Hello, and welcome to another episode of Video Marketing How-To! This week I want to talk a bit about how you can score your leads with video marketing data.
First things first, you’ll need a system to handle the lead scoring – you can use a marketing automation platform like Marketo, Eloqua or Pardot, or you can set up lead scoring rules in Salesforce as well.
The most basic lead scoring mechanism is tracking a video view – if you’re using YouTube you can generally set rules around when a viewer has clicked play, but you may not get data more granular than this. One of the benefits of using a video marketing platform like Vidyard is being able to measure how much of a particular video a prospect has watched. Knowing whether someone made it to the end is powerful, especially for higher value content.
Next up is scoring leads based on the kind of content they watched – a lead watching a demo video for a new feature is likely more interested in your product than a lead that watched your holiday video, or your office rendition of the Harlem Shake. Higher value content should have a bigger impact on lead score, so someone who watched your demo video or a recorded webinar has a larger score.
Finally, scoring leads based on interactions with individual videos is the real sweet spot. Giving someone a lead score based on whether they watched 25%, 50% or 100% of your campaign or tour videos allows you to really categorize their interest in your product or service, and gives you a real edge in moving leads to your sales team faster.
Lead scoring is a powerful technology built into most marketing automation platforms, but many companies miss out by excluding video data. Try out some of the tips I’ve mentioned here, and see how much faster your leads move through the funnel! Thanks again for watching today, and tune in a few weeks from now for another episode of Video Marketing How-To!
That might be tough to hear, but it’s okay. It’s near impossible for them to be perfect – at least the first time around – even if you’ve been following along since the beginning of the “Designing Fly Landing Pages” blog post series.
This final post in the series is the end of your journey to learning the four key elements you need to design landing pages that delight and convert. So far, we’ve taken a look atFocus,Messaging, andTrust, which have culminated to provide you with a framework and the right tools to work towards designing landing pages that convert. The final piece isContinuity.
In this context, continuity refers to the continuous care and maintenance of a landing page after a campaign has run its course. It also refers to evolution of a good landing page into an excellent landing page. To do this, you’ll need to learn from your experiences and find new ways to improve. Whether this is achieved by looking through the metrics and analytics collected from past campaigns or running tests to determine what performs best, there are many tracks towards designing these elusive, fly landing pages.
Data-Driven Updates
Use data to inform your decisions.
The landing page should be optimized for conversion over time. This can’t be done right out of the gate, so you’ll need to build your landing pages with the foundation in place to be able to provide you with this data. If you don’t, this will lead to a huge blind spot that can cause you to miss out on important information. How can you learn from something if you have no idea it ever happened?
Keep up to date on the latest data and research. Research can help to inform you of best practices and provide you with insight into why certain methods, layouts, or language performs better than others. After running a quick search on Google for“landing page best practices”,you’ll find copious amounts of research done by leading marketing and UX experts in the industry like Unbounce, KISSmetrics, and the Nielsen Norman Group.
These experts have conducted studies and concluded best practices on:
What you should put above the fold
How long your forms should be
The effect of using customer testimonials on your landing page
And much, much more
One best practice that stands out to us at Vidyard is the use of video on a landing page. Of course we like this one – we’re all about video, and with good reason! Video has been shown to increase conversion rates by 86%. Not only is it more engaging, but including videos on your landing page makes it53% more likely to appear on the first page of a Google search result.
At Vidyard, we use Google Analytics and KISSmetrics to track web, mobile, and social traffic. These two platforms play key roles within our decision-making process. We’re able to determine the most popular device and browser people view our landing page on, what actions they’re taking on the page, how long they’re spending on it, and more. By knowing this information, we can extrapolate actionable insights that informs us about what works, what doesn’t, and what we should focus on improving.
A/B Testing
Experimentation and testing will lead to a better landing page.
Our lives are filled with experiences that are never quite as good as they could be. A/B testing addresses this by allowing you to compare multiple versions of something to determine which version yields better results – helping you edge ever so closer to that perfect experience. To drive home the importance of A/B testing, Optimizely, an experience optimization platform,secured $58M in Series C funding on Tuesday to optimize the world.
Within the context of landing pages, A/B testing works by measuring the effectiveness each design combination has on the ultimate goal of maximizing conversions. Although implementing best practices are a good starting point, your visitors may react differently to them. By exploring different layouts or messaging on your landing pages, you can discover what works best with your audience.
For a more detailed look into A/B Testing, take a look at this very informative article by Vidyard’s Content Marketing Manager, Kimbe, onHow to A/B Test Your Marketing Video.
At Vidyard, we try to incorporate videos into our landing pages whenever we can because we know that they play an integral role in engaging our audience. But, before a visitor can even begin watching a video, they’ve got to first click on it. Fortunately, the Vidyard platform has the ability to split test video thumbnails to find the one that performs best.
Take our homepage for instance. It’s not just any landing page,it’s THE landing page. Home pages typically receive more than 50% of all visitor traffic, so we knew we had to give it some extra care to make it perfect. After running A/B tests on the video thumbnails for our platform video, these were the results:
Of course, the thumbnails with the dog performed the best. Not surprising at all!
