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Posted by Yelena Kadeykina
Wednesday, 28 July 2010

This guest post is by Gary Lombardo the Director of Product Marketing at Brightcove, the leading online video platform used by media companies, businesses and organizations worldwide to publish and distribute video on the Web.  Subscribe to Brightcove's  online video blog, and follow Brightcove on Twitter and Facebook.

 

One of the best parts of my job is the opportunity to speak with organizations using expressive media-- particularly video, as a core, strategic part of their business.   I'm fortunate because we have such a diverse group of passionate customers at Brightcove, many of which are entpreneurial start-ups, small companies or larger companies doing smaller projects involving expressive media.  (Many just joining Brightcove with the launch of Brightcove Express).  I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of their experiences and the lessons they offer for expressive marketers in a series of blog posts.

One of these companies is telegraph21 (@telegraph21), who is a brand new company that has put video at the center of building their business. 

I had the chance to speak to  Lauren Kesner O'Brien, Founder and Executive Media Producer for telegraph21,  a video magazine featuring the best documentary films and videos from around the world.  Lauren, and her co-founder Steffie Kinglake, lead a staff of passionate artists, web designers, journalists, and other creative professionals focused on finding documentaries and films in the far corners of the globe and sharing them with their audience.   Their goal is simple: To ferret out the best videos from Argentina to Kenya, and connect ordinary people with often hard-to-find, unique stories captured on video.  In doing so, they give flimmakers a venue to promote their work, and give an audience an ability to find non-fiction programming and art videos. They publish new videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and have already created a library of over 40 video assets, all of which are accessible on their site.  They just launched their site in January 2010 and have seen steady growth in that short amount of time-- having already blossomed to about 10,000 unique visitors per month.  telegraph21 has ambitious plans to continue to grow their business, with video at the forefront in doing so.

telegraph21 offers many key lessons from their early success, but the most important ones that apply to other businesses looking to make video an integral part of their business include:

 

  1. Establish your brand with your target audience and build your business model on top of that-  telegraph21 spent a lot of time thinking about a model for their business, and knew the most important thing they needed to do was to establish credibility and a following with their target audience.  Once they were successful in doing so, they could then focus on building a revenue stream, which they plan on doing through video advertising, website advertising, onsite commerce, and co-marketing events with artists and film festival producers. 
  2. Find niche, "long-tail" content that you can leverage- One of the most difficult aspects of using video in your business is actually finding content.  telegraph21 has been extremely effective in doing so, mainly by keeping the production of video content to a minimum and acquiring the majority of their video content.  They limit their self-produced videos to interviews with filmmakers (such as an interview with the director of a documentary called Between the Folds which you can see in the "interview" section below the Brightcove player), which adds color and variety to the featured content from filmmakers.  Just as important is finding content that is unique and different-- content that will resonate with their audience.  A key lesson learned from telegraph21 is to find niche, "long-tail" content which they spend time identifying and then making it widely available to an audience.  
  3. Wrap "value-added" content and social functionality around your video-  telegraph21 doesn't just publish their videos, but add additional content and social capabilities around the video to help drive audience engagement.  They allow users to comment, rate, discuss, send stills of the videos as post cards to friends, purchase DVDs of the video, and read interviews with the artists of the video-- all of which help create a fuller view of the filmmaker, and a stronger connection with content.
  4. Find an online video partner that is a partner in your success-   For an up-start business like telegraph21  that has put video at the core of their business, finding an online video platform company that was vested in their success was key.  They did not want to be burdened with having to be the technical video experts or building video functionality themselves, but rather looked to a company like Brightcove to help provide them that expertise.

Watch how telegraph21 continues to make innovative use of video to grow their business (especially if you're a fan of unique nonfiction documentaries)- tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Posted by Andreas Goeldi
Thursday, 15 July 2010

We all know that online video is big and growing rapidly. But when you look at some recent statistics, you’ll probably be surprised by just how big video on the Internet really is. And that shows what a powerful marketing tool online video has become.


