Cisco Partner Velocity: Social Video Makes Sales Impact

At Cisco Partner Velocity in Las Vegas, roughly 235 channel partners have gathered to discuss marketing strategies. The key kick-off message from Cisco VP Amanda Jobbins this morning was the power of Internet video, and its impact on customer engagements. Here are some examples.

Jobbins, VP of Cisco global partner marketing, noted:

• 1 minute of video is worth 1.8 million words, according to Forrester.
• Brands using online video have seen lifts of 20 percent to 40 percent in incremental buying over other advertising platforms, according to Comscore.
• 49% of people who purchased IT cited online video as collateral that influenced the purchase decision, according to Eccolo Media.

The challenges for VARs and MSPs:

• Who has time to develop on-line video that stirs customer buying decisions?
• Who has budget to generate high-quality videos that can go viral across the web?

The answer for The VAR Guy: Video isn’t all that expensive to produce these days, and taking a video viral across YouTube and other web sites only requires a few hours work. Looking for tips and examples? Check out some sample videos from masterIT, a fast-growing MSP that has long leveraged viral video.

Still intimidated by business video? Check in with companies like VARVID, which offers video-related services to VARs and MSPs.

The video stats Jobbins shared are just too darn compelling to ignore.