Web Ink Now

Content marketing and video showcase expertise and drive tons of business

You could hardly ask for a more dramatic example of how near zero-cost videos can expand reach and drive business. And it all started because Mary McNeight identified a problem that no one online was helping people solve.

When Mary couldn't find anyone in the Seattle area who would help her train her own dog Jasper for service work, it fell to her to teach her pet to be her service dog. Service dogs that help people manage disabilities like blindness and diseases like recurrent seizures and diabetes.

Later, she enrolled in puppy classes to train Liame, her new Labrador retriever puppy. In the process, she became addicted to dog training—so she made it her business.

Mary spent countless hours learning all aspects of the business, got her accreditation from the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, and is now owner and director of training and behavior at Service Dog Academy. This business offers private training sessions and small-group adult-and-puppy training classes for both service and pet dog training. They even offer a groundbreaking train your own Diabetic Alert Dog program.

Content marketing and video production

But credentials, skills, and even passion alone don't bring in customers. Her excellent website (featuring dozens of videos that she shot and edited herself) educates buyers and generates high search-engine rankings, driving business her way.

"I've gone from barely having any students to getting anywhere from twenty to forty emails per day requesting my services and advice and verbally praising my work," Mary says. "If that isn't a story of success, I don’t know what is. I have the power to create an audience for any product or service I put my mind to. But I think I will stick with what makes me happiest, helping dogs and the disabled live more productive lives."

In 2010, Mary started making YouTube videos with an inexpensive Flip Video camera and the software that came installed on her Mac notebook computer. "Seeing a need for my students to understand how to make a Kongsicle, I produced my first instructional video," Mary says. Kongs are natural rubber-food puzzle toys for dogs, and a Kongsicle is a Kong with frozen food inside. The video is titled Best Dog Food Puzzle: The Kongsicle.

"A couple of months later, I went to the Association of Pet Dog Trainers conference, and I was startled by a young trainer who said, 'You're Mary McNeight right? You made that video on Kongsicles! I use it as a reference video for my students.' Here was this dog trainer in Florida using my materials for her classes. That was the day I understood the power of YouTube." Since then, Mary has made many instructional videos, with titles that include “Diabetic Alert Dog Scams,” Puppy Doggie Ants in the Pants, and a multi-part series on diabetic alert dog training.

The content on the Service Dog Academy site, including the video series, is created for three buyer personas: pet dog owners, service dog owners, and people who want to train their own diabetic alert dog. After her initial success, Mary purchased a $400 HD video camera, a $20 microphone, Final Cut Pro software, and, as she describes it, "some funky alien-adjustable-arm-looking lights at Home Depot, since I couldn't afford to light my videos with professional lights. The really cool thing about my content is that it proves that it doesn't have to be shiny, flashy, spiffy or cost thousands of dollars to produce. People will watch anything as long as its packed full of useful information."

Make it free

Mary's notoriety and search engine results are aided by her willingness to post content that others in the dog training business are fearful to post because they don't want to give away information for free. "A great success was a video on how to travel with your service dog, something nobody on the entire Internet was teaching people how to do," she says. "I also hosted a webinar that gave an overview of how to train a diabetic alert dog. I placed the webinar capture video on YouTube and was afraid of being banned in the dog training community. This information was not available on the Web because nobody wanted to share how they trained dogs for tens of thousands of dollars. I started getting emails and phone calls from people all over the world asking me for advice on training their dog or just outright purchasing my online diabetic alert dog training program. I’ve had dog trainers who want me to fly out to their location and teach a class on diabetic alert dog training for them.

"How cool is it that this now three-person service dog training organization is getting worldwide attention? I never would have gotten that type of exposure printing brochures or running expensive ads on local television. A couple of months ago, I even had a woman tell me the video I made saved her life! It allowed her to get enough information to help her train her own medical alert dog by herself."

Yes, Mary, it's cool. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing your story.

The art of turning heads with video

I really like this video The art of turning heads... from Cooei, an Australian company founded by sisters Cassandra @castrevitt and Brooke @brooketrevitt.

The video focuses on the problems faced by Cooei's buyer personas (pain from high heels) and uses humor to tell a story quickly.

I asked Cas to tell us a little about how the video was done.

Cas and Brooke did the video on a very tight budget, thinking up the concept themselves and using family and friends as actors. Fortunately, their brother Luke has a background in film so he shot the footage (with a moderately priced Canon 7D DSLR rig) over two days. Friends helped with editing and other aspects. The music rights were acquired through APRA|AMCOS.

