MerchantService.com has joined the ranks of independent sales organizations using online videos to promote services to merchants.
Since February, the Sarasota, Fla., ISO has produced one video a month with the help of National Positions USA, a search-engine optimization company with headquarters in Agoura Hills, Calif. The first video, a one-minute introduction to the company, scored nearly 10,000 viewer hits by mid-April, said Adam Johanningmeier, MerchantService.com senior network administrator.
The second video focused on credit card processing equipment, and the third offered a tutorial on complying with Payment Card Industry data security standards, a set of rules describing how to protect card data, Johanningmeier said.
"We see it as an awareness campaign" to increase the company's name recognition and to promote its services, he said.
The videos are combined on a YouTube channel, and National Positions has had them embedded on 200 sites, including Dailymotion, Metacafe, Vimeo and Flixter, Johanningmeier said.
Viewing videos accounts for about 70% of Web traffic, he said, adding that "merchants would rather see a video than read through a page of text."
Traffic at the company's website has risen by 20%, and that bump is at least partly thanks to the videos, said Johanningmeier.
