Lights! Camera! Action! Use Video to Market Your Online Business
When was the last time you watched a video online? Whether it was a feature-length movie on Netflix, a sitcom on Hulu, or an offbeat short clip on YouTube, for most of us it hasn't been more than a few days if that long. Face it, video is hot! Consumers love it.
This year the market for on-line video content is expected to grow to over 131 million households worldwide. 123 million Americans will view on-line video at least once a month. 66 percent have watched video ads & 44 percent have taken action on what they had seen.
How can businesses capitalize on this growing trend in consumer online behavior? Benjamin Wayne, CEO of video platform company Fliqz says, "Companies should use video in ways that drives key business initiatives rather than using video for the sake of video."
Wayne outlined the following goals:
Use Video to Drive Additional Traffic
"Search engine syndication works in such a way now that video content is more likely to show up on the front page in search returns," says Wayne.
He also suggests that sites that use email marketing should promote video at the top of newsletter as people are more apt to click and include a permalink to the video as well to encourage viral propagation.
Use Video to Create a More Engaging Experience
Video is highly engaging and involves more of the senses than the written word or audio. "Get video on home page to pull people into the site. 80 percent of traffic will click on video more than any other," indicates Wayne.
Use Video to Increase Rate of Conversions
Wayne says video can be used implicitly and explicitly to encourage conversions. "Implicit conversion is more soft sell. It includes the content of the video plus that which surrounds it on page. Use the entire page to help drive home the sales point," he says.
Explicit conversion, on the other hand, include the video watermark which should include your brand, the start screen and end screen. Wayne says 50 percent of the viewers will drop out before the end of video, so it's important to include something to promote your brand at the beginning.
He also says that if the video is longer than 90 seconds, people will begin to drop off. "If you want 75 percent of audience to see the video, make it 90 seconds or less. Online video is not TV migrating online. Break the content into clips and give a title to each clip," he says.
There are any number of ways to use video, including:
- Video blogs (known as vlogs)
- Product demonstrations
- Live streaming video
- Video ads
- Viral videos
Regarding that last point, Blendtec, a manufacturer of high-quality, commercial-grade blenders could be considered the model to follow in terms of how to use online video to drive engagement, Web site traffic and sales.
Their entertaining series called Will It Blend has garnered high praise among online marketers and resulted in exponential growth in product sales. The best part, they only invested $50 on the front end to get the series started.
Today, you don't need expensive equipment either. Something as simple as a Flip video camcorder will do just fine.
If you have yet to give video a try, what are you waiting for. Grab your camcorder and start driving more traffic to your site, create higher levels of engagement and convert more prospects into customers using video.
3 Comments
Paul Chaney says:
If you're a Mac user, then iMovie is great. Alternatively, TechSmith's Camtasia Studio works well.
Suzanne says:
Camtasia is a great product. It's easy to use and you can put out a professional looking video in virtually no time at all. I've used it in the past for some of Shopster.com's videos, and I've always been really pleased with the results.
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