For every type of business, big or small, one of the biggest challenges is to effectively communicate ones message to current and potential customers. This is really the essence of marketing, communicating your business's story. Many marketers feel that the key to successful marketing which engages your audience is storytelling. One of the marketing experts that stresses this is Seth Godin who runs several successful businesses, and one of the most subscribed to marking blogs on the net. Over recent years some companies have embraced using blogs to communicate with customers. They do this by posting news and information about what is going on with their business. This can be very effective and it gives companies a way to let their customers into a part of their lives.
Video blogging takes this to the next level. A video blog or a Vlog is a linear posting of videos used to communicate with ones audience. According to Wikipedia, video blogs first emerged in late 2000. This trend has recently taken off due to sites such as YouTube making it easy to host and share videos. This media opens up some great possibilities for marketers. It creates a continuous linear chain of communications between business and customer. This means that one can keep current customers interested and potential customers can quickly get a feel for what your business is about.
For large business video blogs can be an extremely effective tool to communicate with customers on a more personal level. The business can show customers some of the people behind the brand. This can be something as simple as a quick video that shows customers some of the exciting new things that are happening, or something more in line with an infomercial where every week the company can promote a different product. This media creates a reasonably inexpensive way to reach customers or potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer. Most of all video blogging creates a way to share your business's story, and create a relationship where customers are interested in your company on a personal and business level. One business that has used video blogging very successfully is Blendtec. They used a video blog format hosted on YouTube to promote their indestructible blender. As you can see in the videos below the man with the goggles simply blends things that should not be blended. This campaign ended up getting well over 30 000 000 views, and I imagine sold a huge number of blenders.
Video Blogging probably offers the most benefit to small business. In most cases small business does not have the capital to put out a message to a large audience. Media like television and print are not as effective since it is repetition that makes the message effective, and that is usually not financially viable for small business. This restricts small business to small targeted media. The internet on the other hand has opened up the opportunity for small businesses to reach a much larger audience through viral marketing. This is where the message is put out, and it is up to the users to spread it. Some companies have seen huge success with this model. Video blogging simply increases the number of messages sent out. Since one should host the video on YouTube or a similar service every video has the possibility of becoming a viral success.
One issue that companies may have is high production costs, but these can be kept to a minimum using a camcorder and a Mac for video editing. For example when I did video work for my company RealSpace, I went from having no video editing knowledge, to being able to use all the major features in just a few hours. There is really no need to hire a production company or pay for expensive editing. Therefore, one can inexpensively tell their story to anyone willing to listen. There are services like StumbleUpon where one can buy or get free targeted traffic. Most of all video blogging puts people and faces to a company website, creating a more intimate business relationship with a large audience.
Monday, February 4, 2008
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