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How to Market Your Business With Online Videos

April 23rd, 2012 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

Online videos are becoming a more important part of the marketing mix for businesses, according to a November 2011 study by the e-tailing group and Invodo and reported by eMarketer. Specifically, product videos are attracting and holding consumers’ attention, the study found. U.S. consumers who find product videos on websites watch them 60 percent of the time. In fact, 36 percent of respondents reported having watched at least five product videos on brand or retail websites in the prior three months.

So how can you benefit from product videos?

Keep it short: Videos should generally be kept at 3 minutes or less, while providing education about your product. A full 85 percent of survey respondents said they would spend at least one minute watching a video that educated them about a product they were interested in buying.

Demonstrate your product: Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they would spend at least a minute watching a video that included a demonstration. If a video didn’t have a product demonstration, the percentage of respondents who would spend a minute watching dropped to 65 percent. In addition, 30 percent would spend more than 3 minutes watching a product demonstration video.

Provide useful information: Useful information is key to getting customers to watch more than once. Two-thirds of respondents said they would watch videos containing large amounts of information about a product several times before deciding whether to make a purchase.

Make it quality: In addition to information, good production values were key. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondents said they consider companies whose videos have high production values more reliable, and 53 percent reported being more engaged with those types of videos.

Spread it around: Your website isn’t the only place to put product videos. Nearly half of respondents said they also view product videos on YouTube and 39 percent had done so on Facebook.

eMarketer predicts the most growth in online video in the next few years will come from new audiences such as seniors, who are becoming more comfortable purchasing products online. Already, eMarketer reports, a projected 170 million Americans will watch online videos this year. That’s more than half the U.S. population. If you’re not already doing online video, what are you waiting for?

Image by Flickr user pthread1981 (Creative Commons)

The views expressed here are the author's alone and not those of Network Solutions or its partners.

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Posted in Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Uncategorized, Videos, Web Design | 4 Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Uncategorized, Videos, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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  • http://www.denisefay.com/ Denise Fay

    Good information re video marketing becoming a vital part of the marketing mix. It’s something that I want to do in 2012 myself.

    But my question is this: How do you get started? If production values are important, does that mean that really you should go into a studio and do your videos there? Rather than use your home computer or camera to shoot small videos?

    That’s my dilemma at the moment and it’s stopping me from getting started. Any advice?

    Thanks
    Denise
     

  • Marton

    You can either do the DIY approach or work with a professional business video production company to create and distribute your videos.  I’d be happy to talk with you more about company videos and product videos. — http://www.brandefy.com

  • Dennis Minor

    Denise: the subject of “high production values” does not have to be complicated or scary. People often think that it means “high cost” and that is a fallacy. Some of the best marketing videos have been done for very little expenditure, some of the worst have had very high budgets.  What separates them is the content and the understanding of how to spend the budget, whatever it’s size, wisely.  At the end of the day, its the quality of the story and the ability to tell it well that will keep potential clients watching.  It is an old adage but even after 30 years in the broadcast advertising/marketing films business, I still find the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) to be a good starting point for any production even multi-million dollar ad shoots. Know your clients (customers), know how to tell your story simply, and then hire the best production people your budget allows. With the low cost of high quality equipment today, some of the most professional production talent available are much more affordable than you might imagine. Oh and don’t be afraid to borrow basic ideas from the millions of videos already out there. I’m not saying steal concepts but watch as many marketing videos you can to get an understanding of what you find interesting and effective compared to what you find stupid and offensive.  You are not only a marketer but also a potential client to other marketers so use your own taste level as a guide.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  And most importantly remember, the only difference between those already out there doing marketing videos for their products and you is that they just started earlier.  Nobody is an expert when they start.  One last thing…. have fun doing it.

  • http://clickcontroller.myopenid.com/ Mike

    Have to agree with Dennis Minor on this one. A little knowledge goes a long way when it comes to producing videos.  You can do a relatively small amount of research into equipment, lighting and editing and easily produce the kind of product videos that appear on major sites like Amazon and TigerDirect.