Video Marketing, Video SEO and Video Email for B2B lead generation, direct marketing and video communications

Turn videos into interactive video postcards and video landing pages for lead generation email marketing and search marketing campaigns.

Introduction

The use of online video platforms, video marketing software and video technology for sales lead generation, direct marketing, video email and video communications has increased dramatically in recent years due to the proliferation of online video viewing by business people across all industries. Web video marketing has proven to be an important and highly effective medium for generating sales leads for new products and services with video tracking and video analytics. However, using video email to drive measurable lead generation results has not been perfected. The real value of online video technology is its ability to increase lead generation and actionable results from viewers. Most companies realize that the impact of static email marketing content is fading rapidly in meeting sales lead generation objectives, and that static marketing collateral needs to be replaced with more engaging video marketing and video sales collateral with instant viewer tracking and video analytics.

This Intelligence Report examines the growing use of interactive video marketing, and specifically video postcards for sales lead generation. Special emphasis is given to the deployment of online video and web video technology solutions that produce video email campaigns and video brochures for lead generation. Additional focus is given to understanding the process for better engaging target audiences with video, generating cost-effective sales leads, and improving sales and marketing results using online video with detailed viewer analytics. Business Use of Online Video for direct marketing is increasing. A recent survey of more than 200 executive marketers by the Web Video Marketing Council, and Flimp Media reveals that the majority of respondents (70%) already use online video in their video marketing and lead generation programs.

Business Users Now Watch Online Video Regularly.

Online video platforms can't be dismissed as a marketing novelty. It has become a viable and widely adopted medium successfully leveraged by Fortune 500 companies to increase prospect engagement and lead conversion rates.

In a study conducted by Interactive Media Strategies in Q1 of 2011, 1,002 corporate executives were asked to detail their experiences with web video communications technologies. They answered questions and commented about online video, mobile video, social media, rich media, Video SEO, web video conferencing, and instant video messaging solutions and initiatives. A key finding revealed the use of online video for business communications is growing rapidly. Seventeen percent (17%) of the executives that were surveyed view some type of online video at least once a day. Viewing has quadrupled when compared to the results of a similar survey conducted by Interactive Media in 2007 asking the same question with roughly the same number of respondents.

Three Quarters of Business Executives Watch Online Video

Another key finding revealed that over 75% of the executives surveyed are viewing online video regularly. Also indicated is the expansive reach of video and the growing appetite for corporate video by the executive suite. Critical Factors for B2B Video Marketing Success

A large percentage of business people are regularly interacting with video email, providing video marketers with an opportunity to increase demand generation using a new set of marketing solutions like video brochures for lead generation. Five factors that should be considered when assessing a solution for successfully marketing and selling with business video are:

1. Engaging Video Content

Experts in the field of online video agree that if you don't capture the attention of the targeted viewer in the first 5 to 8 seconds they will move on. Video content for sales and marketing must have the proper pacing, be informative, relevant, and reasonably high quality. The purpose of the video marketing is to engage the viewer long enough so that they consume the core message and feel compelled to take action. This could be calling a phone number, filling out a response form, accessing additional information, forwarding the content, or responding to an offer. The implied "What next?" is an important component of a successful online business video.

Effective video email content can be produced in different types of formats such as motion graphics, live action, spokesperson, video slideshows or a combination of each. Video production is becoming easier so many video marketers are cutting corners, letting inexperienced staff create video with low budget cameras, online presentation software, and free video editing tools. This is risky. Marketing with low quality videos produced by amateurs often does more harm than good. While the cost of producing quality video content has fallen dramatically, it is still important to budget adequately for video content production using experienced professionals. Don't cut corners on video content. Good video content can easily be repurposed and used for a variety of sales and marketing objectives.

2. Viewer Interactivity

An effective online video message for lead generation needs to combine engaging video with interactive multimedia content and "calls to action." This can be in the form of a video microsite, or video landing page.

Engaging Video Content: The use of high quality, relevant video content that will engage viewers, compel them to respond, and motivate them to share your video message as viral video marketing.

Viewer Interactivity: The ability to create an interactive video presentation and to provide access to additional information, contact centers, video analytics , registration forms, and sharing, with one click "calls to action."

Flexible Distribution: The ability to easily distribute or "push" the video email message to target viewers using different Internet communication methods, Viral Video Sharing.

Actionable Viewer Tracking: The ability to collect comprehensive viewer video engagement and response information including video tracking and reporting.

CRM Integration (Salesforce): The ability to provide individual sales people with a streamlined process for delivering and tracking video brochures for lead generation while working in their CRM system. Integration with sales and marketing automation solutions can increase sales effectiveness. page or video brochures for lead generation. Stand-alone video doesn't allow users to interact with or respond to your marketing or sales message. The stand-alone format also places restrictions on the ability to track and understand the impact of your video message. To be effective for lead generation, online video must be combined with interactive multimedia elements such as text, graphics, web links, buttons, images, web forms, and branding. Accompanying text will help create context for the video message and in some cases keep the user temporarily engaged while the video is playing.

