Indeed I was told the other day that there would definitely be a much improved Easy Video Player launching this year.  However exactly when it will be and what it will be I am currently unsure.

The latest update to Easy Video Player brought in a functionality that my plugin Blog Like Reveal has long been able to do which is to hide the video until the page is shared on social sites… but I suspect that there will be much more to the new version than that.

Easy Video Player already works cross platform, so my guess is that the major improvements will be:

Enhancing the virability

A speed increase in the videos starting to play.  This seems to be down to the fact the videos are played using Flow Player so there can currently sometimes be a slight lag.

Anyway what would you like to see in Easy Video Player 3.0?

Please leave your comments below.

What Is Video Marketing?

Let me explain why video marketing is so important and why you absolutely need to factor a video marketing strategy into your marketing agenda.  Businesses are now spending more money advertising online than they are on TV.  Over 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.  Over 1 billion videos are viewed on the popular video sharing website everyday and people now spend more time watching video content online than they spend watching TV.

It’s not surprising then that video marketing is the fastest growing area on the web. Nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of this medium as a marketing tool.  If you are not promoting your business now using video marketing you are in serious danger of being left behind by your competition.

So what exactly is video marketing and why is it so popular?

At it’s simplest level, video marketing involves taking video content and distributing it widely on the Internet in a very focused and very structured way. The popularity of video as a viable marketing strategy is largely due to Google’s universal search feature.

Universal search was introduced by Google in 2007. Universal search meant that when you typed your query into Google the results the search engine delivered were not just webpages, but a mix of webpages, photos and video results. Type any search directly into Google and you are likely to find that image and video results rank at the top of the page, often ahead of heavy-weights such as Amazon. This prominent placement of video clips right at the top of Google’s search results has contributed to the explosion in video marketing.

Using video to promote your product, brand or service is one extremely low cost way of promoting online.  Production costs need not be through the roof.  There are many free tools available to help you create video content at zero cost.   The popularity of video has exploded over the past year and is only set to grow in the future.  No other medium has the global reach you get with video at such a low cost.

Video is a powerful SEO tool but the point is that not only Google and search engine loves Google but people do too. So why is video so popular with viewers? It’s simple. Video is far more engaging than text. Whatever you want to explain you will explain much better with video. Whatever you’re selling, video will show your customers how it works and explain it better than any other medium. Provide high quality interesteing content and you’ll start to bring viewers into your sales funnel and build relationships with them.

Video marketing is an extremely cost effective way of ranking highly in Google’s search results and therefore a low cost way of generating new sales and inquiries for businesses. It is also an effective way of raising your reputation, and pushing ahead of your competition. It’s not surprising then that many businesses are now taking advantage of the competitive edge they can gain from video marketing.

If you’re not yet using video marketing, ask yourself this important question.  Would you prefer the 1000′s of potential customers you wish to attract watching what you do or watching the videos of your competitors?

If you are considering bringing video into your marketing mix, you need to be able to offer your viewer real value, providing them with the information they want or some kind of entertainment value, without an obvious sales pitch.  The soft-sell approach should define your video marketing agenda.  You viewers will engage more readily with your content and remember your brand or define you as an expert if you teach them something (as in how-to videos) or update them with new information (industry news and so on).

If you gain your viewers trust and begin to establish yourself in their minds as a value provider, you embed your brand or product positively in your viewers frame of mind.  When it comes time to buy a product, your viewer won’t be able to help but remember you when making a purchase, because you have already provided them with value.  That’s the psychology of advertising and the nature of human beings.

This kind of marketing approach is a lot different to paid advertising and ultimately far more effective, which explains the explosion in online video over the last few years.  Traditional advertising is far more fleeting. People tend to forget banners ads or emails quickly or need to see them many times to be memorable.  Done correctly, video gives you an instant gateway into your audience’s subconscious mind and this is a very profitable place to be.

Using video however, doesn’t have to rule out more traditional online advertising channels.  The real secret is to use video to supplement the promotional message you convey in your other advertising channels that are more blatant and hard sell in their approach.  Following up on your promotional message by providing more information in the video marketing strand of your marketing mix is huge effective.

