How companies can leverage video assets online

These days you hear so much about how Social Media can help your business. We know from experience that you can have some positive results if your content is targeted, using social media to communicate with your existing audience. You may even grow your audience by hundreds or even thousands. You also hear a lot about search optimization and again we have experienced how video can really help drive search online. Having a good SEO and Social strategy is important today. If you really want to have success, consider using TV as the driver to really power both of these aspects of your online strategy.

Ok – I know if you read this far you are trying to figure how TV has anything to do with Social Media or SEO. Well let me start with SEO. The success of search optimization is related to the keywords you are targeting. Obviously you know that having a well structured website and an active blog are key to growing search penetration for those keywords. More and more companies are having great success using video to also drive search. In general, the key to targeting keywords is to create content structured at capturing those searching for those words and phrases. TV can help with the content you need and help setup the search of keywords into the mentality of those watching. More on this in a moment…

Social media is a great place to engage with your audience. It’s a great place to support people and to drop promotions or offers that your social group will share. It’s also a great place to share video. We produce TV programs and video for the golf business for much of our work. And we always tell our clients in this space that it’s important to realize that social media is still quite limited when you want to grow a significant golf audience, those who are spending money in the game. The same can be true for many vertical markets, especially if you know many buyers are older. I guess the question you have to ask is if your intended audience really spend much time on Facebook and Twitter looking for your products? In reality, the numbers are still quite small in comparison to traditional media audiences.

Also small to medium size companies need to be careful to not place too many dollars into social media. Particularly when well-planned media dollars can help you have much larger reach. TV has become more accessible if you have a good plan and quality content. Let’s face it, targeted TV still has the best chance of reaching people over the age of 40 than any other
medium. In our case, good golf shows on TV provide the opportunity to embed your products in program reaching golf viewers. These viewers are folks with the expendable income to purchase golf products. In many cases you can reach hundreds of thousands instead of a few thousand people by simply using TV effectively.

This is why considering TV is so important; consider the chain of events that can really lead to success in finding customers. Content is key for success in online media, whether social, blogging, sharing to information leaders or even engagement on your own site. If you listen to most social media and web optimization firms, video is becoming very important to be successful online. Our experience is that groups who have a solid plan to produce video for TV and online distribution are going to have more success in their overall electronic marketing efforts.

The other thing to consider here is just how TV can be a catalyst for your entire strategy. Here is how it would work for you. Let’s say you have a product that has five key selling points. If you were to produce one good video on each of your selling points – you could also gain one or two good commercials from this same effort. Having someone experienced in video communication is key.

Considering you have the right team and good messaging, you could affordably produce several good videos for each key selling point. Plus you could gain a series of instructional videos in the same effort. This would allow you to release one video each month for the entire year into your social media platform and on your website. Further, you can write new blog posts about the content in your videos. One strategy we use is to create a web show with different segments every two weeks. Each show provides content that we can write about over the two weeks in our social and blog tools. In fact the scripting process for the videos will help you with content for blogs, social media posts, and updating your website. Again the TV process is helping drive the social engagement platform and our web content.

So the question is where can you place TV advertising and gain success? There are several good options out there. First, consider placing your new commercials in key golf markets through spot cable. Comcast Spotlight can provide your company an affordable way to test your spots on News or Business channels into key markets. You can even get affordable ROS spots running during MLB on networks like FSN and Comcast Sports Net. Here’s the thing, if you now have great video content, it is easy to test different messages and pricing to see what is working best.

There are also good regional programs that can help you reach your audience with solid TV spots. Again if you have great video from the above-mentioned efforts, many of these programs will consider using your videos inside the shows. This is especially true if the video is informative with high quality. I can tell you having produced 200+ hours of TV shows over the past 20 years Action Television is always interested in good content we can write into our shows. Plus, these programs can provide a lot of reach and penetration with plenty of frequency to get your message across. For example, we have a show here in Colorado called Best Golf Colorado that runs in prime timeslots and does very well with reach because it is targeted to the market. There are good shows in a lot of the key markets in the US.

There are also a few independent national programs that have extensive television reach and established online penetration. Shows like Golf Life, the national golf series we produce for FSN and Comcast Sports Net, can guarantee an audience of well over 500,000 golf viewers through each episode. These shows reach large golf audiences through consistent airtimes and upwards of ten to twelve repeats of the show. If your product is featured and you develop a social media enticement, you now have a chance of getting direct sales. At minimum the TV message can help grow traffic to your social platforms that can become customers through further efforts.

