Sep 15, 2017, 10:10 ET

Preview: SCORE Names Three Grand Champions in American Small Business Championship, Sponsored by Sam’s Club

In today’s digital world, information is everywhere. Content is multiplying at warp speeds, always on, constantly competing for our attention. VIDEO helps you cut through this digital clutter. Video is human. Video is authentic. Video helps us feel. And more and more, how you make someone feel is the reason they choose to do business with you.

Marketers love video because video works. I truly believe that video is the most effective form of digital communication the world has ever known. But creating great video content and making sure that video drives high return are two different things. Video leaders focus on the business impact of video investments.

The #1 piece of advice I give in today’s data-driven world is to measure the business impact of your video and then double down on what’s working.

Measuring video matters. According to Aberdeen Group, companies using video grow revenue 50% faster than companies that don’t. How can you attribute KPIs and revenue to your video and prove the the value of your video initiatives?

Pre-work: The Data Behind Video

Before jumping into tactics, you need to understand the data involved. When it comes to data, video is unlike any other type of content. You don’t just see what viewers clicked, you also see how long they were engaged.

Think about it – with a whitepaper, you know someone downloaded it, but you don’t know if they actually read it, let alone exactly how much they read. Knowing that someone has watched 7%, 64% or 100% of your product demo video is extremely valuable. When you combine an individual viewer’s video engagement metrics with their other online activity, you get a much clearer picture of their interests, pain points, and needs.

Where marketers fall short with video is we often use it in a silo, disconnected from the rest of our marketing. We spend a lot of time instrumenting our website, our email campaigns, our blog posts, and our whitepapers and e-book downloads. We set up beautiful nurtures and personalized campaigns based on what users click on and download, but we don’t combine our video data with the rest of our marketing programs.

Step 1: Integrate Video With All Other Marketing Efforts

To create a holistic view of your marketing results, you need to integrate your video into your tech stack. Specifically, into your marketing automation platform (MAP) such as Oracle Eloqua, HubSpot, and Marketo and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) such as Salesforce.

What’s important for video marketers to understand is that MAPs are blind to video and its deep metrics. Unless, of course, that MAP is connected to your video platform.

Don’t panic! If you haven’t yet fully integrated your marketing stack, you have company. According to TechCrunch, a Q1 ‘17 survey by CMO Council and RedPoint Global revealed only 3% of respondents felt all of their automation, engagement, and deployment tools were fully connected, with data and insights traveling freely between the various technologies.

The good news is, the fix is easy. Once you integrate your video platform with your tech stack, video data will be added to all your other marketing data, allowing you to read the digital footprint of each individual viewer.

Step 2: Measure More Than Video Hits

Once your video platform, MAP, and CRM are connected, it’s time to ensure you’re measuring the right things. When it comes to measuring video performance, many companies focus solely on the view count. View counts by themselves are essentially a vanity metric – not tied to leads, revenue, or ROI.

It’s not just about how many hits your video is getting, it’s about knowing your viewers. You should be looking at each individual viewer, who that person is, what they watch, and how much they watch. Video data integrated with the rest of your marketing data will give you this invaluable information.

This information helps you deliver the right information at the right time to guide them through the customer journey.

Step 3: Use Video Data to Personalize Communications

When you know who is watching what video for how long, it allows you to personalize their experiences with your brand. According to the Aberdeen Group, video / rich media viewers are 65% more effective at maintaining consistent, relative, and personalized communications with customers and prospects.

Based on what video they watch, you can automate a campaign and lead score model. For example, if a product video is watched 100%, you can immediately route that contact to sales to follow up.

When you tie video to your tech stack, you also tie it to leads, to pipeline, to sales, and to retention. And more importantly, you can attribute your video to revenue.

Here at Brightcove, HCSS is one of many of our customers using their video and MAP integration to drive success. A construction software company based in Sugar Land, TX, HCSS has connected Brightcove to HubSpot and Salesforce, using the data to demonstrate video’s business value to the C-level. Using video throughout the customer journey has allowed HCSS to shorten their sales cycle by 44%! Attributing video to critical business metrics has enabled them to increase their marketing team by 40%, create video programs at every stage of the customer journey, and redesign their website to be video-first.

Step 4: Extend Video ROI Across the Company

Like many companies that begin by using video in marketing, HCSS is also now using video across their organization, including training. The Aberdeen Group reports 98% of video marketers support sales, 67% support the C-suite, and 51% support product development. By tying video into your tech stack, you can prove and improve company-wide results. According to the Aberdeen Group, companies using video platforms used their video-gleaned insights to achieve a 40% greater year-over-year growth in average deal size. They also reduced customer acquisition costs at nearly twice the rate of non-video platform users.

