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STELLAR STREAMING VIDEO CAN DRIVE SALES

Al Galbraith and Associates, a real estate marketer who turns dying industry towns into thriving recreational and retirement communities, commissioned a promotional video as an added feature for his company's website. The video has been down loaded 30,000 times by Internet users. In fact, Galbraith's Internet campaigns to sell homes from Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia to Plattsburgh, New York are so successful, the company has cut back its traditional advertising. Here's how streaming video promotes your organization online.

IT IS A GREAT USE OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY. Greater numbers of web users have the capability of downloading video and find it a novelty. Short videos of less than five minutes can be downloaded in a short time, depending on bandwidth.

YOU CAN TRANSPORT POTENTIAL CLIENTS TO YOUR PRODUCT. As a customers, you don't need to fly across the country to see real estate when you can get a 3-D perspective on the homes, the community and the geography as well as meeting residents and buyers from an online video.

VIDEO IS PERSUASIVE. Because video can incorporate the spoken word, music, maps, digital effects and moving images, the user experience is much more intense and when, well designed, very compelling. Testimonials have more punch when spoken by the happy customers.

THE COST OF DISTRIBUTION IS NEGLIGIBLE. In contrast, imagine the cost of producing and delivering 30,000 videotapes around the world.

STREAMING VIDEO POSITIONS YOU AS LEADING EDGE. Many customers see a company's innovation as evidence of its ability to be creative and effective. Taking the technological lead in your sector may give a lead in sales.

>From a public relations perspective, however, there are a few things to remember to ensure your video does what you want it to.

THE HEAVY SELL MUST BE KEPT TO A MINIMUM. Despite appearances, your streaming video is not a commercial. At least it shouldn't be a hard- selling pitch for business. The Internet is still an environment where overt commercialism is frowned upon. Take a journalistic approach and create a video in the style of a news or documentary item that might play on the six o'clock news. Users want information and won't take kindly to downloading hype.

THE PRODUCTION QUALITY MUST BE HIGH. This not the time to bring out the family video cam and become a filmmaker. Hire video producers who know what they are doing. And a word about budget. You need not spend tens of thousands of dollars for the finished product especially if you take the journalistic approach mentioned above.

Through streaming video, Galbraith reaches customers he might not through traditional advertising and he touches them in ways a brochure could never do. His streaming videos do all the talking and, for the price of a single full-page ad in the local daily paper, he has produced a tool that can close the sale all by itself.

If you want to see it in action, check out http://www.selectpropertygroup.com.

About the author: Alyn Edwards is VP and news director at Verus Public Relations (http://www.verus.com). A 30-year veteran of print and broadcast newsrooms, he heads up the in-house production team. He has a special summer PR package to introduce organizations to the promotional power of the media and the Internet.