The use of online videos is a continuing growing trend, with the development of increasingly faster broadband capabilities both in the UK and abroad. More often than not, perspective clients, funders or users will come across your services through Google and your website is the first point of contact. Streaming video online demonstrates your products and/or service benefits in ways that still pictures or text is unable to do.
According to research, the most common types of online video used by companies are:
1. Customer Testimonials
2. Video Success Stories
3. Video Case Studies
4. Man-On-the-Street Interviews/Market Research
5. Product Presentations/Video Brochures
6. Product Demonstrations
7. Product Reviews
8. Corporate Overviews
9. Presentations, Trade Shows and Events
10. Facilities Tours
11. Training and support videos
12. Commercials and Infomercials
Online videos are
A highly visual medium – There is a search for a visual experience when surfing the web, and moving images have an inherent appeal to viewers. People with busy working schedules have a limited amount of time to browse the internet and there is a tendency to prefer seeing something as opposed to reading something. Another plus side is people will feel more compelled to continue browsing other topics, staying in your site for longer.
Emotional – To see a project product or service in action with personal evidence of impact can have a far greater influence on viewers, than text of photos.
Modular - The ability to breakdown a larger video showcasing a range of services into short 'webisodes' presented within different content pages, is a great way to sustain the 'hook' element the viewer will experience, whilst not deterring them from reading further into a given topic.
On Demand – Online users have greater control as to how they watch a video, being able to do so as and when they want by visiting or book-marking your website.
Viral – The ability to make your online video spread through the process of internet sharing such as video sharing websites, social media and email marketing, provides it with a far greater ability to reach a wider audience, when compared to more traditional forms of distribution.
Video podcasts
From a web server, a video podcast can be distributed as a file or as a stream. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Downloading complete video podcasts in advance gives the user the ability to play the video podcasts offline on, for example, a portable media player (e.g. iphone, ipad, android phones, etc.). A downloaded version can be watched many times with only one download, reducing bandwidth costs in this case. Streaming allows seeking (skipping portions of the file) without downloading the full video podcast, better statistics and lower bandwidth costs for the servers; however, users may have to face pauses in playback caused by slow transfer speeds. Here's a funny example from a Nasa's podcast.
Social Video Marketing (SVM)
Social video marketing (SVM) is a component of an integrated marketing communications plan designed to increase audience engagement through social activity around a given video. In a successful social video marketing campaign, the content, distribution strategy and consumer self expression tools combine to allow an individual to “add their voice” or co-create value to a piece of content - then further propagating it out to their social circles. Social video typically benefits from a halo effect cast by the "influencers" of a given social grouping. SVM draws on consumer culture, economic and social theories around the psychology of sharing.