Lessons learned

Great video does not need to be expensive. If you have some creative skills and some friends to help, you too can make a professional quality video.

The big challenges are coming up with the concept that will interest your buyers and keeping it short.

Nobody cares about your products

For years, I've been saying that to create great Web content, you need to always be thinking: Nobody cares about my products and services except me and the others in my organization.

What your buyers do care about are themselves and they care a great deal about solving their problems (and are always on the lookout for a company that can help them do so).

The good news for smart marketers is that this knowledge has the potential to make you many times more successful with your marketing. It may quite literally transform your business (that’s not just my opinion; many people write me to tell me so).

Here's an interesting example of a humorous video from Cisco created with this idea.

Direct link here.

Cisco created this video with no references to products. Instead it offers a twisted look at the problem with older TVs. The link at the end of the video points to a webcast with Cisco chairman John Chambers, during CES on Jan 5.

Image: Shutterstock / Franck Boston

Disclosure: I have done work with Cisco in the past, however I was not involved in this video project.

Purell follows NASA with clever real-time video

UPDATE December 4, 2010 - I've been contacted via Twitter by people who created the Purell video including producer / director Stephen Reedy. It turns out they do not have anything to do with the company. I'm attempting to learn more.
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UPDATE December 5, 2010 - I've traded email with Stephen Reedy and he shared the following (which I edited from a longer communication):

Purell did not ask us to do the spot. We (Zerofriends) love Purell and we want it to succeed (which is why we chose it over PINE SOL or CLOROX) but they had nothing to do with this.

We’ve made many spots of various types for various clients choosing (as often as possible) storytelling over traditional direct messaging.

So, in the end of it all, this NASA / Purell thing was one big publicity stunt to get people to look at us up-and-comers and our creative ninjitsu so we can make a living doing more of it for others. Just like how traditional advertising is deflected and ignored by the over-stimulated masses, traditional ways of getting into the minds and hearts of employment authority is REALLY, CRUSHINGLY ineffective.

I don’t know if this type of advertising-inside-advertising has a name, but “Trojan Horse Tomfoolery” might be a good title (The phrase “INCEPTION” was already taken).

Stephen - I think this approach is excellent. I hear you about trying to get through gatekeepers in a clever way. I do that myself sometimes. For example, to reach speakers bureaus (who book people like me to speak at events) I wrote this post knowing that the bureaus would notice it via Google alerts: Ranking Speakers Bureau websites: The good, bad, and ugly

I'd recommend that in future, you have some kind of notice either at the end of the video or in the text of the YouTube listing. The notice should say who you are and why you created the video. Keep up the good work and let me know if the Purell people respond.
-- David

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ORIGINAL POST
Yesterday, NASA made an announcement that NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.

Specifically, researchers discovered that bacteria can survive in space which makes it more likely that life exists on other planets. Here's the NASA news release. When I checked, there are more than 1,000 mainstream media stories on this just 24 hours after the announcement.

Real-Time from Purell

Very quickly, Purell Brand Instant Hand Sanitizer had this fun video up on YouTube. Love how the product name has the word “instant” in it and they do real-time market engagement.

Direct link to Purell video on YouTube

Hat tip to the Kimberly Reyes at the Pixels & Pills blog for alerting me to this wonderful example.

Beyond Viral

Kevin Nalty is a video genius. His videos have been seen over 160 million times on YouTube alone.

When I watch his videos like Mall Pranks, which has been seen 7 million times I just shake my head in amazement that someone who was recently Marketing Director at Merck & Company could create such stuff.

Nalts as he’s known to his many fans has just released a new book called Beyond Viral which is part of my New Rules of Social Media book series.

Beyond Viral is about how to Attract Customers, Promote Your Brand, and Make Money with Online Video. Whether you’re a CEO, marketer, agency leader, or entrepreneur, Beyond Viral will provide actionable ideas and plans that can save you from the many pitfalls and help you market successfully via online video. Consider it four years of intensive practice – as a marketer and entertainer – packed into one book.

In fact when I sat down with the manuscript, I read it in one sitting.

I laughed. A lot.

But I learned a lot too.

Don’t expect this to read like your typical business book. Beyond Viral is written by a guy who manages to be taken seriously by major corporate clients... when he’s not secretly videotaping people’s reactions to him crawling through airports, pratfalling in the snow, or having fake panic attacks in NYC cabs. Check out the Best of Nalts video playlist.

