Videos are one of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal. They connect with viewers in a way words don’t. People watch videos on the fly as they commute to work, sit in a waiting room or wait in line. Researchers estimate that viewing one minute of video is equivalent to 1.8 million words.

Small businesses often feel uncertain about delving into the world of online videos. However, by 2021, 82 percent of online traffic will consist of video viewing. Now is the time to jump into video marketing.

Here are some quick video marketing solutions to start with:

1. Choose a Platform

There are many different options when it comes to delivering your online videos. About 96 percent of Americans 18 to 24 use YouTube, so it’s an obvious choice as a potential platform. It’s one of the largest social media sites in existence.

You could also simply stream video from your site, but unless your server is blazing fast and you have unlimited resources, you’re better off embedding a video you’ve uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo or another video streaming site. In addition to saving resources on your website server, you also gain reach to all those people on that particular social media video site.

Even a beginner can shoot a video on their phone and upload to YouTube or Facebook, so you’ll be able to figure out the ins and outs in a single day. Start by studying websites your competitors created. Take notes about what you love and what you hate so you can learn from their successes and their mistakes.

Rhett and Link host a show that is silly and funny, so it makes sense that they’d create some interesting videos for YouTube to draw viewers. They created a song that speaks to their target audience. Similar videos have gone viral. They created one called “T-Shirt Wars” that has nearly 19 million views. The videos are not high budget by any means, but they are entertaining.

2. Interview an Influencer

Is there an influencer in your niche that you’d love to connect with? Offer to interview them via video chat. Most influencers will share the link to the interview on their social media pages, which gives you access to their many followers.

However, make sure there is something in it for the influencer as well. If you want the person to agree to the interview in the first place, you have to make it worth their while. What type of promotion do you plan to do for the video?

Use a tool such as Call Recorder for Skype to record the video interview, even if the person lives miles away from you.

3. Use Pop-Out Videos

Do you want your videos to stand out and gain the focus of visitors? Utilize a pop-out feature so when the user clicks play, the video becomes larger and takes over at least some of the screen. A pop-out places the user’s undivided attention on the video and makes the process interactive for the user. This works well on smaller screens, too, because the video screen is larger and easier to view on a mobile device.

One recent study estimates around 78 percent of digital video viewers use their mobile phones to stream content. Pop-out videos are beneficial to mobile visitors, but also visually pleasing to desktop browsers.

Marco Specialty Steel does a good job integrating a pop-out video that highlights what the company does and its unique selling proposition (USP). The video is on YouTube and embedded on the website, so it streams as soon as you click on it.

4. Get Personal

Personalize your marketing to make it more effective, whether a video or any other type of communication. In one survey, 90 percent of respondents indicated they enjoyed a personalized experience, and 80 percent said it made them more likely to do business with a company.

How do you personalize a video when you don’t know who is watching it? The answer is that you do know who is most likely to watch it. Study your internal data, who visits your site and who views your other videos. Once you have a general picture of the type of person who interacts with your videos, you can create a user persona that represents your target audience.

If you create a personalized video that speaks to the consumer, you’ll gain loyal followers. Be authentic and stay true to the mission of your company.

5. Tell Your Story

You don’t have to come up with a fancy script and pay thousands of dollars to a videographer. Just focus on telling the story behind your brand and what you do. Show potential customers the process behind what you make or let them meet a few of your employees. Show off what is unique about your company. As humans, we crave stories, especially ones that tug at our emotions.

Baked releases videos that show some of its delicious creations, such as the screenshot of a triple-layer chocolate birthday cake crumb-coated with a buttercream frosting. It also released videos of seasonal favorites and featured topics such as a tour of a new store.

Results in a Day

It may take longer than a day to see results from your video marketing efforts, but start by creating a video. Each video you create will get a bit better than the last. Over time, you’ll learn the best way to market videos, how to speak to your audience and the best angles for the camera. The key is to get started and see the traffic on your website surge over time.

Author

Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.

Running a company online means you need a strong website. With so many other pages on the web, you have a lot of competition for gaining your prospective audience’s attention. One of the best ways to improve the value of your website is to include video content.

