For furniture or homewares retailers, customers want to see their products displayed in an actual home setting rather than as standalone. This is where room set photography is used in the catalogues and online. Photographers will build specific sets that effectively display the retailer’s products so the customers can then see how well the range works together, to encourage them to purchase more products from the retailer. For example, a photo of a bedroom setting could feature the bed, duvet covers, curtains and shelves and it is the catalogue photographer’s job to ensure the various products complement and visually work together. Using 360 photography of the room on their website will then let the customers get a full panoramic view of the room and the products it’s promoting.

By adapting the catalogue photography for both on and offline environments, Yorkshire retailers should find catalogues are still an effective marketing tool – even in this digital age.

YouTube can also be an incredibly useful platform to market your web videos. You can now set up your own channel on YouTube to ensure all your web videos are collectively grouped together. You can add your own branding and also include a brief description about your business. The number of characters is limited so be concise and make sure you include a direct link to your website in the description. You can even create your own branded URL through your YouTube channel(e.g. www.youtube.com/businessname)

Web videos are a must have for businesses in Leeds, and now thanks to social media and video sharing sites, marketing them has never been easier.

The use of web video in the world of high fashion is also now taking off. If you check out the leading fashion magazine websites such as Vogue or Grazia, you will see plenty of web videos that have come straight from the catwalks of the latest designer shows, feature beauty demonstrations as well as interviews with key industry personalities. In fact Vogue even has its own web video site called Vogue TV which lets you keep up with all the latest developments in the ever-changing fashion world.

If you run a fashion business, it might be worth considering using web or catwalk video on your website. Professional web video producers in Leeds can work with you to produce stunning promotional videos so that potential customers can really see your fashion line in action. If it’s worked for ASOS it can certainly work for you.

YouTube began in 2005 founded by PayPal employees Karim, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. Contrary to popular belief YouTube did not start after they experienced difficulty trying to share a video they shot at a dinner party. It’s less humble beginnings were as a start-up technology company following a US$11.5 million funding from venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.

It unofficially launched to the public in May 2005 and by July 2006 was receiving over 65,000 new videos uploaded to the site, with more than 100 million views per day.

Google bought YouTube in October 2006 for US$1.65 billion in shares although the two companies remained separate and the co-founders stayed with the company.

Today YouTube is one of the net’s most popular websites and has even coined the phrase ‘YouTube it’ used when you want to view a web video. Whether you’re watching highlights from a Leeds football match, or laughing at a pandas playing in China, YouTube lets us all enjoy web videos from every corner of the globe.

The emergence of online video sharing websites such as YouTube or Facebook has seen the use of viral video become ever more popular. The 2008 US Presidential election was testament to that with the emergence of many political viral videos – including the famous “I’ve got a crush…on Obama” online video which became one of the most watched online videos in 2007.

Today many online video producers in Leeds offer the services of viral video, and can work with you to produce memorable content that is on message, and gets people watching. With the potential for millions of people seeing your video – locally and even worldwide, it perhaps may be something to consider as part of your marketing mix.

From magazines to online retailers, the fashion industry has truly embraced the use of web videos as a means to promote and market their products – and it’s not hard to see why. The rapid rate at which different fashion trends come and go mean they can update their websites regularly with fresh web video content to keep up with these constant changes.

For online retailers using web video lets the viewer see how the clothes hang and move on the body to help them in deciding whether or not to buy the item. Websites such as ASOS or Littlelwoods use catwalk videos to showcase their fashion range.

Magazines often use web videos for things such as the latest fashion shows, for beauty demonstrations as well as for interviews with fashion designers and celebrities. Vogue TV is one of the most well-known fashion websites to use web videos with regularly updated content from across the fashion world.

Another great thing about web videos is they are quick and easy to produce, however it still requires the expertise and skills of professional web video producers. Many web video producers in Leeds now include fashion and catwalk videos as part of their portfolios, so you don’t have to look far if you want to include this type of content as part of your online promotional marketing mix.

Google has so far stayed away from producing original video content, however when its chief Eric E Schmidt was quizzed last month about acquiring web video companies he said:

“You never say never. We’ve tried to not cross that line.”

NNN began in 2007 producing original web video TV shows including the infamous “Obama Girl” videos. Two of its TV series Auto-Tune the News and Key of Awesome both made YouTube’s top ten most watched videos of 2010 with its co-founder Tim Shey recently remarking on NNN’s success:

“While these two series were a big part of our success in 2010, they also capped a year where Next New Networks grew across the board, doing over 1.2 billion video views in 2010 alone. To put that in perspective, in July we announced that we had done 1 billion all-time views since launching in 2007. In 2010, our shows were viewed on average over 100 million times per month, more than the previous three years combined.”

With viewers of its web videos stretching from Leeds to Lagos, this acquisition would no doubt cap off an incredibly successful year for NNN. Both companies are still yet to comment on the proposed deal.

It’s just one example of internet video making our lives that little bit easier for us. It’s also why so many organisations now use web videos on their websites. Web videos makes it much easier to promote your products as you can actually show your customers how it works, instead of step- by-step written instructions or a through a series of images. It also lets you speak with your target audience about your business offering as if you are having a one-on-one conversation with them. Web videos can also make it easier for your customers in deciding whether to make that all important purchase, so you want to make sure you get it right.

It’s an incredibly crowded web video marketplace out there, so if you want to get yours to stand out, rather than spending your precious time trying to produce it yourself, engage the services of the professionals. Professional web video producers in Yorkshire and around the UK have the technical expertise and skills to produce high quality video content for you – making your life that much easier.

If you want web video to help boost your rankings, here are a few things you can include:

* Staff – One of the advantages of web video is the human face you can put on your organization by using staff members to talk about the business and its offering, just as if they’re having a one-to-one conversation with the viewer

* Demonstrations – it’s the ideal way to show exactly how a product works. For example, if your run a hardware business in Yorkshire, your web video can demonstrate how to use the latest power drill – this has got to be easier than trying to describe it in words.

* Useful tips – You can then show how that power drill can be used around the home, and tips for keeping it clean and packing it away.

There are plenty of other things you can include and it all just depends on the nature of your business. Professional video producers who operate in Yorkshire can work with you every step of the way on your online video, whether you’re in Leeds or the surrounding area, to ensure you get the right content in your web video that will successfully optimise your search engine rankings.

However, Microsoft and Apple offer their own video editing software – Windows Movie Maker and IMovie. These software tools let you add features such as special effects, titles, audio, captions and dissolve in and out functions. Tying different web clips together can be as simple as just dragging and dropping. Windows movie maker works together with Windows Live Photo Gallery to also let you incorporate photos into the web videos.

Thanks to the ease of uploading web videos online, they can now be shared on websites such as YouTube and Facebook or can be emailed directly to friends and family.

While these video editing tools are free, easy to use and can actually make the editing process lots of fun, if you run a business and choose to use web video on your website, it definitely pays to consult the professionals.

Professional web video producers have the technical expertise to not only produce high quality web videos, but also understand what gets videos watched, and how to boost your search engine rankings for those videos. Remember – using web videos is just another way of promoting your business, so whether you run a gardening business in Yorkshire, or a chain of hairdressing salons throughout the UK, don’t risk damaging your brand with poor web video content.