Text can also be used to supplement or reinforce the visual aspects of the message. Incorporating supplemental images such as branding, social media links, sponsorship, and call to action buttons within the video marketing message can provide additional opportunities for viewer interaction. Images can be independent PNG, JPG, or GIF or they can be designed as part of a template. Regardless of what type of multimedia is used it's important to remember that the design lay out has a specific purpose; eliciting a response from the viewer. Any content that does not contribute to soliciting the "What Next?" response is not going to be effective for lead generation.

The major limitation of YouTube and many online video platforms is that they don't allow the viewer to take action after watching the video. At best, they provide adequate hosting and sharing of video files with limited viewer tracking. How do we define 'interactive' online business video? There is a lot of confusion about what the term 'interactive' means. Many marketers perceive video as interactive media because it is more emotionally engaging than text and graphics. Video is certainly more engaging but it is not 'interactive'. Viewers can't interact with a stand-alone video. Interactive video brochures and landing pages allow viewers to physically click on links, buttons, and forms that allow them to access additional information, register for an event, or communicate directly with a contact center, these are considered " calls to action." Interactivity is an important set of metrics. It helps marketers understand the prospects they are targeting and provides important insight into whether or not a specific video brochure for lead generation is successful. When interactivity metrics are combined with other metrics available in an video brochure for lead generation solution, a clear understanding can be obtained about the success of individual campaigns and initiatives.

3. Flexible Distribution

Video email with unique URL's allow salespeople and marketers to send (push) online video messages to a specific target audience using a variety of online channels as opposed to having to attract (pull) viewers to videos hosted on websites. The distribution methods include, but are in no way limited to the following:

•video email

•video for mobile devices

• video social media sites

•external video websites

•video with CRM systems Most online business video is pull based requiring marketing to attract viewers to video files hosted on websites. Examples of online video service providers are YouTube and Brightcove. When a company implements a push video marketing strategy, they gain the ability to target audiences with personalized messaging and recieve real time granular reporting by email address. Delivery to Mobile Devices - Smart phones and tablets are an important platform for all types of business communications including video centric marketing messages. Today there are a variety of standards (H.264, HTML5, WebM etc.); video codecs and formats (Flash, Windows, QuickTime, etc); delivery platforms and devices (iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, etc.); and wireless networks (3G, 4G, etc.) competing for the attention of developers and decision makers. It's anyone's guess at this point which formats, devices, and technologies will ultimately be the de facto standard (if any) across global markets. The good news is that companies don't have to worry about making a critical misstep. Luckily, solutions like video brochures for lead generation provide feature sets that take the guess work out of trying to predict which standard is more prevalent by offering multiple delivery options.

The best-of-breed technologies for enabling companies to deliver video to end-users need to be fully automated. They must have; (1) the ability to have multiple videos formats and bit rates encoded simultaneously and without the need to upload more than one original video file; (2) the ability for an online video platform and delivery system to auto-detect the ype of mobile device, connection speed, and browser type so that the exact video format and bit rate can be delivered without end user intervention. Companies have little choice; either develops a strategy for maximizing the impact of business video distributed to these mobile environments, or suffers the competitive disadvantage of not reaching important audiences. When Interactive Media Strategies asked executives in 2011 to rank the importance of technical issues in their deployment plans for online video, 76% of all respondents cited the ability to distribute video to mobile devices as a necessary or important factor influencing their technology purchase decision. 4. Actionable Viewer Tracking Essential to understanding the success of any sales or marketing initiative is good metrics. In order to be successful, companies require the best of both worlds; the ability to maximize the impact of their marketing video and understand instantly how audiences are interacting with their deliverable (Interactive Video Brochure).

Companies that are focused on using online video for lead generation recognize the importance of actionable viewer tracking and reporting. What do we mean by tracking? Tracking does not include tallying anonymous hits or views, or even the location of those views. Tracking is the process of collecting specific details about specific user's interactions with an IVB. Examples include total engagement time, length of time watching video, video starts, videos watched to completion, calls to action links clicked, number of emails forwarded and to whom, social media sharing activity, type of viewing device used and others. When a viewer interacted with an IVB is equally important. Tracking should include real time reporting so that sales and marketing can prioritize follow up. in the 2011 survey of 1,002 business users, executives identified several key measurement factors they use to access the success of an outbound online video strategy.

Solutions that track and report a wide range of metrics, including the total number of viewers who watched their video; the ability to link viewership information for specific videos watched to other types of information, such as behavioral data and user profiles; having the capability to collect and analyze viewer registration information; and knowing the length of time each viewer spends with their online media. Important Success measurement Factors for Online Video Presentations The results of this survey indicate that executives believe the ability to better understand the impact of their online video strategies using granular tracking and reporting is important. Companies that want the ability to quickly assess the success of sales and marketing initiatives using video centric solutions like video brochures for lead generation will choose solutions that provide granular levels of tracking and reporting.

