Did you know that 50% of mobile traffic is now dedicated to online videos? Yet, there are still millions of businesses that aren’t taking advantage of this lucrative marketing channel. Is yours one of them? If so, keep reading…

Imagine drawing in millions of new potential customers in a matter of weeks. Well, with video marketing you don’t have to imagine.

A massive 78% of consumers watch online videos each week. Statistics also show that if the word ‘video’ is included in an email subject line, it increases its opening rate by 19%, decreases unsubscribes by 26% and increases click-through rates by an impressive 69%.

The point is, online videos sell. Consumers prefer to find out about a business and its services by viewing videos. So if you’re currently not making use of this current trend, you could be really missing out.

So what exactly can video marketing do for your business? Well, if done correctly it can:
• Significantly boost traffic to your site
• Increase conversions, leads and sales
• Build up brand awareness

Furthermore, online videos are easier to find in search engine results. So if you want more search engine exposure, video is the best way to do it.
However, it takes more than simply releasing a video on the web to get results. Video marketing is hard work and takes a significant amount of time to get it right.

Video marketing entails the use of video for conveying your message to the audience. Most experts believe that videos are more effective when it boils down to establishing an engaging and interactive platform to communicate with the target audience.

If you too are interested in entering into the world of ‘online video marketing’, then it will augur well if you are aware about the various forms of video marketing.

Video advertising is one of the basic forms of video marketing. In case of video advertising, the advertiser makes use of the video that is already being run across TV channels. Usually, the video is edited to shorten the duration. This also makes the video more appealing to the online audience. At times, the video might be stripped of its sound to fasten the downloading speed.

However, experts believe that running a same video for your Internet marketing campaign as well as on TV channels is not a good idea. According to Amit I. Budhrani of Alza Management Institute, “” Most advertisers feel that the content for a video advert can be borrowed from their own TV commercials. However, this is not the case. One needs to clearly differentiate between a video advert and an advertisement made for the TV. Video made for a TV can never replace video that is required for the Internet. And it will not make a good impression about the company in the eyes of the people since they can quickly make out that the ad has been copied directly from the TV. If this happens then one is likely to lose out on viewers since people will not care to view the ad of the company ever again. Hence the company will loose viewers instead of gaining them. And this will be a very big loss of opportunity.”

Budhrani also adds that, ” People are not going to spend their bandwidth on ad that can be seen on TV. In other words, if you have to capture the attention of the online audience, then you have to present them with fresh content that is creative as well as engaging.”

Ron Coomber of ITV agrees with the opinion put forward by Amit I. Budhrani of Alza Management Institute. According to Coomber, “The conventional 30 second television commercial will not be as effective when presented on the Internet.” According to Lanctot of Avenue A/Razorfish, “It’s easy to repurpose TV Ads, but it’s not a good idea. Everyone seems to agree, but they keep doing it.”

However, winds of change are slowly sweeping in. According to Treffiletti of Carat, “We have some clients who have allowed us to actually shoot video for [the Internet]. In addition, when they’re shooting a commercial and they have the A roll and the B roll, the B roll has a lot more life now. We can actually use that extra footage.”

The other form of video marketing that has been attracting the attention of business houses and corporate sector happens to be in-text video advertising. In this particular form of video marketing, a video gets uploaded and subsequently played whenever a user scrolls over an underlined text.

Experts state that in-text video advertising is a highly efficient method that can be precisely targeted towards a particular segment of the online audience. This is because a person will be induced to take his mouse over an underlined word only if he can relate with that word. For instance, a young mother might roll her mouse over words like ‘bottle feeder’, ‘baby diapers’, ‘infant care’ etc. This is because as a mother of an infant, she can relate with these words.

In-text video advertising is a user-initiated form of advertising. This means that the video will be played only when the user opts to roll his mouse over a phrase or a word.

Advertisers also have the option of going in for ‘product placement in video’. This form of video marketing is similar to ‘in-film’ advertising wherein the product is placed in the video. For instance, one can notice Omega watches in James Bond movies. ‘Product placement in video’ works on the same line except for the fact that the same is done in the virtual world and through an online medium.

The products are integrated in the online video. At times, the viewers are also allowed to interact with the product in question. This increased interactivity enhances the engagement quotient of the advertisement.

‘Advertiser funded video’ is one more manifestation of video marketing. Well, in this form of video marketing, the advertiser creates the content of the video but the same is run on third-party websites. The video seeks to entertain, inform or educate the viewers as well as to convey the information of the advertiser to the target audience.

