Use Online Video to Help Your Website Sell for You
By Rita Lieberman, Director
of Marketing Communications for ThomasNet
It’s a fact. Online video has taken off and is here to stay.
According to ComScore, the viewing of online videos in the United States
totaled 12.7 billion during November 2008, a 34% increase over the same month
in 2007.1
How can video help your website increase sales, bring in more
leads, and provide better customer service?
With potential customers coming to your website to find out about your company,
it needs to convince them that you have what they need without any direct contact
from you or your salesforce. You need to do the best job of “showing
and telling” the benefits of buying your products or services.
In addition to providing detailed product information, online video can
demonstrate your expertise in the marketplace in a familiar and entertaining
format.
Four types of videos can help you demonstrate your core strengths:
- Corporate capabilities – Do you specialize in custom
work, small precision jobs, or have the capacity for high volume work? What
markets do you serve? Is quick delivery a key selling point for the products or
services you offer?
- Plant and/or facilities tour – What does your manufacturing
facility look like? And your new machinery? Do you want to show off your new
10,000 square foot plant that just received certification as a green
manufacturer?
- Visual summary of product lines and related demonstrations
– Show and demonstrate your top selling products and related offerings. Do
you sell a line of replacement parts too?
- Testimonials from satisfied customers – Let your
current customers share their experience working with your company. These kinds
of third party endorsements are more effective than touting your own success.
Use YouTube to Share Your Videos
Once videos are produced, you can share them on your website using
YouTube.
Simply create a user account on YouTube and upload your videos for online viewing.
You can then embed individual YouTube links into a Web page on your site. None
of this requires any new software or server adjustments. Having more unique
content on your website helps improve your organic search engine rankings
as well.
For an example of online videos that feature testimonials from satisfied customers,
go to YouTube
and search ThomasNet videos.
In fact, a ThomasNet client recently had a distributor contact them about
distributing their line of products after viewing their ThomasNet testimonial
video on YouTube.
Your website serves as your 24/7 sales force so it needs to communicate everything
you would show and tell a potential customer as if that person were sitting right
next to you. Use video to help make your website communicate better to potential
customers and increase sales. It’s another way to set your company apart
from the competition, especially in today’s challenging economic times.
If you are interested in learning more about online video and how it can help
your website be a top sales performer, you may e-mail Rita Lieberman at
IndustrialMarketer@ThomasNet.com.
1BtoB Magazine,
January 7, 2009
