July 13th, 2010
I was reading through some articles a colleague sent me not too long ago and discovered this gem from techcrunch. I believe companies assume the messaging on their site is clear and conveys exactly what they do to consumers. However, I’ll bet most people don’t go through much of your website. If you have a lot of copy and multiple pages on your site it might take consumers more time than they have to sort through it all.
Getting a nice video for your homepage not only is good for branding, but also valuable in saving your customers time. This will make them appreciate you more and hopefully shorten the conversion process. Having a homepage video may not guarantee success on your site, but it will never hurt.
I believe video offers a unique opportunity to present yourself to your customers. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professional services providers are great candidates to use video to sell themselves.
In short, don’t assume your potential customers are going to dig through all your copy to get to know you. Make it easier on them and create a nice video to watch. Doesn’t matter what business you are in, a video presentation will make you look even better!
Tags: homepage video
Posted in Video Production, Web Video | No Comments »
June 30th, 2010
Sometimes we have clients that worry about whether or not Buystream will work on iPads, iPhones, and other mobile devices. It’s true that right now Buystream uses Flash to deliver its video content. Yesterday Youtube wrote a great article on this very subject. People are confused about what HTML5 is and isn’t. Steve Jobs has taken a clear stance and many people have simply followed his lead.
For now, Flash is the best method to deliver video content on websites while HTML5 is the best way to deliver content on apple devices. Buystream knows it’s important for your content to be accessible in a variety of ways. We are working toward a simple solution that will allow your content to be seen on mobile devices even if it does not have the great interactive features that our flash player currently has.
As this debate unfolds and HTML5 matures, Buystream may move to using HTML5 throughout our system. However, currently HTML5 is an immature technology that doesn’t even have a standard video codec for all browsers. Until this technology is more mature and has true standards across all browsers, we’ll continue to use flash to deliver some of the most interactive and powerful e-commerce video technology on the market.
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June 24th, 2010
Fast Pivot is a leading provider of web design and development for Yahoo stores. With Buystream’s unique ability to provide a full video solution to Yahoo store owners and Fast Pivot’s ability to provide unique solutions, design, and software this partnership will provide Yahoo store owners with exciting new opportunities.
From www.fastpivot.com:
Since 1997, FastPivot has offered complete online retail solutions for merchants of all sizes. FastPivot provides retailing strategies, designs, and technologies that help move your online store forward, not just better than they you were, but smarter, and definitely by not taking the ordinary approach.
Our forte is Yahoo! Store Design and Development, but our team of creative, programming, strategy and software specialists work with a variety of ecommerce platforms. From start-ups to established brand leaders, FastPivot can help you succeed.
Fast Pivot is quickly becoming a leader in mobile store upgrades and social media marketing for Yahoo stores. Mobile and social initiatives should be at the top of any marketers list. Fast Pivot can help your Yahoo store get to the next level and open up new sales channels. We look forward to working with Fast Pivot and their clients. We encourage our Yahoo Store clients to visit with Fast Pivot when you are looking for store upgrades, design, and solutions.
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February 19th, 2010
Qgia was originally founded in 2007 to provide interactive video to e-commerce sites all across the world. During our history, it’s been difficult for many people to say, spell, and remember our name. In an effort to build a closer connection with our customers, and help prospective customers understand what we do more clearly, we have just finished a corporate re-branding project.
We create streaming video that online consumers can buy from. We seek to create a QVC-type experience to e-commerce companies of all sizes. With that in mind we have decided to brand ourselves and our unique technology as Buystream TV. We feel it important, as do all marketers, that our customers have a connection with and are comfortable with our company name. Buystream TV will continue to create the same great projects as before. We’d love to get your feedback, so let us know what you think of our new name!
Tags: buystream, buystream tv, name change, qgia
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February 11th, 2010
Techcrunch recently wrote an article about making money using online video. I found the following snippet of particular interest:
Video will be Everywhere: on all Websites
Video on the Web is no longer just about entertainment. It is also about marketing, instruction, and conveying information of all kinds.
- Content bellwether Wikipedia announced
it will be rolling out videos soon enough.
- e-Commerce leader Zappos encourages users to submit their video experiences whichincrease sales 6% to 30%. In 2010, it will create 50,000 videos.
- It won’t be long before organizations feature their accountants, lawyers, management, VCs in videos too.
It’s important to realize that video is becoming a mission critical component of websites, not just an option. Video’s SEO, branding, and conversion values are too high to ignore. What are you waiting for? Time to add video to your site!
