Innovative Approach

So we are amidst of online video era, no we are not. Online video’s originated long way back and gain prominence on porn websites, but later with the passage of time it use to have on several business websites. Surgeons posting their success stories in the form of videos on their websites, lawyers posting testimonials in the form of video on the website and the list goes on. So all these websites use simple .wmv or .avi file formats and embed short videos ranking from 10-30 MBs (duration of about 5-12 minutes) and it even sometimes help in satisfying visitors with the real demo of the product / services or testimonials. But it annoyed the people who are on dial up connection with 64 Kbps modems (Indeed the bounce factor can vary from 70-90%)

“Transition is the law of nature” and so everything in the world changes and it happened over the web too and so flash came into being, flash which is now a adobe product (previously owned by Macromedia) produces movies in the form of FLV (Flash Video) which can buffer even in low connections and the movie can be viewed even if the end users are impatient (Still extremely low dialup connections cannot trigger even the .FLV but moderate connections whether DSL, ISDN etc. is pretty fine to run any flash movie). So a lot of companies embed animations in the form of flash including vector, cartoon, animated banners (Oh the old animated .gif replacement) and even the real videos. Format like .avi, mpeg, .mov can be converted to .flv which is fair enough in terms of loading and even good in picture quality.

I hope the above explanation clears the importance of videos in the website now lets move onto the heart of this post which will really explains the exact potential of online videos.

As we know that with the advent of Web 2.0, a lot of social networking sites came into being like Myspace, Flickr, Youtube etc. In this youtube has played a key role in online videos and has became so famous that people are switched from their TV to their computers. Even there are web based TVs but I will not discuss them as they are relay TV channels.

Let me ask you which is the key differentiator between the youtube and some TV channel?

Its nothing but targeted usage of this online industry, so if you want to watch a song “XYZ” you can just find out on youtube, play and enjoy which is not possible on TV as you have no control over that, the word “CONTROL” plays a key role in internet and this is the thing which has made search a billion dollar industry which states “People looking for a particular object themselves” which in business language says that “Customers looking for shops to buy products”.

The beautiful part of the web is the control only and so implies to online videos and they provide the content to the end user as per their demands”

Watching you favorites songs for Shakira, Britney, Bryan Adams or your mom checking the recipes of Tandoori chicken, or your grandfather watching some Cecil Demil’s classics.

Below picture depict the real picture of online video industry provided by comScore :

So its agreed that online video is and can be a very big industry and it can defeat TV in terms of control for the items you wanna watch. But even so strong youtube, hulu or any other video sites can encompass the global cinema and ongoing programmes and these portals cannot produce even 40% of the content which TV channels produces. As a matter of copyrights millions of programmes / videos cannot be posted on youtube, though you youtube have tried to partner with channels but still it is in pipeline.

BUT the online video can attract the integral part of internet population as all online population was / are nostalgic for the television.

Method which can be implemented by both parties (TV channels,  Movie producers, Albums sponsers etc. and Internet)

-    None of the online video site (whether its youtube or Hulu), none of them are organized and display the videos randomly.
-    There is no browsing way of find the videos with respect to categories, though youtube has tried to achieve this through channel but still not so viable.
-    If youtube or any other video site partner with TV channels, movie production companies then they can serve the movies on demand. You want to watch “Terminator Salvation” on Friday night, so log on to the site and enjoy.
-    Here is another picture where the video sites fail is the archive, there are tons of serials / programmes rolling on the TV channels and if I want missed some portion I cannot recall as they are scheduled / controlled by TV channel owners but in case of archives present on video sites I can locate the exact scene and enjoy. This is somewhat makes as feel owner of the channel and we enjoy the left out programmes which we missed out due to our business or timing schedule.

Burning question – Who will create such a vast video network including both the user generated and system generated , will the companies Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros, Tristar or MGM even go ahead to initiate this on massive scale.

I cannot answer but I can predict that if all of them join hands together then they can create a multi-trillion dollar advertising industry from online videos and beat up the television altogether. (Please excuse me but unlike newspaper, TV too will be there with its strong rival – Web)

Looks tough as how can this random market can be regulated as even the youtube (purchased for over 1.65 billion dollar) is unable to monetize itself properly but we all should agree that it has created a huge potential and many opportunities are on the way…………….as this is the beginning of online video on world wide web.

Billons of impression and millions of investments and meager ROI, this is what maximum online entrepreneur says regarding online banner advertising.