Here was a guy who could generate more YouTube views in the time it takes to walk around the block than I had amassed in my entire life. But Kevin is about much more than just doing silly videos like his Farting in Public (now seen more than eleven million times).

His perspective as both a YouTube celebrity and a marketing professional gives him a unique perspective on what works and what doesn’t in the uncharted waters of viral videos. I knew Kevin would be the best person on the planet to write a book about using video to attract customers, promote brands, and make money. I am thrilled he agreed to write this book.

Beyond Viral official site.

Awesome Air New Zealand All Blacks rugby safety video

UPDATE March 26, 2013: In what I believe is a really stupid move, at some point Air New Zealand made the video I talk about in this post private. Too bad. It had more than a million YouTube views and was serving as excellent marketing for the company.

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Last year I had the pleasure of speaking at the Marketing Now! conference in Wellington, NZ hosted by my friend Siobhan Bulfin.

I met marketers from both Air New Zealand and the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team. I was struck at the time the awesomeness of New Zealanders and their world famous team.

So it is with great excitement that Siobhan shared with me the new safety video created by Air New Zealand for use on their 737 aircraft (which I flew from Auckland to Wellington).

Direct link to Air New Zealand - Crazy About Rugby - Safety Video on YouTube.

What fun. If you're like me and travel frequently, you know how dreadful many of these safety videos can be. So good on you Air New Zealand for making yours fun.

Credits! Humor!

There's even credits at the end. When have you ever seen that? And how about some 120,000 YouTube views in just a week. Watch carefully or you may miss some of the (awesome) subtle humor.

Here's a look behind the scenes at creating the video.

The timing of the release of this new video was just after the All Blacks had beaten the South Africa Springboks by 29-22. In an amazing final 5 minutes they scored two tries to claim the Tri Nations crown.

What normally boring aspect of your business can you make fun and brand your organization as one that people want to do business with?

Contests encourage people to shoot videos promoting your product

How cool is it when you have a product or service that lends itself to people shooting videos for you! As a marketer or business owner, how amazing is it when people are eager to spread your ideas and share stories for you.

One of my favorite examples is Queensland Australia's Best Job in the World contest which generated 30,000 videos submitted by people all over the world.

I recently spoke with Jon Slaughter, Marketing Director at Boreal Mountain Resort near Lake Tahoe about how he worked with young filmmakers to create and post videos of competitors at the Jibassic Pro Invitational ski and snowboard competitions. Jon set up a video contest that also got people talking up skiing and snowboarding early in the 2009-2010 season driving people to the resort.

Team Moment Skis won the contest. Direct link to their entry here.

Here's how Jon set up the contest:

Fifteen teams signed up to film the JPi.5 weekend and after filming had just 36 hours to create their video edit and post to Vimeo. The videos were also embedded onto the Boreal Blog.

After a ten-day judging period the winners were announced during a follow-up "Red Carpet" awards party. The winner walked home with $2,000 provided by FUEL TV and the most viewed video won $500 from Boreal.

Here are some of the metrics from this contest:

• The Video Contest was only promoted via the web (website, blog Facebook, MySpace, newschoolers.com, snowboard-mag.com) at $0 cost
• Team registration opened at 6pm on October 1, 2009. 45 seconds later the 15 spots were filled.
• Over a ten-day period the 15 videos were viewed over 72,000 times
• Teams were promoting their video (and Boreal too) via twitter, Facebook and other social and industry sites in hopes of winning the $500 prize.

Check out more about the contest, the Red Carpet awards and view the other winners on the Boreal blog.

"Hosting the video contest was a new and exciting adventure for the marketing team here at Boreal," Jon says. "The biggest benefit we saw was the kids out 'hustling' their own videos and in-turn getting thousands of views each. One team, bHappy Films, was able to get their video posted on Transworld Snowboarding's website, which has been a white whale for my marketing efforts. bHappy's video received about 3,000 views with-in a few hours after getting posted on Transworld. The video contest showcased what Boreal has to offer early season and presented it to a previously unreached audience."

What a great way to get people interested in skiing and snowboarding early in the 2009-2010 season!

Have you run a video contest? Do you have other ways to encourage video sharing?

Disclosure: Earlier this year, I delivered a presentation to executive management and marketing staff from Powdr Corporation, owners of Boreal Mountain Resort.

Online video as lead generation

Video has been available on the Web for years and with YouTube it is simple for anyone to create and post a video online.

