I have a huge confession to make. As I sat down to write this week’s article, I was clueless as to what I was going to write about. So I scanned some online articles that I had bookmarked, looking for a topic that grabbed my attention enough for me to actually read the article. While on the Practical Ecommerce site, an article titled 4 Ways Video Can Drive Traffic and Conversions caught my eye. So I gave the article a quick read and then a second, more deliberate read…
A case for using video as a promotional tool According to comScore, 172 million US Internet users watched an average of 14.9 hours of online video per viewer in April 2011. More than 5.1 billion viewing sessions were engaged in by the total US Internet audience during the month. Google sites, primarily YouTube.com, was the top video content source followed by VEVO, Yahoo! Sites and Facebook.com. Microsoft Sites completed the top five.
Armando Roggio, author of the Practical Ecommerce article, lists four reasons for using online video to promote your products: (1) Videos make good content; (2) Videos give shoppers more product information; (3) Videos build customer relationships; and (4) Videos are easy to share in social media. Although the examples cited in the article are all professionally produced videos, an interesting comment left by bhildebolt states that “To truly create a compelling video experience at retail, you also need user generated videos. Comscore ran research that found that user gen videos were arguably even more persuasive than professional videos, but more importantly…were incredible complementary.”
So what can we learn from this interesting data? It tells me that well done, thoughtfully planned and strategically positioned video can help sell our products. In addition to direct promotional content, tutorials are a great way to gather an audience which can help convert video browsers to buyers of our products. I think it’s time for us to start thinking outside the “text and photo” box and consider video. What do you think?
Best wishes for much success on Zibbet!
Online Selling Trivia…Maybe Not! Part 1 | Online Selling Trivia…Maybe Not! Part 2 | Online Selling Trivia…Maybe Not! Part 3 | Online Selling Trivia…Maybe Not! Part 4
Vicki is committed to assisting her fellow Zibbeters improve their shops for successful online selling. She is the owner of five Zibbet shops: LOC Design Studio, Denim and Pearls, A Stitch and a Prayer, Black Creek Crossing and Think Like a Fish. You can follow Vicki on Twitter and through her LOC Design Studio blog.
Tags: Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Online Selling Trivia...Maybe Not!, Promtion, VEVO, Yahoo!, YouTube
