Better Internet
Video Marketing

There are a ton of way to promote your website with marketing video. I’m a visual learner and I love to see examples of good marketing videos so I wanted to share this with you.  The Commoncraft.com website is about two passionate people wanting to share their artwork and love for the crafts.They produced a simple creative video and submitted it to the video networks.  It was an interesting way to use animation that was fun, intertaining and captivates the audience. When people saw this they made comments like “i love the animation”, creative, Love it”. This is what social media is all about, connecting with people. Done right it is a powerful tool for increasing the popularity and getting traffic to your website.

Enjoy the short video about Rex The Dog.

Bubblicious from Rex The Dog on Vimeo.

Recent developments in technology and video advertising inventory are leading to rapid improvements in the categories of targeting, pacing and delivery optimization of video based media. Players in the video ad industry would do well to note these recent developments and exploit these technologies in order to remain ahead in the game.

In his article “Video Ad Platforms Begin to Add Value to Video Inventory”, Tod Sacerdoti notes that because of these developments, video ad platforms are evolving to add value to video ad inventory that goes beyond the traditional metrics of campaign execution and price efficiencies. He pinpoints trends in the above mentioned categories, giving us a clue as to the players who will ultimately acquire the lion’s share in this dynamic industry.

Providers with large inventory aggregators and video ad servers with proprietary technology are set up to benefit from trends in advanced targeting. DMA/ Zip targeting at scale, richer content targeting, video to display retargeting, and ROI positive video campaigns, as well as other improvements in ad serving technology and combined display/ video campaign execution are giving opportunities to providers to add to their video inventory and enable them to deliver niche targeted campaigns, according to Sacerdoti.

Despite improvements and the recent trends in technology, pacing and delivery continue to be big issues for publishers and providers. As more media buyers are beginning to demand more complicated pacing and delivery plans, industry players are increasing their focus to address these issues. Sacerdoti remarks, video ad servers, inventory aggregators, large publishers and long content providers are the most in place to take advantage of recent improvements which enable multiple pacing options, inventory prediction, and powerful storyboarding.

As media buyers’ needs become more complex, Sacerdoti observes a move away from the traditional meaning of optimization. He maintains that media buyers are now optimizing for cost per view, duration watched , click-through rates, creative and ad unit performance, CPC or CPA pricing. As such, providers who take advantage of the recent improvements in creative and ad unit optimization, CPC/CPA pricing, and integration of engagement, impact or conversion data are those most in place to deal with the needs of their clients. Sacerdoti notes those players with multiple ad units, large volumes of inventory and technology to optimize metrics are those most likely to benefit from the recent trends in optimization.

In light of these trends, it remains clear that technology remains one of the main drivers towards succeeding as a player in the industry. Exploiting the latest technology, however, does not ensure success. Amassing a large video inventory and taking advantage of the latest trends in video ad platforms in order to add value to that inventory are critical factors in order to remain competitive and profitable.

Technorati Tags: Video Ad Platform

If TV killed Radio then Internet Video will definately kill static web content.

Jacob Nielson wrote a report several years comparing the differences between TV and Video on the web. He said TV was much more passive for the viewer where Internet video is more interactive. There were also major differences in the location where you watch TV verses Internet Video. TV is typically watched lounging around your living room or in bed while Internet Video is watched in your office or form your desktop.

Despite these differences Internet Video is exploding! On line video is vastly becoming a must have tool for new businesses. The benefits are enormous.  For one you can access video at your own convenience and  not at some TV executives schedule.

Video provides new business with an opportunity to broadcast company news and information to their market. Think about how you surf the net. When you go to a company web site, wouldn’t it be more interesting to see a short 30 second clip about the company and their products rather than reading a boring block of text? Making a short promotional video doesn’t have to be difficult.

Another great tool for Internet video is the use of how-to clips and product information videos. Your customers will thrive on this type of information.

When you are using on-line video to promote your product it is important to upload these to YouTube as it is the second largest search engine in the world next to Google. By promoting yourself using Internet Video you are branding your company.

