Selling more products via the Internet is a major concern of most product retailers, distributors and manufacturers in today’s online world. The Internet has proven to be a terrific way to distribute products in a cost effective and efficient manner and should be a major focus for just about every product company.

If you’re a product company and are looking for an affordable way to sell more products, then lo and behold! Google Product Search is exactly what you’ve been looking for. Google Product Search, formerly named Froogle, is a place where product companies can submit and list their products directly with Google’s shopping search engine.

It’s a free service offered by Google that provides users with a search feature to search for products and be directed to the website(s) where they can purchase them. The previous name Froogle, named back in 2002, was originally a mash between the words “Google” and “Frugal” (meaning thrifty or thriftiness). The named was changed from Froogle to Google Product Search in August of 2006 because Google felt the word Froogle suffered in that users had no idea what Froogle offered from the name. There was nothing to make you think that Froogle meant shopping or product search, hence the new and improved name – Google Product Search.

Since Google has changed the name, Google Product Search has gained significant exposure from online users and it’s becoming more common for product companies to submit their products on a daily basis to increase product sales.

Google allows you to reach more shoppers by submitting information about your products to Google Base so they’ll be found on Google Product Search. You can link directly from the Google search results to your website. Depending on how many items you have, you can choose to submit your products one at a time, all at once using a bulk upload, or by having an automated product feed submitted three times a week, eliminating the need for you to manage the uploads all on your own.

The great part about doing an automated feed is once you’re setup, you’re done! Shoppers will be able to find your items on Google Product Search within 24 hours after they are submitted to Google Base and will be automatically updated three times a week. So as you add new products to your website, they are automatically added to Google Product Search, dramatically increasing product sales for your product company.

Guidelines for Writing Successful Business Video Presentations
- Preproduction and Video Treatment Development

Successful presentations directly create a bridge between your client’s purpose and the audience’s motivation. As writers and producers, we search for ideas to help us make that match. We find those ideas–by asking the right questions.

Communications and training presentations support a problem-solving process initiated by our clients. Our challenge is to relate our client’s goal to the needs and desires of the audience. While our clients focus on how the goal benefits the organization, our focus is how it benefits the audience. There must always be a benefit for the audience.

Audience expectations

What does an audience want from a corporate or educational video presentation? Learning theory tells us:

·People learn what they need and want to know right now.

·They are most interested in information and skills that give them greater control over their life experience.

·They see themselves as experts in their own lives and want to be treated as such.
Responding to audience expectations

As video professionals, we need to support these needs and desires, build on them and never diminish them. We satisfy the audience’s needs in the following ways:

·The presentation neither over nor underwhelms by presenting too much or too little information.

·The information is immediately usable.

·The pacing allows the audience to feel they have control over the experience by going neither too fast nor too slow.

·The format or creative treatment engages their imagination in ways that allow them to identify with the problem presented and see themselves taking control and succeeding at the solution.

The video environment provides an opportunity for the audience to reevaluate and adjust their viewpoint, and try out new behaviors. They rehearse new behaviors and skills in their mind’s eye. By the end of the presentation, they decide whether change is worth the risk.

Waiting for answers

Screenwriter Syd Field says, “Writing is the process of asking the right questions then waiting for the answers.” This also is an excellent description of the preproduction process. During its early stages, we focus on left brain, logical analysis concerning our client’s goal and the audience’s motivation. In the later stages, we begin the right brain work of trying out various treatment ideas–ways we can use the medium to convey our message. The essential questions are:

·What creative vehicle will work best? Do we need drama, parody, comedy, documentary, an interview or panel discussion?
·What’s the right answer, how can we determine that answer–and then be sure of our professional recommendation?

Visualization and the creative concept

We now look for answers. It’s time to visualize. Go to your imagination and become a member of the audience. Block out the censors and critics, and delight yourself with images, sounds and music.

·What do you want to see, hear and feel?

·What interests you?

·What would move you from complacency and comfort to risking something new?

Allow time for images and ideas to come to you. Never reject an idea. And don’t miss those bits and pieces of ideas that present themselves as vague, ill-formed, or too avant-garde. Welcome them. Let them grow and identify themselves.

Reexamine your ideas in light of your client’s goal, the audience’s motivation, the budget and resources). Look for the best fit and select your creative concept.

Structure

Now you have one more consideration–structure. Surprisingly, our audiences don’t care as much about creative concept as they do about structure. Their perceptions are carefully developed by commercial television and Hollywood films.

Their first perception concerns “seat time.” Seat time refers to the amount of time the audience is willing to sit before taking a break. They are conditioned by commercial television to 10-minute (or less) segments separated by commercial breaks.

