If you’re watching the marketing and interactive rags, then you’ve heard the prediction: online video is going to be the big marketing growth area this year.

I’ve seen those with traditional marketing backgrounds look completely puzzled by this prediction. I can almost hear them thinking, “In THIS economy? Video is expected to GROW?”

Here’s the deal: This is not broadcast video, it’s online video and there are some very big differences.

• Length – with TV, you’re typically limited to :15, :30, or :60 in length. Online video is as long or as short as you need it to be to communicate effectively.
• Cost – both have production costs, but for broadcast TV, you have to buy media, and that’s where your budget is going to go through the roof. You pay for the number of times the spot airs, and how many people are expected to see it. But when you have video online, it runs indefinitely. You can have it on your site as long as you want. The number of people who could potentially see it is unlimited (pending good SEO and viral traffic). All it costs you is space on your site (or YouTube).
• Positioning – speaking of who gets to see it, with broadcast TV, (although you DO hit the masses in your select area) you’re limited to (<choosing> select) programs and/or dayparts and hoping you hit the right audience. Online, you can get much more targeted.

Is that not enough to convince you? Here’s some more reasons why online video is a strong choice for your marketing plan:

• Video can help visitors to your site feel more connected with you. Yeah, it’s still a one-way communication – you’re speaking to your audience and they can’t speak back. But video is familiar. It’s like TV, a medium that people enjoy. It provides a level of comfort. And more than that, you can demonstrate things in a video that words and still pictures just can’t adequately explain.
• You don’t have to have the actual video live on your site. Upload your video to YouTube, and then embed a link in your site or email communication. That way, your server space isn’t taken up with the streaming video and you still reap the video benefits.
• Video can help your SEO! In the past, video wasn’t something the search spiders could crawl. But if you add the right tags to explain content, video can actually help with search engine optimization instead of hinder it.

Content people want to watch, better traffic results, effective ROI. I’m thinking this year, I should be busier than ever?

What’s your online video plan?