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Feedback on My Small Business - Be Brutal
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12-02-2014 3:28pm#1Hi guys,
This forum is always great for feedback and ideas, so I thought I'd post my latest creation here.
MOD SNIP No Advertising or spammy links please
I'm pricing in USD at the minute as I feel there's a bigger market, both in the states and internationally. Particularly in the ecommerce community. Using Stripe as a merchant.
I've been building relationships with a few animators and voiceover artists over the past couple of months. The site just went like the other day and still needs work.
For now, I'm working on getting the site into shape and building a portfolio.
Thoughts? Ideas? Should VidFoundry crawl under a rock and die? ( :eek: ! )
Thanks,
Dean
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I think if you could create a website where people could create their own video with stock backgrounds and music etc then it could be a good addition to the service you have now especially if you could get it on there for around $20-$30 that way people can have a play around with it and if they don't like what they have come up with then they can upgrade and get you to do it for them! On average how long is the video? I would definitely like something like that on my site it does look pretty slick. Some more sample videos would be good especially an actual one you've done for a client with a little background on them and why they did it etc.
Hi Jimmii!
That was actually the original idea that popped into my head one day about a year ago - unfortunatly, it just wasn't something I could get passionate about. I much prefer managing each clients video myself along with my team of animators etc..
Plus, there's quite a few services already like that and the videos that come out on the other end are, well... painful! :eek: I wouldn't feel comfortable charging people for them. I'm thinking of advertising on some of these sites however. Could be a good way to drive targeted traffic.
A video will last around a minute but there is no set time. The script writer will decide. If a particular service is complicated the video could run longer. Similarly, if a website only needs 45 second then that's all we'll do. A 45 second, engaging video is much better than one that's being drawn out for no good reason. With high-speed broadband, multiple tabs etc..., the average internet user moves away from a page if they get bored for even a few seconds.
At present, I'm working on building up a portfolio and am emailing small business to see if they'd like to partake. This is my number one priority right now. My aim is to have around ten client videos good to go before I start any advertising and launch 'for real'.
Thanks for your feedback!
- Dean0 -
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Hi Jimmii!
That was actually the original idea that popped into my head one day about a year ago - unfortunatly, it just wasn't something I could get passionate about. I much prefer managing each clients video myself along with my team of animators etc..
Plus, there's quite a few services already like that and the videos that come out on the other end are, well... painful! :eek: I wouldn't feel comfortable charging people for them. I'm thinking of advertising on some of these sites however. Could be a good way to drive targeted traffic.
A video will last around a minute but there is no set time. The script writer will decide. If a particular service is complicated the video could run longer. Similarly, if a website only needs 45 second then that's all we'll do. A 45 second, engaging video is much better than one that's being drawn out for no good reason. With high-speed broadband, multiple tabs etc..., the average internet user moves away from a page if they get bored for even a few seconds.
At present, I'm working on building up a portfolio and am emailing small business to see if they'd like to partake. This is my number one priority right now. My aim is to have around ten client videos good to go before I start any advertising and launch 'for real'.
Thanks for your feedback!
- Dean
I like the idea, a lot, and would have no interest or ability to cobble our own DIY effort together. The quality/presentation needs to be first class otherwise it could damage the end users business/site.
SEO and Digital Marketing is all abuzz right now about using vids, infographics etc etc to replace rankings earned by links.0 -
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The idea is fine. There's plenty already doing it, but the market is plenty big.
Live chat is ok, but I wouldn't touch the notion of doing business with you without: email addresses, postal address and the required company information. It's a trust thing, vital for doing business with confidence.
Thanks!
I'll make sure to get all that up tonight or tomorrow. I'm also going to put up our payment option symbols etc..
One question on this front:
I expect many of my customers to be international - so having an Irish mobile phone number might not be a good option.
I have a Skype which I intend to use for when problems arise etc... - but there just isn't a margin for me to be manning this 24/7 to accept calls from potential clients. As a customer, are you happy to use email (considering the low-cost nature of the business and the RRP) or would you prefer a more personal approach (something bigger 'agencies' offer)? Then there's the issue of me being asleep while the US is awake.
