Whether you know it now or not a well produced commercial video for your business is going to become a necessity in the very near future. Being without a professional video will soon be equivalent to not having a website; it will be as necessary as it used to be to have a listing in the Yellow Pages. In the early 1990’s few businesses had fax machines. By the end of the decade your business was a dinosaur if it didn’t have a fax machine. Some things just evolve into necessity. When it comes to marketing your business being without a quality video of one kind or another will be tantamount to professional malnutrition.
And with the affordability of professional video production these days the argument that your business is too small to have a well crafted video is synonymous with arguing that you should close your doors. While I could be overstating the case for video I’ll let you judge for yourself.
According to the Unica State of Marketing 2010 study, video is the most adopted rich media marketing tactic today. Videos, created by marketing, rank first followed by streaming media, YouTube, podcasts, and ads within online videos represent the rich media tactics expected to be used most in the coming year. Year over year growth in the next 12 months for all these tactics is expected to be in the 20% range. Combine this study with what we already know about the internet. Search engines Yahoo and Google are the most visited websites on the internet. Number three is YouTube. Number four and climbing is Facebook. 99% of all videos viewed off Google originated from YouTube. And Facebook allows the posting of videos or of links to online video or streaming media. It’s increasingly evident that when a person is online they are looking at video more than they are looking at text or graphics.
The comScore Video Metrix service says more than 173-million viewers watched an average of 187 videos during the month of January 2010. Using video as an online marketing source makes sense when considering that over 32-billion videos were viewed on-line in January alone.
Search engine optimization or S-E-O is actually the most obvious reason why you need video in your marketing scheme. The people who run search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing see the same data and more that I just shared with you. So when you type into the search bar that which you seek and then click the search button the algorithms in Google or whatever site you may be using for your search heavily favor video as the answer to your query.
Emailing marketing is another vehicle in which video is becoming the dominant means of communicating a businesses message. According to the latest quarterly report from WebVisible more than eighty-percent of respondents said they used video in email marketing last year and will continue to do so, or they plan to do so this year. WebVisible is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company and leading name in local online advertising. In that same report WebVisible writes that the average small business investment in search engine advertising in the fourth quarter of 2009 was $2,149. That’s a 30-percent increase over the third-quarter and a 111-percent increase over the fourth quarter-2008. The data represents nearly $22 million in U.S. small business advertiser spending in Q-4 2009 from more than 12,000 individual advertisers.
And as I mentioned affordability is growing. Generally speaking a full 1-2 minute commercial shot and produced video is still going to cost you a couple of thousand dollars. Clearly a figure difficult for small businesses to come up with. But alternatives exist, slide show video production. A Renton, Wa firm offers full two minute video with text, graphics, scripting, and voice talent narrative is available for less than $300. Less if its only 1 minute. A Bellevue, WA video production company usually does high end quality video production, and it’s not cheap. But they’ve recently marketed a service in which a business owner who provides their own one minute script can read that script from a teleprompter while he or she stands in front of a green screen. They’ll impose his company logo on the screen beside him. And they’ll do all this for just $400. If the business person is a good reader, and clear and dynamic speaker it’s not a bad deal. Lastly, a few company’s offer serialized low cost videos. One website has a service in which short 30 second serialized videos are available affordably depending on the size of the file you wish to download. Of course, the larger the file the better the video quality. But the negatives are that the larger the file the greater the expense, and the longer it takes for that video to load and/or download on or off the internet.
Of course the cheapest option is for you to produce a video on your own. And just like most persons who take do-it-your-self tasks of any kind it’s very likely to look like you did it yourself and the poor quality of the video will reflect accordingly on you and your business. Just like you need a lawyer for legal advice, a doctor for medical care, and a plumber for plumbing service and repair; you need professionals for production of your commercial video.
With the exception of poor quality do-it-yourself video any form of video on your website, Fan Page, or email marketing scheme is helpful to your businesses marketing and branding goals which, of course have the ultimate goal and achievement of more customers and greater revenue.
Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.
Learn more about the author, Michael Schuett.
Michael,
"(video)...it will be as necessary as it used to be to have a listing in the Yellow Pages..."
Could NOT agree with you more. It's really a type of paradigm shift moving from the printed or flash page to movement.
You can either get ahead of the curve or wait and catch up........
Hey Michael,
Video is in the hot seat right now definitely! I did want to briefly mention that the algorithms don't necessarily give your website any brownie points for having video. The benefits of having video for your business from a SEO perspective is to utilize Google's universal search and have your 3rd party-hosted video displayed in the search engine results pages.
The key to getting your video indexed and ranked high is to build it's credibility through massive exposure in the social mediasphere, which will attract comments, views, or potential links. This doesn't do anything directly for your website, but the potential of increased traffic could lead to many sites linking to you because they found your content to be great. So in that sense, that would be an indirect benefit of having video.
Cheers Michael!
Michael-
Thanks for posting. All valid points.
The popularity of YouTube has certainly lowered the bar for what people will accept as watchable video... on YouTube.
But I believe that video for a company website reflects directly and immediately on the professionalism of that company. And the foundation of good communication is as important in video production as in any other medium: Know your audience, sell the benefits. The videos don't need to be slick, but good lighting and clean audio will go a long way to building a professional image. Some of the best vids I've seen (and I'm suspecting produced on a very limited budget) are the "Will It Blend" series at the Blendtec site. willitblend.com
So, keep it simple, keep it watchable, be ready to spend SOME money, and don't hire your neighbor's kid. There IS more to it than most people think.
My boyfriend works as a professional freelance filmmaker and videographer. There are actually a lot of cheaper options out there for small business (you don't have to spend $2000 to get a professional 1 minute video necessarily.)
He does a lot of web video for small business through this company: http://video.turnhere.com/filmmaker They were doing a free video offer (free production and then they host it for a few months free) but it looks like now it's $199 for a year of video hosting with free production. I think they're pushing for new clientele... it's definitely not a scam, I've had a lot of friends with businesses go through this and get some great looking videos. This is one that my boyfriend did recently for a friend's restaurant through this deal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MNiA9YguPE&feature=digest
Video is definitely an important part of a campaign. Several of my clients have Flip cameras and are using them with success. There's a lot more to filming than meets the eye though. I'm partnered with a film and video production company in Burbank, CA and I'm learning new things all the time I just never would have thought about. Like why video's skip or lag while playing is a factor the camera man controls, not just your video player.
Anyway, great article, pro video knowledge is the way to go if you're delving into video production for the first time.
Couldn't agree with you more. Video has definitely become a key element in marketing strategies. There are alternatives to spending $2000 or more on a good quality video production. It's not as time-consuming for the client as they might think. And there are videographers who specialize in serving small businesses. Thanks for your well-written article.
In my experience with the web, customers do not want to be sold to. There's nothing wrong with professional quality video, but if it looks too polished and commercial-like, it will more often than not be viewed negatively.
Customers really want interaction, good service, and valuable information. If video is part of that campaign, all the better. I'm sure everyone knows, but a video blog like Wine Library is huge regardless of video quality because Gary V is a real person who interacts with others... just something to think about.
Lastly, if you're going to use video content, please take the time to add closed captioning or at least provide a text-only transcript. No need alienating those who need to use assistive technologies, right?
My pet peeve is watching videos that get carried away with special affects... It's more important to get the key message across quickly, distinctly, and creatively then trying to wow viewers with animation that only takes up prescious time! And I agree that often times you don't want to be overly commercial. It's like hand writing an address on an envelope, rather than typing it. Good sound is very important regardless, as my little BizNik video deomonstrates... ( ;
As the owner of an audio/video production company, I appreciate you pointing out how important it is to produce a video to accompany your website, email, sales calls and trade show presentations. And while you can get a cheap camera, some software, etc. a professional quality video will reflect greatly on your business or service. Couple the quality of a good camera with a good director, script writer, audio track, announcer and high quality post-production and spend the extra money to get the best product that has been crafted by professionals. It will be worth it. Would love to discuss it further.