This is the perfect way to personalize your company or brand.  By using the soft-sell approach in video you are developing a direct emotional connection with your viewer, drawing them into your marketing agenda and helping to realize your marketing goals.  And this happens, only because you are no longer broadcasting an anonymous promotional message.  You are, instead, personally communicating to you audience as an expert on a topic they are interested.

Mastering this soft-sell approach in your videos is the key to achieving your marketing goals .

The easiest way to alienate your viewers and send them off to your competitor’s video is by coming on too early and too strong with your pitch.  Sure, the whole point of making your video is to pitch your product,  right?   Whether it’s a landing page, blog post, special offer or whatever, you want your audience there. But timing is crucial.

Think of the sales guy who rushes over to you eagerly letting you know about the latest deals and offers . Kind of off-putting,  isn’t it?  Though the information could be useful to you, the delivery is everything.  And when we suspect somebody is trying too hard to sell, the alienation process kicks in.

So here are five quick tips to avoid coming across with the hard sell while still making your pitch.

1. Always begin your video by introducing yourself in a friendly and warm manner.

Think of it as your handshake.  Introducing yourself gets the relationship that you want to establish with your viewer off on the right footing.  We engage far more readily with Mr Friendly,  who has introduced himself, than we do with his counterpart Mr. Anonymous (a.k.a Mr Aloof!)

2. Have a story to tell.

Not just any random story, of course, but something relevant to the problem that your product (and video) is addressing for the audience. Story telling is a great way to bond and is one of the easiest ways to engage a viewer, particularly if they relate to the problem or topic in the story.  Use language that empathizes … “I was like you, I had a terrible time trying to … train my puppy … learn html … write my speech … and so on “. You get the idea!

3. Emphasize positive outcomes.

Your viewer is most likely watching your video looking for a solution.  Let your audience know how things changed for you once you had finally figured out how to fix your issue.  If you can’t talk personally, tell the story of somebody you know or have helped find the a solution. Emphasizing the positive outcome will invoke an emotional response in your viewer who will also want to find a fix and will associate you with it.

4. Time for the pitch.

Now that you have established a relationship by introducing yourself and getting personal with a story from your own experience, you can safely make your pitch.  Avoid cliched sales lines … “Do you too want to solve your problem. I have the the perfect solution” type phrases!  Keep those for sales pages.  Instead, continue the friendly tone you have established and casually invite your viewer to take a quick look at the product that worked for you.

5. Finally, thank your viewer for watching.

Let them know that you enjoyed sharing your knowledge and wish them the very best with their quest for a solution.  Remind them to check out any links you have in your description for further information.

All done! You have successfully warmed your visitor, engaged them and pitched your product without coming across as the hard nosed hustler who would trample on grandmas to get a sale.

Unlike offline businesses, with proper use of analytics, it is possible to measure exactly what level of return you get from your online marketing campaigns, even on a daily basis, should that be required. If you are not converting your visitors it will be immediately apparent and you must take corrective actions to ensure that your online marketing tactics give a higher conversion rate. Indeed visitor conversion must be your primary focus to ensure a high return on your digital marketing investment.

Online video is one of the most powerful marketing tools which, if used properly, will guarantee sginificantly higher conversion rates for your websites, and happier post conversion customers. We will look at some examples of how online video can benefit your business.

Increasing Conversion Rates with Video

Videos can be used to show shoppers how products work before they buy them. Although professionally produced videos look great, they are expensive and not really necessary to achieve customer conversions (unless you are selling particularly high end products). You can use your own staff to produce product videos. Or, even better, ask some of your happy customers to do a quick video showing how they use the product you want to promote, and even some tricks they might have of their own, to get extra mileage, or how to use it for slightly different purposes.

Assuming that they are happy customers, you might be able to ask them for a recommendation or testimonial. Long used by sucessful businesses, on and offline, testimonials are a way of reassuring a customer that they are making the correct choice in deciding to buy from you, and in buying your product. A video testimonial from a happy customer, in person, with them speaking honestly about your products and service, is a truly powerful way of driving conversions.

