Let’s start by clarifying this. When referring to “video,” I’m referring to well thought-out, relevant, results-driven video. Marketing video. Because… remember: video that accomplishes nothing is art…. and most of us don’t have room in the marketing budget for art.

Ok, now that we’ve got that out of the way… here we go.

Usually we evaluate all line items in the budget by the return it can bring. And returns are made possible by opportunities. So, what’s the opportunity?

Here’s a couple of fun stats from Forbes to get us started:

• 80% of Senior Executives are watching more video than they did in 2010.
• 59% of Senior Executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text.
Ok, Execs are looking for video. They’re clicking the “play” button. This is good news for B2B companies for sure.

More stats about those of us who don’t wear suits every day:
• 80% of us make online video part of our daily internet regimen.
• The average internet user watches more than 186 videos a month.

So, all of this begs the question: are you using video? Actually it’s too late for that question. The real question? HOW are you using video?

Here are some use scenarios for online marketing video:

Website conversion–when it comes to ROI, this is usually the easiest to justify. Its purpose is to convert web traffic into real business. It’s trackable. This is almost a no-brainer. The catch? You need to have incoming web traffic to capitalize. If you do have a decent amount of incoming web traffic, just think what a 5% bump would mean to the bottom line.

Here’s an example from an attorney’s website. This video helped drive the conversion rate to 17% in a special pay-per-click landing page campaign.

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Resource video–this is more of a soft sell. The call-to-action isn’t overt. The resource video’s role is two-fold. 1) build the website’s profile as a place that your targeted prospects or demo can come to find answers to their problems. 2) cut down on overhead by answering those “FAQ’s” that your staff spends time on every day. If you spend 2 hours/week on a certain reoccurring client issue, what would it mean to your bottom line to have it handled by website video? 2hours/week = 96 hours/year. Here’s an example from a Austin Telecommunications company that sells phone systems.

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Proof of Performance–this is what it sounds like. After a trade show, public event, charity race, etc., this video will serve to inform and engage targets with the message behind the event. Not all of us can go out to every event we want. Like me. I just had a baby, so I’m not leaving the house for about 5 years. It’d be great to see how it went. This video will take me there. Plus, the video can also serve to stroke the egos of sponsors & partners. This video concept works best when incorporating it into your eNewsletter and Social Media tactics. Also, people who attended will LOVE to see themselves on the video. This is where sharing online will be key.

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Hopefully you now know more about online video marketing that you did before you started reading this. If not, drop me a line and let the criticism rip. In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting the 2nd in this series. It will cover what makes for effective online video. This will include format, length, web page placement, etc.

Cheers.

Ben Cecil is the Director of Marketing Strategies at Unlimited Production Group (UPG). UPG helps business increase revenue by making the most of their online opportunities. UPG is an online video marketing firm that specializes in online video marketing campaigns that increase conversion rates and brand awareness. Engagement is paramount.

When it comes to search engine optimization, most companies only focus on ranking high in Google. This makes perfect sense, considering that Google is by far the most used search engine on the internet. However, while many agencies then recommend to go after Yahoo and Bing, it’s often overlooked that YouTube is the #2 highest used search engine on the web. As of May 2010, YouTube exceeded over 2 BILLION searches a day. This is only one of many indicators that video optimization is and will continue to play a very large part in online marketing.

Posting on YouTube is relatively easy and absolutely free to a regular user. The biggest barrier most companies have with using YouTube and other Video sharing sites is their lack of content (aka Video). While it may cost a lot to create a professional video for blogging or commercial purposes, there are several different alternatives available to small-medium companies. While I won’t get into all the details and options, video making sites such as www.animoto.com are a great start to look into.

If you do decide to create a video and begin promoting your business, here are three great tips to get you started:

1. Make video Relevant and View-able

Make sure you share a video that is relevant to your business/organization and will interest people enough for them to want to learn more. You can usually achieve this by having a funny video, adding ‘viral’ elements to the video, or using interesting imagery to increase interest. In addition to having a good video on YouTube, make sure to promote it on your site, and any partner websites you can think of. A popular video may not only increase your exposure, but also help your SEO rankings down the road.

2. Properly tag your video

YouTube allows video uploaders to add a variety of information to each video uploaded. It’s beneficial for you to add as much relevant content as you can (beside the video itself) so that search engine crawlers (Google visits YouTube too!) know exactly what your video is about and credit it back to your site.

Some of the tags you should pay attention to are: The Video Title, The Video Tags (aka Keywords), Description, Video Location (if your business has a physical office), Date of Video, and any citations/captions you have for the video.

3. Monitor and Interact with Commentary 

YouTube is a very interactive community. Part of what makes YouTube so powerful is the fact that people watch, share, and talk about videos of all sorts. Companies trying to promote on YouTube should attempt to interact with this community as much as possible, so that they can try to learn from prospective customers, share more information, and show the community that they’re active. So If someone comments on your video, whether its negative or positive, make sure to respond to the user so that if someone else has the same question/concern, you’ve already addressed it. It’s also important to monitor your comments and make sure there isn’t a lot of spammers attempting to gain links to their own sites.

YouTube can be a very powerful SEO and Conversion tool. Make sure your business is utilizing to its full power today!