Video Essential

(And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)

WHY VIDEO IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR MARKETING MIX (And 7 Steps to Powerful Results)

2

A growing number of B2C and B2B companies are looking for ways

to incorporate video into their marketing strategies, and with good

reason. As of May 2011, more than 48 hours (two days worth) of video

are uploaded to YouTube every minute (see Figure 1). And viewers are

consuming all that video in droves. In the same month, the site’s hun-

dreds of millions of unique visitors worldwide catapulted YouTube past

the 3 billion views-a-day

While YouTube is the undisputed king of online video-

sharing sites, others including Vimeo and Blip.tv are

serving an audience hungry for video. In the US in July

2011, the total number of online video viewing ses-

sions was nearly 7 billion per comScore. It’s no wonder

that the use of video-sharing sites is steadily rising (see

Figure 2).

But what does all this mean for your business? This

whitepaper aims to help those in charge of social me-

dia marketing understand how to harness the promise

of online video for business success.

Figure 1. More than 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute


ONLINE VIDEO YIELDS MEASURABLE BUSINESS IMPACT

Perhaps you’re still skeptical about investing your resources to produce video. These three real-world examples should

convince you that your money and time will be well spent.

3

Figure 2. Internet users are increasingly visiting video-sharing sites

Source: The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, April 26 - May 22, 2011 Spring Tracking Survey. n=2,277 adult internet users ages 18 and older, including 755 cell phone interviews. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.

Video-sharing site usage over time: 2006 - 2011% of internet users in each group who visit video sharing sites (total and on a typical day)


power of live video with an automated system for man-

aging viewer registrations, con!rmation and follow-up

emails, and audience statistics reporting. As a result, it was

able to track and convert leads and report the ROI of its

video project.

Correction-tape brand engages potential customersCorrection-tape brand Tippex launched an attention-

grabbing campaign on YouTube called NSFW. A hunter

shoots a bear!, showing a reluctant hunter faced with

shooting a bear. At the end of the video, viewers can

choose from one of two buttons: to shoot or not. Regard-

less of which button viewers pushed, the hunter decides

not to shoot the bear. Here’s where the video gets really

interesting – the hunter reaches outside the frame for the

Tippex tape dispenser shown in the ad alongside the vid-

eo to erase the word shoots from the video’s title. Viewers

are then invited to replace the word shoots with a verb of

their choice, then hit Enter and see what unfolds. In the

!rst few weeks of the campaign, the video pulled in more

than 6.3 million viewers.

Visits to event sites skyrocketEvent producer C3 Presents integrated the Facebook

Connect feature with its Lollapalooza and Austin City Lim-

its Music Festival websites to automatically disseminate

video from its sites via the YouTube network. The results?

Page views soared by 99%, pages viewed per visit were

up 34%, and average time spent on the sites rose 20%.

Medical device manufacturer generates leadsBut online video isn’t just for businesses in the media and

entertainment industry. A medical device manufacturer

used video webcasts to market a device used in heart

surgeries. Live video webcasts let surgeons around the

globe—all potential customers—see the device in action

during actual operations. The manufacturer coupled the

7


Create once, deliver twice: spread across social networks

To get the most from your video – and

your social-media campaigns – you want

as many of your targeted viewers as pos-

sible to see what you’ve produced. The

beauty of video is that you can create it

once and deliver it across multiple social

networks to extend your reach. Whether

you post your video on YouTube, Face-

book, Vimeo, or "ickr, Tweet the link on

Twitter, embed it in blogs, and announce

it on LinkedIn and Google+. Once your

social networks start buzzing, measure

video e#ectiveness in terms of views,

comments, shares, and likes across all

those channels.

Right side images: A Hunter Shoots a Bear! Video


Choosing the Right VideoAs you can see, both B2C and B2B businesses are e#ec-

tively using video to attract attention and cultivate inter-

action with prospective customers. Your business can do

the same. The !rst step is to select the type of video that

will best convey your message and engage your audience.

The three main types of video are:

Informative

Instructional or how-to

Entertaining

Informative Because online video is an immediate media, it’s a terri!c

vehicle for sharing the latest news, analysis, or opinion on

a hot topic. As long as it appeals to your prospects, cus-

tomers, or valued stakeholders, consider getting the word

out via video. The hundreds of videos on the WebMD site

are a great example of using informative, timely video to

keep an audience in the know and educated, while estab-

lishing WebMD as the expert in its !eld.

InstructionalIf you want to share your expertise to cut customer-service

costs, help customers get the most value from your prod-

ucts or services, or simply establish your company as the

go-to resource, instructional videos may be the answer.

These videos can be an ideal way to explain step by step

how to accomplish a task, get a product up and running,

or make a repair. D-Link, a company selling networking

equipment to both homes and businesses, has produced

a library of short, instructional videos to do just that.

EntertainingWhether you’re a B2C or B2B company, you’re selling to

people. And people enjoy being entertained. But don’t as-

sume that producing an entertaining video is a waste of

money and something only the largest of companies can

a#ord to do. Kinaxis, a company o#ering on-demand soft-

ware for supply chain management, produced an award-

winning series of entertaining videos called Kinaxis Suit-

emates. Throughout the six-episode video series, viewers

are entertained with a satirical look at frustration with

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) o#erings for the sup-

ply chain. As of April 2010, the company had more than

tripled its leads, and boosted the number of registered

community members by nearly 38%. The series even

won BtoB Magazine’s Best 2010 Award for creative use of

online video to drive site tra$c and create buzz among its

audience.

