This is my first week as VP of Sales at Invodo and I couldn’t be more energized by the opportunity in front of me. A recent article in Internet Retailer stated 33.2% of retailers intend to add video in 2010, just ahead of customer reviews. Having seen those customer reviews deliver SEO-driven traffic increases, higher conversion and lower return rates during my time at Bazaarvoice, I’m thrilled to join another company delivering those same results.
When I joined Bazaarvoice in 2006 very few retailers and no manufacturers had reviews on their site, and when I moved to London in 2007 to launch the UK operations I found a very similar situation among UK retailers and manufacturers. Over the past 3 years reviews became a consumer expectation and a must-have feature for any quality site. In 2010, video finds itself at a similar inflection point with still nascent adoption despite multiple studies showing video delivers 53x higher Google rankings, 30%+ conversion lifts and reduced return rates. So why doesn’t every site have product videos already?
Before Invodo, ecommerce executives had to buy expensive video software and then hire producers, editors and talent to produce video in-house, or they had to outsource production to high-priced agencies more suited to creating commercials than authentic product videos. Invodo is the first ecommerce video company delivering a full-service approach from script writing, to production and editing, to an ecommerce video player designed for higher visibility and conversion tracking needed by retailers. With more than 23,000 videos produced to-date, Invodo understands what does and does not work in ecommerce, and we put that knowledge to work for our 100+ clients every day.
With the growing adoption of video and Invodo’s unique full service approach, I’m extremely excited to once again join an Austin-based SaaS startup set to change the face of ecommerce. I can’t wait to see where this next ride ends up!
(And Invodo is hiring salespeople, so if you know any great ones who might be interested in riding with me and the team at Invodo please let me know.)
As a University of Texas alumni and HUGE Texas football fan, I was very excited and pleased that Sherrod Harris, UT football player extraordinaire, came to visit today to chat about Invodo and business in general.
As a marketing major himself, Sherrod came equipped with great questions about our company, Invodo marketing roles, and how eCommerce video really does increase online conversion and sales. I want to thank him for his time, questions, and presence. Hook Em!
Jeannie Walters of 360Connext, a customer experience consulting firm, shared her thoughts on how video can make the Web better for users. In particular she saw potential in video FAQs as a replacement for seldom-read user manuals. Check out her ideas in the video below.
I caught up with neuromarketing expert Roger Dooley following his SXSW panel on ‘Big Brother in Your Brain: Neuroscience and Marketing.’ Roger’s the VP of Digital Marketing at Hobsons as well as being founder and president of Dooley Direct, LLC. He took a moment to share ideas on how video engages customers on the Web – check out the video.
As a PR expert with roots in the broadcast industry, Laura Bond Williams had some great thoughts on how online video has changed the game in terms of the type of content that can be produced and distributed. She sees online video as creating the opportunity to step out of the “existing templates” of news stories, commercials and PSAs. More in the video below.
South by Southwest has more than just the latest in emerging technology. Turns out there’s a music festival, too. Who knew?
The team took off work a few minutes early on Wednesday to check out a SXSW party featuring The Midgetmen, with Invodian Marc Perlman on bass and vocals. The band was loud, the beer was cold and the weather was perfect – a very Austin moment.
More photos are here on our Facebook page.
David Cardiel, Director of Marketing at Selling Power, sounded surprised when I asked “How will video change marketing?” From his point of view it already has. If you check out Selling Power, he’s right –they’ve been using video on Selling Power TV for years now as a highly effective sales, marketing and thought leadership tool.
Amber Naslund is a well-known social media practitioner as Director of Community for Radian6. She took a moment to give me her thoughts on how video is changing the game for her business and for marketing in general in the video below.
A recent study conducted by Vovici and reported on by eMarketer states that 33.2% of polled online retailers are planning to add video or streaming media to their site in 2010.
Video is fast becoming an integral part of online conversion strategies in 2010. It is evident that online retailing is continually evolving, making competition fiercer. Every merchandising effort, visual, and text has to be well planned and conversion driven. To gain a competitive advantage, retailers have to go beyond the norm and provide to consumers a rich, informative, and purposeful media experience including video.
For retailers putting video on their sites in 2010, make sure your content is unique, product-focused, and conversion driven. If you need help or guidance, Invodo is here to fulfill all your video needs. Invodo eCommerce Video engages, educates, and converts consumers. In addition, video has additional benefits, including SEO. See“Video Gives 53x Advantage in Blended Search Results.”
Earlier today I received an email newsletter that I get every day. A subject line, “Established e-commerce best practices are not set in stone” caught my eye. While the headline was misleading (it actually had more to do with successful direct email campaigns that run counter to currently accepted best practices), it still caught my eye, and is worth reading.
However, the meta-point of the title was very significant, and gave me pause. Think about it for a second. If I were to ask a grocer in 1890 (or even one from the 1980’s) to help me set up a grocery store in 2010, I would be cursed from the beginning.
In 1890, the grocer was the pivotal component of the grocery shopping transaction. The entire transaction literally could not have happened without the grocer. Today, the entire grocery shopping (down to the self-checkout experience) is geared around efficiency and profits – keeping overhead and costs low, transactions high, and the experience pleasant and consumer-focused enough that customers come back, frequently, and buy more (and with greater volume). Doesn’t that sound familiar to you?
Today, we are in the formative years of Internet ecommerce. Our customers regularly hear conflicting guidance from Internet and usability experts, discussions about how “the fold” doesn’t matter, and proof that when it comes to ecommerce, it still does (http://www.invodo.com/html/resources/literature/whitepaper/). Internet ecommerce is so new that you must constantly question, constantly analyze, and constantly investigate how to make the most of the experience you deliver to your customers.
At Invodo, we focus on the role that ecommerce videos play in conversions, with a focus on how the content & technology can together create a bridge to help you make conversions.
We have built an approach to content production that ensures that a viewer can quickly and easily learn what they need to in order to make an informed decision on a product’s value proposition without watching a commercial (far too much online product video is simply re-purposed marketing content from television campaigns). To make a comprehensive solution, we have built technology that helps guide the user to the product page via SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and in turn guides them to the video, even if the player is not in view or not on the page at all, via our Smart Merchandising technology.
When I first fell in love with “the online world”, it was Prodigy. There, ads consisted of horrible ASCII art or 8-bit graphics. When the World Wide Web was born, web pages had gray backgrounds and no images. Now we live in a world where merchandising efforts on your ecommerce site and particularly on your product pages, can make the most of what technology allows today.
Consumers often approach online transactions with trepidation. They don’t want to spend what you might want them to, and they have questions. At Invodo, we believe that well-tuned content delivered through an ecommerce-focused, SEO-tuned video player provides that edge that helps consumers find your products and helps convert them from pondering browsers into satisfied customers.
invodo
com | What We Do | Products & Services | Resources | About Invodo | Contact Us | Social    |
Thanks for your interest in Invodo! Please fill out the short form and we'll contact you. If you're in a hurry, you can call us at 1-800-280-4122.
We hate spam as much as you do. We won't rent, sell, give away, or otherwise abuse your email address and other information
