Best Practices: mailVU’s Business Video Platform

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Many mailVU clients use our online video platform to market their business. This is not surprising as video offers higher brand awareness than other media advertising such as website banner ads. mailVU’s Business Plan is more affordable than a single website ad. Video marketing should be an integral part of your organization’s overall marketing strategy. A combination of pull/push methods can be very effective.

How exactly are mailVU users incorporating our video platform, and where are they seeing success?

Outbound video marketing – pushing video content directly to recipients:

Sending branded video email is one of mailVU’s most popular uses, with short video URL links being posted on Twitter close behind. You can create and send your video message directly to your audience and monitor its viewership. Since mailVU is inherently mobile-device friendly, using our video platform for outbound marketing is a great way to reach smartphone and tablet users.

The following tips will help you use outbound video marketing effectively:

• Remember that video content is more important than slickness. Be real. Be authentic. Talk to your recipient as if you were across the table.

• Keep your videos short, preferably one minute in length. If you have a longer topic break it up into several shorter videos. People will be more inclined to watch and internalize your message better if you provide it in increments.

• Use your videos to educate. Discuss your industry and current topics affecting it. Talk about how your products and services address the market. Provide the benefits of your products, or the business opportunity you are offering.

• Measure video view counts to determine which messages resonate best with your audience.

• Always make sure to focus on your topic and don’t digress. This will ensure that your videos provide value to others. Creating an outline or script before you start recording your video will make it easier to stay on track.

• Look straight into the webcam, not yourself on screen! The reason you are making the video is to emotionally connect with the viewer. Always remember when recording your videos that you are speaking to the other person. The purpose of the video is to provide information or to solve their problem.

• Be sure to end with a call to action. The CTA on your video messages should be clear and concise; don’t give the viewer too many options, as doing so will only create confusion. It is extremely important to communicate clearly to the viewer what you want them to do after watching your video.

Other outbound uses may include personal communication, training videos, thank-you videos, or cold call introductions. Some of our leading clients are now embedding their videos into newsletters with our email embed function. mailVU works with all major email marketing service providers including Constant Contact, MailChimp, iContact, Contactology, Bronto, etc. While most of mailVU’s videos are recorded from a computer or smartphone, more users are using mailVU’s Business Plan to upload pre-recorded videos to send in messages.

Inbound video marketing – using the incoming recording widget on a website or Facebook page:

Recording video testimonials from customers is easy to do with mailVU. Each Business Plan includes an incoming-only video recording widget. This provides your users the fastest and easiest method of recording videos for you from anywhere in the world. These customer testimonial videos go to your account where you can preview them. If desired, you can then embed them on your website, download them, or send videos via email or short URL link.

mailVU gives you control of the testimonial videos. Don’t want to use one? Simply delete it from your queue. Here is an example of one of our clients who uses the testimonial widget. The video recording widget is also great for capturing video contest entries or video blog responses.

Here’s a tip: Adjust the recording time of your incoming widget to match the application. Want a happy customer testimonial video? Limit the time to 1 or 2 minutes. Want to have a prospective job candidate submit a video resume? Increase the recording time to 10 minutes. Because our service is scalable, we can create usage levels to best suit your company’s needs (one widget user has a 20-minute limit which is used to record answers to interview questions.)

Hosting videos and increasing viewership:

Another mailVU use is embedding your videos onto your website so anyone can view them. Since mailVU hosts the videos, no server space is required on your platform.

A growing use for hosted videos is in blogs. When blog articles are written you can copy the web embed code from mailVU’s Business Plan and paste it into the HTML editor of your blog.

Here’s a tip: Before embedding a video, determine the size that fits your website. mailVU’s web embed code lets you select horizontal and vertical sizing prior to generating the HTML embed code. This technique is particularly handy when you want to embed videos in tricky places such as sidebars.

Why is video marketing so powerful?

Videos are powerful because they capture your audience’s attention quickly and more effectively than text, images, or audio alone. Videos say 1,000 words, and when used correctly, they help to communicate your business brand and messages in a highly efficient manner. An advantage that video marketing has over other forms of marketing is that it leaves a more lasting impression on the viewer. It gives you a chance to stand out from the competition. When the viewer recalls your video they will be more inclined to want what you are offering.

Video marketing is fast becoming an important part of online marketing strategies. It can strengthen your business messaging and communicate to your customers and prospects in an entirely new, unique way. To learn more about video best practices, check out this article.

Interested in mailVU’s business version? Service plans start at only $39.95.

Think it over – wouldn’t getting new customers justify the cost of video marketing? If the answer is yes, contact sales@mailVU.com.

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