With all marketing campaigns, every now and again, one needs to slow down and take stock of what’s working and what’s not. This is especially true in the digital marketing space where the value and hype of new technology platforms is often found wanting when weighed against measurable results.
With interactive trackable video marketing now gaining traction I thought it might be a good idea to share the typical do’s and don’ts based on experience gleaned from various campaigns and a few hundred thousand views.
What is interactive trackable video marketing and what makes it different to traditional video marketing?
Traditional video marketing may be defined as campaigns that use video to advertise a product or service on various digital platforms. Video content consumed would be as a result of internet searches or social media browsing and essentially form part of a pull-marketing campaign. There are in some cases elements of basic viewer interaction including contact forms, website links at the end of the video, and possibly clickable icons within the video. Typically one can get aggregate viewer statistics in the form of heat maps, dashboard reports and “likes” which give some indication of customer preferences.
Interactive trackable video marketing is different in a number of ways, two of which I would like to highlight.
Firstly the viewership is measurable on an aggregate and individual basis as you have to the ability to track viewership on a known-person basis. This effectively means one knows exactly who watched what and how they responded to in-video prompts and calls-to-action. You now have both the data intelligence per person and the ability to follow up with a specific viewer. Interactive trackable video platforms have the ability to easily distribute video content to a specific recipient via email and text. This provides direct measurability relating to viewer engagement, leads captured and conversion rates. Interactive trackable video would in other words easily support push and pull-marketing campaigns.
The second key factor is the level and quality of viewer engagement with a marketing or communication video. Interactive videos should not merely be about clicking emoticons or filling in contact forms. Ideally it should fully engage the viewer by allowing seamless branching to video content of their choice, illicit reaction via the use of emotive in-video hotspot images and, based on in-video prompts and calls-to-action, generate personalized email or SMS follow-ups per predefined distributions schedules. All of this without having to leave the video screen. This together with quality video content provides a personalized marketing journey that would likely increase both lead rates and conversion rates.
Of course interactive trackable video campaigns can also fail. What are typical dos and don’ts?
Do:
- Keep videos short (15 to 45 seconds)
- Where appropriate allow the viewer to choose which content they would like to view via seamless in-video branching.
- Allow clients to respond to in-video calls to action without them having to leave the video screen.
- Place calls-to-action directly after key marketing “hook” or video segment that relates to response requested and not at the end of video.
- Have in-video responses and permissions-to-contact update your CRM in real time where possible. Immediacy of feedback increases ability to convert hot leads.
Don’t:
- Do not send SMS or Mails with personalized links to interactive trackable video campaigns to random or very old recipient lists. Such campaigns simply do not get out of the proverbial starting gate as SMS’s or emails will simply not opened.
- Just as with any campaign make sure your contact numbers and emails are correct (Use neverbounce.com to clean your email list)
- Do not request the viewer to provide a response to interactive calls-to-actions or hotspot images without indicating the purpose of such response.
- Limit the number of in-video interactions. Too many may increases risk of viewer drop-off.