Tag: video marketing

Why Video Marketing Is Important For Your Business

In an era of YouTube, Instagram Stories, Live Streams, webinars, and more, it is evident that this is the age of video supremacy. Given this exponential rise of video content in modern times, more and more online content marketers are looking for compelling ways to include video content in their digital marketing strategy.

From promoting a product or service, increasing engagement with clients, or extending their reach on social media platforms, video content marketing is flexible and accessible. In addition, it presents an influential lead over your competitors when executed right and built with a superior online video editor.

Significance of Video Marketing For Your Business

Video digital marketing engages your potential clients by conveying a compelling story about your product interactively and bringing life to your products.

While a high-quality photo and a brief description provide a fundamental view of your product, a video can convey all of the elements and advantages, explaining why the clients should be interested in purchasing your product. Listed here are some reasons why video marketing can prove beneficial for your business growth.

Videos Are an Excellent Way to Describe Your Product

Online video content assists potential customers in learning more about your product. According to a recent report, 94 percent of online marketers believe using video content helps improve user knowledge of a product or service.

In addition, clients will only purchase your goods when they know better about your product and how they can use them. Unsurprisingly, video content exceptionally provides better visuals and helps companies clearly describe how things work.

Video Content Provides a Higher Return on Investment

The return on investment (ROI) from your video marketing depends on numerous factors, including how well you have managed your content design and the quality of your promotional videos.

However, 83 percent of respondents say that video marketing provides them with a higher return on investment. In addition, while many online marketers think of video as a costly and time-consuming process, you can use a video maker or an online video editor, making it effortless to create video fast without a considerable budget.

Video Marketing Can Help Boost Your Conversion Rates

Yes, it is a fact. Recent research indicates that using videos in your online marketing campaign can help boost your conversions by around 14%. An excellent way to use video on your landing page can be an explainer video for your products or services. This is an excellent option for your client to watch a quick video to know all about what your product or service does, usually in an entertaining or eye-catching way.

Therefore, it is valuable to hold your finger on the pulse here. In addition, video content invariably changes. Key trends that you can try include a product video (a live demo) and product reviews. This content becomes engaging for clients, and by having them on your online marketing, you can drive sales and boost your conversions more than you would ever expect.

The Future of Video Marketing Is Bright

As technology proceeds to pivot and change, how we employ it too. For video marketing, that implies more forms than ever to make your online audience receptive and engaged to you and your business.

It is crucial to understand how videos can be deployed to significantly influence one-to-one promotional videos to live streams. With the future of AR, VR, and online video streaming services at your disposal, it is the ideal time to get into video content marketing, remaining updated on the most advanced ways you can convey your message to your audience.

Video Content Engages Even the Laziest Audience

Video content has become an excellent tool for understanding, but it is also effortless to consume. Modern life is too busy to go through lengthy product descriptions or explore in-depth services. The contemporary client likes to see their preferred product in action.

Video preference is one of the most significant driving forces of employing video in your video content marketing. In addition, video marketing can help you attract a wide base target audience, and it operates on numerous levels.

Video Marketing Is Your Email Campaign’s Best Friend

Compelling viewers to open your email in this fast-paced, modern world is a significant challenge. However, according to a study, just using the word ‘video’ in your email subject line can improve your CTR (Click-through rate) by 200-300%

It is why more and more online marketers are now using interactive video content in their email campaigns. This could indicate anything from showcasing a product that a client has rejected to a welcome email for your first-time clients to build a relationship.

In addition, engaging video content within your email marketing strategy can assist you in engaging, persuading, and informing your target audience. Also, as it is well-known that online users love watching videos over any form of media, why not leverage its benefits to boost your business growth.

Google Prefers Optimized Video Content

Apart from videos being excellent elements in numerous online marketing campaigns and being a fantastic tool to provide information, another significant advantage for online marketers is better ranking on search engine results pages.

In addition, if you take the time to guarantee that your video content remains SEO optimized, with an engaging and appropriate thumbnail, good quality content, and eye-catching title, your video marketing can bring plenty of organic traffic to your website. It can likewise improve your search engine ranking and earn higher views in the process.

Final Words

In a nutshell, video marketing online businesses is a significant factor. It is a reinforcement mechanism for those companies that have just started their online journey. The most meaningful side of video marketing is that it transforms how online users see your products or service. Therefore, while creating exceptional video content, it is better to understand your strengths and execute them.

This way, you can drive on your way towards achieving heights and growth you never imagined. Also, video marketing can help you drive higher organic traffic to your website that boost your business visibility, and help you become more profitable.

April 16, 2022
How to Use Video to Boost Traffic and Sales Faster Than SEO

Marketing innovator Neil Patel says that video is better than most marketing channels out there for getting traffic fast. In his latest video Patel explains how anybody can drive traffic to their website, and more importantly, drive sales of products and services. Taking the video plunge should be on every entrepreneur’s priority list.

