It’s easy to get wrapped up in lighting, color, compositions, resolutions, and more when filming or editing.  All of those are essential to pay attention to, but more important than each of those individually, is sound.  It may come as a surprise, because it’s an element in great productions that you always expect to be there, thus it goes unnoticed.  However, if there is poor audio and sound design, you’ll pick up on it immediately.

In an audio class at Ball State University, it was beaten into my head that great sound will make your video ‘look better.’  It doesn’t literally, but it was a reference to a study that had to shots taken from the same camera, but the audience thought one looked better than the other, little did they know the only difference was the sound.

Life is strange without sound.  Take a few seconds in the office and pay close attention to every sound you hear: the push of a stapler, the creaking of someone’s desk chair, a coffee mug being set down gently on the desk, someone sniffling, quick typing on a keyboard, shoes scuffling on the ground, and air being pushed through vents.

Or go out in the parking lot and hear nearby cars accelerating, semi’s shifting gears, people’s shoes scuffling on pavement kicking little pebbles as they walk and talk on the phone, leaves on trees gently blowing in the wind, birds chirping, and more.

For the vast majority of the population, experiencing sound is a constant part of our lives.  With that being said, why shouldn’t it be at the forefront of our minds when creating or watching video?  Sound can take your video piece to the next level.

Recently, Ryan and I had the privilege of filming a beautiful home for Minear Real Estate.  The property called for more than the great, but our standard drone video with voice over or only music in the background. So along with Ryan’s drone work, I filmed on the ground.  It was a nice piece, but it was made into a great piece with time spent on sound design.  Suddenly, the video turned into an accurate portrayal of the property: a peaceful and serene getaway.  One where you heard birds chirping out in the lawn, the constant relaxing sound of water running into the pool, and the gentle blowing of the wind.

Spending the extra time with sound, made a great property video into an exceptional one.  Witness for yourself how adding sound design can benefit your property or real estate video:

A brochure is your brand at a glance, but one brochure does not fit all needs. We have put together this short list of brochure types to help you identify what type or types you may need.

Leave-Behinds – “After Sales Pitch”

Leave-behind brochures include complete descriptions and benefits of your product and/or services.  These are great to leave after meeting with potential customers to make a lasting and profitable impression!

Sales Support Tool – “Sales Kit”

Sales Kit Brochures are like leave-behinds but have larger photos, pages and headlines. These are used as sales aids to help you describe and showcase your product or services. These will keep your audience interested and help them retain the information after the pitch is delivered.

Point-of-Sale – “Over the Counter”

Over the counter brochures are a piece that you would like your customers to take when visiting your brick and mortar storefront. One look should be enough for your customers to know what your brochures are all about. The key to point-of-sale brochure is to have catchy headlines and images to attract attention. Its purpose is to spark interest so that your potential customers would ask more questions.

Respond to Inquiries – “Question and Answer (Q&A)”

Q&A brochures are great for potential customers whom inquire about your business. This is a great opportunity for you to seal the deal because the customer is already interested in your brand. We recommend having a number of Q&A Brochures on different topics put together for quick responses! Though this is a great tool, we would also recommend not to follow up with the brochure alone. A handwritten note still goes a long way!

Direct Mail – “Post Box”

Direct mail brochures are among our most effective print pieces we offer. Why you may ask? Direct mail is a very popular form of marketing but a well designed and uniquely folded brochure mailed rather than a standard post card will stand out to a carefully selected mailing list. The effectiveness of this tool goes way up with amazing new tools like Variable Data Printing (VDP). This revolutionary tool makes it possible to completely customize your brochures with first and last names from your list and even custom images! Give us a call to discuss more possibilities with VDP on your next direct mail brochure!

Here at Blue River Digital, we can help you no matter where you are at with your brochures. Maybe you are just running low and would like some more printed. Maybe you have a concept and would like someone to design it for you. Or maybe you just know that there is a need but do not where to start. We are a full service marketing firm and can design print and deliver your next brochure piece and would love to chat with you about your needs! Please give us a call today! 260.248.2749

YOUR marketing team!

How often do you leave a team meeting with great new ideas or unearth new needs from team members and have no way to execute? Maybe you do not have the tools or likely the extra time to get the done on time. New marketing collateral, internal forms, promotional graphics, social media posts; these are all materials that can really make your sales efforts stand out!

Imagine having a team that will take care of all of this for you! BLUE RIVER DIGITAL CAN BE YOUR MARKETING TEAM! 

Blue River Digital can handle your graphic design, website management or maintenance needs, or even your social media page management, on a monthly basis so you can focus on running your business!

With our retainer design services, your business can begin to take advantage of the numerous benefits when partnering with BRD!

Your Google My Business profile is the first thing people see when they search for your company online. That makes it a critical part of your marketing mix.

Google gives every business its own Google My Business listing, consisting of a Google Map of the company’s location, its address, reviews, photos, the website URL, phone number, business hours and more.

Your business information appears in numerous places all over the internet, including a knowledge panel on the right side of the Google search engine results page and Google Maps on desktops and mobile devices. That means it’s really, really important to make sure your business’s information is correct and up-to-date!

Verifying, correcting and maintaining your Google My Business Account is a service our Digital Marketing Department offers here at Blue River Digital!  With complete transparency, setting up and maintaining your Google My Business Account is a completely free process from Google and with time and effort you can perform the service on you own. Although, many of us find it difficult to find the time within our daily schedules to complete our daily tasks let alone navigate the vastness of Google.

In the end, we want your business to have the correct information shown when potential customer search for you! We would be happy to assist you whether you choose to manage your account on your own or if you like us to take care of it for you. Give us a call today to get started! 260.248.2749

Well it’s march and it has been 3 months since our last blog entry. I guess that means we have been busy and have forgotten, which is mostly true. I think it’s that we just forgot. Anyway, I wanted to write this as a reminder to ourselves and to anyone reading this entry, that we need to to take the time to work on our own image as a business, work on ourselves, improving our workflow and improving our outlook. At the end of the day if you do five more jobs then you anticipated that might be success for many of us.

Yes, it would be a success by completing more work and perhaps making more money, but did we really improve our outlook on the big picture, did we smile today, did we enjoy our day at work?

Take the time to invest in yourself, and learn to keep those thoughts of improvement on the front burner.