But putting up videos on your page isn’t always enough to attract credible attention. You must be strategic about the video content you upload if you want to improve your site’s worth. To get the most out of your videos, here are five ways video can get your site more attention.

1. Video Keeps Your Viewer on the Page

When a visitor comes to your website and is greeted with only text, they may be quick to leave. After skimming through your content, they may return to the search page to look for something else. Not only can boring text make you lose a potential customer, it hurts your bounce rate — pushing your page further down the search results list.

Video keeps your visitors on your page long enough to capture their attention. If they don’t need to read an entire page of content but can watch a video and get the same information, they are more likely to learn the full extent of who you are and what you can provide.

2. Video is Easily Shared

Customers love sharing videos they enjoy with friends and family members. When you share a company video on your website or social media pages, there is the potential for that video to go viral. The more shares on your video, the more eyes on your company and the more customers you can connect with.

Each time your video is shared, you create a link back to your website. The more links you have going to your page, the stronger Google will assume your content is. Viral videos can dramatically boost both your exposure and your search engine ranking.

3. Videos Promote More Sales

If you sell certain products, displaying them in a video may increase your sales. Certain products that may be difficult to use can be featured in how-to videos, making them more appealing to customers.

Don’t believe us? This one video that cost $4,500 built this company into what it is today.

Other e-commerce websites may want to take advantage of video for displaying clothes or other products that look different in motion than on a still mannequin. By using videos to show what the clothes look like on an actual moving model, customers will better understand what they’re buying and if it’s right for them. This can improve sales while also reducing the number of items returned.

4. Videos Give You Access to Other Search Engines

The most common search engines we use include Google and Bing, but they’re not the only search engines around. While we may think of YouTube as a type of social media platform, it is actually considered one of the most popular search engines online today. To appeal to searchers on YouTube, you need to create videos and host them on the platform.

When you host on YouTube, you can optimize your videos for certain keywords or phrases like you would on Google or Bing. This means your videos will appear when a user searches for those phrases, improving your chances of getting noticed by YouTube users you hadn’t considered reaching before. You can also use your YouTube video throughout social media and your website, pushing visitors to your YouTube page to check out other videos you’ve created.

5. Videos Allow You to Show Your Personality

To connect with your audience, you want to show your personality in a creative way. By creating videos that give you a better opportunity to connect with past customers and potential new customers alike, you can really show off your brand through a great video.

Video allows you to get creative with showing who you are. Using digital features like green screens or animation can provide you with different video options that look more professional. They’ll grab more attention and improve your chances of going viral.

6. Video Can Give You a Premium Spot on Search Results

Standing out on a list of search results can be difficult, even if you have made it to one of the top three slots. Lately, rich snippets are getting the most attention from search engine users. To create content that appears as a rich snippet in a search engine results list, consider creating a video.

When a video appears as a rich snippet in a search engine results list, visitors will be more likely to click it because they can automatically tell whether it fits their needs. By seeing a preview of the video right in the search engine list, you eliminate the risk of someone clicking your video only to return to the results page, improving your bounce rate and keeping the visitors that click through entertained.

7. Video Improves Time Spent on Page

Search engines look at more than just your bounce rate when deciding which pages have the most value. They will also look at the amount of time a visitor spends on your site. If you have a video that keeps your audience on your site for a specific amount of time, your average time on site will be quite high.

This indication of time spent on your site tells search engines you’re providing the information the searcher was looking for. This will improve your search engine ranking and keep you within the top list of results on a page.

While you want to include various kinds of content on your website, using video is the way to go. From an introductory video about your company and your values to product explanation videos, come up with some interesting and exciting ways to feature video on your website. You may be surprised at how much value they actually bring to your site and your company.

Author

Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.

Over recent years there has been a staggering increase in the amount of videos used as marketing tools. Videos are the new frontier of content marketing. The rise of a generation of ‘YouTubers’ means videos are becoming part of people’s personal (and brand) DNA. YouTube is now the world’s second largest search engine and accounts for over 3 billion searches a month– with the number growing daily. By 2019, 80% of consumer internet traffic will be in the form of video traffic.

Why people are watching more videos

Let’s face it, the majority of people prefer watching an informative video to reading endless pages of text. Videos are more fun, accessible and less time-consuming. Behavioral psychologist Susan Weinschenk has outlined the 4 main reasons people respond to video positively.

