WordStream’s Internet Marketing 150: The Top Internet Marketing Companies 2012

April 27, 2012 By Angela Wilkinson Leave a Comment

Whether it’s like a LOTR (Lord of the Rings) or a sought after treasure map, WordStream’s latest infographic is a reference list that’s both engaging and useful for explorers travelling the dynamic land of Internet marketing…okay I’m stopping with the map japes before I hit the “here be dragons” references.

Japes aside, it is a valid point that for many (even when your job role is not marketing), you have to engage in Internet Marketing or at least have a knowledge of what the key activity areas are. When you first venture into looking at the key activity areas, or are wanting to refresh your knowledge, it can get confusing; there is no end to the different companies offering services and products, be it Web Analytics or the latest in Marketing Automation.

Released this week the WordStream Internet Marketing 150, maps out the top Software and Saas Provider landscape; categorising 162 companies into 10 major business categories: Content Marketing & Blogging, Conversion Rate Optimization, Crowdsourcing, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Management, Video Hosting & Management and last but definitely not least, Web Analytics.

WordStream have explained that the companies included in their provider map have been selected against the following criteria:

Are market leaders in their category.
Provide proven, innovative solutions to improve web marketing processes.
Have strong reputations in their field.
Provide tremendous value to individuals and businesses.

So while you wouldn’t be reading this unless you had some interest in marketing activities and you probably recognise some of the names in this infographic, it’s worth while holding onto this map and checking out those names you are less familiar with.

If you are at the beginning of your journey in Internet Marketing, or even regrouping your efforts before jumping back in, these 10 key areas will help give you a focus for reviewing your current strategy. For those with strategy in place, but seeking out a new provider, the map is a great place to start the initial research!

Internet Marketing Software List [Infographic]

Filed Under: Blogging, CMS, Conversion Rate Optimization, Email Marketing, Infographics, pay-per-click, ppc, SEO, social media, Video Analytics, Video Optimization, Web Analytics

Skeleton Productions Webinar: YouTube for Business, 22nd Feb. 2012

February 21, 2012 By Angela Wilkinson Leave a Comment

YouTube for Business

I’ve written before about video being an excellent tool for sharing ideas, whether for entertainment or learning something new. Yet despite gaining over 3 billion views a day, enjoying a broad demographic (ages 18-54) and being localised in 25 countries, not every online marketer is making full use of what YouTube has to offer.

This is where the team at Skeleton Productions, a UK based Internet video production company come in with their series of webinars, because even better than a video…is a webinar where you get to ask questions of the experts!

The next webinar is focused on YouTube for Business; showing you how to create and implement successful online video marketing strategies through YouTube. It runs tomorrow, the 22nd February from 12:00 to 13:00 GMT, so it’s an early morning breakfast session for our US readers and for our readers east of the UK it’s an early evening chance to wind down and check out the YouTube video marketing tips.

What will be covered:

Why Online Video & Why Now?
Why YouTube for Business?
YouTube Content Strategies
YouTube Video Marketing Tips e.g. Video SEO
Measuring Success
Q&A With Attendees

You can learn more and register through this link: YouTube for Business

Will I see you there?

Filed Under: Video Optimization, YouTube

Can’t Wait For HTML5? Here’s 3 Essential Video Email Marketing Shortcuts

November 22, 2011 By Andy Havard 6 Comments

Internet users and Internet marketers alike are waiting on the final implementation of HTML5 to allow for embedded videos in emails. With the text format of weekly newsletters and blanket emails wearing thin, users are dying to use an engaging media like video to spruce up their email campaigns.

HTML5 aims to bring this universal change, but with Gmail not quite there yet, and many online users unhappy with the overall Hotmail service (which is the only email provider to allow videos in emails at the moment) video email marketing is still at a standstill. Even the iPad and iPhone uses of video emailing isn’t really cutting it for most brands, bloggers and businesses.

So, what can you do? Well here are 3 essential shortcuts for using video in your email campaigns without HTML5.

Gmail URL Preview

Video email campaigns on Gmail can make use of the video preview function to help make video URL links more prominent in amongst your email text. This does go on the basis of a simple URL placed within in the email, but its Gmails’ ability to preview this link that provides the video Thumbnail.

