Using Video to market your products - a picture could be worth a thousand words - a video could be worth a million

Some products are complicated and may need demonstration. With other products a demonstration video may show the end results of using a product, or just raise the interest level of the potential buyer through the excitement created by the demonstrator. Direct response television ads, the billions of dollars that are spent annually on just a few TV Shopping networks, and the recent proliferation of web based video hosting services linked to retailer’s web sites are driving consumer sales to new levels – through impulse purchases and informational teasers which lead to later sales.

I have been working with a number of products and companies to increase their sales and expand their markets through traditional retailers, online stores and the TV Shopping networks. Video has been a key component both as a direct sales medium and as a sales tool for reseller partners.

Direct response TV and TV commercials can cost up to $500,000 or more per commercial. More reasonably, many businesses are using YouTube as a hosting vehicle for lower budget product videos and demos. Although free, Youtube does have a 10 minute limit on hosted videos which should be adequate for most product demos.

One company I have worked with Vamoose Products, a small company offering tobacco odor elimination products, has worked with one of my long time associates Rick Glasby of CrashBang Digital to create a two minute Vamoose demo/infomercial. The video is hosted on YouTube and has already had thousands of views without any server costs to Vamoose.  CrashBang Digital did a great job for Vamoose Products, for a reasonable price, and even assisted with the scripting, provided all of their own voice-overs and editing.

The company has links from their web site to YouTube which is hosting the video. While most of the viewers most likely have come through the promotion done by the company, the video has been indexed in search engines and is used by the company to approach retailer buyers.

Another example of the power of video is where my client Honestech used CrashBang Digital to make an introductory video for a new product Audio Recorder 2.0 Deluxe. New product introductions typically take up to a year or more to gain trials in retail stores and on shopping networks. With the video in hand, and with existing strong relationships and successes with other products, meetings with a major big box club store is yielding a trial roll-out only a few months after release.

The video also came in handy to demonstrate the ease of use and features of the products to buyers at QVC. The product has also already been scheduled for a second airing on QVC on October 9 and we’re hopeful – that these videos will be worth millions of dollars!

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