This sounds correct to some extend if we compare instant sales with the traffic but really we can never map sales directly to media advertising  mainly the rice media ads. We have seen HPs, IBMs or Intel’s ads running on giants portals like internet.com, devshed.com, developer.com and on high traffic blogs and we rarely click those, also as per industry standards the CTR for banner ads is less than 0.1%.

So from this we can draw the conclusion that we must refrain ourselves with banner advertising as its too costly and less effective.

But before ending this post I want put a question to all reader whether a businessmen or internet marketing professional. If really the banner ads are not so good then why these portals are generating millions of dollars. Also why Google purchased DoubleClick in USD 3.1 billion, why Aquantive was acquired by Microsoft, Why Yahoo partnered with Tyroo etc.

The answer is really very simple – If you want establish yourself as brand then you must be in each and every arena of internet marketing from SEO to PPC or Social media.

As per Comscore and Hitwise stats banner ads impressions figure overcast the search engines, really its not properly confirmed but still the banner ads create the visibility of a brand across the internet.

Simple if I am browsing internet.com and have flashy ad of HP latest printer I would not click this because I already have a printer but this will atleast for a moment create some sort of awareness that HP has launched something new in printer, so I might discuss the same with my friend during meals or morning walk and if someone really looking for a printer might ask do you know its pricing or some advanced functionality which HP has came in….I will simply say hey man log on to their website……..May be my friend could purchase the printer then.

So this is just a hypothetical and a very brief scenario but it lively proves how sales could happen indirectly if we are getting our business placements in banner ads or something.

One thing I want to include here that if we use widgets , gadgets or something useful instead of banner ads then we might expect better click thru rates. For eg. if its  a travel blog and we need to put some widgets like distance calculator, weather forecasts etc. for country, city etc. so that people could interact with them easily and find out some relevant information for their needs, beneath that we could surely put in courtesy “Honeymoon Holidays in Malaysia” and link to our main business website. This is indeed a very comprehensive topic to discuss and will lead to viral marketing which I cannot discuss totally.

Anyway the thought for the day – Invest in banner ads but

• Invest wisely,
• Donot put all your money in that,
• Track the impressions
• Track the clicks
• Track the leads / sales

Guys, sure it can help you in establishing your biz as a “Brand”

Traditional marketing is on its way and will be there for quite a long time and even forever but there will be a lot of new channels coming in as “Transition is the law of nature”.

Classical advertising – Newspaper, Magazines, Fliers, Radio, TV etc. are still most preferred channel for marketing a product or a service or to do a branding.

But with the advent of world wide web a new channel has opened doors to new generation merchants – buyers, sellers, brokers etc.

So the subject I would like to discuss is Internet marketing which is has helped small, medium and even big corporates to build their business.

If you go to any businessman and ask what is biggest problem, you will surely receive the answer “How to bring more clients or customers in”.

(Though retaining the existing customer or the client though is more important but still…)

Internet has open a very big and simple channel for driving customers to your business which we call the search engine – Google the samsung of search has helped a lot of online entrepreneurs to grow their consumer base.

I am not an advocate of Google or any other search engine but as I am working in this industry since long so it’s a good place to invest your money besides traditional sales and marketing.

As per my post title says “New Channels of Marketing……….” Its not a new channel but its been in place since 1998 but for sure it is now a multi-billion dollar business. Often my friends query me that SEO is only for SME’s and not for big corporates or portal, this is absolutely wrong.

Linkedin is a social networking portal and are you aware that why employees and employers go to Linkedin and build their profile…………simple answer, “they can have their profile coming up in search engine with their name”, so easy head hunting is so possible because of the SEO friendly nature of linkedin. Similar case with other networking giant suppose youtube – which brings up the results with the title of the song/movie etc.

SMEs including B2B and B2C marketers can locate  their respective customer online and do necessary trading more viably and independently leaving the broker ahead. Most of them do SEO, PPC, Affiliate marketing and generate wholesome revenue altogether.

There was a news which says “A lot of travel agents are vanished from Europeon markets because of online travel portals coming in thereby facilitating a common man to book a ticket, hotel, tour with a simple click.

Ultimately its search engine and the search engine optimization which has helped online ventures to grow at rapid rate, even with low investments.

“So my friends this is just a simple post for you, please read this and follow to you and your colleagues now – spread the word “Internet will help you build SALES”