TOPIC: Video Marketing

Video Marketing

Use the media more people like to use to get info than any other. Creating videos about your business for your website and/or YouTube can help people fall in love with you, answer questions, raise your authority ranking and grow your company.

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Video’s Popularity is Exploding- Take Advantage

Posted by Alec Hess

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Did you know that from 2010 to 2011 watching online videos went up 44% to 43 billion viewers? That’s 43 Billion viewers! It’s an amazing trend that won’t be changing anytime soon. People love to watch and get info from videos.

If you’re in business, any type of business, can you afford to ignore this opportunity to reach new and existing customers? If you aren’t using video marketing, you can bet your competitors are. With videos you have the chance to tell your story, inform and educate your target audience about new offerings, or the value of your product or service, and entertain viewers in a way that can’t be done with traditional media.

And today video is cheap and easy to produce, whether you want to do it yourself or enlist a specialist to help you with creating content, directing voice talent and actors, or creating animation. You can literally have short videos produced for your company for not much more than a night out at a fancy restaurant. Isn’t your business worth the investment?

Some of the advantages of using video over traditional mediums:

Easier to digest than text.
Convey a message in a more concise way, like no other medium.
People spend more time watching videos than reading.
Eye catching way to get attention.
Adds energy to your content.
More convincing than traditional text.
Consumers exposed to video are more likely to engage your brand.

Some Ideas for Videos That Work:

Answer Questions: Think of the questions you get asked most often and create short clips to answer these questions and extol the virtues of your company. These videos are easy to make and are valuable to prospective clients. They showcase your knowledge and expertise. Don’t forget to ask viewers to contact you with other questions they may have.
Product Reviews: Show off your products and services while demonstrating features and benefits; introduce new offerings and improvements to older ones. And solicit responses by asking viewers to contact you with suggestions for improvements or new offerings.
Special Offers, Contests, Surveys: If you want attract attention to your business, nothing does it better than discounts, contests and yes, even surveys (many people feel special when asked for their opinion). Videos are a good way to enhance any efforts you’re doing on social media or in other marketing channels.
Virtual tours: Take viewers on a behind the scenes tour of your shop or office; show off employees or even show products being made. The idea here is to make people comfortable with you and your business so they feel more comfortable with contacting or purchasing from you. Familiarity breeds trust, and trust enhances comfort, and comfort makes buying easier.
Tell a Story: Craft fun and compelling scenarios to explain the problems your business can help solve. Every business solves somebody’s problem and your biz can stand out from the competition by showing competence, understanding and expertise in your field.
Engage and Interact: Title your video with something enticing and catchy and always end your videos with a request or some call to action that gets people to contact and connect with your business. After all, isn’t that the point?

How to Use Your New Videos

Once you have created your new video(s), you can place them all over the Internet. First you upload them to a video-sharing site for free, such as YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr and Blip.Tv. Next you can place them in a special section of your website, or sprinkle throughout. You can put them on your Facebook company page or on LinkedIn. And don’t forget to spread the word about them through any promotional channel you use, and tell everyone you know about them.

In the past video marketing was only for companies with very deep pockets; they were expensive to produce, hard to distribute and audiences weren’t comfortable with them. But that’s all changed today. The fact is many people now prefer to click a video play button and sit back and learn a thing or two from a company they’re interested or curious about. And with the proliferation of dozens of high quality service providers to help you with your video production, your return on investment can be extremely high. You can, in fact, produce TV like “commercials” for pennies on the dollar compared to just a few years ago.

Take advantage of this profitable new marketing channel to promote your great products and services; stand out from the competition and reach your target audience. On the next tabs are some of our most trusted and proven vendors, and some amazing deals to get you started in video marketing at a great discount so you can wet your toes before taking the plunge.

Alec Hess is a marketer and small business expert as well as Principal of Full Voice Media and Vanguard Healthcare Products; and co-founder of BizSaves. His focus is on small business success and he has consulted, guided and advised many firms.
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Video’s Popularity is Exploding- Take Advantage

Some of the advantages of using video over traditional mediums:

Some Ideas for Videos That Work:

How to Use Your New Videos

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