I’m sad to say it, but this marks an end to the “Designing Fly Landing Pages” blog post series. I’m getting a little emotional here. Now you know the four key elements that go into designing landing pages, we’d love to hear how they work out for you!
Imagine this – You have a biology blog. You started this blog to help college students who are struggling in biology.
A student in Timbuktu goes to Google and searches for “how to pass biology.” Guess what shows up as number one? A blog post you wrote on 7 Tips To Help You Pass Your Biology Classes.
The result – Free traffic.
Imagine that there are thousands of other searches that you rank for.
This is not something I’m imagining. This is a reality for my biology blog. The result is that 91,410 people have visited that blog 101,457 times in the last month. Search engines were responsible for sending 80,144 of those visits.
I’m going to share how to optimize your WordPress blog for the search engines. The result – you can get some of that good ‘ol free traffic.
An Introduction to SEO
Before we dive into how to optimize your WordPress blog it’s important for you to understand what SEO is.
Let’s take a look at that.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
When you build a blog, one of your main goals is to get people to come to that blog (or it would get pretty lonely).
Some bloggers even get exposure on the news and other forms of traditional media.
One of the most stable ways for getting exposure is by having search engines (i.e. Google) send you traffic.
What is ‘SEO’?
But, in order for a search engine to do that, the search engine has to:
Know what your site is about.
Know what the individual pages/posts on your site are about.
Match that information with what the searcher is looking for.
Google is a smart cookie. They have complex algorithms in place to be able to determine the relevant information.
But to understand SEO, I want you to picture something – Imagine landing in a foreign country. Everything is new to you. You are good with finding your way around.
But there’s something different about this new place.
There aren’t any signs ANYWHERE. You’re walking all over trying to determine where the restaurants are but have to rely on other cues. You’re trying to find the restroom in the restaurant, but all you see are random doors.
You open one door and discover that it is a restroom, but it’s the restroom for the other gender. You are lacking vital information that’s necessary for you to make crucial decisions.
You finally figure out where things are, but it was much harder than it needed to be. If there would be signs everywhere to guide you to the places you’re looking for, it would be easier.
In this analogy, you are Google and that new country is your Blog.
Google is smart (just like you) and can figure out what your site is about (to a certain extent). But wouldn’t you want to make it easier?
Wouldn’t you want to put up the right signs to give Google EXACTLY what they are looking for?
Wouldn’t you want to make it so easy that you are giving Google a detailed map, or even GPS to navigate your site?
That is Search Engine Optimization.
You are optimizing your website to give Google the exact information they need. This makes it easier for them to index your site and serve you up to the relevant searches.
Google’s Ultimate Goal
Google Search
Let’s think about the typical searcher. This person has a question or is looking for specific information.
They go to Google (or another search engine) and type in a certain query and click the search button. Once they do that, they go to an initial page of 10 results (and maybe some ads).
This is the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
They browse that page and click through to the page that seems most relevant to what they are looking for.
If the page is relevant, they are happy. If they are happy, they may even check out what else that website/blog has to offer.
If they are unhappy, they return to Google and check out the other sites and even perform other searches.
Google’s ultimate goal is simple: to give the searcher exactly what they are looking for.
So then what should be your goal? To give your readers (and potential readers) exactly what they are looking for.
Can You Manipulate Google?
Black Hat SEO
You’re may be expecting me to say no, but the correct answer is yes.
In fact, there are entire industries that focus on manipulating Google. Think about it. If you can trick “the machine,” you can get a lot of traffic.
I’ve received a lot of emails from individuals and companies promising to help me get to number 1 in Google. Of course, there are fees involved.
My recommendation to you is simple – NEVER try to manipulate Google.
Why not? Because Google is pretty smart and they are always improving their algorithms.
A quick win today that’s based on shady principles can end up screwing you over in the long run. I’ve seen many businesses disappear overnight because of such shady practices.
The Most Important Factors for SEO
Optimizing Blog – Right on Target
When it comes to ranking in Google, there is one question that can help you set yourself up for success. That question is as follows:
Are you serving your audience as best as you can?
Remember – Google wants to give the searcher exactly what they are looking for.
This leads to my number 1 tip for optimizing your blog.
Don’t optimize for Google, optimize for your readers. Serve your audience and you will end up serving Google.
To summarize the important factors:
Create great content. The Internet is a noisy place, but cream always rises to the top. Don’t skimp on quality. Create something great.
Create relevant content. The more content you have on one specific topic, the more you will establish your blog as a leading authority.
Give Google what they want. It’s good to have awesome content on your blog. It’s even better to set it up in a way that gives Google the information they need to make ranking decisions.
Establish your authority. If you are doing points 1 – 3 consistently, you are setting your blog up to become an authority. And the more you connect with other people in your niche, the more you will be recommended as an authority.
Let’s go through some of the best practices for optimizing WordPress:
Change Your Permalink Structure
When you install WordPress, the permalink structure for your posts will look like this:
http://ift.tt/1jCUNvO
One of the key principles of SEO is that you should give Google as much information as possible.
