More and more small businesses are finding out how effective video marketing can be. It's not hard to fathom when you realize that YouTube is ranked as the second highest search engine on the planet. People are finding video marketing is a viable option for promoting their business. In order to be a successful video marketer you need to know the basic principles of video marketing, and how it works.
Here are three important steps to add video marketing to your overall marketing plan:
1. Make a Video:
Before you can distribute a video, you need to have one. Don't worry, this really is not that hard to accomplish! In addition to being able to use a smart phone to create video, for several hundred dollars you can purchase an easy-to-use flip video camera. I have referred clients to Amazon.com where you can even purchase a refurbished model for a very reasonable price.
Many newer desktop and laptops have built-in video cameras making it very easy to create marketing videos that can easily promote your products and services.
You can even add audio to a PowerPoint presentation and transfer it with free technology into a viable video presentation.
Shorter videos, usually five minutes or less, are the most viewed. Most people don't have a long time to invest in watching videos so a brief video will capture the largest audience.
2. Submit Your Video to Multiple Video Websites:
You can make a video for YouTube or any number of other video sharing sites. In addition to YouTube we suggest Vimeo as another site that is well established in the industry.
Be sure to use the tools on these sites to make your video more attractive and searchable. There are several options for adding captions within the video and including keywords that will allow people to find you more easily.
You can even capture a link to include in an email - or electronic newsletter to get additional exposure.
3. Receive Backlinks and Traffic as Your Video is Distributed Around the Net:
But don't stop there. Post your videos to your website and your blog page and promote them on your social media sites. Be sure and browse around these sites and see what additional tools are available to maximize your efforts.
This last step is automatic. Once you have your videos distributed, just sit back and reap the benefits.
Before you start cranking out videos, you need to consider what goes into a great video.
The main goal of a video series is to make sure that people find your video to be "worth watching". Our second goal is to ensure that after they view the video, they will want to learn more about the topic and will click the link to your website (and hopefully buy something!)
As you start working with video you will learn that not all videos need to be "spectacular" to be effective. The videos that you want to go viral you will need to spend more time on. The videos that you are using purely for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes or to attract more leads don't have to be award winning or perfect.