Why Video Marketing Needs To Be Part Of Your Cross Cultural Marketing Strategy

This article is part of Video Marketing 101. You will find the links to the other articles in this series at the bottom of this post. Stay tuned for future ones.

Video marketing is fast becoming a necessity throughout the online business world. And the trend is not going to stop. The short 2 minute videos are here to stay. And this is the format of choice for businesses to market themselves through videos. The short marketing video is also a great channel to reach many of your international clients when combined with cross cultural marketing.

Listen to what Allyson Campa of Metacafe has to say on short form videos with the others in a panel discussion on this Streaming Media East session video Effective Advertising Models for Short-Form Video Marketing.

Remember, good practices for your domestic markets in online marketing almost always work well for your international markets. But they often need a little cultural flavoring. They need to be adapted to your international markets.

To get good results internationally you do need to integrate your best internet marketing practices with good cross cultural communication practices, adapted to your target country.

Video Marketing Builds Credibility

Video marketing is a powerful credibility building tool. This is the main reason why you should consider video marketing if it matches well with the country you are targeting. Video marketing can be used to:

• create proof
• desire for your product
• familiarity with your company and products
• reinforce credibility
• create buzz

Culturally Customized Videos

Videos can also be a very powerful tool in your cross cultural marketing.

Success depends on whether your foreign prospects watch videos at all. The answer to this is usually yes. But remember MTV’s first venture into India. You might need to take certain cultural aspects into consideration.

Another factor of success, is whether the cultural behavior in the country your are targeting responds well towards your video marketing message. Study the specific blend of the 5 different cultural behaviors to help you determine your video marketing strategy. This month we are covering one of the 5 of the different cultural behaviors each week in the Get International Clients Newsletter.

Viral Cultural Videos To Get International Clients Faster

If you are currently making or planning to make short videos, consider customizing them for your local markets. There is more effort in customizing videos compared to plain text. You will have the visual and the sound to adapt as well.

The viral effect of videos is what makes it worth considering. The viral nature of the short videos makes it possible to reach more international clients faster. It’s probably worth a little time to find the local person to help you create or customize your short videos.

Video marketing can easily become a very important part of your international internet marketing plan. If your target market responds culturally responds well to video marketing this may become your marketing channel of choice.

International Video Marketing Needs A Cultural Marketing Mix

In order to use video marketing in your international business development, you need to get good at both:

• Video Marketing
• Cross Cultural Marketing

There is one important thing to remember. A marketing video may become viral, bring you lots of traffic…no sales. This may also be due to cultural reasons. You still need to have good cross cultural marketing practices to actually get more international clients. And this might have to include marketing through other channels.

Video is a medium. All of the standard practices in cross cultural communication and international marketing still apply here as well.

Here are the other articles in this Video Marketing Series:

• Insights Into Cost Effective Video Marketing For International Markets
• Where Is Video Marketing Effective?
• When Do You Need Video Marketing?