Jivox

Category archive: Best Practices

10 March 2010

Using online video ads to reach new customers

Featured on Fastcasual.com

By Diaz Nesamoney

The popularity of online video has caused a major shift in the way Americans consume media. Nielsen estimates that in December 2009, there were 137 million viewers of online video in the United States, watching an average of 193 minutes of video each.

With more people than ever watching video on their computers, does it really make sense to pour money into TV commercials rather than tap creative content for online distribution?

Online video ads offer premier engagement metrics, and offer one of the best ways to use your videos online. Many of today’s online video-ad platforms also enable you to pinpoint precisely which customers you want to reach by demographic, location and more.

Round Table Pizza, a restaurant chain from Menlo Park, Calif., with more than 500 locations, worked with its media agency to create and run a series of 30-second online video ads using their existing TV spot. They ran the spots on a network of local newspaper, radio and TV station Web sites as in-banner placements.

Taking advantage of the flexibility of the online medium, Round Table added custom interactivity in its ads to boost response rates. After viewers watch a Round Table commercial, they are given options such as finding a restaurant near them, accessing a coupon for that restaurant, or sharing the ad on Facebook. In fact, their video ad acts more like an interactive app than a traditional online video.

The in-banner video ads yielded strong results, performing nearly twice as well than typical online display ads both in terms of click-through rate and interaction rate.

Here are some tips for successfully making the leap from TV to online video ads:

Include calls to action in your ads: Unlike a TV commercial, where advertisers can only suggest that customers “come in today” or “visit our Web site,” the online video format allows you to add immediate calls-to-action. When transferring a commercial online, make sure you include a clickable link to your company’s Web site, as well as your phone number and address. Also consider including a printable coupon and maybe even a link to your local online directory listing using a teaser such as “Check out our great reviews on Yelp!”

Make your ads interactive: If you really want to increase the power of your marketing videos, consider turning your videos into interactive apps. Some online video ad companies now allow you to add custom Flash or HTML applets directly into your video ads — such as a store locator, interactive maps and menus — so viewers can interact with the ad without ever leaving the player. Interactive video ads instantly measure viewers’ responses by tracking their real-time interactions, instead of just measuring views or clicks.

Ensure your ads are reaching the right audience: Getting your ads onto premium local Web sites is critical for fast casual restaurants, because effective local targeting will ensure you’re hitting an audience that is most likely to take action. Whichever way you choose to distribute your ads, make sure you’re able to control which audience sees the ad and that you’re targeting within an appropriate geographic radius.

Measure results: One of the best things about online video ads is that they are instantly measurable: You should be able to see immediately whether your ad is actually working to bring new customers in the door. Make sure you review your results as often as possible to see what parts of your online video marketing campaign worked best and which were less successful, and then optimize your ads as needed. You can even carry these lessons into your next TV spot or use online video as a testing ground for more expensive TV campaigns.

TV spots may still be an important advertising medium for local and national businesses, but with the shift in people’s “screen time” rapidly moving from the TV to the Web, it makes sense to turn your TV commercials into online video ads. With just a little bit of work, you can reach both traditional TV audiences as well as highly targeted online audiences with essentially the same content.

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10 November 2009

VideoPages: Add Video to Your Online Listings to Boost Sales

As a small business, you probably already have listings on the main online business directories – Yelp, Whitepages, Yellowpages etc. – and maybe some listings on local or vertically-targeted services like Yahoo Local, Search Local, Angie’s List, OpenTable, or the online business listing service of your local newspaper.

Making sure your business is listed in as many directory services as possible is, of course, a great way to boost your profile. But you don’t have to stop at a text listing with a photo. To really boost engagement and drive more people to your business website, shop, or office, consider adding video content to your directory listings.

Marketing videos work to drive sales. Some 80% of Web users have seen an online video ad, according to a study by the Online Publishers Association. Some 52% of those people took action after viewing the ad, such as visiting the advertiser’s website (31%) or searching online for more information on the product (22%), while 12% went on to make a purchase – giving video ads one of the highest conversion rates in the industry.

Some, but not all, of the business directory services offer the ability to place a short video alongside your listing. Unfortunately, Yelp and Angie’s List don’t yet offer this capability, but hopefully they will soon. Many local newspaper’s websites are beginning to offer businesses the ability to post videos alongside their directory listings for a small fee. Some of the sites offering video directory listings today are Fredericksburg.com, The Star Telegram, and other locally-focused news sites.

On top of driving sales, adding video to your directory listing also helps you build engagement with prospective customers. People are much more likely to watch an entertaining video clip about your business than they are to read a text description of your products or services. (Most people prefer to ’see’ something rather than ‘read’ something.) Whether a consumer is shopping for a new fridge, or an IT professional is looking to purchase a corporate software suite, these potential buyers are highly likely to watch a video about the products they’re interested in before they take the plunge.

Amid the cacophony of directory listings out there today, your company needs to stand out. A video can help you increase positive associations with your brand; people remember funny, engaging, emotional, or entertaining videos long after they’ve forgotten images and text. Video ads provide the opportunity to reach out to potential customers who are ready to buy, giving them a chance to see, hear, and experience your business before calling or stepping out to make a purchase.

