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Tag Archives: sales

Current Video Trends In Real Estate

10 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in Production News & Info.

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Tags

3D, About Us, Cavus Media, GreenBuzz, Home Tours, jeff riegel, Land, Madison Edwards, property, realtor, Realty, rental, sales, slideshow, stream, Testimonial, virtual

by GreenBuzz, Madison Edwards

real-estate-blog-post.jpg

Shopping for a house just isn’t the same as shopping for your next Amazon purchase. The buying process is so complex, with many factors influencing your customer’s ultimate decision. Real Estate Agents have a challenge to market their product to careful and considerate buyers who aren’t likely to be easily influenced. That means it’s all about providing your customer with the valuable information they need to make a choice- and one of the best ways to do that is with video.

In fact, real estate listings with video receive 403% more inquiries than those without video, according to Bold Content. They also report that 73% of homeowners would be more likely to visit with a realtor who uses video to market their home. Those two astonishing facts make it clear that videos are valuable to your potential home buyer.

Not sure how to harness video for your real estate business? Here are some great tips… [Read More]

Home Tours | 3D and Virtual Reality:

Live-Streams
Neighborhood/Community Videos
Realtor/Company “About Us” Video
Video Testimonials
Not Your Average Slideshow:

 

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How to Shoot Cinematic Real Estate Videos

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in Job Tips & Networking, Miscellaneous, Production News & Info.

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Tags

Airbnb, Cavus Media, Dominion Home Tours, ichael Maher, jeff riegel, premiumbeat, property, real estate, rentals, sales, Sparks to Stars, vacation

By Michael Maher, Premiumbeat

Real estate videos are highly specific projects that can have a huge impact on the targeted audience. Here are the must-take steps to creating cinematic real estate videos that actually sell property.

How to Shoot Cinematic Real Estate Videos, image from ShutterstockReal estate is a visual medium, so photos and video are crucial to sales. This includes everything from home sales, luxury office space, or extravagant vacation rentals. Pictures are crucial to websites that showcase homes for sale, hotels, and even places listed on sites like Airbnb. But often, real estate agents find themselves needing to showcase bigger properties in bigger ways. This is where real estate video has seen huge growth.

In this post, we will cover the basic rules of real estate video production and the three main types of real estate videos. By the end, you will have a solid understanding of what it takes to make a must-see real estate video that really impresses your potential buyers.


The Basic Rules of Real Estate Video Production

[Read More–]

What Makes a Video Successful?

23 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by Jeff Riegel, Editor in Job Tips & Networking, Production News & Info., Tutorials-Tuts

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Tags

Advertising, Cavus Media, content, crowdfunding, James Brayshaw, jeff riegel, marketing, sales, social, success, video, Winshaw

June 23, 2015

by James Brayshaw, Winshaw

Winshaw

The RAC Club

Content marketing, and video in particular, is growing at an accelerating rate. When considering video as a channel for communicating with prospects and customers, organizations are faced with a plethora of options. Here we ask video storyteller Ash Bhardwaj to share his top tips on how to make a video successful.

Types of Video

The first thing to be aware of is the different types of video out there, from Hollywood blockbusters to user generated mobile phone footage. You will probably be familiar with pre-roll videos that often appear on You Tube before a clip. These replicate the production quality and intentions of television advertising and are typically used for awareness. For more targeted campaigns, homepage videos and mini series work well to convert website visits or build credibility. These will have a similar structure and length to campaign videos although tend to have a longer shelf life. Crowdfunding videos for instance have a very definite redundancy date once the fundraising cycle ends. Vloggers have also entered the mainstream and as a result are being seen as pure advertising.

How to make a video successful

There are six important steps to get right when commissioning and producing a great video; Intent, Pre-Production, Story, Style, Production, Distribution. For more on What Makes a Video Successful, click here.

 

The Five Steps To Make A Great Video Pitch

09 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by Cavus Media Daily Blog in Job Tips & Networking, Production News & Info.

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Tags

communicate, GLJ Media Group, idea, jeff riegel, jeffvlog, pitch, sales, tips, video. Magic Media Force

September 9, 2013

by Magic Media Force

Rebekka Deforce

Lately one of my client’s, wanting to contact new clients, asked me how to make a great video pitch.

So I started my quest for making a great video pitch. Not just a great video pitch but a friggin’ awesome video pitch!

Even though standing in front of the camera is something I’m starting to get used to, it’s still very scary. And so it is for most people, so no, you’re not alone!

I still find pitching one of the most frightening things, especially because I’m not quite used to it and in some ways it feels like you’re completely exposed to people’s judgment. Which you basically are, but thou shalt not care!