Some Good Examples of Using Video for Marketing Purposes

Increasing Conversion Rates (Sales!)

Equip2Clean, www.equip2clean.co.uk/ a cleaning machinery reseller. Their vzaar.com profile (http://vzaar.com/users/equip2clean) shows 35 videos uploaded, with 296045 plays across their video inventory, and also that they use videos on their eBay listings.

It is reported that Equip2Clean doubled their conversion rate from 7% to 15% using videos in this way. It is worth pointing out that Equip2Clean also make use of social networking to support their marketing efforts (twitter.com/equip2clean, www.facebook.com/pages/Equip2gardencouk)

Using Video To Reduce Return Rates

Returns of products purchased online are higher for higher ticket (priced) items. As an example,  in the online apparel market, average returns are between 30% and 50%, often due to unrealised expectations from online photographs and descriptions.

Using video can provide a more accurate description of a product than photographs and textual description. Thus, when the customer receives the product they are less likely to be surprised or disappointed, and want to return the item.

Some online jewelers, for example,  have acheived 40-60% reduction in returns by using video during presales.

In a busy market, adding video to the sales package will help with differentiating you from your competitors, maximising conversions and minimizing returns.

Using videos of products in use can increase confidence about the suitability, and thus both increase conversions and reduce returns.

The first thing you need to do is ask yourself a very important question.  Are my videos  good videos?  It can be a challenge to answer this objectively (and you can’t rely on friends and family either! They will always say your videos are good.).  It’s best to post your video for review on a forum relevant to the topic.  Look for for feedback in relation to the content (is it valuable, focused and well organized), the presentation (are you interesting, is your delivery good) and the production (is the music too loud, how’s the logo sting, are the graphics eye catching).  You’ll get honest feedback that you can use constructively to make improvements, though it may hurt a little.

Once you’ve established that your content is good quality, you can eliminate that as the reason for low viewing numbers.  You now know that your video is worth watching, so what’s happening with viewers?  It may be the case that your video is not well optimized for search and therefore is not being picked up and ranked  in Google or YouTube.

This can be easily fixed.  Check that you have optimized the title of your video (and also saved your video filename using relevant keywords before uploading to video properties). Make sure that your description and tags are clear and concise.  Use complete sentences in the description and other details like the date which allow YouTube to better index your video. Don’t spam on tags.  Use keywords that are relevant, not just popular as YouTube have methods for detecting ‘spammy’ behavior.

Once you have optimized your title description and tags, share and ping your video URL across the web.  This will help bring Google’s attention to your video and will in time contribute to higher organic search rankings.

Finally, try to create a community around your videos or piggy back on an established community. Always turn on embed to allow viewers to put your video on their blogs and other web properties.  This creates more links that ultimately help your search ranking on YouTube and Google.

Also, YouTube consider ratings and views when ranking a video. Always encourage visitor engagement and feedback.  Use annotation to remind viewers to like your video or to watch more of your videos.  Invite comments.  Being more proactive and engaging with your community via video responses that connect your to content with a large following is an excellent way to piggy back your way to recognition. Do everything in your power to encourage a broader community feedback system and you will see rewards.

Be aware, that it can take time to establish an audience for your videos, no matter how great they are. Be patient and persistent and in time, you will gain the appreciative audience you are searching for.

• File format: MPEG-4, MPEG-2, or H.264
• Resolution: 720p or 1080p
• File size: Up to 2GB
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 widescreen
• Audio format: MP3
• Length: Up to 15 minutes
• Frame rate: 30 frames per second (FPS)

Bear in mind that these are the recommended specifications but YouTube will accept just about anything you upload. It does pay, however, to work with the original format you have created your video in rather than converting to something such as MPEG-4 before uploading, as each time a conversion is made, the quality of the video deteriorates somewhat.

It is important also to be consistent with the resolution and specification right through the production process.  If you change resolution when your move the video from your camera to your video editing software, you will again suffer degradation. Always maintain the original frame rate, resolution and codec.