Be wary that the effect of this shortcut will be stunted if you try to include more than one video at a time. Try to keep the video content in your emails limited to just one link per email. A barrage of links will be just as off-putting as a barrage of text. Remember your Gmail preview will only work with other Gmail users or Hotmail users so you may have mixed viewership of your video content depending on the types of email account your recipients are using.

Image of YouTube's email videos

Video Image Hyperlink

If you’re a YouTube user you’ll be familiar with the concept of using hyperlinks to send users to pieces of video content. Users do this to send online audiences to other pieces of content they might enjoy. Your email can adopt a similar convention.

Image of Sesame St. Elmo in a video

If you take a Screenshot (Print Screen) of your video Thumbnail on YouTube or on Vimeo, Daily Motion, Viddler, Bitsontherun, Brightcove or whatever video hosting site you’re using, you can then use that image, hyperlink it to your video content, and send users to your video that way.

Emails are always very happy with using image content and by using an actual picture of your video player Thumbnail you can encourage users into clicking the content as they’ll be expecting to see a video play). When they click the hyperlinked image they’ll land on your video page and receive the video content, except it’ll be presented in a different Tab or Window instead of within the email.

.GIF Files
An alternative shortcut to getting around the absence of HTML5’s video email support is to make use of .”gif” files. Gif files are captures pieces of video that play on a loop with no audio. They’re traditionally found in online Forums and as such sometimes have a certain spammy or unfamiliar stigma attached to them. Although as you would make your own .gif image file for your content your email recipients would have no such issues with your content.

A .gif file can be hyperlinked much like an image and can help to encourage users to click on it in order to access the video content referenced in your email.

Here’s a tongue-in-cheek look at what I mean, the link is http://www.gifbin.com/985925

Summary

When HTML5 comes into play the platform for email marketing will take drastic shift. When it allows for effortless video integration Internet marketers everywhere will be able to make their email campaigns stand out from the crowd. Until it’s released though you can be sure to make use of these 3 essential shortcuts to help you market both your email campaigns and Internet video productions far more effectively.

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Video Optimization

How To Use Internet Video Successfully

October 20, 2011 By Andy Havard 4 Comments

Online marketers across the web have been using Internet video in their marketing strategies to try and boost their SEO, increase their conversion rates and improve traffic to their website. Although, just because they are attempting to use Internet video in this way, doesn’t mean they’re being successful. So, how do you use Internet video successfully? The following article explores the real ins and outs of Internet video, and how you can use it to benefit your marketing goals for your brand, business or blog.

Understand The Nature of Video

In order to create and market Internet video successfully you have to understand what makes Internet video tick. Why is Internet video popular as a medium? Why do online users watch over 2 billion YouTube Internet videos a day? The answer is quite simple, it’s because audiences enjoy video.

Video by nature is an incredibly engaging form of media. It has a fantastic ability to convey complicated messages and communicate information simply and efficiently with its viewing audience. Audiences find video content very easy to relate to, connecting with the on screen activity taking place between real individuals and vibrant animations. It is these qualities that video possesses that makes it such a popular and easily accessible medium to universal online audiences.

Research What Videos Work Well

Internet videos don’t automatically receive a popular and interactive online audience. In fact many Internet videos fall completely flat and become virtually unmarketable. If you want to use Internet video successfully you’re going to need to research what videos actually work well online.

Online users turn to video for two reasons; for entertainment and for education. The Internet is rich with instructional, how-to videos, giving audiences quick access to information they can understand easily. If you can create a video that can cater to the needs of audiences in your niche, and help them to better understand or better use a service/product you’ll be able to ensure your Internet video begins to receive a receptive and appreciative audience.

Viral videos ranging from exciting flash mobs, engaging interactive videos and peculiar dogs on skateboards, all come to receive such widespread viral statuses due to their entertaining content. Internet users love to be entertained, whether it’s amazing them with creativity, making them laugh or baffling them with magic. If your Internet video can entertain a wide audience, or just captivate your niche, then you’ll be rapidly putting your video on the track to online success.

