photo credit: UggBoy♥UggGirl [ PHOTO : WORLD : SENSE ]

It’s Amber here – wife to Mr. upNext Media, and all around cool person. Today I’m sharing my own thoughts on why you need to respect your customers’ time. It will be riveting, I promise.

Recently, two of my credit cards expired. One was a Mastercard and one was a Visa, and they were issued by different banks. Right on schedule, I was sent replacement cards. Each card a big sticker affixed to the front advising me to call a 1-800 number to activate the card before using it.

So far, my experience with each card was the same. My feelings on the interaction up until that point were neutral.

When I called the 1-800 number to activate my Mastercard, I got a computer-automated system that required me to punch in numbers. Eventually, I punched in enough numbers and I was told that I could use my card. Computer automated systems aren’t necessarily my favourite things to deal with, but on the upside I didn’t have to wait on hold or anything like that. It took me about 90 seconds and I was done. Voila, my new card was ready to go.

When I called the 1-800 number to activate my Visa, a computer answered and I had to press some buttons to decide who I should be speaking with. And then I ended up on hold, waiting to speak to them. I grooved to the music, but it wasn’t easy because every 30 seconds a voice broke in reminding me not to hang up. Don’t they know that when the music stops you become hopeful you’re not on hold any longer, and the automated voice just dashes those hopes? No, apparently, they do not.

Luckily, I was only on hold through one informational spiel about how they were recording my call and a couple of minutes of regularly-interrupted easy listening before a real person answered. She asked for my name, and she dutifully typed it in. Then she asked me if there was anything else she could do for me, and I said that I was good. And then she said that while we waited for my activation to finish, she wanted to share some information about an exciting service with me.

Do I need to say that I was less-than-enthusiastic about this service? Because I was.

She was hocking a purchase protection plan for my new credit card. As she spoke, the script started to sound familiar. Why? Because the last time I renewed my credit card three years ago I heard the same sales pitch. I declined it then, but that wasn’t sufficient, because I had to listen to it again. And listen I did, for a good five or six minutes before I was prompted to sign up.

I said I wasn’t interested. I was asked why. I gave my reason. The reason was countered, and a new pitch offered. I finally said, “I am aware of the benefits, and I am declining the plan.” At this point, I was told that my activation was finally complete and to have a good day.

I spent 10 minutes activating my Visa, and was forced to sit through a years-old sales pitch in the process. As lovely as it is to speak with an actual person, it’s not so lovely to have to repeatedly decline the same product.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to sell a product. It wasn’t the fact that someone tried to sell something to me that really irked me. It was the way it was sold. I was not informed that my card was actually activated until after I sat through 10 minutes of being on hold and hearing the hard sell. I was effectively held hostage, even though the actual card activation probably happened more or less instantaneously. And on top of that I was offered stale information.

If you are sharing information, make sure that it’s current and worthwhile. Ensure that your sales pitch is going out to someone who is actually ready to receive it. Listen to what your customers really want, and respect their time. You know, treat them like the real people they are. You’ll not only gain customers that way, but people who respect you in return.

As for me, I’m contemplating a new Visa card. As soon as I can figure out which bank will treat me like my time actually matters.

Catch up with Amber’s own efforts to respect people’s time and offer current useful information over at Crafting my Life.

Anyways, while we’re on the subject of the holidays, this is one area where a quick video greeting goes a long way. Instead of sending Christmas cards, here are a couple of ways you can quickly send out a video message to customers and friends over the holidays. I’ve come up with a couple of examples of different styles of Christmas greetings, see which one is right for you.

Just a simple camera and a quick hello? Here’s one Lady Gaga did a couple years back. I’m sure this year she’d have a bigger budget to dress up like a fully lit Christmas tree.

Here’s an example of a video done for an internal audience, from NASA administrator Charlie Bolden. The thing he does really well is acknowledge that there have been hard times at NASA, but goes on to explain how the agency is heading towards a brighter future.