Thanks,
Dean 0 -
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I like the idea as a business. As others have said, there are a good few in this space already but it is a very big market at the same time. I would almost not aim for the US market however, initially anyway. Loads of potential clients in Ireland and the UK. I was looking at doing an explainer video only last week, but didn't want something really 'Americanised'. Plus, myself and I am sure most others here, would rather given our business to an Irish-based startup over someone in the States or elsewhere when possible.
As you have pointed out, the @gmail.com is very unprofessional for a business in the digital marketing space. Signup to Google Apps, costs about €3 per month for one user/mailbox and can be ready to go in fifteen minutes, just need to alter your domains MX Records. Plenty of documentation online on how to do this if you're unsure.
The video on your homepage - I like the visual side, but the voice over is poor. I got bored listening to it. See if you can jazz that up a little, very important given your product!
Will get this set up ASAP. I was originally going to use GoDaddy's email system but it's a heap of junk.
Google Apps for Business seems to be the way to go. I didn't know it was as cheap as €3 per month!
Getting on it right away.Deleted User wrote: »Agree with Dave, video voiceover reminds me of an infomercial or one of the spam vids that pops up when Im trying to stream a football match.
Possibly more effective for the US market I don't know, but I wanted to switch it off.
Good idea, but for me theres not enough 'punch' in the site right now, little bit bland.
Thanks. Will look into it.
-- Dean0 -
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I like it. I like the idea. I love that you put your price options out there. I can see immediately if I am in your ballpark or not (or perhaps that's if you are in mine).
Thing about this is though, all of that is very encouraging but maybe I don't need it. Refer to your market research as to if there is a market or not. If no market research was undertaken then prepare for what maybe a hard slog finding or in fairness creating such a market.
The good side of this is now I now it exists I'm thinking hmnnnn..... I wonder could I use this in a couple of projects that I would potentially have, and the answer is yes, I probably could. You may be already creating that market by showing it off.
Have you a marketing guy/gal on board? How will you promote it. Buy online ad space may give you a good return. There was a really interesting post in the last 7-10days on this forum about facebook advertising and targetting your market. IMHO, it would be worthwhile digging it out and take from it what ideas are relevant.
And now for a big WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW moment (and was the first thing I picked up on as soon as hit the add to cart/proceed to cart options). I know you aren't launching until 20th Feb and maybe you already have it in hand ( I hope I haven't overlooked it) but I can't see you using SSL or other form of encryption on your "GIVE US YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS" / checkout page.
Holy sweet mother but this needs to be sorted and pronto - as in before you go live. Otherwise while your customers will be able to order product from you, their transaction will be open to having their payment card details lifted along the information superhighway (haven't heard that phrase since the 90's) and scammed for god knows what.
I haven't used Stripe before but Paypal gives you the secure code to paste into your pages (i'd assume stripe does something simlar). To have confidence in conducting this as an ecommerce transaction you don't want your customers truning away when they are presented with a non encrypted page.
The site itself isn't terribly slick. The idea grabs me but the site doesn't convince me. Its functional and fine in a meh kinda way but IMHO it would benefit from a glossy sheen put on it (no, I don't do such services so i'm not trying to sell anything to you
If you don't have such skills onboard then talk to the work wanted thread in the design forum and see what you can get there).
But hey, well done for taking it this far and I hope you make a good success of it.
I'll stop rambling now.0 -
Agreed. I personally won't touch a business without an @domainname.com email address.
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I agree with the others about the voiceover, as you only have about 5-10 seconds to grab the customer before they click the next button/close button. Look at the ads on the Youtube videos; after 5 seconds you can close them. This means that if the ad doesn't "grab" them in those 5 seconds, that's it, your ad disappears.
In the first few seconds of the video, I can detect "struggling" and "to no avail" is voiced in a slightly different tone, but IMO, the tone should be slightly exaggerated as it sounds a bit too flat.
