Who are you?

What is your brand? Who are you? What do you stand for? Why do people like and choose you?

Marketing needs to answer all of these questions in a way that reaches out to people and engages them on multiple levels.

I’m a filmmaker and storyteller and so that’s how my mind works – creating a visually interesting and entertaining story that takes a brand and turns it into something more human. Brands need faces and personalities. Take a look at twitter or facebook or whatever other social media the kids are using nowadays – the most successful “brands” are the ones who are people. The ones with personality and insight. The ones that talk to you, banter with you.

And on top of that, what really works for me is when I watch something with character. When I see a person I can relate to. When I see that software engineer rowing, or learn that that coffee shop owner writes poetry in their spare time. That’s what draws me in and really speaks to me on a different level.

But a talking head doesn’t do it for me. Talking heads are boring, generally speaking. They should be used minimally, if at all. I want to be visually stimulated while I listen to interesting things about the people, about the brand, about what makes me special for choosing to go there. And remember – it’s all about the customer. It’s always about the customer.

So you need to understand your clients and understand how they think (they’re also human, so they probably are pretty similar to you). In the end, all it takes is being yourself. As long as you are awesome. And marketing should work out just fine.

Internet Video

There are many facets to effective marketing. One of the more engaging pieces is video; it speaks to people (literally), it tells a story, it draws them in, and it introduces the people in the company to them. There might be information buried on your website somewhere that you want to share but don’t know how to get people to that section.

Internet videos are good.

I’m not here to talk about cat videos (although this is the internet and my rough estimate says nearly all videos on the internet are cat videos). But think about what you like to click on when you check out a new website. I know my cursor is drawn to short videos. But I’ll click away if it’s not engaging.

And that’s one of the keys to good videos – short, sweet, to the point, interesting and engaging. No one sits around watching a 5-minute long talking head if they don’t have to. Do you?

Social media is another great place to put video. Throwing in a time lapse of your redecorating or a brief interview with the CEO about a new product makes your social media stream that much more dynamic.

This blog will be about video, how to make good videos, how to use them effectively in your marketing and get the biggest bang for your buck (so to speak).