If you’ve learned about video production, or employed someone who does know about it, the next big task is to get your new video noticed. The internet has millions upon millions of voices all wanting to be heard in one capacity or another. You now need to make sure the video is worth the time and effort put into making it.

Being noticed is the holy grail of all marketing and advertising strategies. Companies who can, spend millions of dollars a year on this activity, often for unpredictable results. Many strategies include video marketing on sites like YouTube so competition is stiff. Imagination and inventiveness is more likely to let you succeed than throwing money at a problem.

For example today’s top videos on YouTube include Martha Stewart pole dancing, a video parodying Hitler and Scott Brown, and a video blog about a family dog. So you see, it isn’t about budget, it’s about producing something people want to watch. If you can entertain people and offer them something they can’t get elsewhere you’ll be a hit. Show them something already done and welcome to obscurity.

Submitting even a couple of videos to the major video sharing sites will provide more visitors to your website. Using the following tips should help you maximize the amount of visitors you get.

Firstly watch other videos similar to yours, or for products similar to yours. You can then post the URL of your video as a response that will be there for all visitors to see. Curiosity will get at least a few people clicking on your link, which should lead to more visitors, and more prospects. This is called “coat-tailing” as in riding on someone’s coat tails, but it’s an effective move.

Secondly, check out the competition. Watch their videos, check their production values, content, titles and descriptions. This gives you a benchmark from which to make your own video production. Don’t steal their ideas, get better ones, but implement anything about them you like, and if they have high traffic, mirror them if you can.

Third tip is about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Google has a keyword tool that you can use to check keywords on your website. Use some of the most prominent ones in the title and description of your video to maximize the value of it. Google also owns YouTube and rates videos the same way it does websites. If you produce a video that has similar keywords as your site, and links to it, it will all help with your site SEO, as well as the other benefits.

Producing a good quality video, or having one made for you is essential if you want to attract new business. A professional quality video will promote a professional image, be attractive to prospects and have a positive effect on the brand. All good things in marketing.

By being clever with your video material and making the absolute most of it at every opportunity, you can squeeze as much marketing and promotion out of it as it allows.

Tips to Get Your Marketing Video Noticed is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

RT Design offers a wide range of video production services throughout Naples, Fort Myers, and the rest of SWFLA. From video editing, production, or promotion, we can do it all. If you have any questions or would like to speak with someone please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Article on Digital File Formats – Part 2

Video compression is a balancing act between making the file size more manageable and keeping a decent level of quality in the recording.  Some of the file formats used are lossy, like the aforementioned .wmv.  The format is excellent for size sensitive movie use, but not to so good if you want quality playback.

We are going to continue the discussion of file formats and will explore some of the others on offer.

Apple wasn’t late getting in on the act and produced the .mov file format.  They are just the same as .avi files, not very compressed.  They look good but then they should if they are up to twenty times larger than a .wmv file.  Apple users will probably extol the virtues of this format, but if you’re a Windows or Linux user, it doesn’t offer anything new.

Flash also have their own file format in the .flv.  This is the middle ground between .avi and .mov as the file size is reasonable but it retains much of the original quality.  The .flv format is the most popular web-based movie format there is.  Sites like YouTube will take a movie of any format and encode it to .flv format in order to be able to stream it.

No list of file formats would be complete without mentioning MPEG.  In this case MPEG2.  This is the format of the domestic DVD.  These files are also large as they are completely uncompressed.  MPEG2 is not suitable for any kind of streamed or portable media at all, but is ideal for home use with a DVD player.  MPEG2 is often the final phase of a production as once it’s MPG2 you can’t edit it or modify it in any way.  Many digital movie cameras will shoot in MPEG2 to offer consumers the ability to “plug and record” home movies straight into their DVDE players.

The other MPEG entry is MPEG4.  This is a more recent file format that combines a good file size with decent quality.  MPG4 is popular for sharing movie files as the size is small enough to be able to download without hitting any bandwidth caps.  It’s also becoming more popular with mobile video providers too as it is easily small enough for a cell phone but good enough quality for some of the higher resolution screens now available.

Those are just some of the most popular file formats around.  They all offer something different and lend themselves well to different situations.  If you want a small file size to email then use .wmv, if quality is utmost then use MPEG2, if you want to export to a mobile device MPEG4, or use on the internet use .flv.

Fort Myers Video Production is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

If you need video production services please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Article on Digital File Formats – Part 1

There are so many file formats for video that is can become confusing to those new to the industry. Instead of wasting time looking for the “perfect” file format, you should spend your time looking at the existing ones and learn which ones are most suitable for which situation.

There is not perfect file format. Some a better for some situations than others, digital video is huge, both the industry and the file size itself. Major vendors like Microsoft, Apple and others all designed video formats that compressed the large video files in different ways. Because of this they became incompatible as each vendors player couldn’t recreate a video compressed by their competitors format.

This may have been intentional or not, depends on your view, but the upshot is that many vendor produced video players won’t play other vendors videos. Fortunately independent studios, and software developers did the honorable thing and produced video players that understands most if not all proprietary formats. They use software keys called codec’s which is like set of instructions on how to decode a particular format.

These independent video players leveled the playing field somewhat until the vendors got wise and included the codec’s in their own players so the formats could be decoded in each other’s players. This was the digital version of the VHS vs. Betamax format war in the 1980’s.

Now most players will play most file formats, and if a particular player doesn’t, there are plenty of free alternative players on the internet that will. My personal favorite is VLC, which is free and open source. It plays just about any file format out there, and can even play incomplete or damaged files. Other viable alternatives are Winamp, MPlayer, and KMPlayer. All of these video players can convert and read most file formats including proprietary ones, and all are free.

When recording your own videos, it’s best to stick to these popular video formats in order to increase its compatibility across the widest audience. So learning which is most appropriate for what situation is important.

One of the most popular digital file formats around in the .avi. This is a Microsoft proprietary format that has been around for a while. This is an uncompressed format which means the file sizes are still large. An .avi file is normally used at the beginning of a production rather than the end. It is most popular because it is one of the oldest digital formats so it highly compatible.

Another Microsoft format is the .wmv file which is a Windows Media File. These are highly compressed, so the file size is manageable, but because of that compression, the quality suffers somewhat. This format is often used in viral emailed videos or some online videos. Because of their size, and the fact video over the internet can be ragged anyway, it doesn’t matter if the quality isn’t the best.

Naples Video Production is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design

30 Second Spot Sample from RT Design Group on Vimeo.

15 sec Auto TV Spot from RT Design Group on Vimeo.

Video Production by RT Design is a post from: Fort Myers Web Design