November/December 2008
Make the Online Connection
Here’s how to dramatically increase your online presence in the next six months by using blogs, videos and podcasts, online social sites, webcasts and more.
The crazy, jumbled world that is the Internet may seem overwhelming to even the most tech-savvy distributors, when it comes to figuring out the best ways to reach clients and prospective customers online. For a relatively low dollar investment, plus some time, you can start a Web-based marketing campaign that you can expand to videos and podcasts, a corporate page on social networking sites, a more interactive Web site and more. Here are five top ways to get your brand online – and be seen by your clients.
1: Understand YouTube
Why should distributors invest in YouTube to spread the word? Michael Miller, author of YouTube for Business: Online Video Marketing for Any Business (Que; one edition: August 29, 2008, 288 pages), has a simple answer. “YouTube represents a huge new media channel – more than 20 million viewers,” he says. “It’s also a channel that can be reached at minimal cost. So, you get a large potential return for a small investment. What’s not to like about that?”
Miller says video equipment isn’t the most important part in producing YouTube material. “The first steps to take are marketing oriented, not technical,” he says. “You have to learn about the YouTube community and determine how best to present your message to this audience. It’s not a simple matter of importing existing ads or video material to YouTube format – you have to create videos that entertain, inform or educate the YouTube community.”
Jared Emin, executive vice president of Web operations for Farfromboring.com (asi/192001), knows what it takes to attract a YouTube crowd. “For us, there are a lot of positive effects, but it has to be done right,” he says. “You can’t just put out something that looks crappy and provides no value to the person who’s watching it.”
Farfromboring.com’s video on its check-fraud-prevention pens (with help from supplier SanMar, asi/84863) has scored more than 20,000 hits on YouTube. The video educates potential clients on how the pens prevent a criminal activity called check-washing.
Viewers praised the video’s educational benefit in the comments section, and rated the video with five stars – the highest possible YouTube rating. “It did create awareness for our company, and anytime you can create a positive light with your company, it’s a good thing,” Emin says.
2: Link directly to your site
There are pros and cons to going the YouTube route. Jeff Anderton, president of Mass Transit and online video guru to the ad specialty industry, says it might be more beneficial to post videos on your company’s Web site. “YouTube can be a great resource, because you can capture people there that you otherwise wouldn’t, but most people just don’t have time to make the video and just go push it out to everywhere,” he says.
Anderton helped Geiger (asi/202900) begin a six-figure online video marketing campaign last year. Jo-an Lantz, executive vice president of Geiger, says www.geiger.com has a “video vault” that features five categories of videos for suppliers and prospective clients. “When suppliers come into our building, we ask them to participate in a 90-second video clip to show an idea for a product to our salespeople,” she says.
Geiger also features educational videos and sales techniques, along with a promotional section, an “About Geiger” section and a series of fun vignettes, such as its video recaps of a Geiger retreat in Mexico last year.
Geiger has more than 100 of its own videos on its Web site, and is in the process of training its top salespeople to shoot and post their own. “It’s just another way to personalize and touch prospects, along with e-mail, face-to-face and direct marketing,” Lantz says. “We have to use multiple media to promote ourselves.”
Anderton has helped Geiger create its own video templates that allow its sales reps to e-mail videos to prospective clients. “Reps can literally go into the media area, and if they want to send a video to their prospect, it already has pre-template wording, and then we have custom skins that the video can be wrapped around,” Lantz says. “It’s very user-friendly.”
3: Know your equipment
Whether you’re creating a video for YouTube or for your own Web site, producing an online video doesn’t cost as much as you might think. “The good news is that you don’t have to invest a lot of money,” Miller says. “It’s important to recognize how most viewers see YouTube videos: in a small 320 x 240 pixel window in their Web browsers. Think about what works in that size and what doesn’t, and you realize that a big-budget production would be lost on the format.”
