I Very much enjoyed the event, “Combining SEO and Video to Drive Awareness and Lead Generation Online” sponsored by Business Wire.  The panel of experts provided facts, insights, advice, and predictions on the place of video in marketing communications.

The event opened with an eye-opening question, “How many in the room have looked at a video online in the past month?”  100% of attendees raised their hand.  We then viewed a video provided by David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”, which showed the question being asked in Japan, London, Boston, and San Francisco with similar near 100% response.

Some take-aways for me from this event in no particular order were:

• Videos to record customer testimonials

• Videos in press releases get 500 times more responses than text

• Videos dramatically increase conversion rates on web pages

• Click through rates are 50% higher with video

• Videos help build awareness at the top of the sales funnel

• Videos help convert sales if used near the bottom of the sales funnel

o   Example: using a video to support a proposal may help close the sal

• How to video

• Videos for market research – interview customers

• Flip video phones – inexpensive and easy way to record video

• Use video in social media

• Use video on your blog

• Use video to generate a call to action

• Use video to show company’s social responsibility

·         Technology will make videos even more in demand – think I-Pad

·         Videos for employee empowerment

Thanks to the following for a very informative event:

Cliff Pollan, Tim Bradbury, Joe Chernov, Judy Gern, Dave Toole, and David Meerman Scott.

In today’s economy and competitive environment it is very important for industrial and manufacturing companies to be smart marketers. Companies need to understand what they are good at and why they are different that their competition. They need to look inside their company and see what makes them successful or not successful. They need to understand what their strengths are and why those strengths endear them to their customers and why those strengths are sought after by their prospects. We call this understanding your company brand. Your brand defines you. Your brand is the evidence of your distinction and the process of uncovering that brand is brand development.

Once that brand is defined and everyone in the company from the CEO to the janitor understands and has adopted that brand, then and only then can you begin to launch a successful marketing campaign.

In the next few weeks we are conducting a survey with industrial manufacturing companies to get an understanding of how they are marketing their products and company. You can view survey at

http://grantmarketing.com/survey2010/index.cfm  . Take the survey and see the results at the end of the survey and enter a drawing to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate.