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How to Beat the Credit Crunch with Video |
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The credit crunch poses some tough choices for businesses and marketing executives; should they run for cover, or come out fighting? Kersh Media's Graham Majin asks whether this is a good time for organisations to invest in new technologies, such as video marketing. |
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| Author: Kersh Media |
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I replied that we’d not noticed any reduction of interest, indeed we suspect the current nervous economic climate may actually be leading to an increase!
But how could this be? Surely when times are hard and budgets are being trimmed, projects like the “company’s new promotional video” are more likely to be shelved? The answer seems to be that there are two types of business, or perhaps two types of manager.
Some managers, when faced with dwindling sales, will instinctively retreat and dig in for a long siege. They’ll pull up the drawbridge and bolt the doors. Development of new products will be put on hold, innovation will be postponed, staff – including “non essential” marketing and sales staff – will be laid off or not replaced.
For those businesses, cutting costs and playing safe seems to offer an easy hiding place from the storm. But although this may sound like good sense, those managers are actually playing a very dangerous game.
Imagine two football (soccer) teams that have just been relegated from the Premier League. Team “A” responds by selling its star striker and other valuable players. Good business sense surely as, faced with falling revenue, the club can barely afford the wages bill.
Team “B” however refuses to sell its stars. Although it has to take a short term financial risk, it invests in even more quality players.
Which team is more likely to be promoted the following season and reap the long term financial rewards? And which team is more likely to stay in the lower divisions, slowly spiralling downwards? I think the same is true of video production and video marketing.
The second type of businessman instinctively takes a much bolder view.
His attitude, when faced with a shrinking market, is to fight harder than ever for new business. This manager sees the urgent necessity to spend more, not less, on marketing and advertising.
This manager realises that his customers are thinking twice about parting with their money and that they’ll be shopping around for the best quality and best value products and services. This manager realises that video marketing can tip the balance in his favour. Video will help convince his customers that they should buy from him and he’ll pick up vital sales.
Video is the most powerful medium. It allows your customers to see and hear your products and services in action. Professionally made video has the power to engage your audience and influence customer buying decisions.
Research shows that putting video on your website will increase you site’s “stickiness” by more than 30% and increases your customers’ perception of product quality by up to 60%.
Studies suggest that video leads to a 30% average increase in sales and that this can be as high as 300% in certain cases (source; PricewaterhouseCoopers).
Video can be incorporated into email marketing campaigns and even zapped to customers’ mobile phones or ipods. Video tutorials can provide high quality, cost effective support for your products.
The list of uses for video is limited only by our imagination.
And our desire to watch video seems to be insatiable:
Internet video consumption more than doubled during 2007 according to a recent study by Microsoft. It’s estimated that video now accounts for more than 50% of all internet traffic and it’s growing!
Of course, when times are hard, you need to ensure you’re getting value for money from your video production company. Make sure you shop around to find a producer capable of delivering powerful results at competitive prices. But I believe you neglect marketing at your peril.
And I believe that video marketing will help companies survive and even prosper during the credit crunch.
About Author
Graham Majin is Head of Production at UK based video production companies Kersh Media and KWIKVID. Graham is a former BBC journalist and Senior Producer. www.kershmedia.co.uk and www.kwikvid.com
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