To get the sharpest video quality after upload to YouTube, create your videos in the highest resolution available to you. YouTube cannot upgrade a low resolution video but it will downgrade a higher resolution video.

Converting Other Video Formats For YouTube

If you are creating your video from scratch, you should have no problems configuring your video to the recommended specifications for YouTube. However, if you already have video in different formats, what is the best option for converting for maximum quality in YouTube?

For this task, you’ll need to use video converter software. These specialist software programs will automatically convert your video between various file formats and resolutions with minimum loss of quality. Some of the most widely used programs include ;

• AVS Video Tools
• M2Convert Professional
• Power Video Converter
• Movavi VideoSuite
• VIDEOzilla
• Xilisoft Video Converter
• RER Video Converter

Using video converter software is a quick and easy process, perfect if you have lots of videos that you want to covnert for maximum quality on YouTube. Making the conversion is a simple as browsing to select your video file, choosing your desired file format and clicking on covert.

Having the highest possible quality video on YouTube is vital for your success, as it speaks volumes about your level of professionalism. Most people now won’t tolerate degraded, low quality videos and will simply click on in search of something better. It pays therefore, to take some time to ensure that your video meets the specifications required by YouTube.

YouTube gather a lot of data on user viewing habits. The video giant looks at signals that indicate how long people spend watching a video, how many videos are watched to completion, when people click out early and so on.  It has been shown that videos that are 2 – 3 minutes long perform better than videos that are 10 minutes in length.  While people are hungry for information, they want it focused and to the point.

Here are some quick rules to apply that will help you create videos that engage people (without boring them) and create content that is focused and relevant.

Vanity Is A Deadly Sin

Just because you have something amazing to say or a point you always like to make, doesn’t mean that you have to say it.  Keep your content relevant to the topic in hand.  If what you have to say doesn’t help advance your message or clarify a point, or worse, if it distracts from your marketing message, leave it out, you don’t need it.

Cut Without Mercy

Always review your video content.  If there is a word that you can cut from a sentence without adversely affecting the meaning of the sentence, cut it.  You may need several revisions to trim your content but you will be surprised at just how much you can whittle out when you put your mind to it, without sacrificing the message.

The Boredom Test

Always get somebody to look over your video, ideally somebody who is not involved in its production.  Observe them watching your content.  When do they bomb out and start to tap their fingers or look at their watch?  When you see these types of distractions you need to cut the content.  Either rework it to make it more engaging or end your video at this point and continue your content in Part 2.

Timing Is Everything

You don’t have to explain the meaning of life in your video. Use your video as an overview or summary tool.  Spend just enough time setting up a point and delivering it to pay off.  Avoid the tendency to over-explain. Your video is a success if you have left your viewer eager for more information … cue your call to action!

Three Is The Magic Number

Three is a good number to illustrate a point or subject.  It’s just enough to be memorable rather than overwhelming and not so few as to be weak and flimsy.  If you can explain your subject, point or topic in three easy bullet points, your content will be awesome.  If you find you need to put in five, six or seven point, you’re including too much information and are in danger of loosing your viewer.

Obviously the  video length will in part be determined by the content objective.  A demonstration or instructional video could be 30 minutes long and still be engaging,  while a 30 second video on how to pop a wine cork correctly every-time might be just as engaging and effective for its viewer.

The point is that there is no perfect time or length for a video.  This article has outlined some editing techniques that will help you keep your video content concise and on topic, so that your reader identifies with the material and reacts positively to it.

As more people watch videos online and more videos are uploaded for entertainment, advertising, sales support and training, the ability to track user habits while interacting with those videos is becoming more important. This has lead to the creation of a whole new area of analytics called web video analytics tracks and measures viewer interaction with online videos.

Web video analytics enables tracking how on where the user first found the video, what they did when watching it (for example pausing, leaving, etc..).  It allows you to track viewing duration and any actions the viewer performs while watching the video.

For our purposes, a video includes a video stream, or embedded video. The video may be an advertisement, trailer, training video, television show or feature-length film.

Web video analytics is growing in importance in line with the exponential use of videos for everything from online product sales/support to video-based training.

What Are Web Video Analytics Tools used for?

