Changes are always happening online! Internet users are being more proactive from reading plain emails, news and information, viewers are growing to sharing blogs, photos and videos via social networks and multimedia websites. These web revolutions open doors to crucial creativity of advertisers.
As people are getting more into viewing and sharing videos via Facebook, YouTube, Dailymotion and other social networking sites, businesses are also making ways to follow them to monetize on this opportunity. With this in mind, advertisers are also coming up with new techniques and ideas to advertise their services and products using these platforms.
One of the methods being used by companies is online video advertising, more and more business accounts are being created on YouTube on a daily bases, and business are portraying their messages and products online using creative videos.
Advantages of Online Video Advertising
Click Rate: Users tend to click on videos more than clicking on image links and other advert banners, increasing your chances of your video advert being viewed by more users online compared to a banner image.
Stand out from competitors: Video advertising is a great way of standing out from your competitors, by offering and presenting your business in a different way, as users like to see something new and different, creating curiosity about the video online. Plus videos are more attractive and appealing then other presentation methods.
User Experience: By using online videos, it enhances your website and the user experience, also encouraging your visitors to stay on your website longer, giving businesses opportunity to convert more sales.
Attention: Visitors online don’t have time to go through paragraphs and paragraphs of text, as they may be busy or to be honest too lazy to read, they would rather listen and watch something for couple of minutes to get the message they want. Giving a perfect opportunity for business to pitch their services and portray their message in a 60 seconds video.
Networking: Networking is becoming more and more important online especially now in 2011, it goes hand in hand with SEO, and web exposure. Videos are being shared online all the time, you can submit a Video to YouTube, share it on Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites, before you know it your video has been viewed around the world by many. For example YouTube is mainly a networking site to share videos online, but due to the high demand and the way users have accepted videos, it has attracted many business onto YouTube, to use this platform to market and promote their services online.
Brand: By setting up a videos online, this doesn’t necessary guarantee sales and conversion, but for sure it is a way of building your online brand, improving click rates through to your website and showing users a different aspect of your business.
SEO: Advertisement categories ranges from simple texts, banners and then to videos. Right now, advertising through videos is a challenge to some. Many businesses are subscribing to advertising on videos because they see big numbers of people there and potential for business success. However, the marketing effects or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) results are still big doubts to some in regards to videos.
As Search engines crawl text contents but videos do not have that, just the text descriptions and tags mentioning what the video is about. It means that no matter how beautiful the movie is, the strategy to top the search engine ranks still depends on the text descriptions. Over the past year Google has started to give more and more importance to videos from YouTube and is also displaying videos above other generic search results. Once the video is made, submitting your video onto YouTube can boost your SEO ranking and drive more traffic to your site, as it can rank above other search results.
Ways of using Videos Online
E-commerce: You can record a video of each product you’re selling or your top selling products and show your users how it works and how others are using your product. This works out very effective as users can see the product in action before committing to buy it.
Testimonials: You can record your customers testimonials on a video share them online or on networking sites, along with having video feedback on your website.
Company Message: You could record a one to two minute long video, giving an insight and an over view of your company, along with its key messages, mentioning your services and products. This works well on the company about us page.
Adverts: Video adverts is one the most effective way of using videos online, rather than display image and banner adverts you can display video adverts on websites that accept this, along with also sharing your adverts online on networking platforms.
Demonstration: Sometimes users require a demo of a product along with a user guide manual, you can record a demo of how the product works or how to assemble your product and publish that video online, saving users time to go through your whole user guide, they can quickly watch a short video showing them how to exactly work the product.
Case Studies: Many companies are also now recording their case studies in videos along with a text format of the case study, showing visitors how they have benefited other users, what approach they took along with what was the final outcome.
Interviews: Depending on your industry, you can record live interviews and share them on your website and online. Interviews can be with your customers, suppliers, your success stories, and other individuals in your market.
Training: Online video training is a great time saver for any business, as you only record the video once, and you just need to divert your students and customers to that video, rather than going though each and every individual separately. This saves time for the business, and also gives flexibility to the user to access the training in their own comfort.
Today users are spending more time online, they are also getting more used to watching videos online whether it’s a short clip or a movie its bringing in more audience. As time goes on and the internet advancements rapidly grow, there is a big chance that one of these days, online videos will not only give great experiences to audiences yet good conversion results to marketers and advertisers to.
Are you currently using videos in your business online and share with us in the comments different methods you have tried, along with your success.