Perhaps you entered a contest, are trying to sell something as an online entrepreneur, or you are looking to start a crowd funding campaign. Regardless of the purpose, you will need a good video pitch to convince people of the worthiness of your cause.

A good video pitch is a beautiful thing to behold, and I found out that it takes a good deal of preparation to really nail it!

You will need to create the video itself and during the video, you’ll need to quickly and concisely address several facts that you want anyone viewing the video to know.

No matter how you choose to make your video, you must let your viewers know precisely who you are, what you are standing for (are you solving a problem, making something new, selling something etc.), who benefits from your action, and how you propose to make it happen.

In essence, you are going to tell your audience why they should care in the first place.

To effectively communicate this point, you must construct your pitch in a certain way. You must communicate simply and directly.

There is no need to use overly eloquent language or complex jargon. Simply address the facts and also humor, YES HUMOR is definitely allowed a must!

Keep your video short enough, please, do stay under 2 minutes (preferably less). Don’t steal people’s time by talking slowly and uhm-ing all over the place. So keep it short and worth watching.

Finally, make sure you avoid distracting your viewers through nervous hand gestures or wearing overly complex clothing or jewelry.

By creating a great video pitch and appealing to your viewers directly, you will be able to effectively sell any idea.

This is maybe one of the greatest video pitches I have ever seen,
although I would have made it shorter…

 

Click here for the Five Steps To Make A Great Video Pitch.

Apple Undercuts Apple

14 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by Cavus Media Daily Blog in Mac Tips, Production Equipment

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Tags

apple, consumer, dealnews, ebay, GLJ Media Group, imac, ipad, ipod, jeff riegel, jeffvlog, mac, macbook, outlet, price, reburbished, sales, used

March 14, 2013

By Lindsay Sakraida, dealnews Features Director

Apple Undercuts Apple, Offers Refurbs for Up to $100 Less on Its eBay Store

Late last year, it was discovered that Apple was potentially selling its refurbished wares through eBay, discreetly under the seller name Refurbished-Outlet. At the time, 9to5 Mac pointed to the near identical re-certification practices as evidence that this was an Apple-run outfit; all items came with a full 1-year warranty, final inspection was completed by Apple itself, and all of the items were priced the same as the Apple Store. The eBay front still exists, but it appears as if the latter practice has changed — and in the consumer’s favor.

dealnews recently discovered that several Apple items on the eBay store have dropped to prices that are lower than what the Apple Store charges, in some cases by a significant margin. Currently, the most notable price cut is on the current-generation 13.3″ MacBook Air with a 128GB SSD, which comes in at an all-time low of $899 — $100 less than what Apple charges directly.

Additionally, the eBay store offers both the fourth-generation 32GB and 64GB iPod touch players for $179 and $229, respectively; that’s $30 and $50 less than Apple Store prices. Even more curious is the fact that we’ve actually seen the Apple Store offer these exact price cuts in the past; both models fell to $179 and $229 in January.

Lamentably, the MacBook Pro and 256GB MacBook Air offerings are priced the same as the Apple Store, as are all of the third-generation iPads. Both of the refurbished iPad 2s are cheaper, but they’re only available in Verizon 3G flavors: the 32GB is $429 and the 64GB is $529, which are both $50 less than their price tags at the Apple Store.

Why Are Apple’s Prices Lower on eBay?

Discounts are of course great, but why is Apple selling its refurbished products at a different price? And why is it using a mysterious eBay store to begin with? AppleInsider has suggested that Apple has been experimenting with eBay in “unconventional” ways to push laptops in large volumes. The publication floats the theory that the manufacturer is approaching “eBay power sellers” and giving them MacBook Pro Retina laptops to sell at a discount. While that involves third party sellers and a computer model that isn’t currently in the Refurbished-Outlet store, the idea of discreetly promoting discounts in order to increase sales could still apply.

Regardless, the news means that consumers have a new opportunity to save money. And as we’ve said many times before, purchasing an Apple-certified refurb is an excellent way to score an iDevice at a discount since the manufacturer does a near flawless job of refreshing its electronics. In fact, for many people an Apple-refurbished product is the only refurb they’ll buy. With these recent cuts, those consumers can now get that same quality second-hand product for even less.

 

2011 Lessons Learned

24 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by Cavus Media Daily Blog in Production News & Info.

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Tags

2011, freelance, intern, jeff riegel, jeffvlog, kris simmons, planning, sales

December 24, 2011

by Kris Simmons

 

Dear Video Professional,

At the end of each year, I try to reflect on the lessons learned that both helped and hurt my success as a video business owner. I then share these thoughts with everyone in the MindYourVideoBusiness.com family in hopes that there will be something you can take and apply to your business strategy that can help you be more successful in the new year.

