What’s better than spending $25,000 on a fabulous promotional video that showcases your incredible mission and the ripple effect it has in every part of society? Realizing that you won’t have to sign an additional check to have DVDs pressed.
The truth is, nobody is watching your DVD. Nobody.
It’s not that people don’t watch DVDs anymore, or that BluRay will eventually dominate the market; they do and it will. It’s that all forms of distribution besides one click media delivery are becoming obsolete. Simply, people are much more likely to click on a link to your video than to perform all of the required steps for watching a DVD.
Think of a link to a video like candy in the supermarket—stores stock candy in the checkout line to entice you to buy it, even though you’re only there to pick up juice boxes. They’re asking you to perform one, simple action, which produces an immediate reward. You’re already there, and if you have a sweet tooth, chances are you’ll be pulled in. When you send a link or post a video on your website or blog, someone who has even a little bit of interest in your organization has a decent chance of clicking on it because it’s a simple action with an immediate reward.
A promotional video can be an incredibly useful tool, and a tremendous asset to your organization. This medium is also within reach for NPOs like never before, because the cost of professional HD video content usually falls between $1,000 -$2,000 per produced minute, meaning that your 5-7 minute production can cost as little at $5,000. Online, you can monitor the success of your video by tracking the stats, and you can tell how effective the content is by tracking if and when viewers opt out. And video offers a way of experiencing the vibrancy and impact of your organization that can be inspirational for donors, participants, and collaborators alike.
So if you’re considering producing a promotional video, or if you already have, don’t fumble at the five-yard line. Video is a very worthwhile and powerful tool if you make it available in a relevant way. A streaming a video on your website is easy to distribute and low cost (or free, if you embed using a free service like Vimeo) no matter how many people watch it. And if it’s online, people will watch it.
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