If you are hoping to create some quality contacts and long-term customers, online video marketing the way to go. More people are viewing videos online now than ever before, and companies that use video to market themselves are reaping the benefits. Here are just a few of the many ways you can benefit by adding online video to your marketing mix.
1: People are Using Videos as Search Engines
Recent surveys demonstrate that 78% of all internet users watch a video at least once per day, and more than half of them watch a video every day. People are using their YouTube channels like social media feeds, and stopping to view online videos is becoming part of the online routine. If you ignore online videos, you are essentially turning your back on a resource used by billions of people every day.
“Video is already an important tool for marketing, and that has translated through to online marketing. In the UK we consume over 280 million hours each month and that figure is still growing. For the SME, I believe that strong video can give any business the upper hand in attracting more sales and brand awareness. There are still many, many, SMEs who are yet to take the plunge into online video, and this represents a huge opportunity for those that do to get ahead of the competition.
From a search marketing point of view, YouTube is the second largest search engine out there, second only to it’s owner, Google. YouTube can be a much more achievable route to getting to those top ranking positions on Google simply because there is less competition, yet they share the same search results. It’s a massive opportunity to those who take the initiative.”
Alex Minchin is the Managing Director of Zest Digital Ltd, a leading digital marketing agency based in Oxfordshire. Zest are specialists at creating online market leaders out of ambitious SMEs, to help them generate more business from the Internet.
2: Video Hosting Services have become Search Engines
YouTube is the second most popular place for online searches as of 2013. It is only supplanted by Google, which bought YouTube a short while ago and has fully integrated that video service into its own features. When people perform online searches, they aren’t going to alternatives to Google – they are going directly to video services such as YouTube and Vimeo. If you want to tell people about your products and services, you need to have a presence there so people will find you on their searches.
3: Video and Social Media are Easily Integrated
Online video marketing these days is made easier by the fact that video hosting services allow users to easily share what they have seen. Google has fully integrated YouTube into its search results, and every popular video service has a way to quickly and easily share individual videos with friends on any of the major social networks. Furthermore, social network feeds allow videos to play right from the status update, meaning that your online video marketing can reach anybody anywhere.
4: Your Creativity can Come Through
While larger businesses do definitely have an advantage in online video marketing due to more resources and high production values, small-scale videos go viral every day by just presenting something clever, unusual, or funny. If you are a creative person or work with a good team of marketers, you should be able to produce something that will not only compete with larger businesses, but may catch wildfire on the Internet and turn you into an overnight success story.
5: You can Establish your Identity
Text and graphics can only go so far, and online video marketing allows you to move beyond those limitations. When you produce an online video, you can set the personality of your business, your customers, and your employees. Through careful production, you can determine exactly how you and your products or services are perceived by others. This allows you to establish a brand identity more easily than ever before.
“Never before has there been a better time to use Video for your business. As our lives get busier – video offers a fast route to the information your customers are looking for. Instead of trawling through paragraphs of text you can now very easily include your information within a dynamic video – available 24 hours a day throughout the world. Produced correctly – your video will help your identity stand out from your competitors, providing your customers with a more personal experience.”
– Clark Wiseman is a Director at Studio8 Video and Photography, Oxford.
6: Fast and Effective Feedback
Once you have posted a video, it’s very easy to determine whether it can be considered a success or not. All of the mainstream video sharing services have the equivalent of YouTube’s thumbs up/thumbs down buttons that determine whether somebody liked what you produced. Additionally, it is very easy to leave a comment, meaning that you can get feedback directly from your customers without having to rely on marketing surveys or other vague analytics.
7: You can Monetize your Marketing
Hosting services offer different ways to monetize your video, with options including on-screen banners or ad rolls before and after a video. You can take this opportunity to link your product with other services that users might be interested in, making money through your monetization options as well as your online video marketing techniques. This can also help establish a stronger brand identity for your company.
8: You can Link your Video to your Products
Online video marketing allows you to post links directly to your product page, either in the description section or as an on-screen blurb. You can even give your customers choices of where to go next at the end of a video. This allows you to maximize the chance that your customers will make an impulse buy and once again gives you an opportunity to customize the buying experience, turning your online store into something memorable.
“85% more likely to purchase a product after watching a product video and spend 100% more time on pages with Videos.”
9: Video Lasts Indefinitely
Purchasing print ads or online banners costs a set amount of money over a set period of time. Online video marketing, on the other hand, will last for as long as the hosting service you are using. Given the success of platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo, this is effectively indefinite. That means that new customers will be able to see your marketing for years on end. And the more views your video gets, the higher your video will rank in searches.
“3 of the key metrics we look at when analysing a website for visitor improvement and engagement are:
Behaviour engagement ( engagement profile )
Visitor flow ( the engagement thru the site )
Time on site ( for core periods 60 – 181 seconds and 181 – 600 seconds)
the purpose of any website is to engage the visitor and get them to form a connection with your business or service
and with greater depth and time of engagement the more likely a visitor will then turn into client.
Visual imagery on website should include:
Strong images
Videos
Employee pics and profiles
and as a result a significant engagement factor of up to 30% for improvement in engagement and conversion to a client.
Think about the BBC website although heavily content lead, each page has a strong image (57% of the time a face) and then as a second phase element a video (typically 30 seconds – 2 min 40 seconds in length) to to reinforce the written content.
Visual marketing is without doubt a key element of businesses digital world.”
Chris Jones is the Owner of Glooo Web Analytics and Monitoring services.
10: Video is Cost Effective
You can set an online video marketing presence for yourself with a few simple clicks. Accounts on popular hosting sites cost nothing to set up and are very inexpensive when it comes to advanced options. You can reach people on computers, tablets, and smartphones with the only real cost being whatever your production budget is. And since props, costumes, and sets can be reused, your costs will go down over time while your views will go up.
These are just a few of the many reasons to use online video marketing to establish your company’s presence. No other option today offers as easy a way to establish your identity, reach millions of potential customers, and keep your costs at a minimum.
If you are interested in working with Studio8 on your next Video Production, please call us on +44 01865 842525