June 17, 2010

Credit Union Management magazine’s “Inside Marketing” column runs the third Thursday of every month.

With the huge advances in online video technology, organizations that don’t capitalize on this medium via their Web sites could fall far behind.

Think about it: When you venture onto an interesting Web site and see a video prominently displayed, chances are you’ll click on it. Natural curiosity coupled with years of watching TV and movies makes it a virtual magnet for visitors. Evangelical Christian Credit Union, for example, has video testimonials right on its front page. These videos are good production quality, informative, and entertaining--which equals to being very effective.

The only drawback to Evangelical Christian CU’s member testimonial videos, however, is that they are very well done. Perhaps, too well. This high quality can be intimidating for some credit unions on a budget. Bad economy or not, that’s been the big hurdle for incorporating video on Web sites for years: It’s too expensive, the files are too big, it takes too long to load, etc. Not anymore.

Incorporating video on your credit union’s Web site today is surprisingly easy and relatively cheap. No longer do you need a $2,000 video camera along with equally expensive video editing software and compression software to make a quality compatible clip for your online visitors’ viewing pleasure.

If you’re on a budget, here’s what to do. Buy a $200 Flip or Kodak pocket video camera, shoot your video, and upload it to a myriad of Web video sites (YouTube, Vimeo, Blip, etc.) for posting and compression. (Note: Take advantage of these sites’ compression software. They spent millions developing it so you don’t have to.) Once it’s successfully posted, take the embed code and have your Webmaster prominently embed the video on your Web site--preferably the front page. And that’s it.

Again, your videos don’t have to be an expensive Hollywood production. Just make sure your sound and lighting are decent. If you want to go the extra yard and have the budget for it, you may want to purchase some video editing software like Apple’s Final Cut Pro for a more polished look. Many computers today come with video editing software bundled like Apple’s iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Here’s a link to free video editing software for PCs.

Once you have the technology logistics wired, now’s the time to figure what type of videos to post on your Web site. One thing to remember: Make sure they’re educational and entertaining so they actually help your members--not waste their time. You could even have members post their own videos in a contest. Those are quite popular. Just make sure you screen them before posting.

Here are some newsworthy uses for video:

• Member testimonials or success stories
• CEO video blog
• Product or service demos
• Financial education content (“how to” or advice-type messages)
• Company/industry news

Now that you have the tech logistics down and a few educational ideas percolating, now’s the time to just do it. Production may require a few “takes” to get the process perfected, but things rarely go right the first time. Just make sure you have plenty of light and the sound is good. If you use the Kodak Zi8, it has a mic jack, which is an advantage for quality sound.

As for how long the videos should be, make sure they aren’t any longer than three or four minutes. People are in a hurry on the Web. Even if you produce an award-winning video that’s 20 minutes long, virtually nobody will watch it. It’s too long for the online viewing. People want their info fast and a two- or three-minute video is just the order. So get to the point quickly.

With today’s ease and cost-effectiveness of producing videos for online viewing, more organizations (a.k.a. credit unions) should be scrambling to produce them right now – especially with the way they can spread like wildfire via social media channels. In closing, here are some 2009 usage stats from pingdom.com:

• 1 billion – Total number of videos YouTube serves in one day
• 12.2 billion – Videos viewed per month on YouTube in the U.S. (November 2009)
• 924 million – Videos viewed per month on Hulu in the U.S. (November 2009)
• 182 – Number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (U.S.)
• 82 percent – Percentage of Internet users who view videos on line (U.S.)
• 39.4 percent – YouTube online video market share (U.S.)
• 81.9 percent – Percentage of embedded videos on blogs that are YouTube videos

Now that you have some solid numbers of how vital video is to Web sites, do you have some examples of how you’ve used video on your Web site to attract and retain members? And have you been able to monetize your results?

Mike Lawson, principal of the PR/marketing firm DML Communications, has two decades of journalism, public relations and marketing experience. His unique and robust knowledge allows him to meet the varied needs of editors, end-users and clients. Lawson's expertise enables him to enhance his clients' market exposure through media relations, social media tools, advertising efforts, target marketing strategies and more. He also speaks on PR, marketing and media issues to audiences nationwide. For more info, visit www.dmlcommunications.com.