Post on 31-Aug-2014
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(And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
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A growing number of B2C and B2B companies are looking for ways
to incorporate video into their marketing strategies, and with good
reason. As of May 2011, more than 48 hours (two days worth) of video
are uploaded to YouTube every minute (see Figure 1). And viewers are
consuming all that video in droves. In the same month, the site’s hun-
dreds of millions of unique visitors worldwide catapulted YouTube past
the 3 billion views-a-day
While YouTube is the undisputed king of online video-
sharing sites, others including Vimeo and Blip.tv are
serving an audience hungry for video. In the US in July
2011, the total number of online video viewing ses-
sions was nearly 7 billion per comScore. It’s no wonder
that the use of video-sharing sites is steadily rising (see
Figure 2).
But what does all this mean for your business? This
whitepaper aims to help those in charge of social me-
dia marketing understand how to harness the promise
of online video for business success.
Figure 1. More than 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
ONLINE VIDEO YIELDS MEASURABLE BUSINESS IMPACT
Perhaps you’re still skeptical about investing your resources to produce video. These three real-world examples should
convince you that your money and time will be well spent.
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Figure 2. Internet users are increasingly visiting video-sharing sites
Source: The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, April 26 - May 22, 2011 Spring Tracking Survey. n=2,277 adult internet users ages 18 and older, including 755 cell phone interviews. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
Video-sharing site usage over time: 2006 - 2011% of internet users in each group who visit video sharing sites (total and on a typical day)
WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
power of live video with an automated system for man-
aging viewer registrations, con!rmation and follow-up
emails, and audience statistics reporting. As a result, it was
able to track and convert leads and report the ROI of its
video project.
Correction-tape brand engages potential customersCorrection-tape brand Tippex launched an attention-
grabbing campaign on YouTube called NSFW. A hunter
shoots a bear!, showing a reluctant hunter faced with
shooting a bear. At the end of the video, viewers can
choose from one of two buttons: to shoot or not. Regard-
less of which button viewers pushed, the hunter decides
not to shoot the bear. Here’s where the video gets really
interesting – the hunter reaches outside the frame for the
Tippex tape dispenser shown in the ad alongside the vid-
eo to erase the word shoots from the video’s title. Viewers
are then invited to replace the word shoots with a verb of
their choice, then hit Enter and see what unfolds. In the
!rst few weeks of the campaign, the video pulled in more
than 6.3 million viewers.
Visits to event sites skyrocketEvent producer C3 Presents integrated the Facebook
Connect feature with its Lollapalooza and Austin City Lim-
its Music Festival websites to automatically disseminate
video from its sites via the YouTube network. The results?
Page views soared by 99%, pages viewed per visit were
up 34%, and average time spent on the sites rose 20%.
Medical device manufacturer generates leadsBut online video isn’t just for businesses in the media and
entertainment industry. A medical device manufacturer
used video webcasts to market a device used in heart
surgeries. Live video webcasts let surgeons around the
globe—all potential customers—see the device in action
during actual operations. The manufacturer coupled the
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WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
Create once, deliver twice: spread across social networks
To get the most from your video – and
your social-media campaigns – you want
as many of your targeted viewers as pos-
sible to see what you’ve produced. The
beauty of video is that you can create it
once and deliver it across multiple social
networks to extend your reach. Whether
you post your video on YouTube, Face-
book, Vimeo, or "ickr, Tweet the link on
Twitter, embed it in blogs, and announce
it on LinkedIn and Google+. Once your
social networks start buzzing, measure
video e#ectiveness in terms of views,
comments, shares, and likes across all
those channels.
Right side images: A Hunter Shoots a Bear! Video
WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
Choosing the Right VideoAs you can see, both B2C and B2B businesses are e#ec-
tively using video to attract attention and cultivate inter-
action with prospective customers. Your business can do
the same. The !rst step is to select the type of video that
will best convey your message and engage your audience.
The three main types of video are:
Informative
Instructional or how-to
Entertaining
Informative Because online video is an immediate media, it’s a terri!c
vehicle for sharing the latest news, analysis, or opinion on
a hot topic. As long as it appeals to your prospects, cus-
tomers, or valued stakeholders, consider getting the word
out via video. The hundreds of videos on the WebMD site
are a great example of using informative, timely video to
keep an audience in the know and educated, while estab-
lishing WebMD as the expert in its !eld.
InstructionalIf you want to share your expertise to cut customer-service
costs, help customers get the most value from your prod-
ucts or services, or simply establish your company as the
go-to resource, instructional videos may be the answer.
These videos can be an ideal way to explain step by step
how to accomplish a task, get a product up and running,
or make a repair. D-Link, a company selling networking
equipment to both homes and businesses, has produced
a library of short, instructional videos to do just that.
