Now, more than ever, consumers want advertisers to speak WITH them, not AT them. A disconnect has formed between advertisers and consumers, because…
consumers feel as though brands aren’t really listening to them
that brands don’t really understand them
that brands aren’t willing to adapt their products/services based on consumer feedback
So, the way in which companies approach commercials and marketing videos has to shift. This is illustrated well in a short video that we posted to this blog last year, entitled The Break Up. Based on this change in attitude and behaviors, marketers and video producers have to be more focused on providing viewers with an experience. Tell them a story. The old marketing strategy (shove your product front-and-center and brag about how awesome it is) isn’t effective in drawing viewers in. Don’t misunderstand: There’s still a place for showcasing all that a product or service can do for a consumer, but companies have to be a bit more creative in how that message is communicated.
Even before YouTube, BMW was already buying into this strategy by creating a series of short films, starring Clive Owen as The Driver. Each episode featured Clive Owen driving a BMW vehicle, but the car wasn’t the focus of the story. The car was simply IN the story. If you had taken the BMW out and put any other car in, each episode still would have worked. There’s a reason why ancient philosophers, prophets, and teachers used parables to instruct; it’s because people learn and retain information best through stories. Think about how you can utilize storytelling techniques in your own videos to market your company, products, and services.
Southwestern Consulting is a company committed to developing sales leaders through business coaching services. They were ready to produce an updated testimonial video and hired us to produce a new video with a more professional, polished look. We spent a day shooting five different Southwestern clients and edited their comments into a cohesive overview of the positive impact a business coach can have on an individual’s career.
SEO firms and marketers agree that placing videos on your website will not only encourage visitors to stay longer and interact more with your website, but it will help boost your site’s SEO. And if you also upload those same videos to various video hosting sites (and optimize those videos by naming and tagging them appropriately), you can drastically increase your content’s search rankings. Consider this quote from SEO guru Bruce Clay, of Bruce Clay, Inc.
…In the case of video, we believe that as one of the more important engagement objects, google has actually started to build it into the algorithm. To us, that means if your website has engagement objects on it, video or mp3… it is going to be received by the algorithm better and your site will actually have an opportunity to rank better.
*Source: Engagement Objects – Without Video, Your Website will NOT Rank in Google http://www.reelseo.com/engagement-objects-seo/#ixzz1WcQ54nuo
And this quote was taken from an article written in 2009, so consider the advancements Google made in their search algorithms over the past two years. Each day, those algorithms are more capable of crawling and indexing video content. Videos are now showing up more and more prominently in search results. In fact, videos may rank higher than your actual website. And you can take advantage of that by linking back to your website on every video you upload.
So, if you are interested in distilling information about yourself, your company, your team, your products, or your services, and you want to rank higher in Google search results, consider using video to increase your online visibility. You may want to start off with something simple, like a testimonial video from your clients/customers, or a stand-up, elevator-pitch-style video that introduces yourself to viewers. From there you can continue to build your video collection.
Engagement is the buzz word in the social media marketing world right now. I’ve even posted articles on this site pertaining to the importance of marketers creating content that will engage an audience. As online video grows, so does the need for marketers, advertisers, and video producers to measure a consumer’s interaction with those ads. According to eMarketer (as reported by Daisy Whitney in her August 16th episode of The New Media Minute), one-third of all online display advertising will consist of video by 2014, so there is a lot riding on the effectiveness of those videos. Marketers define video ad engagement in several different ways. In The New Media Minute, Daisy Whitney highlights a few of these:
Time spent watching the video
Interactivity with the video (i.e. “clicking”)
Purchase intent
Sharing or commenting on a video
Funny, emotionally touching, informative video content
With video continually on the rise, the pressure is on to ensure that your videos stand out. So, what are some ways to boost engagement rates? According to eMarketer, advertisers will need to so a little research:
Find out where people are watching video.
Look at where a viewer goes next, after watching a video. This is a good indication of whether the consumer is wanting to learn more about a product or service featured in the video.
Analyze time spent watching each video, and count the number of viewing sessions (i.e. Do viewers come back to watch the video again?)
Pay close attention to the demographics of the viewers to make sure that videos are reaching the right audience.
Create branded videos that connect emotionally with customers and provide useful information about products and services.
Knowing the viewing habits of consumers and learning about where your demographic hangs out online will provide you with the assurance that the video content you create is targeted appropriately and distributed to the right websites.
Brands are really starting to embrace interactive video content, which gives viewers options of what they would like to see while the video plays. It’s an excellent way to boost consumer engagement, while increasing the amount of time a potential customer spends with one particular brand. Video producers and marketers are not only interested in video views, but also on completed video views. Recently, Coca-Cola Germany released this interactive video for Sprite Zero. It features a skateboarder launching himself off of a ramp and doing tricks while in mid-air. However, viewers have control over which tricks they want to see. By using keyboard keys 4 through 9, viewers can skip certain tricks, replay others, and create a customized sequence. It’s interesting to note that the producers chose to minimize branding, because, “[We] wanted the focus to be on the content and interactivity.” So, how can you incorporate this kind of video content into your marketing efforts to draw your potential customers into learning more about your products and services?
