Video Makes the Retail Star

If there were a tool that would help you increase sales, wouldn’t you use it? My guess is yes, especially if you’re involved with eCommerce. A post made last week to The Video Commerce Consortium focused on how eCommerce retailers have been slow to adopt online video as a component of their marketing mix.
Many valid reasons were presented, including a lack of online video stewardship within retailers. What struck me the most is that many companies continue to view different tactics, such as email or search campaigns, as individual silos. This feels like a decade ago, when there was a clear line demarcation between offline and online efforts. Lack of integration wasn’t a beacon of success then and certainly separating online video from everything else won’t be a “best of” practice now.
Video and eCommerce is a natural fit. There is perhaps no better way to present products than through the lens of a video camera. Not to mention that many retailers already create video content for other purposes.
What struck me the most in this article is the fact that many eCommerce marketers view email and keyword campaigns as efforts separate from web video marketing. In its essence, web video marketing is “a form of direct marketing which uses audiovisual content as a means of communicating commercial or marketing messages to an audience over the Internet.”  The last time I checked, email is definitely a direct marketing tactic, as are targeted keyword campaigns.
It really baffles me why eVideo is kept in a separate silo from other engagement-driving programs. If I had an opportunity to speak to retail marketing teams, my first piece of advice would be to not ignore video. There are enough case studies and benchmarks which prove that video can increase audience engagement that translates into sales.
Next, I would offer up Flimp as a solution for making the leap into web video marketing. Why? Because it fits neatly into the marketing strategies leveraged by most retailers. Most retailers rely heavily on email marketing. Fantastic. Sending rich landing pages created within the FLIMP Platform is easy to do. Not to mention the analytical data that flimps distributed via email generate is astounding.  
Also, keyword campaigns are another marketing tactic retailers employ. Great. A flimp landing page is a perfect component to keyword efforts. Better yet – depending on the overarching strategy, the same flimp can be sent out via email or used as a keyword campaign.
Retailers should be on the forefront of web video marketing, not on the backburne