I had the honor of spending a few minutes interviewing Invodo’s Office Dunk champion, SME Sales Director Brandon Sockwell (video below). I wanted to get his thoughts on the winning spirit that drives him to excel in both office olympics and sales. Here’s what he had to say.
Q: Brandon, how does it feel to be Invodo’s Office Dunking Champion?
A: It’s truly an honor to be recognized as the best in an environment this competitive. Rumor has it they might bring Lebron down next year to challenge me. I say bring it on!
Q: What does it take to win? How do you train?
A: To win you really just need to go for it. Our production and technology teams push the limits every single day, so they were a huge inspiration. When you see how hard they work you can’t help but push the boundaries.
Q: What kind of recognition and rewards have you received?
A: Being the best is what we strive for here at Invodo. We don’t do second place. They did give me an ice pack for my knee. Thanks for your time but my phone is ringing…probably a retailer looking to drive conversion, improve SEO and reduce returns
With all the technology talk around integrating video into email, many retailers are losing sight of the primary goal …influencing consumers to watch product videos and ultimately buy the product. With the recent excitement around HTML5, confusion about using video in email has reached a fever pitch while perhaps losing sight of the basic goal of any email marketing campaign.
That’s why I’ve written this article for DIRECT. It encourages email marketers to find the right balance between complexity and cost while maximizing video view through rate. Take a read through it and let me know what you think in the comments. Read the full article.
Video is the next big SEO advantage. Forrester Research says that video increases SEO, improving the change of a front-page Google placement by 53x, for example.
But there’s more to it than simply embedding a video and waiting for the traffic spike. Matt Cutts from Google spoke with Mark Robertson at ReelSEO and provided some great detail about the increasing importance of video sitemaps. Quite simply, Google can only index video if it knows the video is there and knows what the video is about. Submitting a video sitemap through webmaster tools provides that information and facilitates indexing.
It’s not a hard process – for a few videos. But like many processes it doesn’t scale particularly well. That creates pain for customers like the major retailers Invodo serves, who may have hundreds or thousands of videos. So we’ve automated the video sitemap creation process. That’s just one more thing we do make sure we’re helping our clients get every ounce of benefit from their eCommerce video investment.
There are plenty of online video platforms. There are plenty of options for producing video content, from in-house to production shops. Those options are fine for some purposes, but retailers need a full-service solution that covers everything from creation at scale to distribution through the retail site and through social networks. And, yes, even the details of generating and managing video sitemaps in order to provide the SEO lift you need from video.
I’ve seen some Wordpress plugins, but nothing that enables do-it-yourself video sitemap generation at scale. Are you finding other ways to generate and manage video sitemaps at scale? I’d love to know about it if so – let me know in the comments.
Jeff’s account of IRCE was perfection but since there is only one of him, he didn’t see it all! Here are some more takeaways the Invodo crew had from IRCE and Chicago.
Craig Wax, CEO
Justin Crandall, VP of Sales
Melissa Reiss, Marketing Program Manager
Kalyn Blacklock, Sales Guru
Thanks again to Internet Retailer and everyone we met at the show. Chicago is certainly a wonderful city that rivals Austin with a plethora of great food, music, and attractions.
Wow – what a great week it was for Invodo at last week’s Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago. Nothing makes me more passionate about the explosive potential of eCommerce video than hearing time and again how e-retailers need video to connect with their customers. People in every industry from all around the country echoed the belief that video creates a more informative shopping experience – which ultimately leads to happier customers and higher conversions.
Invodo’s booth was a whirlwind of excitement. It was awesome to see the passion in which Melissa, Justin, Craig, Brad, and Kalyn captured the crowd’s attention. We definitely created the most buzz with the first music video ever created by Invodo (watch below). The video captivated attendees and became the focus of this ReelSEO article. In the podcast, Craig explains the team spirit behind the video as well as why video is about to become a game-changer for retail – just as, in 1981, video changed the game for the music industry.
It seemed to me all e-retailers were divided into two groups regarding online video. Some organizations have tried video in the past. They’re happy with the conversion results, but find scaling their video initiatives to be a challenge. Others have yet to implement video, but they realize that if they don’t move quickly they may be left behind. The bottom line impacts of SEO lift, increased conversions, and reduced returns are the key benefits Invodo video brings to online retailers everywhere. It’s exciting to be in the midst of a crowd that recognizes there’s an eCommerce video revolution happening – right now.
Video puts your best salesperson in front of millions of customers at once. It connects you one-on-one with every shopper. Whether explaining the ease of a mobile phone, showing the beauty of a diamond ring, or demonstrating the quality of a blender, video gives your customers what they want – the experience and information to purchase with confidence.
I can’t wait for next year. From the music video, to the uber-aggressive taxi drivers, to the celebration of the Stanley Cup, both Chicago and IRCE were an awesome experience. Two thumbs up from me.
The Invodo Video Player requires Adobe Flash Player 9.0.115 or higher.
View video for Video Filled The Shopping Cart.
You’re invited!
Invodo and Demandware would like to invite you to join a free, educational webinar:
5 Steps to Sell More Through Invodo Video
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
1:00 PM- 2:00 PM EDT
As you know, Invodo helps businesses sell more through the power of video. As a full-service eCommerce video solution, Invodo creates highly effective product video at scale and provides a leading platform and player to influence consumers at the point of purchase.
In this live webinar you will learn 5 Steps to Sell More Through Invodo Video.
1. Create Effective eCommerce Video
2. Optimize your Content
3. Deliver Efficiently and Merchandise for Success
4. Distribute Strategically
5. Test and Measure for Optimal ROI
Please join us for this free live webinar and begin increasing your sales conversion rates through Invodo Video!
Midnight on August 1, 1981 brought the first notes of a big change to the music industry. A little-known outlet called MTV played a song called “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles as its first broadcast. Up until then it was hard to get new music heard as radio programmers were by nature conservative. Video quickly became a potent force in getting exposure for new music and innovative bands.
Video’s ready to shake up the eCommerce industry now too. Check out the video below to find out why. And if you’re in Chicago at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition 2010, stop by booth #815 and we’ll show you more.
The Invodo Video Player requires Adobe Flash Player 9.0.115 or higher.
View video for Video Filled The Shopping Cart.
Three articles from Internet Retailer today add up to a compelling case for eCommerce video.
Not a Stretch – adoption of video and other rich media content is now commonplace among large online retailers. 92% have some type of rich media, and 80% employ video. Eoin from Moosejaw makes a compelling case here for Invodo’s solution, pointing out benefits in both SEO and content management.
Adding fuel to the argument for a video solution that boosts SEO, did you know that 57% of online shoppers begin with a search engine? You don’t stand a chance with over half of shoppers unless you’re above the fold on that first page of results. Given video’s powerful impact on SEO and the adoption stats in the first article, can you justify the cost of not having video on your site?
Final note – the online channel lags other channels in delighting consumers. In-person is by far the most powerful channel in that regard. Video offers a way to bridge that gap, to make a person-to-person connection on the Web in a way that text and photos can’t match. Forward-thinking retailers can take advantage of that by delivering video that’s genuinely helpful to consumers in making the purchase decision.
There are plenty of other great reasons for adding video to retail sites – what are yours?
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