Where do your customers find you?
In 2012, more than ever, entrepreneurs need to be where their potential customers are looking for their product or service. But where do you put your limited marketing dollars? It’s not print, it’s not direct mail, it’s not the Yellow Pages, and it’s certainly not telemarketing. You are smart enough to know that the web is where your potential customers look.
Your business website is the center of your marketing today. It’s the most accessible way for prospects to learn about your company and what you have to offer. And when they get to your site, they need to see the benefits of choosing your business, and they need to see it in a way that appeals to them.
After all, we now live in a world where people want what they’re looking for right now, and if we don’t find it in a few seconds, we’ll just look elsewhere.
Therefore, your message must be clear, concise and compelling. Within seconds, your website visitors will determine if you can help them.
And how do people get the quickest and most complete picture of what you have to meet their needs? The answer: online video.
Why put video on your website?
If you’re not aware of the web video revolution, you simply haven’t been paying attention.
Just over 7 years ago, YouTube was launched to host web videos for free, and in that short time, people are now watching OVER 2 BILLION VIDEOS A DAY, on YouTube alone! that’s almost twice the prime-time audience of the three major television networks combined.
Hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded to YouTube daily. In fact, every minute, an incredible 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
While these stats are staggering, you may be wondering “How does that affect my business?”
In these tough economic times, most businesses are finding that the competition for buyers is fiercer than ever. Today, staying ahead of the competition is vital to differentiating your business and attracting customers. Today’s savvy internet shoppers see one website after another, day after day. Sites that “make their way” to viewers present their message in an engaging way.
Web videos are a powerful Internet marketing medium due to the unique way they engage your visitor, transforming your site into an entertaining and interactive alternative to a standard text-based site. In fact, one-dimensional, text-based websites are becoming relics. After all, the text requires action and energy from the visitor.
By contrast, web videos allow your viewer to sit back and absorb YOUR message, as it is presented to them. What might take many paragraphs or even pages of text to communicate can be presented in just a few engaging moments. Web videos captivate and entertain site visitors, who receive YOUR message.
But don’t take our word for it.
Author Jason Prescott, in a May 2010 report, says, “Video marketing has become one of the best promotional tools on the web. Well-executed videos can grab attention faster than any other advertising medium (emphasis mine) as video continues to engage Internet users Research by eMarketer shows that 66.7% of the 147.5 million US Internet users watch online video on a monthly basis By 2014 , eMarketer estimates that number will rise to 77% of Internet users (193.1 million people).
“Online video has gained popularity due to the rapid proliferation of advances in video and broadband technology. This has resulted in the production of cost-effective premium video, a dramatic increase in traffic to video-sharing sites, and the acceptance of the online video in the market conventional.
“Consumers are receptive to videos on websites, landing pages, search results pages, emails and video sharing sites because they are highly engaging and self-explanatory. Video conveys information quickly and accurately, which makes it a great tool for marketers because consumers want to know more about the companies they deal with and the products/services they buy.” Video is a very memorable medium. A study from The Wharton School of Business found that video improves comprehension and retention by 50 percent compared to a live presentation. Other studies have indicated that video speeds purchase decisions by 72 percent compared to print.” (emphasis mine)
Who is putting web video on their site and why?
The short answers: all marketers with a web presence, and why it works!.
Author Mark Robertson comments in a Marketing Sherpa report that marketers currently using video on their sites are quite pleased with the results and look forward to using it in the future. It further reports that a PermissionTV survey states that “more than 2/3 of senior marketing and media executives identified online video as a primary focus of their 2009 digital marketing campaigns and budgets. More than two-thirds stated that they plan to launch online video projects in the first half of this year.”
In fact, video has now become the fastest growing website feature for small businesses.
Jeffrey Grau, Senior Analyst at eMarketer, recently wrote an in-depth look at using online video for business. He notes that retailers are “rapidly adding videos to their sites. They’re finding that videos increase sales conversion rates.”
And the future looks even bigger for business web videos. MultiChannel Merchant reports that video is a “must have” for commercial websites, insisting that site owners should “Get your site’s video program up and running. …videos can help your site sell more. Retailers have learned that… (video) clips can drive site conversion.”
In fact, a report using that very title by author Mark R. Robertson gets to the heart of the growing demand for web video. “Any form of advertising that captures the imagination of local, cost-conscious merchants has to be effective. And by that measure, online video is hot.”
He gets to the details. “It would be hard for small businesses to stay in online advertising if they couldn’t see increased conversions as a result. Small businesses rarely have the luxury of spending money on brand awareness campaigns. That’s why these increases in spending are -Shows that exciting online advertising is working for many small businesses.In my experience, these small business owners rarely make marketing decisions based on gut feelings.Even when they do, their focus quickly shifts from novelty from medium to measured effectiveness.In the end, it’s usually something quantifiable in the bottom line that informs and guides your spending decisions.
“The conversion stats are pretty impressive, with 35.5% of clicks leading to conversion actions.” (emphasis his)
It concludes by saying that “more small businesses are spending their ad dollars online, deploying online video, and targeting search…which leads to better click-through rates and higher conversion rates.” (emphasis mine).
In a powerful look at consumer responsiveness to web video, Sally Evans discusses a recent study in Marketing Sherpa. She says, “You’d be crazy not to get more involved with online video as a marketer. Why? Her study showed that showing video in an ad can increase responsiveness by 49.5%.” (emphasis mine)
In a recent white paper, author Justin Foster shares several reports on increased conversions from using video on websites. Some examples:
“The videos have been a hit so far. Testing them on laptop product pages increased conversions and increased accessory sales by 12% in some cases,” said Rich Lesperance, director of sales and web operations for Circuit City. .
“We ran an A/B test on 50,000 product detail page views on eBags and measured conversion rate on Omniture to track the impact of video at the product page level. What we found was that the rate Conversion rate increased 50.1% for those users who clicked the “play” button on the video compared to the control group, and 138.9% for those users who watched the entire video compared to the control group. control”. David Witzig, Ecommerce and Video Manager at ShopNBC.com.
“Ice.com, a web-only jewelry retailer, saw a 40% increase in conversion rates for products featured in online videos, says co-founder and president Mayer Gniwisch.”
Translation: Your customers watch video on the web before making their marketing decisions. And they’re buying based on those videos.
But this is still a large untapped area where your competition is likely to No taking advantage. By embedding web videos on your site, you will set yourself apart from your competitors.
But the benefits of web video don’t end there.
First, your web video can be a permanent part of your sales effort. While a direct mail piece or even a TV ad can generate business for a limited time, a web video stays on your site, selling for you for as long as you want.
And web videos not only do a better job of selling to your customers, they also help attract them to your site in the first place. Placing a video on your site can significantly improve your website’s search engine rankings.
Internet marketing guru James Burchill says: “Web video marketing is big business now that Google’s new Universal Search strategy includes videos in search results. According to recent research data, there is a 53x greater chance that your video appears on page 1 of Google. (for your selected phrase) than simply using a corresponding text-only input.”
Did you see that? 53 times better!
In another article, Burchill affirms what we have known all along. “Video isn’t going anywhere. It’s online and it’s here to stay. In fact, it’s only going to get better. So every marketing strategy, no matter what its goals, is going to have to incorporate video in some way.”
And now that?
So now that you know you MUST get video on your business website and other sites as well, now what?
One of the keys is that your video is made professionally, as the image of your company deserves. Professional equipment has gotten cheaper, so your professional video doesn’t have to be too expensive. There are many video production companies available that can do the work for you, but as always, check references and get a company that has experience. This is not a job for the homeless high school kid with a cheap camcorder…
