Video marketing (or online video marketing) is such a powerful new strategy because it combines the power of television with the targeted precision of internet marketing. Video marketing takes you to the people who are most likely to embrace your product or service. Video is the new sales force. Video stirs curiosity, can generate excitement and arouse a healty positive response even before it is opened.

Up until couple of years ago, video marketing it was out of reach for the most small business Netpreneurs. In today higly competitive Internet days, with the right talent and a desire to succeed, you have a shot at being a "video marketer" for 1/10th or 1/20th of the cost. A whole new creative world has opened up, thanks to the arrival of several new consumer technologies like high-quality and low-priced digital video, powerful desktop PCs, inexpensive and easy-to-use video editing software plus a new distribution channel on the Internet.

And as T1, broadband DSL and cable modem access increase, so will the audience for digital video on the Net. In addition to the Internet, numerous new devices and appliances are already or it will be available to distribute your own video presentations. We are already seen short video messages on airplanes, busses, in hotel lobbies, in stores, and through interactive TV.

But the natural rising popularity of video brings a very big challenge. As you will learn on the next video marketing pages, the challenge will be for the moment to discover the perfect balance between the need for smaller video file sizes for the best possible quality. This is where video compression come in, a not so perfect technology for our Internet needs. On the other hand, video has many commonly used file formats, and those file formats each come with unique and sometimes complicated set of options.

To produce and showcase your own streaming video presentation, there are several key steps:

Shoot your video footage (use a digital or web camera; a camcorder is also OK) Capture (input video onto your PC/Mac hard-drive using a video capture card or a Firewire connection) Edit (use the right video editing tool) Compress/Encode (use a video compression tool) Distribute (on the Internet, or simply on CD's, DVD's, etc.)

Despite of today's technological limitations, no matter what you'll say, a video presentation will immediately grabs attention! Video presentations are perceived as an invitation to something special, because visitors know that businesses add to them a perceived value. So here it is, a five steps guideline to add a video marketing strategy to your web site!

Step #1 -- Why do you need an online video presentation

An online video presentation is a precise tool to deliver your marketing message to the right audience. Small or medium businesses owners, as the big "gorillas", should carefully weigh the option of implementing video as part of their online or offline marketing strategy. Video is the technology of today, whatever is used on the Internet, or simply delivered on CD-ROM's, DVD's or other technology platforms.

As a tool for achieving higher internet profits, a video presentation just can't be beat. Video marketing offers a way to deliver your marketing message with a higher power and impact comparing to other traditional strategies, and is focused right to your marketplace, with a highly cost-effective rate. Video marketing could be very well the answer to your marketing and advertising goals.

The real advantage of video marketing is that people are purposely watching a video presentation. In this case, their receptiveness to your video presentation makes a substantial difference in the impact of your marketing efforts. And unlike television advertising, there are no other commercials to compete with and no interruptions to the programming.

2006 is the year that video on the web will become extremely popular. New online video services, tools, portable media devices, will rapidly appear on the Internet scene. All the ingredients that would allow small and medium-sized web site owners to adopt and leverage video publishing are now in place. The only challenge remains for most to find the right knowledge, tools and time to make this possible -- and I'll assure your business will remain very profitable in the near future.

  Why do you need an online video presentation -- facts and market analysis data

Step #2 -- Understand the video formats

There are many video file formats to choose from when creating video streams. The most common formats are:

1. Windows Media
   
   
2. AVI
   
   
3. RealVideo
   
   
4. Quicktime
   
   
5. MPEG (in particular MPEG-4)
   
   
6. Shockwave (Flash)

PCs with Windows installed are generally using Window Media Files. Macintosh users are more happy to use Quicktime movies. But if you make all your videos as Quicktime, the chances are that your Window users won't be able to view them. MPEG files are also great, but older versions of Windows Media Player won't like them at all.

