary of the process.

Learning about your business
In order to be effective, the video marketer must learn as much as they can about your business. Starting with questions like, who will the video actually be selling to? Who makes up your target market? What terminology does this demographic understand? The video script must be written in a way so that it speaks directly to these prospective customers.

Next, the video marketer must learn about your business entirely. What makes you unique? What problems do your customers come to you with? How do help them?

In order for the marketing video to be effective, it must be relevant to you and your company. This valuable information can only be obtained through in-person or phone meetings. Simply filling out a questionnaire cannot provide the video marketer with enough information to do a good job.

Writing your video script
Next, before any filming, animations or other work is done – the most important part of your video has to be created.

The sales script.

And yes that’s right – not just ‘the video script’. This highly engaging script must be designed to do two things specifically.

  • Grab the viewers attention and hold it for the duration of the video.
  • Convince them to take some sort of action after watching the video.

    • One without the other simply isn’t good enough. This is where many marketing videos fall apart and where business owners start to wonder if investing their time and money into a marketing video really was a good idea, because their video is not achieving either of these.

    Make sure your video marketer knows how to do both of these things when inquiring about script writing.

    Producing your marketing video
    Finally, after a satisfactory script is agreed upon by both parties, your marketing video can start being created. The great thing about technology in today’s age is that your entire video can be created without a camera ever having to be pointed in yours, or anyone’s direction.

    In fact, your entire marketing video can be created using screen capture software such as Camtasia with the image part of the video being nothing more than a colourful PowerPoint or Keynote presentation.

    Of course, your video can also be a combination of this and live footage.

    Overall, as long as you follow these three things, your marketing video is much more likely to be successful. The most important item to remember, is that you do not want your video to be a commercial all about you and your company. Make it about your customer instead. After all, they are coming to you because they want help solving their own problems. So let them know exactly how that is going to happen.

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    Hire a Property Manager and Save Time, Money and Frustration!

    In this post, I am going to explain to you how hiring a property management can help to save the owner more than just the price of the management fee. Let’s say we have a home that rents for $1600/month. As a real estate management organization our average fee locally is 6-10%. Therefore, let’s use 8% of $1600 which is $128/month. For an example our company only charges a flat fee of $75 a month for monthly management, however I’ll show you the way a property manager can help to save above $1200/year by using a professional in the business.Five Concrete Ways in which a Property Management Company Can Save Time and Money for an Owner1. The very first way a management company can save you money is by maximizing rents. These management companies comprehend rental prices and what a tenant would most likely like to pay for a particular unit in a certain area. Property managers in addition have a footing on advertising and featuring. They know all the suitable areas to market and are available promptly to show properties to have them rented for the best conceivable price. On average a property management provider can help to save at the very least $50/month over 12 months which is already $6002. The next method that can help you save money is by means of reducing vacancies. Your average owner will take approximately sixty days to fill a vacancy with respect to the current market not surprisingly. Utilizing a property management company, they average under 1 month. All over again, with an ordinary lease of $1500, the specialist will save you over 12 months $1600 because of this one area.3. The 3 rd area a management company can save you money is by marketing. Real estate managers possess lower prices through internet sites and newspapers. They usually can save no less than $150 during marketing and advertising through 1 year as opposed to an individual owner.4. Your fourth place to save you money is usually as a result of maintenance and repairs. The majority of property management organizations get access to vendors at lower rates. Our organization helps you to save approximately 30% the normal cost for an individual owner. For a typical single family house the cost of maintenance as well as repairs over one year averages around $250-$400 depending on the residence. Some of our more recent properties never have any maintenance in the course of the year, a few of older properties can have more issues throughout the year. Along with a 30% savings this saves the owner $75 to $150 over 1 year. *Our partnership with the regional title company has allowed us to provide our owners with discounted home warranties as well for older houses with estimated approaching repairs.5. The fifth method is through selecting a very good qualified tenant through our screening process techniques. Many property management organizations have fewer than a 1% eviction rate as a result of in depth verification measures that they already have executed. The “bad apples” realize that they can’t successfully pass a management company’s screening process so they will rent through the individual owners and sell them regarding how excellent of a tenant they are going to be even though they don’t have credit history, or no leasing references, as well as no Id, or even a large amount of additional reasons they use. This on its own helps you to save the owner the price of eviction which within our region averages around $1,000, the price of loss rent of about 1 month of $1,600, plus the expense of repairs of approximately $1,500. This thorough screening practice on its own can help to save the owner $4,000!The majority of owners mainly think about the management fee that they’re losing but not concerning these 5 areas which a management company can help to conserve them money. Along with these typical estimates above, a professional management company can help to save the owner more than $6,000 in a year.

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    5 Insightful Travel Tips for Your Holiday Break

    The year has caught on already, so thinking about your annual leave, however far off that may be, is completely justified. The pressures of career work and domestic responsibilities are draining, and holiday breaks help us rediscover whatever energies we might have lost.Travelling is perhaps the best thing you can do when you have a couple of weeks off from work. There are significant emotional and psychological benefits gained from it. You learn more about yourself, and you are able to appreciate the immensity of the planet.Travel has evolved with the times, and now it’s much more convenient. The interconnectivity of the globe is to thank for this expediency. There are of course some less desirable changes that will occur this year- such as the elevated air fair prices and the increased costs of hotel accommodation. But the gains made far outweigh these trivial disadvantages. Here are 5 travel tips that will make your traveling more enjoyable and comfortable.Plan Ahead
    The better you plan, the greater the chances of your vacation going well. Planning enables you to have an objective look at your finances, and this helps you know what you can afford and what you cannot. It doesn’t matter how many months precede your travel; start making the plans on paper right away.Use Technology
    Unless you plan on travelling off the grid, make use of technology to serve you. There are many travel apps to help you plan an itinerary, and many applications that can help you overcome the challenges of travel such as currency exchange rates, local languages, points of interest, accommodation and so on.Use Low Cost Carriers
    Unless your flight is across continents, opt for low cost carriers. They have their shortcomings and inconveniences, but the savings they make you are significant enough to offset these other concerns.Don’t Go It Alone
    A sunset is never quite as beautiful when you watch it alone. For travel, you need someone to share the adventures with. Besides, you’ll find awesome deals for couples, so there really isn’t any good reason to go it alone.Remember the Stills
    Every moment you experience in your travel is a moment you will want to hold on to. Most mid-segment to high end phones offer enough in terms of photography and should suffice for quick snaps. But for the best photos, consider a DSLR. The resolution achieved by these is always more desirable.Stick to these tips and your 2014 holiday travel plans should unfold nicely.