The final example of a great holiday greeting comes jazz artist Roxi Copland. If you’re doing any flying in the US this holiday season, this one is for you.

Happy Holidays from all of us at upNext Media.

photo credit: Marc van der Chijs

When people start out with online video, the first setup you usually have is a webcam. It’s a fantastic way to start, because it doesn’t cost you any money. Turn on the camera, start talking. Easy breezy beautiful.

Now while this is a great way to get started, it’s not a great place to stop. Having a video with one person talking to camera without a lot of other stuff going on works up to a point. People that are very dynamic speakers are better able to pull it off than most, but even that isn’t optimum.

When I think of videos with a speaker that work very well, I think of the TED talks. Talks that are no more than 20 minutes in length, TED brings the best and the brightest speakers from all walks of life to tell us something we didn’t necessarily know before in an engaging way. For an example, here’s Scott Stratten’s speech at TEDxOakville.

Now this is an incredibly powerful talk. Scott is a speaker who is in demand and shows an incredible amount of humanity and skill to command the room like he does in this video. All that being said, if he made the same speech in a room by himself in front of a webcam, it wouldn’t have nearly have the impact this video does.

We humans like to get cues from the audience. Being in a room full of people, being a part of that collective, is something we all have experience with. When you watch Scott giving his talk, in our minds we are a part of the audience in the room with him. When we’re sitting in a room hearing a talk, we have no expectation for any other kind of visual stimulation, the social cues of being in a lecture theatre work well enough to keep our attention.

When someone is alone talking to camera, we don’t have that feeling of being in an audience. Television has known this for years. Talk shows have studio audiences or they feel second rate. Sitcoms have laugh tracks, so we are socialized into laughing along with the audience. If a show is shot like a movie (Modern Family comes to mind), the laugh track would seem strange, but when it’s a standard studio show, the sound of the audience laughing is crucial to the presentation.

When you’re talking to a webcam, there aren’t any situational cues that help us. Instead of fighting the uphill battle of trying to engage viewers with your force of personality alone, take the easier way out.

Show people what you are talking about.

Video is visual. You don’t have to put the camera on a tripod and talk to it. Pick it up, walk around with it, show me something in your world that illustrates your point. Eventually you will get fancy enough to actually edit together some shots with your voiceover, but start with just showing me something.

Here’s a very simple video from Meghan at Geek Girls Guide showing off her office. Nothing fancy, but it’s much better than talking to camera and telling us what her organizational system is.

Something like this can be done with a simple Flip-style camera that you voice-over as you shoot. So the next time you’re thinking about shooting a video with you telling us about something, figure out a quick and easy way to show us.

photo credit: rickbradley

One of the most beautiful books on the art of communicating well is Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. Basically what you need to know is that Powerpoint, with the litany of bullet points, have reduced presenting to putting slides on a screen and letting the audience read along. Instead, what we want our audience to do is follow the narrative, and to make that narrative as simple as possible. Garr explains some of the principals in this video…

One of the main points he makes about slides in a presentation is that every slide should only have one point. Trying to cram too many things to say in one slide just distracts your audience. Now what does this have to do with video?

Every video should have one point

When you set out to create your video, define what you want people to know when it’s over, and make that your number 1 goal. If you don’t have a point you are trying to make, it’s much too easy to ramble. By all means have material that supports your point, build an argument, but have one idea, and one idea only, that you’re trying to get across.

One person who does this very effectively in her videos is Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project. Her videos are part of a continuing series of videos on the theme of Happiness, but they make sure to only have one idea they are trying to express. Here’s an example.

Now you may have more than one point to make, it just means you have material for more than one video. It makes it much easier to come up with ideas for videos when you have a potential series. Record all those videos at once, release that series on a schedule, and you’ve taken a large part of the work in getting your online videos going and made it much easier.

If you have other examples of effective single-point videos, share them in the comments, I’d love to hear!