EntertainingWhether you’re a B2C or B2B company, you’re selling to
people. And people enjoy being entertained. But don’t as-
sume that producing an entertaining video is a waste of
money and something only the largest of companies can
a#ord to do. Kinaxis, a company o#ering on-demand soft-
ware for supply chain management, produced an award-
winning series of entertaining videos called Kinaxis Suit-
emates. Throughout the six-episode video series, viewers
are entertained with a satirical look at frustration with
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) o#erings for the sup-
ply chain. As of April 2010, the company had more than
tripled its leads, and boosted the number of registered
community members by nearly 38%. The series even
won BtoB Magazine’s Best 2010 Award for creative use of
online video to drive site tra$c and create buzz among its
audience.
Video is for More than YouTube
It’s easy to get swept up in the YouTube phe-
nomenon and forget that online video can
deliver value on your own site or when sent
via email. Here are just a few examples:
Interactive training sessions
Video sales presentations
Live meetings with prospects
“Video voicemails” recorded and sent
with just a few clicks
Live or recorded video played back from
your Web site
WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
7 Steps to Video SuccessNow that we’ve convinced you it’s worthwhile to add
video to your marketing mix, you’re probably wondering
the best way to go about getting a video produced and
promoted. Here are seven simple steps:
1. Consider what you have to o!er and how you can
best deliver it
Figure out the purpose of the video by determin-
ing what you have to share with your audience. For
example, it makes no sense to plunk someone in
front of a camera to read your recent whitepaper
on enterprise software and inventory control. But
you could probably pique lots of interest by show-
ing a video of your customer’s manufacturing plant,
interviewing workers who speak to the importance
of automated inventory control, and showing how
much happier they are in their daily work. For a live
or recorded business presentation with PowerPoint
slides and other rich media elements, you may want
to try Proclaim from Netbrie!ngs.
2. Share it with others via sites such as YouTube,
Vimeo, SlideShare, or Blip.tv
The beauty of video-sharing sites is that they help
you reach a far broader universe of people than you
can via your own site. So be sure to distribute your
video across the various sharing sites. Depending
on your business and o#ering, some venues will be
more appropriate than others. Do your homework
and then get your video in syndication!
3. Respect the audience’s time
Everyone’s busy so never be afraid to aim for a
shorter video. In fact, shorter videos with good video
quality tend to garner the most views, links, and
comments. When possible, keep your videos brief or
edit down as necessary. If you need to post a longer
video, embed clickable “chapters” or “sections” using
a service such as that o#ered by Avitage.
4. Aim for high quality
If you’ve got the funds, enlist a professional or expe-
rienced videographer to shoot and edit your video. If
you’re on a tight budget, follow these simple produc-
tion tip:
Use good lighting. Whether your lighting is too
dark or too light, your subject will be hard to see.
That’s why it’s critical to ensure proper lighting.
Dress appropriately. A striped shirt on camera
leads to an optical illusion, leaving the viewer
seeing blurry, swirling lines. At the same time,
clothing with large or geometric patterns can
distract attention from the speaker. The ideal
clothing features simple colors that don’t clash
with or blend into the background.
Pace yourself. If you want viewers to get en-
gaged and interested, kick up the pace by using
energetic music in the background and making
tight, quick edits. If you’re telling a dramatic
story, slow things down and let the emotions
"ow.
5. Include a call to action
Video is part of the marketing mix, so include a call
to action in the video and on the page hosting it
that drives desired behavior, whether encouraging a
visit to a speci!c Web page, requesting more informa-
WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
tion, calling a salesperson, or taking some other action
that contributes to your overall goals. For example, on
YouTube, you could include a call to action in the !eld
describing the video and on Facebook you could urge
viewers to leave a comment after viewing the video
6. O!er options to reach a larger audience
Publish your videos as iPod-ready (or “any other video
player”-ready) video !les by choosing the right video
format, size, and data rate (download this guide from
Apple for instructions on preparing your video for the
iPod). This helps you reach a larger audience with vary-
ing consumption preferences, allowing your audience
to not only take your content with them on the go,
but also decide when, where, and how they choose to
consume it
7. Optimize your videos for search
Videos are searchable so take these steps to increase
the likelihood of them appearing high in the results on
search engines such as Google.
Place relevant keywords in your video’s title, de
scription, and tags
Promote your video on Facebook, Twitter, and
other social networks
Embed your video on your blog or Web site
Choose the appropriate category and adjust set
tings – including those for commenting, voting, rat
ing, and embedding – so your video is easily
accessible
Comment on related videos on YouTube and other
video-sharing sites and include a link to your video
Keep an eye on related videos and who has linked
your way to promote link building
Use tools such as YouTube Insight to see how your
tra$c evolves as you promote your video, then
adjust your approach as necessary
Now that you’ve got a solid understanding of why and how
to add video to your marketing mix, it’s time to start produc-
ing powerful videos – and results!
WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)
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