Neil Patel, explains how video may be the best marketing channel for instant results:

Tip 1 – Leverage Ubersuggest

The cool thing about video is you can see results faster than traditional SEO or most marketing channels out there. Let’s go in order on what you need to do to get more sales and traffic from videos. The first thing you need to do is leverage Ubersuggest. Ubersuggest is a free tool that’ll show you what keywords are popular. If you don’t know what keywords and topics are popular within your space you will be creating video content that no one wants to watch or hear about.

Tip 2 – Record Into Your Phone

The second thing you need to do is just bust out your phone and start recording into it. Make sure you’re looking at the video. You don’t want to just do audio. You want to break down whatever topic is popular based on what you learn from Ubersuggest. When you’re doing the video, ask questions within your video. Make sure it’s engaging, be fun, laugh, and always smile. I always forget that one but that’s very important. My cameraman always tells me that one but that’s very important.

In addition to that, at the very end, you want to have a call to action that drives people back to your website. For example, at the end of my videos, I tell people to check out my ad agency. When you do that you’ll at least start generating sales. If you don’t have that call to action that you say at the very end, I kid you not, it’s going to be very hard to get sales from that video.

Tip 3 – Go to Rev.com and Get an SRT File

Then I want you to go to Rev.com and get an SRT file. What this does is they’ll do a transcription of the video content after you recorded it and give you an SRT file that you can upload. You will then want to take the video and the SRT file and upload it to each and every single social network out there. You want to do Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, at the bare minimum.

By uploading the SRT file, what you’ll find is a lot of the social sites autoplay the videos and people often don’t have their speakers on, especially when they’re at work. Then they can read the text and follow along. It’ll help boost the engagement.

Tip 4 – Include the Right Keywords

Now that you’ve uploaded this video, at the same time before you hit the publish button, you want to include the right keywords. So you already use Ubersuggest and they gave you ideas. By integrating these keywords within the copy, description, and title, it’ll help you get more traffic.

Tip 5 – Promote the Video

Then you want to promote the video. Go take your email list and send out an email blast and push it out to your list within the first hour. This will help you videos get more traction and make them go more viral. If you have a push notification list, through tools like Subscribers, send out a push about the video and push everyone to it within the first hour. Again, this will help the videos get more views and help them go more viral.

Tip 6 – Respond to All Comments

Last but not least, respond to all comments. The biggest thing when it comes to videos and getting more engagement and getting more sales is you need to engage with the community. When someone leaves a comment, you need to respond to it. By doing that they’re going to build a better connection with you. Then when you sell them products and services they’re more likely to buy.

February 23, 2019
Neil Patel’s 7 Trends to Embrace for Successful Digital Marketing in 2019

Self-made marketing expert Neil Patel released a video titled, How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2019. Patel outlines 7 Trends that all businesses and content producers should embrace for successful digital marketing in 2019:

“Digital marketing is going to change in 2019,” says NeilPatel. “What’s been working for the last few years is not anymore. Here’s how digital marketing is changing in 2019 and what you need to do to thrive and succeed.”

Tip 1: Embrace Omnichannel Approach to Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is moving to an omnichannel approach. You used to be able to build a business with just one channel. For example, Facebook grew by just telling everyone, hey invite your friends. They would take your address book and invite all your friends automatically even without your permission. That’s changed and those tactics don’t work as well as they used to. I’m not saying they don’t work at all, they just don’t work as well as they used to.

Marketing has moved to an omnichannel approach where you now have to use tactics like growth hacking, pay-per-click, SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and banner ads. The list is never-ending and the more channels you use the better off you’re going to be. Most of these channels are crowded because there are so many online businesses. If you don’t use all of them you just won’t do as well in 2019.

Tip 2: Leverage Voice Search

Most of you will not like this but search is moving to voice search. By 2020 Comscore estimates that half the searches on Google will be through voice search. Right now, two out of every five adults are using voice search. Yes, that means kids aren’t using it as much but still by 2020 they’re saying half of all searches, not just from adults, but half of all searches are going to be via voice search. So if you want to do well in 2019 you need to be leveraging voice search.

The way you do this is one, make sure your site is HTTPS because most of the sites that are at the top are HTTPS these days. And two, your site needs to load fast. If it doesn’t load fast you’re not going to do as well with voice search. Three, when people are typing in questions, they’re typically typing in longer-term phrases. So your questions, and especially your answers need to be short and to the point. If your answers are a paragraph long you’re not going to do as well compared to if your answer was one sentence long.

Tip 3: The Only Way to Compete is Through Conversion Optimization

The third tip I have for you is conversion optimization. Advertising is getting more and more expensive over time and that’s not going to change. The only way you’re going to be able to compete and stay ahead is through conversion optimization. The more you optimize your landing page for conversions the better off you’re going to be. Make sure you’re using tools like Crazy Egg which allows you to do A/B testing so you can squeeze more conversions from the traffic you’re getting.

