“Don't say the old lady screamed—bring her on and let her scream.” In his advice on storytelling, Mark Twain’s timeless wit and wisdom holds true in the discussion of online video. Thanks to advances in Internet technology and increased bandwidth over the last few years, online video has emerged as the fastest growing media platform with an estimated 72% of Web users watching online video clips. In the next three years, Web video consumption is projected to double. The message to marketers? Visitors expect a rich experience when they come to your site. As one of the most powerful tools in the marketer’s arsenal, online video offers a wealth of opportunity for rich storytelling, differentiation, brand building and traffic-generation.

The resurgence of video in storytelling
In the 90’s, corporate capabilities videos were commonplace, but distribution was limited to VHS and DVD. High production costs and shrinking budgets forced the B2B marketer to invest in other tactics, such as Web sites, resulting in a decline in the use of video. But in the mid-2000’s video began its comeback: Compression technology evolved, bandwidth grew larger and production costs became more accessible to marketers. The arrival of YouTube in 2005 was further validation of video as a viable Web medium.

Today, with high expectations for a robust site experience, B2B marketers must be able to deliver more than Web pages with static pictures to brand prospects. It’s about winning hearts and minds by bringing your ideas to life and showing—not just telling—your story. It’s about fostering engagement and making the visitor want to stay on your site to learn about your company and services.

Recognizing the value of online video in prospect engagement, York® Heating and Air Conditioning recently created a series of short, educational videos as part of their Home Comfort Center. The videos, which are offered on their dealers’ sites, help educate the homeowner on various HVAC home comfort topics. Visual sequences depict concepts, which would otherwise be difficult to explain by text and graphics alone. For the dealer, this not only positions their company as a helpful resource to the homeowner, it also creates an upsell opportunity for other York® products.

Use video to boost your inbound traffic
Video is also proving a valuable tool for traffic generation, especially when used in online advertising and SEM. According to a study by DoubleClick, users click on video ads five times more than traditional image-based ads. Additionally, video titles, keywords, descriptions and other meta data can be optimized to improve search engine ranking. And given that 90 percent of online videos are watched on YouTube, it’s important to note that video sharing sites also provide a valuable, low cost point of distribution, further driving site traffic.

The takeaway? Video has changed with the times—offering attractive possibilities not only for prospect engagement, but also inbound Web strategies.