If you’re already doing video marketing, that’s wonderful! This series will help you do even more with it. But before you do anything else, be sure to integrate your video platform with your MAP and CRM. Once you prove the ROI of video, it’s easier to get support to extend your video programs.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2017/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — SCORE, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, has published an infographic outlining the powerful impact of video marketing on small business sales. Businesses are creating cost-effective promotional videos in a range of categories, including explainers, product demos and testimonials, and these videos are performing well with customers on small business websites and social media pages.

Videos resonate with consumers:

• 71% of consumers made a purchase after watching an online video about local products and services, according to one survey.
• Four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

Videos boost marketing ROI:

• Including videos in email marketing increases click-through rates by 96%.
• Videos improve Search Engine Optimization rankings. Videos are 50 times more likely to land on the first page of Google search results compared to text-based content.
• 87% of survey respondents had a positive ROI with digital video.

Successful videos can be produced on small business budgets:

• The greatest number of videos (16 per month) were produced by companies in the lowest revenue bracket (less than $5 million).

Shorter videos perform better:

• Videos shorter than 90 seconds keep 53% of viewers watching until the end, compared to videos longer than 30 minutes, which retain only 10% of viewers.

Download the infographic for more statistics on successful video marketing strategies for small businesses.

About SCORE
Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 10 million aspiring entrepreneurs. Each year, SCORE’s 10,000 volunteer business experts provide 350,000+ free small business mentoring sessions, workshops and educational services to clients in 300 chapters nationwide. In 2016, SCORE volunteers provided 2.2+ million hours to help create more than 55,000 small businesses and 130,000 full-time, part-time and contractor jobs.

For more information about starting or operating a small business, visit SCORE at www.score.org. Follow @SCOREMentors on Facebook and Twitter for the latest small business news and updates.

­­Contact Information
Betsy Dougert
800-634-0245
rel= »nofollow »media@score.org

 

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/score-infographic-video-marketing-for-small-businesses-300539971.html

SOURCE SCORE

According to a new report, the findings to which MMW was privy on Thursday, video is becoming marketers’ tool of choice.

In fact, U.S. companies are investing $135 billion this year in online video to market products and services.

The research, from Magisto, hailed as being the world’s most popular smart video storytelling application, is part of a new report released today entitled “Video’s Payday: Part 1: The Modern Marketing Dilemma and the State of Business Video.”

We’re told that the report is the first release in a three-part series and examines the rapid rise of online video, resulting, according to the report, from new rules of marketing engagement that have tilted markedly in favor of authenticity.

The research examined the digital video spend among U.S. businesses and found that over the next year, American businesses will spend an estimated $135 billion on digital video. The figure takes into account the entire video ecosystem, including production, tools, people and media, painting a contrasting picture compared to existing predictions for the market. As a point of reference, advertisers this year expect to spend $83 billion on digital ads and $71 billion on TV commercials. This new research points to the digital video spend nearly equaling the combined spend of digital and TV advertising in the U.S.

“The traditional, linear mode of communication, dominated by advertising and controlled by legacy marketing, simply doesn’t work today. It is more white noise at a time when signal is the scarcity,” said Oren Boiman, CEO of Magisto. “The enormous influence of social media and the bottom up culture of millennials have led to a new marketing condition where the consumer is in control, word-of-mouth is a medium unto itself, and authenticity is paramount to engaging customers.”

To review the complete report, click here.

Facebook Video Marketing 101

The future of video marketing is on Facebook. According to an article at BusinessBacker, “videos uploaded directly to Facebook outperform YouTube and other third-party providers by getting 100% more views and 200% more shares.” It is clear that small businesses looking to get an edge in video marketing can do so with Facebook.

The article itself is an eleven step guide on how to produce, edit, and market videos on Facebook. This information is invaluable to any small business looking to expand their business and brand. By publishing videos on Facebook, small businesses can allow video engagement directly with potential customers in an ever-growing market. It is no surprise that the top 10,000 publishers on Facebook are doubling their video content output.

The eleven step guide offers tips from the best length a video should be to how filming the video in the right angle gains maximum appeal. For example, a study found that “viewer engagement begins to drop off after 2 minutes.” It is best that a video doesn’t last longer than 120 seconds. When filming a video, it is best to film it vertically because “vertical videos show up better on mobile devices.” These are just a couple of tips found in the guide.

