Using YouTube to promote our service and web site- please view it and let me know what you think
We have just released our first YouTube video and I would like your opinion and also hear about your experiences using video in marketing.
I am the Director of Marketing at InnoCentive, an Open Innovation Marketplace that brings together organizations (companies, not-for-profits, and government orgs) seeking solutions to product development and R&D problems (called Challenges) with the smart people who can solve them.
A brief description: We have a community of 130k+ (and growing fast) Solvers who submit solutions to challenges and win cash prizes if they submit the winning solution. We just launched the video (link below) that describes a really cool solution that one of our Solvers provided to help with oil spill recovery - this was specifically in Alaska - but timely with the San Francisco spill that just occurred.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGaLUTpfxxo.
Have you used video at your company and what were the results? Any pointers on driving traffic to the video?
Thanks,
Meg
Answers (6)
Hi Meg,
We have been using YouTube to market City Year to 17-24 year olds. We primarily drive traffic to the video by including the link in e-mail blasts to leads and to folks who have started compelting an on-line application. We have not, by any means, cracked the code on utilizing video. I am interested to hear what other folks are doing.
We have used video for years and recommend that clients use video capture products such as Camtasia Studio by TechSmith for online presentations and video screen capture.
Your site is an excellent concept but I would have liked to have seen more examples of "solvers" on the video.
Del Ball
www.smallbizware.com
Links:
Hi Meg,
As a fellow Marketing Director, I know the challenge of getting your message out there. We have been using YouTube for a little bit to promote our training services ( high tech software) and have seen a tremendous result from it. The main issue with video is Google's Universal Search - so make sure the BIG KEYWORD you want to target in in the first few words on the Title of the video. Also include your website in the description and include the keywords again in the tags.
You will see your video pop into the top SERPs within a few hours.. very cool..
Just a few other ideas. Del recommends Camtasia to do screen capture recordings. You can get the same basic tool for free in CamStudio (http://camstudio.org/) then simply edit using MS MovieMaker or other video edit software. Make sure to add your web address so people know where to go after the video ends.
Another good idea. Go to http://www.tubemogul.com. You can upload your video once, then broadcast this to 12 other popular video sites for free. You can also get some awesome analytics on videos, channels etc. check it out.
Good luck with viral video marketing.. let me know how it works for you.
Links:
Brian M
at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
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Hi Meg,
The basics are good.
Two comments - the entry to your video needs "punch" - something that keeps the casual observer with it for more than 2-4 seconds.
Second, your titling will get attention from oil-spill devotees but not the core innovation crew. If that was your intent - no problem. if it was not your intent, you need to work out a way to get your more general message in there so that it is repeated across multiple videos.
Good luck,
Brian MacLeod
Have you considered leveraging utube to run your contest?
Instead of creating a video to highlight a single case study such as you've done, challenge Solvers to submit their own short videos with proposals to a specific Challenge. The video that gets the highest ratings wins something.
This idea would have very little effort and expense to produce on your part. You put the onus on the Solvers themselves to do the work for you. And it generates more ideas, more videos than just one, and hopefully more excitement and attention to your company and its mission.
I would build out a whole integrated marketing campaign around this idea, promote it in the press, on your web site, etc. Perhaps with a microsite that links back to utube.
Hi Meg,
I suggest you try to identify relevant blogs to politely ask to link to you. As for the video itself, while it has some great content, I agree that it may be a bit long and lacks some punch. you might consider adding music for impact. also, a summary bit at the end - X volume of oil clear out of our waters thanks to seekers and solvers.
seems like a very interesting company.
Best,
Nancy
