Case Study: Using Video Publishing to Drive Sales
Last week I referenced pet goods purveyor, Drs. Foster Smith and their very strategic, long-term approach to using video to drive sales — on the Web, via telemarketing and through their catalog channels. Today I’m going deeper to understand exactly how that works. Again, my focus is on cost-justifying the use of video and understanding how it’s measured as a tactic. I want to know how Gordon Magee, who runs this side of the business, knows this stuff actually works and how he convinced The Powers Above to fund such a large investment in Web publishing (you can call it social media if you want).
How heavily invested in video is the company? They produce all videos themselves, 100% internally and distribute video across the Web at e-commerce focused DrsFosterSmith.com and content-focused PetEducation.com and LiveAquaria.com. The company’s efforts attracted the interest of Animal Planet which now distributes its Faithful Friends cable TV program. The scope here is significant and capital outlay breathtaking. They make for a perfect video-based social media case study.
First I asked Gordon — a former rock band member, iron worker and pastor — for his best advice to those starting out using video.
Gordon Magee: One of the things that I would say about online video is — for medium to large sized companies and to a certain extent even smaller companies — it’s critical for the company to recognize that as soon as they put videos on their website or park them on YouTube or whatever they are competing with everybody else who’s got a video out there… in terms of the quality of the video.
Early on — and I’ve seen many of these videos that companies are doing or people with a smaller business are trying to do — they get a reasonable camera… they go out and shoot a video. They’re not doing any lighting… they’re not doing any sound balance… they’re not adding any graphics to speak of and they think by getting their name out there with that kind of video it’s going to be a plus. In the long run that turns out to be a huge minus.
So videos need to be done super, super-well and they need to differentiate the company from other companies. And that’s what we’re looking to do.
Which is why, for example, we decided to invest in our own studio…y the end of the year, we expect to have 120 to 200 plus product videos and then maybe another 20 ‘how-to’ videos.
Jeff, these will all be shot in HD. We’ve got professional editing equipment, professional sound equipment and so on, so that the videos will be very, very high quality from day one. We will certainly learn more about how to do them well, but you want to shoot with the highest quality you can, have your scripting done properly, go with storyboards so you know precisely what you’re going to do, so you’re not just standing up in front of a camera and winging it. That will not work.
Humph. It seems to me that much of this flies in the face of what most social media gurus tell us — that it’s easy, low-cost and high impact. Just jump in and jump in now! In fact Barry Silverstein just summarized research from Michael Stelzner that seems rather contentious to Gordon’s advice (he says as he stirs the pot).
So wait a minute. Here’s someone giving his best advice” on social media, okay, so it’s reserved to video, and he’s telling us it’s actual work and requires polish, professionalism and planning.
I continued to ask Gordon how it was that the company got involved in video at all… how it started.
Gordon Magee: When the company started 25 years ago… we were owned by two veterinarians, Dr. Ray Foster and Dr. Marty Smith. When the company started one of the things they wanted to do was educate pet owners to be able to use products better and to care well for their pet. That came out of their veterinary background.
Certainly that’s a good marketing strategy as well. But the primary thing was let’s make sure pet owners know what they are doing. They can make better buying decisions and so on.
When they started their catalog they went to catalog conferences. They were new at all this. The catalog experts said, ‘You know you guys are devoting way too much space to education in your catalog. You can’t do that on a square inch analysis basis and have it come out in a cost-effective way.’
They decided very early on to ignore that advice. They dedicated I think 10 to 15 percent of every catalog to educational articles. That really became our niche for the customer. It also provided a good marketing tool in that people kept the catalogs because the articles were in them.
Over time, that trust relationship developed with the customer. So we probably have more articles on pet care and more veterinary articles online than anybody in the country. So to go into video and do the same thing was just a natural outgrowth of what we have been doing for 25 years really.
So now things started getting clearer for me — this was more of a cultural thing. The company was really committed to production of high quality, educational content from the start. They believe, at the core, in the use of content to a) drive sales and b) enhance brand loyalty. The Web just offers a means to extend. In fact, any new media does so long as it has a following and so long as it can be tracked using direct response tactics.
Next up I ask Gordon about user generated content and his use of that — video content supplied by customers. You may find his answer rather surprising. I also pushed Gordon on the issue of metrics and measurement to try and understand his use of them. More importantly, I wanted to understand how he knew that what he was investing in was actually paying off.
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