This will help them make better decisions on how to rank your site. If your blog post is on how to make ice cream, ?p=123 doesn’t provide valuable information.
Instead, you want it to look like this:
http://ift.tt/1MDK4NB
SEO Optimization
See what I did there? I gave Google more information, even in the URL.
To change this, log into your WordPress admin area, go to “Settings” and then “Permalinks.”
We will then have the option to change your permalinks from the default to “post name”. Make that change.
Choose a Good Quality WordPress Theme
One of the great things about WordPress is that you have a wide variety of themes to choose from.
However, all themes aren’t created equally. Make sure to choose a theme from a trusted vendor.
By doing this, you will help to ensure that the structure of your blog will be relatively optimized on its own. Also, this will help with the next point.
Pay Attention to your Site Speed
Don’t you just hate it when you try to load a site and it takes forever? So does the rest of the world.
Remember that Google wants the searcher to be happy. If your site is slow, your visitors won’t be happy.
Internet Speed
If your visitors aren’t happy, Google isn’t happy, and they will make adjustments accordingly.
Use a site like GTMetrix to analyze your site speed, and if it’s subpar, make the recommended changes.
Some of the factors that affect site speed are as follows:
Choose a theme that isn’t “bloated.” Poorly made themes take longer to load. By choosing a trusted theme developer, you are reducing this risk.
Reduce the image file size. The larger the file size, the longer it takes to load. That’s never good.
Upgrade your hosting. If your blog has grown to where your traffic is putting a heavy load on your server, it might be time to upgrade. I recently switched to WP Engine hosting and it made a HUGE difference in my site speed.
Use a Caching plugin. This leverages browser caching that saves your site so that it loads faster when a visitor returns to your site. A good plugin for this is W3 Total Cache.
Remember – faster is ALWAYS better.
Yoast
Use the “WordPress SEO” plugin by Yoast
This is a powerful plugin that allows you to take control of how your content shows up in Google.
It also allows you to determine how your content shows up on social media, but that’s beyond the scope of this post. For more on how and why I use this plugin, read this post.
When you install the “WordPress SEO” plugin by Yoast, it gives you the ability to customize how your post will show in the search results.
Right below the post editor, you have the ability to see how optimized your post is for a focus keyword.
When adding content to your blog always ask yourself the following question:
In a perfect world, what would someone search for to get to this post?
Once you’ve determined what that keyword phrase is, try to do the following:
Include that keyword phrase in your title of the post.
Try to include it in at least one article heading.
Include it in the URL of the post.
Include it a few times in the content of that post.
Include it in your meta description.
SEO Strategy
Please note: I’m not telling you to add that keyword everywhere in an artificial way. It’s actually quite simple. If you’re targeting a specific keyword, it will show up naturally in your content.
Here are a few more things you can do to help optimize your individual posts for your readers:
Use short paragraphs. Attention spans are getting lower and lower as time passes. Also, many people are browsing our sites from mobile devices. Keeping paragraphs short makes it easier to consume on the go.
Break content into relevant sections. If you scan this post, you will see various sections with various titles. This makes the content easily scannable and allows you to get a quick idea of what it covers.
Include relevant images and name them appropriately. Images help to bring your content to life. Include them in your content and name the files appropriately. This gives Google even more information even down to the file names. When you add images, include relevant alt tags.
Link to relevant content. Remember our goal – to serve our audience. When someone reads your content, they may have questions. You can help answer questions by linking to other helpful information. This might be your own content or content from other sources.
How to Track SEO
As you grow your blog, if you use the principles I share above, your site will grow in authority.
As your authority grows, Google will start sending you more and more traffic.
And as Robin S. Sharma puts it:
“What gets measured gets improved”
As a business owner, you want to make sure that you are always measuring key factors.
When it comes to traffic, there are some great FREE tools you can use to measure progress.
Install Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides you with all kinds of great insights for your blog.
It gives you a detailed breakdown of where your traffic is coming from, including the searches that are driving traffic to your blog.
When you install Google Analytics, you will have to create a property in your account. It will then give you tracking code to add to your site.
You can do this in most theme settings. If your theme doesn’t have that option in the settings, you can use the “Google Analytics by Yoast” plugin.
Add your Blog in Google Search Console
Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a free service that allows you to monitor and maintain your presence in Google’s search results.
Watch this great explainer video for a better understanding of what Google Search Console is:
Once you’ve added your site to Google Search Console, you will need to:
Verify your site
Submit your sitemap
Fortunately, the WordPress SEO plugin allows you to do that easily. Watch this video and see how to do these two tasks:
Your Turn
This is where you get to chime in on this content. Which of these tips have been most helpful for you? Is there anything I missed? Feel free to share below.
Listen in
Video of Podcast
Infographic
WordPress SEO
Transcript
Some people just love being able to read along with interviews, or they might just prefer to skip the audio completely and just read through the transcript. Hey, if that’s what floats your boat, it is all good. Here’s the transcript just for you.
You’ve probably heard the old marketers’ adage, “It’s cheaper to retain customers than to try to win new ones.”
What if that wasn’t necessarily true? Are you new to the world of User-Generated Content (UGC)? Or are you familiar with it but you’re not sure how to include it into your marketing strategies? Well, here’s a blog post for you!
User-Generated Content is genuine, organic content created by, well, your users. Your customers, your audience, regular people who interact with you, and create content that can be used to champion your brand. It’s a fairly new trend in marketing, and it’s picking up steam because marketers are seeing that it definitely works. Oh, you want some proof? Well, UGC-based content has shown to be20% more influential on purchasing decisionsthan other types of media. That’s probably a good indicator of why25% of search results for the world’s top 20 brands are links to UGC.
Why does it work?
For a variety of reasons. People don’t feel sold to. UGC is a conversation, rather than a brand broadcasting a sales message. It creates a personal connection between a brand and its customers because these customers feel that their opinions are heard and valued. That makes people want to participate in UGC, which in turn, creates “social proof”: it makes audiences feel that if other people like a product, they probably will, too. And, it helps brands make sure they’re talking about what their audience isreallyinterested in, because it’s the audience doing the talking!
So…UGC is a win for marketers.
You get more content marketing without expending a lot of resources or budget, and you increase your ROI, as well as the engagement and loyalty of your customers. Does it get better than that? Sure sounds like that old adage might need a bit of a rewrite.
So what messages can you use UGC for, and how can you add it into your marketing mix?
Market your products in a real way
You knew I was going to say that. But it’s true, collecting UGC is a perfect way to market your products. Fashion house Burberry, for example, used UGC of people wearing Burberry products, launching a website dedicated to men and women wearing all colors and sizes of their trench coats. It was a great way of showing the versatility of their product, and how it can be worn in real life by real people (instead of showing a nude high-fashion model wearing it in a way that only she can – cough-Rosie Huntington-Whiteley-cough). Burberry’s ecommerce sales jumped 50% year-over-year following the launch of the site.
Use UGC to change your product…really
How can you use UGC to change your product? Figure out what your audience really wants and use it to determine the future of a product, like Heineken did. Through theReinvent the Draught Beer Experiencechallenge, customers could share videos and ideas to help improve the product (while, of course, increasing brand engagement!).
Advertise with reviews
Did you know that 87% of consumers use reviews to help them decide on a purchase? I know I sure do – when considering the purchase of exercise equipment, I watched the product video and checked out the company’s site…and then I spent most of my time reading all the reviews to see what the “truth” really was. I’m not alone. That’s why sites like Amazon work so well, and why Airbnb is so successful: people rely on the opinions of others. Kia discovered the power of reviews, and used them to create this convincing video ad:
Market your events
User-Generated Content doesn’t always have to focus on products. Events are a social thing, so it’s likely a lot of UGC can be created at any of your events. Collect the content to use it as promotional footage for the next year. Use it to figure out what worked and what didn’t, and what your audience really wants to see so you can create even stronger campaigns for future events. Use it as reviews for your event landing pages.
Market your brand and team culture
This video from Target shows a Target employee giving a rousing speech to other employees on a Black Friday, encouraging them to serve their customers well and have some fun. The user in this case was another company employee, and the video promoted Target’s brand through the dedication and passion of its awesome team players. Target released the video, using the UGC content to highlight their team culture.
Use UGC to create top-of-funnel campaigns
You don’t have to rely on product reviews for your UGC. Take a look at how Coca-Cola used User-Generated Content. The content doesn’t have anything to do with their product, but they used the fun and entertaining quality of the content to create their own top-of-funnel campaign.
Promote philanthropic efforts
What’s better than getting the warm fuzzies from a story about the impact of a company’s philanthropic efforts? Instead of issuing a press release or putting some official pictures on your blog, you can use UGC to create an experience between you and your audience. The results will feel more genuine, and the impact can be greater.
Estee Lauder created abreast cancer awareness campaignin 2013, encouraging women to support each other and create healthy habits, and share their stories. Images, stories, and videos were shared, helping to create a positive, relatable and human experience.
What forums are perfect for UGC?
User-Generated Content is perfect for more than social media. Here are a few ways you can use it.
Create video campaigns
No matter what your message is or what content you want to promote, consider creating a video campaign. After all, it’s the next best thing to being there in person, so it helps your audience connect with you in ways other media can’t.
Take Pampers, for example. They collected a bunch of videos uploaded by parents (after asking permission, of course!), and combined them into one enjoyable, emotional, and relatable campaign that received a lot of positive feedback from their audience.
Yes, you should add UGC to social media
When you think of interacting with your audience, you probably think of social media. User-Generated Content is typically created through social media, and it’s natural place to share it, too. After all, social media users spend more thanfive hours a day consuming UGC. For example, Facebook users watch more than four billion videos a day. While that’s not all UGC, it proves that social media is a great place to share your UGC in the form of video or other media.