The Human Face – when presented by a human face in a video, information is more useful and credible.
Movement – by engaging our eyes and minds, movement helps to keep our interest levels high.
Body Language – We are sophisticated interpreters of body language; the right body language helps us create a relationship with the video.
The Human Voice – hearing a human voice in a video instantly increases the meaningfulness of the content.

Following on from these 4 points, it is estimated that the value of 1 minute’s worth of video is equivalent to 1.8 million words. Video can be a powerful vehicle to get your message out there and create relationships with people faster.

SEO for video (Search Engine Optimization)

Since the introduction of Google’s ‘universal search’ algorithm in 2007, Google has produced search results by merging listings from all its content, including video and images. As videos now had the ability to influence a website’s search engine rank, there was sharp spike in published videos in 2007. There are four main ways that video contributes to SEO: increasing the rank on the search engine results page, improving the click through rate, lowering bounce rates and helping to build backlinks.

Increasing a website’s SERP (search engine results page) ranking

Videos can improve a website’s positioning in the search engine results, because Google ranks websites that have quality videos higher. This was part of the ‘hummingbird’ update in 2013, which meant that quality content is now preferred over key word optimization.

Transcribing videos

One key way to ensure that Google bots can access your video content is to include a video transcription. Transcribing videos can be tedious, but there are service providers that will transcribe your video for you at a reasonable rate (approx. $1 a minute). From an SEO point of view, transcribing videos means you can hit the long-tail keywords and easily show Google that the content of the video is of good quality. From a UX (user experience) point of view, transcribing videos allows people to search for a certain word in the transcribed text rather than trawling through the whole video. It also allows people to ‘read’ the video in public places where they can’t watch the whole thing.

Here are some transcribing resources that could help you:

Clicking with people

Various studies have shown that video results have a better click through rate (just over 1/3) than text results. When people are searching in Google, they are 33% more likely to click on a video link. Adding snippets or thumbnails briefly explaining your video, complete with a screen shot of the video, is a great way to get people to click on your video. Secondly, make sure that you embed the video from YouTube to your own website –embedding a video can also lead to backlinks.

Increasing page authority

Since the implementation of Google’s metric ‘dwell time’ to their algorithm, Google can monitor the amount of time users spend on a website. Videos increase the amount of time users spend on a website, which in turn increases page authority.

Embedding videos helps to build backlinks

You don’t want YouTube reaping the rewards of your hard work – make sure you embed videos so that the video traffic will be attributed to you. You can also create useful backlinks to your site by running a promotional campaign for the new video. Check out this website and see how they have embedded the video at the top of their page to further encourage clicks – does it work for you?

Video analytics are freely available to users of YouTube, and can offer in-depth graphs and charts to help you understand what is working well and what isn’t.

About Author:

I’m Joseph O’Brien and I have years of experience in digital marketing and decided to share my knowledge of video as a form of content marketing.

Video Marketing is the only way to multiply yourself.

Did you remember the 1996 movie called “Multiplicity?” In this movie Michael Keaton plays the role of a busy businesses man, husband and friend.

He finds that he can’t keep up with all of the demands of these roles and so he clones himself. In business we wish that we could find ways to be everywhere, all the time.

Video Marketing is the solution.

By producing one or a series of corporate videos you can be sprucing your message 24/7. So, while you’re sleeping or on the golf course, someone, somewhere can be experiencing “meeting” with you.

Okay, watching a video of you is not quite the same as a one to one meeting, but it is the second best option. There is no other marketing tool that allows the prospective customer to feel as though they are really sitting in the same room as you. Great marketing needs great copy, and professional images. Streets ahead of both of these is succinct, professional video.

What type of businesses benefit from corporate video production:

Service Providers

Do you have a service based business? Do your clients choose you based on your expertise, qualifications and experience?

There is no better way to demonstrate these qualities than a brief video.

Here is an example of ours:

Furthermore, your clients will make their final decision on working with you, not just because of your qualifications, but because they feel they “Know, Like and Trust” you. These are the irrefutable characteristics required for people to do business with people.

Video allows you to engage with prospective customers when they are in buying or research mode, even though you may be asleep!