Tags: e-commerce, product video, video
Posted in Emerging Media, Video, Video Production, Web Video | No Comments »
January 18th, 2010
We regularly get clients that want to know what’s best: click-to-play or auto-play? Here are a few suggestions to help you make that decision.
1. Determine your the video’s purpose. Is the video the focal point of the page? Supplementary? or for entertainment? If it’s the focal point, it’s likely visitors are anticipating the video before they get there. If so, it’s ok to auto-play it. If it’s just supplementary or for entertainment, they may not be expecting a video and it’s best to have it click-to-play.
2. Is your page a landing page or a regular page on your site? If it’s a landing page, recent articles have suggested that while auto-play videos can be powerful, they don’t necessarily increase conversion rates.
3. On product pages, our customers have seen success with auto-play, but it depends on your audience and your product. If your product is subtle, or requires a lot of decision time, it’s probably best to not force the video on the viewer. If it’s a cool, hip, exciting product, it’s likely that an auto-play video is appropriate.
In the end, it’s important to have good video content. If it’s compelling, people will watch it and enjoy it regardless of auto-play and click-to-play options. Just remember, when in doubt do a test! Try both versions and see what happens.
Tags: auto-play, click-to-play, Web Video
Posted in Web Video | No Comments »
January 8th, 2010
I think video is awesome. I think it builds branding, presence, the customer experience, and increases in both sales and conversion rates. However, there are times when video isn’t the best way to spend your money. So, how do you determine if video is right for you? Let’s look at a company that came into our office a few days ago.
Zoobies sells a stuffed animal that is also a pillow and a fold out blanket. Here is a picture of a zoobie pet and a regular stuffed animal:
Ok, so one of these folds out into a cool blanket and also acts as a pillow. Which one? It would be hard to tell if you were looking at them on the shelf of a toy store. The one on the left is a Zoobie pet. Even if I included the rest of the images, it wouldn’t do it justice. That’s why Zoobies is considering adding a library of video about each of their products.
If demonstration is key to helping your clients either see the full functionality of your product or in helping them see the competitive advantage it has over other products, then video is essential! With all the tools now available to business owners in 2010, there is no reason not to add video to your site! Find a way to get video soon. I might know of some affordable video production and cool delivery technology if you are interested 
Happy Friday!
Tags: add video to your site, product demonstration, product videos, zoobies
Posted in Video, Video Production, Web Video | No Comments »
January 4th, 2010
Online retailer giant Zappos.com is serious about product videos. Why? because they are seeing a 6%-30% increase on every product they sell that uses video on its page. In fact, Zappos has said they want to make 50,000 product videos by the end of 2010. That’s an ambitious goal, but they recognize the potential ROI received from doing product videos.
Zappos is large enough that they hired 40 full-time video production employees to make it happen. Most of our customers don’t have those kinds of resources. that’s why you can rely on Qgia to create a video library of your top 5 or 10 products at an affordable cost. To read more about the zappos.com product video campaign, click here. You’ll notice they are also making their videos interactive by using one of our competitors, overlay.tv.
Adding interactivity and then making the video player embeddable on blogs and other sites is like creating a portable, clickable digital billboard that can drive shoppers to your site with the intent to purchase.
Tags: interactive video, product videos, zappos.com
Posted in Emerging Media, Video, Video Production, Web Video | No Comments »
December 16th, 2009
E-commerce companies are busy with Christmas this time of year. So busy that they might forget to think about features their site needs in 2010. Retailers should be adopting product videos into their overall e-commerce strategy. Check out this Forrester report excerpt that talks about retailers adoption of online video:
Sixty-eight percent of the top 50 Internet retailers use video content on their Web sites, compared with 18% in 2008. Online retailers are committed to making product videos central to their merchandising and marketing strategies because of the positive return on investment (ROI) that this visual feature generates. While only 16% of online buyers watch product videos on retailer Web sites, 64% of those consumers who do have found these videos to be very useful. Retailers should focus on understanding drivers of consumer usage and find appropriate contextual uses for product videos by integrating them into the overall eCommerce experience.
We provide affordable production for every facet of product videos. We also provide a video content management system, professional streaming, and unbranded interactive player technology. Email me at mark at qgia.com and I can give you a free video consultation to see if there is anything we can do for you.
Tags: interactive video player, product video, product videos, professional streaming, video content management
Posted in Video, Video Production, Web Video | No Comments »