User-Generated Content is a stronger option than posting brand-created advertisements, since social users ignore or block those ads. UGC, on the other hand, performs better, offering a 300% higher click-through rate, and 50% lower cost per acquisition. It feels natural, and instead of standing out and being pushy, it feels like it’s an inviting part of the social experience.
Add it to your website
Whether video or other format, UGC is perfect for your website or landing pages.Stella and Dot, the jewelry company, includes UGC right on their home page, showing women wearing their jewelry in all kinds of unique and individualized ways (which always makes me want to buy more of it!).
It’s perfect for creating a connection with your visitor, and helping them experience your product in a different way from sales messaging.
Add it to blog posts
Whether created by you or by the customer him- or herself, a blog post is a perfect place to add some UGC, whether video, images, or plain text. It tells a story in a more genuine way, and helps the content feel less sales pitch-y, and more informative, entertaining, and authentic.
So there you have it. Try out some of those ideas for yourself, and let us know how User Generated Content works for you! Just remember: make it easy for your audience to generate that content (no red tape, please!), and keep it real (leave buying phony reviews to the companies who need it!). You’ll end up with a strong and impactful experience!
Marketers work hard, day in and day out, drumming up new content ideas, planning months at a time, wearing 18 different hats and juggling 27 different balls at once (or thereabouts). And they deserve recognition! Especially those who are doing all this and still building stellar video marketing strategies, creating videos on a tight budget, integrating video with their marketing tech, and you know … even more. Which is exactly why the Video Marketing Awards (VMAs) exist.
This year, after more than 100 applied, we selected 8 of the best uses of video marketing in 8 different categories to award to 8 different companies. We presented the coveted VMA to them at Space Camp, The Video Marketing Summit, last week but here’s a quick round-up for those who just had to stay on Earth. Watch, read, applaud, and learn!
Best Explainer, Infographic, or Whiteboard Video
Winner: Ceridian
Ceridian’s goal for this whiteboard video was to clearly articulate how their innovative human capital management solution (Dayforce) could alleviate major pain points that payroll administrators frequently encountered. Now, solving a business pain point is a common place to start for a whiteboard video, but where Ceridian set themselves apart is by diving one level deeper. They looked beyond the technical solution, to answer the question “How does Dayforce HCM make my work life better?” for prospects. Ceridian planned to use this video for Dayforce’s product launch, but after they saw its impact and ability to so clearly communicate Dayforce’s value prop, the story of Jenny became the cornerstone of broader marketing and brand programs across the business. Jenny soon found herself immersed in the sales process, in sales training, and in the company’s annual INSIGHTS customer conference. The Jenny video became a powerful tool to educate Ceridian’s own employees, attract new viewers, convert current prospects, and extend the value of their brand. Now THAT is a sign of a great explanation.
Big Bang, Small Budget Award
Winner: Salesforce
This product demo video was created as a means to move prospects through the sales pipeline without using Account Executive’s time to give live demos (which often required at least a 30 minute commitment). And boy was it done on a budget! Soup to nuts, this video was produced by one person using Keynote, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro C and a USB mic with a 15” Macbook Pro Retina display.
And while we can all agree that this is a professional looking video, nothing says it better than the results. In the first two quarters of 2015, the video influenced almost $1 million in sales. Each unique video view could be seen to yield $225 in sales. Salesforce saw a 32% growth in sales from Q1 to Q2 and are projecting that through the rest of the year, about $2.8M in sales will be influenced by this video alone.
Anndddd ‘nuff said.
Sales and Marketing Alignment
Winner: Zuora
Zuora thought outside the box on this one. Big time. Instead of keeping their marketing vision focused outward, they decided to look inward and help their sales team become more successful with the use of video, something they had found to previously drive results. The marketing team selected 5 significant deals and turned regular ol’ fact sheets into low-budget, quick-turnaround videos to show the sales team the power of video. It was so effective at convincing the sales team that they’ve started creating their own quick-win videos by simply recording themselves in front of the camera. The sales team has gotten over the fear of video and learned that a video can still be enormously effective and much more personal, even if it’s not the highest production quality. Spread the love, sales and marketing!
Breakout Video Marketer of the Year
Winner: BenefitMall
Previously, BenefitMall would create videos as they saw fit for unique campaigns. But recently, Andrew Davis, BenefitMall’s Interactive Marketing Specialist decided that a more strategic approach was necessary. Davis looked beyond typical, top-of-funnel use cases for video and infused video throughout the entire buying process, including into BenefitMall’s sales efforts as well. BenefitMall produced a commercial for their new product, EmployerFocus, that was market specific and pushed it through email, social media, and their website. This first video was a top-of-funnel, motivating, and almost “cinematic” video. Next, they produced product features videos and whiteboard videos, which were shorter videos (less than two minutes) that walked through the need of the product, and what it can do to solve the problems of our audience. The next stage of the buyer’s cycle and BenefitMall’s video production was a short product demo and a testimonial video to show social proof and build trust. The final stage? BenefitMall started making more money. Here’s a marketer who saw an opportunity and leapt in with both feet! And it sure paid off! (See what I did there?!)
