The consumption of video content online has rocketed in the past few years. It’s going to continue to increase too, and it’s not just about Charlie Bit My Finger – Again! either. I’ve been seeing some fantastic marketing results for highly technical products through the use of video. What’s more, the cost and effort to get a video made has fallen through the floor. This week I’m going to talk about video exclusively. I do think that for many of you, this could be the biggest change in your marketing this decade. You cannot be left behind on this one.
So: why do we need to use video? If you’re in front of a prospect, you don’t hand over a brochure and tell them to read it while you sit there. You tell them about your product, you show them it, and you let them touch it. In other words, you engage as many senses as possible. As marketers, we don’t usually deal face to face with prospects: our aim is to encourage them to reveal themselves so that the sales team can engage them properly. Most of the channels we use have static visuals and the skills we’ve needed have been those which make the best of that.
Video, however, is a massive leap forward for marketers. It’s been available throughout our working lifetimes (I made a corporate video as a student at GEC-Marconi nearly 30 years ago) but there have been two problems: the investment and commitment required, and the distribution. It was hard to justify forking out £10,000 and two weeks of your working life organising a 5-minute video, especially when you knew that no client was going to fire up their DVD player just so they can be sold something.
Everything’s changed, particularly in the last year or so. Even some quite small companies are producing videos as frequently as weekly, with almost no effort (it’s all outsourced) and minimal expenditure. What’s more, the videos are proving to be extremely effective in getting messages over. Some are even proving to be a magic way of leaping onto the first page of Google.
You might be involved in this already. But I suspect that the majority of marketing managers reading this haven’t had the chance to investigate what’s happening. Keep reading, because we’re all going to get up to speed by the end of this week.
Just last week I got a resume for my assistant job from a communications major that’s been doing video. My mind quickly raced with fantasies about pumping multitudes of videos. Unfortunately, I can’t hire her, but I’m looking at the possibility for others I may hire.