Is Video Really Important When Marketing Your Online Business?

Well, let me provide you with some statistics (Courtesy of SEO Houston blog):

1. 52% of all web traffic is video (according to industry watchdog, eMarketer)
2. More than 70% of all web visitors watch online video (according to NY Times)
3. YouTube had 9.5 billion videos viewed by 138 million Americans in one month (according to comScore Media Metrix)
4. The average YouTube visitor spends 27 minutes watching video per day
5. Online video is more popular than use of portable MP3 players (38 percent).
6. Watch video online is the most popular emerging media activity, and equal to the number of people who text-message via cell phone. (Touchpoints IV survey)
7. The search engines visit video sites every few minutes—so your videos appear in Google, Yahoo and MSN just MINUTES after you submit, not days or weeks
8. Cisco boosted traffic to its site 600% by added streaming video
9. Because video is so popular, video links and clips often show up before other content
10. Between April and June, 94 Million U.S. based internet surfers viewed online videos… spending 73 minutes per month on average (comScore Media Metrix)
11. 123 MILLION Americans viewed online video every month in 2007 (Emarketer estimates)

And If This Isn’t Enough, Video Has Additional Advantages As Well:

• Video Adds Credibility – The web is a very private concept. You can be old, young, in any part of the world or in someone’s back yard and it’s difficult for the visitor to know who you really are. Video can change all of that in just a matter of minutes. There is nothing more important than being able to face your community in order to develop rapport and trust. Remember, people buy from people they trust…..
• Video Creates Opportunity – Very often it is really hard to convey a message in writing when in just a matte of minutes you can say it on a video.
• Video Can Be Reviewed Almost Anywhere – Today, it’s possible to have you videos not only appear on YouTube but on several other video sites as well. Additionally, people can now watch those videos at home, in the car, at the beach on cell phones and other devices. Transporting video is now easy to do and as you can see, being done everyday.
• Video Is For The New Youth Market – Younger people do not read, period! They watch videos and listen to MP3s. If you are trying to reach that market video is one of the main ways to get your message across to that growing community.
• Video Is Easy to Create and Easy To Upload – With today’s inexpensive webcams and video cameras, and some simple video software, anyone can be a world class videographer.

What Else Can Be Done With Video To Maximize Your Online Business?

This question perplexed me for quite a while until I realized how easy it was to integrate video with both blogs and websites. My particular favorite, of course, is WordPress for many reasons, the least of which is the simple ways there are to add video to your pages and posts. Using simple, free plug-ins you can now add videos from a wide variety of sources, including YouTube, to your posts in just a matter of seconds. This can help trememdously when you are trying to make a point, sell a product, emphasize a position etc. Adding video to your posts can also attract and then maintain visitors on your site far longer than standard text. People also tend to return if your videos are stimulating, information and timely.

You can see multiple examples of this in our Video Library.