THE GOOD

Overall, business was quite good in 2011. Sales were up 50% and profits were up quite a bit as well. This resulted in excellent cash flow most of the year which made things a lot less stressful on the home front. My wife is much more comfortable when I get a steady pay check each month and when she’s happy, I’m happy 🙂

The additional cash flow also made is possible to invest in some equipment as well as to get more help from freelancers when I was double or even triple booked.

I decided to make the leap into HDSLR technology and purchased a Canon 60D. After wrestling with it for several months and cussing it on several occasions on my Facebook page, I decided to start hiring DPs who already had experience with the new technology so I could get “on the job training” before flying solo.

I must say that what ended up being the best solution for me was to hire a recent college grad who understood HDSLR cameras and workflow but who didn’t know much else about production in general. It was a real win/win because I was able to secure cheap, knowledgeable labor and he was able to get an opportunity to work with an experienced producer/director.

He taught me a lot about using my new camera and I taught him a ton about lighting, audio, editing, etc. I’m happy to say that with the exception of long format videos like seminars, meetings, etc., I use my Canon 60D exclusively in my productions.

The key, I found, is to experiment and get comfortable with the post work flow as it relates to backing up, transcoding, syncing and archiving all the media. Once I developed a process that works for me, the rest was smooth sailing.

Another business decision I made was to rent a small space next to my existing office so I could set up a green screen studio. So far, it’s been a great addition to my portfolio of services as I’ve been able to sell a lot of faster, less expensive but highly profitable video projects. Without a studio, I’d have to charge quite a bit more for setting up on location versus just having clients come to our studio.

Occasionally, we’ll have issues related to sound coming in from the other businesses in the building but it hasn’t been anything that couldn’t be worked through either during the shoot or in the post production process.

What I’ve found is that by having a low cost solution for quick but quality web videos, it allows you to generate revenue from companies that wouldn’t ordinarily purchase video services but it also helps these companies realize the value of video and hire additional services with larger budgets down the road.

Even if they never hire us to produce another video after the first series of web videos, we make a good profit and it’s one more client out there in the marketplace telling others about 6 STRONG MEDIA.

Now that I’m used to having a studio as an option for video productions, I’m seriously considering moving into a larger studio space in 2012 or 2013 that I can set up and soundproof exactly the way I want it. We’ll see if that works out.

THE BAD

A down side to business growth are the issues that relate to work flow. I found myself on several occasions wishing that I had employees to help with a project but not wanting to commit the money required to have them on board full time.

Even though working with freelancers was both affordable and effective, I found myself constantly stressed out regarding whether or not they’d deliver on time, having to work with them late at night via phone or video chat and just the issues related to preparing a project completely so that a freelance editor or designer would know exactly what I needed.

More often than not, I’d decide to just handle the project myself so I could guarantee the results but that would just lead me to being more stressed out and wishing I would have hired it out in the first place. Rinse and repeat…a vicious cycle that never ends.

The other bad thing (if you can consider it bad) is that I often didn’t have as much control over my schedule as I’d like. A lot of clients wanted to shoot at awkward times or in locations that required a lot of travel. It was great to have the business but getting used to living out of a suitcase again has been a bit of a pain.

I’m the type of guy who forgets things if I’m on the road a lot. If I remember all the gear, I’ll forget extra underwear. If I remember the extra pair of socks, I’ll forget the SD cards. I know I should work from checklists but can’t seem to find time to develop them.

THE UGLY

For the first time in my career, I ran into several situations where I wasn’t able to deliver a project on the agreed upon date. That killed me! I’ve built my reputation on never being late so this has been a huge eye opener.

The issue was that there simply weren’t enough hours in the day to get all the work done on time. I wouldn’t realize that I needed help until it was too late but instead of making a knee jerk reaction to hire freelancers in the middle of the night to help bail me out, I prioritized based on who had to show their videos first and told the rest of the clients that their project would be a bit late.

Most were okay with this but a few said that the reason they hired me is because of my reputation for delivering on-time. It wasn’t until my largest customer recommended that I bring on additional staff that I started to listen. Bringing on more people made sense…but how could I do it in a way that wouldn’t drain my additional cash flow and profit? I’ll talk more about this later.

I’m labeling 2011 as “The Year of Apology” mainly because I think I’ve said sorry more times this year than I have in my entire life. Once I get my new staff members up and running in 2012, I believe we’ll get back to delivering finished projects at break neck speed.

MOVING FORWARD

2012 is already shaping up to be a great year. I have several projects in the pipeline with January start dates and most of the work for my large contract is set to be completed by the end of April.

