One of the most important elements to your online presence is to differentiate yourself from everyone else.
Why is your business different?
Think about that for a minute.
If I were to walk into your business today, what would you tell me, or show me, to make me realize you are the one I should do business with over your competitor?
Now, imagine your potential customers seeing your products or hearing about your services even before they contact you.
That can happen with video.
As powerful as video is, many businesses still have yet to adopt a video marketing strategy.
Remember when everyone started realizing they needed a website and then years later they realized they needed a Facebook page?
Well, now it’s video.
You don’t want to get left behind.
We’re going to share with you how video can help you.
Let’s get started!
I want to put your mind to rest right away by saying you don’t have to be on camera.
Whew, we got that out of the way.
That said, you can be on camera if you want to.
There are more styles of video than you probably knew about.
First, let’s talk about why and how it can help you increase sales.
YouTube
Did you know that YouTube is the #2 search engine?
Surprising, right? People spend a lot of time on YouTube every single day.
I won’t bore you with the statistics. Okay, maybe just a couple:
•Over 1 billion people are on YouTube
•There are over 4 billion video views a day
•100 hours of video are uploaded every minute
There is so much more I could share, but the point I’m trying to make is that people love video and you need to take advantage of this now.
Why Video?
Video is the number one type of post that is shared on social media.
Imagine if you had a virtual tour of your business on YouTube and Facebook.
You could send potential customers to your video tour while you are on the phone with them.
Customer testimonials are great too.
This will entice them to stop by and talk to someone in person.
In just a minute or two of their time they can see what you are trying to tell them over the phone.
You can also have the videos posted to your website.
Why not feature a couple of your products, services, or staff members?
By adding video on your site, you also keep visitors on your site for longer periods of time.
Having people on your site longer helps you with search rankings overall.
Sites with video also convert better.
Here’s another little nugget of information:
Videos get displayed in the search results just like any other web page on the Internet.
Video also helps you build trust and credibility with your audience.
Video Length
Generally, you want your video to be 0:30 – 3:00 long.
The length depends on the goal of the video.
If you are running an ad on YouTube — those videos that play before the video you actually want to see — then 0:30 is good.
For a video on your website, 1:00 to 1:30 is great.
For a virtual tour, you want to split that up into a series that showcases the different areas of your business.
Video Keywords
If you want to try and get your video on page one of the search results, then you need to add keywords to your script..
If you do some research for what can potentially rank on page one and write your script to include those keywords, you have a shot at getting your video ranked.
Many times a video will rank even before your website does.
Video elements
One thing that will distract your viewers and have them clicking away from your video is poor sound quality.
If you are filming, make sure to use an external mic as opposed to what is built in to your camera or smart phone. You’ll thank me later.
Lighting also plays a role. If you are near windows, you’ll end up with shadows from cloud movement.
If you don’t have professional lights, that’s okay. You should be able to get by with the fluorescent lighting in your rooms.
Music is a really strong branding tool.
Find a royalty-free music track that works well with your message, and use that in the background for every video you make.
Some videos may have no narration at all, and you may want to change up the music track to fit the style of the video.
Make sure to have an intro with your business name or logo.
Also, and this is really important, have a call to action at the end of every video.
Make sure to include your website address and your phone number.
Video Benefits
You will want to distribute your video to many video sharing sites; don’t just stop at YouTube.
This is an opportunity to get more of these links and exposure to your website.
Other video sharing sites include Vimeo, Daily Motion, and even Photobucket and Flickr allow you to upload video.
One thing to note is that you want to optimize your videos within each site.
Fill out all the requested info.
Add good descriptions and always always ALWAYS have your URL start off with http://. If you leave that off on YouTube, your link will not be clickable.
Don’t forget to share your videos directly on your social media sites!
Ask your followers and connections to like, share, and comment as well.
Video ads
Here’s the great thing about video ads:
You don’t pay unless someone watches 0:30 seconds, or the entire video if it is less than 0:30 seconds.
But wait, it gets better.
Guess how much those views cost?
Come on, humor me. $1.00, you say?
Nope, how about $0.25, or how about $0.12? It’s true!
What do you put in those videos?
We talked about that before.
What you want to do here is start off with a really great hook.
You only have a couple of seconds to capture their attention before they click “skip ad.”
Offer a list of questions potential customers should be asking.
You also want something eye-catching to go with that sentence. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Now, if they aren’t interested, they can skip the ad and you don’t pay a penny – more gumballs for you.
Personally, I like the machines with M&M’s, but I digress.
You also get to pick the audience and location where your video will show.
These videos are known as in-stream, and they will play prior to the start of other videos.
You’ve likely seen them yourself.
Again, if you have a smaller budget, once you produce video, there are a lot of ways to leverage that piece of content.
Recap
•People love video – embrace it
•You do not have to be on camera
•Video is shared more than anything else on social media
•Video can rank in the search results
•Video keeps visitors on your website longer
•Make quality video – consider your length, audio, lighting
•Videos provide backlinks and you can add citations in your descriptions
•Remarketing for branded advertising
•Display marketing for branded advertising
•Video ads to target a specific location and audience
Check out some of our client videos here.
If you would like to get started with a video for your business, feel free to contact us today.
This is very informative content that promotes the benefits of business through video and gives many different examples and ideas of different things that can be done. Thanks!
Video does have so many great benefits Jazlyn, and it’s still an underused marketing strategy.
These are some really good tips. I didn’t even think about the fact that links in the description serve as back links. I absolutely love using YouTube. That is the social network I have the most success with. I started with one channel, and I now have 4. It’s all about content and offering something to the viewers that is not already out there or presenting something already in existence in a new way. YouTube certainly has a lot of potential. They key is doing something you love and have great experience with. Mix that with consistency and the viewership will take off. Great post!
You’re absolutely right! People will be able to tell how passionate you are about your business and that will lead to a higher level of interest in what you have to say.
This was great to read about as I’m trying to design a website for my business. Never thought about videos for marketing and presentation, but it makes a lot of sense.
An additional benefit to video is that it’s a lot easier to get done than people think. There are a wide array of video styles to choose from. Some inexpensive and them of course high quality production.
This was so helpful. Video is something I’ve definitely been wanting to get into for my own business but it’s hard to even know where to start. Videos nowadays are one of the things people share the most because they can visually see it and interact with it and I think it resonates a lot with them, making it super important to try and branch out into it. I actually had no idea that keywords in the script were so important, but now that I think about it that of course makes sense. I’ll definitely be referring back to this when I want to start making videos for my business.
Glad this info was helpful for you Hannah.
I love the idea of having a virtual tour of your office/business space! These are awesome tips that will help many to create a quick video that gives customers a glimpse into their world. Great piece!
And it’s completely fine to film with your smartphone. I’d recommend a stabilizer if needed but the filming quality from a phone would be fine. For audio, I also recommend an external mic.