Modern advertising has left traditional means of marketing lying in the dust. The Internet has made marketing much more efficient since a company can spend the same amount of money today as they did ten years ago but reach an audience that is nearly limitless. Search engine optimization is a strong tool, but inbound marketing techniques such as video marketing can literally open a whole new world for business owners. Unfortunately, many individuals believe that traditional marketing methods like blogs, ads and photos are enough, but if inanimate things like photos are so great for marketing, just imagine the possibilities of videos.
What Others Already Know About Video Marketing
Video marketing isn’t anything new, but if a business owner isn’t up-to-date on the value that video marketing can provide, they’re definitely behind other companies. Internet statistics are enough to show that every company should use some form of video marketing. Out of people who watch online videos, for instance, 46 percent of them say that they’re more likely to further research information on the service or product seen in that video.
It’s also important to point out that video marketing has become one of the most popular methods of content marketing out there. In fact, as of December 2012, about 70 percent of business-to-business (B2B) marketers stated that internet video marketing was employed in their marketing strategies. This statistic shows that many marketers are aware of the fact that in one month in 2012, more than 85 percent of all of America’s online surfers watched some form of online video content.
The Quintessential Online Video Success Story
Blendtec, a small company based in Utah, came up with what was likely the greatest blender ever created, but it’s quite difficult to market such a product. This is especially true on a small budget. The CEO of the company ended up filming several videos in what would become an infomercial series titled “Will it Blend?” The videos showed the Blendtec blender blending several items (i.e. iPods, rake handles) into puree. Little did the company know how popular these videos would become.
Millions of people would end up viewing the Blendtec videos. From 2007 to 2008, company sales increased by 500 percent. By 2009, sales were up by 700 percent. In the early stages of the campaign, a “golf ball smoothie” video was released on YouTube that quickly netted more than 1.7 million online views. Of the people who viewed the video, half of them visited the Blendtec website, and of those people, 15 percent actually ended up making a purchase on the site. Blendtec shows, more than any other company, the absolute power behind online video marketing and creative services.
Making a Video Marketing Campaign Successful
There are a few things that every company should consider before starting their online video marketing campaign.
1. Don’t Sell Directly to the Customer
As mentioned earlier, online video marketing is often a form of ‘inbound marketing’. This means that instead of forcing advertisements into potential customers’ faces (i.e. television ads), a company makes customers want to come to them. Businesses, for instance, often make ‘how to’ videos. This brings targeted customers to the video, and they feel as if they chose to see the video as opposed to being forced to.
2. Don’t Skimp on Quality
Everyone gets annoyed when they watch a video that’s poor quality. It makes individuals feel as if the person who made the video wasn’t interested enough to make it well. Though it’s possible for an individual to do a few online marketing things on their own, video marketing shouldn’t be one of them. A digital production company will ensure that an online video marketing campaign looks professional enough to keep people’s attention.
3. Don’t forget Calls to Action
It’s imperative to remember calls to action in an online marketing video. This should be obvious since anyone with any marketing experience knows the importance of calls to action in any form of marketing. Calls can be included in descriptions, in the dialogue of the video and even as hover links on the video itself. The important thing is that the call to action exists in or around the video.
In a world where information is spread at nearly the speed of light, it is imperative for every business to use every marketing technique within their grasp. Fortunately, video marketing can be quite simple and also return maximum results. This makes it vital to ensure that these videos appear professional in nature. Most people know from their own experience that professional looking videos are held in higher esteem than those that look like they were filmed with by a college student. The potential return of investment of a marketing video is such that it should never be handled in the cheapest way possible.
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