Some of the work I've been involved in purposely used a raw, self (not me) made video on the websites. The theory was that raw is real, (over) produced looks obvious that it's just about selling and as Michael comments can turn people off by looking too slick. Of course it's a fine line and can be hard to get the balance right, it will need editing still, decent lighting and decent general camera work, but an option to consider. Obviously it depends on your business too. I'm not sure if someone mentioned, but having videos on YouTube etc. is obviously good for incoming links for SEO. Cheers for the article Matt
Matt - Having videos on YouTube or other 3rd party video hosting sites will only create an avenue of inbound links to your actual site if you embed your video on your website and then provide additional content so that it's link-worthy. Otherwise, 9/10 times I see people going to the original source of the video and then sending a link to YouTube.
Cheers,
I'm very happy for the response and positive comments on this article. Thank you. Some thoughts on comments so far: A temptation in producing your own video is to make the video too long and too slick. As some have already commented this temptation should be avoided. I just clicked on a person's Biznik profile and was pleased to see they had a video. Then I saw it was almost 6 minutes. Being a busy guy I was reluctant to give up 6 minutes of my prescious time, but gave it a try anyway. Because of the videos size it stopped playing in order to "Buffer" at least 10 times in the first minute. And I have a high-speed internet connection. Frustrated, I gave up on the video. This "buffering" problem is one of the key reasons we, at Total Broadcasting, make our videos the way we do. While still being quality and professional, they are also smaller in size (MB) and thus load faster and easier for the viewer. Secondly, I am continually surprised at the number of web designers, SEO experts, and IT people in general who fail to practice what they preach in terms of marketing. As pointed out in the article the use of video (and audio too) is universally accepted as smart marketing and website SEO. And yet too many not only fail to use video on their own websites and profile pages; but they don't agressively encourage their clients to do likewise through partnership or referal to companies that produce video. And I hope nobody chooses to become defensive about this comment. Instead, if it describes you or your business, partner with a video production service. Establish a commissioned referal agreement, perhaps. It'll better serve your customers, improve your product, and give you an edge on your competition. Of course, I'd be honored to work in partnership with those interested in such a relationship. Thanks for the comments. Please refer this article to others through Twitter, Facebook or other means and keep the comments coming. Have a great day.
Michael Schuett 425-687-0100 www.totalbroadcasting.com
Hey Michael, quick question for ya.
So I'm creating a series of SEO fundamental tutorials that will only be available to my subscribed members. Do you recommend any method of getting them hosted somewhere, which will prevent unauthorized access and theft? I know Amazon S3 has a ripper that can steal virtually any file that is hosted with them.
Cheers friend,
Matt - I couldn't agree with you more. People should invest in professional quality videos because otherwise it's like buying a cheap suit instead of a nice one. The cheap suit actually drives more business away. The cheap suit destroys the client's confidence. Without the client's confidence it is hard to close them. So buying the cheap suit or the cheap video actually works against you. In fact, no suit at all would work better, but that's another story.
@Maximum If you look at my YouTube profile at http://www.youtube.com/user/UltraWebsites you'll see a link back to my website - that is what I'm referring to. Although the HTML for the page is so convoluted and the a tag is actually a redirect to my site that maybe Google et all wouldn't even find it. I realise that such a link isn't much in the overall scheme of things but every little bit helps. Yes agree embedding, link worthy videos etc. will improve things too. My is just a test page so far :)
Maximus,
Are these tutorials on video? If so you may want to produce them with a watermark logo. As you can see with some of the Auto Repair and Maintenance videos we have on our YouTube site: http://www.youtube.com/user/msradioman?feature=mhw5 We included a "Watermark- Total Broadcasting Service" throughout the videos to keep them from being stolen. Obviously the videos we produce directly for the customer would not contain such a watermark. Does that help? Hope so. Michael schuett www.totalbroadcasting.com
Michael,
I am working with consultants who strongly advocate for the use of video's in marketing. I knew this is quickly becoming the wave of the future but was surprised that it actually aids with search engine optimization!
