Learn from the early adopters.

Introduction
Step 1: Recognize that online video isn't "coming someday;" it's already here
Step 2: Learn from early adopters
Step 3: Forget everything you think you know about search-engine marketing
Step 4: Get creative about how to produce -- or link to -- video
Step 5: Stop thinking "static text"

Step 2:

Marketers outside of the entertainment industry are already leveraging online video in a variety of ways:

• Breathing new life into old television ads. Some made-for-TV-ads have morphed into their online equivalent, playing automatically before or after desired video clips. Alternatively, commercials deemed too risqué for television are now popping up on YouTube, such as Chrysler's Foldgers spoof.
  
• Soliciting user-generated content. "Create your own commercial" contests are one way to cozy up to the young and tech-savvy. Although the approach can backfire, as GM famously discovered, Frito-Lay is encouraging users to create their own Super Bowl ads.
  
• Making banner ads that literally say something. Red Bull recently used video banners to promote its Giants of Rio extreme sports competition, achieving full-view rates as high as 66 percent and clickthroughs just above two percent, according to rich media provider EyeWonder.
  
• Letting your company's "talking heads" speak for themselves. Pulling executives out of the press release and in front of a camera is already emerging as a relatively inexpensive way any company can leverage video. That's what my company did on our About ClipBlast! page.
  
• Selling product features-- as well as more products. Seeing a product in action is unquestionably more enticing than viewing a thumbnail. While e-tailers don't have video clips of their main products (yet), a harbinger of what's to come is tech-review site CNET.com's collection of video product reviews.
  
• Sharing expertise with your target audience. What better way to spotlight your thought leadership -- or reduce the number of support calls -- than to present step-by-step demonstrations? Askthebuilder.com features several how-to videos, including one on how web marketers can make their own videos.

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