Also, make sure you’re using tools like Hellow Bar which encourages email collection. Again, this will help you get more revenue from the users and visitors that you do have. If you don’t do this as the years go on you’re going to get drowned out by the competitors because they’re going to spend more money than you and they’re going to crush you. So focus on conversion optimization even though it’s not sexy and most people don’t like talking about it in marketing.

Tip 4: Leverage Marketing Funnels

The fourth tactic I have for you is leverage funnels. Marketing funnels are going to be more popular than ever in 2019. Before, people used to just optimize their campaigns to, hey I’m buying ads, how many sales am I getting? Now you need a look at up-sells, down-sells, cross-sells, lifetime value of a customer, and churn.

Whether you have a physical product, digital product, or you’re doing lead generation, you need to track everything from a visitor all the way to a conversion point. That’s revenue for them to keep buying and that’s why funnels are really important. If you don’t know how to create a funnel go check out tools like ClickFunnels.

Tip 5: Content Marketing Only Works if You Create Amazing Unique Content

Content marketing just won’t work as well. Think about it, anytime you do a search most of the articles that are at the top are content marketing. Blogging is so popular and so played out that everyone is regurgitating the same information over and over again. Unless you’re creating amazing new information that people haven’t heard before, you’re not going to do well. Content marking just won’t work to get links or social shares unless you’re creating amazing content that’s new and that people haven’t seen before.

Tip 6: You Need to be Leveraging Video

My number six tip is creating video content. Video content is the future. You see me here in this video and you’re engaging with me. If you’re not, leave a comment and I’ll show you. I’ll respond back. Video content is the future. People want to engage through video. Facebook gives you more views if it’s video. YouTube gives you a ton of views and Linkedin does as well. You need to be leveraging video. You can’t take it for granted.

Tip 7: You Need to Create a Podcast

Podcasting is taking over. Did you know that 45 percent of the people who listen to podcasts have a household income above $75,000? That’s a ton, that’s a lot of money, and that means that the people that are listening to your podcast are going to be better buyers than most other marketing channels out there. You need to create a podcast.

Everyone is using their phones these days and everyone is driving to work. Podcasting makes it easy where people can listen to your content on-the-go. It’s such a hectic world out there and you need to have a podcast so people can listen to you while they’re dealing with their hectic life.

December 20, 2018
Why Vertical Videos are Now Essential to Growing Your Brand

There’s no doubt about it, video is the most powerful medium for marketing today. Research has shown that 75 million people in the US watch videos on the internet every day. Moreover, about 50 percent those videos are viewed through a mobile device. Experts predict that by 2019, traffic from internet videos will account for 80 percent of all online consumer traffic.

Video marketing isn’t just an option anymore. It’s now an essential marketing tool.

However, consumers today are viewing their videos in a different manner than in previous years. Horizontal videos don’t have the hold they used to have while vertical videos are becoming more prevalent. This means that advertisers not only have to make video a priority, but they also need to rethink how they create and format their video content.

Why Marketers Should Use Vertical Videos

Not, that long ago, vertical videos were frowned upon by advertisers. Since their reduced size was incompatible to the then wider screens of desktop computers, they tended to look like they were shot by amateurs. But times have changed and vertical videos are now preferred over horizontal ones.

Here’s why marketers should utilize vertical videos:

It’s Now a Mobile World

The popularity of mobile devices has also led to the universal acceptance of vertical videos. Smartphones are designed primarily for accepting and making calls, thus their aspect ratio will be vertical. This has also influenced people’s online experience. About 94 percent of consumers hold their phone vertically, and most won’t bother to turn it on its side just to watch a video horizontally.

Social Media Platforms are Mobile-Friendly

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are all optimized for mobile devices. And most of these platforms are quick to follow trends, which is why most have already removed the black bars on vertical videos to give consumers a better viewing experience.

They Give Better Results

Advertisers have discovered that using vertical videos to promote their products have better results in terms of engagement and views. Due to its orientation, vertical videos fill the whole screen and lets people focus solely on what they’re looking at it. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of distraction when watching a horizontal video on an upright screen. MediaBrix data also showed that less than 30 percent of people are willing to turn their devices sideways. It’s likely that they will also skip horizontal video ads.

How to Effectively Use Vertical Videos

Be Mindful of the Platform

Social media platforms optimize their videos differently, and this could impact the viewer experience. Take into consideration the type of users each platform has and design your video accordingly. Longer videos are better suited on Facebook, as the average user experience is usually three minutes per session. Meanwhile, Instagram users favor shorter videos that are under two minutes.

Keep Content Short

Short and sweet is the formula for content success. Even though long-form videos are good on platforms like Facebook, not every user can engage with extended content. It’s better to keep content to 10 seconds or less since it’s easier to digest. Increase the odds of engagement by releasing several short clips. It’s more valuable and encourages repeat views. What’s more, multiple videos will have your audiences staying with your content longer.

