Is interactive shoppable video becoming more prevalent?

(And by interactive video I mean video containing clickable text overlays, interactive hotspots, buy buttons, product ratings and reviews, clickable descriptions of products or navigation to other videos in-video.)

It’s looking that way. Several ecommerce merchants have begun providing engaging, interactive video experiences to prospects in an effort to boost sales and conversions.

interactive video commerce examples

Advance Auto Parts
The auto parts retailer leverages customer reviews and ratings in-player via PowerReviews integration. Video product callouts include reviews that can be navigated within the clip along with a Buy option. This can be …

I recently spoke with Laurie Williams, Senior Manager of Photo & Video for Zappos, about her company’s comprehensive video program. As everyone probably knows, Zappos is the world’s largest online shoe retailer with the biggest video program of any e-commerce merchant.

In this interview, Laurie talks about Zappos’s approach to video and shares some details about her opening keynote at the 2012 Video Commerce Summit in August, the largest event dedicated to advancing video commerce.

INTERVIEW WITH ZAPPOS

Amanda Dhalla: When did you start doing video at Zappos? What was the impetus?

Laurie Williams: We started shooting video about …

Video has greatly helped reduce the fear factor of buying BBQs online. The BBQ Guys are more than just a successful online store doing video – they’ve become YouTube personalities. Based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, their YouTube Channel of 450+ videos is rapidly approaching 4 million video views and 6,200 subscribers.

To showcase their collection of high-end BBQ grills, the BBQ Guys regularly publish video reviews of new products on their YouTube channel and website. Customers can get a personal walk-through of all their BBQs and how they perform in action, along with purchasing and cooking tips.

A huge …

As a follow-up to last week’s post on video SEO, this week we take a deep dive into how to optimize your videos for YouTube. It goes without saying that every e-commerce site should be on YouTube. As the second largest search engine after Google, the site is visited by over 800 million unique users every month.

How do you maximize your presence on YouTube? Read on for 9 YouTube video SEO tips from Mark Robertson, founder and publisher of ReelSEO, pulled from May’s webinar by video commerce solutions provider, Liveclicker.

YouTube ranking factors include …

Search is evolving at such a rapid clip that it is even difficult for SEO experts to keep up with the pace. According to SEOMoz, Google changes its search algorithm up to 500 – 600 times each year.

One of the biggest changes we’ve seen recently is the incorporation of social elements into search results. Social factors have always supported SEO in an indirect way, in that if you have good content, people want to share it and link to it. However, in December 2011 Google confirmed that it was using social signals such as likes, retweets and +1s …

You know a marketing tactic has come of age when it starts being used by political candidates. Last week, we saw the team of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney respond to the Democrats’ attack on his Bain record with a testimonial video. Accusing Obama’s team of attempting to divert attention away from the sluggish economy, the video shines a spotlight on the economic pain being felt by American workers through testimonials from real people:

However you feel about Romney, you’ve got to admit that having your marketing message validated by regular folk direct-to-camera can positively impact your credibility and …

Most e-commerce sites include a frequently asked questions (FAQs) page or section to help their website visitors make buying decisions. When FAQs are well organized, simple, skimmable and reflect the questions that visitors really do ask frequently, they can be enormously helpful to shoppers.

How can you make them even better? By adding video where appropriate, of course!

Video can transform dry, copy-heavy FAQs into content that is more engaging and more instructive then text and pictures alone. So when putting together your online video marketing program, consider going beyond product and branding videos to include videos that answer …

One way to show personality, and create a closer bond with customers on your corporate website or blog is to create a web video series. By providing your audience with a regular schedule of video content, you can keep them coming back for more and maintain their interest over the long haul.

Here are a few tips for preparing a web video series.

guidelines for creating a web video series

• Find the right theme
  As the first step towards creating a video series, your theme should fit your audience and your business. Some possibilities include how-to videos, tips and tricks

…

With easy-to-use digital video cameras and editing software readily available, why do we still need video production companies? After all, they’re expensive, and if the footage is for the web it doesn’t need to be cinema quality. Someone in the marketing department can just shoot it, right?

Just because they can, doesn’t mean they should. Here are 7 reasons why calling in the pros is worthwhile.

Reasons to hire a video production company

1. Rising viewer expectations
   According to comScore’s 2012 US Digital Future In Focus report, 105.1 million Americans watch videos online each day, up 43% from 73.7 million

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Making the most of any marketing video you create is important. After all, you put significant time, energy and money into developing your video assets.

Although your finished videos might be doing a good job for you in terms of driving traffic and boosting conversions on their own, shouldn’t you be getting a bit more mileage out of those costly assets?

Reimagining your video content

Here are 9 ways to repurpose or reimagine your video content to attract more attention and extend its value:

1. Transcripts
   One of the very first things you should do with your videos is transcribe them

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