Indianapolis Online Marketing Strategies

It seems Bluelock has found a way to establish themselves as experts in cloud computing, and it seems a big part of that is their internet video marketing strategy.

I recently wrote a post about how their videos have shown up on a social network for cloud computing. Now it seems that someone else has grabbed the embed code for their LEGO demonstration of server virtualization and embedded it in their blog.

The ability to let others grab this video and spread it around is made possible through Backlight, Cantaloupe's online video platform. What kind of impact is this video having on Bluelock's business? Well, Bluelock can see exactly how many views their getting from this video placement by checking out the online video analytics report also provided through Backlight.

Another valuable feature is Bluelock's ability to change the ads in this video, that is, to change in-stream calls to actions. Even though this video is already embedded, Bluelock can control and change the message to viewers. (Check out the 2:20 mark in the video) Now they can actually convert these viewers into prospects or even customers.

I also think it's worth mentioning this quote from the blog:

The video below is set to become the greatest online viral video of all time.

DON'T JUST SKIP TO THE VIDEO If you do, I think you'll miss a valuable point that might just benefit you're own online marketing strategy.

As you watch the video below, think about how this story isn't even a story if the only way to present it is in text. The "punchline" requires a visual image as well as audio.

Is the "story" on your website really a story if it's presented in text? Are you missing out on the potential effect video can have on the impact of your sales and marketing because for so long video wasn't an option?

(Update 5/26/09: Susan Boyle is now the 5th most watched viral video of all-time. Ahead of her are 3 music videos and 1 movie trailer)

(The video owner disabled embedding so you have to click through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk)

It can be difficult to know what to do with your web videos when you are first starting, or even if you have done a lot of videos before. Too often I find people who are just coming up with videos by grabbing someone, and having that person talk about a random subject. This may turn out to be a good video sometimes, but there are much more effective ways to go about your video marketing campaign.

I will use my post today to show an example of a great web video series that Cantaloupe has produced--Clarian Health's "Hero" series.


This series shows how effective your web videos can be. They accomplish exactly what they're supposed to by presenting all of the information in a consistent style that supports the overall theme of the series. They are raw and fast-paced, capturing a day in the life of a nurse, then finishes with a clear and bold call to action. The whole series of videos have a unique style that fits in with the message and goal.

When watching these videos, there is no confusion about what is being said. There is no talking about Clarian and why they are better. Everything is visual, and all of the videos in the series support the same thing. They know who they are trying to reach.

I also think these would be a strong candidate for our new online video platform, Backlight. People will search for nursing and nursing positions. If these videos were converted in Backlight to other sites such as Google video, they might come up and help people find what they are looking for.

Watch these videos, and think about ideas that you could use for your video marketing strategy. The more you use your internet video as a marketing campaign, the more effective it can be.

Per usual, Chris Baggott and our friends at Compendium Blogware have hit on a marketing message that strikes very close to Cantaloupe.tv home.

In his post "People want Stories not Advertisements" Chris sings our authentic web video storytelling mantra, and even brings more numbers-based evidence to the cause.

I want to focus on Chris' statement that "After search, the goal is engagement." He's absolutely right and this is the very reason why you need video on your website and everywhere you're marketing online.

Video, if done right and not just a re-purposed commercial, can tell your story, or even better, the story of your clients' success with your product or service, in a more powerful way than just text can.

There's plenty of evidence to support the idea that people on the internet want video. Take for example that YouTube is the #2 search engine, ahead of both Microsoft's and Yahoo's search properties (and behind it's corporate parent Google). This means that there is a huge audience of people looking specifically for online video media.

Everyone can have video on websites when you're focused on storytelling and use authentic web video. Just check out the approach Cantaloupe.tv takes and see how it fits with your online marketing strategy. Doing multiple video stories just might be more reachable than you think.

Tell a story! I just spent some time watching an online video put together by Honda and from a distance it has all the makings of a corporate video...yet I eagerly watched all 5+minutes of it.

I didn't even realize I was sucked in until more than halfway through it.

I asked myself, what's different about this video than most other online video production that comes out of big businesses? It's the running storyline of "kicking out the ladder." It's also the fact that they put real people on camera talking off the cuff. If these employees of Honda are scripted, then they should quit their day jobs and become actors. They're that sincere and convincing.

Yes, Honda probably did pay more to have this one video produced than most of us spend on our entire video marketing strategy but that mainly shows up in some flashy camera effects that most of us don't notice anyway (one of my video producers pointed out that they're using some slow motion equipment that we don't have). They also have the advantage of showing some cool crash testing.

Other than that, it's mostly just people talking on camera telling a cool story.

People at your company can do that right? Before you say no, just listen next time they're talking about the latest episode of Lost, American Idol, or The Office. Everyone is a storyteller, even if they're retelling someone else's story.

Here's the video:



(By the way, there's also a shout out to Greensburg, Indiana at about the 2 minutes to go mark.)

