There is no doubt that online video is the next big trend in online marketing and branding. Statistics from comScore show that the increase in online video has surged in the last year alone, and the 18-24 year old demographic watches more online video than television. A new report from TubeMogul directly links the success of online video to blog referrals.
The TubeMogul report shows that longtail search drives 80% of traffic to the top online video websites.
What does this tell us?
Simply creating online branded videos isn’t enough. To drive real traffic and make those videos work for your brand and your business, you need to reach out to bloggers. That doesn’t mean simply inundating bloggers with PR pitches, but rather, actually building relationships with bloggers, particularly those who write about your brand’s niche.
The role of social media marketing in both marketing and branding plans is significant. The key to success comes in building relationships and online branded experiences. Just as consumers don’t want to be “talked at” anymore, neither do bloggers. The potential power of the blog community is exponential. Brands that take the time to find niche bloggers whose audiences would truly be interested in their products are the ones that will ultimately succeed.
As online video viewing continues to experience double digit growth year over year, the brands that aren’t on board will have to do some serious catch up work later. It’s better to be first and own a space in online video in consumers’ minds than to have to steal some of that space later.
It’s important to point out the TubeMogul study found that 11.18% of online video referrals came from search engines, 3.66% from social networks, 3.19% from social bookmarking sites, 0.63% from video search engines, and 0.05% from email and instant messaging sites.
Where will you invest your time and resources to boost the ROI of your online video efforts? I hope you said blogger outreach.
Your thoughts?
Image: Flickr
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
I do agree, advertisers have always preferred targeting niche markets. Blog sites are exactly that.
I think there the direct relationship between bloggers and branded video content is going to go through the roof. Brands are fully aware that kids are getting their video content from the internet. It just make sense to switch.
Jp- ThirteenFilms
I run video business in Singapore and I agree with Jean. More and more contents will be viewed via our cell phones opening a new way of communicating. Almost every one of our kids have a hand held gaming device too. The possibilities are endless.