Last week we talked about the most important thing in online video is having a consistant release schedule. One of the things that will help you achieve that consistent release schedule is having a standard process to create your content.

Part of that standard process can be the time and place you create. Some people are really good at getting up at 5am, meditating, aligning their chakras, then sitting in quiet contemplation to compose their online stories. Some of us have to make due with 35 minutes stolen in the middle of the weekend with their headphones on to drown out the sound of the screaming children. I’m sure you can guess which group I fall under.

Another thing that speeds up the process, and something we at upNext Media can help you with, is having a consistant set of graphics to wrap around your video. Check out a video I recently did for theV3H.com, and in particular pay attention to the graphics I use to wrap around the piece…

Having that graphics package does a few things for your video…

Your graphics package doesn’t even have to be as involved as mine. A simple 3-5 second animation off the top of your videos gets them off on the right foot. Even a simple frame grab of your logo works great when you’re starting out. Just make sure you don’t use the first frame of the video as the thumbnail, or all your videos will look the same when people click to play them.

How much does one of these graphics packages cost? It can vary wildly, but expect to pay about what you would pay for a website to be designed. Or if you want some exact pricing, check out my services page.

photo credit: Aaron Escobar

When you’re starting out with online video, often you’ll look to TV to get some idea of how the big boys and girls do it. Television has a lot going for it, including a little bigger budget and a few more people working on the show. That being said, there are certain secrets to their success that can easily be co-opted. The biggest one of all is the schedule.

One of the beauties of video on the Internet is that you can watch it wherever and whenever you want. Television has one stream, and things have to happen on a schedule (your DVR notwithstanding). While it means great things for viewers, it also means content creators can put out stuff whenever they feel like it. Great? Not so much.

I don’t know about you, but if something on my list has the “when I get around to it” tag on it, it doesn’t get done. My goal for this blog is to have a new post every Tuesday morning (yes, Tuesday Morning, I know). If I don’t have that self-imposed deadline every Tuesday, things won’t get done. On my local Port Moody events blog, theV3H.com, there has to be a post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9am. No exceptions. I think we’ve missed one or two slots in the 18 months we’ve been doing it. Because we have that schedule burned into our head, we ship.

In my day job at Global Television in Vancouver, when we have a news show that starts at 6pm, it means it starts at 6pm. If we’re seconds out, there are emails and recriminations. Now the viewer can watch it online, or record it on their DVR and watch it later, but they can expect a new show to ship at 6pm no matter what. Thousands of viewers every night would be gone pretty quickly if we got loose with the start time.

What does all this mean for you, the video producer? Consistency is key. It’s not even the consistency of producing the material, it the consistency of the release schedule. You can do 10 videos or 10 blog posts at once and schedule them to release slowly over time. Get your audience used to that schedule, and let them know. Put it nice and big on your site, “New Post Every Tuesday” and you’ve now given your audience a reason to come back every week.

There are so many distractions and things vying for our attention online. Having a schedule means I don’t have to waste time checking back. Even though many of us solve that problem with RSS readers, it’s going to be a small part of your audience who are going to know how those tools work. Having that schedule works for anything, from online video to blog posts – even when you show up to talk to people on Twitter.

So tell me, when you’re putting together content for your web presence, what’s your schedule?

I have two small children. This means that, once in a while, I drink a glass of wine in the evening to unwind. Can you blame me? No, you cannot.

I am not an expert sommelier, not by any stretch. I make my wine purchasing decisions by hitting the ‘BC Wines’ section in the liquor store, because I like to buy local. Then I look around and see what catches my eye. Which is how I found Strut Wines.

Yes, the bottle is empty, and the window behind it is dirty. Don’t judge.