That’s why many business-oriented YouTube videos are made using consumer-grade camcorders that go for $300 at most electronics stores, according to Miller. “What you need is a tripod to hold the camera steady, some sort of neutral-colored background that you can find at any photography retailer and perhaps an external lighting kit,” he says. Miller also recommends an external lavalier microphone that can attach to the front of your on-camera presenter’s shirt or suit jacket. All this equipment can be purchased for $1,000 or less.
“You’ll also want to edit your videos to insert titles and credits and superimpose your Web site URL on the screen,” he says. If your computer uses Microsoft Windows, you’re in luck – it comes with a video-editing program called Windows Movie Maker. Also, there’s no cost to upload videos to YouTube.
The video’s genre will determine the manner in which it should be shot. “If it’s a simple talking-head video, position the subject in front of the neutral-colored background and start shooting,” Miller says. “If it’s a video that demonstrates something, you’ll need to create a variety of shots, some showing the entire subject and some showing close-ups of what you’re demonstrating. You can then edit together the various shots in your video-editing program.”
4: Look into social networking
Another cheap, but effective, online marketing option is the wildly popular social networking sites including Facebook and MySpace. Brand Fuel Inc. (asi/145025) does the YouTube thing (it has its own channel), but it’s heavily invested in Facebook as well. Brand Fuel used the corporate setup feature to create a group, of which fellow Facebook users can become a “fan” and receive e-mail updates.
“It opens some doors to build bridges and get customers,” says Danny Rosin, Brand Fuel president. “One of the highlights of Facebook is reconnecting old relationships – high school, college or a large company you worked for. You create competitive advantage through networks.”
Facebook is a free networking service, but it takes time and effort to reach out to old friends and co-workers. “When you run a corporate page like Brand Fuel has, you don’t have that far-reaching power, but you have to market it as well,” Rosin says. “It’s not like the dollars are going to flow in. It’s a lot about working it and about pulling in your key people.”
Dawson Roark, vice president of sales technology for Brand Fuel, says you have to be careful not to be an open book when using Facebook. Advocating political and religious causes on your personal Facebook page could hinder business relationships.
Even the support of a certain sports team can rub a potential client the wrong way, especially in Brand Fuel’s home state of North Carolina, where college loyalty runs deep. “We try not to regulate that, but at the same time, just be cautious what you put out, especially for our sales teams,” Roark says. “There’s a fine line. Take care of your brand as an employee, and take care of yourself as an individual. You have to be sensitive if Brand Fuel’s going to be connected to it.”
Rosin also warns about giving away company secrets on Facebook, since any competitor can easily latch onto that information.
5: Cross-promote
Facebook also allows users to embed videos on their personal or business pages and even link directly to YouTube videos. “We have YouTube videos that point from Brand Fuel to YouTube, and those that point people from YouTube to Brand Fuel,” Roark says. “Rather than posting it on a Web server that we have to take care of, it makes sense to use YouTube to do that.”
On its Facebook page, Brand Fuel is using humor to promote its products. It is currently featuring an off-the-wall, two-minute online video with a “daredevil stuntman” testing some of the company’s items.
“We can show how creative we are as a company, you can see our culture, you can see how creative we are, and you can see how we can market and use promotional products effectively,” Roark says. “We’re promoting the creativity. If you’re going to throw out an infomercial, no one wants to see that, and they won’t.”
Rosin says Brand Fuel’s posted videos may help to turn around the frumpy persona that the ad specialty industry has had for the 20 years he’s been in it. “They’re fun and they’re entertaining. A lot of customers come back and say, ‘We want to do something like this for our customers.’ It’s definitely a recruiting tool,” he says. “I get a lot of e-mails and comments from our competitors, and that opens a lot of doors, too.
“Distributors are going to learn from this, and it’s going to help our industry a lot,” Rosin continues. “We’re the redheaded stepchild of the advertising industry, and we want to change that, and that only helps us in the future.”
5 Ways to Increase Your Online Presence in Six Months
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Shane Dale is an AZ-based freelance writer.
