DeLoca also adds that the use of live video on a Web site offers tremendous opportunity for marketers to reach consumers, putting a spin on the traditional webcast. Instead of simply having webcast registrants viewing PowerPoint slides and listening to audio, adding live streaming video of the presenters enhances the user experience.
Note that video content can be obtained from the growing sector of custom publishing services, which includes companies like Pluck and MindBlazer.
How to Implement It
With sites like YouTube and many Web video companies out there, creating an online video strategy is a very doable proposition. The FeedRoom encourages its clients to use their Web sites as the central distribution hub, placing videos directly on the homepage and throughout the site that then can be disseminated around the Web from there. Nutt and Pournelle agree, and also suggest posting videos you own directly on YouTube or other social media sites can be effective as well. The key is to integrate video across all online communications.
When posting on a third-party site or blog, it’s crucial to have backlinks to your site and to make sure your video is keyword-targeted for the terms consumers search for. This ensures better rankings with search engines and drives browsers back to your site. And that’s increasingly important with unviersal seach, where videos seem to be getting better rankings and video thumbnails are showing up on the first page of search engine results. On your site itself, it’s important to not simply have a video section, but to embed single video clips throughout the site. For instance, on product pages, have video that shows the product in use with more information so consumers get a better understanding before making purchasing decisions.
DeLoca and Nutt stress that it’s important to track everything, using digital asset management and optimization strategies/tools to see what type of video is most effective—and what video can be added that consumers are searching for.
Who Does It Well
DeLoca says two standouts in online video are General Motors and Barnes & Noble. GM uses video for all its online communications: public relations, internal communications, marketing. The entire Web site leverages video, from the pressroom, where it has the latest news from new CEO Chris Henderson and updates on individual brands—such as the shuttering of Pontiac—to live video webcasts, sometimes open to the public, like when GM announced its re-emergence from bankruptcy.
Barnes & Noble, known primarily as a store retailer, has been using video to build a sense of community. Right on the homepage, there is a set of video clips browsers can watch. From there, Barnes & Noble creates product-specific video content, including video as part of the buying process. And it’s more than just reviews. The videos on the product pages often explain more about the selected book or DVD, even providing interviews with the author in some cases, giving the customer much more insight into the product.
What makes both companies so effective with Web video is the integration across their entire Web presence, giving consumers deeper and richer online experiences. The use of online video is quickly becoming an expected feature. Have a strategy in place to leverage this emerging technology to enhance your online marketing efforts.
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