Include the Audience

Use your video like an extra set of eyes and take your audience with you. Vertical videos are great for showcasing day-in-the-life clips or behind the scenes shots. It lets your audience feel like they’re the ones behind the camera, providing them with an authentic customer experience.

Vertical video provides marketers with a ton of new opportunities to push their brand. By making vertical video content, you can tap into more mobile device users who will spend more time on your content. this results in more shares, greater exposure for your brand and more sales.

December 4, 2018
The Nitty Gritty Tips On How To Get YouTube Views and Drive Business

Every business should be using YouTube to engage their potential customers and create a sense of authority for their business. The problem is that most people don’t know where to start and don’t know how the YourTube algorithm works, so they serious make mistakes.

Internet marketing expert Neil Patel along with YouTube branding expert Adam LoDolce, founder of Viewership.com, recently provided the answers that every business needs to expertly use YouTube to communicate with their potential customers.

Below are some highlights:

You want to get more traffic from YouTube, there are a few things you need to do. One, check out vidIQ, it’s an amazing tool, it’ll help you out. However, YouTube marketing is not rocket science, similar to SEO. Yes, there are a lot of little components, but if you do them, you can do well.

Include the Right Keywords

The first one is, include the right keywords. Similar to how you do keyword research for SEO, you want to do keyword research for YouTube. Suggested apps are vidIQ, Adwords keyword planner tool and Ubersuggest which pulls from Adwords and Google Suggest and YouTube. If you just do that you will get more recommendations on keywords that will drive more traffic.

Have a Very Appealing Title

Another thing you want to do is have a really appealing title, one that evokes curiosity. Just having the keywords in there isn’t enough. If your title doesn’t evoke curiosity, people aren’t going to click through, play and then continue watching. That’s really the biggest difference between YouTube and Google Search. With Google Search, people are searching for it, whereas on YouTube, most traffic isn’t search traffic, it’s people who click on your videos from browse features and suggested videos.

It has to be really good, I don’t want to say clickbait, but it has to be click-worthy for you to get a lot of traffic. When you watch a video on YouTube they’ll recommend other videos or autoplay other videos from other channels. If your video is really good and somebody is watching it, in the sidebar, somebody may see your video and click on it. But if your title is not appealing they’re not going to really click on it.

You Have to Upload Transcriptions

In addition to that, you have to upload transcriptions. We suggest Rev.com where you can pay a dollar per minute for a transcription. What that does is when you upload it to YouTube it’ll tell them what your content is about. Yes, YouTube can auto-transcribe your content, but it doesn’t hold the same weight versus if you uploaded an SRT file or a transcription, and that’s what Rev.com provides.

Increase Engagement With Advertising

If your a business and want to get your videos in front of a lot of people on YouTube, then you should use advertisement to push those videos in front of people who have liked or commented on previous videos. The reason why this is so effective is that it is going to get much more engagement on the new videos that you produce, and YouTube loves engagement.

YouTube, like Google, is looking at the authority of your channel and engagement feeds this algorithm. If you have a lot of videos that are doing well it boosts the overall authority of your whole channel, and all of your videos will start doing better. The worst thing you can do is have all these videos out there with no likes, no comments, nothing going on.

Key Tips for Producing a Video

One of the biggest things Adam LoDolce taught me (noted Neil Patel) when I was learning about YouTube marketing, was all about how to produce the video. I’m not talking about the editing, I’m talking about your personality and how you create your own video.

The biggest one is how you want your audience to feel. A lot of people think about keyword topics and that’s nice for your research, but ultimately, it’s about how do you want them to feel. Do you want them to be motivated, or do you want them to laugh?

For your business channel, the worst thing you can do is to be very stiff, professional and to just give tactical advice. Loosen up a little bit, have a little fun, make a joke, that’s how you can get engagement with your videos. If you are not having fun recording, I bet you the person watching is not going to have fun.

Your videos need to be a decent length. YouTube’s looking at how long are you keeping people on YouTube! The more you keep them on YouTube, instead of driving them back to your website, the better. Everyone likes putting those captions in videos, like click this link, head back over to my website. That will hurt your YouTube ratings versus just keeping people on YouTube.

Think of it more as a branding channel, and when you are creating a video that doesn’t mean you need to create an hour video, but typically anything about 5 or 6 minutes is good. Any short videos of 2-3 minutes is just going to hurt you versus creating 5-10 minute videos.

Video is the Future

If you are a business and not doing any video, you are missing out. If you can start doing it and start getting more comfortable with it, push your comfort zone and get in front of the camera, you are going to have a competitive advantage out there.

August 29, 2018
Ways to Effectively Promote Your Business With Video Marketing

From search engine optimization, the next evolution of online marketing is video. While mobile phones and social media are invaluable, they have created a generation with a relatively short attention span. A one-minute clip can explain a topic more than a three-page thesis can.