Best Integrated Video Marketing Campaign
Winner: Gainsight
Yep, you’ll be singing that all day.
Gainsight’s PULSE conference is their most important (and expensive!) marketing investment of the year. It also offers significant contribution to the company’s bottom line and as a result, Gainsight recruited the help of video to boost the event’s impact. The video you watched from above was shared before the event, which helped them to attract more than 2,000 registrants. And boy, did they ever take things to the next level at the event when they recruited – not only an acapella group – but a Taylor Swift look-a-like to sing this song at the event, as well! Talk about a strong (and unusual!) integration.
Gainsight also used video after the event to dive further into topics attendees were particularly interested in during the conference. They did this by hosting a virtual conference. Can you say ‘event ROI’?
“The videos were INSTRUMENTAL to: driving awareness of our industry conference; driving registrations to our industry conference; creating content for our event follow up communications; building momentum for next year’s conference; creating net new leads to fill the funnel; helping take deals off the table as a result of the conference; and driving a high event NPS score.”
Video Marketing Tech Stack
Winner: Lattice Engines
Aberdeen recently pointed out that the best video marketers have extremely strong technology stacks. Why? Because integrating video marketing with other aspects of the marketing stack means that it can become a more integral part of your larger marketing goals AND you can track its impact, too. Lattice Engines does just that with their killer marketing tech stack.
Lattice hosts their videos in Vidyard. They’ve integrated Vidyard with their marketing automation platform, Marketo, which lets them score leads based on their audience’s engagement with their videos and create Interesting Moments that are synced to Salesforce. They also use campaigns in Salesforce to allow them to use Full Circle Insights to know which videos are influencing their pipeline and at what funnel stage. Lattice then uses that information to tag the videos so they can offer them to the sales team to share with customers and prospects through KnowledgeTree, their sales enablement tool. Lastly, they amplify their videos’ reach on social through GaggleAMP and HootSuite and via email through Marketo.
*Jaw Drop*. Need we say more? Well there is more. With this home run of a tech stack, Lattice has been able to track the positive impact of using video in email, including a 38.3% increase in open rate when “video” is included in the subject line as well as 107% more clicks and a 98% increase in click-to-open rates when videos are included in the email. They can also see that 41% of their MQLs have engaged with their videos and most importantly, their videos have helped influence over 20% of their pipeline this year. Bam.
Video Marketing Impact
Winner: Hootsuite
These two videos, while extremely different in execution and original goal, both created a significant impact on Hootsuite’s business. The Game of Social Thrones video was created to build brand awareness through social shares of their branded, and ultra-trendy video. From research of their own target market, Hootsuite knew that they were among many Game of Thrones fans. Anxious to play off this theme but not wanting to throw too much budget into a potential ‘marketing whim’, the team created an infographic first to test the waters. When the infographic received over 25,000 shares, they knew they were in a sweet spot where video could drive some real results. The video you watched above received nearly 1.5 million views and 54,000 social shares. It also received coverage in Time Magazine, Fast Company, Salon, Design Taxi, AdAge, and AdWeek.
The second video, Mean Tweets, on the other hand, was created for existing customers to communicate the change in Hootsuite’s UI and drive adoption of this new UI. Hootsuite realized that while negative customer feedback can be painful to hear, it can also be an invaluable asset if used right. And in the spirit of full transparency and approachability, Hootsuite decided to share this feedback publicly to gain attention, be brutally honest, and then showcase their willingness to act on feedback. Inspired by Jimmy Kimmel’s own “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets”, this video kept viewers engaged for a cumulative 130,000 minutes!
Hootsuite is an example we can all learn from in using video to generate a massive numbers of views and significant audience engagement. And even more so, Hootsuite builds brand affinity and generates interest with press and media through great creative content marketing and striking an emotional chord with their target audience.
Video Marketing Trailblazer
Winner: Act-On Software
Act-On Software knew video could be used for more than creative stories or for solo, one-off assets. With only a small in-house team, the marketing group at Act-On put their heads together and thought of how they could make the biggest splash in the pond with video. They looked to video to:
convert more anonymous website visitors into leads and increase visitor-to-conversion rates on key pages as well as
leverage their library of webinar recordings and thought leadership as evergreen content to maximize already-invested efforts.
First, Act-On built a video resource library directly into their website so all of their video content was easy to browse and easy to consume.
Then Act-On integrated video CTAs into their high-value videos with low visitor-to-lead conversion rates. Next, they tested, and tested, and tested some more to find the optimal video gating strategy to generate the highest conversion rates.
“We used to think about video as a way to get attention and draw people into the top of the funnel. Now, we use it across the entire buyer’s journey – attracting future customers, generating leads, nurturing prospects, and creating brand advocates.”
Once Act-On started to see the profound impact video was having on their lead generation efforts, they actively adjusted the structure of their content marketing team in-house to build a video marketing discipline within it. And it, uh, seems to be working pretty well for them!
Their on-demand demo video is now the most clicked and highest converting CTA on the Act-On homepage, accounting for 100+ leads per week.