I don’t know anything about Strut Wines, but I am in love with their branding. I have bored several people to tears because I wouldn’t stop talking about it. Here is what I like about what they’re doing:

• They’re eye-catching. How can you miss those legs?
• They only carry a few types of wine – at my liquor store I saw “Well-Heeled White” and “Red Over Heels”. I didn’t feel like I needed a degree in wine-ology to make the right choice.
• Their branding is tight – every part of the bottle and the experience reinforces their message. From the imagery, to the names of the wines, to the story on the back, to the words “The Wine with Legs” around the bottle band. It’s all incredibly well-orchestrated.
• They know their niche. It’s pretty much the “Sex in the City” crowd – young women, with a lot going on, who like to think of themselves as fun, stylish and still smoking hot.
• They are telling me a story about myself, and making me think, “Yes! That’s me! That’s who I want to be!”

The bottle band reads, “The Wine with Legs”

Telling a story about yourself, and making yourself personal, is a great marketing tactic. But so is telling your customers a story about themselves. After all, we all make buying decisions based on how we want to perceive ourselves. I shop at the farmer’s market for a lot of reasons, but what it all comes down to in the end is that I want to be the kind of person who shops at farmer’s markets. When I fill my reusable produce bags with local carrots, I am telling myself a story, and I like it. And so I come back.

Strut Wines is tapping into that impulse, and telling me a story about myself. They’re making me want to be the kind of person who buys their product. Here is some copy from their website that makes me want to scream, “Yes! That’s me! I rock and so does this wine!”:

Today’s young woman is the ultimate multi-tasker; she knows she can have it all and she’s going for it, just check out her Blackberry calendar. Mogul, model, mom and much more – every day she’s playing the many roles that make up her vibrant life.

The story on the back of the bottle makes me want to buy

So, what are our take-aways here? I think there are a few. One is that when you’re crafting your story, it’s important to know who your audience is, so that you can play into what they want to hear. And then, at every turn, you reinforce that story. You make sure that every single interaction they have plays on that story, advances that story, and leaves them wanting more of that story.

My husband didn’t find the Strut Wines bottle that compelling. Which is fine, because he’s not the person they’re trying to reach. But I am, and I am in love. Mission accomplished, Strut Wines.

What story do you want to tell your customers about themselves? How are you going to make them feel great, and make them feel like they want to be the sort of people that buy your stuff? It’s a good question, and it’s worth taking the time to come up with a great answer.

Catch up with Amber’s own exercise in story-telling and branding as she reinvents herself over at Crafting my Life.

Last week we talked about how the unique stories of your business will make the difference between a business that people pass by and a business people actively seek out. It’s not only small businesses that benefit from this. Large corporations have been going out of their way to present their products on a more human scale as well.

In the early days of mass marketing, size was a virtue. Back in the days before big brands, shoppers would not necessarily know where the crackers in the cracker barrel came from that day. So it was hard to know what the quality of the product you were buying was. Brands came to stand for standardization, and a standard level of quality.

One of the early successes of this new form of marketing was the grocery business of Sir Thomas Lipton. Opened in 1871, Lipton’s Market in Glasgow became famous for its’ wacky street promotions and constant advertising. People were drawn by the story, but kept coming back for the low prices and consistent quality, especially the consistency of the tea. Lipton’s Tea was a promise of high quality, and was sold in boxes, as opposed to the loose bulk bags of his competitors. Lipton was the original celebrity CEO, advertising constantly and investing heavily in competing in the America’s Cup yacht race. Even though he never won, the America’s Cup made him one of the most famous men in the world, and moved a whole lot of tea. The marketing of anonymous products were no match for the Lipton marketing machine, which was really based on the promise of one man wearing a yachting cap that you were getting the best tea for the lowest price. At the turn of the last century, that was something completely new.

Today we are all mass marketed out. We are used to big brands and consistent but not remarkable, product. Today when I want a cup of tea worth talking about, I think of Caffe Divano and the personal relationships, not a bulk box of Lipton’s from Costco.

So what is a big company to do? Well, you try to make your products human again. The story of successful mass marketing inevitably leads to Apple these days. Knowing what you know about trying to humanize the experience of getting a product, check out the new Macbook Air, as presented to you by the guys who designed it.

