B-to-B : Video, the Last Frontier
4 critical factors for successfully using online, mobile video
September 2011 By Wayne WallI received my DMA:2011 Conference and Exhibition magazine for the big annual event in Boston this year. I scanned the 31 direct marketing topics the event would cover. Video? Video? Conspicuously absent as of late July, even though the DMA:2011 conference homepage features a video that one might conclude is intended to lure registrants to the event.
Most members of the direct marketing industry, other than DRTV practitioners, don't grasp the impending impact that online video with viewer tracking will have on the $180 billion direct marketing industry. The ability to deliver and track video on smartphones and tablets is suddenly critical for successful video direct marketing.
Why Video Matters
A 2010 report from Cisco found that 30 percent of Internet traffic is currently video. By 2013, 90 percent of Internet traffic is projected to be video. In October 2010, 65 percent of U.S. executives surveyed by Forbes indicated they visited a vendor's website after viewing a work-related online video, 53 percent conducted a search for a vendor/product/service for more information and 42 percent made a business-related purchase. Online video also drives much higher engagement and response rates than static text and graphic content, according to an array of reputable industry research reports.
More than 75 percent of business executives regularly view online video content, according to Interactive Media Strategies' "Enterprise Video Communications Survey," Q1 2011. Forrester Research reports two to three times higher email clickthrough rates when video content is embedded. Online viewers spend an average of 1.5 minutes with video compared with an average of eight to 10 seconds on static graphic email messages, according to MarketingSherpa. Video ads generate four- to seven-times higher engagement and response rates compared to static ads, according to DoubleClick.
Based on these numbers, the ubiquity of online video and the huge appetite for video content among all generations, it makes you wonder: "Why isn't the direct marketing industry embracing online video?"
Online video offers a great upside for direct marketing, but it is uncharted territory for most B-to-B marketers. Video requires a different set of technical, creative and marketing skills than print, paid search and email marketing.
The good news is new video technologies and improved production efficiencies are making online video direct marketing less complex and much more affordable.
There are four critical factors for successful B-to-B online video direct marketing:




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