It’s old news that YouTube is the second largest search engine. According to Hubspot, the number of online video viewers will reach 169.3 million in 2012. Trainers cite increased retention and interaction among the benefits of video.   Marketers can find statistics to support the positive impact of video on everything from lead generation to SEO to conversion.

So the question is: why aren’t more people using video? The answer’s not that simple, and there’s not just one.

• Hate the webcam. The office is noisy. Nobody looks good under fluorescents. Bad hair day.   
• We could use someone’s iPhone, but that will make us look bush league.
• We don’t have the time.
• We don’t have the technology.
• We don’t have the budget.

All these seemingly valid concerns have your competitors dancing a jig on their way to the top of the SERPs, your trainees asking for a double shot before your next class, and your employees yawning through yet another PowerPoint deck.

A webcam has its place. While that place is not your high-profile product launch announcement, what about your internal product training? Why should your team have to stare at a Q&A slide for 20 minutes? Spend a little time setting up your webcam and meeting space and you can make your online training much more, dare we say human? Seek out natural lighting, a clean backdrop and, most importantly, play around with the positioning of your webcam; the right angle means the difference between gray-faced office drone and the dynamic leader your team loves. Same principle applies to the iPhone – great device for collaborative meetings when you’re on the move, but probably not the go-to for you CEO’s Town Hall meeting.

So now let’s talk time, technology and budget. Yes, it takes time to produce professional-looking video. Yes, it takes technology. Yes, that requires some investment. And not every company has the in-house resources to get it done. But if you’re putting the effort into a key webinar (marketing, communications, training or otherwise) shouldn’t you pull out all the stops? There are professional producers (yes, Intellor Group is one) that can address the time and technology issues for a budget that might surprise you. So why not consider video for your next webinar?