Here’s the first real video for Sell to Camera. This is a simple example of a typical “Hello” video where I introduce my blog, identify my target audience and what you can expect to get out of it. In other words, to answer your question: “what’s in it for me?”

Image: Andrew Biss introduces Sell to Camera and explains what the blog is about and who it is aimed at. [If your RSS reader doesn’t show the YouTube video embedded above then please visit the original post in your browser.]

It took 15 minutes to record the source material for this video, spread across 6 takes. The best introduction, body and ending were then selected and edited together with simple fade through black transitions. A title bar (lower third) just after the introduction and the logo and URL at the end rounded the video off.

Further examples

I will use this welcome video as an ongoing example, showing how it can be published in various parts of the website. I will also publish some variations to show how some simple changes during the editing process can make the video even better.

Next time

In the next video I take a look at why you should not use a teleprompter when recording your business web videos.

Image: Embedding video content into your website is not as complicated as it might at first appear. Even so, it helps to understand the basics of what is going on and how all the moving pieces come together on the page.

While you will have seen video on hosting services such as YouTube, Vimeo, Brightcove and others, Sell to Camera focuses on videos embedded in your website or blog. So, this post gives you a high level overview of how video embedding works.

It is therefore important for you to have a clear understanding of the concepts behind video embedding. You will need to understand how the different parts of the software stack work together to display your video.

I will not go into low level technical details here, just cover the core issues you need to know. So, let’s get started and what better than with a video from Pink Floyd.

Let’s start with Pink Floyd

I have embedded a YouTube video of Pink Floyd playing Comfortably Numb, one of their most well-known tracks. This video is from October 1994, recorded at Earls Court in London during the Division Bell tour.

Image: Pink Floyd play Comfortably Numb at Earls Court in London, recorded in October 1994 during their Division Bell tour. If you want to jump direct to what some consider the world’s best guitar solo then go to 4:55 and enjoy! [If your RSS reader doesn’t show the YouTube video embedded above then please visit the original post in your browser.]

The video appears as you have seen on countless web pages. But what is really going on here? How is the video being displayed? Where is that big play button coming from? Who decides which static image to show before the video starts?

As the following diagram shows, a number of components come together on the page to present the embedded Pink Floyd video you see above.

Image: A number of software components and separate content files come together to provide the illusion of the video being directly embedded within the web page.

Let’s have a look at the main two components that you need to know about: the Adobe Flash player and the custom video player.

The Adobe Flash player

The HTML page you are looking at (unless, of course, you are reading this in your RSS feed reader) is being displayed by your browser. Within the page body is an HTML code to tell the browser to embed the Adobe Flash Player.

You installed the Flash Player as a plugin in your browser; what started life as a specialist tool for displaying multimedia animations has now grown into a fully fledged programming environment with a virtual machine and object-oriented language called ActionScript.

Flash Player is the runtime environment for ActionScript programs. On its own the runtime does not do anything; it must load and run some content. In our case it is the custom video player that provides the user interface you see and interact with.

The custom video player

The custom video player is a small ActionScript program that creates the user interface you interact with to start and stop your video. In our example the Flash Player loaded the custom video player from YouTube’s servers when your browser loaded this HTML page.

The custom video player checks some parameters and displays the user interface you see. It displays and controls the play button, slider, volume control and the other user interface elements.

Once loaded, the custom video player checks its parameters to get the URL of the video it should display, then asks the Flash Player runtime to download and prepare to play that video.

This is the normal case. It is also possible to tell the custom video player to automatically start playing the video.

When you click play

When you click the play button the custom video player passes a message to the Flash Player telling it to start playing the video.

It is important to understand that the custom video player is only a small program responsible for the user interface. It is the Flash Player that does the real work of decoding and displaying the video.

This clear separation between the custom video player and the Flash Player is important; the reason is customization.

Customizing your video player

While YouTube and other video hosting services give you a certain level of control over their custom video players, you will want more control when you start to host your own videos for your website or blog.

What you really need is your own custom video player that meets your specific needs.

Why do I need my own custom video player?

At this point you might be wondering exactly why you might need a custom video player for your own website?