Their video hub has produced over 1,000 leads since launch in February – a completely new source of leads for them!
They’ve increased visitor to lead conversion rates for key product pages by 104% on average by incorporating video CTAs (primarily on-demand demos).
The Act-On team has generated 21K video leads in the last 12 months, accounting for $27 million in opportunities.
These leaders in video marketing deserve an overwhelming round of applause. They are taking video to new heights, integrating it with their larger marketing strategy, and driving some serious results. There’s so much we can learn from top performers like these Video Marketing Award winners, which is exactly why we’ll be featuring each one of them and how they do what they do over the coming months. Stay tuned you studious readers. Maybe you could be a 2016 VMA winner!
There’s something about the idea of going to space that sparks our imaginations and stirs our emotions. If you’re like me, the idea of going to Space Camp has always been a childhood dream. Space Camp is a place to explore, discover, push the boundaries of what we know and what we are capable of. While I didn’t get to go to space camp as a kid, I did get to go this week – although it was a space camp of a different kind – video marketing space camp to be exact! From inspiring speakers to hands-on video workshops in the training studio, Space Camp had something for everyone and anyone touching video in an organization. There was even a real astronaut there (THE real astronaut, Chris Hadfield), space food, and a space suit direct from NASA.
Here’s a recap of the 48 hours I spent at Space Camp this week.
The First Steps in Space
As Day One kicked off, nearly five hundred Space Campers descended into the general session area and were met with larger-than-life images of the galaxy brought to life on a seventy-five foot screen, all while dry ice rolled in across the floor. It really set the stage for an out-of-this-world couple of days.
When the smoke cleared, Michael Litt, co-founder and CEO of Vidyard took to the stage, encouraging attendees to adopt a beginner’s mind: to be open to exploring, discovering, and pushing the boundaries of their marketing knowledge. Michael talked about how the universe of marketing, and the role that video plays in it, has changed dramatically over the last twelve months.
Next in the pilot seat was Sourabh Kothari, who helped inspire marketers with the (inter)stellar work he and his team are doing at Cisco. I walked away from his session armed with his secrets for creating amazing video content. His number one tip: invest the time in script, and place a focus on storytelling. While ‘storytelling’ is all the rage (and a huge buzzword these days), the craft of telling stories well, in Sourabh’s opinion, often gets overlooked. Sourabh asserted that the quality of your video output isn’t a function of quality of your camera or how much money you spend on an agency, but on the quality of your writing and the strength of your team! Does your script tell a story? Is it authentic to your brand? These are the questions you should be asking yourself before ‘what camera should I buy’.
Wrapping up the morning was Colonel Chris Hadfield, former commander of the International Space Station. This session ended with the crowd on their feet and left the audience with chills. Chris described in beautiful detail what it’s like to leave our planet, orbit the earth at 17,500 miles per hour, live on the International Space Station, walk in space, and re-enter the atmosphere, hurtling towards the ground. But what really resonated with the modern marketers at Space Camp was hearing how Chris used art to bring the science of space travel down to earth. He talked about using media like Twitter, video, and music to connect with people around the world in real time about what he was experiencing in space. What I found particularly interesting was how the media available to him had changed dramatically over the three space flights he took. While he started out taking pictures on 35mm film and having to wait weeks before he could share that content down on earth, he ended up sharing pictures in real time, or live-streaming right from his iPad. Chris brought this point home by connecting his use of video in space to the opportunity that video offers today’s marketers: the chance to tell their stories in an authentic and engaging way to millions of customers and prospects around the world.
Before passing the shuttle controls back over to Michael, Chris treated the audience to a song off his upcoming album, and even played a few licks of David Bowie’s Space Oddity – the song that he recorded on video in space and that has since been viewed over twenty-six million times!
Bringing it All Back Down to Earth
The afternoon on day one was just as exciting as the morning. After a rationing and refuelling break (a.k.a. lunch), attendees started to learn how to bring the big ideas discussed in the morning sessions back down to earth.
The afternoon general session had Matt Heinz leading a terrific panel with marketers from Act-On, LinkedIn, Cetera Financial and HapnApp to talk about how these organizations are using video and what the future of video marketing might look like. One common theme across the panellists was their excitement to be able to deliver more personalized video experiences…but more on that in just a moment!
Rich Kline, VP of Solution Engineering at Salesforce, paid a visit to talk about how video and video analytics are used by solution engineers to scale demos, speed up deals, and focus on the right opportunities.
Day One also included a series of breakout sessions, hands-on training and video production workshops that allowed attendees to go deep into topics like: building the business case for thought leadership, measuring and maximizing the impact of video throughout the funnel, aligning your video strategy to each stage of the buyer journey, and how to produce creative video at scale and on a budget.
The Video Marketing Awards
Last on the agenda for Day One was the 2015 Video Marketing Awards (VMA) presentation. Unlike other awards that focus on just the creative work, the VMAs celebrated organizations and marketers using video to drive real business results and ROI. VMAs were handed out in eight categories that ranged from best-integrated video marketing campaign to biggest bang on the smallest budget. Award winners took home beautiful V-Bot VMA trophies along with a Canon Powershot G7x (along with bragging rights, of course). Stay tuned on our blog next week for a recap of all 8 VMA winners!
