Until very recently, having a 3 minute video about your company explaining the features and benefits of your product was a great way to engage your audience. Until very recently, having a 3 minute video about your company explaining the features and benefits of your product was a great way to engage your audience.
Not anymore. Online video has become a crowded space and our audience have become experts in dodging marketing messages. Video by itself isn’t a way to amaze your audience; it’s part of the wall paper that is all the other marketing that’s going on. 
Both in China and Australia, Social happened. Our audiences has moved on to multiple devices and platforms and the expectations of what we as businesses need to offer have changed dramatically.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, on the contrary! • More than 320 million Chinese people watch online video, and time spent watching content nearly doubled over the last two years. • When asked about choosing between TV and online videos, 76.3% respondents chose online videos. • In Australia the market for online video grew a whopping 58% last year.
As SMEs, we need to seize the opportunity by developing engaging and targeted online video campaigns, where the primary goal is to engage the audience. We need to be more strategic, less transactional. 
China is the most socially-engaged market in the world, with 84% of Internet users contributing at least once a month on various social platforms. On the other hand, worldwide 83% of customers is more likely to act on peer recommendations than on marketing messages. This means that our audience isn’t listing to any marketing the brand has to offer.
The good news is that our audience still wants to engage with our brands: the average chinese netizen is linked to 8 brands! Technology offers solutions too: we can now measure impact in great detail, which allows us to optimise content for a specific audiences.
Here are videos that have shown to do well in the SME space both in China and Australia: • Useful. What’s in the box? How does your service and product solve problems? Where can I find helpful information? • Fun. Have a look at the fun product reviews of Digital Rev. They get great traction with relatively low cost video by making reviews fun. • Short form. You have about 8 seconds to establish relevance for online audiences before they click away. Make those first lines count! • Regular. You need to reengage on a regular basis to stay top of mind; one awesome clip won’t achieve that for you. • Social proof. Authentic user reviews and recommendations are very powerful tools because they’re credible. 
69% of the chinese population accesses the internet on mobile devices, mainly on Android devices, so we need to make sure they have a seamless user experience.
So if you’re ready to take the plunge and engage your audience with online video, here are three things you can’t afford to get wrong: • Understand the mindset of the audience. • Be more strategic; more engaging, less transactional. • Make sure you have a mobile website and mobile specific video content. Sources http://mumbrella.com.au/australias-online-video-market-to-grow-to-442m-over-next-five-years-124435 http://mashable.com/2012/07/02/china-social-networks/
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