Well, to give you an idea, here are just a few of the many things you can do once you have your own custom video player:

• Brand your videos by overlaying your logo on top of the videos. This is easier that including your logo as a watermark in every separate video. You will see such branding marks on a lot of web video.
• Take the user to a landing page when the video ends. This is useful if you want your viewer to take a specific action having watched your video. Rather than asking them to click on a link, you can do it for them. This will increase your response rate.
• Dynamically overlay links on the video while it is playing. You can use this to give the user information on special offers, current events etc. By you don’t need to include such link text in the video; you can change them quickly and easily. (You might want to do this when running split tests on your website.)
• Disable specific video controls. You will see some internet marketing videos which hide the position slider so you cannot fast forward. (I find this very annoying and do not recommend you do this in your videos.)
• Show pre-roll and post-roll video before and after your main video, for advertisements, titles or credits etc. You can share and reuse these segments; you don’t need to include the same content into every video. You can change these standard segments without touching your real video content, which saves a lot of time.
• Control your poster frame. When you upload a video to YouTube it is not always clear which frame YouTube will choose for the thumbnail or poster frame (the frame shown when the video has not yet started to play). With your own custom video player you get complete control of the poster frame, which is vital for grabbing visitor’s attention. If you pay attention to this you will see that most videos have boring and/or inappropriate poster frames.

Getting your own custom video player

This does not mean you need to learn how to code in ActionScript! There are many free and commercial custom video players available. JC Player is a leading free player, while Web Anatomy is a well-known commercial product.

These products all allow you to specify the look and feel you want for your custom video player. Select from a few options and they immediately generate an ActionScript program just for you.

The next step is to host your custom video player on your website and make sure your HTML page tells the Flash Player to load your specific custom video player to play your video. That’s all there is to it; you are now ready to embed your video.

At first glance this whole video embedding processes might sound complicated. Rest assured, however, in practice it is not that complex and I will be going into this process in detail in future posts on Sell to Camera.

Pay attention to the players

Take a few moments when watching video to look at the controls and other features provided by the custom video player. You will soon see different families of video players. You will also start to see the sort of custom video player you might want to use for your videos

The main takeaway is that it is the custom video player that is responsible for the user interface you see when interacting with the video. It will be such a video player you will need to play for your own videos. I will be going into this in future posts here on Sell to Camera.

Image: Video is a new medium for most companies and anything new starts of scary. Business video need not be complicated, however, and the best way to learn is by getting out there and starting.

Many (most?) companies are making too little use of video in their sales and marketing activities. I think the reason (to a large extent) is that video is a new medium for mainstream business, and anything new is always scary.

Putting screencasts up on a website is often a first step. In the software business, of course, this is more widespread and common practice for a while. Where I see a real reluctance and companies holding back is showing real people on screen.

Instead of hiding behind a corporate veil, companies need to recognise that we are entering a different mode of business, one that is far more social. Your potential customers want to know who you are.

My colleagues are reluctant; what arguments can I use?

On the one hand this reluctance is odd. Many companies are in the service business and what they are really selling is the skills of their people. It seems somewhat odd that they are holding back on putting their goods in their shop window. If you were buying services, wouldn’t you want to know who was going to deliver it?

On the other hand, I fully accept that reluctance to show ourselves is a very normal and understandable reaction. I think this is partly because we are not used to seeing ourselves on screen as other people see us (we only see ourselves in a mirror, and that is very different, as I will cover in an up-coming post). Because we are personally uncomfortable seeing ourselves on screen, we hold back from taking this step.

It is this reluctance for the people behind companies to show their face on the screen that was a key driver for me to found Sell to Camera. I want to encourage people to get out from behind their “About Us” page. That this is OK, and there is nothing difficult or strange about this. It is just the next step along the long road of making use of new media.

Do we need to TV-like video advertisements?

The sorts of videos that I am thinking about are more like what you see in a documentary or news report (talking direct to camera). I am not so much thinking about advertising in the sense of the Renault Laguna advert with Eric Cantona Claude linked to on YouTube in his original comment.

That sort of video advertising is too complex, expensive and difficult to do well for most companies to consider. Just look at the number of advertisements on TV or video that are complete rubbish!

How professional do we need to make our videos?

To be effective in a business context the videos must look professional. This does not mean, however, that we are talking about Hollywood production values. Professional speaking to camera videos are very achievable for normal business users like us. That is what I hope to show on this blog.

Can we create videos ourselves?

Yes, you can produce these videos yourself, and I will be doing this with my own videos here on Sell to Camera. I do not have any previous experience with creating video, so if I can do it so can anyone else!

The tools to create professional quality web video are out there, and so is a wealth of valuable experience. We just need to filter it and focus on what is really important to get started.

How quickly will we need to replace stale videos?

You can show different videos to first time visitors and people coming back to the site, so that would not be an issue. The Hello videos are more general, however, so I do not think you need to replace these on a regular basis.

Do we need to create a portfolio of videos?

Once the Hello video is in place you can then start to add more content. I would recommend investing the time to create a number of short videos and not a few long ones.

A good place to start is short (2 minute at most) videos where your colleagues introduce themselves. These tell your visitors much more than a standard headshot photo and a short bio.

