Lights! Camera! Action! To get the most from your ecommerce product videos, it's important to make them engaging. Take a look at these important tips to help your online business boost conversions with your product videos.
It’s time to pull out your director’s chair and make some killer product videos for your ecommerce site. Regardless of your experience or access to technology, follow these tips to make your videos a selling machine.
First, keep your videos short. No one wants to sit and watch an epic telenovela about why your products are so amazing. Keep it less than two minutes and try to make it flashy.
Next, demo your product. Remember, you’re trying to sell with these product videos. The goal here is to essentially turn your product description into an interactive and engaging video. Thus, make sure that you’re showing off what the product can do and why customers should purchase.
Along the same lines, it’s important to show the benefits of the product within your video. Don’t sit there and go through a laundry list of technical features. Instead, explain why those features are beneficial to the user and put them into a lifestyle perspective so customers can see how it will enhance their lives.
Fourth, include product close-ups. Have you seen those restaurant commercials on TV where they have extreme close-ups of the food? You know, the ones where they splash the lemon juice that makes everything fantastic? Your job is to do the same thing – your product video will complement your product images, so make sure that you zoom in and show your products in a good light.
Last but not least, always, always optimize your product videos when you post them to YouTube or distribute them elsewhere. Make sure you have a keyword-rich, engagin headline. Also be certain to include your tags and relevant keywords.
Following these steps will help your videos appear higher in organic search results and help more people find them. Hopefully this is helpful in making your ecommerce product videos a selling machine! If you have any questions, we’re always happy to help.
Since its inception in 2005 YouTube has grown from an obscure video sharing site to the go-to for companies, individuals and other groups to show off their best video content. As of 2011 the site offers a number of different options for video creators, including the Partner Channel where popular users can get paid through advertising, and the Brand Channel which serves as the "YouTube home" for companies and their brands. But as you'll see the question may not be whether you qualify but whether you can pay for it.
If you have a company, business, organization or brand and want to promote it on YouTube, then chances are you qualify to have a YouTube Brand Channel. The only way to know, though, is to ask. Before you can begin to set up a YouTube Brand Channel you'll need to contact a YouTube representative and let them know a bit about your business and what your goals are for your Channel.
The Application
The first step in contacting YouTube is filling out the application that's available on YouTube's "Advertising" page. Fill in the required fields including your name, company name, website and phone numbers. The form also asks you to give them some idea of your advertising goals, so give this some thought before you fill out the form. If need be check in with the other marketing people at your place of business or have a look at your business plan to get a reminder of your business' core values and marketing approach. The more professional and organized you present yourself the better. Once you've filled out your form it's a waiting game. Someone from YouTube should contact you within a week.
The Costs
Extra exposure for your business with a professional look is not free. If you want to create a Brand Channel prepare to pay. While YouTube does not publicly post a price sheet for Brand Channels know that they're not cheap. The Brand Channel itself may be free but according to other bloggers who have been there you have to buy advertising on the site in order to have the Brand Channel which could be several thousand dollars or much more. The only way to know for sure what it will cost your business is to talk with a YouTube representative by following the steps detailed above.
Other Options
So you've talked to a YouTube representative and perhaps determined that a Brand Channel is out of your scope or price range. Before you despair know that you do have other options which still could lead to increased profits for your business. A good way to start is with a regular YouTube Channel which is free and open to anyone. By posting regular videos and promoting them on your social media sites, your company newsletters and in any other marketing chains you currently have, you could slowly develop a following. Once you've created a body of work and have a collection of subscribers you can apply for YouTube's Partner Program which allows you to get paid when users view ads alongside your videos. Over time all of this could lead to enough revenue to allow you to afford a Brand Channel for your business.
Finding a way to unleash the power of video in social can be essential to your brand's long-term success. In fact, according to Cisco, social video will account for 69% of consumer Internet traffic by 2017.
However, cracking the code to video success on social networks can be mind-boggling: from allocating budgets to measuring results, to finding the right audience on the right platforms.
So what might be helpful for you to know before your next campaign? Here are some tips to help you win in one of the most competitive advertising landscapes.