Product Videos

Does your company sell a product? Do you sell your product online? Cisco Research has shown that people who view a product video are 64% more likely to purchase than if there is not video.

Harvey Normal ran a split test on a landing page with our product video and also ran a test landing page without our video. The results? The number of sales on the page with the video was double the number of sales on the page without the video. Needless to say the online marketing campaign was launched and run completely and successfully with the product video.

Corporate Video builds trust

Video builds trust and engages your audience on your website for a greater amount of time. The net result is that your potential clients move rapidly along the spectrum from stranger to client. Being everywhere all the time. Video is the marketing tool which will allow you to duplicate yourself and therefore duplicate your earnings capacity.

Your clients and potential clients love video

As with all technology the first companies to embrace the new are called “early adapters”. Very soon however, it won’t be only the early adapters who are using video marketing. Cisco statistics estimate that by 2015 approximately 90% of internet traffic will be video! Massive. Your clients expect you to use video in your marketing, and very soon websites lacking video will be considered “old fashioned”

Visitors to websites with video spend approximately 6 x longer on sites with video. This leaves a fairly obvious clue: your customers love watching video, so intelligent businesses offer videos!

Is it time for you to get into video and trail the results for yourself?

Multimedia content – we aren’t only interested in your words. We’d also like to hear from you if you have videos, photography

Author Bio

Cathy Miller is a multi-award winning writer with broad experience in scriptwriting for video as well as writing for e-learning and training programs.She writes for 1 Minute Media. Cathy began her career in ABC television production, and has an extensive background as a video scriptwriter.

The past decade has seen an enormous growth in the amount and quality of visual marketing aids. With the advent of Internet consumerism, business marketing has had to become more net-centric. One among the many web-focused business media tools of the day is Video Marketing.

What is Video Marketing?

As the name suggests, video marketing is the showcasing of business offerings via the latest media outlet – online videos.

The Benefits of Video Marketing for Business Start-ups.

New businesses can increase their customer base overnight by targeting consumers with online shopping preferences through video marketing.
Online videos provoke ‘word of mouth’ popularization across the net in a matter of days.
You can widen your target audience by uploading your videos on varied sites each catering to a different class of people.
While you focus on the primary needs of your start-up, your online videos help in generating sales traffic to your website.

Choose your Video Marketing Strategy.

Besides being a rapid-fire promotional tool video marketing has a lasting impact on people’s conscious buying decisions. So, in order to ensure you get the best out of your marketing efforts, you would need to select an appropriate video marketing strategy.

A) Choose your Video Type

There are numerous types of marketing videos to choose from depending on your line of business and audience type:-

Promotional Videos – that function more or less like online advertisements
Narrative Videos – that give out information about your company, production process, products or services, and how to purchase
Informative Videos – that stress more on your product lines and characteristics
Slideshow Videos – focused on capturing the audience senses through product visuals

B) Decide on who makes the video – whether you would want to create it yourself or with professional help.

C) Decide on video assignment – whether to index your videos to search engines with the help of back links or keywords, or just upload them on particular consumer sites.

D) Decide on whether or not to include a survey or video rating poll with your video.

Here are a few helpful Video Marketing Tips:-

Personalize your video – A smile on your face engages the audience.
Include a demonstration of your product. This makes the video more believable.
Keep your message clear and simple. Avoid long winded explanations.
Index your video to relevant search engine keywords.
Offer video value. Your content should be substantial enough to hold the consumer’s attention long enough to decide on a purchase, but short enough to avoid being boring.
Invite consumers to check out your company website for more information, and welcome them to your office or store if you have a physical business.
Upload your video on your company website or blog.

If used correctly Video Marketing is sure to bring in rich dividends for your start-up, and create a firm brand impression in the hearts and minds of all your potential customers.

Author Bio:

Sasha loves to write about technology stuffs in any field. She has been a writer/blogger for four years and currently working for Internet Bundles – http://www.internetbundledeals.com, where you can find great offers and details on verizon internet.

Video marketing is one of the best ways to market your business. When implemented properly, video marketing is a sure fire way to increase sales and profits. For video marketing to work, however, it must be properly implemented in an intelligent manner. This article contains all of the info you need to know in order to succeed at video marketing.

