Affiliates were asked “Are you currently integrating video in your affiliate marketing plan?” for the latest Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.
The minority of respondents, at 29.4%, said yes, and the remaining 70.6% indicated they have not integrated video into their marketing.
While most affiliates are not working with video, I think the fact that nearly a third are using it is a positive indicator.
Video has been touted as the next big thing in affiliate marketing for years, and I think it still holds great potential for affiliates.
Since most affiliates still are not using it, I’d say it’s a good time to test it out.
Over eleven-hundred and fifty affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies for the 2010 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.
More details on AffStat at http://affstat.com/.
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I am a newbie to video marketing.
I’d like to know if it’s possible to use an existing video legally to promote my affiliate product?
Can I legally grab an existing video and put my affiliate info into it?
How would I do this …if it;s legal?
Thanks,
Don
Hi Don -
Check out http://blog.affiliatetip.com/archives/new-era-for-affiliate-video/ for some companies that enable you to work with third party videos as an affiliate.
I have been contemplating using video for my Affiliate Marketing approach for a while now. I have seen so many others have such success with it and I would love to have that kind of success also. Video marketing is in fact the only thing I am not doing. I have always been camera shy and I was even skeptical about putting my picture in the “about me” section of my blog (not that I’m not good looking
). I feel that in the near future I will eventually need Video marketing to be a successful marketer.
I think using Video is great if you have a physical product to promote (digital products are included), or a method that you have Invented and want to promote it , But how can Bloggers Benefit from Video Marketing other than embedding affiliate links.
You can use video to build your brand – I answer questions on YouTube about affiliate marketing and each post there includes a link to my blog, and it’s one of my top 10 traffic referrers.
Wasn’t able to find this study when I was commenting earlier, but just did.
At http://econsultancy.com/blog/5166-case-study-mattel-uses-video-to-launch-its-ecommerce-site Econsultancy reported that online video “is most successful when it is used for a specific purpose” increasing conversions by 30% – 50%. Impressive, and a great argument for video.
I wonder what people are thinking about when they answer this question? For example, would they answer “yes” if they embedded a movie trailer from YouTube into a post selling movie tickets? They didn’t create the video themselves but they used it in a way to market. There are just so many different ways to use videos in affiliate marketing from creating your own YouTube channel to using videos that the merchants have loaded into networks like SAS and buy.at to having users submit product review videos for your site. Sometimes the videos are the actual sales pitch and sometimes they are just the added content to keep the visitors on your site.
I love when I see a Tweet or a Facebook post where someone has added a video to their marketing efforts. It’s more creative and catches my attention faster than text or images. The catch is that if it isn’t any good, I probably will not watch anything else that they post.
I think you guys are missing the point, except Jason and Shawn. Your main goal is to improve conversion rates, right? Well with the use of video your conversion rates go from the 3% – 10% to 10-113% , with the average improvement being 35%.
# In tests merchants such as Archie McPhee experienced conversion rate increases averaging 30%, with a range from 12% to 115%. (Practical Ecommerce, November 2008)
# According to Internet Retailer, Shoeline.com saw a 44% increase in online sales conversions by using videos to showcase their products. (Internet Retailer, January 2009)
# Zappos reports a 6% to 30% increases in sales for products with video. (ReelSEO, December 2009)
So what are you waiting for?!!!
Is it really necessary to use video though? Does it help marketing efforts that much?
It’s another avenue to market and has potential – I think your question is sort of like saying does email help marketing efforts that much?
It’s all in the testing and execution.
Yeah, I agree with the fact that people are intimidated by the camera.
Probably the fear of being judged. Also the fear of anything unknown ?!
I am not video saavy right now either, probably because I am still a little bit intimidated, but also because english is not my first language, and even though I can speak a good english, I feel like this is still a barrier in my mind !
I might ge to it soon enough though, because I know there is a HUGE opportunity into videos !
Just jump in and try it – if you’re on a PC, there is a pretty easy software called Sony Vegas for video editing.
Not many affiliate networks have video. I like all my offers in one place. If video isn’t there, I prob won’t be as likely to use it.
I think the primary difficulty with Video and affiliates is barriers to creation – while simple things like Camtasia screencasts are easier, the ways to convince people through video are less clear and thought-through than with traditional landers (yet).
The good thing about this is that it means there is a great opportunity still for affiliates with the time, inclination and resources to develop video in their marketing plans. If only a third use it, that is a clear way to differentiate.
I agree – there have been some options to put out interactive affiliate video for a while, but I don’t know that consumers want to click videos.
But it can be useful creative to help close a sale.
All day today, as I’ve been browsing the internet, I keep coming across people talking about how important it is to use video! I swear, I was on WAHM forum, and saw someone ask the same question, and I answered there. Then while browsing around again, I happened to stumble upon this post of yours, and here it is again, “using video for marketing purposes”.
It’s a concept I’ve been contemplating for so long. I just haven’t gotten around to doing it. Mostly because I prefer the behind the scenes type of thing, and also because I’m a little camera shy. But I do realize it’s importance for people to put a face to the words sometimes, and I think if I “manned up” and actually made a video to post on my blog, it would be really good for traffic purposes.
Hmm… something to think about.
Check out the video Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlzJvCRDF4M
It’s a session is from Affiliate Summit West 2008, which took place February 24-26, 2008 in Las Vegas where the following people talk about video:
- Melissa Salas, Director of Marketing, Buy.com (Moderator)
- Tim Carter, Founder, AskTheBuilder.com
- Joel Comm, President, InfoMedia
- Brian McCarthy, SVP Business Development, Revver
- Steve Rosenbaum, CEO, Magnify.net
- Gary Vaynerchuk, Host, Wine Library TV
It could help you come up with some ideas.
I think part of the problem with the limited use of video is that very few affiliate networks (or merchants with in-house programs) have cool tools (like the Buy.at’s one, for example) for video creatives.
It would be great to see more tools, but I think affiliates could have a strong impact by making user generated videos to review products.
I tried this for a while a few years back with weviews.tv and some videos took off well – for instance, a review of a Macbook I did has gotten nearly 30k views on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp-0xHuPXL4
I got too busy with other projects, but I think there is still a nice opportunity with these sorts of DIY videos.
I still do them for book reviews, and once in a while I will post one for a product, like this recent one for the Dell Adamo XPS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlYupW4I5Pw
I’m surprised to see such a low number of those using video! What better way to engage your visitors?! I’ve seen result’s from some testing that resulted in a lower bounce rate, a visit time of upwards of 3 times longer and higher conversion. Video = WIN!
I think it’s largely that people are intimidated by video and they think it’s harder than it is to do it.
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