Another solution is to use Shockwave (Flash), a solution which can be found on more than 90-95% of all computers in the world. But your visitor must have a plug-in installed otherwise all they will see is a blank box.

There are pros and cons for each format. Be aware that many of your visitors will have their own preferences and some of them will only use a particular format, so if you want to reach the widest possible audience you should create separate files for each format. In reality this isn't usually practical so you need to make a judgment call on which formats to provide.

  Understand the video formats -- how and what to choose from

Step #3 -- How to add a video streaming on your web page

Up until recently, the best way to look at a high-quality video presentation from the Internet was by downloading the file from a specific web page. But today web browsers and servers support full-file transfer mode. However, full file transfer means very long, unacceptable transfer times and playback latency. Ideally, video should be streamed.

"Streaming" multimedia allows the user to begin viewing video clips stored on your server, without first downloading the entire file. After a short period of initializing and buffering, the file will begin to stream -- or play -- in real time. Your video quality in a browser will be determined by your available bandwidth (download speed) and computer processor speed. Users with older processors and slower Internet connections will have more dropped picture quality.

Streaming video requires both special video streaming software on the Internet server as well as video streaming client software to receive and playback streams on the desktop. Before compressing/encoding video for the Internet, you need to consider the following settings and criteria:

1. What Video Format/Architecture (QuickTime, Real, Windows Media, MPEG, Flash)?
   
   
2. What Data Rate?
   
   
3. What Frame Rate?
   
   
4. What Window Size?
   
   
5. Streaming Method: Progressive or Real-time?

Once you decided on all these elements, you are ready to perform the last two steps.The first one is to use any FTP application to upload the video presentation on your server. Then, using HTML tags you can embed the video file directly into a specific web page. Embed means that the player itself is "insert" into the web page.

  How to add a video streaming on your web page -- grab the HTML code lines for embedding video files

Step #4 -- What tools do you need for a video presentation

In addition to your computer you will need a video camera or some other device to shoot your video. If you have a camcorder, you can easily transfer footage to your PC with a suitable connection or capture devices. You may also own a web cam which allow you to capture video footage. Alternatively, if you have a digital camera it may come with a video capture mode which can be used for short videos, but enough to upload them on a web page.

Once you complete the video footage, you need FIRST to transfer the movie to your own PC.Then, you need to edit your video file. This is not just to make a good video sequence, but video files are often huge (one hour of digital video footage will "eat" about 10Gb of your hard-disk space!). For an online video presentation, you will need to reduce the size of the file to less than a few hundred Kb.

You can do this by shortening the length of footage, making the frame smaller, compressing the footage and reducing frame rate. Most video editing software packages will help with this. Once you've finished your file you'll need to save it in a common web video format. After this last processing stage, you will need to upload the video presentation to your web page.

At a first glance, it seems that adding a video presentation to a web page is a very long and complicated process. Well, if you face with the video publishing for the first time, I might say it is. But if you will use the right information and tools, video publishing will become an easy, daily, task to perform. And I'm sure you'll have a lot of FUN!

Follow the next link for a complete analyzes of what tools and software do you need for making an A to Z turnkey video presentation.

  What tools do you need for video presentation -- camcorders, software reviews

Step #5 -- Video marketing strategies explained

The advantages of showing an online product or service in FULL action are tremendous. Your web site visitors will see for themselves all the benefits of the respective product or service. They can see the quality of the product or service, or the high standards that go into producing those products and services. A written sales letter can say that a refrigerator is quiet, but a video will literally show it to be true. A written sales letter can list benefits, but video actually shows the benefits in action.

A video presentation will show all the benefits to be true, in real time, and dispel any doubts to the claim -- and it brings the product or service to life. A video presentation engage the viewer, can add excitement and a great impact to the final buying decision.

Streaming video is far and away more powerful than listing just a quote on a web page. It does everything that television marketing does and makes it better by expanding the length of the message and by precisely targeting the right audience.

  Video marketing strategies -- online and offline tips to boots your internet profits

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