Apply traditional planning principles. With more than 1.3 billion Facebook and 271 million Twitter users globally, social can deliver as much scale as traditional reach channels. Combined with industry-standard audience insight, this provides brands with the unique opportunity to effectively distribute their video content and connect with potential new customers. Planning your social campaigns on reach & frequency (as you would in other channels) will ensure cost-efficient delivery vs. traditional video channels.
Go native. The ultimate driver of your video advertising should be to deliver the best possible experience to your audience. The new Facebook and Twitter video solutions provide high-impact premium video experiences in native environments. As a result, advertisers that use native video formats are seeing campaign performance up to 5X better then many leading VOD channels.
Personalize content. As marketers and advertisers place more and more emphasis on how to engage with their audiences, a one-size-fits-all communication strategy is convenient, but not always effective. Instead of sending out just one video to a broad audience, experiment with bespoke messaging for specific audience groups. Test lessons provide scope for future creative and targeting strategies.
Tell a story. A brand’s narrative is not limited to 15” or 30” video spots, and social video solutions allow for improved storytelling through depth of content and lasting customer experiences. Engaging content and use of sequential messaging delivers best results.
The combination of sight, sound and motion, with the addressability, measurement, and scale of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, means social media has the potential to be the most powerful brand-building medium yet, delivering as much scale and performance as any other traditional reach channels.
One of the most critical components of your Advisory Marketing plan is to stop chasing clients and start attracting them.
Today, we will show you a simple 3 step strategy on how to do just that.
There are two types of consultants and advisers : attractors and chasers.
Attractors do things differently than chasers and as a result, have a boat load of ideal clients in their lead generation funnel. Not surprising, they almost always make more money than advisors who follow the chaser model. Chasers spend the majority of their time on the hunt for new clients. They are often desperate for their next deal. Even though they spend the majority of their time chasing clients and attempting to close the deal, their closing rates are rarely better than their counter parts who use an attractor model. The chaser business model is like a roller coaster business – going from feast to famine and back again to repeat the never ending cycle.
But don’t worry, these 3 simple steps will show you how to stop chasing clients and start attracting them.
Step #1: Become an Attractor-
To become an attractor, you need to create a business that attracts your ideal prospects and clients. First, you need to find out what your ideal prospects and clients want, need, value and even fear. Once you find out what your ideal client wants, you simply need to deliver it. Chasers, on the other hand, are too busy selling or trying to sell that they don’t have the time to find out what their ideal clients want. Chasers generally believe they do not have the time to find out what their clients and prospects want, need, value or fear- nothing could be further from the truth. If they knew just how valuable it is to find out what their clients and prospects want, they would find the time to start asking questions.
Step #2: Find the Answer-
One of the biggest insights shared by Socrates was to never assume or tell but to ask, ask, ask. By asking your clients, prospects, centers of influence and reciprocal referral partners exactly what they want, you will know exactly what you need to do and offer to have a boat load of clients lined up wanting to do business with you. The best news about asking anyone and everyone who has knowledge of your ideal client, is that they are almost always willing to help you out by answering a few questions.
Some great questions include:
What keeps you up at night?
What is your top objective?
What has to happen in 1, 3, 5 years for you to be ecstatic about your financial situation?
What do you love about your current advisor (if they have one)?
What would you like your advisor to do differently, if anything?
How do you want to be remembered?
Do you have a plan to ensure that will happen in your estate plan?
Before you begin asking questions, take some time to create a questionnaire that includes all the questions you need to know to best serve your ideal client.
Step #3: Deliver it-
Once you have interviewed the people tied to your ideal client, you need to create a plan to deliver it. Your plan ideally includes the inner game, game plan and outer game. From your 12 month plan, identify the to-dos from most important to least important. Then determine who will complete each action. If you do not have the staff to ensure you complete the plan, hire another part or full time employee who can assist you execute the plan. The worst thing you can do is to start a plan and then stop it because you are too busy to execute it. To ensure you follow through on your plan, you need to plan for contingencies and do the upfront work to make it a reality.
The best advice is to understand that our actions produce our results. Consistent, right action produces consistent, right results just as inconsistent action produces inconsistent results. To ensure our actions are consistent, take the time to create a plan and do what is necessary to complete the plan to ensure you get the results you desire.
You can make the most informative and entertaining video on YouTube, but that alone won't guarantee you an audience of potential customers. You'll still need to promote your video in as many ways as possible to help spread the word about your startup.
