Video Classifieds - The What, Why, and How

Online shopping has grown into the millions and so has the number of people watching video online. So, it's only natural that sooner or later there would be a marriage between the two, right? Well, that union appears to be happening more sooner than later.

With the growing popularity of video-sharing sites, online video has emerged as a powerful and now dominant medium. Combined with classified advertising, video offers advertisers - both consumers and businesses - with more opportunities for creativity and increasing sales. Users now have a more accurate representation of the products or services they intend to buy. The elements of motion and sound are more engaging to viewers than traditional flash graphics, photos, and written descriptions. People want to see movement and hear sounds. This makes the presentation more interactive and appealing.

For instance, video classifieds would give online car shoppers the opportunity to take a virtual test drive without leaving the comforts of home. The purpose of a test drive is for a customer to get a better feel for a car by looking under the hood, listening to the engine, or even kicking the tires. A video classified ad accomplishes all of these things (all except kicking the tires). This saves a potential buyer the trouble of having to drive all over town to test drive several different vehicles. Video helps the buyer narrow their choices saving them time and money. Video classified ad also saves the seller from the hassle of dealing with e-mails and phone calls from indecisive shoppers.

The advantage of video classified advertising to sellers - both business and consumer - is that it is relatively inexpensive to produce a video and post it online. No longer is it mandatory that you hire an expensive video production crew to produce, shoot, and edit your video. All you need is a quality, digital camcorder and non-linear video editing software such as Windows Movie Maker.

The main focus of the production isn't necessarily the equipment you use (although it is somewhat important), but how you use it. You would need to determine how you will showcase your product or service in a way that captures attention and keeps shoppers focused. Know your audience and tailor the video to fit their needs and interests. Be creative, yet to the point.

Seeing that video classified advertising is an emerging trend there are only a handful of sites that may offer it. You could perform a search on any of the major search engines in order to find such sites or to gather more information. There are several such sites on the web that may offer their services for free. Do your homework and you may find a few.

Video classified advertising promises to become the predominant marketing and advertising tool on the internet.