Overall, there is no one road on the saturated internet highway! Inbound is good but outbound is still needed to make it all work. Whether B2B or B2C it has always been best for your client to be in front of you; however, if you are in front of them then what? Ask Sidney from http://www.sidneyandcompany.com about us, talk
return of Investment and what this really means. Clients need to be able to See, Hear, and Read – you and your business! So if they are hiding behind their email and cell, then what’s the best strategy – video. Yes I am selling, but am I telling the truth, does it work, and is it affordable? The good news is there are many paths to success. As in life, by planning ahead and finding out how video can best supplement your organization, you can transform your business into black instead of red.
They say create deeper relationships – okay what about the effective communication and sense of “connectedness” that we’ve been missing. Video (and a phone call) goes a long way, it’s a key element of this shift because it changes the way we collaborate and share information with colleagues and customers.
As consumers, we are well aware of the attraction of video. In 2012, video eclipsed all other marketing data as majority of consumer’s Internet traffic for the first time, with 48 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute – more like eight years worth of content every day. By 2018, video on the Internet will more than quadruple. This translates to about 1 million minutes or more of video sent across the Internet every second. Expect cells phones to follow.
These numbers aren’t surprising. Video is expanding across many industries, including manufacturing, high-tech, banking, retail, healthcare, government and education. A majority of Fortune 500 companies are utilizing video to cut travel costs, scale resources and expertise, and provide a more engaging level of customer service.
“How Can We Use Video?”
The question today is “How can we use video? And how do we make it pervasive?” Businesses must find the right approach for their organization, identifying where video can add the most value, and then thinking through an architecture for video so that technologies can integrate and work together.
That may sound daunting only if you don’t hire a professional, but with the right one comes tremendous opportunity. IT can become a valuable, strategic advisor for this endeavor by directly impacting how business functions, such as: marketing, HR, and organizational communications perform. Video can improve internal productivity and business growth.
As you begin to think about your video strategy, here are some critical steps to consider:
1. Dedicate Resources Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. Everyone worries about budget. Dollars are tight. Every organization is trying to do more with less.
However, you don’t have to spend millions to outfit your own studio and hire a dedicated video team.
Ideally, you’ll produce enough content for different stages of the customer journey and release a new video every couple of weeks. That may sound excessive, but you can dedicate the right resources without breaking the bank.
If you can only invest in one dedicated hire, a videographer is a good place to start. A strong videographer can shoot and edit all of your footage and produce at least one short video per week or month for …ask us about our membership secret to affordability?
And you don’t need a formal studio and top-of-the-line equipment. Quality is important, but so is authenticity. Shoot in the office instead of a studio, and you can get a great HD-quality camera for a few hundred bucks.
Your viewers will be more impressed by your smart, funny and helpful videos than whether the lighting is just right.
2. Figure Out What Stories You Want To Tell For most organizations, there’s no shortage of potential video content. Think about your audience and what you want them to know about you.
A good first video is an explainer about what your company does and who you are. Then you’ll want to create videos for every step of the marketing funnel. It’s said that buyers do more than half their product research independent of vendors, so you’ll want to provide videos for every step of that journey.
Fun campaign videos can bring pain points to life and humanize your brand. Product demo videos can quickly educate audiences and build trust in your offers.
Interviews with thought leaders and customers can inspire audiences and quickly build trust in not only what you do but also why you do it. And as buyers engage directly with your sales team, personalized videos can help bring the human element back into the digital selling process.
3. Show People Not Just Products Product explanations are important, but they don’t always make the most compelling stories. Interview members of the C-suite to put a human face on the company.
Involve customers by featuring their success stories. Let your partners talk about their businesses and why they work with you.
4. Keep Them Short As any filmmaker can tell you, editing is one of the toughest steps. All that content you shot is great. Everything your company does is amazing. You couldn’t possibly do it justice in one minute.
Unfortunately, viewers have short attention spans so you have to keep it short, especially in the beginning.
As you bu
ild your video library and measure viewership, you’ll start to see where there is demand for longer in-depth videos.
5. Never Fade To Black (In some cases is necessary – updated) If your viewer has watched to the end of a video, don’t just leave her with a blank screen. Provide a call to action pointing to related case studies, research or white papers.
Recommend a related video or give her contact information to learn more. Promote an upcoming webinar.
You can even add calls to action within the video — for example, a quick poll question halfway through — to help gauge interest.
6. Be Smart About Where People Can View Your Content It’s tempting to pop your videos on YouTube or your own website. The best strategy is to do both — and Facebook, too, now that it’s enhanced its video capabilities.
YouTube is great because it performs well in Google search results. Plus, it’s free. But you sacrifice control. YouTube could refer your viewer to unrelated or, worse, competitive content.
You should complement free channels with a dedicated and secure hub for videos on your own website. Not only do you keep control, you also can better measure viewership, which leads to…
7. Prioritize Measurement And Analytics Measuring performance is the only way to know whether you
r videos are successful. Don’t settle for vanity metrics such as the number of views. That won’t lead to more leads and deals.
Collect data on how your videos are watched and how viewers engage wit
h them. Check the duration of views, repeat views and drop-off rates. That data helps you know whether your videos are working.
Even more powerful: Track those stats down to the individual viewer. Your sales team would pursue a lead who has watched three videos all the way through differently from one who turned one off after 10 seconds.
I realize this is a lot to think about. Ten years ago, marketers were intimidated and skeptical of using social media, too. Today, nearly every company in the world dedicates resources to social media. Some have teams of people working on it.
Video is on the verge of taking off, too. The challenges of getting started are minimal compared with the rewards you’ll reap.
Again, there is no one road toward the best video strategy. The good news is there are many paths to success. By planning ahead and identifying how video can best supplement your organization, you can transform your business and directly impact its success.
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