Contextual video is a term that is gaining traction these days in the online video arena.  But, what in the heck does "contextual video" mean? 

For starters, clients and prospects don't just interact with you through a video, unless maybe they're watching the pre-previews at a movie or watching TV.  Instead, when people are online, they are interacting with you through many online channels including your website, emails, blogs, partner sites, social networks, etc...and then they might choose to watch an online video related to the content they are engaged with. 

And then there is the YouTube effect, where people go online for the sole purpose of watching web video, but my guess is that if somebody is researching a product or service today, they'll most likely not start by searching for videos.  At least not yet...it'd be prettty cool if businesses and organizations are creating engaging and effective content where people can find product and company information by only searching for video.

So the term contextual video is simply defined as video content placed next to other online content...

So for your video marketing strategy, until people know they can find out about you by searching for video, it's important to embed video in context to content they already know how to find.

The answer is: enough that most marketers should be discouraged from using YouTube as their only means for distributing online video. If you market to business professionals and you're truly serious about your internet video marketing strategy then you have to find an online video platform other than YouTube for posting and distributing your video on the internet (might I suggest giving Cantaloupe.TV a look?)

DH Communications conducted a small, but intriguing survey on web video and the use of YouTube in the workplace. The sample size of the study is too small for me to feel completely confident in the figures (90 anonymous people), but it is the best fact based information I've found to date about the restricting of internet video use in the workplace.

Some of the key findings:

• Over 33% of companies restrict access to YouTube
• 90% of those companies that restrict access to YouTube DO NOT restrict access to streaming video on websites or blogs
• "Uses too much bandwidth" was the biggest reason for restricting access
• 63.3% do watch YouTube during work hours

I think it's also important to note that 75% of the respondents worked for small companies (less than 250 people), meaning it's not just huge corporations that are blocking their employees from YouTube.

If you are a B2B marketer this has to be the strongest argument for why you can't rely on only YouTube as your internet video player and distributor. Go ahead and put it out there if you have the time and inclination, but it should be an extra, not your whole strategy.

From the very beginning we've positioned ourselves as authentic storytellers, and now I'm happy to report that we have some very exciting additions to our story development process coming out of beta.

These changes are for any marketer who has ever thought that they don't have an interesting story to tell, or that no one would want to watch a video about their company.

It's for the marketer who has struggled to think about who the audience is and how that audience should interact with their website video.

With so many ways that video can be utilized on websites, it's important to have a systematic way of thinking about your internet video marketing strategy.

Curious to learn more? We're happy to share. Just give us a call or shoot us an email (contact info is on the bottom of our home page)

It'd be easy to take a look at Cantaloupe and think that digital video production is all we do. The video is the most prominent feature to the outside world; however, there's a reason we talk about video magazines and not just video production. The truth is, the video alone is nothing more than an online marketing parlor trick. It's really the conception of the entire video marketing strategy which creates the value.

The strategy makes you think about things like where your video plays, how people find it, how often you update the content, and how you actually administrate that. Just think about these questions:

• Is your video on tv of all places, operating in an interruption marketing environment?
• Is it on a DVD that's really difficult to share and pass along?
• Is it on YouTube where you have no control over the ability to market your other stuff, or is it on your homepage where people can clearly see what they're supposed to do after they've found you?
• How do people find your video in the first place? Do they stumble upon your website and go, aha, there's a video, or do you proactively send the video out to them?

Let's say you're looking at incorporating internet video into your online marketing mix, (In which case, I would like to say good for you, you're clearly ahead of the curve when it comes to thinking about the importance of your website). To do so, you're basically going to need four things:

1. Video production
This one is obvious. You can't have the online video without the video.

2. Video organization
This one might not be so obvious, but it's important to consider. The most effective online video strategies involve multiple videos, and at Cantaloupe, we recommend posting new videos to your website on an ongoing basis (it keeps the website fresh and gives people a reason to come back to see what's new). Over time, you're going to generate a lot of video content and the better it's organized, the easier it becomes to use videos in your sales process or in other places.

3. Video distribution
No, we're not talking about just uploading your video to YouTube. In fact, YouTube isn't even the first, second, or third place Cantaloupe recommends looking to distribute your video. With the majority of people turning to websites to learn about companies, the first place to distribute your video is on your website. The second place is a proactive component and it involves emailing your database each time you have a new video to remind them to check it out. The third is what I call referral distribution. It's pretty much a given these days that online content should be easy to share and pass around.   

4. Video tracking
So web video seems like a good idea, but how will you  even know if it is working? Like with everything else online, you need to be able to track your videos.

One of the many unique things about Cantaloupe is that all of these are part of every video magazine we produce. When you consider the alternative, which is trying to hire different parties for each of these steps or doing part of it yourself, it really saves you a lot of time and hassle to have everything in one place. And for us at Cantaloupe, we like knowing that you're fully armed with everything you need for a successful internet video experience.