One additional benefit of a solid TV plan is that you can redistribute video from your television production that can be used online to help grow your search engine optimization. Some of these shows like the aforementioned Golf Life have very well established video channels targeting golfers on places like iTunes, Hulu, YouTube, Apple TV, Roku, Vimeo, AOL, Yahoo and Google Video. Your informational videos or how to videos using your products can be posted to these online golf video networks with your keywords. These leading sites help you grow your search ratings if done correctly. In many cases you can leverage a media buy on the TV programs to gain additional reach within the online offerings. This can also be done with print media purchases, where print media firms have solid online video options as part of a print package.

So consider that a solid TV plan and production of great informative video content can really help you across all of your online content needs. Start with good content and your social and online marketing strategies will work much better. We would be happy to discuss how we apply these strategies for many leading companies who we have worked with recently.

BrandVision Benefits

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Michael Billingsley describes the BrandVision product and many of the benefits a company will find. In general, Action Media Group provides a guide to help a company be successful in online video marketing. Good video quality, great brand identity and solid distribution are keys to success.

Consider Video?

In a time when business is a bit more challenging then in past years, it becomes important to put you best message to potential customers. There's few better ways to make an impression and have high retention than through the use of video.

It is now very effective to use video in your online marketing efforts. Here are a few reasons why:

Video does very well in Google search
You Tube has become the second leading search engine
People are starting to expect video when looking for information
Video provides the highest retention rate of any form of communication

So how does video help you make more money?

You get better informed customers, leading to higher conversion rates.

The key of course is to have good video and lots of it. Start with several short videos that aim to describe your top five features. Each video should answer a question or solve a problem using your product or service.

Great quality is key. Then you videos should be distributed correctly. This process gives your video the highest chance of being seen and popping up in related keyword searches.

We are available to provide a free presentation on how you might start using video better and gain higher visibility for you brand.

Mizuno Iron & Wedge Preview 2010

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Reunion Resort

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The Cliffs Feature

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The Jesters: David Feherty & Gary McCord Feature Golf Video

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Celebrate Golf.com's 50th Anniversary with the Jesters, David Feherty and Gary McCord. Go behind the scenes on their photo shoot as the two portray Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. See how this comedic duo dons their ill-fitting duds and talk about how their partnership got started.

Interesting Video Search Results

Recently we produced a video for Sea Island Resort in Georgia. This short feature aired inside our television series Inside GOLF Magazine on FSN and Comcast Sports Network to over 90 million households. However, when we posted the video online we saw very interesting results. As many people know Google is the leading online search engine and more sophisticated search is capable using the tabs on the Google window to locate video, images, etc. What a lot of people don't know is that You Tube has now overtaken Yahoo as the second leading search engine. According to comScore, YouTube surpassed Yahoo as the world’s second largest search engine when it received 2.6 billion searches during August 2008.

What we found is that by producing a good video about Sea Island and distributing it correctly with our specialized techniques, we were able to very quickly lead search results on Google, the Google Video Tab and You Tube for many keywords surrounding Sea Island. Here were the results about one week after we published the video:

On Google - someone traveling would likely look for video of the area they are considering these days.
Sea Island Video - 5,7,8,9,10
Sea Island Resort Video - 1,2,3,7

Use Google VIdeo Tab to search.
Sea Island (1,10)
Sea Island Golf (1,3,4,6,7)
Sea Island Video (1,10) (on google main page 5,7,8,9,10 with video thumbnail)

Here's our You Tube Results:

YouTube Search

Sea Island Resort - 1
Sea Island Golf - 2
Sea Island Lodge - 2
Sea Island Learning Center - 1, 2


Interestingly we looked at a few other area specific videos that we had distributed for other resorts:

On Google

Camelback Golf Club Video - 1,2,3,4,8
Camelback Resort Video - 1,2
Scottsdale Golf Videos - 5,9
John Jacobs Golf Academy - 5
John Jacobs Golf Academy Video - 3,4,6,7
Arizona Biltmore Video - 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10
Arizona Biltmore Golf Video - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
Roaring Fork Golf (Aspen, CO) - 4
Red Sky Golf Video (Vail, CO) - 3,7,9,10

Use Google VIdeo Tab to search.