Here are some of the most successful tactics for promoting a new YouTube video:
1. Promote it on your company blog.
Your company blog is the perfect place to promote your video to your loyal customer base. Talk up each new video in its own blog post, linking to it or even embedding it in the post.
2. Tell your email list.
When you upload a new video to YouTube, send a message and link to your entire email list. If you send out a periodic email newsletter, mention your new videos in it, too.
3. Connect to social media.
Mention your new videos in your tweets and status updates, and link to or embed them in the messages. Facebook, for instance, lets you embed YouTube videos in your status updates. Just paste the URL into the status update and Facebook will put the video in your News feed. Twitter doesn't let you embed videos, but you can link to them from your tweets. And on Pinterest, you can "pin" YouTube videos to your virtual pinboards.
You also can promote your videos on social bookmarking and news sites such as Reddit and StumbleUpon. When you post a link to your video on these sites, you can broaden the viewership beyond your existing customers and social media followers. Note, however, that self-promotion is often frowned upon on many of these sites, so do so as sparingly and subtly as you can.
4. Do some old-fashioned public relations.
While most companies focus their promotional efforts on the web, you shouldn't neglect traditional public relations. This means issuing a press release when you've uploaded a new or particularly important video, and also picking up the phone or sending emails to target specific news outlets, such as your industry's trade groups, publications and blogs. Make sure you include a video link in your press release to help online news sources link directly from their coverage to your video on YouTube.
5. Advertise on YouTube.
If you can afford it, you can advertise your videos on YouTube, using parent company Google's AdWords for Video program. Called TrueView ads, they appear on the YouTube site, targeting potential viewers and linking back to the selected video or your YouTube channel page. TrueView ads are pay-per-click (PPC) ads, just like traditional AdWords text ads. So, you pay only when someone clicks your ad.
Start by logging into your Google AdWords account and linking it to your YouTube account. Set a daily budget for the maximum you're willing to spend. Then, select a video to display in your ad and choose the type of ad you want to run.
Google offers four types of TrueView ads. In-search ads appear at the top of the search results page when users search for the keywords you select. In-display ads appear in the related videos section on the viewing pages for similar videos. In-stream ads are short video messages that play at the beginning or end of other videos. And in-slate ads are commercials that play before or in the middle of longer videos.
In-search ads are the best choice for many companies because most YouTube videos are found through searches. So, just like your website, you want your video showing up on search results pages.
The next step requires you to set a maximum cost per view (CPV). This is the maximum amount you're willing to pay for each click. You can start with just $1 per day but what you spend is really dependent on your budget. You then choose how to target your ad -- through demographics and interests or via keywords. Keyword targeting is often best for in-search ads.
Once your campaign is up and running, you can use the AdWords Dashboard to measure the performance of your ads -- including but not limited to number of views. Depending on the results, you may need to tweak your strategy and possibly create new ads.
Instagram has recently introduced video to its suite of options for users and advertisers. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images
With smartphones and tablets rapidly becoming the world's preferred method for connecting to the internet, brands are looking to mobile video as the next great battleground in advertising. Advertising tailored to mobile devices is growing rapidly as services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube and Sky encourage mobile viewing. Meanwhile, social media platforms are looking for ways to boost the use of mobile video ads.
Facebook, which gets nearly 60% of its ad revenue through mobile, according to its Q1 2014 figures, sees mobile video as a burgeoning area and is introducing a range video ad formats. These include Video App Install Ads, which enable marketers to drive downloads of their apps through video ads in the mobile news feed. The social network has also launched its premium auto-play video ads in the US (which play silently until clicked, after which the sound comes up) and is introducing this to other markets, including the UK.
Meanwhile, Facebook's image-sharing social network Instagram has introduced video and is striking deals with brands to create what is being billed as beautiful and memorable advertising.
Chris Jacob, director of product marketing at Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, believes that mobile video is quickly becoming a vital part of most marketing strategies. He says: "As mobile video consumption continues to increase, it is becoming an important medium for marketers to maintain brand awareness, build loyalty and influence the customer journey.
"Advertisers are realising that delivering engaging location and smartphone or tablet-optimised video is not only powerful, but is also becoming the best way to reach much of their target audience."
