Online Video Revolution: How to Reinvent and Market Your Business Using Video

Citation

Jeanetta Davis Sims (2015), "Online Video Revolution: How to Reinvent and Market Your Business Using Video", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 93-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-09-2014-0700

Online Video Revolution is a one-stop resource for marketing educators and practitioners interested in incorporating online video into classroom teaching or an organization’s marketing plan. The book is written by John Cecil, who has a decade of experience delivering video over the Web. Cecil begins by examining the transition from text to video that has and continues to occur quickly and argues that this revolution, as the title suggests, demands that video now be included in customer communication efforts. The author highlights historical occurrences related to video’s progression that date back to Bing Crosby’s first video in 1951 and builds a solid rationale for why conversions can be increased by adding video to marketing campaigns. The remainder of the book provides an informative blueprint for appealing to customers’ desires for the glitz, color and action of online video. Cecil’s primary focus is assisting professionals to increase conversions through online video. The book is for individuals who are “actively marketing [their] product or service and [who] want more sales” (p. 39).

The video novice will find useful, how-to instructions for getting a greater return on their video investment, for trimming costs without sacrificing video quality and for maintaining a video plan. The content of the book will also reveal secrets to make video work on a large or small scale as well as assist individuals who may have been caught by surprise from the swift proliferation of video content use as a marketing communications tactic. Through the ten book chapters, Cecil offers step-by-step guidance to the online marketer on “how to use video in dedicated marketing efforts” (p. 6).

Chapter 1, “Lights, Camera, Action! Text Goes to Video-Based Content”, explains how words have shifted to pictures and shares the types of online video that is viewed regularly among US online video viewers. The author discusses bandwidth, cloud computing and the role of video as a marketing tactic in this new Web environment. Video trends statistics are shared, and three case studies of companies (Napster, Tandberg and Capitol Records) that have successfully used online video to promote their respective products are provided.

In Chapter 2, “Video in the Media Mix: Where It’s Been and Where It’s Going”, Cecil continues to set the tone for the superiority of video over its text predecessor through addressing how abandonment can be remedied with proper use of online video, how search engines are shifting to online video and how the awareness, interest, desire and action (AIDA) model can be adjusted to form a video purchase funnel.

Chapter 3, “Participate in the Video Revolution”, chronicles the various types of online video use currently being employed by organizations in marketing plans, including online retail, training, educational, how-to, corporate, testimonial, social media and other video forms. Cecil shares Golfsmith’s success of increasing sales conversions by 64 per cent through producing video content in 90 of 100 videos themselves.

Chapter 4, “Creating Video: Top Considerations for Production Success”, transitions the reader through the three stages of video creation (pre-production, production and post-production) and offers similarities in how marketers from large-, small- and mid-size companies must consider the same issues concerning video use regardless of company size. The heart of the book, the eight golden rules of video production, is shared in this chapter with tips for decreasing viewer abandonment.

Perhaps, the most strategic instruction is in Chapter 5, “Return on Investment (ROI)”, which is where Cecil offers how formative research can assist marketers with testing video to improve conversions. This chapter emphasizes what to measure and offers how to measure including key metrics that can be used to gauge and monitor online video success.

Chapter 6, “Delivery”, discusses how marketers should view delivery as being just as important as production. Options for formatting video via the Web to target audiences are explained, including overlay, embed and lightbox formats. In addition, three options (self-delivery, free-delivery or online video platform) for delivering finished video to viewers are discussed. Cecil cautions that “YouTube is not your best option for video delivery on your own website” (p. 113) and provides an extended discussion that can be useful for helping marketers think delivery first and then move on to the production of video content afterwards.

In Chapter 7, “Video Production”, the author delineates the 14 steps of producing a video project. Through covering topics from scriptwriting and hiring talent to on-set participation and music, Cecil walks marketers through the different choices required in a step-by-step process.

Chapter 8, “Video search engine optimization (SEO) – The Science of Getting Seen”, is essentially a guide for helping marketers ensure that viewers actually see the video they have taken the time to produce and deliver. Through a discussion on hosting versus posting, figuring out tags and sitemap creation, this chapter is packed with topics marketers need to know to establish or continue video search engine optimization strategy.

The remaining two book chapters offer additional nuggets and reminder calls to action to further assist marketers with online video. Chapter 9, “Make Your Videos Social”, elaborates on the role social media can play and offers best practices for social and mobile video use. Chapter 10, “Taking Your Video to the Bank”, concludes the book with ten video marketing insights that can help stimulate more revenue from video marketing efforts.

While Online Video Revolution is often technical and perhaps a bit over-simplified in leading marketers to believe they too can masterfully create quality video content comparable to modern-day motion pictures, the book’s appeal is just that – it delivers on the promise of instructing marketers on how they too can create compelling video pieces capable of resulting in sales conversions. The book offers fundamental lessons for online video use and contains success stories sprinkled throughout about Zappos, Mountain Dew and other companies. In addition, the book contains excellent examples of A/B testing to inform video marketing decisions. The book is a perfect resource for marketers seeking instruction, desiring insight or needing to bolster arguments for online video marketing.