This is probably why 70% of businesses that use video marketing for their ad campaigns have reported an increase in the amount of traffic to their sites. In fact, people tend to be more patient watching a video than sitting down to read text. According to statistics, the average length of an internet video is 2.7 minutes. Imagine what you can do with uninterrupted audience attention in that amount of time?

Facebook knows full well the value of video marketing. A staggering eight billion videos are being watched on the social media platform every day. And 45% of people worldwide spend more than an hour every week on Facebook or YouTube watching videos.

A video is much more likely to go viral in a short amount of time compared to written content or photos. In terms of organic reach, a clip is 135% better than photos.

But what type of video marketing should your company make? Here are some suggestions:

Company Information – This could also be your About Us video. In this clip, you should be able to sum up what your company is all about. Apart from being short—a maximum of five minutes would be ideal—your video should exude fun to retain the interest of your audience.

Employee Profiles – BuzzFeed is a great example of a company that includes its employees in their videos. As a result, they have developed their own respective fanbases. Customers also feel that they are part of the company after getting to know each staff member.

Raising Awareness – Another good use of video marketing is to educate your customers regarding the industry that you are a part of. It doesn’t matter if you belong in petrochemicals, education, or engineering. One example of useful content is to correct common misconceptions about the industry, or to educate them regarding your product.

Recruitment – If you are recruiting, video marketing would be a good platform to tell potential applicants what you are looking for. In this short clip, you should be able to share your company culture and vision. Another idea is to take a video of new recruits expressing their expectations for the company and why they applied for a job in the first place.

Virtual Tour – A virtual tour will give your customers the opportunity to view your business establishment or facilities. A short introduction of the employees and description about who does what will also be helpful.

Message From the CEO or Top Execs – It doesn’t have to be profound. Even a simple greeting during the holidays would be a great idea for a video marketing campaign. More than anything, this will present a “human face” to your company. People are always in awe of the CEO, but by letting people see that he or she is human like everybody else, it will make your business more relatable.

Video marketing is your best tool for rising above all of the social media noise. Of course, this means you may have to outsource this job to professionals. You can expect to pay somewhere between $1,000 to $5,000 per video minute for a low-cost option.

For small businesses, video productions will more likely be DIY clips, which can save an enormous amount of money. The good news is the huge number of downloadable apps online that you can have for free. With these programs, you can edit your clips for a more professional-looking video marketing campaign.

June 15, 2017
How to Choose the Right Social Video Platform for Your Brand
The use of social video has become commonplace in brand promotion nowadays due to its proven ability to generate buzz, increase recall, and produce conversions.

For instance, the Old Spice commercials are one of the most successful media ad campaigns in recent years, fully utilizing the power of social media to create hype for the brand. In fact, its latest, uploaded three months ago, has already reached over 7.6 million hits on YouTube.

The power of social videos is no secret, but the common question asked by businesses, whether large or small, is what type of social video platform should they use?

Answering that question in 2017 is a lot easier than it might have been in previous years. Today, the number of platforms available has whittled down to just a few, unlike before when there was an oversaturation of choices in the market. The remaining players have been able to survive mainly because they became more social.

With that being said, the most popular social video platforms currently being used are:
- YouTube: Nothing beats YouTube for its ability to make a video viral in record time. According to data, almost five billion videos are watched on this social media site every day. One negative aspect is that 80% of these views are made outside of the U.S., which might make it ineffective if you’re trying to promote a local business.
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg’s introduction of native videos that can be shared with friends has been a blessing to advertising firms. In terms of reach, these types of videos are unmatched. Users also tend to share video ads more as compared to photos (27% vs. 17%). However, businesses do have to trust that their videos are being shared around the community, because there’s no search engine structure allowing people to specifically input the video title, unlike in YouTube.
- Instagram: As of April 2017, there were already 700 million users on Instagram. The introduction of Instagram Stories also boosted traffic, with over 200 million unique users each day. In terms of engagement, this social media platform is unrivaled, with a post 58 times more likely to get engagement compared to Facebook. The downside is the limited length of the video, so brands looking to build communities will likely not benefit from this platform.
Here are some interesting numbers relating to social video marketing campaign:
- Almost a quarter of website traffic last year was generated from videos
- One in three people on the internet go online to watch YouTube
- 500 million people watch videos on Facebook each day
- Snapchat also hit a milestone by surpassing eight billion daily views last year
While reach is one thing, converting this engagement into an actual purchase is another. And this is where companies struggle. Whether for brand awareness, product promotion, consumer engagement, lead generation, or to offer value, the important thing is for companies to determine their main purpose before creating a video to be posted on social media.

Purpose is important since there’s a shift in the way social media marketing campaigns are being launched right now. Whereas in 2016, the need to put out a viral video took precedence over substantial content, this year would be a different story.