After a jam-packed Day One, all of the space campers needed to recharge a bit!
Day Two: The Future has Arrived
After a long trip through space and time to see what the future of video marketing holds, Vidyard’s very own intrepid astronauts Michael Litt and Devon Galloway returned to earth on Day Two of Space Camp to show marketers what the future of video marketing holds. And what they shared was out of this world (yes, I said it!).
Michael talked about how live events are playing a pivotal role in today’s B2B marketing strategies, and how marketers are looking for new ways to share those experiences beyond the limitations imposed by space and time. This led up to a very exciting announcement –Vidyard’s introduction of a new Live Streaming solutionto allow marketers to stream video content while measuring viewer engagement. There were three features of Live Streaming I loved in particular (yeah, sure I’m biased). The first is how easy it is to set up compared with other live stream solutions. The next is that live streams are recorded automatically so that when a live streaming is done, it’s immediately available to view back in the same player. The last is that you can add an email gate during the live stream. This allows the viewer to develop an interest in the content before being prompted to enter some more information.
From Vidyard Live Streaming, Commanders Litt and Galloway turned to talking about how you can identify and measure viewer engagement. In another exciting announcement, Michael and Devon introduced a newEvent Builderthat will allow video marketers to add new email gates and forms pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-playback. Vidyard’s new Event Builder makes this easier than ever before, and allows marketers to capture new data points beyond email, like company name, job title, phone number, and more.
Michael and Devon also rolled out a new Vidyard feature called theIndividual Contact Center.Devon described this feature as turning video analytics on its head. Whereas before video-viewing history was looked at on a per-video level, the new Individual Contact Center allows a marketer to go in and see all the video-viewing data for a single viewer, all in one place. This makes it possible to see what videos a prospect has watched, and how long they watched each one, allowing a marketer to better gauge their interest and intent to purchase.
Next up was an exciting announcement that moved video out of the realm of marketing and into the world of sales.Vidyard for Saleswas introduced as a way to help sales reps get the right video content in the hands of the right prospects at the right moment. It breaks down the silos that exist between sales and marketing by making it easier for sales reps to find video content created by marketing and sales engineering, and then send that to a customer or prospect right from Salesforce. Reps are then able to measure and track how their prospect engages with that video content, right in the contact record. Talking to people after the session, I could see that they loved how Vidyard for Sales would help their organizations to scale the use of their best demo people. They were also excited about how this could speed up deals by making it quick and easy to send follow-up information after a sales call. And many saw the opportunity for this to help make sales teams more productive by allowing reps to quickly spot and focus on the best, highest potential opportunities.
The last announcement for the morning was, in my opinion, the most exciting of them all. Personalized Videofrom Vidyard makes it possible for information about the viewer (like their name, email address, company name, or job title) to be woven right into the content of the video itself. Michael introduced this new feature as a way to help cut through the inbox clutter we’re seeing today, and help build stronger one-to-one relationships with prospects on a mass scale. While this is incredibly cool, it’s not just a party trick. Michael went on to talk about how Vidyard saw a 16x jump in click-through rates on their email campaigns when including a video with a personalized thumbnail! It’s no surprise that Personalized Video got space campers buzzing on Day Two.
Day Two also saw Heidi Bullock, VP of Demand Generation at Marketo take the stage to talk about the importance of delivering the right message at the right time. In her session, Heidi gave the audience a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how they approach lead-scoring and content marketing at Marketo.
What followed on Day Two were another 25 breakout sessions, hands-on workshops, and training sessions! I’m just glad that all of the breakouts were recorded and will be available online because there was no way to be able to get to everything I wanted to see.
The Intergalactic Takeaways
So what were some of the key takeaways for me from Space Camp?
First was the importance of story. As more marketers compete for our attention with video, a well-told story will be the key to driving engagement. Whether it was Chris Hadfield talking about creating videos that you yourself would want to watch, or Sourabh talking about the importance of good writing, many sessions came back to the central theme of writing and telling stories authentic to you and your brand. Many of the speakers talked about the importance of authenticity, being yourself, and putting yourself in the shoes of your intended audience by asking yourself ‘would I want to watch this’?
Second was the ubiquity of video across the organization. It used to be that video was reserved for top-of-the-funnel brand assets created by marketing. Not so at Space Camp. From the diversity of the attendees and speakers to the sessions themselves, what was clear is that lots of people care about video today. Sales is making videos. HR is making videos. Training and support are making videos. Everyone is making videos! This is exciting, but it’s also scary for many as it means that companies needs to start thinking about video as a strategy, not just an isolated tactic.
From talking to other video marketing astronauts in attendance, there was a clear consensus that Space Camp was unlike any other marketing conference. It’s hard to put into words, so you’ll just have to wait for the recap video next week…or better yet, come on next year’s mission. It’s only T-minus 365 days away.
This is Space Camp Counsellor Gadway over and out.
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