The next tool that a new business must use in their arsenal of marketing weapons are podcasts. I’ll be addressing this in the next post. Podcast is a way for you to build a community, a loyal following and customers that are responsive. There are currently over 48,000 Internet radio and Podcasts, and they are growing every day. Podcasts are a wonderful tool that allows a new company to connect with its target customers.

Internet video is simple to use and very inexpensive and will have the greatest impact on your success. If you need some help or advice please feel free to contact me and look for our new e-book that will help you jump start your way to Internet Video.

Have you ever wondered what the top marketing executives are going to do for 2009 and how that will affect their advertising video budgets? According to a study by the Marketing Executives Networking Group and Anderson Analytics the trend for 2009 is going back to marketing 101 basics,  customer satisfaction and customer retention. Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current customers. If your company is looking at decreasing costs you might consider looking at your customer retention. A 2% increase in customer retention has the same affect as cutting cost by 10% according to the American Society for Quality.

How will this affect your advertising videos? Well for one you need to focus on internet videos that improve customer satisfaction and retention. In our company we will be making more informative how-to videos as a way to help customers answer some of their questions. We look at our emails and our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and started answering their questions with video. The customers were delighted. They felt we were not just throwing up a quick answer but actually took the time to demonstrate the answer.

If you are a new business or a startup business then make sure you focus on what the customers want in 2009. Don’t be afraid to use video to market your business.

Technorati Tags: Advertising Video

What’s the secret to making better internet videos?

Isn’t it frustrating that some people look and sound so natural in front of the camera while others have to work at it?

One bright sunny day I was making a marketing video in my cramped little office. The camera was setup on my dark wooden desk overlooking my flat panel computer screen. I was concentrating and staring at the monitor reading a script while recording.

Two minutes into the shoot the phone rang. I picked  it up and started talking to a client. The camera kept rolling as I carried on the conversation. After a few minutes the call ended and I decided to just pickup where I left off with the script. I could always edit out the phone call during post production.

Later I was watching the video and I noticed something startling. When I started talking to the person on the phone my voice changed. It sounded much more natural. The tone was confident, strong and realistic compared to the “scripted” speach.

What had changed? Why had it changed?

It dawned on me just then. I wasn’t thinking about the camera any more. I was just talking the way I always do in my normal every day life. The script I was reading wasn’t me talking. It was too artificial.

The more I thought about this situation I realized I could learn from this experience. I started carrying a small Flip camera and just recording my every day conversations. I started making recordings with just family. Then I started recording my conversations with friends. Eventually I got brave enough to start recording my conversations with clients. I told them it was my way of taking notes so I wouldn’t miss anything. At first they were a littel aprehensive but very quickly go over it. As time went on I got more and more comfortable in front of the camera. Eventually it was second nature for me. It was if I was just talking to an old friend about their business.

Try keeping a video camera next to the phone and record yourself when talking with your family and friends. You will be amazed at how fast you learn to become more relaxed and natural in front of the camera. When you are making your Internet videos dump the scripts and just talk about the topic you know and love. Your natural and true personality will carry over and you too will get better at Internet video marketing.

Next week I’ll be at the MacWord event in San Francisco. There are rumors that the iMovie software which is in my opinion one of the best video editing programs out there, will be getting a huge update.

This update will focus on Internet video in the Cloud which will benefit the YouTube generation.

The new version will be web based and no longer a desktop application. Do you see the benefit here? You don’t have to worry about installing and loading your movies on multipld computers. This one feature would save you a ton of time. No more fiddling with confuguring each of your computers with  the desktop software.

There isn’t that many web applications that allow you to do video editing. iMovie in the Cloud would also offer users the ability to easily view their movies on iPod Touches or iPhones. This also means there will be a lot more Windows users now capable to use this product.

Apple is desperatly trying to close the gap between Windows and Mac users and this is defineatly going down the right track.

Technorati Tags: Best Video Editing