Video Marketing is Imperative

Or What a Soft Boiled Egg has to do with Marketing Online

Video marketing is imperative as part of an online marketing strategy. I’ve been trumpeting video for a long time. I sat in on a session featuring a Google SEO expert. He confirmed

video is one of the ways Google rates websites for good content. However, a personal example to which I think we all can relate bears out the importance of video:

One morning, I decided to make a soft-boiled egg. I’m not sure why, I just hadn’t had one in a long time. In fact, it was so long ago, I wasn’t sure how long to cook it and so I ‘googled’ it on my phone. Up popped countless links to helpful information about soft boiled eggs. 

I skipped past the couple video thumbnails listed at the top of the page, and looked for a credible source site for correctly boiling an egg. I clicked one (a major cooking magazine’s website) and began to read. 

Paragraph 1: how great soft boiled eggs taste and how easy to make. (perfect, I think, these guys know what they’re talking about)…

Paragraph 2: an allusion to Julia Child and her method for soft boiling an egg. Wait, no not an allusion, a full blown description beginning with choosing the best eggs at the market. 

And I’m GONE!
Thirty seconds or less, TMI (too much information) and not on pointe for my need. Back to Google and I click on a video thumbnail. How to make a soft boiled egg in the microwave. A minute of video later, I knew how to make a soft boiled egg in the microwave. No voiceover. Captions in a language I couldn’t read. Didn’t matter. Video showed me how.

You probably have done the same thing. I know I have for home projects, changing a car headlight, and so on… most of us have looked at a video to learn something we didn’t know.
This story points out a few things:

1. I’m not very discriminating about soft boiled eggs. If you have the time and inclination, go for the Julia Child method. If you want it now, microwave. It was actually pretty good. (How can you mess up a soft boiled egg?)
2. A one minute video was all I could handle in my pursuit of knowledge.
3. I am not alone in my short attention span.

There is no doubt some people like to read. Still, given the ubiquitousness of video and the convenient video screen we all carry in our hand, pocket, briefcase or purse, video is indispensable.

So why don’t you use video in your marketing? I love to write and I love to read, but there is no doubt that video marketing is a critical part of the mix. Yes, it could be advertising, but also instructions, FAQs, tips or a video blog. In fact, I am going to start posting both written and video versions of my blog. Here’s the link to this article in video form:

If you are not sure how to do video, need help with production or content ideas, let’s talk. We’ve helped many companies use video to boost SEO, tell their brand story and sell their products.

From now on, we’ll take our own medicine and use video as well.

Want to see how to soft boil an egg in the microwave? Click here.