If a picture is worth a thousand words… a one minute video can deliver an encyclopedia of information to your prospective clients via the web. We are going to cover some Pre-Design topics and three main pitfalls to producing a video for delivery on the web?

Who Gets the Information?

Consider how much information you truly want to broadcast to everyone before you start developing your video. If you decide you need to limit the information to only people that have paid for it you can set up a password system. If there are specifics that you want to enphisis yet details you need to keep close to the vest, usually you can discuss that with the art director and achieve your goal through the shots you choose and the editing process.

Decide Before You Design

This is a subheading that appears in most every article. The reason is that if you do not have a clear understanding of your ultimate goal for the project, no matter what medium it involves, you will not be able to achieve a satisfactory result. So, start by asking yourself a series of questions.

Ask Questions

Who is my target market. What about my product or service would appeal to them. Is there a call to action.

Those are the basics for any project, yet there are additional and very important aspects to producing a video for web delivery that you must consider before you start.

Pitfall One

Just because you can – doesn’t mean you should. A video allows for a wide realm of expression. However is that what will sell your product. Do you really need to show transitions that take up value download time, rather that showing how your product works? Decide ahead of time are you selling a “look” or a product. If the “look or style” of the video is bad, your customers may assume your product is also.

Pitfall Two

Probably one of the most important aspects of a video for web delivery is the technical side. Will everyone be able to view your investment in a video. Does your designer know who your target audience is, what computer systems, browsers and plug-ins will reach the greatest majority of people?

Pitfall Three: Time

Take a look at how you browse the web. Would you spend the time it takes to download a 60 meg file? That’s approximately 10.8 minutes with a DSL or cable modem, would you take the time – maybe not. So no matter how nice the video is, you are better off trading size (high resolution) for size (small file for quick download).

There are additional constraints that come with producing viable video for the web.

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Slides

The business standard for many years. The upside is slides are relatively inexpensive to produce by almost anyone in your organization using off the shelf software. However if your slides are just text or non-descriptive photos with clip art, it may take five to ten minutes to explain a key point or process. If the person presenting the material is not a polished speaker he may quickly lose the audience. So, what would be an alternative?

Training with Video – DVD

A simple 15 second video clip can relay a complex concept without losing your audience. The clip can be presented on VHS or DVD. Because DVD’s are menu driven they are a more efficient delivery of video than standard VHS. And with the drop in price of a basic DVD player to $40 the market is quickly catching up with VHS players. As of March 2003 there was an estimated 58 million units sold and the rate of units sold per month was estimated at 3 million.

Online Training

A rapidly growing segment of training is now being done using the internet as a pipeline for delivery. Why? Cost. After development cost, there is virtually no difference in the cost of training 5,000 people as opposed to training five. Additionally, the people you are training can be in almost any part of the world. This form of training also allows for feedback and interaction. Another way to use the internet for training is to post for download PDF files (Adobe Acrobats – Portable Document File – format) with built in indexing and search capabilities for text books and research materials. This makes research convenient so your employee or student does not have to continue going online to find answers. Also they can print out any single portion of text or illustrations needed. As with most technology there a few pitfall and precautions that you should be careful to avoid, such as making sure you set permissions and passwords on documents you post online.

Visual Aids

If the service, product or training you need to do is more visual than technical, this too can be accomplished via DVD, CD or online. A good format for online delivery of illustrations and how-to-information is Flash. Most all browsers now come with this plug-in pre installed. The stats from Adobe, the owners of the Flash player, say it is on 96% of all computers. One caveat to using Flash is to make sure the version you publish in, is the version everyone has or you will need to provide a link to Adobes website. Not only is it visual, it also allows sound, so adding voice over can strengthen your presentation. All of this at a relatively low bit rate for downloading.

Bottom Line

With the new avenues for delivering compelling sales, training and marketing materials it makes sense to take your company to the next level.

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