However, a legitimate criticism of video (especially from B2B marketers) has been that it is tough to do lead generation. Sure you can have a URL mention at the end of a video or you can embed a video within a landing page with some lead offers, but that's not fully integrated.

My friends at VisibleGains have developed a video application that solves this problem. Here is an example program we created from the four videos I shot at GM a few weeks ago.

The VisibleGains application makes it easy to include links and offers as part of the video experience. Best of all, the links at the bottom of the video player to the Twitter feeds and blogs of me and the GM people speaking in the interviews are non-intrusive and can be ignored if you're not interested.

Did you notice the link near the end that points you to see the complete footage of the interview I had with Fritz Henderson, CEO of GM? These are welcome and valuable ways to offer additional content yet not in any way annoying. And notice how the video pauses when you click on a link.

Of course, these links could easily have gone to offers for lead generation purposes (such as to sign up for a Webinar). Also notice the simple form at the end of the video for people interested in learning more (in this case about VisibleGains services.

Brand Journalism becomes lead generation

I've frequently said how great online video interviews are as brand journalism. They are so darned easy to do. Any organization can shoot an interview with a customer or partner or analyst or author or someone else within a market space and become a thought leader. I use my Flip video to shoot interviews nearly every week and it’s so easy!

Now you can make those videos interactive and use them to generate leads. How cool is that?

Imagine your organization producing a regular interview show that combines brand journalism with lead generation. I'm sure you can think of subjects for shows.

Thanks to VisibleGains for turning nearly an hour of video I shot at General Motors into a compelling 4 minute video and then putting it into their player so I can share it with you.

What do you think?

Are you a marketer using video as brand journalism?

Do you have other ways of generating leads from those videos?

Please share your thoughts.

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UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this, Matt Shaw tweeted and commented that video players similar to the one from VisibleGains have been around for years. I commented back to Matt. I also removed the word "Finally" from the posts title. The original post was called "Finally! Online video as lead generation." Thanks Matt.

United Airlines Breaks Guitars

It's fascinating how a customer service mishap can turn into a world wide rave, particularly when smart people are determined to let the world know about their situation in a clever way. Companies are on notice!

In the spring of 2008, the band Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and Dave Carroll witnessed his Taylor guitar being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago.

He discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. United Airlines didn't deny the incident occurred but for nine months the various people Dave communicated with were reluctant to take responsibility for dealing with the damage. Finally said they would do nothing to compensate him for the loss.

So he promised the last person to finally say "no" - a Ms. Irlweg - that he would write and produce three songs about the experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. This is the first song.

Direct YouTube link here

Dave says United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. Dave promises!

Well done Dave!

Thanks to Ryan for sharing this story.

A Flip Video camera in every marketers and customers pocket

I love my Flip video camera.

It is a small and inexpensive digital video camera that I take with me on every business trip. You never know where a great video interview might present itself like the one I did with Scott Monty, Ford's digital and multimedia communications manager or where an idea that is best told in video such as Do you sell camels? Which I filmed outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia might pop up.

Marketers should carry one to interview customers, employees and industry analysts and post the video on your site or your blog. You can shoot short clips showing how your products are made or used.

No professionals required

This thing is so damn easy to use. There's a big red button on the camera to start and stop the filming. If you want to get fancy, there is also a zoom. That's about it. Even a technology challenged person like me can use it. The "flip" name comes from the USB drive built into the camera that flips out, making it simple to upload videos to YouTube, Vimeo, or other video sharing sites. Really, it's that easy.

When people push back on the idea of creating a corporate blog or writing an ebook, I always suggest making some simple and short videos with a Flip as an easy way to create valuable content that helps to get the word out. Hey, did I mention that this is easy?

Some companies have started experimenting with providing cameras to employees and even customers.

For example, Sven Patrick Larsen, Chief Marketing Officer for Zemoga, a digital agency based in Bogota, Colombia told me that he gives custom designed Flip video cameras to all of his employees and customers.

Zemoga puts what they call a "Z Portrait" onto Flip video cameras. "The customized Flips started as a cool employee and client gift but they've quickly become an essential tool for all Zemoga team members," Sven says. "We've used them at work (to capture client meetings, discovery sessions, and interaction tests), home, and play and our clients and team members have spread their experiences (and the Zemoga brand across the Web). It's a terrific example of empowering clients, giving up control of the brand message, and seeing it spread like wildfire as a result!"

Click the image to enlarge