For effective online video marketing, your first hurdle is to get your video made. The second is to get it seen.

Honestly, the second can be trickier than the first.

A survey I read recently from Marketing Sherpa rated the methods people used to get viewers and how successful they were.  (That link takes you to a page where they are selling an incredible new book on online video marketing.  It costs $397, so don’t freak out.)

The winner?  Paid search.  “Great” results were reported by nearly twice as many people who used paid search than the closest alternative, which was promotion in paid media.  18% reported great or good success with paid search, 63% said results were “mixed,” 16% claimed not so great results and 3% said results were down right terrible.

The method that got the lowest satisfaction rate was promoting your video on your own blog.  Only 14% had great or good results and a whooping 37% said not so good or terrible.

So although paid search definitely got better results, promoting video by posting it on your own blog is free, so you would have to decide whether the extra expense is worth the extra results.  14% success is not that far down from 18%.   The biggest difference is definitely in the not-so-good and terrible category.   Only 19% of people who paid for viewers were disappointed, whereas 37% of those who promoted video for free on their personal blog were disappointed.  That’s nearly twice as many sad sacks.

All-in-all, the survey results showed that whatever method you used for getting viewers, chances are highest that you will get “mixed” results. As with most things, online videos are not always successful and the majority of them rate a so-so.

Are you surprised to hear me say that?  Well, I am just reporting the facts, ma’am.  Most online video promoters make it sound like if you get any old video uploaded that it will instantly become a sensation.  I am honest enough to tell you that is not true.  That’s not to say online video is not worth the trouble, it most certainly is.  You just have to do it right and have realistic expectations, that’s all.   Online video marketing is the best opportunity available for promoting your business.  Just don’t expect it to work 100% of the time.

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

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