It is important that videos be uploaded directly to Facebook rather than Youtube or other third party video streaming websites. Videos that are uploaded to Facebook directly “receive twice as many views and three times the shares of those coming from Youtube or other third parties.” No wonder businesses are flocking to Facebook and putting out their video content there. The article sums up this point perfectly by stating “Between July 2015 and June 2016, the top 10,000 publishers on Facebook more than doubled their video output. They spotted value in video content so follow their lead.”

The internet is constantly growing and with it, demand for video content. Any small business can use these tips to their advantage in expanding their business or just getting their brand out there for people to see. Amazingly, this video streaming service on Facebook is free. So what is stopping you from using it?

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 18, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Video marketing company Show My PropertyTV, which has produced thousands of successful videos for hotels, multi-family apartments and luxury homes, and is transforming how properties are shown and marketed in the real estate industry, announced today that it has entered into a contract with Sequoia Equities, Inc., a real estate owner and investment manager, to produce and distribute 45 videos.

Show My Property (SMP), the boutique company run by two British sisters, has become the U.S. industry leader in creative video marketing for luxurious multi-family buildings, single family residences, vacation homes, hotels and student housing.  It also operates in Canada and England.

The 45-video contract will enable SMP to develop exclusive, portfolio-wide, marketing footage for Sequoia that will push boundaries via its unique, POV filming utilizing drones, Virtual Reality technology and experienced lifestyle video actors.  Subject matter will also be groundbreaking in that it will feature cutting-edge topics such as same-sex families in their homes and other non-traditional “family” groups.

“As a customer-centric organization, we tend to partner with vendors who are also customer-focused. Show My Property welcomes our innovative ideas with open arms,” said Danny Mizufuka, Brand Manager at Sequoia Equities, Inc. “We’re now able to tell a story about our property in a two-minute production. We’re making a statement by casting same-sex couples, actors of all ethnic backgrounds, actors with eclectic style, and other characteristics of who people are today. We believe equality should go beyond Fair Housing, and our advertising must be diverse and inclusive. These production experts enabled us to bring this vision to life.”

With a team in every major city in the U.S., Show My Property utilizes dynamic and exciting video, often featuring VR technology, to showcase impressive buildings in lucrative downtown areas and surrounding luxury vacation oases.

“It makes sense for real estate agents to look to us to show their properties,” said Anna Singleton, CEO and founder of Show My Property TV.  “We know how to entice customers to buy, by using innovative VR technology, as opposed to stodgy, old-fashioned brochures and boring photos.”

Show My Property also produces student-housing videos across the country.  These apartment video tours have proven to be the most effective way of generating new leads. The company’s most popular style of video, aside from the student-housing lifestyle video, is the apartment tour with a professional TV host.  SMP has particular expertise because Singleton is a former British television personality. The addition of VR in this space has been incredible. Now a student from Texas, for example, can don a pair of goggles and tour a student housing property in Mexico. And the buzz you can create at a student housing fair with VR goggles is unparalleled.

Other innovation in the company now enables it to also offer groundbreaking photography and social media campaigns featuring small bites of video to get renters interested.   

Clients have included Essex, Avalon Bay Communities, Roseland, Asset Campus Housing, Bank of America and others.

Show My Property produces property tours across the United States, Canada and England. For more information, contact its offices at (310) 776-9982 or visit online at www.showmyproperty.tv

About Sequoia Equities, Inc.

Sequoia is a real estate owner and investment manager. The company’s multifamily portfolio is approaching $4 billion and consists of market rate rental properties with a mix of garden-style and high-rise buildings. Sequoia specializes in a multitude of services, spanning acquisition to disposition, with core capabilities in asset management, renovation, repositioning, and property management.

Contact:  Frank Tortorici (908) 875-8908

(Associated Press)

Mobile TV antenna attachments. The U.S. digital video marketing industry will be nearly as large as the digital advertising and TV commercial markets this year, Magisto predicts.

The rise of video isn’t slowing down. From producing videos to distributing and promoting them, the U.S. digital video marketing industry is expected to reach $135 billion this year, according to a new study by mobile video platform Magisto.

The 2017 estimate — which includes the cost of video capturing, creation, hosting, distribution, analytics and staffing — is sizeable and would make video marketing nearly as large of a market as digital and television advertising combined. By contrast, advertisers are expected to spend $83 billion on digital ads and $71 billion on TV commercials (a total of $154 billion) in the U.S. this year. On average, each American businesses will spend $20,000 on video marketing this year, the study predicts. Magisto, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif. and makes a web-based video editing tool, published its study on Wednesday based on voluntary, anonymous responses from 545 marketing decision makers at small, medium and large U.S. businesses, surveyed this summer.

