Using Online Videos in Internet Marketing
An Online Video Doesn’t Have To Go ‘Viral’ To Be Powerful
Oct 8, 2009
Having an instant audience of millions may be just a Holy Grail but that doesn’t mean that most promotional videos are a waste of time. In fact, as all marketers know, reaching the right market is more important than being seen by millions of people who have no interest whatsoever in the product or service being promoted.
And for that, online promotional videos are hard to beat.
Online Videos vs Good Content
If a picture paints a thousand words, then a video paints a thousand more. In just four minutes, a promotional video can instill levels of confidence in buyers that copywriters can only dream of. The best content money can buy will never be able to convey the charisma of a CEO sharing their passion for their business or the miraculous cleaning power of a new detergent or the desirability of a holiday destination.
Attention spans are short, online videos make the most of them.
How long is an Online Video Effective For?
Once uploaded to a site, videos will continue to attract traffic and to generate leads indefinitely even after the initial impact has died down. An existing video will appear in search engine results alongside more recent additions in the ‘related videos’ section which means they profit every time a newer, related video is uploaded.
The smallest new content on a blog or company newsletter linked to an existing online video will create a fresh surge of interest and continue to capitalise on its effectiveness.
Using Online Videos for Communication
There’s a very good reason why TV advertising campaigns are so costly, they’re effective. Like a mini TV advertisement, online video encapsulates two of the three ways in which people learn, through seeing and hearing.
For any inbound marketing strategy to succeed it must operate at a number of levels. Some messages are best put across in blogs, others in graphics, webinars or text. To fail to utilise video in the marketing mix is to ignore one of the most powerful communication tools available.
Using Multiple Online Videos
Like any successful portfolio, the more investments there are, the greater the return. Sites such as YouTube and Google Video are jam packed with users waiting to view new uploads like hungry lions at the prospect of fresh meat. That’s a huge potential market just waiting to be tapped.
Online videos attract links from other quality sites within the industry too, and from other bloggers forging greater brand confidence. And volume ensures maximum search engine visibility so the more online videos a company uploads, the greater its success.
Using Online Videos for Recruitment, Induction and Training.
Any business is only as good as its individual employees and getting the best from workers requires them not only to be competent but to feel valued, empowered and part of the team. Promotional videos on a company intranet can be a powerful tool in achieving those aims at a fraction of the cost of staging a staff conference.
An effective four minute online video can illustrate the culture, spirit and ethos of a business better than any number of training manuals.
As a recruitment tool an effective online video can show a dynamic, forward thinking culture that understands and values the power of the digital age and will attract the right candidates to want to join the company.
Are Online Videos Expensive to Make?
The most professional looking online videos are, unsurprisingly, produced by professionals but some of the most effective are not. Take the guy with a hand held camera who photographed his own face every day for a year of his travels to record the growth of his hair and beard. When he got home he stitched the results into a video and it promptly went viral.
Big budgets and Hollywood style production are not pre-requisites for producing a promotional video. By focussing on content and not worrying about production, a video can be planned, scheduled and produced in very little time and at minimum expense.
In short, building a library of online videos is an inexpensive and highly effective way of improving SEO performance and showcasing company culture. They may not go viral, but they'll give the sort of return on investment that many other aspects of the marketing mix can only ever aspire to.
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