29-Nov-2011
Forget Viral Video: How to reach new customers with Social Video for SMEs
The eternal question of how to acquire new customers is on the minds of almost every business. Its a dog eat dog world out there, and everyone is under pressure to work faster and smarter and constantly be looking at new strategies to acquire these elusive new customers. My blog post will look at offering you an answer to this, and you won't need to look too far. The blog post is aimed at marketing agencies and SME's, with some actionable points for you to takeaway.
Old School Approach to Video Marketing
One of your clients has a new product/service they want you to help promote through the use of a video; they want loads of hits on Youtube, you get together with the marketing department; brainstorm; think of some crazy, funny idea; film it; edit the video; distribute it via Tubemogul and various other video seeding platforms; maybe set a budget aside for sponsored video placement on various networks - Facebook, Youtube etc; then HOPE!
I've simplified the process and have generalized a little, for the benefit of my post. Viral videos are quite rare in the business world, they require a large financial investment usually, and in the main are one-offs - this is not congruent with the strategy and financial means of an SME.
Additionally, there are no absolute guarantees that any video will go viral, no matter how much money you invest in it. And to put the final proverbial boot in video marketing strategies based on going viral; some of the practices used by video seeding companies can come across to the intended audience as being spammy (don't let this put you off used video seeding companies - you just need to read between the lines), and it becomes very hard to then control your brand reputation - especially if the video produces a negative response - potentially disastrous especially for SME's.
The Way Forward in Video Marketing
So what's the way forward then? My blog title obviously gives some of it away already - social video. But isn't that like viral videos I here some of you say? Nope, viral is only viral once it has organically reached wide and far and you are not seeding your videos, your audience is doing it for you. It would probably equate to hundreds of thousands going up to the millions of hits - why wouldn't you want millions of hits? Warning!
STOP OBSESSING OVER HITS!
Sorry to be shouting at you about this obsession, but it reminds me very much of a business saying 'revenue is vanity, profit is sanity!' and I would say any obsession over hits is on the vanity category and you're missing the point of how to use a video. The question is what did those hits translate to in real terms or something meaningful? By that I mean, how many subscribed to your website, video channel, referred visits from your video channel to your website, or signed up for a newsletter, commented on your video or shared your video? These metrics are so much more useful than hits. Sure it sounds great to say that you got 5 million hits on your video, but did those hits turn into valued customers, or repeat visitors who took a further action other than watching your video? If not, well you can keep your 5 million hits.
What am I trying to say?
Don't worry, let me show you the way!
Matt Cutts who is a head honcho at Google was asked at a conference recently, what are the three hot areas of online marketing SME's should be concentrating on? His response included mobile, social and local optimization.
The use of video within social hubs is incredibly powerful and it can be highly targeted. How? Think about your workforce. Think about the last time you shared an online video whilst at work generated comments, shares and so on. I'm sure you'll find that the majority of them have social profiles which could include and certainly not limited to the following:
Points to remember about this process
1. Before you even invest in making a video, you could ask your work colleagues to do some market research via their social networks - Facebook and Twitter are really good for this, but don't forget to use email. Make sure to involve them in the creative process of the video as they will be far more likely to do what you're asking of them.
2. You could even involve friends of your work force to provide feedback on the video during the editing process - friends are more than happy to offer their opinion when asked.
3. Once you have the finished video, its all about distributing it, and the chances are that the colleagues who've been involved in the project from day one, will be more than happy to help distribute the video through their social networks.
4. Reward your staff and show them some love for their efforts. You could even include an incentive, before they start, based on number of people who shared the video; how many commented; how many 'liked' or 'Google+' the video. Its up to you, get creative, and hopefully you know what they like or motivates them.
5. Involve colleagues from different departments (if you have them). The wider and more diverse the people involved the more likely you'll get a wider response.
Next week I'll be giving you an insight into how to measure the success of a social video campaign.
Comments
(09 Jan 2012):
(11 Jan 2012):
(11 Jan 2012):
(08 Jan 2012):