WebProNews

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're no doubt aware that online video has grown significantly in popularity over the last year or two. Many business owners are still skeptical about its benefits and ROI, while others are rushing into it just to keep up.

Rushing through something that will have an impact on how you business is seen is probably not the wisest idea, but in terms of ROI, there is a general misconception that video production has to be costly. This is not the case. This is something SEO-PR's Greg Jarboe and Mike McDonald of WebProNews recently discussed at Search Engine Strategies New York:

Doug Mack on Adobe's Scene7 Blog highlights

some suggestions Sucharita Mulpuru from Forrester Research recently made in an Adobe Webinar for getting started quickly with videos:

- Easy, short talking points

    – Brief, impactful video (i.e. 1-2 minutes maximum) is all you need

- Use your own employees or vendors

- Leverage inexpensive technology

    – iMac, digital camcorders

    – Need not be executed in a professional studio

- Costs are primarily editing labor and server capacity for most basic executions

Video is not just something people are seeking out. It's something people are sharing with each other, which is a key thing to remember. Yahoo is even embedding video in its SERPs, and Gmail is offering a feature that allows users to view YouTube videos in their email messages. And of course they can be embedded all over the web and shared across social networks.

Like Jarboe says, videos don't always have to be viral to serve a purpose, but with so many ways for them to be shared, the opportunities for something to break viral are seemingly endless.

There are more tools than ever before available for marketing with video. Take YouTube Insight, which an analytics tool that gives you all kinds of analytical data regarding your videos. They just recently added more features to show you how people are engaging with your videos, and there is plenty of useful data to be gleaned from the tool. I suggest reading my interview with YouTube Product Manager Tracy Chan who discusses not only the tool, but many other ways businesses can use YouTube to their advantage.

If you're looking to break into online video, don't rush it. Do some research and use the tools that are available to you. You may find that you can spend a lot less than you think and find new ways to market your business that you didn't realize you had in you.