Video is for More than YouTube

It’s easy to get swept up in the YouTube phe-

nomenon and forget that online video can

deliver value on your own site or when sent

via email. Here are just a few examples:

Interactive training sessions

Video sales presentations

Live meetings with prospects

“Video voicemails” recorded and sent

with just a few clicks

Live or recorded video played back from

your Web site


7 Steps to Video SuccessNow that we’ve convinced you it’s worthwhile to add

video to your marketing mix, you’re probably wondering

the best way to go about getting a video produced and

promoted. Here are seven simple steps:

1. Consider what you have to o!er and how you can

best deliver it

Figure out the purpose of the video by determin-

ing what you have to share with your audience. For

example, it makes no sense to plunk someone in

front of a camera to read your recent whitepaper

on enterprise software and inventory control. But

you could probably pique lots of interest by show-

ing a video of your customer’s manufacturing plant,

interviewing workers who speak to the importance

of automated inventory control, and showing how

much happier they are in their daily work. For a live

or recorded business presentation with PowerPoint

slides and other rich media elements, you may want

to try Proclaim from Netbrie!ngs.

2. Share it with others via sites such as YouTube,

Vimeo, SlideShare, or Blip.tv

The beauty of video-sharing sites is that they help

you reach a far broader universe of people than you

can via your own site. So be sure to distribute your

video across the various sharing sites. Depending

on your business and o#ering, some venues will be

more appropriate than others. Do your homework

and then get your video in syndication!

3. Respect the audience’s time

Everyone’s busy so never be afraid to aim for a

shorter video. In fact, shorter videos with good video

quality tend to garner the most views, links, and

comments. When possible, keep your videos brief or

edit down as necessary. If you need to post a longer

video, embed clickable “chapters” or “sections” using

a service such as that o#ered by Avitage.

4. Aim for high quality

If you’ve got the funds, enlist a professional or expe-

rienced videographer to shoot and edit your video. If

you’re on a tight budget, follow these simple produc-

tion tip:

Use good lighting. Whether your lighting is too

dark or too light, your subject will be hard to see.

That’s why it’s critical to ensure proper lighting.

Dress appropriately. A striped shirt on camera

leads to an optical illusion, leaving the viewer

seeing blurry, swirling lines. At the same time,

clothing with large or geometric patterns can

distract attention from the speaker. The ideal

clothing features simple colors that don’t clash

with or blend into the background.

Pace yourself. If you want viewers to get en-

gaged and interested, kick up the pace by using

energetic music in the background and making

tight, quick edits. If you’re telling a dramatic

story, slow things down and let the emotions

"ow.

5. Include a call to action

Video is part of the marketing mix, so include a call

to action in the video and on the page hosting it

that drives desired behavior, whether encouraging a

visit to a speci!c Web page, requesting more informa-


tion, calling a salesperson, or taking some other action

that contributes to your overall goals. For example, on

YouTube, you could include a call to action in the !eld

describing the video and on Facebook you could urge

viewers to leave a comment after viewing the video

6. O!er options to reach a larger audience

Publish your videos as iPod-ready (or “any other video

player”-ready) video !les by choosing the right video

format, size, and data rate (download this guide from

Apple for instructions on preparing your video for the

iPod). This helps you reach a larger audience with vary-

ing consumption preferences, allowing your audience

to not only take your content with them on the go,

but also decide when, where, and how they choose to

consume it

7. Optimize your videos for search

Videos are searchable so take these steps to increase

the likelihood of them appearing high in the results on

search engines such as Google.

Place relevant keywords in your video’s title, de

scription, and tags

Promote your video on Facebook, Twitter, and

other social networks

Embed your video on your blog or Web site

Choose the appropriate category and adjust set

tings – including those for commenting, voting, rat

ing, and embedding – so your video is easily

accessible

Comment on related videos on YouTube and other

video-sharing sites and include a link to your video

Keep an eye on related videos and who has linked

your way to promote link building

Use tools such as YouTube Insight to see how your

tra$c evolves as you promote your video, then

adjust your approach as necessary

Now that you’ve got a solid understanding of why and how

to add video to your marketing mix, it’s time to start produc-

ing powerful videos – and results!


MarketingProfs is a rich and trusted resource that o#ers ac-

tionable know-how designed to make you a smarter market-

er—from social media and content marketing to lead gen-

eration and online conversions. More than 405,000 members

rely on our free daily publications, podcasts, virtual confer-

ences, and more to stay up-to-date on the most important

trends in marketing, and how to apply them to their busi-

nesses. Plus, MarketingProfs delivers enhanced professional

development training through online seminars and short

webcasts, in-depth how-to reports, research, interactive

planning tools, online courses, and in-person events. Market-

ingProfs helps the smartest marketers worldwide turn even

the toughest marketing challenges into success stories. Basic

membership is free — register now: marketingprofs.com

Awareness is the leading provider of enterprise-class, on-

demand social marketing management software (SMMS)

for marketers to publish and manage social content, engage

with their audience and measure the e#ectiveness their so-

cial media activities across multiple social media channels.

The Awareness Social Marketing Hub is built upon Aware-

ness’ expertise with some of the world’s leading brands and

marketing agencies including MLB, Sony Pictures, Comcast,

Likeable Media, Associated Press, Cox Communications,

Mindjumpers and American Cancer Society.

Backed by NorthBridge Venture Partners, Awareness is head-

quartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

About The Awareness Social Marketing Hub

The Awareness Social Marketing Hub is built to address the

challenges marketers face managing multiple social chan-

nels. The Social Marketing Hub is the !rst enterprise-class ap-

plication for serious marketers who want to plan, implement

and measure meaningful social media strategies across the

organization.

Documents

Video Essential