Online Video: The Influence Builder

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Over the past few years, online engagement and user influence has deepened with the increasing popularity of media and video sites. A specific tool that is a strong "influence" builder is online video marketing .

Online video is on the rise as web users increasingly seek an engaging multi-media experience. Video and social networking sites have been the fastest growing categories in 2009.

Research indicates that 14.5 billion online videos were watched during March this year - a massive 11% increase from February in the U.S.

Video will continue to be an important medium to reach consumers, and that marketers will be channeling their budgets in this direction, according to industry studies.

What this means for you

Online video is just beginning to be realized. It is an excellent opportunity to make a variety of marketing assets including newsletters, email, websites, and online collateral have more impact. Here are some tips we have learned at CorporatePA:

Influence: Make it Relevant and Engaging. Customers are jaded by typical sales pitches. Having an authentic video captures the human element, allowing customers to connect on a personal level. This connection builds trust and drives action. Also, make it relevant! Share compelling stories that resonate with the audience. In addition, videos need to be entertaining and engaging. They must deliver content in a format that interests and excites users. In an era where creative, media, and digital agencies are often unbundled, it's important to lose track of what could be the overall impact of the creative message.

Drive: Make an Action Path. Research has shown that adding video to a site can drive 36% more clicks, 20% more inbound calls and more than double the time typically spent on the site. Recent studies have shown that 55% of people who view a video by a company visit the company's web site, 30% visit a physical store, and 24% make a purchase as a result of watching. However, viewers will only take action if there's a reason to do so: a trackable URL to visit, a coupon, discount code, or a unique phone number to call. In this way your video can be evaluated against other marketing efforts.

Optimize: Make it Google Friendly and Shareable. The advent of Universal Search has changed the search game: engines now return more and more videos, blogs, news, and articles in their results. New search engines algorithms value video heavily, increasing your relevance in search results. Good meta-data, file naming, architecture, and distribution on sites like YouTube are also likely to increase search engine rankings.

Online Video Optimization Strategy

We mentioned a financial client in our last newsletter for whom we achieved significant results in the "structured settlement.” space. This client was competing directly against industry giant, JG Wentworth. Along with an aggressive online marketing strategy including Search Engine Optiminization, we embedded a unique rich media video on their website that drives direct response.

This proprietary "LightBox" is a dramatic video that guides the user to take action driving site conversion. This format can be used for testimonials, or for the principals of a company to speak. Conversion forms and links to the company urls are immediate response mechanisms.

Within six months of incorporating this direct response video tool, combined with optimizing his website , this client saw a 30% increase in revenues along with top positioning in search engines.

In sum, online video can be a valuable component of any online marketing effort by:

Increasing engagement with consumers
Providing a viewing experience that is different from TV, giving consumers control and choice
Collecting Data
Receiving consumer feedback
Providing real-time experiences
Disseminating on multiple social networking sites
Increasing brand image
Increasing exposure with search engines

Additional Optimization Techniques

Here are some additional examples of Online Video Optimization that can be created on the web:

Text or Image Overlay – Where text or images are inserted into, or over, a video. (A good example of this are pop-up ads that can be found on YouTube).
Chapters - Allows viewers to skip between sections within a video by inserting chapter points.
RSS - Display an RSS feed within your video – this can be automatically updated within a video in real-time.
Tagging/Hotspots - Tag objects in a video with a description. A URL can then be set to drive users to a specific destination when the tag is clicked. This is especially useful for e-commerce, where the user can be taken directly to a product within an online store.
Forms - Insert forms into video ads to gather data from your viewers.
Voting Overlay - Insert voting forms into a video and display the overall results to the user when the video finishes. This is done in real-time.
Videowall - Display numerous interactive videos within the single screen of a video player.