What’s more, a marketing video gives you another chance to bring potential customers to the next step in the purchase process through simple direct response “calls to action”. For example, you can embed a URL at the end of your video with a message saying “Click here to buy now!”, or include a link to a downloadable coupon for 20% off. By adding these types of calls-to-action in a video, marketers frequently see a 10-30% increase in sales compared to marketing videos that don’t have them.

Before you add a video to a directory listing, you first have to create a marketing video! You can use a service like Jivox to create a few marketing videos for free. If you need some ideas of content for your videos, try one of these five killer marketing videos you can create on a budget.

Here are a few examples of directory listings from real local businesses that contain videos.

Express Auto Service

Alvarez Construction

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16 September 2009

7 Paths to Viral Video Marketing Success

By Jeremy Scott of ReelSEO

Viral videos are the Holy Grail of Internet Marketing. Every individual, marketing firm, and corporation is striving to create a piece of video content that goes viral…  Read the whole story > >

Great article by Jeremy Scott of ReelSEO. Highly recommended. -Jivox team.

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3 September 2009

Establish the Right Vibe: How to use video advertising to attract a crowd

By FuelNet

FuelNet presents a case study on how one smart owner of a growing business caught the attention of her target demographic through one of the Web’s creative advertising techniques: video.

PROBLEM: Alicia Petrakis, co-owner of Astaria Restaurant and Bar in San Mateo, Calif., was frustrated. The restaurant had inherited an older clientele from the previous owner, and Petrakis hoped to expand the customer base to a younger, late-evening crowd. But despite the restaurant’s new décor, concept, and updated seasonal menu, her target audience (ages 25 to 50) was not responding to Astaria’s newspaper ads.

SOLUTION: Petrakis worked with Jivox, a do-it-yourself online video ad service based in San Mateo, to serve up messaging targeted to a livelier, hipper crowd. The company created a pop-up ad with a video component and ran it only on Web sites in the San Mateo area. “We went where the people we wanted in here go for information,” Petrakis notes. “Jivox is like having your own media buyer. They created the online advertising campaign based on our target demographic.”

The ad’s visuals showed off Astaria’s sophisticated vibe and cozy space — complete with images of customers enjoying live music in the bar and, of course, the mouthwatering food. “With online video, people have the opportunity of being much more comfortable with their choice,” Petrakis points out. “It’s more effective than single-image ads on sites like Yelp. And it reaffirms the customer’s choices — you can’t do that in a print ad.”

Petrakis, who plans to update the video ad at least twice a year as part of her Internet advertising efforts, has seen significant business growth since the video launched. “Having a strong Web presence has changed our business dramatically,” she says. “We’ve had a 35 percent increase in sales at a time when other restaurants are struggling.”

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1 September 2009

Five Killer Marketing Videos You Can Create on a Budget

by Jivox

In a world where your potential customers are bombarded with marketing messages, an entertaining or useful video that communicates about your brand in a subtle way is one of the best ways to “get through” to your audience. According to MarketingSherpa, 95% of the marketers that have used online video marketing are happy with the results and expect to use it again in the future.

Here are five different ideas for marketing videos that won’t cost an arm and leg to produce. You can make these videos with a small handheld camera and, when needed, some simple online editing software.

 1. Customer testimonials – As a small business, your satisfied customers are your biggest asset. Put them to work! Ask your best customers to film a short clip of them talking about why they like your products or services, and then post these videos on your site and on YouTube. You can also distribute a link to these videos as part of an email newsletter or promotional email campaign. Another take on this is to allow customers to film their own testimonials or video product reviews, and allow them to upload them to a consumer review area of your site – but make sure to review the videos first for quality and overall message.

 2. Product demonstrations – You have a great product or service, so show people how it works! Film an employee demonstrating your product, or if you offer a service, show a practitioner in action. For destinations like restaurants and hotels, film the environment, giving a mini-tour of the space. These demonstrations should be short, to-the-point, and not overtly salesy. Think of them as a useful service for your customers.

 3. Video promotions – In addition to promoting special offers using email or on your web site, why not create a few video promotions? Film a short “commercial” of your product, service, or destination to show its great attributes, and add a voiceover telling people about a current special offer, such as a discount, deal, or promotion. To get maximum exposure for your offer, put the video on your site and on YouTube, include a link to the video offer in an email campaign, and place the video on a targeted video ad network.

 4. Branded entertainment – Chances are, you’ve got an amateur video producer on staff or have a friend with a creative flair – get them to shoot some fun videos for your brand. For example, if you run a hotel, create a travelogue video of your city, filming local scenery, interviews with café owners, shots of museums; one of your employees can play the irreverent guide. Place subtle cues about your brand in the video, or just make it entertaining and, at the end, note that it was “sponsored by XX brand” and post your website URL. To drive maximum sharing, make sure to seed it on YouTube and other video-sharing sites, social networks, Twitter etc.

 5. Troubleshooting/Self Service – If you sell a product, chances are your customers come to your site if the product malfunctions. Film one of your employees fixing common problems, demonstrating that most issues are simple to fix. You can also show customers how to service their own products, eliminating calls to the help desk.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. The best thing about marketing with video is you can be creative – so have fun!

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