Hi, Mark Mcginnis here from Avenstar. So… we’re just about ready to kick off a new business year. If you’re like most of us, you’re thinking about how to market your company a little bit (or a lot) better than you have over the last few years. You not only want your existing customers to keep ordering from you, you want to attract new customers and build your client base so you can increase revenues – yes?

Take it from me – this is a tall order considering the current state of the economy. The truth is, if you keep doing the same things (marketing wise) that you have been comfortably doing in the past – you probably can expect similar results. As obvious as that sounds – you may be surprised by just how many businesses and entrepreneurs complain about their finical situation, but are either too scared or too set in their ways to actually do something different.

…… Example marketing video

As someone who runs several businesses – I am always looking at the trends of what marketing initiatives are working and what has ceased to work. Earlier this year, I was pleasantly surpassed to see that one of our businesses was having a run of new requests like never before. More than just a flash in the pan trend – our Avenstar video production department was not only getting requests for bids -we were down right busy!

Here’s what’s happening…

Important Point # 1 The major search engines, such as Yahoo, MSN, and Google, used to penalize websites that had online videos (such as Flash video files) on their pages. This is changing quickly and now, although most people don’t realize it, videos are not only ‘OK’ -they can actually help your website’s SEO! Flash is slowly getting recognized, online video sites like YouTube, Vimeo and many others allow you to use their embedded code (along with your keywords and tags) making your web sites much likely to attract new clients/customers via the search engines.

Important Point # 2 It’s happening – Television and the computer/Internet are truly merging. Big business is already on-track with this and maneuvering to take advantage of this over the next few years. Why – easy, polls show that the average adult in the U.S. spends a huge amount of time online. And there’re doing this at virtually no cost. Big business has had lack-luster results with online advertising campaigns and now want’s to capitalize on the latest technology that would merge the two technologies and where they can capture the most amount of “eyes” – and wallets. If you think about it – it’s inevitable, this is where the money is for businesses currently only advertising on television.

Important Point # 3 The average consumer is visually highly sophisticated. They watch TV and feature films with extraordinary visual effects today. On the flip-side, the average web site is in the dark ages – mostly text with a few poor quality images. But that too is changing fast. Internet speeds are getting really fast. Now, we we’re watching our favorite TV shows right on the computer. Unfortunately, there is quickly becoming a huge difference between bigger business sites and the typical monad pop business site. And if you haven’t noticed, big business sites are starting to look a lot like television…

So what does all this add up to from a business marketing perspective for you and me? Simple – the smart businesses today are building websites that keep their customers interest (even entertained) vs. dying of boredom! Utilizing professional film/video, that engages your customer like nothing else in the past. Where a picture is worth a 1000 words, video, at 30 frames (images) per second – changes the whole playing field.

Imagine, even small businesses being able to compete with some of the largest businesses on the planet – and doing so by producing video/films that are highly professional to the level that your customers increase their spending on websites (your website) by 20%, 30%, even 40% or more. A good start is to up your game by providing the excellent information/content and the visual media the consumer has come to expect.

Okay, let’s clarify something… when we talk about adding professional media to your website, we’re not talking amateurish, go buy a Wall-Mart handy-cam, and do it yourself type video. Again, the average consumer is visually very sophisticated and (for the most part) the capabilities of lighting a scene or subject correctly, scripting, editing, adding music, incorporating the necessary SEO keywords to the embedded code – all this is simply a more than what the average business owner can handle – or even wants to handle.

Video production businesses are situated all over the country and many of them are super great at building video content for the web. Google them in your area. Here are a few things to look for that can mean the difference between success or waisting your money:

Experience - does the video production company have many years of experience working with actual corporations? Check out their reel and see if you like what they have produced for others.

Video Marketing - does the video production company have experience in on-line video marking and integrating Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so your videos (and web pages) will come up high in the search engines?

References – Don’t underestimate the important of this one! A video production house that does inferior (or shotty) work will not have up-to-date ‘happy’ customer testimonials and referrals. do your do- diligence and call their past customers to see if they are up to snuff.

Pricing - You typically get what you pay for and if your are always shopping for the lowest bid – you may be disappointed in the end. At the same time, some producers have highly inflated, not competitive pricing – again do your homework. Keep in mind that a professional – high-end video production will cost you anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 a running minute.

Summing it all up If you are looking to dramatically change (and improve) your on-line (and brick and mortar) marking results this coming year – don’t wait. There are many millions of web sites all competing for the consumers attention and dollars and from our own indications – things are heating up.

Avenstar is a marketing and video boutique based in Boulder Colorado. We specialize in producing beautiful “film” like video at an extreme affordable price. Also, we are on-line SEO marketing experts to boot. We are currently supporting clients all over the country and happily provide references if interested. Feel free to call us or ail us with questions:

800 478-1214 / info@avenstar.net