Based on the issues I discussed above, I have decided to bring on two full-time employees. One, an experienced editor and After Effects wizard. The other, a recent college graduate who has shown a lot of promise as a DP, editor and production manager.

I developed a “net revenue share” compensation system that guarantees that I’ll get all the help I need without any of the cash flow issues. In a nut shell, instead of paying them a salary each week, they will get a percentage of our net revenue for each project. So, if a project nets $4,000, they’ll get their percentage cut out of that with all the appropriate taxes, etc. pulled out so they don’t have to worry about that.

If we have a decent year, they make great money compared to what they’d get if they were getting a salary. If we have a great year, they make a lot of money…way more than they could ever pull in as a salaried employee.

I’m excited to see how this model works out and they are eager to get started.

I have also hired a part-time marketing director who will represent me at networking events all over the city and surrounding areas. The goal is for her to generate new leads and to build our email database so there will be more people interested in receiving my newsletters.

In just a month of working the marketing program, she’s generated a dozen new contacts and two hot leads for new video production business. I hope this momentum continues into the new year.

All in all, I’m shooting for another great year with at least 50% growth. I think with me being out of most of the production process, I’ll be freed up to spend a lot more time marketing and selling.

This should result in a lot more revenue for the company and a much better quality of life for me!

What will you do differently in 2012 to grow your video production business?

 

How to use Video Email Marketing to Increase Sales

01 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by Cavus Media Daily Blog in Job Tips & Networking, Production News & Info.

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

email, marketing, sales, simmons, video

August 1, 2010

by Kris Simmons

Once you’ve produced a video for a client, you’ll want to post it on your website and use an email newsletter to drive traffic to it.

Here’s a quick step-by-step process for doing so:1.) Post the video on your website using a video hosting service like iPlayer.

I’ve used several similar services in the past but this one is my favorite. You can elect to use free services if you want but at $30/month for a ridiculous amount of storage, a great player interface and personal customer service, this is really the best deal in the industry.

2.) On the page where the video will be posted, write a brief description incorporating your key words and phrases that explains what is featured in the video.

Also, be sure to include your contact information and a call to action so people can get in touch with you. The purpose of adding key words to your description is so that search engines like Google will index your page based on those words and phrases. This should eventually improve your website’s ranking over time as you add more video pages to your website.

Search for “video production Chattanooga Tennessee” on google and you’ll see that this strategy has helped my company, 6 STRONG MEDIA, get to the number one spot of the organic search results.
.

3.) Prepare and send an email newsletter using a service like Constant Contact.

You’ll get better results if you feature your client’s name in the email subject line and how they are using the video instead of your company name. For instance, more people will open an email with the subject line “Memorial Hospital PSAs Feature American Idol Finalists” than if it reads “6 STRONG MEDIA Works with American Idol Finalists to Develop PSAs.”

Many more people recognize the “Memorial Hospital” name versus my company name. Featuring a large hospital in my area makes the email newsworthy so people want to read further. Promoting my company name in the subject line makes it more self-promotional which turns a lot of people off.

In the body of the email, include a quick teaser that draws interest in the video clip and encourages people to click the link to watch the video. Here’s the text I used in a recent email that worked to get quite a few click thrus to the video clip on my website.—–

Dear John,

We just wrapped (3) PSAs for Memorial Hospital that feature American Idol stars Melinda Doolittle and Phil Stacey. Click the image below to watch the spots and to learn more about the project.

Talk to you soon!

Kris

—–
I’ve had more success with actually including a freeze frame of the video (see below) inside the email body that is linked to the video page on my website versus just using a text link. All you have to do is highlight the picture and use the “url link” tool in the email newsletter software to make it link to the video page on your website when clicked.

One piece of advice…If you want to increase the number of people who actually click on the link to watch the video, make sure that is the ONLY clickable item in the email. If you give people more than one choice, they’ll often choose to do nothing. A single link in an email will be more effective in driving traffic to your videos than having it featured among several other links.

4.) A few days after you send the email newsletter to your list, log in to your Constant Contact account (or whatever email service you use) and check the stats to see how many people opened the email and clicked through to watch the video.

In a recent email newsletter I sent out to my list of 962 customers and prospects, 18.9% (179) of them opened the email and 29.1% (52) of those people clicked through to watch the videos. (15) emails bounced back which probably means the addresses are no longer valid or their firewalls are rejecting my messages and only (1) person decided to leave my list by opting out.

By combining videos with an email newsletter, this single marketing effort resulted in 5 new project leads for my video production agency, 6 STRONG MEDIA.

What could a similar effort do to attract more customers and increase profits for your video business?

HOW TO USE VIDEO EMAIL MARKETING TO INCREASE SALES

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