The second perception concerns storytelling. Hollywood films (and other forms of storytelling) influence audiences to expect a journey. They hope for a structure built on a series of twists and turns that leads to a new awareness where significant problems are resolved. This doesn’t mean structure depends on character-based stories. It does mean we need to structure even a straightforward presentation of information according to the principles of good storytelling. Information is always meted out in ways that build, pique, and then satisfy our audience’s interest.

The treatment

Finally, it’s time to write the video treatment. This includes your goal and audience analysis, and the structured creative concept.

Every successful treatment solution is unique. It results from the time, thought and care you put into asking the right questions then waiting, searching, and being available to the right answers. It begins with a solid relationship with your client and ends with a solid relationship with your audience.

The treatment now is your vehicle for communicating with the client and the guide for developing a successful presentation.

If you’re ready to kick your career or business up to the next level, then make it a goal to become a powerful presenter. People view savvy communicators as being more capable, intelligent, and knowledgeable than those individuals who have difficulty in communicating their ideas. You can quickly gain the status of an expert in your field when you are able to present your ideas effectively.

Although many things go into giving a successful talk, I’d like to focus on one area that is very easy to apply – using body movements and gestures. When you use body movements and gestures appropriately, your presentation takes on a certain sense of aliveness that is often hard to accomplish when you use words alone.

Harness the Power of Gestures

Gestures include your posture, the movement of your eyes, hands, face, arms and head, as well as your entire body. They help to support or reinforce a particular thought or emotion. If our gestures support our statements, we are communicating with a second sense. People tend to understand and remember messages better when more than one sense is reached.

Winston Churchill was a master at using gestures to powerfully bring home his point. During World War II, Churchill rallied the citizens of Great Britain to continue their fight against overwhelming odds. He often visited the neighborhoods of London, which had been devastated by bombs and walked through them with his fingers held up in the sign of a “V”. This victory sign accompanied his famous message, “Never give in. Never, never, never give in.” This gesture so powerfully communicated Churchill’s message that soon people gained greater resolve to continue fighting whenever they saw the victory sign.

Another reason that using appropriate gestures is so critical to your presentation is that communication does not just consist of words. Less than 10% of the words we use in speaking gets through to others. On the other hand, over 55% of our body language is communicated to others very clearly. Whether you are trying to sell your product or service to a client or you are trying to persuade a group of people to change their behavior, it is critical that your words and gestures match. Many people have sabotaged their messages because their words were saying one thing, while their bodies were saying the exact opposite.

Can you think of a time when someone told you that he would be able to do something while his head was shaking no? Which did you believe, the words or the gesture? When your body movements are congruent with your words, your message will have a very powerful impact on your audience.

Make the Most Out of Movements

People will begin to make judgments about you as soon as you stand up. The time to begin using effective body movements is when you walk to your position in front of a group. Stand up tall and walk with a strong posture. Let your body communicate that you have something important to say and the audience needs to hear it. If your posture is slouched, they will feel that you aren’t convinced about your message and they will begin doubting you before you have uttered a single word.

When you get to the front, take a deep breath, calmly look at your entire audience and smile. One of the biggest mistakes presenters make is to begin talking as soon as they get up to the front, or even worse, as they are walking there. When you take time to look at your audience before you speak, you begin to establish that critical connection with them. You also give the audience sufficient time to focus on you and what you are about to say.

Look directly at the faces of your audience members, not over their heads. Eye contact is one of the most important aspects of speaking. An easy way to get over stage fright is to look at the faces of individual audience members and just talk to that one person instead of the entire audience. Rotate the people you talk to – someone on the left, someone towards the middle, a person on the right, someone in the front, etc. This will help you maintain rapport with the entire group, while allowing you to feel at ease.

A further advantage of maintaining good eye contact is that it will help you gauge how your message is coming across to the group. If you are trying to explain something and members of the audience give you blank stares, then you need to adjust your words so they can better understand you.

Use Conversational Gestures

Like Winston Churchill, you should strive to incorporate gestures into your talk. People naturally use gestures in conversations. They are not on the spot, so they easily move their arms and hands and make facial expressions to illustrate the points they are trying to make. However, an amazing thing happens when people stand up in front of a group to speak. They suddenly think, “Oh no! What am I going to do with these things attached to my shoulders?” and they either don’t move them at all or they move them awkwardly. Gestures should be a natural extension of who we are. Presenters should strive to be themselves. They should be as spontaneous with their movements as if they were talking to their family or friends.

Practice Makes Natural

A good way to be comfortable with gestures is to know your speech well. Several of the most outstanding speakers offer the same piece of advice: “The key to effectively using gestures is to know your material so well, to be so well prepared, that your gestures will flow naturally.” Practice your speech and know it well so that you can enjoy sharing your message with others.

Become a master at using your body to support your words. Have fun with gestures, be yourself, and you will certainly present your message with power and pizzazz.