It is desirable to monitor the following aspects of user video viewing habits:

• How did the viewers find the video?

What sites did the video viewers come from?

How long a video was watched for?

Did they send the video link to a friend, and if so how, email, social network, other means?

Did the viewer watch overlayed ads?

• Did they perform a click-through from the ad to make a purchase or request more information, or sign-up to follow the product or service?

Online/web video analytics tools are similar to those such as Google Analytics, used in general web analytics, but with some different/unique features specific to video tracking needs.

Every action that a viewer performs while watching a video online can be captured and analyzed precisely. Using any of the video metrics tools available.

So, by making use of web video analytics we can go some way towards determining how many viewers watched our video the whole way through; whether the video is too long and needs to be broken up into shorter segments; if people linked back to our video and shared it with their network.

All of this information can be used to improve our future video projects, even if it is not feasible to redo some of our existing video work. So it is definitely worthwhile investing time in setting up and learning how to use web video analytics to improve our video structure, content, and way we present our videos

There are many tools are available to manage your own video analytics. In our next article we will look at the various Analytics tools available to measure online viewer-video interactions.

Running a successful video marketing campaign is a science

If you follow the formula you’ll have a profitable campaign. If you ignore the proven strategies, you risk killing the success of your campaign.  All to often, video marketers get caught up with one or two aspects of video marketing, maybe focusing on the production while ignoring distribution challenges or vice versa but running a successful campaign involves paying attention to all the important aspects of video marketing.  Let’s run through some of the most common mistakes people make when marketing their product or service with video.

Making Just A Single Video

You ever hear the expression ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’?  Making just one video and expecting any kind of significant return is naive.  Too many people think that uploading a video introducing their company, product or service is sufficient.   This may be the case if you’re trying to rank for very specific long-tail keywords in the SERPS but if you are trying to get your brand name out there and build relationships, you need to create a lot more than one video.  And here’s why.  Typically, when a video goes viral, it is not the first the company or individual has produced.  In fact, it may be one of many videos that have been attracting a following over time.  To be successful in video marketing you need to use your video to establish a connection with your target audience who will then support your content, often sending if viral.  To build up this relationship takes time and lots of videos!

Bad Timing

Often you’ll make a video to promote a product launch, live event, trade show or presentation.  However, timing is everything and too often video promotion campaigns are not launched in time to allow a significant build up and lead in to the event they promote.   Videos are best use to get people talking, sharing and generally excited about an event. Typically companies and individuals will spend too much time promoting the video after the event when all of the buzz has died down.  Promoting after the fact is a big mistake.  Be sure to spend more time on video promotion leading up to a key event and not rely solely on post launch promotion.

No Call To Action

Never assume that your viewers will spontaneously take the action you want to trigger from your video content. Video viewers are easily distracted, have short attention spans and will forget about you very quickly as soon as the play buttons stops.  They won’t seek out your website or opt-in to your email list … unless you tell them to do so.  Without an explicit call to action in your video content, your campaign is likely to bomb.  Use explicit directions inviting users to take action.  Better still, offer incentives such a promo codes, contests and teasers to engage them and pull them into your funnel.

Neglecting Social Media

The whole point of producing a video is to generate buzz around you and your content.   The best way to do this is with social media.  Social media should be an integral part of your video marketing strategy.  Used effectively, it can be a powerful force that will drive viewers to your videos and can often be responsible for content going viral.  Sharing your YouTube content on Facebook and Twitter couldn’t be easier now.  YouTube even now offers the ability to have new video notifications updated instantly to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Lazy Tagging & Descriptions

It vitally important that you tag your videos with keywords that are relevant to the content.  This is critical to your video being found on line by the audience you are targeting.  Don’t be tempted to steal a ride on popular, in-demand keywords.  Ultimately this will harm your campaign.  Users who expect one type of content (indicated in tags) but find the content is unrelated are very unforgiving.  Make sure your tags and descriptions are true to your content.  In this way, you’ll receive far more targeted traffic who could potentially be loyal followers.   Loyal followers share content and you could generate more views in this way than you could from spam-my tags.