Online Video Advertising: The Future is Now
Andy Bondurant is the founder and director of Senior Portrait Artists (SPA), the largest organization of high school senior photographers. He also recently started the Collective, a blog dedicated to not only the business and craft of photography, but also how photographers can stay balanced in their own life.
Here, Andy writes about how the emergence of photography in recent years and how he believes video will change marketing, advertising and photography in the future.
I remember seeing my first Animoto video about 4 years ago. I was sitting at breakfast with a group of photographer friends, and Kent Smith shared with us this new site he had discovered to make incredible, professional-looking videos. When I finally got the opportunity to see what he was talking about, I was blown away. Within a matter of minutes we could create something we couldn’t do ourselves in hours.
I immediately saw the value for the ability to sell these videos to high school seniors, families, children, etc. What I was missing at the time though, was how valuable these videos would be to advertise to the public.
A year or two ago, I began seeing the power of inexpensive video marketing by combining the power of an Animoto type video with the social media revolution. Every week, we are hit with another amazing YouTube sensation – just do a search for Rebecca Black, little Darth Vader, or the relatively new T-Mobile Royal Wedding Spoof. Check out how many views each video has. Amazing.
Just yesterday, I read an article that reminded me again of the importance that video has in your marketing plan. Brightroll, a provider of online video advertising, released a poll that showed planned spending on online video was the fastest growing category for any online advertising. Companies are now taking dollars allocated for television and moving them to the internet.
Now, I’m sure that among those polled were small photography businesses. But this doesn’t mean that we can’t utilize this report and jump on the online video bandwagon. There are lots of ways to use video to promote your business, and you don’t have to be a video expert to make it happen. Of course, an easy, first step is to use Animoto Pro to make high quality videos in minutes.
Here are just a handful of ideas to use video to promote your business:
- Create a series of how-to videos (how to choose your favorite outfits for your session(s), how to apply make-up for your upcoming session, etc)
- Position yourself as an expert by creating short behind the scenes videos (shooting, editing, retouching, etc)
- Post teaser videos before the sales session.
No matter how you look at it, video is the wave of the future. The future is now.
Read more about how Animoto Pro can help your photography business.