“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” John Wanamaker
In the 1950s and 1960s, advertising was a lot easier. If you wanted to increase sales or product awareness, you simply placed an ad on one of the major networks and watched the money pour in. Today, with 500+ TV channels and endless Internet distribution options, the world is much smaller and targeted. The best reason to spend your marketing dollars online is the ability to see where each dollar went and what happened as a result.
A video production company should do more than just make great content; they should ensure the correct people see that content and then convert viewers into buyers.
Identify your target, then narrow it down.
This age-old marketing question is increasingly important with the surge of social media sites, and your target market is probably smaller than you think. For example, if you’re selling lipstick online, it’s tempting to say your target market is all women. In actuality, your target market is much, much smaller. Your target can only be women who wear lipstick, who shop online, who are unsatisfied with their current lipstick options, and who are willing to try a different product. Whittling down your target audience this way reveals a much clearer picture about who your target is, and how they behave online.
Consumer online behavior is evolving, and you need to make sure your brand is targeting the right people in the right environment. If you want to learn more about this, check out Seth Godin’s “The Long Tail and the Dip.“
Setup tangible, trackable goals.
Almost everything is trackable online. You can know exactly how many people watched your video, how long they spent on the page, what other pages they viewed on your site, etc. Before you post a video online, you must first determine what you want a user to do after they view your content. This step is incredibly important, but constantly overlooked. Do you want them to buy now, sign up for your email list, call someone for more information? Identifying the consumer’s next step is where you begin realizing ROI.
Make it as simple as possible for users to interact with your content.
This should be a no-brainer, but people often bury their content in difficult websites. Make the user experience as simple as possible and place your content where your consumers are. If your consumer’s on Facebook, you should be on Facebook. If your consumer reads a certain blog or news page, you should have a presence there. Syndicating your content online is an inexpensive way to dramatically increase the reach of your content. Do the research ahead of time to know if YouTube, or Blip or Brightcove makes the most sense for your product and your demographic.
