By Carl Weiss
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
The vast majority of people love watching videos. This is borne out by the rapid growth on Netflix online, Hulu, Vudu, Ultraviolet and other online service that have emerged in the past decade. Large movie studios and major networks are all scrambling to create a winning online video presence. So, why aren’t small and medium size businesses doing the same?
Today, everyone knows the importance of the Internet for promoting their business. Yet all too many website owners are reluctant to embrace online technology that is truly game changing. For example, a few years ago blogging and social networking were introduced. These technologies not only enable business owners to engage and interact with prospects and clients at the push of a button 24 hours per day, but they do so for FREE. Still, the vast majority of website owners continue to undervalue and under employ these business assets to this day.
That brings us to online video. Like it or not, YouTube is a fact of online life that is hard to ignore. Mashable.com reported, “More video content is uploaded to YouTube in a 60 day period than the three major U.S. television networks created in 60 years.”
Four Billion Videos are Viewed Every Day
Just to put the viewership numbers into perspective, today more than four billion videos will be viewed on YouTube. Last year, more than one trillion videos were viewed on YouTube. And do you know how much a company is charged for airing a video on YouTube? Nada. Zip. Zero. (Better still: YouTube is owned by Google.) Consider the following:
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- 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second
- Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
- Over three billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
- 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the U.S.
- YouTube is localized in 39 countries and across 54 languages
- In 2011 there were almost 140 views for every person on Earth
So why isn’t every business in the U.S. broadcasting flooding the Internet with YouTube videos? Beats me. When you consider every business owner in the US either has access to a webcam or smartphone, there’s no reason why every website can’t sport an “elevator pitch” video and several video testimonials about their products or services. If the problem is one of production value, there are thousands of video production companies that can help them shape and shoot a professional video for a reasonable fee. (We’re not talking thousands of dollars anymore.)
The ABC of DIY Video Production
How about doing it yourself? The first thing you have to understand is that bad video is worse than no video at all. What works on paper, when translated to video, can be as boring as watching paint dry. That doesn’t mean it takes Steven Spielberg to turn out must-see online TV. With a little practice, almost anyone can
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| Mark Schulze, Videographer & Director of Photography, Crystal Pyramid Productions, Videotapes Juan Vargas for a Political Television Commercial in San Diego. Photograph by Patty Mooney, San Diego, California. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
create corporate videos that are compelling and effective. The key is to create and deliver a marketing message by telling a story so that your audience will remember the message and act upon it. (You want to avoid creating a typical TV commercial. Effective online videos work by telling as opposed to selling.)
Online, it’s all about production value, not airtime. The first thing you have to understand is that web video is completely separate from the world of broadcast television, where the cost of airtime is at a premium and show formats are from 30 to 60 minutes in length. The most popular YouTube videos run anywhere from 90-seconds to three minutes. Online, less is definitely more. If you can’t say it quickly, don’t say it at all. If a prospect sees a run time of five minutes or more, chances are they won’t even watch it.
What’s even better is that once produced, a video can be used to put every other form of marketing you are currently employing on steroids. Have a blog? Embed the video. Want to tune up your tweets? Link your YouTube video to Twitter at the click of a mouse. Speaking of social networking, Mashable also reported, “YouTube says that on average there are more than 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link. Meanwhile, over on Facebook over 150 years worth of YouTube videos are watched every single day.”
QR Codes Can Bring Video to Paper
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employ for business purposes can be enhanced by the addition of one square inch of ink known as a QR code. How’d you like to enhance your engagement rate by a factor of five? It’s been shown that people are five times as likely to click on a video as read text. Do you think a 90-second video introducing your business, your offer and a satisfied customer might have a positive effect on your conversion rate?
Don’t take my word for it. ComScore.com reported, “According to the data from Nielsen research, as of January 2012, almost half (48 percent) of all mobile phone users have a smartphone.”
This fact alone should be a wake-up call to businesses large and small that QR codes, and online video need to be a part of every business’ marketing mix. It’s also a fact that already more people surf the web on their smartphones than on their computers. The latest 4G networks are designed to stream video faster than a DSL line.
So, if you’re still waiting for the movie to come out featuring your business, don’t wait too long or you might not like the ending.
In this article I discussed how video has become a domineering media on the internet, yet many businesses are still waiting to figure out what to do to take advantage of its use. This article provides ideas, examples and direction for producing your own inexpensive business videos as well as other ways to reuse and repurpose videos to maximize your return on investment.
If you found this article useful, please share it with friends, family, co-workers and associates. To learn more about this subject read, "Using Video as a Social Media Platform,” “How to Turn Your Best Customers into Your Best Sales People” and "The Future of Web Video – Candid Camera for Everyone," located on our blog. You can also search this blog by keying in "videos" or "YouTube" in the search box. If you have something to add or have a difference of opinion, place that in the comments section. Thanks for taking the time to read our blog and by the way, don’t forget to smile for the camera.
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Nice read. Video is indeed a powerful communicative tool. I especially like your inclusion of the Buggles' pix.
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