Market Your Video Socially

One of the biggest ways to generate a successful Internet video is to embrace socially active websites. Sharing and promoting your video on social media sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn are great ways of getting your Internet video a high viewership and a large abundance of interaction. The more interaction you can stir up around your content the more shares, Likes and Comments it will receive. If you can ‘wow’ a social media audience you’ll be able to get those users passing on your content to their audiences, where your video could reach an almost limitless social audience.

Don’t forget, social medias aren’t the only social hotspot for Internet video. Video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo are full of users Liking/Disliking, Commenting, Video Responding and Subscribing to all kinds of Internet video content. Engaging with the social video communities on these websites will work wonders for the social marketing of your video, and the interaction it receives can even help it climb up the YouTube and Google search engine rankings.

Track Your Videos Performance

The only way you can achieve success with Internet video is to determine and measure what ‘success’ actually means to your marketing campaign. Are you trying to boost your social media Likes and Followers? Are you trying to increase your search engine ranking? Or are you trying to improve your conversion rates? The only way to know the true success of your Internet video is to track it.

If you’re determining the success of your strategy via video views, geographical brand awareness and directing viewers to your video content, then free video analytics from the likes of YouTube Insight and Tube Mogul are the best tools for the job.

Social media growth can be an essential piece of data to track for brands, businesses and bloggers as it can help to show brand awareness, audience interaction and how many users are talking about what you do to other users. Great ways of tracking this type of data is through Facebook Insight and Hoot Suite. Facebook Insight is a quick, informative free tool, whereas Hoot Suite will cost you a few pennies for its very efficient service.

Perhaps the most important piece of data to track if you’re all about ecommerce and increasing traffic generation, is the analytics of your website. Google Analytics is one of the best free tools for locating this information, although it has just released a very extensive, and very expensive Premium package for larger companies. Google Analytics allows you to track traffic to your site, where users found your website, how long they stay on your page, and how many leads turn into real transactions.

Only by monitoring the performance of your Internet video on a regular basis can you really know if it’s becoming successful. Keep a careful eye on the goals your video has set out to achieve, and allow time to make amendments to your content if your tracking is showing up some marketing red flags.

Summary

By understanding the true nature of Internet video, by learning what videos work well online, and by marketing it on the most prosperous and engaging platforms, you can make your Internet video a real success on the web. However, only by managing a thorough and consistent tracking schedule will you be able to determine if your video strategy is staying on track, and how it’s progressing towards your much sought after goals and marketing targets.

Filed Under: Video Analytics, Video Optimization

SEO for Video: 101

September 28, 2010 By Manoj Jasra 2 Comments

In the video below, SEOMoz’s Danny Dover provides a great overview of SEO and video. Danny discusses the amazing opportunity that video can potentially bring to an online business and goes further into tactics that can help optimize your videos. Danny concludes with a theory that 5 factors: engagement, ratings, comments, social statistics and duration will really start to impact the performance of videos in organic search results. Video marketing is becoming a key element in any seo job description

Filed Under: SEO, Video Optimization

YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day – Interview of Greg Jarboe

December 15, 2009 By Manoj Jasra 2 Comments

Video Optimization and Marketing is an extremely hot topic given the ability to gain traction through video on services such as YouTube without the investment of thousands of dollars. We recently caught up with Greg Jarboe, the author of: YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day and during our chat with Greg, we got it his insight on his Video Marketing book.

[Manoj]: Talk to us about the target audience of YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day?

[Greg Jarboe]: This book is for veteran marketers. Internet marketers, search engine marketers, business marketers, sports marketers, event marketers, product marketers, and corporate marketers should read this book because they didn’t learn about video marketing in college—because there were no courses on this topic a couple of years ago—and their marketing jobs and marketing careers are rapidly being reshaped by YouTube.

This book is also for new YouTubers. Comedians, directors, gurus, musicians, partners, and politicians should read this book to learn how to market and promote their YouTube videos more effectively.

Finally, this book is for entrepreneurs. Do-it-yourselfers and small business owners should read this book to debunk popular myths and gain actionable insights from their YouTube and video marketing efforts.

[Manoj]: YouTube is the center of the video marketing universe, so how can users get on the right path of engaging the community?