The top three ad campaigns last year that went viral were Shell’s “Make the Future,” Samsung’s “Galaxy S7,” and the John Lewis Christmas advertisement, “Buster the Boxer.”

Analysts believe that companies should invest more in generating videos that actually add on to their brands, rather than focusing on gimmicks to get more shares.
May 9, 2017
Facebook to Enable Mid-Roll Ads in User Posted Videos

Facebook is finally bringing monetization to videos that are posted by its users, letting video makers include mid-roll ads, according to Recode. “Industry sources say the social network is going to start testing a new “mid-roll” ad format, which will give video publishers the chance to insert ads into their clips after people have watched them for at least 20 seconds.”

Facebook is careful to match the same ad payout to publishers (55%) as YouTube, which we suspect is to avoid an ad payment war with its video platform rival. Facebook will differentiate its videos by serving a mid-roll ad instead of the dreaded pre-roll that most videos include. However, on YouTube the pre-roll ads can be discontinued by clicking “skip ad” after 5 seconds. It will be interesting to see if Facebook offers a similar way to end the ad interruption.

Facebook has been focused on video for the last few years, and at one point a Facebook executive said that “Facebook will be all video within 5 years.”

“Over the past six months we have been particularly focused on Live video. Live represents a new way to share what’s happening in more immediate and creative ways,” Zuckerberg said earlier this year. “This quarter Candace Payne’s Chewbacca mask video was viewed almost 160 million times.”

Not everybody is happy about Facebook’s video advertising plans:

Even more reason not to watch video. Advertisers won’t be happy until web video is as dire as US TV experience. https://t.co/ugtpLQp7Yy

— Charles Arthur (@charlesarthur) January 9, 2017

Ugh. Mid-roll ads 20 seconds into Fb videos could turn the start of videos into annoying "here's why you should keep watching!" previews https://t.co/b1qlBDaLr6

— Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) January 9, 2017

Sheryl hates pre-roll and mid-roll. And yet. https://t.co/CxRyXm98Sf

— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) January 9, 2017

January 30, 2017
YouTube Launches Promotional End Screens for Videos
YouTube has launched End Screens for videos, allowing creators to add a clickable promotional page at the end of videos that works on both mobile devices and desktop computers. Previously, video makers would have to upload a promo page and it would only work on the desktop.

YouTube says that you can use the End Screens to:
- Point viewers to other videos, playlists, or channels on YouTube
- Call for subscriptions to your channel
- Promote your website, merchandise, and crowdfunding campaigns
End Screens are embedded within the video and appear during the last 5-20 seconds. They can include up to 4 elements to promote your content, channel and websites, which on the desktop offers more information on hover or on a mobile device on tap. YouTube notes that other interactive elements, like card teasers, featured content, and branding watermarks, are suppressed during the End Screen.

According to YouTube, elements can feature the following types of content:
- Video or playlist: You can select to always feature your most recently uploaded video; allow YouTube to select a video from your channel to best suit the viewer; or pick any video or playlist from your channel, public, or unlisted content.
- Subscribe: Encourage subscriptions to your channel.
- Approved websites: Link to your associated website or to approved merchandise and crowdfunding websites. Provide a custom image, title and select a call-to-action.
- Channel: Promote another channel and provide a custom message.
This feature is planned to get more robust over time as YouTube receives feedback and data on performance, viewer behavior, device and context. They say that the End Screen will not be played when a video is viewed in background mode and for this reason YouTube recommends not pointing to elements or adding crucial content to the end screen part of the video.

Here is YouTube’s list of best practices for creating end screens
Feature elements that are relevant to the video.

Encourage viewers to click using calls to action for different end screen elements.

Make sure you leave enough space and time at the end of the video for an end screen. Make sure you consider the video’s last 20 seconds when editing it.

Consider timing different end screen elements to appear at different times.
“After testing End Screens with a number of creators, we’ve incorporated feedback to make the tool work even better,” said Muli Salem, Product Manager at Google. “We couldn’t be happier to make it available to every creator on YouTube. So how will you use End Screens? We can’t wait to see the ideas you come up with.”
October 27, 2016
Facebook Adds Scheduling Feature to Live Videos

Facebook has added the ability to schedule live videos, something popular broadcasters have wanted in order to gather an audience before going live. The feature is being launched this week for Verified Pages, but will go live for everybody soon after, according to Facebook.

“When you schedule a live video, an announcement post will be published to News Feed letting your fans on Facebook know that the broadcast is coming,” noted Peter Roybal, a Facebook Product Manager, and Brian Lin, a Facebook Software Engineer in a blog announcement. “People who see the post can opt in to receive a one-time reminder notification that will alert them shortly before your broadcast begins. Your fans can then join a pre-broadcast lobby directly before the live video starts, where they can connect and interact with other viewers.”

