It’s getting tougher and tougher to ignore the power of video for delivering information and marketing messages.
In fact, most of you reading this are probably wondering right now not IF you should use video in your online marketing and product development, but rather how.
At first glance, it seems that unprofessional amateur video is the attraction – and that seems quite a ways from anything useful for your business doesn’t it.
But, take a closer look and you will see that there are a growing number of infromational pieces making their way to the news websites and YouTube’s of the world.
If your a stats person like I am, then this latest freely available study from Pew Internet will really get you hot and bothered about using video in your oline business – here are a few of the findings…
- 57% of online adults have used the internet to watch or download video
- Make that a full 75% of those with highspeed connections
- Most of those users are below the age of 50, but more over 50 are also latching on to video
Now – here’s the interesting part, exactly what are they watching?
You’ll notice that the audience is eating up several different types of video content including news, entertainment and yes infoproduct marketers…education and commercial video as well.
And finally, what makes video such a powerful marketing tool is the viral nature of Web 2.0 video sites such as Myspace and YouTube – a full 67% of younger video content watchers share links with others while almost 75% claim to have received video links shared from others…
Imagine that…I produce a viral ebook and know that only a small fraction of those who read it will pass it along – perhaps 10-20% in the very best case, but what if you are getting thousands of eyeballs on your video and a good portion of those pass it along to others, now that’s powerful marketing.
Oh…and one more thing – it’s still a toss-up as to professional versus amateur video. The trend is to prefer more professional video, though there are still a large number of younger watchers who are just as comfortable watching amateur produced video.
Remember though, amateur video can be a basic $29 screen cam, a crappy mobile phone video function, etc.. Don’t be scared off by the word "professional" – we are sharing more and more information on InfoMarketer’sZone that will help anyone produce their own video products or marketing clips for about $500 or less.
Jeff