1. The average U.S. Internet user watches 186 videos per month
That’s an incredible number. 183 million Americans watched a total of 33.9 billion online videos in May 2010 alone. For many people, online video has already turned into one of the most important sources of information and entertainment.
(Source: Comscore Video Metrix)


2. Growing like crazy: Facebook’s video views are up 239% in one year
With almost 500 million users, Facebook is by far the dominant social networking site on the web today. But one part is growing even more quickly than the rest of the site: Videos. Facebook users watched 245 million videos in May, and the growth rate is accelerating as more companies and people upload video to the site.
(Source: Business Insider)
 
3. More video is uploaded to Youtube in 60 days than all TV networks created in 60 years
Youtube is by far the dominant video platform today, with over 85% of total views. Even more incredible is the amount of video uploaded to this site: Every single minute, 24 hours of new video material are published on Youtube. That’s a total of about 12.6 million hours of video every year.
(Sources: ReelSEO, Youtube)
 
4. E-commerce sites that use product videos sell up to 45% more
Let’s take shoes as an example -- probably not the type of product that you would expect to do particularly well with online videos. But online retailer Onlineshoes.com says it sees a 45% higher conversion rate for customers who watch videos on its web site. And online shopping king Zappos.com says it sells up to 30% more for products that it shows in videos instead of just static pictures.
(Sources: ReelSEO, Internet Retailer)
 
5. 19% of small business advertisers already use video -- up from 8% a year earlier
Video is the fastest-growing web site feature, according to a survey of 12,000 growing businesses. And 33% of online retailers plan to add video to their sites in 2010, more than any other website feature.  
(Source: WebVisible, Forrester)

So there’s no question that online video is a phenomenon that is growing incredibly fast and is here to stay.

If you want to get started with online video, read our 6 tips to creating marketing videos.

 
(Picture: Orin Zebest, CC attribution license)
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Posted by Yelena Kadeykina
Friday, 25 June 2010

A friend of mine told me recently that he watched a video about a cool car tuning gadget that he wanted to buy. The video did not have any clear information on how to buy the product and he ended up never making a purchase. The key element that was missing in this video was a call-to-action. As a result, the company lost a client who was ready to spend $1,000.

A good call-to-action helps to avoid such situations and prompts the desired behavior from your viewers.

Here are 5 tips to make your video call-to-action effective:

1. Make your call-to-action dead obvious and easy to remember

Many of your prospects could just be passive viewers. You might be surprised but sometimes things have to be blatantly obvious to be noticed. Always add a simple call-to-action at the end of each video. Good examples are: "Learn More at www.[yourcompany].com", "Sign up for a free trial at www.[yourcompany].com/trial" or "Get a free sample by calling 1-800-555-5555." You can also put the direct link to the sign-up form in the description of the video. When you are creating a link make sure that it is easy to remember (i.e., www.[yourcompany].com/offer)

2. Your video should be short

At Pixability, we recommend that your marketing videos don't exceed 2 or 3 minutes. People absorb information much better if you feed it to them in small doses. Also, if your video is too long and the call-to-action is at the end, some people may never reach this point. Moreover, some people will never watch marketing videos longer than a few seconds. One way to address this challenge is to have your company’s website address displayed throughout the video. This way your prospects will know how to reach you.

3. Be consistent with the behavior you want to target

When you are creating a call-to-action, decide what you want your prospects to do. Don’t have a call-to-action that says “Learn more” and then direct people to a shopping cart. People will get frustrated. You have to meet your audience’s expectations.

4. Be focused and create a sense of urgency

Being specific helps to interact more effectively with your prospects. Use “Learn More” as a call-to-action if you want to educate people, use “Get Product Info” if you want to tell them about your offerings in detail.  When you include dates in your call-to-action, it prompts people to commit and act immediately. For example, “Receive 10 % off if you act by July 1st” and “Sign up by Dec. 1 to receive a free gift”.

5. Your video should have a clear purpose

Your video needs to answer the questions that your audience is thinking about when they start watching it. For example, if the title of your video is "How to Clean Your Car in Just 5 Minutes", don't talk about your company's cleaning product for the first minute and a half before you get to the tips. The best way not confuse viewers is to communicate your content as clearly as possible through the video title and keywords you are using to “tag” it.

As you see, creating effective calls-to-action isn't hard. What has been your experience? Share your best practices with us.

 

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Posted by Yelena Kadeykina
Wednesday, 23 June 2010

According to a study conducted by GetResponse emails containing video received 5.6% higher open rates than those without one. Click-through rates (CTRs) were, on average, 96.38% higher. Using video in your e-mail marketing will put you ahead of your competitors. Studies state that 80% of e-marketers plan to use video emails in 2010, while only 15.7% did so in 2009. So how can you make this work for your company?

Here are the three basic steps to using video in your e-mails effectively:

1.    Decide on your content
Think about your customers first. What content interests them? Video should add value to their experience. Make sure that your video matches the surrounding content and goals of your campaign. Your video should be consistent with your branding. Most importantly, add a call-to-action to your video content. Examples for a good call-to-action are "sign up for our newsletter at [your company's site]", "buy before July 1st & get 20% off at [your company's site]", "call us at 1-800-Company for a 10% discount".

