Engage, Entertain, Elevate: Use Online Video to Your Advantage

It’s easy to lose track of time while watching your favorite classic “Saturday Night Live” skits, one after another, not on DVD but on Hulu.com. Use random keywords to search for clips on YouTube and you never know what you might come across. Online video is engaging, entertaining and can elevate your brand and awareness to new levels … if you know how to make it happen.

Companies like General Mills (for Chex Party Mix), Fox News, Discovery Channel and Gardner Bender are seeing online video is a viable and cost effective option to build relationships with online audiences. And the best news is that it’s measurable.

Playing with Emotion

Maybe it’s obvious, but there are couple of merits inherent to the video medium: 1) the ability to capture emotion and 2) the ability to demonstrate complex processes or solutions that are difficult to explain. Both of these can be tough to communicate with words or pictures alone. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million or trillion. Of course, video enables you to combine words, pictures, music, emotion and so much more.

So why does emotion matter? It engages the viewer and strengthens the brand connection. By drawing you in, it helps you remember the message. For example, think about the famous “Crying Indian” TV commercial to prevent litter by Keeping America Beautiful.

Viewing Trends

If your target audiences are online, they’re probably watching video.

Nearly half (48%) of Internet users have visited video sharing sites like YouTube, according to a Pew Internet Project Data Memo from earlier this year. Across all age brackets Pew noted significant increases in the use of video sharing sites– 45% and higher – including a 76% increase in viewers ages 18-29. Women are flocking to online video sharing sites, demonstrating this point with an increase of 120% since 2006 (compared to an increase of 82% among men).

Why the dramatic increase? Broadband technology. Online videos are accessible by nearly every computer user – at work and at home. Also fueling this trend is the wide variety of video available online today, including news and sports, music and movies, commercials and even educational content.

Is the B-to-B community using online videos? In a joint research study by Knowledge Storm Inc. and Universal McCann, the emerging role of new media, particularly online video, social networks and Wikis, had a big impact on B-to-B technology purchase decisions.

According to the survey, 63% of respondents accessed online videos at least once a week. And, a majority of respondents are viewing online videos on a variety of business and technology topics. Webcasts top the list of most popular online video content with 70% of respondents using this format, according to the New Media Institute.

Experts agree that online video for the business-to-business community is a great way to open a new level of dialogue with customers. When developed to address specific customer needs, streaming video can be produced and promoted in the context of thought-leading segments – ultra relevant and progressive. Understanding your target audiences’ video content wants and needs is critical before embarking on this type of initiative.

Tips

Start Simple
Begin with the video footage you already have. For example, a 30-minute corporate overview can be divided up into several brief clips focused on single topics. A segmented “Our History” clip could be presented on your corporate Web site under the “About Us” section. Add it to your media relations campaign when you announce the company’s next milestone anniversary.

Consider the Competition
What are your competitors doing with online video? Video blogs, demonstration videos on microsites, customer-submitted how-tos or testimonials? Take a close look at your competitors and peers before creating your own plan.

Test your Tactics
Before creating an online demo for every product in your arsenal, test the concept. Survey your customers and prospects to understand their propensity to view online video. Do they distrust downloading files? What type of demonstration content will help them most? How much time will they invest in watching your video? By testing and then evaluating results, you’ll have the information you need to create a long-term plan and larger-scale rollout.

Combine Copy & Visuals
Online videos don’t have to be limited exclusively to video footage. High quality, visually impactful images can easily support your objectives and messages. Don’t forget to guide your viewers through your video with simple on-screen text to drive home your key messages. Conclude your piece with a strong call-to-action and contact information. Embed a link to your online contact information to make it available at any point during the video. Put thought into how you name/title your video as well. This will have a huge impact in encouraging your audiences to click, download and view.

Prolifically Promote Your videos – whether virally submitted, sourced from a third party or produced internally, need careful consideration when it comes to where you’ll make them available to your audiences. Your Web site is an obvious opportunity, but you can showcase and share your videos in a variety of ways:

• Posting to third-party social marketing and video sharing sites
• Sharing with media relations contacts
• Enhancing e-mail marketing campaigns
• Sharing within Intranets and Portals
• Posting to company and third party blogs
• Submitting to industry trade publications
• Incorporating into campaign-specific microsites
• Displaying at industry functions
• Making available to sales staff, dealers/distributors via PDA

Offline promotions along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing can play an important role in ensuring your target audiences are able to find your videos no matter where you’ve made them available online.

Who’s doing what online with video? Take a look at these note-worthy efforts:

• General Mills is out with a marketing campaign to reinvigorate its Chex Cereal Party Mix, which includes an online sweepstakes, videos and recipes. Visitors to www.chex.com/Recipes can access five, 15-minute microwavable Chex Party Mix recipes. They can also watch online video featuring lifestyle-cooking expert and campaign spokesperson Katie Lee Joel. In each, Joel teaches people to make the recipes and offers entertaining tips.
• Gardner Bender has made safety priority number one with its new line of voltage-sensing Circuit Alert hand tools. A publicity campaign is driving electrical professionals and do-it-yourselfers to the brand-dedicated CircuitAlert.com site where visitors can see and hear the unique products beep and flash when near a live wire or outlet is live. The video demonstrates how the products work and emphasizes how important safety is when working on electrical projects. See the demo at: www.circuitalert.com/demo_video
• Fox News Channel has created an outlet for election-related video segments on YouTube, aiming to cultivate an eclectic audience of Web surfers and build viewership for its TV programming. See it at http://www.youtube.com/foxnewselectionhq
• A video-sharing site designed specifically for K-12 students and educators, SchoolWAX, is a general online help tool for working with homework. It includes resources for language arts, math, science, social studies, and world languages, broken down by grade level (elementary, middle school and high school). Check it out at http://schoolwax.com/
• The Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” series is challenging the YouTube community to submit viral videos about myths they’d like to see busted on the popular cable TV series. Submit your myth to Adam and Jamie at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=290018A7BF3DC8FB
• Google will add video to its paid business edition of Google Apps, opening up a whole new category of online video: internal corporate video sharing. Customers pay for communication and collaboration tools and can upload videos of up to 300 MB, with no time-length restrictions, for a total of 3GB per account and unlimited video views. Learn more at http://newteevee.com/2008/09/01/google-launches-video-sharing-for-business/

And…Action!

Okay, you’re convinced…but now what?

You need a PLAN. What are your objectives? Who is your target audience? What are your competitors doing? What challenges might you face? Where will the footage come from? What’s your budget? What are your key messages? How will you promote it? What will you ask your viewers to do after watching it? How will you track your visitors’ actions? How will you know if your video endeavor is a success? So many questions to be answered before you forge ahead.

But, planning is well worth your time. A proactive plan will ensure your video is interesting and relevant to your audiences; and guarantee you are reaching those people. Strategic planning will also make sure your video is helpful, credible and leaves your audience wanting to come back to you for more. The bottom line: A well-planned online video initiative will help you get results you can measure and a return on your investment.

Grant A. Johnson ([email protected]) is the founder and CEO of Johnson Direct.