How Are You Using Video To Market Your Business? What, You Aren’t?

Are you a small business considering how to increase your business? Have you been evaluating where you have been spending your marketing dollars? I’m here to suggest that video should be an ever increasing portion of your focus and your dollars. How about some background.

Report – One quarter of all online video is viewed in Prime Time!

For years, online video has been viewed primarily as a time-wasting activity that happens during work hours or when people aren’t near a TV or other forms of entertainment. But that could be changing, as new data from Scanscout suggests that online video is sneaking into the living room during primetime hours.

According to ScanScout‘s Online Video Insights report, 24 percent of all videos streamed in March were watched in the primetime hours between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., when most TV networks show their top programming. The hour between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. — the time slot for broadcast TV hits like ABC’s Lost and Fox’s 24 — was the most active for both streams and unique viewers across most types of video content.

So users are moving to web video in greater numbers, even during prime time. How are advertising agencies responding to that?

Adweek – Web Video Budgets Continue To Grow

Most marketers plan to up their online video ad spending in 2010 — though they’ll do so despite maintaining serious qualms about the medium.

According to a survey of ad agencies commissioned by the video network BrightRoll, a whopping 94 percent plan on increasing their Web video budgets this year. That’s despite the fact that nearly half say they’ve had a video campaign executed in a way other than they expected (17 percent), or they are unsure whether their campaigns have run as planned (31 percent).

Why is this happening and how can a small business person respond to this change? A recent report points to the reasons why video usage is increasing and the three types of video a small business should consider:

* Grab people’s attention instantly
* Tell your story in less time
* Bring your ideas to life
* Make your site stickier
* Create a buzz with viral video
* Bring your website into the 21st century

As the report notes, there are benefits and downsides to each but the bottom line is that video is becoming more important. If you’d like to learn more and be referred to a qualified business or independent video producer, feel free to contact Steve Olson at 417-597-4314 or by email at solson@missourifilm.org and we’ll be happy to assist you.