Verified Page users can login via their Publishing Tools section to schedule a live video. They will be able to schedule a live video up to a week in advance, so that viewers can wait in their lobby a few minutes prior to broadcast. Fans will even be able to communicate with other fans in the lobby.

At the conclusion of the video scheduling process, you will be able to easily share a promotional link or embed the announcement on a web page. The idea is that scheduling live videos gives you time to build excitement with your followers and gather a crowd right at the start. Facebook says that your Facebook fans can opt-in to receive a one-time reminder notification alerting them right before your live video starts.

Facebook also will be making their scheduling tools available to third party developers to integrate within their apps.

Facebook provided this How To Guide:

If you’re a Page Admin using the Facebook Live API, it takes only a few steps to schedule a Live broadcast.

1. Navigate to Publishing Tools

Once you’re in Publishing Tools, select “Video Library” and then “Live.”

2. Copy your stream credentials (e.g. steam key, Server URL)

If you need to find the credentials closer to the time you’re going live, they are also available by editing the post in Video Library.

3. Craft your announcement post

Be sure to write an engaging and informative description so your followers know what to expect from your broadcast. You will be able to update the description later if you want to.

4. Finalize your scheduled live broadcast

Put any finishing touches on your post (such as adding a custom image) before you schedule your broadcast.

For a more in-depth look at scheduling a live video—including tips on how to switch to“manual mode” and change your scheduled broadcast—check out this detailed walkthrough.

October 18, 2016
Google Buys FameBit, Sees Branded Content as Essential to YouTube

Google has purchased FameBit, a technology and marketing platform that helps brands link up with social media stars on YouTube and Twitter. This is part of a growing trend where Google and others realize that preroll video ads are not the future and that marketing integration into content is the smart way to reach millennial’s and even younger audiences.

Ironically, that’s how television started in the 1950’s, where every show was brought to you by a product and often that product was integrated into the content.

“We believe that Google’s relationship with brands and YouTube’s partnerships with creators, combined with FameBit’s technology and expertise, will help increase the number of branded content opportunities available, bringing even more revenue into the online video community,” noted Ariel Bardin, Vice President, Product Management at Google.

FameBit provides a modern version of this, telling marketers that it will grow your customer base via tutorials, comedic skits, mentions, routines, DIY videos, game plays, lookbooks, vlogs and hauls. What this means is that FameBit, and now YouTube, will connect your brand with YouTube stars and help popular YouTuber’s make additional revenue in the process.

“Every year, more and more brands are making YouTube essential to their marketing strategy,” said Bardin. “In fact, in the last year alone, the top 100 advertisers have increased their spend on YouTube video ads by 50 percent.”

Google knows that even though brands have increased their marketing on YouTube, what they really want are deeper connections with YouTube stars and through extension their fans.

“As brands continue to embrace the value of YouTube, they’re also taking their investments one step further, partnering with creators on branded content opportunities such as product placements, promotions and sponsorships,” he said. “As we look to the future, we want even more creators and brands to come together and realize the benefits of these creative collaborations.”

Unlike Google search, YouTube video is not inherently a lead generation opportunity, but rather is more like TV, promoting brand recognition and brand favorability. Fortunately for Google, that’s what Madison Avenue sells and Google wants to tap into more of their dollars.

According to eMarketer TV ad spending will be $72.01 billion in 2016 with digital ad spending just slightly under that. But with advertising in video formats from YouTube, Facebook, SnapChat, Twitter, etc…, digital ad spend will increase as a percentage. By 2020, it’s predicted that digital ad revenue will be 37% higher than TV.

Of course, digital delivery of TV is also on the rise, replacing the cable middlemen and ultimately making digital the primary way to consume video content.

October 12, 2016
Be at the 2016 Rio Olympics via Google
Google is gearing up to be the go-to place for Rio Olympic Games information. “Next week, the 2016 cauldron will be lit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where thousands of athletes will come together to represent the strength and pride of their home countries with the world as their audience,” says Google Product Manager Jonathan Livni, in a post on the Google Search blog. “In celebration of the next chapter in Olympics history, we’re bringing the best our products have to offer to help people around the world stay up-to-date with the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

Livni lists these products that will help you keep up with the Rio Games:
- Discover the event schedule, medal counts, and athlete information in Search
- Get results and view TV schedules in 30+ countries
- Watch official broadcasters’ event highlights on YouTube in 60+ countries
- Explore Rio and venues in Google Maps
- Keep up to date with the latest search Trends from around the world
“If you search on the Google app on Android and iOS, you’ll also see an option to get automatic updates on top event and medal wins, so you’ll never miss a beat,” says Livni.