Camelback Golf Club (2,3,9)
Scottsdale Golf (2,3,4,7)
Royal St. Kitts (3)
Golf Tip for Juniors
Doral Golf Course
Golf Magazine Top 100 (1-10) (on google #10)
Golf Magazine TV (1-10) (on google 4,5,6,7,9,10)
Golf Magazine (3,4,7,10)
Scottsdale Golf (2,3,4,7)
Arizona Biltmore (7, 9)
Arizona Biltmore Golf (3,5,7,8,9)
Doral Golf Club (7)
Blue Monster at Doral (2,3,4,7,8,9,10)
Camelback Resort (6)
Camelback Inn (4,7,9)
Camelback Golf (1,3,7,8,10)
Grayhawk Golf Club (3,4,5,10)
John Jacobs Golf School (4,5,7,10)
Vail Colorado Golf (9)
Red Sky Golf Club (4)
Roaring Fork Golf Club (1)

On Google

Camelback Golf Club Video - 1,2,3,4,8
Camelback Resort Video - 1,2
Scottsdale Golf Videos - 5,9
John Jacobs Golf Academy - 5
John Jacobs Golf Academy Video - 3,4,6,7

YouTube Search

Camelback Golf Club - 2,3
Camelback Resort Video - 1,2
Scottsdale Golf Videos - 5,9,10
John Jacobs Golf Academy - 1,3
Scottsdale Camelback - 2,8
Camelback Inn Golf - 2

As you can see our videos and the techniques we use to distribute them is working to drive search for key terms that might be very important to a resort or company looking to increase their visibility on the Internet. It also doesn't hurt that these are all very entertaining and informative videos that do a great job selling the product in an entertaining manner. We know this because of the large number of total views we were able to report for each video.

If your company, property, organization or service needs to increase sales, please consider how we can produce entertaining video aimed at online video marketing for the internet. Further, consider how Action Media Group can take your existing video and distribute it to the world and the search engines for great success with your online marketing efforts.

Visit us online at href="http://www.actiontelevision.com">www.actiontelevision.com

Snowrider Television Snowboard Video

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Snowrider Television is produced and distributed by Action Television from Denver and Vail, Colorado.  In this episode of Snowrider we meet two of the top snowboarders in the sport: JJ Thomas and Chad Otterstrom.  visit us online at actiontelevision.com.

Pinnacle Edition Snapshot Video

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Here is a video produced for Pinnacle Systems to outline features of their editing software Pinnacle Edition.  This was produced and written by Action Television and Michael Billingsley.

Action Television Breckenridge Commercial Video

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Action Television, located in Denver, Colorado, is a premiere provider of excellent production work for their clients like those featured in this video, produced for the Breckenridge and Vail Ski Resorts. Find out more about Action Television at http://www.actiontelevision.com.

A million people

I talk about web delivery in three important aspects - hosted, posted and social distribution channels. If you have read previous posts you know Hosted means placing video on your site or your own video channel. Depending on the relevance and popularity of your website this can be very effective. For example - Vail Resorts (one of my clients) has a very large endemic audience that visits the websites of their mountains. So to post a "snow conditions" video on the homepage and lead people into a video channel works well.

In the case of some of my video channels we know that we have a limited audience who are going to find sites like www.golflifetv.com or hitgolf.com or skitv.com. Just a reality. So instead of putting too much involvement in trying to fight an uphill battle we use Posted video delivery strategies. This is how we have been able to start approaching a million unique views for the past year. Our golf content is distributed across the web and using techniques we have developed we are able to manage many different brand channels and drive branded entertainment to lots of locations where people view video content.

Our overall goal and one we are working on for our own content is to locate and nurture social video audiences so that our content can be delivered in the most effective fashion - Social distribution. With Social we utilize our techniques in publishing and delivery for the other techniques, yet with the same level of effort reach a much more engaged, dependable audience member.

Remember - the key to all of these online marketing strategies is content. This does not mean to have someone go out and start creating video just for video content sake. It means content planning and strategies. My best "free" advise is to look for programming experts as I outline in my previous post. To be successful take one long video and break it into a lot of little videos in a series. Target your audience, think of their needs and what they might watch. Most importantly analyze or have someone who can analyze how to produce and publish content optimized for you SEO and sales goals...make proper call to action and target keywords.

Ok - enough advice - get to work considering a budget to start communicating with video using the internet - it will result in positive lift for your business.

