How are you using video as a marketing channel?

Discussions
#1

Up until now I’ve been a “grumpy old man” when it comes to video.

I preferred writing and podcasting.

But video feels so big, it’s hard to ignore any longer:

So I’ve been experimenting.

Here are a few things I’ve tried so far:

  • Using videos (like this one) on landing pages. (Mine used to be text + images only)
  • A weekly live video show. Many of the episodes get 200+ views.
  • Facebook video (with captions for muted watching).
  • Cross-posting videos to Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat.

I’ll post results once I have more data.

Interesting to see folks like @nate move to video too:

One big hint: kids want to become YouTubers. It’s a big reason I’ve moved so much time from my writing schedule over to video production and editing. At the risk of stopping what works, I’ve now started making terrible YouTube videos.

My question for you folks: how are you using video as a marketing channel? What kind of results have you seen?

#2

The thing that convinced me about video is my girlfriend’s behaviour. She’ll find a YouTube channel she likes about a hobby, technique, or product, and watch them on auto-next (or whatever you call it when the next video in a channel plays after the current one). It made me suspect that unlike myself, who’d prefer to skim an article, there are many people who’d rather see things explained in a video. Or perhaps would like to watch videos on the bus or train during their daily commute about this new interest of theirs or product they are trying out.

So I created a bunch of how-to videos explaining how to use various parts of my software. I link to them in one of our auto-responder emails sent out in the first month after someone subscribes to the list.

Does this work for driving sales, or new website visitors, or downloads? No idea, I’m afraid!

I find making videos time-consuming and hard to do well. They also date quickly; if I add too many new features or change the look of my product, I need to redo the videos.

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#3

Steve,

I am in the midst of trying to measure my funnel, including “multi channel contributions” where several channels contribute to the sale (so called Assisted Conversions). I must admit it’s a bit fuzzy

E.g.,
Search > Home Pg > Newsletter > Read Article > Read Article > Watch Video > Buy

There are some decent tools in gAnalytics for this in:
Conversions >MultiChannel Funnels > Assisted Conversions
and >Top Conversion Paths

part of the trick is to make your Conversions (purchase, download, etc.) a GOAL.

#4

So I created a bunch of how-to videos explaining how to use various parts of my software. I link to them in one of our auto-responder emails sent out in the first month after someone subscribes to the list.

Does this work for driving sales, or new website visitors, or downloads? No idea, I’m afraid!

@SteveMcLeod what about do webinars with your users?

#5

I’ve done that a little, in the form of Twitch streaming. For my target audience “Watch my Twitch stream” works much better than “join this webinar”!

It works well, but it is demanding of time and energy.

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