YouTube & The Rio Olympics

“In the last 12 months, over 23,000 years of content have been watched on YouTube for the four most popular Olympic Games’ sports alone – athletics, gymnastics, diving and swimming, and volleyball,” commented Google’s Christoph Heimes, Head of News and Sports Partnerships, EMEA at YouTube. “To put this in perspective, that’s the equivalent of watching all 17 days of the Olympic Games, 24 hours a day, not once, but over half a million times. Nearly two thirds of that viewership has happened on mobile devices — and even more in countries like the U.S., U.K. and Japan.”

YouTube is sending 15 of their top creators to Rio to live stream everything except the games themselves, because NBC will be broadcasting these considering they paid $1.226 billion for the rights! You can also watch NBC and other official broadcasters’ video highlights on YouTube in more than 60 countries around the world, including the BBC (U.K.), America Movil (Latin America excluding Brazil), NHK (Japan) and many others.

Google will link all of these official broadcasters’ highlights directly into Google Search and YouTube Watch Cards for the Rio Games.

According to the YouTube Summer Games Report by the Google Trends team, the majority of time spent watching sports content happens on mobile. In the past 12 months, mobile devices accounted for 65% of Olympic sports videos global watch time.

Sports related content drives fans not just to YouTube, but to search as well. The Games are motivating more searches globally than the last World Cup and past two UEFA European Championships.

Brands on YouTube Tying into Rio Olympic Games

Brands are also heavily committed to the Rio Games, uploading ads celebrating the athletes, culture, and passion around the Olympic Games, and they are being watched in big numbers.

“From April 2016 through June 2016, ads from Worldwide and National Olympic Partners have already received the equivalent of over 400 years worth of watch time,” stated Heimes. “From epic wins to all-star performances, YouTube will bring you the best from Rio, before, during and after the Games through official broadcaster channels and celebration via content creators.”

Always #LikeAGirl – Keep Playing:

Minute Maid #doingood | See What U.S. Olympian Missy Franklin Has To Say:

Samsung: “The Chant” – Rio 2016 Olympic Games:

P&G Thank You, Mom – Strong | Rio 2016 Olympic Games:

Visa | The Carpool to Rio – featuring Team Visa Olympians:

Google Street View in Rio

With Street View in Google Maps you can enjoy Rio in all its glory even if you are not physically there.

“Even if you’re a world away, preview the places where the world’s most talented athletes will make history and explore the breathtaking beauty of Brazil,” said Livni. “We hope you’ll let Google be your guide.”
August 2, 2016
How To Build Your YouTube Audience, From A Gamers Perspective

YouTube is arguably the most disruptive marketing platform of this decade. Yes, it’s been around since 2005, but only in the last few years is it starting to impact Madison Avenue marketing campaigns. Companies are using YouTube to put their brands in front of hard-to-reach niche viewers and are also finding ways to creatively make their own videos to spread their marketing message and enhance their image.

If you are the marketing director of a Fortune 2000 company or are an entrepreneur starting a small business you should dive into YouTube and video in general and learn how it can be an effective marketing tool for you or your brand.

Recently, some video gamers on the YouTube platform and part of the Youtube Creator Academy made a short video offering some advice on how to build a unique audience. This is from gamers perspective, but I think you will find the tips useful no matter what industry you are in.

“I built a community by being a really family friendly channel,” said Zach Letter of Aviator Gaming. “I do mostly story based content in Minecraft. I like to consider my channel the soap opera of the Minecraft world so that kids come to watch an in-depth story that has some drama, has some romance and has that tension they deal with everyday at school or in their real life. I think that is how I built such a tight
-nit community that loves my scripting, loves my role play but also loves me.”

Letter commented, “When I try to engage my audience I use a lot of the YouTube tools but I also use parts of my voice. I will try to engage them for likes and comments, just to see where they’re at in a certain series.” For instance Letter might ask, “What do you thinks going to happen next in the plot?” “That actually inspires me to write certain things in the script. If a lot of people want this certain thing to happen I might go back in and change the script and change up the episode. I think it’s alway smart to engage comments especially when it’s related to your content because it allows you to tailor content that your viewers actually want to see.”

“Whether it’s submissions on social media or in the comments sections they let me know that, hey, we really want to play this game, or hey, try out this game that’s coming out,” commented Garrett Sutton of JoblessGarrett. “Staying up on the trends and hype trains in regards to new releases of games really helps a child’s world as well.”

“For us it’s hard, because our main body of the episodes are very heavily scripted, but we use the intro paragraphs, we use the end cards as ways to actually communicate with the fans.” Matthew Patrick of The Game Theorists said. “People have been asking for us to cover films, TV and anime for a really long time, so Film Theory, the Channel, made a lot of sense. Hey, it would be really cool to see you play games and see what you do in real life, so the live stream happened.”

Patrick added, “First off the way they behave on camera will really dictate the way their fans behave. If you are responding to haters all the time those are going to tend to filter up in the comments, whereas if you are responding to that thoughtful comment, it shows that you as a creator is active in that community and is someone who is listening and is excited to engage.”

Check out the full video below:

June 7, 2016