[Greg Jarboe]: Chapter 7 of my book is entitled “Engage the YouTube Community.” And to get on the right path of engaging the community, the first thing you need to do to is follow the YouTube Community Guidelines. For example, everyone hates spam. So, don’t create misleading descriptions, tags, titles, or thumbnails in order to increase views.

[Manoj]: What are your thoughts on Tube Mogul?

[Greg Jarboe]: I recommend using TubeMogul to distribute your videos to other sites in Chapter 6 of my book. And I recommend using TubeMogul to understand your audience, measure industry trends, and get rich metrics for your site’s video player in Chapter 10.

[Manoj]: Chapter 9 discusses the concept of becoming a YouTube partner, what is the importance of this?

[Greg Jarboe]: YouTube’s Partner Program is a revenue-sharing program that allows creators and producers of original content to earn money from their videos on YouTube. You can earn revenue from relevant advertisements that run against your videos using Google’s proprietary technology. YouTube uses a variety of criteria to review applications, including the size of your audience, quality of content, and consistency with its Community Guidelines and Terms of Use. On December 10, 2008, Brian Stelter of the New York Times wrote an article entitled “YouTube Videos Pull in Real Money.” He wrote, “One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become ‘partners’ and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the Web site.” Stelter interviewed Michael Buckley, the host of “What the Buck?” who said he was earning over $100,000 from YouTube advertisements.

[Manoj]: What metrics/indicators should users look at in order to best understand the performance of their Videos?

[Greg Jarboe]: Although it is useful to measure views and ratings, how many of these “outputs” do you need to make the cash register ring? In my book, I profiled half a dozen individuals and organizations that have used YouTube and video marketing to generate measurable “outcomes.” How did Barack Obama win the presidency of the United States? How did Monty Python increase sales of DVDs 23,000 percent? How did “Will It Blend?” deliver 700 percent increase in sales? How did Universal Music Group book $100 million in revenue? How did “What the Buck?” earn a hundred thousand dollars? How did Rob Zombie’s Halloween finish #1 at the box office?

[Manoj]: If readers could takeaway only 2-3 things from the book, what would you want those things to be?

[Greg Jarboe]: Most readers will want to learn how video marketing works. But I hope they also learn why most new videos don’t go viral. By looking closely at the successes and failures in a field that is less than five years old, readers can begin to understand what they can do to help millions of people discover, watch and share originally-created videos.

Filed Under: Video Optimization

The Use of Online Video within Blogs

November 4, 2009 By Manoj Jasra Leave a Comment

Sysomos recently released a study which takes a look inside online video engagement specifically how videos are used within online sharing sites such as blogs. This study, exploring the use of online video services by bloggers, is based on a collection of more than 100 million blog posts collected from July to September 2009.

Here are some highlights from the study:

Market Leader: YouTube – Not surprisingly, YouTube is the most popular video-sharing service used by bloggers, attracting 81.9% of all embedded videos and direct links. Vimeo is a distant second with 8.8%, followed by Dailymotion and MySpace.

Young Males Engage the Most – 20-to-35-year-old males constitute the most engaged demographic group in our study. In total, 77% of users are under 35-years old, while 60% of all users are male.

Asian Users Engage Differently – 90% of the users from Asia and Oceania are under 35-years-old. In comparison, a third of North American users are over 35-years-old. Bloggers in Asia and Oceania are less likely to use services other than YouTube, with 89% of the links and embeds pointing to YouTube.

Gender Balance – The most male dominated video service is Break.com (88%) vs. (12%) females. The most female dominated video service is MTV (68%) vs. males (32%). The most balanced video serviceis MSN (56% male and 44% female).

Countries and Cities – The countries with the most bloggers embedding and linking to videos are the U.S., Brazil, Spain, the U.K. and Canada. In terms of cities, the most active bloggers who embed and link to videos live in New York, Sao Paulo, London and Madrid.

Engagement Peaks on Tuesday – The most popular day for engaging with video in the blogosphere is Tuesday and Wednesday. The most active engagement takes place between 11a.m. and 1p.m EST.

Filed Under: Video Optimization