Be Yourself

Be natural! The more fake or contrived you appear; the less likely viewers are to watch your whole video. If you can’t read a script without sounding like a dork, then don’t. Stick to who you are and represent yourself and your company and the video will turn out great.

A good video marketing tip is to just go for it and leave your reservations at the door. You might have put off video marketing because you’re too shy or feel you lack a presence. It doesn’t matter if you’re shy, all you really need is solid material and your video will be effective.

Think Beyond YouTube

Don’t forget about other video websites. YouTube is not the be all and end all of video uploading websites! Google to find niche sites which you might be able to post your video to, or even consider trading your video with another website which has a topic similar to your own.

A video created for marketing has to be marketed too! Post links to it on forums, through email, on your social media accounts, on your blog and anywhere else you can think of. The more people you get the link to, the more viewers you’ll have both through their own viewing and their sharing.

Don’t Forget Your Descriptions

When you are posting videos on a website like YouTube, you are allowed to write in a video description. You need to have your website in this video description so that users can validate that the video came from you and so they can look to your website for more information.

Explore your Resources

Make the most of the resources that you have when creating a video for marketing. Think of all the different people that you know. This can help you to come up with places to shoot your video and people that you can put in it. The more that you can get done for free the better.

Create Tutorials

People love tutorial videos so it is important to use them if you can. Walking people through how to do a certain task with clear and precise steps will most likely land you more viewers. People really appreciate it when you make the steps as simple and easy as possible.

Brand your Channel

If you use YouTube, you should take the time to personalize your channel. Feature your latest video and create some play lists to help your viewers find more videos. This will help them to be more interested in them. Write a good description of your business, products or services and make sure your content information is easy to find.

As was previously talked about in the opening paragraph, video marketing is an absolutely fantastic way to increase both sales and profits. As a business owner, you are making a mistake if you neglect to utilize this proven to be effective marketing technique. By applying everything you’ve learned from this article you can make big-time money!

Authors Bio

For more info on how you can use Internet marketing to reach thousands of potential prospects for your website go to: http://www.empowernetwork.com/lifeworthliving

Ramil Morla is a home-based business owner, Internet marketer and fitness specialist who passionately and ridiculously loves life. He loves to chill, have cool conversations, talk about dreams and aspirations, play music, lift weights, sprint on the treadmill, listen to motivational audio, and most importantly, spend quality time with the people that he loves most.

Above image source: Flickr/Dplanet::

Image Source: Flickr/soelin

The power of video marketing is undeniable. The availability of high-speed Internet connections combined with effective video compression tools has made video one of the dominant forces of the Internet. In addition, video marketing can capture the attention of those who ignore text-based ads and other popular forms of online advertising. Developing an effective video marketing strategy, however, does require some thought and consideration. Here are a few ideas for an advanced video marketing campaign.

Series of videos

Most online videos are presented as standalone videos. While great videos will still attract attention, the ultimate goal of a video marketing campaign is to sustain the attention of the audience. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to create a series of videos that will capture the attention of viewers and encourage them to check back for more at a future date. If possible, those who are engaging in video marketing should strongly consider trying to avoid standalone videos and instead focus on making a series.

Branded videos

One of the most important components of advertising is building a brand. Large companies understand this, and many of these companies run far more ads than is necessary to spread news about a particular product because they strive to create durable, lasting brand images. Those who creating online videos will want to focus on top-notch branding as well. It will take some time to reinforce a brand image in the minds of viewers, but a sustained effort can lead to significant results.

Social media community

One of the most effective ways to use videos is to leverage them to create online communities. For example, online videos can be used to drive traffic to a social media community that can eventually sustain itself. People often point their videos towards their main website or landing pages. By using videos to promote secondary online properties, a campaign may be more successful.

Guest videos

Over time, videos used in a marketing campaign can begin to become stale. One way to break up the monotony of online videos is to run guest videos. Those who already have large followings can contact those who run other popular video campaigns to exchange videos. This can allow those who are running video campaigns to tap into large audiences that have been formed from other online video campaigns.

About the Author

Rowena Kang is a writer and the Director of Content for the Morgan Law Firm. Please visit the Morgan Law Firm Blog for additional content.

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