Video marketing leads to 26% boom in business for Exeter IT company

Online video is now six times more effective than print or online marketing and is proving to be a powerful marketing tool for many businesses, including those based in Exeter.

Featuring video content on a business website is now seen as a "must-have" say leading networking experts Cisco. They expect video to account for 57 per cent of internet traffic by 2015, nearly four times as much as regular web browsing and email.

Seventy-six per cent of businesses using the web to market their services plan to add a video to their sites, making it a higher priority than Facebook, Twitter, and blog integration, reports the Social Media Examiner.

With these statistics in mind, IT company Hosted Desktop UK – a leading cloud and hosted desktop provider based in Marsh Barton Industrial Estate - has drafted in the help of award-winning film production company Pangaea TV, also based in Exeter, to help transform and boost their business by making their website even more accessible through the use of video.

The videos include an animation titled "What is a hosted desktop", with an easy-to-use guide for current users looking at the practical side of things, such as what a hosted desktop looks like and how to log in through a web browser.

"Instead of people having to read reams of articles or web content to find out more about the cloud or hosted desktops, they can simply view a two- to three-minute video and have the whole concept explained to them," said Adam Chetnik, founder of HDUK.

"Video is an excellent communication tool and particularly powerful for organisations trying to get across a more complicated subject matter. We have all become a bit less patient due to the advances made in technology. Being able to communicate in a quick and easy format, through video, is helping us stay at the top and achieve our business goal, which is to maintain year-on-year growth whilst providing first-rate customer service.

"Since employing video as a tool we have seen a 26 per cent increase in website traffic and, what's more, we are translating that traffic into sales which is great for us and proves we were right to invest in this type of marketing," added Adam.

The success of visual marketing is reiterated in 3M Corporation and Zabiscos research, which reveals that 90 per cent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text.

"Our stats show that since we incorporated video on our site, visitors are staying for longer. Our videos are also being cited as one of the main reasons prospects are getting in touch with us, which is just fantastic, as we are looking for further growth this year and into 2014," said Adam.

"The good thing about working with Pangaea TV is that they were able to quickly understand what we were trying to achieve and come up with effective solutions. I think most businesses think video is an expensive marketing tool but there are solutions and companies out there to suit everyone's budget. We are certainly converted to this way of thinking and will certainly invest in more videos in the future as we introduce even more services."

Producer at Pangaea TV, Lesley Dean, said it is imperative for businesses, if they haven't already, to start thinking about the use of video on their company websites and as a central point of their marketing: "81 per cent of senior marketing executives now use online video content in their marketing programs, up from 70 per cent in 2011.

"What is clear is that the use of video in business is growing at a rapid rate with many companies adopting video for their marketing strategies. If a business is not using video they are now behind the competition, we can help create the videos to put companies back up there with the best and ahead of their game," added Lesley.

Pangaea TV's clients have included leading advertising agencies, international brands such as Carlsberg, McVities and Mini as well as major organisations such as Thomson Reuters, Aviva, South West Water and the Met Office.

Photo by James Millar

Caption: (left to right): Tim Attenburrow (cameraman/editor, Pangaea TV), Glen Lear (Creative Director, Pangaea TV), Adam and Louisa Chetnik (Hosted Desktop UK), Lesley Dean (Senior Producer, Pangaea TV) and Rowan While (cameraman/editor, Pangaea TV)