Program Pros

So what do I mean with the title "Progam Pros" - well unless your marketing team is under a rock you might have noticed that video is the hottest thing on the web since people learned more about SEO. Incidentally, video can do very well at driving SEO. So the title of this post is intended to put forth the concept of using Programming Professionals to help you with our online video marketing strategies.

Here is my chance to pitch our company - we are programming professionals and for 17 years we have placed products into video distribution on TV, DVD, CD Rom and Internet. However - don't become confused with the fine work done by people you know who mostly do corporate videos. They also have used many of the media I mention. The difference is the idea of programming and specifically the idea of episodic programming on television and internet.

My point here is that in order to be successful with online video you really need to look at it as a long ever evolving journey and you need to plan for more video and less length. The reason for this strategy is that you will find more viewers and more interest in your messages or information if you can provide a "playlist". Think of it like a television series or a broadcast television network. You want to put you message out in a continual fashion and whenever possible you want to spread you message across as many related videos as you can.

There are several reasons for having a group of videos instead of spending your buck on a few high end videos. First let me say all of your videos must be high quality. Second - forget the idea that you are going to come up with the next great "viral" video. Even the most creative of the creatives in video will no promise you that the video concept they are presenting will be successful as a viral video that takes on a life of its own. If they do - they are not being honest with themselves.

I prefer to encourage people to think of their online video efforts more like a "broadcast network". I use the term Brand Vision - broadcasting your videos to audiences across the web. If you consider that to properly distribute video you need to create opportunities to reach viewers where they are - then you can see that it is important to "program your channels". Our advice is to think of your video messages in more of a stream or series - a video campaign or series of campaigns if you will.

If you have more video to work with you can be more successful setting up video accounts, creating video players, presenting playlists and getting people engaged more thoroughly than with a few single messages. Plus you will ultimately reach a much larger audience with more attainable video goals than the Viral hit discussed above.

So back to the original point of this post - "Program Pros". Our advice is to look for companies with experience creating programming. If you are lucky enough to find someone who has successfully developed and syndicated programs that include a lot of product information and demonstration in an entertaining way, then you are much farther along. Finally - if you can find a group that not only understands how to create episodic product based programming but also has been navigating distribution of content on the internet for a while you have a good chance of success.

These days everyone can do video...but few have generated millions of viewers around a series of videos in an informative and entertaining fashion. If you look you will find those few or if you like you can talk with our company - Action Media Group.

Good Luck.

Golf Travel to Royal St. Kitts Marriott Golf Resort

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Golf LIfe Television travels to St. Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies to visit the Royal St. Kitts Golf Resort and Spa.  This enclave for resort living is located near Basseterre on the beautiful Island of St. Kitts.  Join this tour as former Director of Golf Greg Downer and Golf Life hostess Erica Webster play through the back nine of the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club. For more information visit royalstkittsgofclub.com

Vail Mountain Commercial

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A commercial produced by Action Television for Vail Mountain and Vail Resorts.  For more information visit us online at www.actiontelevision.com

Action Television Work

Here is some of our better work. Please hover your mouse over the window to find more selections. You will note that these samples are from our large library of television programs including Golf Life Television, Inside Poker, Snowrider and Ski TV. After fifteen years of television programming we are leaders in reaching a large audience with successful lifestyle television.

Technorati Profile

Golf Life 2008 Series Promo

This is a short video that gives all you need to know about the upcoming Golf Life Television series beginning in spring of 2008. The video announces the new partnership with Golf Tips Magazine to feature equipment, instruction and travel stories in Print, TV, Web and Online Video. Our coordinated content production will allow companies to distribute information across all media in an integrated effort.

Check out the video

Planning your Web Delivery Network

Take a look at this video. This explains Web 2.0 and the basis of the web delivery network very well.

Getting to the next level

In the past several months Golf Life has truly taken a large step forward. Our online video traffic is up to 30,000 minutes per month and we are getting almost 10,000 unique views. Plus the cable television show is reaching 110 million homes with many repeat airings in all markets.

So what comes next? Moving the property to a complete branding program for all golf and non-endemic sponsors. This is the big step of proving the value of our series and online presence as a valuable branding vehicle in golf.

In 2008 we will firm up our relationship with Golf Tips Magazine and provide them with a presenting role in the show. This will further our place in the industry with real golf companies. Our goal of course is to capture the attention of golf brands who are looking for solid advertising platforms. In this manner we can avoid the direct response advertiser who looks for online transactions or phone sales through every episode.