Thanks for the tip,
Roy
Hey Matt,
Yes inserting a link on your profile page can definitely help bring visitors to your site, but it won't add any SEO value to your website in terms of rankings. If you look at the source code, there are too many redirects and session ID's on that link. You won't get any PageRank passed to your website with that profile link unfortunately...otherwise it'd be too easy right? :)
Roy - Video marketing is great, but in terms of the actual Google algorithm (as much as I know from all my testing)...a video does not have any influence in terms of ranking your website higher in the search engines. The benefit that it does provide however is that in the search engines, you can potentially rank your video via YouTube's domain authority. So it's not that your website ranks, it's that YouTube is going to rank, but with your video.
It is surprising there aren't more video profiles posted on Biznik from you all! It's good to walk the talk... or however the saying goes.
Hehe...if it's any consolation, I'm currently working on a ton right now. =T
PS... I'm not a video production expert nor in the biz, but I am a little computer savvy and created my own portfolio on YouTube (diff. my BizNik profile video)... something that most people need to hire out for. If you would like me to send referrals your way for inexpensive video production, make it easy for me.... Subscribe to my YouTube channel... that will help me remember you! I’ll subscribe back.
http://www.YouTube.com/rcorliss1
PS... I know my portfolio video is long, but people can turn it off any time they've seen enough... The key is that the contact info. is accessible.
I would love to talk to those interested in working with you to create a video for you or your clients. Not to be too pushy, here's a link to our video demo http://sites.google.com/site/ballyhooimpact/home. Thanks, Jeff
Maximus (sorry for the name typo above)
I don't think one redirect and one session ID in the querystring would be a problem for Google (particularly when running Google Analytics on the receiving site). But as we've both said, the link/HTML is so convoluted/hidden it may not be found by spiders.
I guess my point is that video posts on social media sites that include links back to one's website is just one more avenue for getting inbound links and/or for people to find you through. Something that people on here may not have thought of, if they are thinking of creating videos as Michael suggests.
Same reason you link to your website in every one of your posts here, right?
Every time I type my name on any internet post i include my website. Just making it easy for anyone who's curious. :-)
Michael Schuett www.totalbroadcasting.com
Hey Matt,
No worries...I kind of liked Maximum!!! So the thing to remember with majority of social media sites is that outbound links usually have a measure in place to keep as little PageRank from flowing out as possible. Either by a series of redirects or the use of the nofollow attribute.
I checked out your site (great design btw!) and ran a backlink analysis and wasn't able to find your YouTube profile link in there.
The only social media sites that I can recall do offer followed links are Linked In, Squidoo, and Biznik. The link in the signature doesn't help with my PageRank because I already have a link from this domain. It's mainly there for more traffic (and because I pay $24 a month). haha
Great discussion my friend!
True. I only just added the website link to my YouTube profile today though actually. Good idea about the back analysis, I'll check in a few days/weeks if I remember to see if it has changed, particularly as the YouTube profile website link doesn't have 'nofollow' set on the link. Is that true about most social media sites having 'nofollow' - shame if it is (but understandable too)! Cheers Matt
Ahh...could you monitor that and then let me know if you see the link show up? I'd be interested in taking that data and running a few experiments with my test sites. Yea, most social media sites (as long as you can alter the link anchor text) use the nofollow attribute because then there would be so many spammers abusing it. The social media sites that do allow followed links typically require a lot more work than just creating a fake account and then popping a link in there. It took me a good week or two to get my squidoo page setup for some of my affiliate sites.
So Maximus, to finish off what I started, whilst I know Google doesn't transfer PageRank goodness through hyperlinks with nofollow set, surely there is still some value SEO-wise for such links (even if it is minor). What is the latest SEO thinking in this regard? Cheers Matt
Hey Matt,
My take on a link is that followed or no-followed, it is a portal that you can open up to drive visitors to your site. Some may argue that obtaining a no-followed link is not SEO. My overall goal isn't increased traffic believe it or not. I consider my SEO efforts a success on either my sites or my client's sites if the conversion rate increases.
Let's keep in mind that the rel=nofollow tag is just that. It's a mere suggestion from the webmaster to not follow the link through. The canonical link tag is also a mere suggestion. Google has stated that although they will trust the webmaster and the crawlers will obey these tags, but there could be cases where they don't. All this to say, a link is a link to me. If it is no-followed, you aren't getting any of the "link juice" you would've had it been a followed link. Either way, you are opening up an avenue for increased traffic so I guess that would be the "SEO benefit" yea?
Cheers my friend!
Hey video producers...
Have your eyes glazed over yet?
"The canonical link tag..."?
(Sorry Maximus. I couldn't resist. You guys rock! Just wish I could follow along. Gonna stick to my back-focus and 1200 PAR HMIs.)
Is here a biznik sub-community of video/film production types where we can swap stories, ask questions and tap the collective experience of all of us?
Well said! Your last sentence says much better what I was originally trying to get at. So back on topic - if you going to create videos everyone, link them up across the web! Cheers everyone, Matt.
Hey Dave!
CANONICAL CANONICAL CANONICAL CANONICAL!!!!!!!!!
:)
I hope this doesn't get me banned, but I have a little blurb on the canonical tag with a reference to the Matrix that will hopefully help explain it a little better.
http://www.rankingchannel.com/canonical-tag
Enjoy!
On another note, I am about to create 50 short videos for my subscription based consulting company, so I could take any and all advice from the experts out there so a group like that I think would be extremely beneficial!
50 vids is a lot to chew on!
Talking heads?
All stills?
Common elements?
I can't imagine they all have live action.
Tell you what: post the basic info and let us weigh in on how to maximize your efficiency in getting them done.
Is the treatment set, or are you looking for ideas? Audience, objective, attitude?
I suspect you have a boatload of production types here eager to share some experience.
Hey Dave!
They're all going to be informational via powerpoint presentations. I'm in the process of creating the powerpoints and will use Camtasia to capture the powerpoint and I'll narrate with my voice. Each video will approximately be only anywhere from 4 - 7 minutes. One or two of them might get into the 10 minute range, but no longer than that.
These videos are going to be tutorials for small business owners to learn the fundamentals of SEO...even for the non-techie folks.
Cheers Dave,
Maximus-
Powerpoint, eh...
Here's the best $7 you'll ever spend.
Suggest you get and read this before commencing.
How's your voice? How about getting a semi pro who would swap talent for some content for their reel. A really good voice can make a big difference.
A really good voice can make all the difference. Anything less than professional and all you get is amatuer.
Michael schuett www.totalbroadcasting.com
Great point about the professional voice. Do you guys have any thoughts in regards to the video tutorials losing personality?
Personality will come through in the writing and narration. Do you want/need a certain attitude? Entertaining still images that illustrate your points will also establish personality.
Is there a way to communicate the information other than a know-it-all narrator? Dialogue? Man on the street interview?
You can still use ppt to establish the copy points to remember.
You may have already thought of this (and that's why you are making 50 vids) but you'll be most successful if you can limit each video to one idea, one big take-away.
Identify the one thing the audience needs to know or remember after watching the video.
Great article Michael! You have a lot of excellent stats! MarketingSherpa argues that video is second to word of mouth in its ability to influence decision makers at every stage of the purchase cycle.
I would also add that if you are new to the online video space, do some research to see who is doing it well and ask them for advice.
Maximus,
Thanks for more fully explaining the search engine optimization issue.
Roy
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