An attractive feature of mobile video advertising via social networks is the sophisticated audience targeting and analysis that is now possible. Jacob points to other advantages, such as tapping into the always-on customer environment and reaching potential consumers when they are most engaged. Jacob says that customers are engaging with mobile video more actively too, choosing to view the content rather than sitting passively through a standard TV ad spot.
To get the best out of mobile video advertising, brands need to use one of the ad management platforms that can guide them through what can be a complex process. Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud offers the Social.com service, a platform allowing advertisers to launch, manage and optimise their video campaigns efficiently and at scale.
Social.com enables brands to use their first-party customer data to better inform their targeting through Facebook's Custom Audiences product. This allows brands to supply Facebook with email addresses from their customer list so the social network site can anonymously target those users with ads. Meanwhile, social.com also offers features such as Interest Clusters & Draft Campaigns, which help boost return on investment.
Mobile video offers stunning prospects for advertisers to engage with audiences through the devices that they keep closest to them. They will need to bear in mind that there are differences between how people use their smartphones and tablets - tending to spend longer on tablets while using smartphones in a more functional way. But given the opportunities for targeting people by location, activity and through their social networks that mobile offers, brands are likely to build it into their marketing plans.
Video, an online marketing platform that has seen a sharp rise in use and effectiveness, is an often overlooked means for driving relevant traffic to your site – and generating interest in your campaign. An effective video initiative can also bolster your other marketing strategies.
Galactic Café, developer of the recent narrative-driven game The Stanley Parable, got it right.
Galactic Café sent customized preview builds of The Stanley Parable to well-known YouTube users who participate in Let’s Play videos. These users have a tremendous following that tune in for their first impressions of new games.
The developers engaged these YouTube users directly through dialogue in the game. The result: Plenty of organic, viral interaction about the videos that boosted traffic for these YouTube users’ Let’s Play video as well as sales for Galactic Café.
A recent B2B Benchmark Survey revealed more than 90% of marketing respondents used video on a site, second only to the learn more/contact us option (nearly 100%). Video topped white papers and case studies (84%) and even live demos with company representatives (just less than 80%).
We’ll discuss ways to blend video marketing into your online presence, and how easy it is to measure engagement and see results from it. With the proliferation of mobile devices as our primary means of Internet access, and bandwidth and speeds increasing with fiber-optic Internet, it’s prime time for video.
1. Crunch the numbers
Video content is easily subject to behavior analytics. Because video content is also tagged with keywords and ranks in Google search, you can use a video-hosting site such as YouTube to track interaction. Online retailers such as Amazon and Dell report an increase of as much as 35% when video is incorporated.
Video product reviews on Amazon nearly always appear at the top of Google’s rankings.
Takeaway: Video content is also easy to share via social networks, and software developers have prioritized video integration in site creation.
2. Reach customers on a deeper level
Our draw to video is subliminal, too. The concept of fusiform facial area suggests the brain processes categorical data about a person by facial recognition. Basically, the idea is that a person’s face is a factor in how they understand and process the message that person delivers verbally.
The right face on your video campaign can foster trust. A voice also translates your message in an essential way.
Takeaway: A face, a voice, and most of all, emotion, convey what language alone cannot.
3. Grab attention
Words and images are static. Page viewers are increasingly scan readers. It takes notable effort to read a 300-word blog post, especially compared to a simple click of a video play button. When visitors hit that button, it gives you the chance to actually talk to your prospect. It’s your window to their home.
Takeaway: Video is an extension of the personal connection we wrote about above, but with a familiarity of having “met” you through your video.
4. Let your followers sing your praises
Happy customers are gold. You can harvest recorded testimonials at a tradeshow, and it’s best to get as many as you can – aim for at least three, maybe as many as 12. You can also hire a video crew to hold a one-day shoot. Know what key messages you’re looking for when you edit.
Takeaway: The Q&A approach will put your testimonial subject at ease, and will allow you to direct the conversation toward those key messages you identified.
5. Go forth and conquer
A marketing video on your site is just the beginning. Start a YouTube channel. Incorporate video on landing pages. Post them to social media and your blog page. They’re easily shared through these channels, and the more a video is shared on quality sites, the better your Google page rank.
Takeaway: You’ll reach exponentially more potential clients with a well-made, well-placed video than with nearly any other means of marketing.
