A recent survey found that 72% of US ad agencies feel that online video advertising is as or more effective than television advertising.
In addition, interest in online video advertising has increased 88% in the last three years.
It’s not surprising that video advertising is shifting online. As people have gotten access to faster Internet connections the demand for online video has increased. And as the attention moves from TV to other devices like smartphones, tablets and computers, advertisers have moved their focus as well.
The challenge for those producing video content today is making sure it’s accessible on multiple devices. Traditional TV content producers want their videos to be seen on computers, smartphones and tablets. And now probably on smartwatches as well.
That’s where Clearleap comes in. They provide a platform for video producers including HBO, A&E, Travel Channel and more that puts video on all devices.
Those producers need the video experience to be good on multiple devices. They also need control over the experience to ensure it’s a good one and that it can accommodate advertising; at least potentially.
So that’s the background on Clearleap and their target client. Let’s look at how they’re using their blog to attract potential clients.
1. Curating Industry News
The latest post on the Clearleap blog is a republished post from Multichannel.
The strategy is called curating industry news. It’s a valuable strategy. You find information your target readers would find interesting and useful and add it to your blog…with attribution to the original article of course.
It looks like Clearleap does this fairly often perhaps. They actually also mention the source with the featured image on their blog’s main archive page. And that’s okay too as long as the content is useful for readers and presented in a way that is upfront about the original source.
The other side of curating is that you want to find a good balance. I don’t believe there are penalties from search engines or anything for curating content, but the engines usually look to rank the original source and they kind of ignore the secondary sources.
If you’re looking to build your site’s overall authority, adding unique content with a blog is a great way to do that. You can use a mix of original content and curated content. I would learn more on the original content. Look to answer questions your target readers are asking as it relates to your industry. You’ll build up what is called longtail traffic for the posts and over time your main website pages should rank well for terms specific to your business.
And the other option would be to link to the original article and then add your own comments to the piece. That’s kind of a hybrid curating strategy.
2. Relevant Studies And Stats
One type of post that almost always hits home with readers is a study or a group of statistics.
Some of the posts that Clearleap includes on their blog feed fit right in this vein.
Here is one that discusses how TV bundles are working today and how consumers view those bundles and sports in the future.
That’s a great study with insight that would be very valuable to video producers. They can see what consumers are thinking about and what they’re doing in regards to how they consume video content.
Anytime you can use data to backup points you’re making or anytime you can help your target readers with data you’re providing something valuable.
This post is also interesting in that Clearleap was the one that did the research. That’s big and you don’t see that all the time, but it’s wonderful.
The post was published originally on Multichannel and then republished on the Clearleap blog, but the original study is published on Clearleap’s website. That’s great because there is more for readers at Multichannel to discover on Clearleap’s website.
3. Press Releases
Next up we have something that other companies have done and that is to make company announcements on the blog. Here is an example of an announcement or press releases on the Clearleap blog.
It’s good to use this strategy on the blog. You can keep your current clients updated on what’s going on with your company. It reassures them that you continue to work to improve your business and in turn, their business.
You can use a press release service to publish the releases on multiple places, but it’s still good to publish it on your own blog. You could publish a more in-depth release or announcement if appropriate for the topic on your own site. This gives people a reason to go from the site where they might original see the release to your blog where they can get more information.
Conclusion
Clearleap is doing a lot of great things with their blog, but they also have a lot of opportunity. I mentioned a few ways they could add more original content to the blog. And maybe they already have plans to implement those strategies and more.
I could see them adding content aimed at answering the questions their target readers would be interested in. I’m thinking the target readers would be the decision makers at the video content companies like HBO, A&E, etc.
Those people are always looking for insights into what consumers are interested in as far as technology and content. Clearleap helped out there with that survey mentioned earlier. They could also potentially provide some how-to posts and suggestions for new ways to market video content.
It’s another example of a good business blog already going good things along with other opportunities for more content.