The pace of video creation is also accelerating as companies seek to better cater to millennials — the first digitally native generation — and to teens. More than half of businesses in the study said they create video content at least once a week, and 26% said they create video content daily. Video marketing also appears to make up a growing portion of businesses’ marketing budgets. 60% of businesses said they spend more than a quarter of their marketing budget on video, and 64% of those surveyed said they create video content internally.

“Our research allowed us to examine and size the entire video ecosystem, including production, tools, people and media,” Magisto said in its report. “Our research points to the digital video spend nearly equaling the combined spend of digital and TV advertising in the U.S.”

The massive size of the online video market can largely be attributed to the growing focus on video across media channels (such as
Facebook
,
YouTube
, Instagram, Musical.ly,
Twitter
and Snapchat) as well as to a shift among consumers, who increasingly prefer to receive information through the medium.

« Twenty years ago, television and the web was the video mechanism, and now, all of the platforms are primarily image- and video-based, » said Jim Louderback, the CEO of VidCon. « The younger you are, the more likely you are to want to consume information in video form. If you’re under the age of 35, video is the way you want to be communicated with, it’s the way you want to learn and understand. »

At a time when more and more digital information (and white noise) is directed at smartphone owners, especially on social media sites, the immersiveness of video can give brands a more vivid, immediate way to appeal to the consumer’s emotions and desire for entertainment than other mobile formats.

“Since video combines the emotional impact of story with the efficacy of digital advertising, it is a perfect way for businesses to authentically engage with today’s consumers,” Oren Boiman, CEO of Magisto, said in a statement. “The enormous influence of social media and the bottom up culture of millennials have led to a new marketing condition where the consumer is in control, word-of-mouth is a medium unto itself and authenticity is paramount to engaging customers.”

For advertising, YouTube remains the most important video platform, followed by Facebook, propelled by their reach and the scope of tools they offer marketers. Louderback said he expects Amazon-owned video-game streaming site Twitch will be an increasingly important video platform over time. The shift to mobile video — which makes up about 80 to 90% of content viewed across digital media channels; the rise in episodic, longer-form video; and the growth of influencer marketing are key trends brands and creators should watch. Live video and virtual reality should also become more mainstream over time, Louderback added.

« We see all of these platforms trying to become television, » Louderback said.

Magisto’s Wednesday report is the first in a three-part series the company plans to release this year. The company expects its second report to focus on where and how advertisers are spending the $135 billion. The third part of the series will focus on consumers’ reactions to business video.

So far, companies appear to think video is worth the cost. Businesses are 150% more concerned about the speed of video creation than the price, according to Magisto.

“Done correctly, video has the scale of television, the precision of digital marketing and the power of authentic story,” the company said in its report.

The chilling words of one long-time firefighter.

Even veteran fire crews are overwhelmed by just how bad the destruction is in California.

The Coffee Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa was one of the hardest hit areas by the fires. It went from house to house to house, basically burning down the entire neighborhood.

A neighborhood that you would see in any one of the cities, just an average neighborhood, so when one catches on fire, it spreads to the next to the next to the next.

« It’s just us, law enforcement and PGE (Pacific Gas and Electric). PGE is here taking care of their utilities and making sure that any of these trees, what’s left of them, could fall an injure someone that those are taken care of, » says McLean. « None of us have ever seen anything like this. »

« I’ve been doing this for over 22 years and been to numerous house fires or wildland fires that have spread to a group of homes, but the sheer scale of this, » McLean said. « I mean, it basically takes your breath away. As far as you can see, there’s nothing. »

Are you using marketing videos in your social media strategy?

Interested in getting them ranked higher on the most popular video search engine?

In this article, I’ll show you first-hand pieces of advice to grow your reach on YouTube by optimizing your video content, your SEO efforts and your channel.

I’ll start by stating a few facts: videos have become marketer’s no. 1 choice because they’re visually compelling, great for wrapping up complex ideas and also easily shareable. Besides, they’re perfect to use to increase audience retention and conversion rates.

Now, when dealing with video content, I think we all know that YouTube is without a doubt the best place to host your videos. YouTube is the world’s second largest social media site and search engine (right behind Google, who actually owns it). So I don’t need to tell you why you have to host your videos there.