Online video presents a big opportunity to brands, whether they're looking to increase conversion, gain exposure or improve dwell time. In fact there a number of strategic objectives that can be achieved with online video, yet it remains vastly underutilised by most organisations.
Why?
Most brands don't understand what it takes to make successful online video. Typically they forget that people will click away if they don't like what they're watching. Branded content is competing for audiences with everything else on the web. To participate in the social web, brands have to be humble. Old approaches to corporate video (MD talking to camera, "voice of god" narration, lists of features and benefits) are the social equivalent of the person at a dinner party who won't stop talking about themselves. For brand-produced video content to work it has to be seriously interesting, useful or entertaining - and preferably a combination of all three. This means that content producers have to work much harder on their video if it's going to achieve the desired outcome.
The Upside
The upside is something that's unique to the social web: one-touch social sharing. Make something that's useful, entertaining or interesting and people might watch it, and even take a related action as a result. Make something really great, and they'll share it with their friends. The ability to reach new audiences, for free, simply by producing content that people want to watch is the true sweet-spot of online video. But there are some important things to remember...
What you need to do
For your branded content to spread via the social web it needs to be shareable. This might sound obvious, but viewers need a quick and easy way to share the video they've just enjoyed. Online video platform Buto has a one-touch sharing feature that means viewers can instantly share video on social networks - if shared on Facebook the entire custom-branded player will appear in the user's Facebook feed for all their friends to see - including any clickable links that are set up.
Second, you need to have a strategy. With over 24 hours of new content being uploaded to YouTube every minute, the "build it and they will come" approach just won't work. The first few viewers of your video matter most - they're the ones who will decide whether to share the content or not, and help you reach your target audience. "Going Viral" isn't easy - in spite of YouTube delivering over 6 billion views per day, more than half of YouTube videos receive fewer than 100 views, ever. Less than 0.3% receive more than 1 million.
Third, people are going to have to want to share your content, and this involves working out what people actually want to watch. This isn't a new idea - soap operas were born out of brands wanting to provide entertainment to their target audiences so people would think positively about them.
Don't forget video search
Google video search is an increasingly powerful way of driving visitors to your site. Submit the details of your videos to Google using a video sitemap and people who click on your links will be taken directly to the page on your site where the content is hosted. Players such as Buto.tv even have a video sitemaps feature which automatically submits details of your videos to Google every day. Because of the lack of competition for the top spots in video search, it's 50 times easier to reach page 1 of Google in natural search using video compared to normal web links.
Here at Big Button we specialise in producing stunning branded content that will get you noticed. One of our key clients in recent years has been Tesco, and we've just completed work on their Christmas online video campaign. Here's what they had to say about us:
If you would like to find out how to raise your company profile using the magic of video then please call me on 0121 309 0340.
Simon Crofts
Creative Director