Today we have a guest post by Neil Costa, Co-Founder of Stimulate Solutions, Inc.

YouTube isn’t a passing phase. It has clearly emerged as an important tool to use in marketing and sales, and explains why a company like Google would be willing to pay $1.65B to buy it. So what’s in it for b2b and b2c marketing and how are businesses using it to their advantage?

Callaway Golf has done a great job of developing online video campaigns, to begin they focused on one product line, and tested, adjusted, tested, adjusted and then hit a home run. Callaway repurposed a television commercial into YouTube at the end of 2006, a very natural step for most companies who have television assets. From there, Callaway launched a Web only campaign with Kenny Mayne from ESPN, addressing the “Wuss Golf Problem” for the Top-Flite brand. This allowed them to be more aggressive with humor by using a smaller brand which generated 38,000+ views in a couple of months. Callaway drove traffic to a custom URL http://www.neverlayup.com/ – which redirected to the Top-Flite site allowing customers to check-out more videos, review product information as well as shop via the online catalog. Inside sales representatives used this as a way to reach out to retail stores, golf club pro shops as well as friends and family, creating some buzz about the Top-Flite online videos and creating a conversation.

Callaway then launched an online video campaign with a golfing superhero – D2 Man. This video was launched at their annual sales conference and has now received almost 1M views on YouTube. Clearly, one million views is a home run for any brand and they did this by creating an online video their employees, channels and customers were all excited about. I don’t think everyone can expect 1M views on YouTube, but what is it worth for YOUR brand to reach 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 people? It has to start somewhere and you can only learn by giving it your best shot.

Still skeptical? “Cisco” generated 8,580 videos and the top ones was a “Telepresence Magic” video with 308,483 views (I love the Telepresence product by the way). This reinforces that marketers have a great opportunity to take charge of video content and get in front of their channels, customers and prospects through a medium where everyone is comfortable.

The end game here is to create conversations with your audience. For all the same reasons why webinars, sponsored research and white papers are all good sales tools online video can be a key tool for your sales and marketing teams to use on the road ahead. There are lightweight ways to get into the online video world so go dip your toes and allow yourself to “test and adjust” relentlessly until you get traction.

Neil Costa is a Co-Founder of Stimulate Solutions, Inc. where the team is focused on using online marketing and social media assets to drive business results and ROI. Neil has worked in marketing, business development at Boston area companies such as Monster.com, Open Market & Segway. Connect with me at or .