There is nothing that can quite convey the energy and verve of a wedding or an animated corporate gathering than an on-site video. Natural, fun and realistic videos have elbowed out the scripted and boring ones. It is an inexpensive, unconventional and effective marketing strategy that has everybody who owns a business, right from hairdressers to real estate firms, making a beeline for it.

To stay and neck and shoulder above the rest it takes a truckload of ingenuity. But it is well worth the effort as videos can make a sale faster. And can help convince finicky minds. Though there is no foolproof method there are a few things that always seems to work. We’ve listed a few.

Be clear on the objective of the video

We can almost hear the sneers; you of course know what your agenda is! But there are so many people who get carried over by excitement and focus all their energies on a great video but somewhere down the line forget what it was meant for. If your objective is to attract clients, (which is what most on site videos are shot for), focus on making people take a call.

Show the cleanest area of your office, employees being hard at work and all the frills. A quirky video of people dozing or staring at the latest video of Lady Gaga may bring in the laughs but may not lead to leads.

A good opening shot is half the battle won

A visually pleasing shot and one great opening line can be your trump-card. “Hello there” is clichéd and “a big hi” sounds syrupy sweet. Pay attention to what your first words are going to be. Give a brief overview of what your video content is all about as people need a reason to watch.

Go easy on images and flash files

A video that buffers on and on can make people quit in a hurry. Ensure you save on the loading time of your videos. Optimize images, minimize those flash banners and in general cut down on frills to minimize on the loading time of the video.

Go web friendly

Use descriptive title tags and create thumbnails that are compelling. A transcript of the video can direct traffic to your video when people use long tail keywords for their searches. And most importantly share your video on popular social networking sites.