5. Video CRM Integration (Salesforce)

Providing tracking and reporting results from marketing campaigns to sales people is not a new concept. Marketing typically conceives and implements campaigns, collects reporting information, and distributes it to sales people. It is not unusual for reporting information to be distributed to sales people days after campaigns are implemented. A landmark 2007 study conducted by MIT and Marketing Sherpa reveals that salespeople have a 100X better chance of starting a business conversation with a prospect if they call no less than 5 minutes after the prospect viewed their content as compared to waiting after 30 minutes. The survey also reveals that the odds of successfully qualifying a prospect increase 21X if the lead is contacted within 5 minutes of receipt compared to waiting 30 minutes or longer. in most companies, marketing controls the solutions used for lead generation.

Those sales people responsible for generating some or all of their leads are using text emails, PDF documents, PowerPoint slides, and Word documents, with predictably poor results. New solutions like video brochures for lead generation can be integrated into CRM systems allowing individual sales people to deliver, record, and measure the impact of a video brochure for lead generation sent to a Contact while working in that Contact record. The process of sending a video brochure for lead generation is recorded in the CRM Account record along with the tracking report that is generated when the Contact views the video brochure for lead generation. Now sales organizations can leverage high impact video brochures for lead generation to increase lead flow and maximize their investment in expensive CRM systems. Video Brochures with tracking and analysis for lead generation, direct marketing, benefits communication and email marketing Bring it All Together.

The integration of online technologies, web video, and direct marketing are driving the development and refinement of a new direct sales and marketing application: Video Brochures for lead generation. Companies to engage and focus viewer attention on specific information that's either editorial or commercial are using video Brochures for lead generation. Video postcards and video brochures contain audiovisual content and interactive multimedia presentations that typically generate 4X to 7X higher engagement and response rates than static print, email, or web content.

Video postcards and brochures provide marketers and sales people with an alternative solution capable of reversing declining engagement rates. These solutions generally offer a rich feature set that allows ordinary business users to easily create, edit, manage, deliver, and measure the impact of individual video brochures for lead generation. Other features typically include integration options with email service providers, marketing automation platforms, and CRM systems. What to Look for in Video Brochure Technology There are many solutions in the marketplace, but very few are designed specifically for business users and offer a highly intuitive process for creating, editing, distributing, tracking and analysis of video brochures for lead generation effectively without IT resources. They key is finding the right combination of technologies at the right price for your application. Companies interested in using video brochures for lead generation should seek out solutions that offer seamless integration with the sales and marketing automation solutions they are currently using.

Search for solutions that are cost effective, easily managed, and capable of utilizing rich media assets in your inventory. Don't ignore format. Choose a solution that provides the most effective format for your sales and marketing application. Video brochure solutions provide a format that optimizes engaging audiovisual content and interactive multimedia elements, offers users control during video viewing, provides meaningful measurability, is easy to update and repurpose, has a viral sharing capability; and cross-platform and mobile device compatibility. In this screenshot of a Video Brochure, the user can choose how they want to interact with the content depending upon what information they need. Choices include accessing a powerpoint deck, accessing other sites, or forwarding the IVB to a friend. The FLIMP Interactive Video Brochure Platform Using new technologies such as Flimp Video Brochures for lead generation, video email, benefits communication, and direct marketing. Marketers are now able to create, edit, distribute and track branded video brochures—all from within the solution platform. Flimp Media Inc. develops innovative solutions for video marketing and sales professionals that want to leverage video and multimedia to drive higher viewer engagement and response rates.

Flimp's proprietary Flexible Interactive Marketing Platform (FLIMP) allows any business user to quickly and easily create, distribute, and track Video Brochures without any programming or IT resources.

Consider these Flimp video postcard marketing statistics*

• 23% of flimp video viewers initiate a response action

• 40% of flimp viewers watch video to completion

• 1.3 minutes is average flimp engagement time

• 98% of flimp viewers have successful video starts

* Aggregate data collected since 2008 from over 500 video email campaigns and 12 million Flimp Video

Brochure viewers.

For more information about Flimp Video Brochures, visit the company's website: www.Flimp.net, send an

email to: info@flimp.net, or telephone at (508) 686-2807. About Flimp Media, Inc. (FMI)

Flimp Media Inc. (FMI) is a video marketing technology and video production services company with offices in Hopkinton, MA and Los Angeles, CA. Our patent pending FLIMP® technology platform enables online marketers and communicators to quickly create, distribute, track and report interactive video brochures called flimps® for online video marketing and communications without any programming, technical skills or IT resources. For more information about FMI products and services visit www.flimp.net and

www.flimpagency.com.

Contact Information:

Flimp Media

2 Hayden Rowe

Hopkinton, MA 01748

Tel. 1.508.435.5220

www.flimp.net

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