Online video marketing is a powerful tool for business, whether you're promoting a web based business, affiliate products, or a bricks and mortar business selling products and services in the local high street. In this article we'll look at some compelling reasons for using video marketing in your business, as well as hopefully dispelling the myth that making videos is difficult.
When people think of online videos, they generally think of YouTube, and with good reason! YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, after Google. YouTube is actually owned by Google now, which should tell you how important Google sees online video!
People love watching videos, a fact which is borne out by the popularity of YouTube. But there are numerous other reasons you should be using video marketing in your business, some of which are mentioned below and which we'll go over briefly.
A Few Good Reasons For Using Video Marketing
1. Videos Evoke The Viewer's Emotions
As the saying goes, a picture tells a 1000 words and images can convey your message in ways that an article on a website cannot. If the video has a human component, the inflection in the person's voice can set the tone for the video, as well as emphasise points. Body language can also play a big part in how the viewer sees the video and how they react to it. This means the viewer is much more likely to react in the way the person promoting the video wants them to act, such as responding to a call to action, or deciding to buy a product or service.
2. Video Marketing Provides A Good ROI
Getting started with video is relatively inexpensive. You don't have to purchase expensive equipment – a $200 video camera will be good enough for most video marketing needs. You may not even have to purchase a video camera if your computer has a built in web cam, although you will need to make the sure the lighting is right since you can't really film outside where the natural light gives you an advantage. As far as editing goes, most computers come with free video editing software such as Windows Movie Maker on a PC, and iMovie on a Mac.
3. Making A Video Is Actually Pretty Easy
Slideshow style videos with images and text graphics definitely have their place, although these aren't as effective in some situations as somebody real being filmed talking or explaining something that people want to know. As the saying goes “people buy from people” so keeping it real will generally have more impact and is as easy as standing in front of a camera, or sitting in front of your webcam, and talking.
4. Search Engines Love Video
As I mentioned above, Google actually acquired YouTube some time ago now and is one of many search engines which love to feature video in their results pages. You can leverage this love by turning the text on your website into video, uploading it to YouTube and including the transcription in the description area. You're allowed up to 5000 characters and this will give you a much better chance of appearing in the search results. Think of it as a bit of an SEO “cheat”!
5. Videos Can Be Very Quick To Create
It doesn't have to take very long to make a video, and upload it to YouTube. You should generally make your videos somewhere between 45 seconds and 2 minutes maximum. People tend to have a short attention span so anything longer will probably get switched off anyway. If your message won't fit into 2 minutes, make several short videos instead of one long video. You can also use this to encourage people to visit your website so see the next video in the series.
6. Videos Can Go Viral
We've all heard of YouTube videos going viral and spreading across the internet like wild fire. These videos are not normally promoting somebody's Mom and Pop business, but are hugely entertaining in some way or even controversial. That doesn't mean, however, that your business video can't spread well and be shared amongst friends, and friends of friends. You can also allow your video to be embedded in other people's websites, so if a video is particularly interesting, you may find it gets picked up by other webmasters and spreads that way.
What's your experience of video marketing? Is it something you've tried but have experienced a stumbling block with? Please feel free to leave a comment or question below about video marketing.