Now I don’t know about you, but when Jony Ive starts talking about design, I have to put my credit card on the other side of the room. This is a company that moves billions of dollars worth of product every quarter, but the video succeeds in putting a human face on that massive business.

In the past, this was something only available to the largest businesses with the biggest marketing budgets, like Sir Lipton or Apple. Today, the technology that Apple is using here, putting videos online, is available to everyone.

So how can you make your business personal, and if Apple thinks that putting a guy in a T-Shirt on screen to talk about the Mac design is a good idea, why are you still hiding behind your business brand?

Had a great conversation the other day with Lisa from Caffe Divano, one of my favourite coffee places ever in Port Moody. If you’re anywhere in the area you have to check it out. We were talking about what it takes to get people interested in your product, to get the word out. The thing that makes Caffe Divano different is that all the food is made fresh right in the store, with high quality ingredients. They don’t scrimp on the coffee and the amount of beans you get in your morning cup.

Now I’m a tea guy, and I mentioned that I love their loose-leaf tea, it truly is some of the best I’ve ever had. Lisa then tells me this great story of how her and her husband discovered that tea in a cafe on a trip to New York. She found out it was from a company called SerendipiTea, also in New York. She went out to meet the owner who makes the best tea blends ever. Now they get it from the ladies at SerendipiTea for their little cafe in Port Moody. It’s a fantastic story behind my little cup of tea that afternoon, and the thing that makes it great is that there are real people involved. It’s not a big faceless multinational supply chain. It’s Lisa’s quest for better tea that brings her to the tea lady in New York that brings the cup she’s sharing with me.

Every interaction is one-on-one

Let’s face it, we’re branded out. While the promise of cookie-cutter products for cookie-cutter people created vast fortunes during the age of mass marketing, we lost something. We lost knowing who runs the business, we lost connection with our neighbourhoods, we lost the joy of discovery, when we could tell someone else about a fantastic cup of tea. Now, because we can connect easier than ever before, we’re starting to get it back again. But in order for that to work, we have to give people something to connect with, we have to tell the story in a place where people are going to find it.

Your website can’t be just a place where people get the basics of your location and operating hours. While those are job #1, it’s also a place where we tell our stories. Johnny B Truant calls it Storyselling. If everyone in the neighbourhood knew about Lisa’s fantastic tea, and the stories behind everything she sells, it becomes something worth going out of your way for. In the story of your business, creating that connection is going to make all the difference.

We spend a lot of time thinking that it’s too late. Most of us are late more often than we’re early. We watch the bus leave the stop just as we’re arriving. The last pair of shoes that were on sale in our size were sold just before we got there. We head to the kitchen to get that last cookie, just to see our child with a stack of chairs and chocolate covered face.

Now think of those times you were early. Most of us spend the time fiddling with our smartphones, but there is a certain calm that comes from being ready with time to spare. Those early mornings before anyone else is up in the house. The rare day when we decide to head to bed early with a good book.

Most of the time in business, our instinct is to think we are too late. That idea has already been done. There are so many people doing what I’m doing. If only I had started my blog in 1978. If only…if only…if only.

Pam Slim talked about this on her blog, the idea that we may think our market is saturated, but if we walked down the street in our own neighbourhood, nobody would have any idea how to use Facebook or Twitter to grow their business. We often have problems seeing the forest when we’re in a tree tweeting.

You may think that now that the people you follow online are starting to do video, you’re late to the party. Nothing could be further from the truth. The idea that you can create a video and people can easily watch it on their computer is still brand spanking new. Those A-list bloggers that you aspire to be are just now creeping ever so gently into putting video clips on their sites. Video doesn’t have to look like broadcast TV in order to make an impact online. This will change as more people jump into the game, but for now, the future is wide open.

So you know you’re early to the party, ready to join the fun?