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Nice idea. One thing that I'll say is that if you are going to target the US market, to ensure you use a US spell check, to ensure you misspell the words correctly :P Also, check to ensure that the phrases we use here mean the same there.
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Grammer nazi time suggestions;
Quality Script
"and your web address/social media accounts promoted" to ""and how your web address/social media accounts are promoted""
Sound Matters
"Users" to "Viewers" (as used in the "Quality Script" paragraph)
"Along with silky smooth voice" to "Along with a silky smooth voice".
"I want one" can barely be seen. Heck, I had to mouse over to see wher it pointed me!
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If you're going to target the US market, you'll need a set time when you contact the companies over the phone (a routine time). Look into buying a phone number (to link to your Skype) in the States that the customers can ring and leave queries. You mention Skype, but in all fairness, your target audience are people who can't make a video themselves, and thus may not know how to use Skype. So old school phone number and a decent messaging service will be needed.
Haha
Thanks for correcting my website It took me ages to get those icons with the round, percentage loading widgets working. The content was typed in about a second to see how it looked!
The website itself is going to look vastly different in around a weeks time. I'm not happy with the way the design is heading at all. New logo coming, too.
I think with Skype I can pay €10 a month for free US calls which sounds good to me. I've yet to try it out though and I'm hoping the call quality will be decent.0 -
I like it. I like the idea. I love that you put your price options out there. I can see immediately if I am in your ballpark or not (or perhaps that's if you are in mine).
Thing about this is though, all of that is very encouraging but maybe I don't need it. Refer to your market research as to if there is a market or not. If no market research was undertaken then prepare for what maybe a hard slog finding or in fairness creating such a market.
The good side of this is now I now it exists I'm thinking hmnnnn..... I wonder could I use this in a couple of projects that I would potentially have, and the answer is yes, I probably could. You may be already creating that market by showing it off.
Have you a marketing guy/gal on board? How will you promote it. Buy online ad space may give you a good return. There was a really interesting post in the last 7-10days on this forum about facebook advertising and targetting your market. IMHO, it would be worthwhile digging it out and take from it what ideas are relevant.
And now for a big WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW moment (and was the first thing I picked up on as soon as hit the add to cart/proceed to cart options). I know you aren't launching until 20th Feb and maybe you already have it in hand ( I hope I haven't overlooked it) but I can't see you using SSL or other form of encryption on your "GIVE US YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS" / checkout page.
Holy sweet mother but this needs to be sorted and pronto - as in before you go live. Otherwise while your customers will be able to order product from you, their transaction will be open to having their payment card details lifted along the information superhighway (haven't heard that phrase since the 90's) and scammed for god knows what.
I haven't used Stripe before but Paypal gives you the secure code to paste into your pages (i'd assume stripe does something simlar). To have confidence in conducting this as an ecommerce transaction you don't want your customers truning away when they are presented with a non encrypted page.
The site itself isn't terribly slick. The idea grabs me but the site doesn't convince me. Its functional and fine in a meh kinda way but IMHO it would benefit from a glossy sheen put on it (no, I don't do such services so i'm not trying to sell anything to you If you don't have such skills onboard then talk to the work wanted thread in the design forum and see what you can get there).
But hey, well done for taking it this far and I hope you make a good success of it.
I'll stop rambling now.
You're totally right on all counts.
For the SSL issue - Stripe process all my transactions (I'm going to offer PayPal too even though I dislike them). I'm working on getting some logos or indication of the fact that card details are processed locally. I have zero access to anyone card details, but I understand it's important that customers know they're not exposed.
I don't like the site design right now. I'm targeting a cost-sensitive end of the market but the designs I've been working with resemble something an agency would have. This is all getting changed.
As for promotion, I have one or two ideas in mind. Adsense isn't one of them - keywords are too expensive because of the agencies who can afford expensive ads per customer acquisition because they'll earn thousands of dollars per sale. Although I'm not writing it off altogether.
But I have a few different ideas to pursue first.0 -
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