In the last few years video has become increasingly popular on the web. The statistics say it all, currently a third of all online activity is spent watching video and by 2017 it is predicted that video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic. Many businesses have already started picking up on this trend and producing their own videos and as a business you really should too, you don’t want to miss out on reaching all those extra viewers.
The good news is that video is not as expensive as you might think, production costs have come down significantly in the last few years and there are so many options available, such as:
- Video production company or animation studio
- Website development and marketing companies often offer video as an add-on to your existing packages
- Make the video yourself – not as scary as it sounds if you have a small amount of technical knowledge, and there are plenty of online tutorials to help you
What type of video suits your business depends on who you and your audience are. One of my favourite YouTube channels that has some great examples of a wide variety of business videos is Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing arm of the well known online retailer, Amazon. They have such a wide variety of videos, all created with varying budgets, from interviews with staff, animations, walk-through tutorials, recorded events and seminars. Take a look at their channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AmazonWebServices
It’s not just large businesses that are involved in video marketing though, I follow the YouTube channel of a popular, local sales mentor who creates a multitude of videos (even some just in his living room) that really help his audience engage with him, check out his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/eurekasales – it doesn’t matter if you are one person or a large enterprise, video can work in your marketing mix.
Customer Interaction
Video can be an excellent way of getting your customers to interact with your company. By pressing ‘play’ on a video they are actively seeking out more information. It allows them to see more than just words and images on a page, it has sound, speech and movement all of these evoke emotions and encourage the watcher to connect with you.
Studies show that 60% of consumers will spend at least two minutes watching a video about a product they want to purchase and shoppers are 34% more likely to purchase after viewing an online video advert. If a customer can’t go to a shop and pick up and feel an item then the next best thing is a video, it will give them so much more information than text and images can convey. The same works for a service based business, if you are online and customers can’t come to meet you in person then a video is a great alternative as it will allow them to get to know you better.
Video is a great way of helping viewers to build trust in your company. If you’ve spent time and money making a video then it gives you that extra amount of credibility. If you have people in your business that regularly engage with customers, or you are a sole-trader that interacts a lot with customers then a video involving you and/or your staff is an excellent method of getting your audience to connect with you and begin to trust your business.
Another advantage of video is that many video hosting sites, like YouTube, allow viewers to comment on your video so it’s another great way to interact with customers.
Video Ideas
There are so many types of video that you can use on your website. Which works best for you will depend on your business type and your audience. A good place to start is to have a look through competitors videos on sites like YouTube. See how their videos are performing (how many likes and shares they have) and see if viewers are commenting on the video and what they are saying. This research should guide you to see what might work for you.
A few ideas of what types of videos you could use:
- Adverts
- Promotional videos
- Web series/podcasts
- Video webinars (could be broadcast live)
- Video blogs
- Funny viral videos
- Recorded events and seminars
- Customer case studies/testimonials
- Explanation videos
- Tutorials
- Reviews
- Product overviews and demonstrations
Videos should be clear and understandable. They should have a defined objective and a compelling call to action (CTA). The call to action could be that you want the viewer to buy a product, that you want them to call you, to sign up to your mailing list. No matter what the call to action is you must make sure it’s easy to understand and entices the viewer to complete it.
SEO and Search Rankings
2014 was a difficult year for search engine optimisation (SEO) due to the major search engines (mainly Google) making large changes to their search algorithms, this resulted in many of the websites that had top rankings suddenly plummeting down the listings. The aim of the updates was to encourage website owners to use good quality, trustworthy website content to improve their search rankings. Search Engines have made video a major factor in their search formulas as it is an excellent source of rich and varied website content – 70% of the top 100 search listing results on Google are videos. Video on your own site can help move you further up the search engine rankings.
Another thing to note is that one of the most popular sites for hosting video is YouTube and it is the second largest search engine after Google, it has 4 billion views a day.
Using Video in Your Social Media and Marketing
Video is such a versatile medium, you can add it to your website, re-use your videos on the major social media channels (YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook), in your email marketing and customer presentations. You can even submit them to other blogs, websites and news sites if you think they are of interest to them.
Take for example Twitter, where a massive 700 YouTube videos are shared every minute, and Facebook which embeds videos into your timeline for ease of play – these are definitely places you should consider using in your video marketing plan. Another important factor in your video marketing is to make sure users can share your video easily. When you put it on your website make sure that your pages have like/share/tweet buttons for all the major social media channels so that viewers can easily share the page – the easier something is to do the more likely your viewer is to do it!
If you decide to use your video in email marketing you shouldn’t try to embed the video in the email, you should create a landing page that contains the video. You can then mention the video in your email and link through to the landing page where people can watch it. Buy mentioning a video in your email you can increase click through rates from your email to your website by 96% and it could potentially increase conversions on your landing page by up to 80%.
Analysing the Data
Many of the video hosting sites like YouTube or Vimeo have analytics that allow you to see how many people have been watching your video and give interesting statistics such as: how many minutes watched, number of subscribers, viewers locality. These stats will help you see how well your video is working and you can use the analytics to help you decide what to do in future videos.
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