A Few Good Tips for Good Audio

A picture can tell a thousand words, but what if that picture is accompanied by bad audio? Will it be able to tell anything at all? It does not take years of experience as a "sound guy" to record quality audio for your video presentation. By planning ahead you can produce a project you'll be proud to show.

Always be prepared for outside, uncontrollable factors such as wind, industrial sized air conditioners, trains, cars, ham radio interference, hums, etc. You can plan ahead and prevent these kinds of annoyances from ruining your production by utilizing a professional windscreen (known as a "possum") for your lavaliere (lapel) or boom mic and scouting all locations before you shoot. Windscreens reduce wind velocity, which minimizes wind noise, pop noises and breath sounds from your interviewee. By taking advantage of a location scout you will have the chance to notice any unwanted noises and find ways to work around them or the opportunity to find another location that better suits your production needs.

Once while shooting a video project in Dallas we encountered radio interference on our lavalier mic that was coming from several possible sources such a nearby tv station, cell phone towers or a ham radio tower. No matter what channel we switched the mic receiver and camera transmitter to we got a nasty "hummm" in our audio feed. Having exhausted our known solutions we were forced to use a hand held mic taped to a steel rod that was kept out of the video frame. It worked. The moral of this story is to always take as many back ups as possible. Tape, cameras, mics, batteries, etc.

Audio is just as important as video in any production. A clean audio track will take any video project to the next level. Try listening to just the audio track from any program you currently like then imagine it without the audio. Plan ahead and make the effort to scout all locations before your shoot.

Navigation professionally produces a variety of audio and visual needs. http://www.navigationadvertising.com

Big Sales Boost with Email Marketing

By Tiffany Vance

E-mailing company newsletters and announcements are a great way to generate more business...when they are used correctly. Sending out e-mail blasts via an e-mail marketing service will allow you to successfully manage your contact lists and measure your results. They can show you how many were opened and which key content was clicked through to so you can gauge the effectiveness of your strategy. Your email list must be accrued through "opt-in" subscribers, not through bulk email lists sold through brokers. A smaller number of subscribers who care about your product or service is much more effective than thousands who have never heard of you.

One of the most important ways to get your newsletter or announcement read is through the subject line. Considering the how people think and react is essential. You may think you are announcing something that no one in the world will want to miss out on, but the reality is that people may be weary of being "sold". You must pay acute attention to those very few words in the subject line. One company that deals in stock investing found that when they would e-mail what people considered positive news, the unsubscribe rate was in the single digits and they received positive feedback. When they sent negative news, however, they received record single-day unsubscribers and little-to-no feedback.

Valuable content is another essential to receiving the proper response. While many subscribers may want to know what the latest sale is they may also appreciate helpful content derived from your expertise.

Another way to boost sales through e-mails is to resend the same blast. Many companies have found that by simply resending the same e-mail one week later to the addresses that did not open the original message increased response dramatically. Some choose to change the subject line and others do not. The beauty of using an e-mail marketing service is that you can experiment with your messaging and actually track your success rate with tangible numbers. Navigation Advertising has been providing email marketing services to clients for several years. We understand that the proper mix of creativity and strategy garners the results companies and organizations are looking for through Internet advertising. There's not a magic wand - it takes consistency, repetition and valuable content to succeed in email marketing.