One can also directly deliver the video to the consumers via email. This form of video marketing is known as ‘direct video’. However, this is a relatively new form of marketing and is yet to be exploited in a big way. The rise of Web 2.0 has allowed advertisers to deliver videos in HTML [Hyper Text Mark-Up Language] and thus avoid languishing in the receiver’s bulk or spam folder.

Most experts believe that this form of video marketing has a good potential especially considering the fact that an increasing number of netizens are now opting for hi-speed broadband connections instead of the traditional dial-up connections. This is good news for those opting for ‘direct video’ as research has proven that those having broadband connections are more receptive towards video.

The growing popularity of such as YouTube has opened up one more avenues for advertisers, business houses and the corporate sector. One can place videos in social network sites. According to a report that appeared in Reuters, “YouTube, the leader in Internet video search, said on Sunday viewers have are now watching more than 100 million videos per day on its site, marking the surge in demand for its “snack-sized” video fare. YouTube, the leader in Internet video search, said on Sunday viewers have are now watching more than 100 million videos per day on its site, marking the surge in demand for its “snack-sized” video fare.”

Experts state that this particular form of advertising has a great scope provided the videos feature original content [that is the ideas for the video are not directly uplifted from the ads that are run on television] and are high on creativity.

And if you do not want your video to get featured in a social networking site, then you can always have them displayed on mobiles. Well, experts state that since the number of mobile users is showing a tremendous increase, one can go in for mobile video marketing. According to Jim Cook of MobiADNews.com, “there are currently around 2.5 billion mobile handsets in the world, roughly the same number as TVs and PC’s combined.”

Those conversant with Internet marketing dynamics state that mobile users are showing a tremendous appetite for videos. As of MobiADNews.com puts it, “A number of recent studies have shown that consumers are actually very willing to receive ads on their phones as long as certain conditions are in place.”

Most experts state that people are willing to see videos on their mobiles as long as these videos are relevant to their needs and desires. Similarly, viewers also expect something in return from the advertiser after watching his/her advert. Experts also believe that mobile video viewers want an assurance that they can opt-in or opt-out of the video.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, UK, “there are already many types of mobile video ads available including banner ads, text ads, search ads, short code response numbers in print and TV and ads inserted between levels of a game. Essentially, the choice available to advertisers is as large as that of internet advertising and it is recommended that – in the same way as internet – marketers select only the forms beneficial to their brand and campaign.”

Thus, there are various forms of video marketing. Advertisers, wishing to use this form of Internet marketing, should carefully weigh the pros and cons of each form of video marketing. They should also weigh their intentions and objective campaigns of their online marketing campaign against each form of video marketing and select the one that will help them to gain maximum mileage.

As Interactive Advertising Bureau, UK puts it; “online video takes this to the next level by delivering the content we love other portable video players. This leads to accessing video content in entirely new places; living rooms and cinemas are no longer the only place to view video.”

Marketing is a business necessity wherein tools and technology innovations are utilized to increase a business’ profitability. The relatively new online video technology is one technology example that can be harnessed to increase profits and even possibly lower marketing costs.

Now that video can be attached to almost any web page, the possibilities of using video as a marketing technique (in the same manner of television) is slowly but surely gaining ground.

– Research on the phenomenon of communication retention show that people remember only 10% of what they have read and 20% of what they hear; however, people remember more than 50% of what they see and hear at the same time – just like watching a movie.

– Marketing analysts report that companies that currently use on-demand video, video e-mail or streaming video podcasts have reported sales increases of close to 25%, sometime more. The increase in client response is attributed to the fact that multimedia rich content is a better catalyst to move and/or persuade clients towards buying a product or service because they can see its benefits in action.

– As far as online viewers are concerned, video builds credibility and trust. It is very similar to having a live person communicating to the end-user/client the benefits of doing business with somebody that they can see and listen as opposed to something that they read online. Customer rapport, trust and a mutually fruitful business relationship is much more easily established and achieved.

– Sending personnel to various locations at the same time to set up a product demonstration invariably entails a long list of additional expenses. Doing the same using online video, streaming video or on-demand video obviously lowers the costs significantly. Lower product marketing costs results into more profits for the company.

– Cost of savings is not limited to product marketing costs. Video can also be used to set up conferencing and training methods, locally and internationally. Live conferencing and training can be easily set up and synchronized between two or more groups of people, regardless if they are at different time zones, at the same time.