After that, I would go out into the field and do short (2 minute at most again) interviews with customers and partners. These are much more effective than written case studies for new visitors. You can support the video with a written case study for people interested in learning more, but I think most will look at the video first.

How do we get visitors to watch our videos?

I think that the most effective aspects to getting visitors to click on your hello video are:

1. Where it is on the screen
2. The opening graphic which is shown before the video starts
3. Making it clear that this is a short video (2 minutes at most)

Someone coming to the website wants to know who you are. If you make it clear that this information is readily available then they will click on it.

A further point worth mentioning here is that you need to put the Hello video on every page on the site, not just the home page. The top-down hierarchy we used to have in the past is no longer the only path into your site.

The reason is that Google has exploded the traditional website structure and you cannot know where the user will enter your site. They are most likely coming from Google search, so you need to design your site on the basis that every page is a home page for that specific visitor.

We are multi-lingual, do we need multiple videos?

Use the same language for the Hello video and the text on your web page. If you have multiple language versions of your site then you should consider having multiple versions of the video. You can either do this by swapping out the soundtrack in the video editing software, or you could overlay subtitles.

I think this is a nice problem to have, however, and would start with your main language and not worry too much about the others for the time being.

Disclosure: In the interests of full disclosure I want to mention that I have known Claude for 20+ years. While we have worked together in the past, Claude has no involvement in Sell to Camera. I did not ask for Claude’s comment; his software company in Switzerland really is considering adding video to their website to support their marketing activities.

Image: Companies often have a hang-up over revealing the real people who work there. Business is all about relationships, however, so try to overcome the resistance and simply say hello.

“This does not apply to us”, I hear you say. “We are B2B and our buyers make purely objective purchase decisions. They do not care who we are.” I have seen this way of thinking a lot in the enterprise software business. Just look at supplier websites and it is clear that they think their people do not matter to prospects.

As Seth Godin says, B2B buyers are just consumers spending other people’s money. People are people and B2B buyers also are also making emotional and subjective decisions. ROI studies, technical evaluations and the rest are often just cover stories.

Who are these people?

No matter if you’re selling enterprise software, spare parts for vacuum cleaners or equipment for musicians, your visitors want to know who you are.

Hide behind a corporate veil and your visitors will go elsewhere. Open businesses will keep the clicks, and the opportunity to convert their visitors into customers. A typical corporate About Us page with bios and stock photos of your management team will lose you that opportunity.

Screencasts are not the right way to say hello and introduce yourself; you need a direct-to-camera video. It is often reported that 93% of communication is non-verbal; people really do need to see you. White papers, corporate flyers or other collateral are even worse. Even if you put a lot of effort to create a funny white paper, your visitors will not read it.

While we talking about things not to do, forget about using your elevator pitch as a script. When you are at a party and meeting someone for the first time, you would not recite your elevator pitch. Don’t do it here either.

Who are you?

If you are the owner of your business then introduce yourself. It is your business and reputation, so just get out there and say hello.

If you are in a larger organization then select someone as the face of your product or service. Your CEO is too far away from the action for this. Instead, find the person most associated with the product or service and let them introduce themselves.

If you were wondering, forget about using a PR person for this. You need someone with an authentic connection to your product or service. Try to cheat and your visitors will spot it immediately.

Say hello and be noticed

Just putting a short video introduction on your website will put you ahead of your competitors. To see what I mean, have a look and see how many of your competitor’s websites are introducing themselves with a short video in this way? Not many, huh?

Get out there, introduce yourself and your visitors will notice and appreciate it. Feeling positive about you based on 1 to 2 minutes of video, makes your visitors more likely to make the mental commitment to invest the few minutes needed to take the next step.

Your introduction video is the vital first step each visitor must take for you to have any chance of converting them into a customer, viewer, subscriber or member. Remember, it is simply polite to say hello and introduce yourself. Forget this simple courtesy and your visitors will be gone in the time it takes to click on the back button.

Hi, I’m Andrew Biss

I aim to practice what I preach, so I will be adding my own introduction video shortly. Creating that video will be the subject of upcoming Sell to Camera posts, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, do you already have a welcome video on your site? If so, please share the URL in the comments. If not, is this something that you are planning to do? Whether yes or no, we look forward to hearing from you here on Sell to Camera.

Image: Presenting in front of a group of people is very different to speaking into the unblinking eye of a camera. Like most things, however, it’s a skill than can be learned and improves with practice.

The Sell to Camera blog is about helping business professionals with presentation experience make the move to web video, addressing the concerns many feel when first asked to speak directly into a video camera’s unblinking eye.