2.    Add a video image to your e-mail
There are a number of ways to incorporate video in your e-mail. We recommend adding an image of your video player (sometimes called a thumbnail) to it. Link this image to the page where the video is hosted. Using video as a static image in your e-mail is simple and cheap.

3.    Track your performance
You always want to know which campaigns worked and which did not. How many people read your e-mails? Which links were clicked through to? At Pixability, we use Constant Contact. It is an effective and inexpensive way to track your marketing efforts. If you are looking for a free option, you can use Google Analytics.

Have you ever used videos in your e-mail marketing efforts? Give us your feedback.
 

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Posted by Bettina Hein
Thursday, 20 May 2010

Note: This article was origially was written as a guest blog post for Hubspot's Inbound Marketing Blog

Forrester Research has shown that you're 53 times more likely to get on the first page of Google's search results if you have video on your page. But it seems so daunting, right? It shouldn't be.Gone are the days when you have to spend $10,000+ on a video by acquiring a crew, hiring a director, booking a studio, etc. Creating online video doesn't have to be hard, nor does it have to look amateurish. If you follow these few basic steps, you can -- quickly and easily -- create a video yourself that shines:


1. Think The most important step in creating a marketing video is understanding your audience and your objectives. What content do your customers and prospects respond to? What is your goal for this video? For example, if you are looking to sell pre-fabricated chicken coops and know your audience is interested in chicken care, you could create video with educational content around how chickens need proper coops to thrive. Always think of your call-to-action: What do you want viewers of the video to do after viewing? Download your whitepaper on the advantages of prefab chicken coops? Go to your website and order?
Take 10 minutes and write down a bulleted list of the shots you want to take. Don't get bogged down with this. It is better to go with your intuition than to over-think a video. You will need less content than you think because a good marketing video should be less than 3 minutes long.
Now you need to get an easy-to-use camera. Hands down, I'd recommend a Flip video camera, with the Kodak Zi8 a distant second choice.


2. Turn On All the Lights Good light is essential for a professional-looking video. If you are shooting inside, turn on all available artificial light. Shooting outside is always a good idea. So if you're shooting chicken coops, don't use the brand new ones and shoot them in your warehouse. Instead, go to an enthusiastic customer's site and shoot their chicken coop in action. One caveat: never shoot someone with their back to a window, because it will black out their face. The same goes for shooting with the sun on someone's back. Turn the situation around. The shooter (you!) should always have the light on your back.


3. Hold Still Don't go crazy with the camera -- always hold your shots still. Don't chase behind the chickens with your camera in hand. Don't try to pan the landscape. Whenever you turn the camera on, count to 10 in your head and don't move the camera during those 10 seconds. Then turn off the camera, move on to your next shot and repeat. If you follow this simple rule, you'll improve your video by 100%.


4. Come from Afar, Then Get Close Okay, so you're at your best customer's farm. Before you get into all the details of the chicken coop, stop your car at the farm entrance and get a shot of the location (the farm's sign, the farm house or the mailbox with the name on it). Pros call this an ‘establishing shot' because it helps the viewers understand where they are. Also, get a few shots of the chicken coops from a distance. Then get closer.Very important: Don't zoom, just turn the camera off, walk closer, then continue shooting. Get even closer and show off the fine workmanship of your prefab units.


5. Speak Loudly While you're at it, you'll want to get an interview with your enthusiastic chicken coop customer. Customer testimonials are an essential element of marketing videos. People will believe other users of your product much more than they will believe a paid actor.
How to set it up: Find a quiet spot (no machinery or fans humming in the background, no crowds chattering) Get your customer on camera from the chest upward and tell them to speak loudly. Just ask your customer a few simple questions: What do you like best about our prefab chicken coops? How hard were they to assemble? Avoid yes or no questions.


6. Edit The shoot is over and all you need to do now is polish. This part can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Use easy editing software like Apple's iMovie or get help from someone who knows how to edit.
Important steps: include your logo, keep the video under 3 minutes and don't forget your call to action. Add royalty-free music to set the mood and tie everything together. Use simple, fade-through transitions.
Once you're done, use inbound marketing best practices to market the video. Upload it to your website and to YouTube. Add it to your email signature and link to it from your newsletters. Direct viewers to a landing page afterward to convert them into leads.
 

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